Chaos magick, as outlined by its foundational thinkers, associated organizations, and communities, is a rather specific way of approaching esoteric practice. While it may take on many exterior forms, so many that it may look completely disparate, the underlying principles remain the same. Chaos magick does not mean being chaotic, despite what many people on WitchTok seem to think. Chaos magick is a postmodernist approach to occult practice in which everything is geared around result, belief is used as a tool, paradigms are used in a shifting way, and everything is centered around the practitioner.

This separates it from other eclectic paths, because someone incorporating numerous traditions does not inherently mean that they believe magick hinges on belief itself. For instance, someone may be a Traditional Wiccan and a Thelemite at the same time, as those traditions are fundamentally compatible with each other. In this instance, they believe in the foundational first principles of Thelema, not those of chaos magick. They align with Will and the cosmology of Thelema, even if they also incorporate Wiccan beliefs into their practice.

For another example, someone may be a Hellenic Pagan, but also utilize Near Eastern Gods into their pantheon. This does not mean they lack a core belief in those Gods, or believe they are merely archetypes, this just means they believe in both. This is a historically rooted form of syncretic practice that has nothing to do with chaos magick’s “belief as a tool” approach.

In chaos magick, belief is used as a tool, everything is mental, and the psychological paradigm of occult operation is centered. In these other syncretic approaches, this is not the case, the Gods are external, and literally existing. The magician believes they are operating in a cosmos with metaphysical grounding and rules. The chaos magician rejects this. The chaos magicians’ frame of reference for the metaphysical reality of the world is that nothing is objectively true, there are no rules at all, so what matters is to experiment, and find the best functioning system for an individual practitioner’s spiritual advancement.

For many practitioners still in the seeking phase of their journey, on the outside, it may look as if they are doing something very similar to the chaos magician. Paradigm shifting is a key part of chaos magick. Simply put, a chaos magician will strictly adhere to a system for a while, then shift to another one. With time, they discover what aspects work out best for them, ultimately creating the ideal system for them. In contrast, a seeker, who is looking for objective spiritual truth and their life-long path may also move from paradigm to paradigm. They may be Buddhist for a while, then join a Sufi order.

However, they are not trying to create their own singular system or find what works with the mindset that there is no objective truth, they are trying to discover objective truth through experimentation. While this may look the same, the underlying goal and purpose is vastly different. As well, the end result is different. A chaos magician will create their own system, while the seeker will eventually commit to one system or syncretize two compatible systems. Chaos magick is a methodology, an approach.

It is also worth nothing that while chaos magick has pioneered numerous magickal techniques, these techniques are not exclusively under the domain of chaos magick. For instance, sigil magick, in the way chaos magicians do it, have been incorporated and accepted by the modern magical community, including people with principles that are incompatible with chaos magick. If you enjoy sigils, or other chaps magick techniques, you are not obligated to adopt chaos magick beliefs. Chaos magick is not a closed practice and its mindset is the complete opposite of a closed practice type stance. All chaos magick techniques are open access.

There are many practitioners who desire to experiment with different ritual techniques within an established tradition. They may find the existing rituals limiting or unaligned with their personal ritual style. For instance, many contemporary Thelemites, such as Jack Parsons and the subsequent Babalon Witchcraft community, take issue with how ceremonial and structure Thelemic rites tend to be. They want to be more ecstatic in their approach. When this is done, many people will assume the result is chaos magick. If someone is moving away from structure, that is embracing chaos, thus chaos magick. Once again, this is not chaos magick, because chaos magick is underlying approach, and does not have a monopoly on being chaotic.

In fact, chaos magick is often not chaotic at all, there are Buddhist influenced chaos magicians who have far more disciplined and asceticism-driven practices than many contemporary Pagans. In reality, this type of adaption and modification is just a current evolving, advancing, and changing over time. Not all change is chaos magick, though some traditions may evolve into a chaos magick type approach of thinking. At that point though, a tradition often ceases to be what it is, because the first principles have been abandoned or left behind. A tradition needs its first principles and underlying metaphysics to remain constant for it to remain the same tradition. There is nothing wrong with evolution or digression, but after a certain point, things become something else entirely.

This is all not a moral judgement against chaos magick, this is a neutral one. While I do have critiques against chaos magick (you can learn about them here), as I am a Thelemite who very much does adhere, and find, Thelemic principles to be true, I do think chaos magicians deserve to have their thought system understood. I think chaos magick, if we are to discuss it, needs to be discussed properly. It does a great disservice to the chaos magick community and the intellectual rigor of the broader occult community to not define these terms properly.

Note: This article was originally meant to be paywalled, but I have decided to make it free, as I find it to be too important to paywall away. My next Substack will be paywalled for this reason. If you would like to support my work, please consider subscribing to this Substack, checking out my Patreon, reading my book, or booking a reading with me. Thank you.

-GR

Yet, despite this critique not holding any validity for the whole of occultism, it is true for certain individuals. For these practitioners, the esoteric is not functioning as a gateway to the divine, but a gateway away from whatever problems they are facing in their mundane lives. For these people though, it does not need to stay this way, they can overcome this hurdle, and transmute their practice into something meaningful.

The most powerful way to avoid this happening to you is to constantly evaluate your practice, critically analyze what you are doing, and regularly engage in self-reflection. For years now, I have argued that a successful esoteric practice is made up of three equally important limbs: study, praxis, and contemplation. For many practitioners, that third wing is missing or de-emphasized. When this wing is forgotten, it is incredibly easy to fall into toxic patterns like escapism, spiritual bypassing, or any other trap without even realizing it. If you take time, say weekly, to journal on your practice, check yourself with tarot pulls, or talk with a trusted mentor in your local community, you are much less likely to fall, or remain stuck, in these traps. Remember, one of the most important esoteric teachings is to know thyself.

Once you realize you are using your occult practice as a form of escapism, it is important to get to the root of why. What is causing you to use the occult to get away from your material life? What is the issue, what is the trigger? In my time speaking with practitioners, every escapist has actually had a reason. For some, they know it consciously, for others, it is something they are avoiding thinking about, pushing deep into their subconscious. Regardless, it is critical to acknowledge the issue, then take material steps to resolve the issue. Of course, for people in say, abusive family dynamics, it is not so simple to fix the issue, but they can try to follow the next steps, even if immediate material resolution is not possible. If immediate material resolution is possible, take steps to do that. For instance, if you are using the occult as an escapist means to avoid thinking about a job that is soul sucking, begin immediately looking for new paths, new jobs, or ways to improve your current job.

After this resolution is done, or while it is ongoing, you need to assess whether or not taking a break is the next step. To get consistent and positive esoteric results, you do need to be consistent, you do need to do ritual regularly, and you do need a robust meditation practices. Despite this, there are some times when a break can actually be more spiritually productive than pushing onwards. If you are really struggling with breaking out of escapism, a break can actually be helpful.

During your break, pull back on all spirit-based and astral-based practices, instead focus solely on meditation, focus exercises, contemplation, and perhaps even psychic self-defense type practices. You do not need to abandon all spirituality to take a break, you simply need to pull back on the aspects of it that are being used in the toxic way. It is quite possible there are edge cases where they even need to take a break from things like meditation, in those cases, that may be needed too. I can’t think of a single case where avoiding contemplation would lead to anything other than continued destruction though.

Once you feel ready to return, dip your toes in, and progress slowly. Typically, escapists move too fast in their practices, jumping into things like Enochian or Sabbatic work when they are not mentally ready. If you know escapism is one of your challenges, you need to move slower than you want to. Set literal boundaries with yourself. For instance, maybe you cannot do initiatory work until a year and a day has passed. Or, you can only invoke once a month, on the full moon. Or, you can only have 3-5 spirits present in your practice at a time. This is up to your discernment, but it is critical to pace yourself if you are a known escapist. Check in with yourself via tarot, journaling, and contemplation throughout this entire journey.

For people with this pattern, it can be beneficial to seek out in-person community or a mentor. When you are working within a group, or directly with a mentor, there is another person who is checking you, making sure you remain on track. This person can hold you accountable and call you out when you fall into these patterns. This can be an essential spiritual safety net for a recovering escapist. Of course, when looking into groups and mentors, it is critically important to vet them to insure you are not dealing with cults or charlatans.

Another thing that can be helpful for some escapists is to focus heavily on purification and protection work. As many escapists fall into this pattern due to mental health or adverse external circumstances, it is quite possible that an escapist may be especially prone to miasma or spiritual attacks. For these practitioners, it is critical to focus heavily on protection, defense, and spiritual purification. Heavily incorporating banishing, warding, or even self-exorcism (eg: The Headless Ritual with an exorcism charge) can be highly productive.

For any escapist, a special attention needs to be held towards grounding. Every esoteric practitioner needs to be grounding, returning themselves to the material, and rooting themselves back to the earth. For escapists, this is doubly true. It is easy to become ungrounded and lost in the higher realms when you have a psychological inclination to do so already. Spend time every single day grounding if you are an escapist. Do it before and after every single ritual. Even if you are in a group setting, take extra time to meditate, or meditate again when you get home. Grounding is everything in these situations, and paired with contemplation, is the most surefire way to prevent this all from happening again.

Being an escapist is not good, but it does not mean your spiritual journey is over, it just means that you need to re-asses it.

-GR

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Thelema is hard for numerous reasons, but the most obvious one is the reality that the Thelemic Holy Texts, particularly The Book Of The Law, are functionally impenetrable for first time readers who do not have a background in western esotericism. These texts are layered channeled documents that take a solid handle on occult ideas to grasp. They are initiatory in nature, with layered truths obscured deep within them. Even long-time Thelemites do not get everything. It can take decades to even understands them. To be frank, I think this is the most legitimate reason as to why Thelema’s perceived difficulty may limit its growth.

For this reason, I urge all new Thelemites, or Thelema-interested individuals, to start with texts that are not channeled, and are not explicitly holy texts. For instance, reading “Liber ABA” from cover to cover, not exclusively reading Book Four, is an incredible starting point. Alternatively, you can check out contemporary writers who have written explicit introductory/beginner works on Thelema. Or, if you can find a copy, Crowley’s “Magick Without Tears” is an exceptional resource. There are easier, and frankly more productive, paths in. When you take these paths, yes, it is challenging, but it is much less daunting. Thelema is complex, but also the truths are simple at the same time.

Another reason why Thelema is considered hard is that Thelema requires work. It is the Great Work after all, you cannot achieve it without doing great amounts of work. Thelema actually requires daily work if you want to see any real results, any real progress. The thing is, this is not an exclusively Thelemic thing. Pretty much any world religion obligates the same thing, especially of aspiring mystics. I would go so far as to saying that, on this front, Thelema is less demanding than many other religions. For an example, Resh, the Thelemic prayer said numerous times during the day is far shorter than Salat, the Islamic prayer said numerous times during the day. The same is true of Catholics who decide to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. While not all Catholics do that, it does take far longer than Resh, and like that Liturgy, Resh, while valuable, is not obligatory.

Beyond this, Thelema has far less rules than most religions. Thelema has one rule, Will. While Will is a challenge, it obligates the individual to give up, release, and reject every single path, every single moment, and every single thing in life that does not align with their Will, it is actually restrictive. Will is restrictive in the literal sense that it locks you out of some paths, but it is not restrictive in the sense that it has no other laws, it is simply that. Will also, once aligned with, is a flow state, much like the Tao. It is a way of being, and once connected to, is the path of least resistance. Will is letting go, allowing the waters of Nuit to guide you to your destination. Thelema does not have rigid laws on what you can eat, how you can dress, or how you can live. Thelema is far more liberating and freeing than pretty much any religion due to this, there are no Kosher laws of Thelema.

The harsh reality is that Thelema is an easier path than most world religions, if you actually take those religions seriously. The reason why Thelema appears harder, is that many people in those larger religions, simply are not actually following all the rules. The vast majority of Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and Jews believe in their faith, but do not follow all the rules given to them. This is the human condition. Thelema, since it is so mystically oriented, and those who pursue it, typically, have an esoteric background, selects for people who care more. Most Thelemites are converts, and across all religious traditions, converts tend to follow the religion more closely, fixate on it more, and go harder. Thelema simply does not have normie Thelemites, or not that many of them, we are all devout mystics, not causal adherents. If Thelema ever went mainstream, this would happen to us too.

The response we should have is to keep Thelema as it is, not water it down. There are ways to make Thelema more approachable, and more realistic seeming, than we do now that do not obligate oversimplification. For instance, we could discuss how Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) work looks like for the average person, instead of holding up the Abramelin Ritual as an idol. I have met three people who have done the Abramelin ritual, I have met hundreds of Thelemites who achieved K+C, and did it for real, while living in the world. We could discuss how to adapt Thelemic ritual patterns to the lives of real people, how you can make Resh work with your schedule, while you do your job, and raise children. We can discuss ritual modification, how you can use alternative items, such as tarot cards, to replace expensive ritual items, so that people who cannot afford expensive swords and daggers can still do ceremonial magick.

As well, we can help prepare people better for these harder texts. Instead of telling people to avoid them, or dumbing them down (I think of the cringe-inducing attempt someone did several years ago of rewriting “The Book Of The Law”to be accessible”). We can run reading groups, places where you work through texts together, and discuss them. We can create more introductory material to prepare people to read the hard stuff, not replacing it, but ensuring people have a rock solid foundation, so when they read the holy texts, they don’t get scared off. As well, we can explore alternative community options, such as new ways of running groups, new types of groups, and remote communities for people who live far away from other occultists. In the age of increased connection, it is our duty to connect others to the truth.

For those who, still, feel as if Thelema needs to be dumbed down, watered down, or simplified, I suggest you look at other faiths who have tried this, and see what has happened to them. They become skeletons of what they used to be, or even worse, a version that is hardly spiritual at all, just atheism with an aesthetic to it. We need to be resolute, principle, and genuinely Thelemic, while helping new people come to us, discover what we are, and engage with us. By doing this, we would actually make Thelema more mainstream. This would be especially important amongst gen-z, as gen-z religious and spiritual people do seek out more pure and theistic versions of religions. The gen-x and millennial tendency towards secularized religion that leans on ideas like “spicy psychology” is out of trend, and never served our community well anyways. We do believe this stuff exists, we do believe in the Gods, and we do believe our rituals work. If someone does not hold those points and principles, then of course Thelema is too hard, as there is no Great Work, only Great Work towards vibes.

Push yourself and you will be free.

-GR

Question 1: How quickly should I work through the initiations in the book? How long should I go between each ritual?

In the book, I do not provide a set timeline. I do not believe everyone’s timeline will be the same, I think it varies, and depends on the individual. Some people simply advance faster and some advance slower, this could be due to many things. As well, some people will be going into the rituals as absolute beginners and some will have decades of experience. Obviously, these different groups will progress at different speeds. I believe you should do the next ritual when you are ready, when you feel you have mastered all of the mysteries of the previous sphere, and your practice reflects the level you are stepping into. If I was to set minimums though, I would say that one ritual per month seems like a reasonably quick pace for someone experienced. Theoretically, you could work through one ritual per week, but I don’t think that is realistic or grounded. For the average person, I would say the spheres below the sun could be once per month, then the spheres above the sun may take 3-6 months. As the book progresses, the mysteries get more complex, and it will take longer. This all depends on the person though and that is why I did not set an actual timeline. You truly need to know thyself.

Question 2: Can I use the invocations out of their respective ritual context and use them as isolated prayers, rites, or as part of spells?

Absolutely, just make sure you note the actual context of the invocation. For instance, the invocation that I wrote for Jupiter that heavily leans on his cathartic aspects would not fit with a standard road opener Jupiter type working.

Question 3: Is this process beginner friendly?

Yes, until it reaches a certain point. The rituals are designed to help you advance upward towards the Gods, so at the start, it is meant for beginners. As you reach the later rituals, it is not beginner friendly, but by the time you are doing those rituals, you will not be a beginner anyways.

Question 4: Can I make material substations if I do not have a particular candle color, incense, or tool you include?

Yes, so long as the correspondence matches. For instance, you could use a different lunar herb to replace mugwort in the moon ritual. However, you cannot use, say, a chalice to represent fire, as that would destroy the ritual fromula. If you are unfamiliar with matching correspondences, check out a book like Liber 777.

Question 4: Can I do other rituals while working through these rituals?

Of course! I actually recommend you do so. These rituals are meant to be large rituals that function as esoteric checkpoints. Between those checkpoints, you need to be doing work, so you can reach the next one. I highly recommend developing a robust daily ritual practice, a daily meditation practice, and doing other rituals as well. You could even combine this ritual system with other initiation-based spiritual advanced systems, like say, the initiations you are going through in an esoteric order.

Question 4: Do I have to only work with planetary beings during this journey?

No. I, in my own esoteric practice, work with many spirits who are not planetary in their nature. This system is meant to be expansive, not restrictive.

Question 5: Do I need to be an astrologer to do these rituals?

While planetary magick and astrology have an obvious overlap, you do not need to be an expert astrologer to do planetary magick. I am a professional astrologer myself, and prior to learning astrology, I actually did planetary magick. For me, planetary magick was my gateway into astrology, not the other way around. So, obviously you need a bit of astrological knowledge, but by no means do you need to be an expert.

Question 6: Are these rituals aligned with Thelema?

Yes, it is subtle at times, but the Thelemic implications are there. They are very much congruent with the Thelemic paradigm.

Question 7: Can I start these rituals at any time of year or do I need to wait for a particular astrological season to start?

The rituals are not based upon astrological seasons, but planetary days, so that people can jump into the system whenever. If you would like to start during a particular astrological season, if you feel that would enhance your experience, that is cool too.

Question 8: Why do you not use that many tools in the rituals?

I only added as many tools as are necessary for the rituals, as I do not see including tools that have no obligatory purpose. I am someone who really does not use a lot of tools in their own personal practice, so it would feel unnatural including tools that I myself don’t even use.

Question 9: Would you consider these rituals mysticism or ceremonial magick?

Both! They are in the overlap zone, which is why I decided to use the word theurgy.

Question 10: What if I do some of the rituals, then realize my True Will is not to continue through them, and stop. Will anything bad happen?

No! There is no risk to starting, then not finishing. Always follow your True Will.

You can grab a copy of “Planetary Theurgy: Ascent Through The Seven Veils through Katharsios Press (comes with a bookmark!), via www.katharsiospress.com, or by looking everywhere books are sold. Copies are available worldwide.

-GR

The core of the stagnancy problem comes with the fact that most Thelemites base their entire practices and thoughts around the precedents set by Aleister Crowley. They do his rituals, they say his prayers, and they emulate him. They turn Crowley from a figure who discovered this aeon, and into a Mohammed-like figure, one who, when emulated correctly, when following the Thelemic sunnah, brings you blessings. This has never been what Thelema taught. In fact, Thelma’s core doctrine and principle of True Will rejects this outright—another person’s True Will cannot be your True Will, thus by doing Crowley’s Will, you are defying your own, committing the closest thing to a Thelemic sin possible.

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Earlier this month, Saturn stationed into Aires, where Saturn will remain, roughly, for the next 2.5-3 years. This means that a new crop of people have begun the process of their Saturn return, and everyone, yes everyone, will have Saturn crossing into a new house. Saturn is going to be on all of our minds and we will all be forced to reckon with him. The thing is, while there is no way around suffering with Saturn, that suffering can be something healing, not suffocating. This is how you can make that difference and turn Saturn into a planetary ally, not a foe.

First, you need to know what Saturn is doing in your chart at any given time. Saturn moves slowly, meaning that wherever Saturn is, he will remain there for a long time. To find out where Saturn is, remember, as of February 2026, Saturn is in Aires. If you are reading this at a future date, you will need to check the chart of day to see what sign Saturn is residing in. Regardless, once you locate that sign (for now, Aires), look across the wheel, and see the number next to that sign, that is the house. The themes of that house are the themes that Saturn is currently impacting the most. It is critical to reflect on this themes in great depth, do some extensive journaling and tarot work, and locate what is weak around those themes, what is lacking. Where within those themes do you lack discipline, maturity, and responsibility? Those deficits are where Saturn is going to strike.

The critical thing you must realize about Saturn is that Saturn does not destroy for no reason. Saturn destroys what needs to go, what must be razed. For this reason, Saturn placements often become kinder and more balanced with age. Saturn rules over old age, the later portion of our lives, after all. Saturn’s job is to heal us, to show us what needs to be done, in order for us to mature. On a symbolic level, most of the imagery of Saturn devouring his son actually represents Saturn’s connection to time. Saturn devours youth, removing our childlike inclinations and immaturities, transmuting us into mature adults. If we recognize this and take action on it, Saturn works best.

A key mystery of Saturn is that of surrender, of release. Binah, the Qabalistic sphere associated with Saturn, holds within it a secret feminine form. This feminine form, often called Babalon by the Thelemites, but acknowledged in every occult system under some name (such as Sophia or the Ghanariq), is this aspect. These feminine forms come to us and force us to dissolve ourselves, to surrender. Thelema has a powerful image of the mystic bleeding out, every last drop of his/her blood, into a holy graal. They die into the cup and are reborn. After this, they are guided to the supernals, to divine union. This divine union cannot happen without this surrender, this release. All Saturn transits and experiences behave like this, and require this type of surrender, though often on a much less extreme level. They mandate surrender, through resistance is where suffering is created.

In my book, “Planetary Theurgy”, I use riptide imagery to explore this Saturnian surrender. When you encounter a riptide in the ocean, as a swimmer, you cannot swim against it. If you trash against the current, you will lose control and drown. To survive a riptide, you need to stop swimming, and give into the riptide. The riptide will rip you away from the shore, and you will be forced to watch as civilization becomes distant, pushing down any anxieties or fears you may be faced with, and you must let go. Release. Eventually though, this outward pull stops, and all you have to do is swim parallel to the shore, then come in, once the current pattern has been passed. Dealing with Saturn is like this, you surrender, then you find a new way out. You die, then are reborn, and are listening to a new part of your soul, a part you may have just missed noticing before. Let this truth imprint deeply into your psyche and you will discover that this malefic is a liberator.

To cope best with Saturn transits through magickal means, you can do two processes: planetary remediation or ritual. Planetary remediation is essentially a process where you embody a planet, and do things ruled by the planet, to heal your relationship with it. Planetary remediation can be many things—it can be mundane actions (such as setting a boundary with a toxic coworker) or simple spiritual actions (such as saying The Orphic Hymn to Saturn every Saturday morning). If you do a Saturn remediation, once a week, every Saturn, during a Saturn-ruled planetary hour, you will integrate Saturnian mysteries at a fast rate, and be viewed in a more favorable light by Saturn himself.

In terms of ritual, a helpful approach can be to do a ritual based around transmutation. Essentially, do some sort of ritual built around an intention that relates to solving the problem that Saturn is currently facing in your chart. For example, if Saturn is in your seventh house (the house of marriage and long-term commitments), do a ritual based around the intention to be more steadfast in your promises. In this ritual, use Saturn imagery and invoke Saturn’s power in some way. This focuses Saturn’s energy during the transit and keeps you aware of what Saturn is doing. It makes you actually want Saturn to shake up that part of life, instead of actively continuing to resist it.

If Saturn is too foreign and fearsome of a power to start with such a specific ritual, you may want to, instead, do a general Saturnian initiation. For this, you can do a pre-written ritual (I have one in Planetary Theurgy), or you can construct your own ritual. This ritual can be as intensive or as mild as you please. You could invoke Saturn’s power, The Conjuration of Kronos by Frater Achad is particularly beautiful. Or, you could invoke the feminine form of Saturn, such as doing work with Babalon. If invocation is too much, try simply inviting Saturn in through more subtle means. You can carve the astrological glyph of Saturn onto a candle that you burn down during a Saturday Saturn hour, as you chant “IO SATURNUS” 333 times. If that is too much, you could perhaps try crafting a mandala, and gazing into that Saturnian mandala, as you enter into deep meditation. The possibilities are endless, but you need to invite the Saturnian power in, in some way, if the whole set of themes are too much for you. As daunting as it sounds, the reality is that you will never make peace with these themes, so long as you avoid them.

Running from Saturn is the surefire way to make Saturn transits as miserable as possible. Saturn may be slow, but trust me, he will catch you. This is why we face him, so we do not have to deal with that fate.

-GR

Babalon, known in the Christian and Islamic canon as Babylon, is the holy whore. She comes into Revelations in style. She smells of perfume (I’ve always presumed something like Guerlain’s Shalimar), wears an ornate gold and pearl necklace, upon her forehead she has a name written, and she rides a beast with seven heads. She sits on the beast with pride and is raising a chalice full of the blood of saints. She drinks this blood and becomes drunk on her evilness. This is, of course, a wild image that has inspired lots of strong reactions, but remember—Babalon does not come from here originally and this is meant to be a slander, a profaning portrayal.

Babalon is an evolution of an older Mesopotamian goddess, Inanna-Ishtar, also called Al-Lat by the Arabs, called Astarte by Canaan, and yes, eventually in a more mellowed out form, Aphrodite by the Greeks. This goddess is ancient and appears in the first writings of humanity. She represents love, sexuality, fertility, war, and power. Her name was invoked, in equal importance and power, on the battlefield and in the bedroom when couples planned to conceive. She was a bringer of passion, fire, fury, and emotion. She is life, she is death. She dies and is reborn, ascending from heaven into hell, then up and back again. She completes the cycle of resurrection. She is the morning and evening star, the most important spirit to profane. For more clarity on the morning star, please check out my other essay on here: “The Demonization of Venus and the Morning Star”.

Babalon appears again in later mystic visions, she does not remain contained to antiquity. Of course, she appears in John of Patmos’ vision of Revelations, but she comes again. She appears to Christian mystic John Dee during his communications with the Enochain angels. John Dee, a British astrologer and devout Christian, had claimed to have made communication with angels who spoke in a language called Enochian. He, alongside his partner Edward Kelly, made it their mission to make senes of this and record their messages. One day, they receive a vision of a spirit claiming to be “the daughter of fortitude” who, anyone with any background in western esotericism can see, is Babalon. I highly recommend reading the transcription of this vision, as it begins to tap into her true spiritual purpose: to dissolve boundaries, break beyond duality, and connect people to the highest point of divinity, the godhead. She also, at some point in time, appeared in the Nag Hammadi Codex, a collection of important Gnostic texts, though there is little historic clarity on exactly how or when this happened.

She returns to the metaphysical zeitgeist when Aleister Crowley begins to develop Thelema, his system of magickal operation, philosophy, and theology. Babalon enters into Thelema, for the first time, in a slight reference in “The Book of the Law”, the holy text of Thelema that Crowley received in Cairo. She appears again, and in proper detail, when Crowley begins to do ritual explorations of Enochian. After this point, her purpose, in terms of mystic development, becomes clear. Babalon exists to dissolve the practitioner, to force them to annihilate themselves, and reach to the abyss. He expounds upon this in “Liber Cheth”. This is not the end though, contemporary Thelemites continue to explore and experiment with her. Jack Parsons even goes so far as to claim he’s channeled a prophecy from her. This is a tad controversial, but worth noting.

Babalon represents something specific, annihilation. She is a goddess of love, sex, and death. By approaching her, and surrendering to her love, the mystic undergoes what many in modern culture call “ego death”. Sex and love do this in a way too, love is dissolution. There is a reason Christians call marriage “becoming one flesh”. This is, because to love is to die. To cease to be one and to become a unit. To dissolve. We do the same thing, in a more abstract and macrocosmic sense, when we finally dissolve our individuality and unite with the Godhead. This is the Great Work, the entire purpose of all mystic development. All religions end here, some creeds call it Nirvana, some Heaven, but they all involve one thing—death and rebirth.

Lilith, on the other hand, does not relate to these themes at all. Lilith, in traditional interpretation, is an anti-mother. Lilith’s origins also come from Mesopotamia, and come from a slightly different name, the Liltus. The Lilitus were a category, or class, of malefic spirits, comparable to modern ideas of demons, that were responsible for miscarriages, infant mortality, and the death of young unmarried people. They were feared and many people put up amulets in their windows to ward them off. Many of the oldest relics of the human species were created to keep them away. There was a particular named Lilitu, Lamasthu, who is occasionally described as a god-like spirit, who is the most likely origin of Lilith. Yet, not a lot is written about this spirit and she is certainly not as fleshed out as our modern view of Lilith, so where does that begin?

It is quite possible, though this is more speculation, that many of the Jewish ideas of Lilith do include some elements of a specific goddess, Ereshkigal. Ereshkigal is the Mesopotamian goddess of the underworld. She represents pure death. She is, in a way, and even more chthonic and feminine Hades. Her most famous myth actually involves Inanna. In this myth, Inanna descends into the underworld to protect her lover, but when she arrives, she undergoes many ordeals. She has all her power stripped from her, and in a series of seven ordeals, is tormented, tortured, and killed. After this though, she is reborn, and ascends back into the heavens. In this story, considering we know, for certain Babalon has roots in Inanna, and Lilith quite possibly is rooted in Ereshkigal, they appear to be opposing energies, not the same one. Opposites.

Regardless of how connected Lilith is to Ereshkgial, much of our modern ideas of her do stem from Judaism proper. In Jewish theology, specifically in the Kabbalistic and Rabbinic traditions, she appears extensively. In the Torah, she does not show up, but every other Jewish source expounds upon her. She is viewed as a demonic and evil force in these writings. There are many talismans, bowls, and rituals utilized to ward off her power. In Kabbalistic writings though, she truly gains power. In many Kabbalistic works, she is described as the gateway to the Qliphoth, the metaphysical shells that descend away from God. She is described with extreme power in these writings, essentially granting her with the title of the ultimate evil. As well, she is often presented as a foil to the Shekinah. The Shekinah is the Jewish idea of the feminine nature of God who is formless, but flows throughout all. The Shekinah is a concept that is rather similar to the Christian idea of the Holy Spirit. Many Gnostics have connected the Shekinah to their idea of Sophia.

With all this said, where does the modern idea of an empowered Lilith come from, as it is clearly not an existing concept for the vast majority of human history? In the Jewish text, “The Alphabet of Ben Sirach”, the myth of Lilith appearing as the first woman finally appears. This story is often portrayed as as secret Bible chapter, but it was written rather late in Abrahamic history, in 700-1000 AD. This means that, without a doubt, the idea of Lilith as the first woman is a revisionist idea from later thinkers. Also, there are many people who have speculated that “The Alphabet of Ben Sirach” was meant to be a parody of Jewish theological writings and it is looked down upon by Jewish scholarship.

In this telling though, we get the infamous story. Lilith was the first woman created for Adam, the first man. Lilith was headstrong and independent. Adam asked her to submit sexually to him and she refused. She then turned away from the Garden, walked off with the Serpent, and become a demoness. She became the mother of monsters. In the original version of this story, this was meant to make her look evil, but most modern readers see her as, well, not really the bad guy here. It should not be seen as evil to reject a man’s sexual advances.

Many modern pagans and mystics have heard this story and felt called towards Lilith, especially women who have survived rape or abuse. She is a rejector, a liberator, to people who read it like this. The thing is—at this point, we are looking at a different archetype, a different spirit entirely. I would argue, though I am basing this in my own metaphysical speculation and conversations with other occultists, that there are two Liliths. There is the historic and mythic Lilith, the true Lilith. Then, there is the modern Liltih, who is essentially a chaos magick style egregore or thoughtform, that has developed from this idea. She is not a real goddess in the honest sense, and working with her runs the risk of accidentally linking with true Lilith, but she is a concept in her own right.

Even if this particular Lilith was the true Lilith though, she would not be Babalon. Babalon is a dissolution-based archetype and a sexual one, Lilith is not sexual in this way. Lilith is defined by her rejection of sex and her rejection of motherhood. In Jungian archetypal terms, she would be considered a virgin goddess. A virgin goddess, in archetypical terms, is not sexually untouched, but independent. She exists separately from others, not defined by her relationships. Babalon, on the other hand, is an alchemical goddess. Alchemical goddesses exist independently, as in they live by their own terms and follow their own Will, but also maintain impactful relationships. They are sovereign, but still allow themselves to feel love, be impacted by love, and impact others. The third category, which neither Babalon or Lilith is, is a vulnerable goddess, one completely defined by their relationships to others, who lack fundamental sovereignty over their lives. I would suggest reading “Goddesses in Everywoman” by Jungian psychiatrist Jean Shinoda Bolen if this particular notion fascinates you.

In terms of mystic evolution, a relationship with true Lilith would likely result in suffering, infertility, and loneliness. A relationship with modernized egregoric Lilith would result in developing individuality, personal sovereignty, and self-assuredness. This is, once again, the opposite of Babalon’s impact. Babalon is about losing the self into God, Lilith is about standing as an individual woman. They are not the same, and in essence, do the opposite thing to the practitioner, even if we are only considering the modern concept of Lilith. This is entire conflation of Lilith and Babalon as one is destructive, confusing, and simply wrong.

-GR

It first must be acknowledged that not all solitary practitioners are solitary for the same reason. For some, being a solitary practitioner is an active choice they have made, due to it aligning best with their True Will. For others, being solitary is something they have no control over. Perhaps, they live in a remote area and are not near any groups. They could be under 18 and the vast majority of esoteric groups would not allow them for that reasons. Maybe, the only groups near them are in a vastly different tradition. Or, they live in a country where it is criminal to honor the Gods. It is also possible the only group in their area is a cult and they want to avoid that. There are even more possibilities why someone may be involuntarily solitary than this. The reasoning why someone is a solitary practitioner is incredibly important when considering the risks and benefits of being solitary. If you are in the position of being a solitary practitioner, ask yourself why?

As a solitary practitioner, you are responsible for yourself and your own safety. One of the greatest benefits of a group is that you have people to turn to if something does go wrong. For many solitary practitioners, they do not have people to go to in these moments, they have to rely on themselves, and their own sense of sovereignty. For others though, despite not being part of any groups, they do still interact with other practitioners. They may have esoteric friends, a mentor, or a group of people they do rituals with occasionally (but are not in a formally chartered and organized coven structure). They may even have teachers or mentors. It is worth noting though, some people would argue that being a solitary practitioners means being entirely alone, all the time. I would contest this, because speaking with other occultists socially, attending the occasional festival, and so on is still significantly closer to being a solitary practitioner, than being in a highly structured degree-based occult order.

The greatest risk of being a solitary practitioner is going insane. This is what everyone is afraid of when it comes to occultism. The thing is, if you are regularly grounding, contemplating, and not rushing through initiation after initiation, you are unlikely to go insane. The sheer fact that someone is so afraid of going insane that they are thinking about how they can prevent this, is sign that they are unlikely to go insane. As a solitary practitioner, you need to be able to hold yourself accountable and enforce these structures onto yourself. You need to be able to possess the self-discipline to maintain a solid meditation practitioner. You also need to possess the level of self-awareness required to know if you are becoming ungrounded or dealing with consequences from your practice. If you are not capable of either of those two things, you are not ready to be a solitary practitioner. If you can do both of these, you will be fine.

As a solitary practitioner, you need to be able to critically consider, assess, and analyze every teaching you are learning. You need to know when to discount something or assume it may be misinformation. If you are in a structured group, everything, well hopefully everything, you are being taught is correct. When you are alone, you are learning from books, lectures, and the internet. Not every piece of information that you consume is going to be helpful, safe, or correct. You need to be able to parse through it all and see the truth.

In terms of physical safety, you are also the one in charge of making sure everything goes okay. In particular, a large percentage of occult rituals include the use of candles, incense, and fire. You need to teach yourself fire safety. This seems straightforward, but is highly important, though even groups can get this one wrong. I was once told a story about how someone wearing a Tau robe accidentally set their sleeve on fire from a tall candle during a group ritual. In terms of other aspects of safety, you are responsible for knowing the herbs you use are safe, knowing your limits with practices like fasting, and if you are going to engage in any sort of ritual bloodletting, knowing the safe way to do that (when in doubt, just use a diabetic lancet).

A key part of a thriving solitary practice is trust. You need to trust yourself, trust your magick, and trust your spirits. You need to be able to trust the process and surrender. You need to let go and allow the rituals to happen. At the same time, you need radical responsibility and awareness. The great challenge and journey of the solitary practitioner is finding this balance and living within it. This is how you thrive and this is the way that you can begin to move towards the joys of solitary mysticism.

It is now worth discussing the benefits of solitary practice. While it does contain a lot of risks, and is arguably harder than doing it in a group format, there are some key benefits. First, when you are by yourself you are not likely to end up in a cult. As well, you avoid drama. Occult groups can be full of drama, which can distract you from the actual point of the operation. As well, in a group ritual context, the energy of each person in the room creates the microcosm. If there is a weak link in a group, the entire ritual will be negatively influenced. Furthermore, most groups are centered around a specific paradigm, tradition, and ideology. When you are a solitary practitioner, you are on your own, so you are able to experiment, be free, and explore ideas in a more open way. Solitary work comes with far more flexibility. It is also quite possible to maintain the ethos of being a solitary practitioner, being free and experimental, while having a group membership, though you may get some criticism from your peers for doing so.

In life, we cannot avoid risk entirely. It would be foolish to base all of your life decisions on the concept of avoiding risk. Still, we should be aware and informed on the various risks we are encountering, so that we can make a plan. If you feel called to be a solitary practitioner or be in a group, heed your calling, but also remember to look out for yourself.

-GR

Pazuzu is the Mesopotamian demon of locusts, plagues, and the wind. It was believed that he caused storms, disease, and the desolation of crops. From these rulerships, it seems bizarre that someone would invite this spirit in, as the ancient world was at the constant mercy of the weather. A storm even a week too soon could lead to famine. Yet still, despite these dangers that he ruled over, this demon was invoked, and possibly even honored. There are some that even claim that he was comparable to a deity, a deity of the home.

Home and hearth deities are typically female. They are warm feminine archetypes that relate to themes like the harvest, fire, and fertility. This demon has none of these attributions, he is the dust storm that rages throughout the Near East. He is sand in your eyes that you can never quite remove. Despite this, pregnant women and young mothers would hang carved amulets of him in their home, keeping his powers close during the most vulnerable years of their lives.

The myth of Pazuzu shows us the nuance in this evil spirit. In his myth, he used to have a lover, a girlfriend, named Lamasthu. Lamasthu is a powerful demoness, the queen and mother of monsters, and the bringer of infant mortality, the death of young men, death in childbirth, and pregnancy loss. She would come to mothers and take their young from them, killing them. She is highly connected to, and arguably part of, a class of Mesopotamian demons known as Lilus.

The Lilus were believed to spread chaos and misery in the land. In the ancient world, the rates of child loss were incredibly high, and childbirth was truly perilous. As well, there was no sense of modern medicine, so testing for diseases was impossible. The Lilus were a real and pertinent threat. It was argued, by the Akkadains, that the Lilus were actually the souls of young women who died in their teen years, before marriage or kids. This belief was not consensus though and does not appear across the entire Near East, in some cultures they are just understood to be regular low-level demons who are under the control of their queen, Lamasthu.

These spirits appear again and again in every Near Eastern religion. They were so widely believed in that they made their way into the Abrahamic tradition. Lilith, the Jewish demoness, has her roots in the Lilus, even her name’s etymology is so clearly from this spirit class. Lilith, in Judaism, especially within Kabbalah, takes on a much more powerful form. She becomes a force of pure evil, one of the most potent forces in the cosmos. She is feared to the highest degree in mystic Judaism and there are even more spells, talismans, bowls, and prayers to keep her away.

In modern culture, Lilith has begun to be viewed in a different light, based on contemporary interpretations of the apocryphal text, “The Alphabet of Ben Sirach”. It must be clarified though, this text is not widely accepted as part of the Jewish canon, and it is actively rejected by the Christian one. Even then, in this text, Lilith is not meant to be good, it just can be read that way by people with modern sentiments. As well, this story did not exist in Pagan Mesopotamia. In the Ancient Pagan world, there was no story, in which she was the first woman created and rejected the sexual advances of Adam. She is simply a demon in the ancient Pagan world.

It can be, perhaps argued, that Lilith could be associated with Ereshkigal, though this is getting into speculative territory. Ereskhigal was a goddess of death and the underworld in Ancient Mesopotamia. She sat in the underworld and judged souls for their crimes. She contains the higher level of power that the Jewish Lilith has and overlaps with her Qliphothic themes. In “The Descent Of Inanna”, Innana, the goddess of beauty and the heavens, has to descend into the depths of the underworld to restore cosmic order. She is put on trial by Ereshkigal, condemned, and tortured through several increasingly painful tribulations. At the end of this, she is hung from a nail for three days.

In Kabbalah, the Qliphoth is the inverse of the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life climbs upwards towards the highest heavens, the supernal realm. While the Qliphoth does not literally create an inverse tree, it is simply the husks of miasma around these shells, it does, in essence, descend away from the Godhead. This would make sense with Ereshkigal being of the underworld and Inanna being of the heavens. As well, numerous artistic depictions of, what people believe to be Lilith, also contain imagery associated with Ereshkigal. In some cases, the artistic and archeological establishment literally cannot determine which figure is depicted.

Returning to the myth of Pazuzu, he and Lamasthu did not work out as a couple and she would go on to betray him. Pazuzu was hurt on a deep level, he felt as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest. He fell into despair, but quickly this despair became rage, hatred. He wanted his ex-girlfriend to suffer for hurting him. He thought about where it would hurt her the most and he came to a realization—the greatest way to make Lamasthu miserable is to destroy her job, her passion, infant and child mortality. From this day on, he pledged to spend all of his day stopping her, foiling her plans, and protecting women and children.

To be clear though, Pazuzu did not actually care about women or children. His motivations are impure and dark, he wants his former lover to suffer. He is still a demon and still did other demon things. He was still blamed for locusts and sand storms, he simply had a bit more purpose. Still, he did something important in a dark and uncertain time for children, he protected them. Mothers would hang these statues up or place them near windows, as he ruled the wind. When the kids got old enough, to avoid his other effects coming into their lives, his statues would be discarded. Based on where they are often found, deep underground, it is possible, though not completely confirmed, that they may have been buried.

In modernity, this practice has sometimes been interpreted as demon worship and that is, not quite the truth. This is an odd moment when a demon was honored, turned into statues, and offerings were given to him. Make no mistake though, he was not a God. There was nobody coming to him in the way they did say, Inanna. They carved statues to him, but they did not create temples or holidays. He served a purpose and a function in their lives, that was it.

In the 1970s, Pazuzu would re-enter the consciousness of the world, due to the film “The Exorcist”. In this movie, Pazuzu’s statue is found in an archeological dig, and this somehow reawakens his spirit, causing him to possess a young girl. This depiction of him in horror makes no sense, as there are no historic records of Pazuzu harming children. If anything, the whole thing is pretty back backwards on what that demon represents. It would’ve made more sense to use Lamasthu, but his statue looks scary and his name sounds scary, so that works for Hollywood.

-GR

People recognize this power so much that many modern pagan feel, frankly, overwhelmed by the number of holidays around this date. Within the pagan sphere there is Yule, Saturnalia, the Solstice, Modraniht, Midvinterblot, and so many more. New pagans often feel obligated to celebrate every holiday around this date, leading to burnout and fatigue. The thing is—you do not need to celebrate them all, you just need to honor this changing energy in some way. You can, of course, celebrate them all, but if that is unrealistic for you, you can choose one, or blend elements of multiple festivities to develop your own unique winter solstice celebration.

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Sex is the generative act that creates life. During sex, the opposite principles, the masculine and the feminine, are united into one body, one form. This union results in the merging of the opposite into one, dissolving both into each other, causing a metaphysical death, and from the ashes of that death, creating new life.

The thing is—that death bit cannot be ignored or pushed away. Sex, despite being the most divine and magickal act a human can do, inherently involves destruction, loss, and death. This aspect is what this argument speaks to and it runs from it. The thing is, this bit is not evil, it is malefic. That distinction matters. I will say though, I do not think this article is entirely wrong, nor do I think it should be immediately dismissed. To understand the metaphysics of sex, we need to reckon with this and face it. Many people avoid this bit and focus solely on the miracle of life, of birth. Now, let’s go through this article, point by point.

“1. There is no equality in sex- sex is inherently about domination and submission, about assertion of the will to power over other bodies and mimetically over other social rivals. This can be demonstrated by listening to the language of sex, which often reveals more than people would spell out in an ethical context. “Banged,” “cracked,” “smashed”- the common denominator is symbolic violence, most exemplified in penetration itself, the thrust of the sword or the spear. If it’s not about simple penetration it’s about something even more sinister: consumption and abolition. The body horror implications of the Biblical injunction to become one flesh have not been explored enough. As certain streams of dialectical thought developed they realized that the true sublation is simply the annihilation of the other. But all this violence is merely a cover for a deeper problem: there’s nothing there. Sex is a cover for something, a something which is nothing.”

The argument that sex is immoral due to the inherent inequality of the act is not a new idea, though it is generally foreign to Christian discourse. In the past, this point has been raised by radical feminists. These feminists have discussed how sex is inherently degrading against woman, due to the fact that women are the ones who “get fucked” by the phallus, they are the receptacles. This article does not discuss women in particularly, but we all know who is experiencing this violence, women. Let’s explore that though, are women disempowered by sex? Is sex inherently degrading to women?

Sex can be degrading to women, but it is not inherently degrading to women. In popular culture, sex is used to degrade women. Pop music is full of questionable songs, dances, and movies that use sex in this way. As well, in pornography, sex is almost exclusively used to degrade and dehumanize women. Porn absolutely puts this image in people’s minds, so much so that they may think porn is the only way sex can be, that that is it. In reality, sex does not have to be this way. Sex can be loving, passionate, and even carnal in a way that does not degrade and dehumanize women. In private relationships, sex is quite different than in media, even if, on the surface, based upon the acts, it may seem to be the same. You have the power to remove porn culture from your bedroom.

Furthermore, women are the sexual selectors, even on a physical level. When a man ejaculates, his semen are released into the body of the woman. At this point, the woman’s body chooses the best sperm, killing the rest. The female body is designed to select the best sperm, the strongest, the smartest. After this point, the woman is pregnant. During pregnancy, a large percentage of early miscarriages are the woman’s body rejecting unfit embryos. This is not to diminish the pain, trauma, and grief of miscarriage. Women suffer after them, but that is the scientific reality of many early pregnancy losses. The woman’s body chooses, even if the woman’s conscious mind does not. The female womb is a place of life and death, a portal into the next world. While a man does release the generative fluid, the recipient, the woman, has immense power over the life that enters the world.

“2. Sex is a cover for a lack- as Jacques Lacan argued, there is no sexual relation. But Lacan was too cowardly to really embrace the conclusions of this belief. The man who was- Antonin Artaud- saw that sex, far from restoring the primordial unity of the Divine Androgynes, is merely a Band-Aid that covers over and reifies the tragic separation between the sexes that has cursed our world since it occurred. Far from two becoming one, it’s rather two transmuting each other while remaining separate and producing additional separate things, like a chemical reaction that produces new compounds while disappearing the ingredients that went into it. And worst of all, the hormones released during sex compels the participants to believe that they have established a genuine connection, like an opium addict forgetting their disgusting surroundings in a drug induced haze. Maleness and femaleness are radically different and opposed substances and forms of consciousness that can establish a semblance of relation only in illusion and the censorship of certain forms of experience. But even if one were to ignore the falsity of love, this is no good argument, for…”

Sex is a solution for a lack. The individual is not the perfected form. The individual is one half, the masculine or the feminine, they are not both. The perfected form, the alchemical union, is the form of the child. During sex, these opposites are one, forming and dissolving into something better, something superior. The secrets to the mysteries lie within this. In our material form, we are incomplete, we are detached. As we go along our spiritual evolution, we perfect, transmute, and purify. Eventually, we dissolve into the oneness of God. Until then, the only way we can even touch this perfection, to be one for even a moment, is during sex. Yes, we are solving our lack with sex, but we are not covering it. We are finding resolution.

“3. All forms of love are opposed to one another- don’t fool yourself into thinking that the love of husband and wife is symbolic of and a step on the ladder to love of God, for this defies everything we know about love. Love is absolute loyalty to one thing, and thus completely contradicts and opposes love for anything else. Love for nation, love for a person, and love for God are in absolute contradiction with each other. This is because love is truly a form of worship, and sexual love is worship of certain ancient deities, some of whom are known as Eros and Aphrodite. This worship is absolutely incompatible with worship of the Platonic or Abrahamic One God. You have to choose! If Aphrodite is the god of love (which you can verify easily), then one cannot worship her (i.e. engage in sexual love) while also worshipping any other God. You cannot serve two masters. This should be obvious- if an activity falls under a pagan god, then participating in that activity is worship of the pagan god, and is thus incompatible with worship of the true God (similarly, if you participate in war you are worshipping Mars and thus engaging in radical denial of the true God). A wider problem here is that love of the particular is in radical opposition to any kind of universal commitments- you cannot engage in a struggle for justice while committed in love to a single person, for instance. The new Wuthering Heights movie is absolutely correct in calling Wuthering Heights the greatest love story ever written, since the kind of mutually destructive total obsession portrayed in that book is the logical culmination of all love of particular persons or things.”

This gets to a metaphysical error within Christian Platonism. Platonism is a Pagan philosophy. Platonism believes in one, but within the one, there are many. From the point of the divine source, there are emanations, separate forms. To worship one of these forms, such as Aphrodite or Eros, is to worship them all. All of the Gods are a pathway to the source, the center of it all.

As well, Eros is a pathway to Agape. It is a way to the center of it. In Eros, the self begins to dissolve. It has to annihilate itself for the first time. When we truly embody Agape, we dissolve. Separation disappears and we become one with God. Eros is a great pathway, because it shows us how that can be. It teaches us this lesson, so that one day, when we are at a high enough state of being, we can do it for real. Eros is a key step on the path.

“4. You’re feeding the archons- closely related to the last argument, but on a more occult level, is the realization that sexual love feeds the archons, powerful cosmic forces or persons which control Earth on the material level. As portrayed in Tracy Twyman’s Genuflect, these activities are a form of sacrifice which ends up feeding the forces that live off the energy of earth, and ultimately help them maintain the forms of control which work through facets of earthly life like the male-female division which ensures that all humans are kept in a state of tragic subservience and isolation.”

I fundamentally disagree with the entire premise of Gnostic theology, that the material evil, that the archons exist, and the demiurge, and so on. Thus I have nothing to stay on this point.

“5. Psychoanalysis shows the divisions of sexual morality are fake- the myth of positive, healthy, or moral sexuality relies on a division between “degenerate” and normative sexual practices, but arguably this was blown apart by the revelations of Freudian psychoanalysis, in which it’s revealed that the incestuous Oedipus Complex lies at the foundation of sexual attraction. There is no non-incestuous sex, and the division between moral and immoral forms of it is a false one. One must embrace either radical sexual liberation in the tradition of the Marquis de Sade, Wilhelm Reich, and Georges Bataille, or the complete renunciation and abolition of the sexual instinct. One or the other!”

To start, people should resolve their sexual complexes, if you have desires along the lines of incest, rape, or bestiality, you need to do inner work. However, not all sexual desire is about these things, people are not all incest-driven, even if it is more common than we would like to admit.

The middle ground exists, it is called control. Control and discipline are key virtues of the mystic. To avoid sex entirely, when sex has the capacity to disrupt your entire life or even kill you, is to take the easy path. It is easier abstain than to partake when the risks of losing oneself to sex are so real. Sex can lead to many problems. Yet, if you are disciplined enough, if you possess enough control, you can control the uncontrollable. If to have control, you must avoid losing control, you actually contain no sense of control at all. The true mystic is a master of control. They engage in the mysticism of sex, but do not destroy themselves in the process. Even some of the greatest men have failed this challenge, but it is still a challenge worth attempting.

“6. Pornography proves that sexuality is evil- A lot of people have the intuition that pornography is evil, but pornography is merely filmed sex. Why does something become evil when it gets on camera, like some sort of moral version of the double slit experiment’s observer effect? Occam’s Razor suggests the property is inherent to the thing in itself.”

Pornography is evil, because it stops sex. Porn has caused people to fear sex and not engage in sex. People watch porn and think that is enough. Alternatively, porn may detach them from their own libido or give them fetishes so niche that they cannot find a sexual partner. People are choosing sex or porn, they are not doing both, especially amongst generation-z. People need to have sex, sex is a gateway to the divine, and porn is evil for preventing this. As well, porn is not merely filmed sex, as porn contains many acts that are faked, edited, or not even possible. Porn also, on a spiritual level, lacks Eros, thus does not contain the divine mysticism of sex.

“7. Marriage isn’t real- just to really hammer home the point that we can’t draw a distinction between degenerate and moral sexuality, I want you to consider the unstated assumption of the claim that “marital” sexuality is different from other kinds. Why does a particular ritual cause an act to have a different inner essence than it had before? Why is it that the same act sometimes has a super secret evil inner essence and sometimes a super secret good inner essence? Does any of this make sense?”

Marital sex is not inherently different, even extramarital sex has mystic potential. Marriage is a social institution that exists to help people have control around sex. Due to the fact that many people lack temperance, marriage essentially forces a bit of reason and control onto people. Extramarital sex is just as mystical, it just contains the serious potential to cause chaos in the life. It is riskier, but it is not metaphysically different. Christians would disagree with this view though.

“8. The Kingdom of God will be ushered in with the abolition of sexuality- The unification of all things, the healing of the male-female divide, the end of gender. The cybernetic age is arguably the tunnel through which we will be pulled kicking and screaming into the new Aeon. Almost nothing will make it out the other side. Nothing attached that is. After Freud and Sade and Nietzsche, the only options are unconstrained and unattached sexual liberation in which sex is stripped of all metaphysical significance, or the complete disavowal of this entire system of bodily control and a turn towards finding immortality in the machines. St Paul, the first accelerationist, anticipated this when he said that the flesh is corrupt and that we must find something better.”

The material world is not evil, sex is not evil, and this is simply not true. I am not a Christian though—I am a thelemite, perennialist, and polytheist! I like the drama of this idea though.

-GR

This is a nice thought, one that even I held at one point, but it is not the reality. Thelema is not just True Will, it is a complex metaphysical system with a clear understanding of the world. Thelema, if you look into its actual Holy Texts, has a cosmology. The thing is, this cosmology can be seemingly contradictory. In Liber Oz, there is the line, “There is no God but Man”. This seems to point to atheism. In The Book Of The Law, each chapter of the text is spoken by a different godform, Nuit, Hadit, and Ra Hoor Khuit respectively. This seems to point to polytheism. In his tarot deck, The Thoth Tarot, there is a heavy dose of Qabalah, a mystic tradition that has roots in Abrahamic mysticism. This would seem to point to monotheism. All of this seems incoherent, contradictory, and odd. In reality, it all works together, and leads to one theological understanding.

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The debate on whether or not witchcraft qualifies as a religion is, perhaps, the most polarizing conversation within modern Pagan communities. There are two competing narratives. One side argues that Witchcraft is an ancient European Pagan faith, given a slanderous name to suppress its power. Despite this, the flame of the Gods survived throughout the many centuries of Christian repression, carried on by daring women and men who honored the Gods. Then, once it was safe again, they could step out of the shadows, and bring the flame back to the world.

The other side argues that witchcraft is not a religion at all—it is simply a practice. Witchcraft is techniques, tools, and skills. Nothing more, nothing less. This side will also argue that Witchcraft, since it is nothing more than a practice, can be applied to any religion. Witchcraft can be applied to Paganism, Christianity, Islam, and even Atheism. As well, many Reconstructionist Pagans, who also tend to agree with this thought, actually dislike Witchcraft. They feel that Witchcraft often explores spiritual techniques that are opposed to their Gods’ laws. They may also resent how Witchcraft spaces often revise historical narratives, going against their desire for historical purity and revival.

To start to explore this debate, and find the truth under it all, we must look back to antiquity. Witchcraft is not a concept that was created by Christianity, it was created by the ancients. In antiquity, a belief in magick was widespread. Generally, cultures created a dichotomy of magickal practices. There were magickal practices that were good and others that were evil. In some cultures, there were strict laws on this. In the Ancient Near East and Rome, there were numerous historic accounts of executions against bad magicians. This is where the modern idea of white versus black magick has its original basis.

The Greeks had three categories: geotia, theurgy, and magia naturalis. Goetia was sorcery, magick that was low, and magick that was transgressive, dark, and illicit. Theurgy is divine magick, magick that honors the gods, and heavily resembled practices like shamanism and mysticism. Magia naturalis was magick that utilized natural forces, like planetary magick and plant medicine. This could be viewed positively or negatively, depending on the individual practice. This was a more nuanced view that allowed for more mystical exploration.

The Nordics had a number of magickal traditions, but there was one that was the closest to the modern idea of witchcraft—Seiðr. Seiðr was a trance-based form of magick that was largely practiced by women. This practice has a deep shamanic flavor to it. It was liminal, transgressive, and explored the boundaries between worlds. It was not strictly for women though, some men did practice it. Odin, a divine masculine god, infamously was known to practice Seiðr. This practice slowly disappeared across the Nordic world after the conversion to Christianity took place. It was deeply Pagan and was not transferrable to a Christian worldview.

As Christianity spread across Europe, magick became increasingly restricted. As well, this hard dichotomy emerged. White magick and black magick ceased being a bit of a subjective debate. Middle ground traditions like magia naturalis were reclassified into the darkest category of black magick. Theurgy did not cease though, it simply became sanctified. There grew to be an entire Christian occult tradition. The grimoires were composed. Kabbalah became Cabala, recentering the sefirot around the cross. Ironically, despite how many people assume Christianity was hostile to all magick, many of our classic images and reference points of what magick looks like comes from this period. A large percentage of the ceremonial magick canon is from this. Most famously, Enochian and Solomonic Magick are two deeply Christian-based theurgical traditions. The Gods just get swapped for Christ, Yahweh, angels, and demons.

On the other hand, magick that did not get categorized as theurgic, got demonized. Obviously, the sorcery-type practices that were illicit even under Paganism remained persecuted. Yet, other things, got lumped in with this. Any sort of folk magick was at risk of being called “Witchcraft”. From the midwife, to the herbal healer, to the diviner, and to the person who made charms, they were at risk. It is worth nothing that all of these previously mentioned sanctified and approved forms of magick were practiced by Church leaders, not normal people. Any person who was not a religious authority was barred from magick.

As time passed, the Witch Craze began. Everyone was at risk. Hysteria spread throughout the Old World. It was so intense that it even spread into the New World. Atrocities like The Salem Witch Trails happened on the regular. It was so bad that the Church itself condemned it. They saw it as so intense that it could disrupt their power. As well, in the Celtic Isles (especially Wales and Scotland), it was often believed that disabled infants were “changelings”. A “changeling” is an evil spirit that the faeries have replaced your child with. A lot of infanticide against disabled children was committed in the name of cleansing the land of witchcraft. This was also, eventually condemned, and ceased.

There is an alternative history narrative that was widely believed by early Wiccans that completely alters this history. Essentially, when the European conversion happened, not everyone converted. There were people who clung to their traditions, to their history. They rejected the idea that an alien faith should erase their traditions. That they should kneel before the cross, surrender their Gods. They wanted to hold onto their faiths. So, they went underground. They formed secret groups and passed down these secrets amongst their family members. There was an entire secret world of people who risked their lives to keep their faith alive.

There are two accounts that seem to back this up. The first, is the account of the founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner. Gerald Gardner was an Englishman who spent many years in the British occult scene. He lived during the Magickal Revival and even spent time in the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Thelemic order that held great importance at the time. He claims that on one fateful night, he was wandering around the New Forest in England. He was then approached by these women, their naked skin glistening under the moonlight, and they took him back to their coven. They initiated him. They taught him the secret of their witchcraft which, they say, has been passed down to them since before the conversion. They continue the flame of the Celtic Gods. After this, Gardner fused this experience, and what he was taught, with other western esoteric ideas, creating a new religion: Wicca.

Wicca is an Old English word that literally means witch. When it comes to Wicca, witchcraft is quite obviously a religion. If you are a Wiccan, you will call yourself a witch. Wiccans claim that this term is used as reclamation. That witch was used to slander the brave and persecuted souls who kept Celtic religion alive. They believe strongly that the idea that witchcraft was evil or dark is a slander, a lie spread by Christians to suppress their dissident faith. In fact, Wiccans generally follow a very strict code of ethics that include a number of restrictions on the type of magick that they can do.

This narrative overlaps a bit with the narrative of the “witch’s sabbath”. The witch’s sabbath is a conspiracy theory, or mythic history, depending on how you feel about it. Essentially, when the moon was full, the witches would apply flying ointment to their bodies, then slip out of their bodies. They would then, in the astral realm, fly to this specific mountaintop in Germany where they would commune with the Devil. This fantastical narrative where women used flying ointments (hallucinogenic salves), then make love with the devil, was the basis of most witch hunting. Yet, in the Wiccan telling, none of this dark and hedonistic stuff was happening, they simply gathered to be with the Gods. The use of flying ointment is also incredibly uncommon within Wicca.

There are some people who find this idea compelling and do try to recapture it. They find Wicca toothless. That, in its attempt to be recognized as a real religion, has lost a spine. Witchcraft is transgressive, it is dark, and in their minds, that isn’t inherently a bad thing. Witchcraft is a counter-religion, a push back against the tyranny of Christianity, and does include these types of things. This is not pure Satanism though, the idea that this is about the Devil is uncommon. Often, they use the image of Pan or Cernunnos. These two Gods represent the wild, the feral, and the untamed. This tradition is known under two names—Sabbatic Witchcraft or Traditional Witchcraft.

Traditional Witchcraft argues that witchcraft has to embody a few specific things, in order to be witchcraft. Witchcraft is transgressive, liminal, and about crossing thresholds. The idea of leaving the body in a shamanic trance, aided by plant spirits, is, in a sense, the ultimate transgression. It is breaking beyond the limitations of a human body, ascending beyond, and ascending upwards. It is worth nothing though, some people who follow Traditional Witchcraft, consider witchcraft itself to be their religion, and reject the label of Pagan entirely.

In Italy, there is a Traditional Witchcraft-like movement known as Stregheria. “Strega” is the Italian word for witch. This movement claims there is a holy text, a specific document that proves the ongoing existence of witchcraft. This text is known as “Aradia: The Gospel Of The Witches”. This book is a complicated myth of witchcraft, survival, and lineage. It includes its own pantheon, philosophy, and even suggests certain practices that can be done. This is obviously a full-on religion that does call itself witchcraft. It is a witch religion.

It is worth exploring the other side too though—that perhaps, witchcraft is not a religion. Maybe witchcraft is a practice, a tool. After all, it is quite clear that the definition of witchcraft has radically shifted over time. In the ancient world, your average Wiccan would not be considered a witch. Nowadays though, anyone who practices any form of magick, even if they do Christian mysticism, can be called a witch online. There are even some Catholics who do folk practices that call themselves witches, a statement that would be seen as absurd even a few centuries ago. Clearly, the definition of witchcraft has some fluidity to it, some relativity.

There are some people who believe that any magick that leads to a physical result is an act of witchcraft. There are some people who go even further—that any action that is done with intention to create change, and does so, even if it is not tangible, is an action of witchcraft. By this logic, prayer itself is witchcraft. Every religious person throughout history is a witch. In this framing, it is impossible to call witchcraft a religion, as making change cannot be a religion. A religion must be a holistic system to exist, and if this makes a witch, then everyone is a witch, but also, nobody is a witch.

There are others who think witchcraft does have a bit more of a rigid definition, but that it is still, not bound to religion. Witchcraft is folk magick, the magick of the people, and explores themes of liminality and transgression, but not exclusively. It is the people using their power, their influence, and using the natural world to gain results. This definition exists across religious lines and does not even really need religion to exist. A person can smoke cleanse themselves or manifest, even if they are vaguely spiritual, and pray to no Gods.

In truth, this question is complicated, because there is no clear answer. There are people who witchcraft is their religion, but others who claim the title, who certainly do not call it their faith. The core issue is that witchcraft is not universally defined. There are overlapping ideas, repeating themes, but no singular answer. No singular solution. Even within academia, there are numerous definitions of witchcraft. There are even whole books debating what a witch is. I find it unlikely that there ever will be one answer that universally agreed upon.

So, is witchcraft a religion? It depends.

-GR

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