Elements of Sorcery--
The Fireclown Method Explained
By The Fireclown, age Eight.
"The universe wants to play. Those who refuse out of dry spiritual
greed & choose pure contemplation forfeit their humanity-those who
refuse out of dull anguish, those who hesitate, lose their chance at
divinity-those who mold themselves blind masks of Ideas & thrash
around seeking some proof of their own solidity end by seeing out of
dead mens' eyes." Hakim Bey
And play it will, with you, as a friend, with you, as cat to mouse,
with you, through you, in you or on you, the Play is the Thing, and
while No-Thing may be True, some nothings will stomp you flat if you
don't direct them. And play it will, but it is best to keep in mind
the universe has had a lot of time to get good at all facets of the
game, so be aware...
"Laughter is the only tenable attitude in a universe which is a
joke played upon itself... It is not for us to question the
universe's apparent lack of taste." Peter Carroll, Liber Null
So, if we are going to play this game, whose rules seem to be only
vaguely outlined in the manual that came with the deck, and as well
are changed with every new layout or technique tossed into the soup,
we are advised to approach it with humor, as grace is quite
likely to be denied us from the get-go.
These are the watch-forms the new practitioner should look for when
seeking examples to follow in this most peculiar art: humor and grace.
If you come across a sorcerer who is full of grace, they most likely
have some tricks you can steal or trade for. If you meet one with
his humor intact beyond the realms cynical, see if you can figure out
how they manage it. The course of sorcery tends to create radical
stress on the bodymind, and either of these states (grace/humor) can
be read as the practitioner is not (practicing, that is), or has dug
enough holes for Hirself to fall into that they've learned to like
it, if only as a wake up call.
"Sorcery: the systematic cultivation of enhanced consciousness or non-
ordinary awareness & its deployment in the world of deeds & objects
to bring about desired results." Bey, again
Lets look at this one: "Magick is the art and science of causing
change to occur in conformity to the will." Aleister Crowley
Note the differences. They seem minor, at first, but grow as one shifts
point of view from one to the other.
Crowley's definition of magick seems to me too wide: the picking up
of a glass of water and drinking of it is Magick. However, is it only
Magick if you WILL to do it? What if I'm typing, and don't even notice
what I've done? What, for that matter, if I spill the water or knock
the glass to the floor? Did my magick fail? No, I'm just klutzy. All
this talk of will, this Religion of Will, and the strange attraction
to call it a Science...these all seem caught up together in the dread
Magick.
"Virtue: pure art." Austin Osman Spare
Now to me Sorcery is no science, it is purely an art, and is not an
art of Will but of Desire. A Sorcerer is one who Desires intensely,
and who has acquired a knack of having his desires reciprocated. Will
can be crucial, but also, not-willing seems equal to the task. The
cultivation of non-ordinary states of consciousness is the primary task
of the sorcerer, not ritual. In these states connections are noticed
or made, a process of reticulation unending, a process of weaving
webs, of soldering connections, and of feeding the network created
or discovered.
Sorcery takes things as they are, and seeks to maximize communication
and information exchange within the fields of manifestation. There
is an odd story I will relate:
I was speaking with a Magician, of the Golden Dawn variety, who is
very successful at his work, and we spoke of Angels and Demons. He
was telling me of the testing processes used to determine if the
entity he was working with was REALLY the one he conjured. This was
a very involved process, sort of testing the critter via word and
numbers, gematria etc. I was laughing quite hard at this point, and
luckily, he knows me well enough to not take offense. I had to ask
why he had conjured the beast to begin with--did he not have some
task for it to fulfill? Why not just give it something minor to do,
and if it could pull it off, then continue working with it. If it
failed, see if it was good at some thing else.
I find the attitude above fairly common among those who choose
'sorcerer' as a title. I wonder what would happen if you called
the plumber, demanded his full name, business records etc., and then
told him you'd kill him if he didn't fix the toilet right. This seems
a somewhat common attitude among Magicians, though, and I think it
has a lot to do with what skills are required for the type of work
generally done. The Magician is expected to be knowledgeable about
Astrology, QBL, Tarot, Mythology, Astral Travel, and various formulas
for evocation, invocation, etc... and these skills, once learned,
need to be used or one feels ones time has been wasted.
For the sorcerer, the only thing he must be good at is finding what
is needed, usually from an unusual state of mind, and pulling on the
proper threads to get the desired result. Now, when you are working
with a self-generated symbol system, you don't have to have it be
coherent, explainable, etc., YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT.
You just need to be able to use it. I think of GD/Crowley style magick
and I think of a school of mechanics, wherein one learns all about
design and construction of cars and such, and maybe gets a degree or
two, and then goes off to design cars. I tend to think of sorcerers
as those who discover that it would be good to know how to change
the oil/belts/tires/and various filters so as to keep the car happy
and on the road, and be able to fix it if it breaks down. If the car
gets into real trouble, they see if they can learn to repair it, or
take it to the Temple of the Gearheads (a particular meeting/work
place for AutoSorcerers) and have them fix it. The goal is to keep
the car on the road, not to understand cars in their totality.
The term sorcerer, when one looks into it via it's Indo-European
roots, can mean 'one who lays out lots'. This is, I would assume, a
reference to the runes. Now, if a seer is a diviner, one who sees
and makes prophecy, we have a clear division of labor. Using the
runes as an example, you are a seer if you draw three runes and
then base your actions or inaction's on the result. You are a
sorcerer if you lay out the runes to indicate your desired outcomes,
and charge them in some fashion to force the hand of chance to
facilitate these outcomes.
From the get-go, the sorcerer is seeking to manifest Hir desires.
S/He does this through odd states of consciousness. Hir ethical base,
Hir battery of techniques, and model of the universe are built up
on the foundation of experience. Their is no manual for sorcery, their
is no Order of sorcery, their is not even a common symbol-system or
definition of sorcery.
Some others definitions of sorcery:
"Sorcery is the art of using material bases to effect magical
transformations." Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null
Sorcery is "The art of using material bases to enhance a magical
conjuration, the outcome of which is determined by the sorcerer's
will." Nicholas Hall, Chaos & Sorcery
sorcery (noun). Magic; performance of tricks with pretended help
from evil spirits, witchcraft. Websters illustrated dictionary, 1949
(note: are they evil because they only pretend to help?)
The idea that sorcery is just magick using material bases is common
in Carrollian Chaos Magick, but seems a not too useful definition.
This goes back to the old High Magick/Low Magick (and Black/White)
rationale wherein we rate magick not by it's effect, but it's methods
and appearances. I will stick with my own definitions, as I view
Sorcery as subtly different from Magick.
"The incremental openings of perception gradually banish the false
selves, our cacophonous ghosts--the "black magic" of envy & vendetta
backfires because Desire cannot be forced. Where our knowledge of
beauty harmonizes with the
Hakim Bey
The opening of perception, and the banishment of false ghosts? What
does this mean to a Sorcerer, one may well ask. Are we speaking of
Visualization Exercises and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the
Pentagram?
I do not claim to speak for anyone, and my interpretations of Bey's
words are just that, but I do not think these are what he is
speaking of... meditations and visualizations and pentagrams and rites
are not Sorcery. However, for many they are the precursors to it.
These things are tools for an internal garden, 'a rooting out of the
weeds, a watering of the flowers' as Crowley has it. They serve to
still the mind, to clear away 'our cacophonous ghosts', the structures
imposed upon perception by the discursive mind. The discursive mind
is very good at many things, but Sorcery is not one of them.
Banishing, in the ceremonial sense, is good for preparing one for
meditation, which in turn is a good preparation for the state called
by Chaoists "no-mind", or vacuity. Once the talking self is quieted,
and we cease to impose structure upon sensory input, our perceptions
open to a different kind of sensing, which I call sensualizing.
Sensualizing is experiencing with the full bodymind, and stops when
we begin to define the experienced. When we sensualize, we move from
a core of 'reason' into a sphere of pure knowing, or gnosis, which
is closer to touch or taste than 'thinking'. When we taste the Virtue
of Salt, there are no questions. Salt is. We can describe and compare
the taste, the texture as it dissolves upon our tongue, but we come
not close to the Is-ness of salt.
I seek to live simply, to touch freely, to influence utterly and so
be influenced--and fail miserably, falling into fits of manic
laughter. Or succeed, and find myself pulled, called, conjured into
a purity of Desire. From this failure I fuse into a bodily need for
contact, a rapture of excess seeking, and from the excess, into no-
mind. "There is no need for crucifixion", "Does not matter, need not
be." Austin Osman Spare
The endless cycling though Desire and Despair ( and yes, Death and
Dream and Delirium) births me into an abundance of beauty and fear
wherein I encounter slight threads, knotted together into a net of
jewels, a fine and lovely trap. I touch this thread and the baby
wakes, and this one brings rain.
"the root definition, while by no means easy to come to, of Real Magick, must by the very nature of the medium, contain inexplicability as a primary key. One brings about change through, in the end, largely unknown means. It is this unknown means that Carrollian Chaos Magick calls 'aethyr'. From Carroll's description of Aethyr, it seems most likely he is speaking of what I perceive as non-linear Time. This is born out by Einstein's rather perceptive reply to a students' question, "what is Time?' to which he is said to have replied "Time is that which keeps everything from happening at once." On a similar note, Genesis P-Orridge has said that Time is that which Emits. The Mechanisms of Time = Aethyr are really not worth too deep of a look. They are a playground for the intellect, a map of nothing, which whilst an entertaining thing to talk about with friends over coffee or a beer, have far less to do with Magick than either, let alone Friendship. Fuck for the pleasure, conjure for the ecstatic freedom and slavery it provides. Do not seek to explain the workings of magick, and if you must, choose the most ridiculous explanations you can manage. It is far better to be a Fool for the joy of foolishness, than to be an Adept who cannot laugh."
from 'Inexplicability In Magick' James Weston, privately printed, 1994.
The trick in Sorcery is that there is no trick. The key to Sorcery
is Inexplicability. That which can be explained, scientifically
proven, used to convince skeptics and make your teeth whiter and
brighter, is not Magick. If your seek 'a good reason' for your acts,
...'he who hesitates is lost'-Crowley. No shit. I know magicians
who think this is a threat, which is merely a fact, easily observable
in any big city, at major intersections and on the edges of tourist
spots.
"one applies all of oneself towards a certain aim or goal: the problems really start when one believes one has achieved said goal when one in fact has not. This is directly related to the Austin Spare's statement of 'were I to crown myself king'.... For while, as Chaos Magick claims, belief is a tool, mis-use, or more precisely, mis-application of the tool leads to false initiations and understandings, and makes the would-be sorcerer the tool, belief the true King."
from "Deceiving Yourself into Spiritual Paralysis " by James Weston,
privately printed 1993.