On the contemporary scene, the political revolutionary is largely oblivious to
the contributions which hermetic religious orders have made to shield freedoms
from the State. The revolutionary today takes a political view of the 18th
century revolutions, with no explanation of the fact that political causes are
completely inadequate to explain the occurance of these revolutions. That the
spontaneous will of the people erupted in a total rejection of authority
structure is a description rather than an explanation. In this light, the calm
assertion of a certain group of people, look, we planned that, we meant for
that to happen, should be given much more credit. The fact that today's
revolutionary can speak openly about revolution, without being done to death
by the State or its Church as a heretic, can be traced to struggles won
centuries ago by secret religions.

Those of us who have had involvement in organizing revolutionary military
units are aware of how difficult it is to prevent infiltration by agents of
the State. The record of success over the centuries of Hermetic religious
orders indicates that this form of organization has the ability to prevent
infiltration by government spies. Which way is better, pure politics with
inevitable betrayal, or the compromise with a certain amount of mystical
obfuscation which keeps out the narks?

In article <6koi55$ds9@enews4.newsguy.com>, Tommy the Terrorist <mayday@super.zippo.com> wrote:
> In article <1998052923134700.TAA11927@ladder03.news.aol.com> Quish2Fat,
> quish2fat@aol.com writes:
> >Yeah, stop making a religion, thats my suggestion. If you truly think
> >government is bullshit, which it is, then try to relize this. Government
and
> >religion have been side by side, hand in hand for as long as uncorrupted
> >history shows.

> The corruption of religion by government is not unique. Governments have
> corrupted ___EVERYTHING___. The religions of an anarchist society are
> totally different from the religions of a statist society, but many of
> them are nonetheless _the "same" religion_.

Some musings: the OWN of this thread's new heading is meant as a verb, though
I first took it as a descriptive adjective about a specific religion. On
quish2fat's cynicism, it oversimplifies because it's meant to refer to
officially tolerated or State established religion. My studies have shown me
that there is a long tradition of spiritual underground, in direct opposition
to State authority. Tommy the Terrorist alludes to this in his Jesus
dicussion, which oops I've already snipped. Official State sponsored history,
aka let's pretend history, fails to recognize any Pagan survival within
Christendom, but it has always been there. Early Christianty was itself a
clandestine subversive organization, one of several mystery religions of its
time. As society became more complex in Hellenistic times, crypto religions
multiplied, and they have a feature of the world since that time. By its
nature, a secret religious order is an antagonist to the State.

The Hermetic initiatory tradition is nothing other than a defensive measure
against government spies, and that is what it has always been. Secular
authority is blind to spiritual values, so any secret organization is treated
as an enemy of the State. It doesn't take much of that treatment to transform
other-worldly mystics into actual enemies of the State, thus the State creates
its own enemies within the spiritually oriented populace. This enlightenment
gives a more accurate view of history than the versions recorded within the
coordinate system of political affairs. In other words, all political history
is relative to the official State sponsored version; whether for or against
the State attitude, it includes as data only what the State recognizes as political facts. This relativity is always referred to the State as the
center of the coordinate system, so the State defines the basis of political
reality for its enemies as well as its friends.

Clandestine religions oppose this monopoly of defining reality. Their body of
knowledge is supressed, so cannot be transmitted overtly within a society
controlled by their traditional enemy the State. It must be transferred
indirectly via symbolism, such that only those with the proper indoctrination
can understand. In fact, much of the conceptual background which developed in
the late 18th century as the Enlightenment was only an eruption to the surface
of secret doctrines passed down from earlier eras within these clandestine
groups, which were organized for just that purpose.

This is not strictly blue-sky speculation; some documentation exists to
bolster this viewpoint. The legendary Bavarian Illuminati have officially
acknowledged instigating and coordinating the French revolution of 1789. They
did this after they were supposedly disbanded by State suppression, by gaining
control of other Masonic orders throughout Europe using Trotskyist-type

parliamentary manipulations. In North America also, the Freemasons are
credited with leadership of all phases of the American revolution. Thus secret
religious orders are inherently revolutionary organizations at their
foundation and in their goals, because their interests are in opposition to
those of the State.

I have established a couple examples of _Anarchists OWN Religion_, in webrings
available on my site. The -=Scythian WebRing=- is dedicated to the tutelary
deity of marijuana, with the credo Marijuana is the Goddess, Marijuana is the
Sacrament. It commemorates the victory of the pot smoking Scythians over the
Assyrian Empire 26 centuries ago. The -=Amazon Brigade=- of women warriors is
dedicated to the destruction of today's multinational empire, in the same
fashion the Goddess helped them destroy the world's first empire; they are a
regular unit of -=Scythian=- light horse archers on detatched service. I also
honor the Eldest Goddess, Inanna of Sumer, subject of the first two books
written by humans, in cuneiform on clay tablets. The -=Sisterhood of Inanna=-
is composed of those enslaved to this Goddess of Lust, after the fashion of my
online novel Mystery, Babylon. This book details the organization and
operation of a mystery religion, in Hermetic initiational heirarchy. The
Webring is devoted to erotic masochism.

Well, that's my view on this subject. Yours is different. You might come
around to my way of thinking after you read enough of my work, but I won't
come around to your way of thinking until you show me it makes as much sense
as mine. OK?

Devoutly,
Johnny Thunderbird
heavyLight Books http://www.oocities.org/~jthunderbird
the Sorceror's Web Page http://www.nternet.com/~jthunderbird
Conceiving Anarchism http://members.xoom.com/jthunderbird/black1.html
Re: Anarchists OWN Religion (was: An Anarchist Religion?) 980531