Oh great, those didn't even work. Fine! (Not).
Well, interested person can paste the huge urls into their browser, they do
work, I've tested them many times.
(Now I'm giving up on this topic and going to do something else).
~Caroline.
-----Original Message-----
From: Caroline Tully [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, 28 March 2011 10:33 PM
To: 'Society for The Academic Study of Magic'
Subject: Florence Farr and My Horrific URLS
OK, those URLS came back to me as looking very crappy, sorry I didn't do
"tiny URL"... OK, I'll do it now.
Florence Farr had two candidates for her "Egyptian Adept" this one, a Roman
era mummy, actually male but wrapped as though female, bought by the BM _in_
the coffin of Mutemmenu, a (female) Chantress of Amun:
http://tinyurl.com/4z7crcc
and
this one, Nenkheftka:
http://tinyurl.com/4z7crcc
~Caroline.
-----Original Message-----
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Caroline Tully
Sent: Monday, 28 March 2011 10:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Norton AntiSpam]Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Wallis Budge / Liber
Resh
Florence Farr had two candidates for her "Egyptian Adept" this one, a Roman
era mummy, actually male but wrapped as though female, bought by the BM _in_
the coffin of Mutemmenu, a (female) Chantress of Amun:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_
object_details.aspx?objectid=124292&partid=1&searchText=mutemmenu&numpages=1
0&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx¤tPage=1
and this one, Nenkheftka:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_
object_details.aspx?objectid=111368&partid=1&output=Places%2f!!%2fOR%2f!!%2f
35449%2f!%2f35449-3-1%2f!%2fExcavated%2fFindspot+Tomb+of+Nenkheftka%2f!%2f%2
f!!%2f%2f!!!%2f&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database%2fadvanced
_search.aspx¤tPage=1&numpages=10
I discuss these thoroughly in my chapter "Florence and the Mummy" in
"Women's' Voices in Magic." Ed. Brandy Williams. (Megalithica 2010)
http://www.immanion-press.com/info/book.asp?id=378 At least I think I
discuss both in that chapter, certainly the Roman era one at least, and
Nenkheftka in my thesis definitely.
~Caroline.
-----Original Message-----
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Serra, Nick
Sent: Monday, 28 March 2011 11:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Wallis Budge / Liber Resh
The British Museum was certainly the focal point for research among many of
the scholarly members of the Golden Dawn; how not? Florence Farr makes
reference to several exhibits then present in Egyptian Magic, and it was
from a fragment of cartonnage from the BM collection that she and the
members of the Sphere Group purportedly contacted an Egyptian adept. There
is an interesting and passing reference to Budge in Yeats's late letters to
Olivia Shakespear [Feb 28, 1934] "Did you see old Budge's interview in the
Daily Express of, I think, Jan 14? Egyptian magicians had, he said,
'materialized' in his presence the souls of men who were excavating for him
twenty-four miles away. He had given orders to the 'materialized' forms
that the men miles away had carried [out]. He says he has now mastered from
certain inscriptions the whole method of Egyptian magic and is putting the
knowledge into the hands of men sworn never to publish it" (Wade 820).
Best,
Nick
________________________________________
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC
automatic digest system [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 6:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Digest - 26 Mar 2011 to 27 Mar 2011 (#2011-84)
There are 11 messages totaling 4669 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Visions of Isobel Gowdie
2. Wallis Budge / Liber Resh (4)
3. FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD? (6)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:45:24 +1100
From: Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Visions of Isobel Gowdie
Hi Emma,
Well, I’ve been very interested in Isobel Gowdie for years, but I’ve had to
neglect my research on Scottish fairy beliefs in the last 5 years or so –
annoyingly! – as my other research, on completely unrelated topics, has to
be prioritized. So I’m glad to follow it up with someone else’s (yours)
research.
Yes, the paperback is available on amazon.co.uk, as well as the hardback,
but it seems that only the hardback is available on amazon.com
~Caroline.
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of emma wilby
Sent: Sunday, 27 March 2011 2:25 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Visions of Isobel Gowdie
Hi Caroline,
No journal reviews as yet - though I'm really pleased to hear that it's
being reviewed in JFR. I'm as keen as you are to hear the academic
consensus. I hope you manage to get hold of the paperback (its not the
easiest book to get hold of, esp. in Australia) and that it lives up to your
expectations.
Best, Emma
_____
From: Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, 26 March, 2011 5:08:55
Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Visions of Isobel Gowdie
Hi Emma Wilby,
Do you know whether there have been any journal reviews of your Isobel
Gowdie book yet? (I have your Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits already, and
just noticed that the Isobel Gowdie book is available in paperback, which is
nice – and cheaper than hardback – because I’ve been coveting it for
months!). Reviews aren’t going to affect me buying it, but I’d be interested
in what reviewers are saying, particularly about the second half of the
book.
~Caroline.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:59:40 +1100
From: Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Wallis Budge / Liber Resh
Hi Mogg,
>>You mean hung out in the British Library which was them part of the BM?<<
Yes, well actually I mean the Reading Room of the BM.
>>Not sure that's the same a direct work with the Egyptologists there -
surely there would be something more concrete - rather than the same vague
rumours and chinese whispers.<<
That's right, it's not the same. I'm just saying its likely, or at least
possible.
>>It's a bit like the statement that Mathers worked as a curator or whatever
at the Horniman - if you ask them they have no record of that although they
are aware of his friendship with the founder?<<
That's interesting,. I've only heard of that in Mary Greer, so whatever her
source is for that, I guess that's the source.
>>Its funny how something so recent has so little documentation - makes you
wonder about the relationship between older research and its evidence base :
)<<
Well, if documentation does exist (about the GD and BM), I'm sure someone
diligent could go find it - if it was findable.
>>I agree with your article about the authority of Egypt for GD/AC etc - but
does it ever go further - and why is there such a discrepency between the
Egyptological knowledge of the time and some of the Crowleyian liturgy?<<
You mean why is Crowley's take different to scholarly Egyptology (admitting
that some of that scholarly Egyptology wasn't that great)? I think Crowley
would have felt free to adapt Egyptian material to his purposes and also, I
think he used a Kabbalistic structure as his base, his 'map', and fitted
things into that, for example, the "Four-ness" of say Liber Resh fitting
into the Tetragrammaton. He would have favoured 4's (Tetragrammaton), 7s
(planets, excluding the later-discovered ones, even though he included
Neptune in his Astrology book), 12s - the Zodiac etc...
>>I suspect that Crowley thought the Egyptians meant it to be a nice even
four and rectified the rite as he did for Liber Samech.<<
Big YEP there.
~Caroline.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:04:41 +1100
From: Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Wallis Budge / Liber Resh
Ben said...
I find the notion that the story has a kernel of truth very plausible.
However, it might be that Wallis Budge was totally unaware that an
informal private viewing of some Egyptian relics had such significance
for his guests, nor that their imagination, thrilled by the encounter,
should have such potency that people are still talking about it over 100
years later. Personally, I find that scenario more likely than Ithell
Colquhoun inventing it.
I think this is highly likely also. (Wouldn't it be great to have a time
machine and go back and see?). Yes, when some say "It is rumored that Budge
allowed a Golden Dawn temple within the British Museum itself", yes, *it is
rumored*, and we don't really know exactly what that means. It could be
completely untrue, it could be someone's wrong impression of the situation
in the BM, it could have been a rumour back then, amongst the GD themselves.
It could have been an astral temple... and who knows what kind of
imaginative reasoning might have been involved in thinking that Budge
somehow "allowed" this. Then again, he might very well have.
~Caroline.
Greetings!
>> Mary Greer mentions this as well... maybe she got it from Ithell.
>
>I think its an urban legend that certainly is mentioned in IC - perhaps
>as a surrealist act -
I wonder if we are touching upon something important and elusive here.
The Golden Dawn, as with other magical orders, was born out of a
flexible relationship with reality; its precursors and offshoots
operated similar flexible relationships. That is why the Order existed
and is what makes it interesting. There will be a heady mix of
imagination and truth, and small acts might acquire impressive
resonances.
I find the notion that the story has a kernel of truth very plausible.
However, it might be that Wallis Budge was totally unaware that an
informal private viewing of some Egyptian relics had such significance
for his guests, nor that their imagination, thrilled by the encounter,
should have such potency that people are still talking about it over 100
years later. Personally, I find that scenario more likely than Ithell
Colquhoun inventing it.
I do not have the books to hand - but seem to remember that the
particular room was identified, being through a door off the main
staircase, about halfway up.
My best wishes
Ben
--
Ben Fernee
Caduceus Books
28 Darley Road
Burbage
Hinckley
Leicestershire
LE10 2RL
U.K.
Private premises, visitors welcome by appointment
Telephone 01455 250542 (+44 1455 250542 from abroad)
Fax 0872 115 6287 (+44 872 115 6287 from abroad)
Skype ben.fernee.caduceus
Web page:- http://www.caduceusbooks.com
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:26:27 +0100
From: Caduceus Books <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Wallis Budge / Liber Resh
Greetings!
>It could have been an astral temple... and who knows what kind of
>imaginative reasoning might have been involved in thinking that Budge
>somehow "allowed" this. Then again, he might very well have.
>..
That is an interesting thought!
There may be an analogy in another vector of western occultism, the Nu
Isis Lodge. I think there are question marks as to who else, other than
Kenneth and Steffi Grant, were actually involved, and to what degree its
workings were astral, or imaginary. However, despite (or, rather, I
wonder, because of) this occult grouping as acquired mysterious status
and powerful glamour. Far more than other occult groupings that have
impressive extant membership lists and documentary records of meetings.
I am wondering if very powerful and influential vectors can be generated
in the field of western occultism through the combination of a small
action, a seed in the physical plane, which is fed by imagination,
astral vision and, indeed, rumour and exaggeration.
It probably does help if there is some real action in the physical
plane, giving things the ring of truth. It probably also helps if this
seed is small and elusive. To invent an example; we could imagine Wallis
Budge, was curious what results might be gained by psychometry and
privately and discretely invited some Golden Dawn members (who were
exploring this facility with Egyptian artefacts) to give it a go in a BM
back room and they kept records and he noted it in his diary. This
would be a less potent glamour than the rumour that does come down to
us, which says far less, has no surviving records, and yet is more
exciting and more evocative.
I think magical orders can be created from small seeds of truth fed with
imagination and astral vision.
With my best wishes
Ben
--
Ben Fernee
Caduceus Books
28 Darley Road
Burbage
Hinckley
Leicestershire
LE10 2RL
U.K.
Private premises, visitors welcome by appointment
Telephone 01455 250542 (+44 1455 250542 from abroad)
Fax 0872 115 6287 (+44 872 115 6287 from abroad)
Skype ben.fernee.caduceus
Web page:- http://www.caduceusbooks.com
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:10:45 -0400
From: John Power <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Wallis Budge / Liber Resh
Hi Ben,
It's well worth Googling 'Mike Magee remembers Kenneth Grant.' Mike was
inducted into the Nu Isis Lodge, so there is living info on that. Also
interesting how being gassed in the trench tunnels led him into the Tunnels
of Set. I blame S'tan. Also highly amusing how that other great pupil of
Crowley's, who took the initiatory name Mahendranath regarded Grant's
knowledge of Tantrika, by sending pages of a torn up 'A.C.and the Hidden
God' back as wrapping paper. He was quite clear that Grant's portrayal of
Crowley as some form of sophisticated Satanist was not the Crowley he had
known.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Caduceus Books <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:26
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Wallis Budge / Liber Resh
Greetings!
>It could have been an astral temple... and who knows what kind of
>imaginative reasoning might have been involved in thinking that Budge
>somehow "allowed" this. Then again, he might very well have.
>..
That is an interesting thought!
There may be an analogy in another vector of western occultism, the Nu Isis
Lodge. I think there are question marks as to who else, other than Kenneth
and Steffi Grant, were actually involved, and to what degree its workings
were astral, or imaginary. However, despite (or, rather, I wonder, because
of) this occult grouping as acquired mysterious status and powerful glamour.
Far more than other occult groupings that have impressive extant membership
lists and documentary records of meetings.
I am wondering if very powerful and influential vectors can be generated in
the field of western occultism through the combination of a small action, a
seed in the physical plane, which is fed by imagination, astral vision and,
indeed, rumour and exaggeration.
It probably does help if there is some real action in the physical plane,
giving things the ring of truth. It probably also helps if this seed is
small and elusive. To invent an example; we could imagine Wallis Budge, was
curious what results might be gained by psychometry and privately and
discretely invited some Golden Dawn members (who were exploring this
facility with Egyptian artefacts) to give it a go in a BM back room and they
kept records and he noted it in his diary. This would be a less potent
glamour than the rumour that does come down to us, which says far less, has
no surviving records, and yet is more exciting and more evocative.
I think magical orders can be created from small seeds of truth fed with
imagination and astral vision.
With my best wishes
Ben
--
Ben Fernee
Caduceus Books
28 Darley Road
Burbage
Hinckley
Leicestershire
LE10 2RL
U.K.
Private premises, visitors welcome by appointment
Telephone 01455 250542 (+44 1455 250542 from abroad)
Fax 0872 115 6287 (+44 872 115 6287 from abroad)
Skype ben.fernee.caduceus
Web page:- http://www.caduceusbooks.com
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 15:29:25 +0100
From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
Thanks for that detailed response, Odrade.
I wanted to reflect further on your inspiring post before replying but the
need to respond has been nagging me so this effort will have to do for now.
Could you let me know in which of his works Plato mentions the Daemon? It
could be a good starting point for my need to read Plato, filling one of the
more significant gaps in my education.
Thanks for referring to the Abramelin ritual. I find
it attractive, because as Regardie describes it *The Tree of Life: A Study
in Magic*, it is quite simple and is adaptable to various
ideational contexts, being centred in consistent and gradually increasing
invocation to the Holy Guardian Angel. My worry, though, is about the
invocation to the Princes of Evil that is described as concluding the
ritual. Aleister Crowley's intriguing account of his performance of the
ritual presents a horrifying description of baleful
forms materializing through the drawing of the relevant sigils but how does
one reconcile this with what might seem to be
his psychological interpretation of these Princes, unless I am not recalling
accurately his account in his autobiography? There are other accounts of
performing the ritual, but they seem to be careful
to communicate sparingly the details of the experience.
It would be most gratifying if one were really to move towards an
intimate relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel. I wonder, though, if
the experience experience described is easy ti distinguish between such a
persona entity or another entity, intimate but not
personal, like a familiar?
Can scholarship be one method of pursuing this relationship with an exalted
inner self? Why not? The long hours spent listening to oneself as one
composes ideas, of trying to weave various strata of ideas in the mind,
cultivating a relationship between the need to earn a living and a
vocation along with other marks of the life of the scholar and the academic
can be described as fruitful ground for such whispers of profundity, and
a increasing integration with deeper aspects of the self understood in
terms of the religious language represented by a description of
such possibilities as the Holy Guardian Angel.
In fact, accounts of creativity from people of different philosophical
or religious backgrounds, from scientists to artists, suggest
this sensitivity to aspects of the self that are not circumscribed by
ratiocination and evokes intuitions of the holy or the sacred. Thats
related to the impression I get from works like Miller's *Imagery
in Scientific Thought* and Paul Davies' *The Mind of God.* Karen Armstrong
describes a similar idea in relation to her own work and classical Jewish
conceptions of religious scholarship in her *Through the Narrow Gate*. Does
Richard Dawkins not make a related point about the sacred in non
religious terms in relation to intellectual research in *The God Delusion*,
from what I read of of his first chapter?
I wrote that before reading Sabrina's response.
Thanks
Toyin
On 23 March 2011 15:19, Odrade Atreed <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Toyin,
>
> I have just seen the letters about your experience, and I think my own
> personal research can give you more information.
> There is a figure, the Daemon, which is mentioned by Plato when he
> transcribes Socrates´ words. This figure is a kind of entity which is
> related to the person in a very deep way.
> In Western Magick, this figure is called, indistintively, Higher Self or
> Holy Guardian Angel. The nature of this being is not clear, because it
> depends on the theory envolved and any of the people contacting this
entity
> claims a different nature, but the experience is similar. It is a figure
> which has a knowledge higher than yours, it has it´s own purpose, which
> sometimes is opposite or different to your conscious porpuse. But it is
own
> of the principal goals of Magick to get in contact with this entity,
because
> when you gain access to his presence, and you know his name, you know your
> True Will and you know who you are and what are you here for.
> There is a traditional method, described by Abramelin the Magician, to
> contact with this entity, but in the last decades, since the work
developed
> by Crowley, there are different methods involving meditation, access to
> different levels of consciousness, work with the qabalistic tree and a
> personal commitment, through and explicit oath, to develop this magical
> work.
> Before this final experience, it is very normal to be in contact with this
> entity, which is with you always, and to feel it in many different stages
of
> your life.
> When the process is done, you realice this entity and you are the same,
> although this manifestation, material, cannot manifest your true self
> completely. And there is a feeling of a sense in your life that there was
> not there before. Your personal story makes sense into the light of this
> revelation.
>
> Yours,
>
> Ana.
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *De:* toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
> *Para:* [log in to unmask]
> *Enviado:* mié,23 marzo, 2011 14:31
> *Asunto:* Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
> WRITING MY PHD?
>
> Thank you very much, Emma.
>
> Your careful account helps to place things more clearly in perspective.
>
> I hope the presence again becomes as vivid as it was in 1993, when I
always
> sensed it behind me almost wherever I was going.
>
> I was disturbed about it then, but like other encounters with the
> conventionally enigmatic which have left me wary even though they are the
> kind of experiences a magician ought to anticipate and welcome, I will be
> better prepared if, as I hope, that level of 'concretisation' occurs
again.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Its so good to have fora where one can share such experiences and get
> sensitive, informed and well meaning responses.
>
> All the best
> toyin
>
> On 23 March 2011 11:29, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Toyin,
>>
>> So far as I know a familiar can certainly by acquired without intending
to
>> do so. Indeed, it could be argued that even in traditional shamanistic
>> cultures the 'spontaneous' acquisition of the familiar is just as - if
not
>> more - common than the deliberate. From what I have read it seems that
the
>> familiar never completely relinquishes its 'autonomous' nature, though
the
>> shaman can gain a certain amount of control over it.
>>
>> What I thought was interesting about your description was your linking of
>> some initial vision and/or strong sensory experience with the subsequent
>> more day-to-day sense of a presence. In shamanistic narratives the
familiar
>> is usually initially acquired through one or more 'peak' experiences -
often
>> a dream or vision encounter, but can also be a powerful auditory
>> hallucination or experience of physical possession etc. But after this
>> dramatic event it seems to me that a shaman's ongoing interactions with
his
>> familiar (that is, in daily life but also healing rituals and intentions
not
>> involving public seance) can often be more prosaic. The shaman 'talks to'
>> their familiar and 'listens to' what they may have to say but in the way
a
>> Christian might communicate with God through prayer - a process of trying
to
>> interpret certain feelings and thoughts as spiritual communications and
to
>> understand the senses of presences as opposed to directly confronting and
>> face-to-face interactions with the 'other'.
>>
>> As for how to take advantage of a familiar - I'm not an expert here. I
>> suspect there are as many ways as colours in the rainbow - shamanistic
>> techniques, ritual magic techniques, wiccan techniques .... Christian
>> techniques ....
>>
>> With all good wishes,
>>
>> Emma
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>> *Sent:* Tue, 22 March, 2011 5:31:36
>> *Subject:* Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
>> WRITING MY PHD?
>>
>> Thanks for your response , Emma.
>> Please forgive my late reply.
>> The impressions come and go on their own terms.
>> Can you tell me more about the nature of a familiar and how one may
>> take advantage of it? Can it be acquired without intending to do so?
>> Thanks
>> Toyin
>>
>> On 19 March 2011 08:03, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Toyin,
>>>
>>> An evocative account of - what seems to me like - the acquisition of a
>>> familiar. I wonder - can you bring the sense of the presence to you
(through
>>> some form of intention) or does it come and go of its own accord and on
its
>>> own terms?
>>>
>>> Emma
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>>>
>>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>>> *Sent:* Wed, 16 March, 2011 16:04:49
>>> *Subject:* [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
>>> WRITING MY PHD?
>>>
>>>
>>> * WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?*
>>>
>>> Toyin Adepoju
>>>
>>> I ask myself this question in recognition of the sense of wonder that
>>> continually emerges for me from the development of ideas in the PhD I am
>>> undertaking in Comparative Criticism.
>>>
>>> You see, some of the best ideas of the PhD are not written wholly by me.
>>> They are developed in collaboration with someone I don’t know, someone
>>> I am only beginning to be able to identify through subtle cues that
define
>>> the contours of the person’s personality.
>>>
>>> I have chosen to describe this being in terms of a distinctive
>>> personality because the entity actually demonstrates a shape
>>> representing their nature and style of working.This shape is perceivable
>>> in mental terms through subtle promptings about possibilities for
developing
>>> ideas, through the sense of an invisible personality behind me or at my
>>> shoulder as I compose ideas in writing, through a sense of looking
forward
>>> into a landscape of knowledge I can only dimly sense with an awareness
of
>>> the certainty of its existence, like an animal smelling water from a far
>>> distance.
>>>
>>> Perhaps a more realistic interpretation of this mysterious experience
>>> is to understand these cognitive unfoldings as demonstrations
>>> of conjunctions between the conscious and subconscious minds as they
work
>>> together to constitute a whole, even though the processes of the
>>> subconscious are not often available to consciousness.
>>>
>>> This interpretation may clarify the majestic motions of ideas as they
>>> enter into particular orbits, mesh and undergo transformation, but can
>>> they explain the sense of an invisible personality by my side or
>>> behind me that flashes in and out of my awareness as I work?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> What is the relationship between this current sense of an unseen
personality
>>> and an earlier impression of an invisible figure that began to follow
>>> me everywhere after about a year of daily magical invocation and
meditation
>>> in 1993?
>>>
>>>
>>> What connection could these experiences have to the two experiences in
>>> my living room in Benin in 1996 in which as my mind went to my
>>> earlier interest, abandoned for the previous three years, in
developing
>>> the cognitive potential of the Yoruba/Orisa Ifa system of knowledge and
>>> divination, I instantly sensed an invisible presence at my side, a
sense
>>> of an intangible presence that recurred at various times as I carried
out
>>> this work on Ifa during my MA at the University of Kent in 2003?
>>>
>>>
>>> Can these experiences be related to a particularly striking experience
>>> in the late 1990s in which, as I reflected on a forest that awed me
by
>>> the numinous presence that radiated from it, I suddenly found myself
>>> elsewhere, in a different room, in non-verbal but eloquent dialogue with
a
>>> woman. Having ascertained who I was, that I was not dreaming, that I
was
>>> in a strange place in which I had been welcomed, I opened my eyes to
find
>>> myself back in my study?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Could these experiences of mine demonstrate interactions between
>>> personal and extra-personal fields of consciousness?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Full essay forthcoming
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 15:33:40 +0100
From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
Rather than delay this response further in the name of
better assimilating your intriguing perceptions, I am sending this response
I wrote once I got yours.
Thanks, Sabina. Very intriguing. Almost uncanny, in the sense of the thrill
of the borderline between the unknown, the unaccountable for in terms
of conventional ontological categories and one's recurrent experience,
recurrent yet not commonplace.
Your comments suggest, to me, that one can experience writing and
scholarship as a contemplative and even magical discipline.
Your account of encounters with authors reminds me of my ' seeing'
James Joyce in the library during my BA in literature, perhaps in the hat,
glasses and simple suit he is often shown in.I knew it was not
a conventional corporeal perception although my eyes were not closed and I
was not doing anything unusual apart from the normal business of reading in
a library busy with other students. I seem to have never thought much about
what it meant.
This helps me better appreciate the experience of trance I had when reading
Kant on the Sublime for the first time in the same place in that library.
It was fantastic. On returning to myself, I wondered ' Am I occupying the
same space with these other library users?'
Perhaps one could put together one day a volume accounts of unusual states
of consciousness emerging in relation to scholarship and research.
What does it mean to experience or seem to experience the presence of
authors one is working on? Does it imply that scholarship can itself play
the kinds of roles attributed to magic/spirituality/religion? Aleister
Crowley, whom I see as as quite perceptive on the psychology and philosophy
of religion, described concentration in general as conducive to expansion
of consciousness.
Can words, particularly words that embody the level of concentrated
attention represented by scholarly writing embody traces , strong imprints
of consciousness in ways that are not only ideational but operate at
the interface of ideation and spirit or sentient life force?
' A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit, sealed and
transmitted to a life beyond life'as John Milton put it.
Or, without any disrespect intended, is one's mind enacting a
strong identification in terms of imaginative recreation that is localised
to the individual self?
I wont pretend to be making definitive descriptions of phenomena in such
comments as above on life force but groping towards explanations.
thanks
toyin
On 23 March 2011 23:11, Magliocco, Sabina <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> OK, I am the last person in the world who would argue against the
pleasures
> of food, hot baths/ showers, or having a good lie-in. However, I think I
> know what Emma meant. When I was younger, hungrier and had more time on
my
> hands, I was also more open to spiritual experiences; they came more
> spontaneously. When you're working 14-hour days, running around trying to
> get 100 things done, in meetings all day long fighting with admin, etc. it
> is not conducive to spiritual experience.
>
> Writing, however, especially for sustained periods of time, does put one
in
> a very different frame of mind. It burns tons of energy; I like to joke
> that when I'm writing I go down to my fighting weight. I get sucked into
my
> work, and being hypoglycemic, sometimes enter a kind of trancey state.
I've
> had very strong feelings of the presence of authors whose works I have
> studied closely; I can almost feel them in the room with me and hear their
> voice speak the words on the page. Once or twice I actually felt I was in
> contact with the spirit of a dead author through their work. I think this
> is different from what you describe Toyin, but perhaps it's part of a
> continuum of similar human experiences.
>
> BB,
> Sabina
>
> Sabina Magliocco
> Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> California State University - Northridge
> [log in to unmask]
> ________________________________________
> From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of toyin adepoju [
> [log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 3:29 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
WRITING
> MY PHD?
>
> Thanks, Emma.
>
> I hope I am able to arrive again at the level of mystical and magical work
> I was doing at that time. I had suspended those ambitions in the name of
> completing my BA and was now busting loose!
>
> I was doing meditations and invocations from different traditions three
> times a day, for about two to three years.
>
> Do you have better spiritual experience when well fend and/or content or
> the reverse?
>
> Perhaps freedom from the heaviness of food or a sensitivity to the
> struggles of life could help to make one more aware of life's
> possibilities?
>
> One point of view cites examples relationship between contentment and
> peak or expanded consciousness. Colin Wilson bases his explanation of peak
> experiences in Superconsciousness: The Quest for the Peak Experience on
that
> very correlation. He argues for a sense of well being and of fulfilment as
> central to expansions of sensitivity to the beauty of living. He
correlates
> Abraham Maslow's theory of a hierarchy of levels of satisfaction, with
> biological needs forming the base of the pyramid and self actualisation at
> the apex with what seems to me to be cognitive theory in developing the
> idea that the more sensitive one is to the sheer appreciation of being,
of
> life, the more one is likely to experience a sense of enlargement of
> perception and of self. In another work, Mysteries, he seems to suggest
that
> mystical disciplines, with their training in concentration, are methods of
> increasing latent sensitivity through concentrating attention from its
often
> the sensitivity of awareness by focusing its often multifarious scope and
> thereby expanding the capacity for awareness. I wish I could make his
point
> clearer.
>
> Truly, being well fed, with the cool breeze blowing on one's skin, with
> worries muted or forgotten, or nonexistent, one might be in a better
> position to be sensitive to what Heidegger evokes as the often taken for
> granted fact of being. Mother Teresa, for her part, describes the danger
> of involuntary poverty to people's sense of humanity.
>
> Another writer who argues for well being in relation to expansion of
> awareness is Karen Salmansohn in How to Change Your Entire Life by Doing
> Absolutely Nothing: 10 Do-Nothing Relaxation Exercises to Calm You Down
> Quickly So You Can Speed Forward Faster<
>
http://www.amazon.com/Change-Entire-Doing-Absolutely-Nothing/dp/B000ENBPJ8/r
ef=ntt_at_ep_dpt_10>,
> who describes how she was led to appreciate the value of sheer relaxation
> by observing that she got very good ideas while having an unhurried cup of
> tea or coffee or while simply enjoying the comforting ease of lying bed.As
> one reviewer put it, she "argues that paying attention to positive stimuli
> instead of negative thoughts can be life-changing. One Do-Nothing
Exercise,
> for instance, encourages readers to focus on the pleasure of showering: "I
> now multitask in washing away my stress and anxieties, by doing nothing
but
> concentrating on the concentration of water spritzing down on me."
>
> One also recalls the accounts of Descartes cultivating the habit of
> working while lying in bed, not getting up before midday, and Marcel
Proust
> who was led to some truly intriguing experiences by gustatory encounters
> with cakes.
>
> Let those so inclined eat and be merry.
>
> thanks
> Toyin
>
> On 23 March 2011 14:39, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Toyin - Sounds like the 'daily meditation and invocation' may have been
the
> key re 'concretization'. For myself, I have noticed a direct correlation
> between a diminishment/lack of spiritual experience and being well-fed
> and/or content!! Emma
>
> ________________________________
> From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wed, 23 March, 2011 13:31:58
>
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
WRITING
> MY PHD?
>
> Thank you very much, Emma.
>
> Your careful account helps to place things more clearly in perspective.
>
> I hope the presence again becomes as vivid as it was in 1993, when I
always
> sensed it behind me almost wherever I was going.
>
> I was disturbed about it then, but like other encounters with the
> conventionally enigmatic which have left me wary even though they are the
> kind of experiences a magician ought to anticipate and welcome, I will be
> better prepared if, as I hope, that level of 'concretisation' occurs
again.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Its so good to have fora where one can share such experiences and get
> sensitive, informed and well meaning responses.
>
> All the best
> toyin
>
> On 23 March 2011 11:29, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Hi Toyin,
>
> So far as I know a familiar can certainly by acquired without intending to
> do so. Indeed, it could be argued that even in traditional shamanistic
> cultures the 'spontaneous' acquisition of the familiar is just as - if not
> more - common than the deliberate. From what I have read it seems that the
> familiar never completely relinquishes its 'autonomous' nature, though the
> shaman can gain a certain amount of control over it.
>
> What I thought was interesting about your description was your linking of
> some initial vision and/or strong sensory experience with the subsequent
> more day-to-day sense of a presence. In shamanistic narratives the
familiar
> is usually initially acquired through one or more 'peak' experiences -
often
> a dream or vision encounter, but can also be a powerful auditory
> hallucination or experience of physical possession etc. But after this
> dramatic event it seems to me that a shaman's ongoing interactions with
his
> familiar (that is, in daily life but also healing rituals and intentions
not
> involving public seance) can often be more prosaic. The shaman 'talks to'
> their familiar and 'listens to' what they may have to say but in the way a
> Christian might communicate with God through prayer - a process of trying
to
> interpret certain feelings and thoughts as spiritual communications and to
> understand the senses of presences as opposed to directly confronting and
> face-to-face interactions with the 'other'.
>
> As for how to take advantage of a familiar - I'm not an expert here. I
> suspect there are as many ways as colours in the rainbow - shamanistic
> techniques, ritual magic techniques, wiccan techniques .... Christian
> techniques ....
>
> With all good wishes,
>
> Emma
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tue, 22 March, 2011 5:31:36
> Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
WRITING
> MY PHD?
>
> Thanks for your response , Emma.
> Please forgive my late reply.
> The impressions come and go on their own terms.
> Can you tell me more about the nature of a familiar and how one may take
> advantage of it? Can it be acquired without intending to do so?
> Thanks
> Toyin
>
> On 19 March 2011 08:03, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> Hi Toyin,
>
> An evocative account of - what seems to me like - the acquisition of a
> familiar. I wonder - can you bring the sense of the presence to you
(through
> some form of intention) or does it come and go of its own accord and on
its
> own terms?
>
> Emma
>
> ________________________________
> From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>>
>
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:
> [log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wed, 16 March, 2011 16:04:49
> Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY
> PHD?
>
>
> WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
>
> Toyin Adepoju
>
> I ask myself this question in recognition of the sense of wonder that
> continually emerges for me from the development of ideas in the PhD I am
> undertaking in Comparative Criticism.
>
> You see, some of the best ideas of the PhD are not written wholly by me.
> They are developed in collaboration with someone I don’t know, someone I
> am only beginning to be able to identify through subtle cues that define
the
> contours of the person’s personality.
>
> I have chosen to describe this being in terms of a distinctive personality
> because the entity actually demonstrates a shape representing their nature
> and style of working.This shape is perceivable in mental terms through
> subtle promptings about possibilities for developing ideas, through the
> sense of an invisible personality behind me or at my shoulder as I compose
> ideas in writing, through a sense of looking forward into a landscape of
> knowledge I can only dimly sense with an awareness of the certainty of its
> existence, like an animal smelling water from a far distance.
>
> Perhaps a more realistic interpretation of this mysterious experience is
> to understand these cognitive unfoldings as demonstrations of
conjunctions
> between the conscious and subconscious minds as they work together to
> constitute a whole, even though the processes of the subconscious are not
> often available to consciousness.
>
> This interpretation may clarify the majestic motions of ideas as they
> enter into particular orbits, mesh and undergo transformation, but can
> they explain the sense of an invisible personality by my side or behind
me
> that flashes in and out of my awareness as I work?
>
> What is the relationship between this current sense of an unseen
> personality and an earlier impression of an invisible figure that began
to
> follow me everywhere after about a year of daily magical invocation and
> meditation in 1993?
>
> What connection could these experiences have to the two experiences in my
> living room in Benin in 1996 in which as my mind went to my earlier
> interest, abandoned for the previous three years, in developing the
> cognitive potential of the Yoruba/Orisa Ifa system of knowledge and
> divination, I instantly sensed an invisible presence at my side, a sense
> of an intangible presence that recurred at various times as I carried out
> this work on Ifa during my MA at the University of Kent in 2003?
>
> Can these experiences be related to a particularly striking experience
in
> the late 1990s in which, as I reflected on a forest that awed me by the
> numinous presence that radiated from it, I suddenly found myself
elsewhere,
> in a different room, in non-verbal but eloquent dialogue with a woman.
> Having ascertained who I was, that I was not dreaming, that I was in a
> strange place in which I had been welcomed, I opened my eyes to find
myself
> back in my study?
>
> Could these experiences of mine demonstrate interactions between personal
> and extra-personal fields of consciousness?
>
> Full essay forthcoming
>
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 15:35:22 +0100
From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
Thanks Emma and Arild.
I will see the Massignon reference.
toyin
On 24 March 2011 17:44, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I think you have hit on a perrenial contradiction Toyin. I applaud your
> invocation to eat and be merry!! I can see that my reference to the
> spiritual experience/hunger/suffering paradigm may have been disquietingly
> reminiscent of religious self-mortification. But there does seem to be a
> psycho-biological link between lack of food/self-denial/suffering of
various
> kinds and access to the divine and we find it exploited in all the world's
> religions, developed or otherwise. Luckily, I don't think this rules out
> other routes - dance, song, drugs, sexual rites etc etc. Or, as you found,
> meditation. Best of luck with your PhD. Emma
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Sent:* Wed, 23 March, 2011 22:29:13
>
> *Subject:* Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
> WRITING MY PHD?
>
> Thanks, Emma.
>
> I hope I am able to arrive again at the level of mystical and magical work
> I was doing at that time. I had suspended those ambitions in
> the name of completing my BA and was now busting loose!
>
> I was doing meditations and invocations from different traditions three
> times a day, for about two to three years.
>
> Do you have better spiritual experience when well fend and/or content or
> the reverse?
>
> Perhaps freedom from the heaviness of food or a sensitivity to the
> struggles of life could help to make one more aware of life's
> possibilities?
>
> One point of view cites examples relationship between contentment and
> peak or expanded consciousness. Colin Wilson bases his explanation of
> peak experiences in *Superconsciousness: The Quest for the
> Peak Experience o*n that very correlation. He argues for a sense of well
> being and of fulfilment as central to expansions of sensitivity to the
> beauty of living. He correlates Abraham Maslow's theory of a hierarchy of
> levels of satisfaction, with biological needs forming the base of the
> pyramid and self actualisation at the apex with what seems to me to
> be cognitive theory in developing the idea that the more sensitive one is
> to the sheer appreciation of being, of life, the more one is likely
> to experience a sense of enlargement of perception and of self. In
another
> work, *Mysteries, *he seems to suggest that mystical disciplines, with
> their training in concentration, are methods
> of increasing latent sensitivity through concentrating attention from
> its often the sensitivity of awareness by focusing its
> often multifarious scope and thereby expanding the capacity for awareness.
I
> wish I could make his point clearer.
>
> Truly, being well fed, with the cool breeze blowing on one's skin, with
> worries muted or forgotten, or nonexistent, one might be in
> a better position to be sensitive to what Heidegger evokes as the often
> taken for granted fact of being. Mother Teresa, for her part, describes
> the danger of involuntary poverty to people's sense of humanity.
>
> Another writer who argues for well being in relation to expansion of
> awareness is Karen Salmansohn in How to Change Your Entire Life by Doing
> Absolutely Nothing: 10 Do-Nothing Relaxation Exercises to Calm You Down
> Quickly So You Can Speed Forward
Faster<http://www.amazon.com/Change-Entire-Doing-Absolutely-Nothing/dp/B000E
NBPJ8/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_10>,
> who describes how she was led to appreciate the value of sheer relaxation
> by observing that she got very good ideas while having an unhurried cup of
> tea or coffee or while simply enjoying the comforting ease of lying bed.As
> one reviewer put it, she "argues that paying attention to positive stimuli
> instead of negative thoughts can be life-changing. One Do-Nothing
Exercise,
> for instance, encourages readers to focus on the pleasure of showering: "I
> now multitask in washing away my stress and anxieties, by doing nothing
but
> concentrating on the concentration of water spritzing down on me."
>
> One also recalls the accounts of Descartes cultivating the habit of
> working while lying in bed, not getting up before midday, and
> Marcel Proust who was led to some truly intriguing experiences by
> gustatory encounters with cakes.
>
> Let those so inclined eat and be merry.
>
> thanks
> Toyin
>
> On 23 March 2011 14:39, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Toyin - Sounds like the 'daily meditation and invocation' may have been
>> the key re 'concretization'. For myself, I have noticed a direct
correlation
>> between a diminishment/lack of spiritual experience and being well-fed
>> and/or content!! Emma
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>> *Sent:* Wed, 23 March, 2011 13:31:58
>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
>> WRITING MY PHD?
>>
>> Thank you very much, Emma.
>>
>> Your careful account helps to place things more clearly in perspective.
>>
>> I hope the presence again becomes as vivid as it was in 1993, when I
>> always sensed it behind me almost wherever I was going.
>>
>> I was disturbed about it then, but like other encounters with the
>> conventionally enigmatic which have left me wary even though they are the
>> kind of experiences a magician ought to anticipate and welcome, I will
be
>> better prepared if, as I hope, that level of 'concretisation' occurs
again.
>>
>> Thank you very much.
>>
>> Its so good to have fora where one can share such experiences and get
>> sensitive, informed and well meaning responses.
>>
>> All the best
>> toyin
>>
>> On 23 March 2011 11:29, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Toyin,
>>>
>>> So far as I know a familiar can certainly by acquired without intending
>>> to do so. Indeed, it could be argued that even in traditional
shamanistic
>>> cultures the 'spontaneous' acquisition of the familiar is just as - if
not
>>> more - common than the deliberate. From what I have read it seems that
the
>>> familiar never completely relinquishes its 'autonomous' nature, though
the
>>> shaman can gain a certain amount of control over it.
>>>
>>> What I thought was interesting about your description was your linking
of
>>> some initial vision and/or strong sensory experience with the subsequent
>>> more day-to-day sense of a presence. In shamanistic narratives the
familiar
>>> is usually initially acquired through one or more 'peak' experiences -
often
>>> a dream or vision encounter, but can also be a powerful auditory
>>> hallucination or experience of physical possession etc. But after this
>>> dramatic event it seems to me that a shaman's ongoing interactions with
his
>>> familiar (that is, in daily life but also healing rituals and intentions
not
>>> involving public seance) can often be more prosaic. The shaman 'talks
to'
>>> their familiar and 'listens to' what they may have to say but in the way
a
>>> Christian might communicate with God through prayer - a process of
trying to
>>> interpret certain feelings and thoughts as spiritual communications and
to
>>> understand the senses of presences as opposed to directly confronting
and
>>> face-to-face interactions with the 'other'.
>>>
>>> As for how to take advantage of a familiar - I'm not an expert here. I
>>> suspect there are as many ways as colours in the rainbow - shamanistic
>>> techniques, ritual magic techniques, wiccan techniques .... Christian
>>> techniques ....
>>>
>>> With all good wishes,
>>>
>>> Emma
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>>> *Sent:* Tue, 22 March, 2011 5:31:36
>>> *Subject:* Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
>>> WRITING MY PHD?
>>>
>>> Thanks for your response , Emma.
>>> Please forgive my late reply.
>>> The impressions come and go on their own terms.
>>> Can you tell me more about the nature of a familiar and how one may
>>> take advantage of it? Can it be acquired without intending to do so?
>>> Thanks
>>> Toyin
>>>
>>> On 19 March 2011 08:03, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Toyin,
>>>>
>>>> An evocative account of - what seems to me like - the acquisition of a
>>>> familiar. I wonder - can you bring the sense of the presence to you
(through
>>>> some form of intention) or does it come and go of its own accord and on
its
>>>> own terms?
>>>>
>>>> Emma
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>> *From:* toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>>>>
>>>> *To:* [log in to unmask]
>>>> *Sent:* Wed, 16 March, 2011 16:04:49
>>>> *Subject:* [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
>>>> WRITING MY PHD?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> * WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?*
>>>>
>>>> Toyin Adepoju
>>>>
>>>> I ask myself this question in recognition of the sense of wonder that
>>>> continually emerges for me from the development of ideas in the PhD I
am
>>>> undertaking in Comparative Criticism.
>>>>
>>>> You see, some of the best ideas of the PhD are not written wholly by
me.
>>>> They are developed in collaboration with someone I don’t know,
someone
>>>> I am only beginning to be able to identify through subtle cues that
define
>>>> the contours of the person’s personality.
>>>>
>>>> I have chosen to describe this being in terms of a distinctive
>>>> personality because the entity actually demonstrates a shape
>>>> representing their nature and style of working.This shape is
>>>> perceivable in mental terms through subtle promptings about
possibilities
>>>> for developing ideas, through the sense of an invisible personality
behind
>>>> me or at my shoulder as I compose ideas in writing, through a sense of
>>>> looking forward into a landscape of knowledge I can only dimly sense
with an
>>>> awareness of the certainty of its existence, like an animal smelling
water
>>>> from a far distance.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps a more realistic interpretation of this mysterious experience
>>>> is to understand these cognitive unfoldings as demonstrations
>>>> of conjunctions between the conscious and subconscious minds as they
work
>>>> together to constitute a whole, even though the processes of the
>>>> subconscious are not often available to consciousness.
>>>>
>>>> This interpretation may clarify the majestic motions of ideas as they
>>>> enter into particular orbits, mesh and undergo transformation, but
>>>> can they explain the sense of an invisible personality by my side or
>>>> behind me that flashes in and out of my awareness as I work?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What is the relationship between this current sense of an unseen
personality
>>>> and an earlier impression of an invisible figure that began to follow
>>>> me everywhere after about a year of daily magical invocation and
meditation
>>>> in 1993?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What connection could these experiences have to the two
>>>> experiences in my living room in Benin in 1996 in which as my mind
went to
>>>> my earlier interest, abandoned for the previous three years, in
>>>> developing the cognitive potential of the Yoruba/Orisa Ifa system of
>>>> knowledge and divination, I instantly sensed an invisible presence at
my
>>>> side, a sense of an intangible presence that recurred at various times
>>>> as I carried out this work on Ifa during my MA at the University of
Kent in
>>>> 2003?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Can these experiences be related to a particularly striking experience
>>>> in the late 1990s in which, as I reflected on a forest that awed me
by
>>>> the numinous presence that radiated from it, I suddenly found myself
>>>> elsewhere, in a different room, in non-verbal but eloquent dialogue
with a
>>>> woman. Having ascertained who I was, that I was not dreaming, that I
was
>>>> in a strange place in which I had been welcomed, I opened my eyes to
find
>>>> myself back in my study?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Could these experiences of mine demonstrate interactions between
>>>> personal and extra-personal fields of consciousness?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Full essay forthcoming
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 20:25:00 +0100
From: Odrade Atreed <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
Dear Toyin,
Plato mentions the etymology of Daemon in Cratylus, but he speaks more
detailed
about the figure in The Symposium. I have got this information from the
Wikipedia because I read his dialogues long years ago. That is a beautifull
dialogue about Love. Enjoy it.
About the Holy Guardian Angel (SAG) and the Demons, they are clearly
intertwined. One of the powers the SAG is to govern the demons. It is
claimed
that the Angel and the Demon is one. You cannot invoke the Angel without
confronting the demons. This means a lot of magical experiences of the SAG
finishes with terrible psychological problems, because the demons cannot be
governed.
There is a complete system of magic, Maat Magick, where you can go from the
SAG
to the Forgotten ones. It is written by Nema. Here the Demons are
conceptualized
as the instincts which are in the base of our evolution. It is a very
instructive system.
I only can talk about this particular subject as a practitioner. I don´t
know
which are the experiences associated to a familiar spirit, but there are
some
descriptions very acurate about the experience of the SAG. When the contact
is
completely made, you can be with demons, and they cannot touch you. You know
your True Will, and you know the name of the SAG. If some of those things
are
not there, you cannot be sure that it is your SAG. Although when you arrive
to
this experience, you can recognize his presence long time ago, there are
another
entities which could be around you.
I definitely think that art and writing can give you a way to develop this
contact, and there is a contact too in scholarship. Discipline, in any way,
and
the fire of developing a mastering can put you in contact with your True
Will.
But I have found that although that kind of work, scholarship or meditation
or
writing are necessary, they are not enough. To make the contact it is
necessary
a magical oath. I don´t understand why, but it is a key thing in the whole
process. So, could it be possible walk through Scholarship and get in
contact
with the SAG? Yes, could be, but I don´t know which kind of oath could be
made
in this case.
In other words, the SAG is supposed to be in all the personal process
involved
with the True Will, so if you are doing things which are related to your
True
Will you can feel his/her presence, but the art of contact and conversation
with
him/her is part of the Magical Art. Of course you can develop a Magical
Scholarship, a Magical writing as many magicians have done: Michael Ende,
C.I.
Lewis, etc., a Magical Fighting, like Aikido. But you need to use some
Magical
tool or theory to get to this point.
Thanks to you,
Ana.
________________________________
De: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
Para: [log in to unmask]
Enviado: dom,27 marzo, 2011 16:29
Asunto: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY
PHD?
Thanks for that detailed response, Odrade.
I wanted to reflect further on your inspiring post before replying but the
need
to respond has been nagging me so this effort will have to do for now.
Could you let me know in which of his works Plato mentions the Daemon? It
could
be a good starting point for my need to read Plato, filling one of the
more significant gaps in my education.
Thanks for referring to the Abramelin ritual. I find it attractive, because
as
Regardie describes it The Tree of Life: A Study in Magic, it is quite
simple
and is adaptable to various ideational contexts, being centred in consistent
and
gradually increasing invocation to the Holy Guardian Angel. My worry,
though, is
about the invocation to the Princes of Evil that is described as concluding
the
ritual. Aleister Crowley's intriguing account of his performance of the
ritual
presents a horrifying description of baleful forms materializing through
the drawing of the relevant sigils but how does one reconcile this with what
might seem to be his psychological interpretation of these Princes, unless I
am
not recalling accurately his account in his autobiography? There are other
accounts of performing the ritual, but they seem to be careful
to communicate sparingly the details of the experience.
It would be most gratifying if one were really to move towards an
intimate relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel. I wonder, though, if
the experience experience described is easy ti distinguish between such a
persona entity or another entity, intimate but not personal, like a
familiar?
Can scholarship be one method of pursuing this relationship with an exalted
inner self? Why not? The long hours spent listening to oneself as one
composes
ideas, of trying to weave various strata of ideas in the mind, cultivating a
relationship between the need to earn a living and a vocation along with
other
marks of the life of the scholar and the academic can be described
as fruitful ground for such whispers of profundity, and a increasing
integration
with deeper aspects of the self understood in terms of the religious
language
represented by a description of such possibilities as the Holy Guardian
Angel.
In fact, accounts of creativity from people of different philosophical
or religious backgrounds, from scientists to artists, suggest
this sensitivity to aspects of the self that are not circumscribed by
ratiocination and evokes intuitions of the holy or the sacred. Thats
related to
the impression I get from works like Miller's Imagery in Scientific Thought
and
Paul Davies' The Mind of God. Karen Armstrong describes a similar idea in
relation to her own work and classical Jewish conceptions of religious
scholarship in her Through the Narrow Gate. Does Richard Dawkins not make a
related point about the sacred in non religious terms in relation
to intellectual research in The God Delusion, from what I read of of his
first chapter?
I wrote that before reading Sabrina's response.
Thanks
Toyin
On 23 March 2011 15:19, Odrade Atreed <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear Toyin,
>
>I have just seen the letters about your experience, and I think my own
personal
>research can give you more information.
>There is a figure, the Daemon, which is mentioned by Plato when he
transcribes
>Socrates´ words. This figure is a kind of entity which is related to the
person
>in a very deep way.
>In Western Magick, this figure is called, indistintively, Higher Self or
Holy
>Guardian Angel. The nature of this being is not clear, because it depends
on the
>theory envolved and any of the people contacting this entity claims a
different
>nature, but the experience is similar. It is a figure which has a knowledge
>higher than yours, it has it´s own purpose, which sometimes is opposite or
>different to your conscious porpuse. But it is own of the principal goals
of
>Magick to get in contact with this entity, because when you gain access to
his
>presence, and you know his name, you know your True Will and you know who
you
>are and what are you here for.
>
>There is a traditional method, described by Abramelin the Magician, to
contact
>with this entity, but in the last decades, since the work developed by
Crowley,
>there are different methods involving meditation, access to different
levels of
>consciousness, work with the qabalistic tree and a personal commitment,
through
>and explicit oath, to develop this magical work.
>Before this final experience, it is very normal to be in contact with this
>entity, which is with you always, and to feel it in many different stages
of
>your life.
>
>When the process is done, you realice this entity and you are the same,
although
>this manifestation, material, cannot manifest your true self completely.
And
>there is a feeling of a sense in your life that there was not there before.
Your
>personal story makes sense into the light of this revelation.
>
>Yours,
>
>Ana.
>
>
>
>
>
________________________________
De: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>Para: [log in to unmask]
>Enviado: mié,23 marzo, 2011 14:31
>Asunto: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY
>PHD?
>
>
>Thank you very much, Emma.
>
>
>Your careful account helps to place things more clearly in perspective.
>
>
>I hope the presence again becomes as vivid as it was in 1993, when I always
>sensed it behind me almost wherever I was going.
>
>
>I was disturbed about it then, but like other encounters with the
conventionally
>enigmatic which have left me wary even though they are the kind of
experiences a
>magician ought to anticipate and welcome, I will be better prepared if, as
I
>hope, that level of 'concretisation' occurs again.
>
>
>Thank you very much.
>
>
>Its so good to have fora where one can share such experiences and get
sensitive,
>informed and well meaning responses.
>
>
>All the best
>toyin
>
>
>On 23 March 2011 11:29, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>Hi Toyin,
>>
>>So far as I know a familiar can certainly by acquired without intending to
do
>>so. Indeed, it could be argued that even in traditional shamanistic
cultures
>>the 'spontaneous' acquisition of the familiar is just as - if not more -
common
>>than the deliberate. From what I have read it seems that the familiar
never
>>completely relinquishes its 'autonomous' nature, though the shaman can
gain a
>>certain amount of control over it.
>>
>>
>>What I thought was interesting about your description was your linking of
some
>>initial vision and/or strong sensory experience with the subsequent more
>>day-to-day sense of a presence. In shamanistic narratives the familiar is
>>usually initially acquired through one or more 'peak' experiences - often
a
>>dream or vision encounter, but can also be a powerful auditory
hallucination or
>>experience of physical possession etc. But after this dramatic event it
seems to
>>me that a shaman's ongoing interactions with his familiar (that is, in
daily
>>life but also healing rituals and intentions not involving public seance)
can
>>often be more prosaic. The shaman 'talks to' their familiar and 'listens
to'
>>what they may have to say but in the way a Christian might communicate
with God
>>through prayer - a process of trying to interpret certain feelings and
thoughts
>>as spiritual communications and to understand the senses of presences as
opposed
>>to directly confronting and face-to-face interactions with the 'other'.
>>
>>
>>As for how to take advantage of a familiar - I'm not an expert here. I
suspect
>>there are as many ways as colours in the rainbow - shamanistic techniques,
>>ritual magic techniques, wiccan techniques .... Christian techniques ....
>>
>>
>>With all good wishes,
>>
>>Emma
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
________________________________
From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Sent: Tue, 22 March, 2011 5:31:36
>>Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON
WRITING MY
>>PHD?
>>
>>
>>Thanks for your response , Emma.
>>Please forgive my late reply.
>>The impressions come and go on their own terms.
>>Can you tell me more about the nature of a familiar and how one may
>>take advantage of it? Can it be acquired without intending to do so?
>>Thanks
>>Toyin
>>
>>
>>On 19 March 2011 08:03, emma wilby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>Hi Toyin,
>>>
>>>
>>>An evocative account of - what seems to me like - the acquisition of a
familiar.
>>>I wonder - can you bring the sense of the presence to you (through some
form of
>>>intention) or does it come and go of its own accord and on its own terms?
>>>
>>>
>>>Emma
>>>
>>>
>>>
________________________________
From: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
>>>
>>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>>Sent: Wed, 16 March, 2011 16:04:49
>>>Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY
>PHD?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
>>>
>>>
>>> Toyin Adepoju
>>>
>>>
>>> I ask myself this question in recognition of the sense of wonder that
>>>continually emerges for me from the development of ideas in the PhD I am
>>>undertaking in Comparative Criticism.
>>>
>>>
>>>You see, some of the best ideas of the PhD are not written wholly by me.
They
>>>are developed in collaboration with someone I don’t know, someone I am
only
>>>beginning to be able to identify through subtle cues that define the
contours of
>>>the person’s personality.
>>>
>>>
>>>I have chosen to describe this being in terms of a distinctive
personality
>>>because the entity actually demonstrates a shape representing their
nature and
>>>style of working.This shape is perceivable in mental terms through subtle
>>>promptings about possibilities for developing ideas, through the sense of
an
>>>invisible personality behind me or at my shoulder as I compose ideas in
writing,
>>>through a sense of looking forward into a landscape of knowledge I can
only
>>>dimly sense with an awareness of the certainty of its existence, like an
animal
>>>smelling water from a far distance.
>>>
>>>
>>> Perhaps a more realistic interpretation of this mysterious experience is
to
>>>understand these cognitive unfoldings as demonstrations of conjunctions
between
>>>the conscious and subconscious minds as they work together to constitute
a
>>>whole, even though the processes of the subconscious are not often
available to
>>>consciousness.
>>>
>>>
>>>This interpretation may clarify the majestic motions of ideas as they
enter
>>>into particular orbits, mesh and undergo transformation, but can they
explain
>>>the sense of an invisible personality by my side or behind me that
flashes in
>>>and out of my awareness as I work?
>>>
>>>What is the relationship between this current sense of an unseen
personality
>>>and an earlier impression of an invisible figure that began to follow
me
>>>everywhere after about a year of daily magical invocation and meditation
in
>>>1993?
>>>
>>>
>>>What connection could these experiences have to the two experiences in
my
>>>living room in Benin in 1996 in which as my mind went to my earlier
interest,
>>>abandoned for the previous three years, in developing the cognitive
potential
>>>of the Yoruba/Orisa Ifa system of knowledge and divination, I instantly
sensed
>>>an invisible presence at my side, a sense of an intangible presence that
>>>recurred at various times as I carried out this work on Ifa during my MA
at the
>>>University of Kent in 2003?
>>>
>>>Can these experiences be related to a particularly striking experience
in the
>>>late 1990s in which, as I reflected on a forest that awed me by the
numinous
>>>presence that radiated from it, I suddenly found myself elsewhere, in a
>>>different room, in non-verbal but eloquent dialogue with a woman. Having
>>>ascertained who I was, that I was not dreaming, that I was in a strange
place
>>>in which I had been welcomed, I opened my eyes to find myself back in my
study?
>>>
>>>Could these experiences of mine demonstrate interactions between
personal and
>>>extra-personal fields of consciousness?
>>>
>>>Full essay forthco
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 20:45:37 +0100
From: "Segal, Professor Robert A." <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
March 27
Dear All,
Socrates' daimon has a limited, if important, role: the daimon acts as a
kind of superego, cautioning Socrates against doing the wrong thing, though
by no means just the wrong thing morally. The daimon is not the source of
Socrates' ideas and is not an interlocutor. The daimon is akin to the
good fairy in Pinocchio.
Rumor has it that the son of Gadaffi who clearly did not write the PhD
awarded him by LSE is now claiming that his second self wrote it.
Robert Segal
________________________________________
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Odrade Atreed
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 8:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Dear Toyin,
Plato mentions the etymology of Daemon in Cratylus, but he speaks more
detailed about the figure in The Symposium. I have got this information from
the Wikipedia because I read his dialogues long years ago. That is a
beautifull dialogue about Love. Enjoy it.
About the Holy Guardian Angel (SAG) and the Demons, they are clearly
intertwined. One of the powers the SAG is to govern the demons. It is
claimed that the Angel and the Demon is one. You cannot invoke the Angel
without confronting the demons. This means a lot of magical experiences of
the SAG finishes with terrible psychological problems, because the demons
cannot be governed.
There is a complete system of magic, Maat Magick, where you can go from the
SAG to the Forgotten ones. It is written by Nema. Here the Demons are
conceptualized as the instincts which are in the base of our evolution. It
is a very instructive system.
I only can talk about this particular subject as a practitioner. I don´t
know which are the experiences associated to a familiar spirit, but there
are some descriptions very acurate about the experience of the SAG. When the
contact is completely made, you can be with demons, and they cannot touch
you. You know your True Will, and you know the name of the SAG. If some of
those things are not there, you cannot be sure that it is your SAG. Although
when you arrive to this experience, you can recognize his presence long time
ago, there are another entities which could be around you.
I definitely think that art and writing can give you a way to develop this
contact, and there is a contact too in scholarship. Discipline, in any way,
and the fire of developing a mastering can put you in contact with your True
Will. But I have found that although that kind of work, scholarship or
meditation or writing are necessary, they are not enough. To make the
contact it is necessary a magical oath. I don´t understand why, but it is a
key thing in the whole process. So, could it be possible walk through
Scholarship and get in contact with the SAG? Yes, could be, but I don´t know
which kind of oath could be made in this case.
In other words, the SAG is supposed to be in all the personal process
involved with the True Will, so if you are doing things which are related to
your True Will you can feel his/her presence, but the art of contact and
conversation with him/her is part of the Magical Art. Of course you can
develop a Magical Scholarship, a Magical writing as many magicians have
done: Michael Ende, C.I. Lewis, etc., a Magical Fighting, like Aikido. But
you need to use some Magical tool or theory to get to this point.
Thanks to you,
Ana.
________________________________
De: toyin adepoju <[log in to unmask]>
Para: [log in to unmask]
Enviado: dom,27 marzo, 2011 16:29
Asunto: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Thanks for that detailed response, Odrade.
I wanted to reflect further on your inspiring post before replying but the
need to respond has been nagging me so this effort will have to do for now.
Could you let me know in which of his works Plato mentions the Daemon? It
could be a good starting point for my need to read Plato, filling one of the
more significant gaps in my education.
Thanks for referring to the Abramelin ritual. I find it attractive, because
as Regardie describes it The Tree of Life: A Study in Magic, it is quite
simple and is adaptable to various ideational contexts, being centred in
consistent and gradually increasing invocation to the Holy Guardian Angel.
My worry, though, is about the invocation to the Princes of Evil that is
described as concluding the ritual. Aleister Crowley's intriguing account
of his performance of the ritual presents a horrifying description of
baleful forms materializing through the drawing of the relevant sigils but
how does one reconcile this with what might seem to be his psychological
interpretation of these Princes, unless I am not recalling accurately his
account in his autobiography? There are other accounts of performing the
ritual, but they seem to be careful to communicate sparingly the details of
the experience.
It would be most gratifying if one were really to move towards an intimate
relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel. I wonder, though, if the
experience experience described is easy ti distinguish between such a
persona entity or another entity, intimate but not personal, like a
familiar?
Can scholarship be one method of pursuing this relationship with an exalted
inner self? Why not? The long hours spent listening to oneself as one
composes ideas, of trying to weave various strata of ideas in the mind,
cultivating a relationship between the need to earn a living and a vocation
along with other marks of the life of the scholar and the academic can be
described as fruitful ground for such whispers of profundity, and a
increasing integration with deeper aspects of the self understood in terms
of the religious language represented by a description of such possibilities
as the Holy Guardian Angel.
In fact, accounts of creativity from people of different philosophical or
religious backgrounds, from scientists to artists, suggest this sensitivity
to aspects of the self that are not circumscribed by ratiocination and
evokes intuitions of the holy or the sacred. Thats related to the
impression I get from works like Miller's Imagery in Scientific Thought and
Paul Davies' The Mind of God. Karen Armstrong describes a similar idea in
relation to her own work and classical Jewish conceptions of religious
scholarship in her Through the Narrow Gate. Does Richard Dawkins not make a
related point about the sacred in non religious terms in relation to
intellectual research in The God Delusion, from what I read of of his
first chapter?
I wrote that before reading Sabrina's response.
Thanks
Toyin
On 23 March 2011 15:19, Odrade Atreed
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Dear Toyin,
I have just seen the letters about your experience, and I think my own
personal research can give you more information.
There is a figure, the Daemon, which is mentioned by Plato when he
transcribes Socrates´ words. This figure is a kind of entity which is
related to the person in a very deep way.
In Western Magick, this figure is called, indistintively, Higher Self or
Holy Guardian Angel. The nature of this being is not clear, because it
depends on the theory envolved and any of the people contacting this entity
claims a different nature, but the experience is similar. It is a figure
which has a knowledge higher than yours, it has it´s own purpose, which
sometimes is opposite or different to your conscious porpuse. But it is own
of the principal goals of Magick to get in contact with this entity, because
when you gain access to his presence, and you know his name, you know your
True Will and you know who you are and what are you here for.
There is a traditional method, described by Abramelin the Magician, to
contact with this entity, but in the last decades, since the work developed
by Crowley, there are different methods involving meditation, access to
different levels of consciousness, work with the qabalistic tree and a
personal commitment, through and explicit oath, to develop this magical
work.
Before this final experience, it is very normal to be in contact with this
entity, which is with you always, and to feel it in many different stages of
your life.
When the process is done, you realice this entity and you are the same,
although this manifestation, material, cannot manifest your true self
completely. And there is a feeling of a sense in your life that there was
not there before. Your personal story makes sense into the light of this
revelation.
Yours,
Ana.
________________________________
De: toyin adepoju
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Para:
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
UK>
Enviado: mié,23 marzo, 2011 14:31
Asunto: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Thank you very much, Emma.
Your careful account helps to place things more clearly in perspective.
I hope the presence again becomes as vivid as it was in 1993, when I always
sensed it behind me almost wherever I was going.
I was disturbed about it then, but like other encounters with the
conventionally enigmatic which have left me wary even though they are the
kind of experiences a magician ought to anticipate and welcome, I will be
better prepared if, as I hope, that level of 'concretisation' occurs again.
Thank you very much.
Its so good to have fora where one can share such experiences and get
sensitive, informed and well meaning responses.
All the best
toyin
On 23 March 2011 11:29, emma wilby
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi Toyin,
So far as I know a familiar can certainly by acquired without intending to
do so. Indeed, it could be argued that even in traditional shamanistic
cultures the 'spontaneous' acquisition of the familiar is just as - if not
more - common than the deliberate. From what I have read it seems that the
familiar never completely relinquishes its 'autonomous' nature, though the
shaman can gain a certain amount of control over it.
What I thought was interesting about your description was your linking of
some initial vision and/or strong sensory experience with the subsequent
more day-to-day sense of a presence. In shamanistic narratives the familiar
is usually initially acquired through one or more 'peak' experiences - often
a dream or vision encounter, but can also be a powerful auditory
hallucination or experience of physical possession etc. But after this
dramatic event it seems to me that a shaman's ongoing interactions with his
familiar (that is, in daily life but also healing rituals and intentions not
involving public seance) can often be more prosaic. The shaman 'talks to'
their familiar and 'listens to' what they may have to say but in the way a
Christian might communicate with God through prayer - a process of trying to
interpret certain feelings and thoughts as spiritual communications and to
understand the senses of presences as opposed to directly confronting and
face-to-face interactions with the 'other'.
As for how to take advantage of a familiar - I'm not an expert here. I
suspect there are as many ways as colours in the rainbow - shamanistic
techniques, ritual magic techniques, wiccan techniques .... Christian
techniques ....
With all good wishes,
Emma
________________________________
From: toyin adepoju
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To:
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
UK>
Sent: Tue, 22 March, 2011 5:31:36
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Thanks for your response , Emma.
Please forgive my late reply.
The impressions come and go on their own terms.
Can you tell me more about the nature of a familiar and how one may take
advantage of it? Can it be acquired without intending to do so?
Thanks
Toyin
On 19 March 2011 08:03, emma wilby
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi Toyin,
An evocative account of - what seems to me like - the acquisition of a
familiar. I wonder - can you bring the sense of the presence to you (through
some form of intention) or does it come and go of its own accord and on its
own terms?
Emma
________________________________
From: toyin adepoju
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
To:
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
UK>
Sent: Wed, 16 March, 2011 16:04:49
Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY
PHD?
WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
Toyin Adepoju
I ask myself this question in recognition of the sense of wonder that
continually emerges for me from the development of ideas in the PhD I am
undertaking in Comparative Criticism.
You see, some of the best ideas of the PhD are not written wholly by me.
They are developed in collaboration with someone I don’t know, someone I
am only beginning to be able to identify through subtle cues that define the
contours of the person’s personality.
I have chosen to describe this being in terms of a distinctive personality
because the entity actually demonstrates a shape representing their nature
and style of working.This shape is perceivable in mental terms through
subtle promptings about possibilities for developing ideas, through the
sense of an invisible personality behind me or at my shoulder as I compose
ideas in writing, through a sense of looking forward into a landscape of
knowledge I can only dimly sense with an awareness of the certainty of its
existence, like an animal smelling water from a far distance.
Perhaps a more realistic interpretation of this mysterious experience is to
understand these cognitive unfoldings as demonstrations of conjunctions
between the conscious and subconscious minds as they work together to
constitute a whole, even though the processes of the subconscious are not
often available to consciousness.
This interpretation may clarify the majestic motions of ideas as they
enter into particular orbits, mesh and undergo transformation, but can
they explain the sense of an invisible personality by my side or behind me
that flashes in and out of my awareness as I work?
What is the relationship between this current sense of an unseen
personality and an earlier impression of an invisible figure that began to
follow me everywhere after about a year of daily magical invocation and
meditation in 1993?
What connection could these experiences have to the two experiences in my
living room in Benin in 1996 in which as my mind went to my earlier
interest, abandoned for the previous three years, in developing the
cognitive potential of the Yoruba/Orisa Ifa system of knowledge and
divination, I instantly sensed an invisible presence at my side, a sense
of an intangible presence that recurred at various times as I carried out
this work on Ifa during my MA at the University of Kent in 2003?
Can these experiences be related to a particularly striking experience in
the late 1990s in which, as I reflected on a forest that awed me by the
numinous presence that radiated from it, I suddenly found myself elsewhere,
in a different room, in non-verbal but eloquent dialogue with a woman.
Having ascertained who I was, that I was not dreaming, that I was in a
strange place in which I had been welcomed, I opened my eyes to find myself
back in my study?
Could these experiences of mine demonstrate interactions between personal
and extra-personal fields of consciousness?
Full essay forthcoming
The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:19:11 -0700
From: "Magliocco, Sabina" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
Toyin,
I absolutely think that writing and scholarship are contemplative and even
magical disciplines! In fact I have argued that writing ethnography is a
magical act, in that it both invokes and evokes a world for readers.
For me, these feelings are all outgrowths of the human imagination -- which
is not to belittle them, but to call attention to the amazing qualities of
human creativity and the realities it creates. Others, of course, will have
different interpretations.
BB,
Sabina
Sabina Magliocco
Professor
Department of Anthropology
California State University - Northridge
[log in to unmask]
________________________________________
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of toyin adepoju
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 7:33 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Rather than delay this response further in the name of better assimilating
your intriguing perceptions, I am sending this response I wrote once I got
yours.
Thanks, Sabina. Very intriguing. Almost uncanny, in the sense of the thrill
of the borderline between the unknown, the unaccountable for in terms of
conventional ontological categories and one's recurrent experience,
recurrent yet not commonplace.
Your comments suggest, to me, that one can experience writing and
scholarship as a contemplative and even magical discipline.
Your account of encounters with authors reminds me of my ' seeing' James
Joyce in the library during my BA in literature, perhaps in the hat, glasses
and simple suit he is often shown in.I knew it was not a conventional
corporeal perception although my eyes were not closed and I was not doing
anything unusual apart from the normal business of reading in a library busy
with other students. I seem to have never thought much about what it meant.
This helps me better appreciate the experience of trance I had when reading
Kant on the Sublime for the first time in the same place in that library.
It was fantastic. On returning to myself, I wondered ' Am I occupying the
same space with these other library users?'
Perhaps one could put together one day a volume accounts of unusual states
of consciousness emerging in relation to scholarship and research.
What does it mean to experience or seem to experience the presence of
authors one is working on? Does it imply that scholarship can itself play
the kinds of roles attributed to magic/spirituality/religion? Aleister
Crowley, whom I see as as quite perceptive on the psychology and philosophy
of religion, described concentration in general as conducive to expansion of
consciousness.
Can words, particularly words that embody the level of concentrated
attention represented by scholarly writing embody traces , strong imprints
of consciousness in ways that are not only ideational but operate at the
interface of ideation and spirit or sentient life force?
' A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit, sealed and
transmitted to a life beyond life'as John Milton put it.
Or, without any disrespect intended, is one's mind enacting a strong
identification in terms of imaginative recreation that is localised to the
individual self?
I wont pretend to be making definitive descriptions of phenomena in such
comments as above on life force but groping towards explanations.
thanks
toyin
On 23 March 2011 23:11, Magliocco, Sabina
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
OK, I am the last person in the world who would argue against the pleasures
of food, hot baths/ showers, or having a good lie-in. However, I think I
know what Emma meant. When I was younger, hungrier and had more time on my
hands, I was also more open to spiritual experiences; they came more
spontaneously. When you're working 14-hour days, running around trying to
get 100 things done, in meetings all day long fighting with admin, etc. it
is not conducive to spiritual experience.
Writing, however, especially for sustained periods of time, does put one in
a very different frame of mind. It burns tons of energy; I like to joke
that when I'm writing I go down to my fighting weight. I get sucked into my
work, and being hypoglycemic, sometimes enter a kind of trancey state. I've
had very strong feelings of the presence of authors whose works I have
studied closely; I can almost feel them in the room with me and hear their
voice speak the words on the page. Once or twice I actually felt I was in
contact with the spirit of a dead author through their work. I think this
is different from what you describe Toyin, but perhaps it's part of a
continuum of similar human experiences.
BB,
Sabina
Sabina Magliocco
Professor
Department of Anthropology
California State University - Northridge
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
________________________________________
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
.UK>] On Behalf Of toyin adepoju
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Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 3:29 PM
To:
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UK>
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Thanks, Emma.
I hope I am able to arrive again at the level of mystical and magical work I
was doing at that time. I had suspended those ambitions in the name of
completing my BA and was now busting loose!
I was doing meditations and invocations from different traditions three
times a day, for about two to three years.
Do you have better spiritual experience when well fend and/or content or the
reverse?
Perhaps freedom from the heaviness of food or a sensitivity to the struggles
of life could help to make one more aware of life's possibilities?
One point of view cites examples relationship between contentment and peak
or expanded consciousness. Colin Wilson bases his explanation of peak
experiences in Superconsciousness: The Quest for the Peak Experience on that
very correlation. He argues for a sense of well being and of fulfilment as
central to expansions of sensitivity to the beauty of living. He correlates
Abraham Maslow's theory of a hierarchy of levels of satisfaction, with
biological needs forming the base of the pyramid and self actualisation at
the apex with what seems to me to be cognitive theory in developing the
idea that the more sensitive one is to the sheer appreciation of being, of
life, the more one is likely to experience a sense of enlargement of
perception and of self. In another work, Mysteries, he seems to suggest that
mystical disciplines, with their training in concentration, are methods of
increasing latent sensitivity through concentrating attention from its often
the sensitivity of awareness by focusing its often multifarious scope and
thereby expanding the capacity for awareness. I wish I could make his point
clearer.
Truly, being well fed, with the cool breeze blowing on one's skin, with
worries muted or forgotten, or nonexistent, one might be in a better
position to be sensitive to what Heidegger evokes as the often taken for
granted fact of being. Mother Teresa, for her part, describes the danger
of involuntary poverty to people's sense of humanity.
Another writer who argues for well being in relation to expansion of
awareness is Karen Salmansohn in How to Change Your Entire Life by Doing
Absolutely Nothing: 10 Do-Nothing Relaxation Exercises to Calm You Down
Quickly So You Can Speed Forward
Faster<http://www.amazon.com/Change-Entire-Doing-Absolutely-Nothing/dp/B000E
NBPJ8/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_10>, who describes how she was led to appreciate the
value of sheer relaxation by observing that she got very good ideas while
having an unhurried cup of tea or coffee or while simply enjoying the
comforting ease of lying bed.As one reviewer put it, she "argues that paying
attention to positive stimuli instead of negative thoughts can be
life-changing. One Do-Nothing Exercise, for instance, encourages readers to
focus on the pleasure of showering: "I now multitask in washing away my
stress and anxieties, by doing nothing but concentrating on the
concentration of water spritzing down on me."
One also recalls the accounts of Descartes cultivating the habit of working
while lying in bed, not getting up before midday, and Marcel Proust who was
led to some truly intriguing experiences by gustatory encounters with cakes.
Let those so inclined eat and be merry.
thanks
Toyin
On 23 March 2011 14:39, emma wilby
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<
mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote:
Toyin - Sounds like the 'daily meditation and invocation' may have been the
key re 'concretization'. For myself, I have noticed a direct correlation
between a diminishment/lack of spiritual experience and being well-fed
and/or content!! Emma
________________________________
From: toyin adepoju
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:to
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To:
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UK><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC@J
ISCMAIL.AC.UK>>
Sent: Wed, 23 March, 2011 13:31:58
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Thank you very much, Emma.
Your careful account helps to place things more clearly in perspective.
I hope the presence again becomes as vivid as it was in 1993, when I always
sensed it behind me almost wherever I was going.
I was disturbed about it then, but like other encounters with the
conventionally enigmatic which have left me wary even though they are the
kind of experiences a magician ought to anticipate and welcome, I will be
better prepared if, as I hope, that level of 'concretisation' occurs again.
Thank you very much.
Its so good to have fora where one can share such experiences and get
sensitive, informed and well meaning responses.
All the best
toyin
On 23 March 2011 11:29, emma wilby
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<
mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote:
Hi Toyin,
So far as I know a familiar can certainly by acquired without intending to
do so. Indeed, it could be argued that even in traditional shamanistic
cultures the 'spontaneous' acquisition of the familiar is just as - if not
more - common than the deliberate. From what I have read it seems that the
familiar never completely relinquishes its 'autonomous' nature, though the
shaman can gain a certain amount of control over it.
What I thought was interesting about your description was your linking of
some initial vision and/or strong sensory experience with the subsequent
more day-to-day sense of a presence. In shamanistic narratives the familiar
is usually initially acquired through one or more 'peak' experiences - often
a dream or vision encounter, but can also be a powerful auditory
hallucination or experience of physical possession etc. But after this
dramatic event it seems to me that a shaman's ongoing interactions with his
familiar (that is, in daily life but also healing rituals and intentions not
involving public seance) can often be more prosaic. The shaman 'talks to'
their familiar and 'listens to' what they may have to say but in the way a
Christian might communicate with God through prayer - a process of trying to
interpret certain feelings and thoughts as spiritual communications and to
understand the senses of presences as opposed to directly confronting and
face-to-face interactions with the 'other'.
As for how to take advantage of a familiar - I'm not an expert here. I
suspect there are as many ways as colours in the rainbow - shamanistic
techniques, ritual magic techniques, wiccan techniques .... Christian
techniques ....
With all good wishes,
Emma
________________________________
From: toyin adepoju
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:to
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
To:
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UK><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC@J
ISCMAIL.AC.UK>>
Sent: Tue, 22 March, 2011 5:31:36
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING
MY PHD?
Thanks for your response , Emma.
Please forgive my late reply.
The impressions come and go on their own terms.
Can you tell me more about the nature of a familiar and how one may take
advantage of it? Can it be acquired without intending to do so?
Thanks
Toyin
On 19 March 2011 08:03, emma wilby
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<
mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote:
Hi Toyin,
An evocative account of - what seems to me like - the acquisition of a
familiar. I wonder - can you bring the sense of the presence to you (through
some form of intention) or does it come and go of its own accord and on its
own terms?
Emma
________________________________
From: toyin adepoju
<[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:to
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>>
To:
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
UK><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC@J
ISCMAIL.AC.UK>>
Sent: Wed, 16 March, 2011 16:04:49
Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] FORTHCOMING: WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY
PHD?
WHO IS THIS PERSON WRITING MY PHD?
Toyin Adepoju
I ask myself this question in recognition of the sense of wonder that
continually emerges for me from the development of ideas in the PhD I am
undertaking in Comparative Criticism.
You see, some of the best ideas of the PhD are not written wholly by me.
They are developed in collaboration with someone I don’t know, someone I
am only beginning to be able to identify through subtle cues that define the
contours of the person’s personality.
I have chosen to describe this being in terms of a distinctive personality
because the entity actually demonstrates a shape representing their nature
and style of working.This shape is perceivable in mental terms through
subtle promptings about possibilities for developing ideas, through the
sense of an invisible personality behind me or at my shoulder as I compose
ideas in writing, through a sense of looking forward into a landscape of
knowledge I can only dimly sense with an awareness of the certainty of its
existence, like an animal smelling water from a far distance.
Perhaps a more realistic interpretation of this mysterious experience is to
understand these cognitive unfoldings as demonstrations of conjunctions
between the conscious and subconscious minds as they work together to
constitute a whole, even though the processes of the subconscious are not
often available to consciousness.
This interpretation may clarify the majestic motions of ideas as they
enter into particular orbits, mesh and undergo transformation, but can
they explain the sense of an invisible personality by my side or behind me
that flashes in and out of my awareness as I work?
What is the relationship between this current sense of an unseen
personality and an earlier impression of an invisible figure that began to
follow me everywhere after about a year of daily magical invocation and
meditation in 1993?
What connection could these experiences have to the two experiences in my
living room in Benin in 1996 in which as my mind went to my earlier
interest, abandoned for the previous three years, in developing the
cognitive potential of the Yoruba/Orisa Ifa system of knowledge and
divination, I instantly sensed an invisible presence at my side, a sense
of an intangible presence that recurred at various times as I carried out
this work on Ifa during my MA at the University of Kent in 2003?
Can these experiences be related to a particularly striking experience in
the late 1990s in which, as I reflected on a forest that awed me by the
numinous presence that radiated from it, I suddenly found myself elsewhere,
in a different room, in non-verbal but eloquent dialogue with a woman.
Having ascertained who I was, that I was not dreaming, that I was in a
strange place in which I had been welcomed, I opened my eyes to find myself
back in my study?
Could these experiences of mine demonstrate interactions between personal
and extra-personal fields of consciousness?
Full essay forthcoming
------------------------------
End of ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC Digest - 26 Mar 2011 to 27 Mar 2011 (#2011-84)
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