Myself

[Guest Nnonnth]

Hello. I've been looking around and I feel that Taoism is not really for me, at the moment anyhow, so I think I am in the wrong place. I wish you all the best of luck. NN

Edited December 5, 2005 by Nnonnth

[freeform]

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Edited October 23, 2019 by freeform

[Cameron]

Good deal. It would be cool if we could get to the point where every kind of path is represented here, Taoist, Buddhist, Shamanism, Magik, New Age, etc.

 

If you care to get a little deeper into what exactly Magik is and what benefits you have gotten from it, your teachers, practices etc. would be helpful and educational for those of us who have mostly left those practces alone.

[Guest Nnonnth]

If you care to get a little deeper into what exactly Magik is and what benefits you have gotten from it, your teachers, practices etc. would be helpful and educational for those of us who have mostly left those practces alone.

 

Well I am not in the business of making converts I have to say. If it's isn't one's thing then it just isn't. Live and let live say I.

 

It's also a very big subject! I hardly know where to begin.... I will just run through what I do and you can ask anything you want, it's too complicated to go into every tiny detail. My practice involves making meanings and effects by artistic means, what is called sigial magic. It also involves designing and communing with entities that I create, and working out how to deal with ones I don't. I have a love of astral travel. I am interested also in shaking/seething trance, a shamanic practice.

 

My favourite writers on magic are Jan Fries and Draja Mickaharic. Maybe Taylor Ellwood and Franz Bardon too. I am self-taught.

 

The essence of magic to me is poetic... the use of the personal impression to enlighten. It is the opposite of a meditative practice (as you describe it anyhow) which involves having no goal, in magic you always have some goal. You attempt to produce effects.

 

I don't know what else to say! I might need a more specific question or something.

 

Have a look at: www.noctilucae.com/janfries/ Or http://www.lava.net/~pagios/

 

best, NN

[Cameron]

Do you consider Taoist Internal Alchemy, which has the goal of immortality, as a type of magikal practice?

 

What about Hermes Trismegustus he seems to be a central character of Western occult and magik. Do you think these practices have a common root or different cultures developed there own magik on there own?

[Guest Nnonnth]

Heya Cameron -

 

Do you consider Taoist Internal Alchemy, which has the goal of immortality, as a type of magikal practice?

 

I don't see any reason why not. I mean I'm not into arguments about what you call something. If you wanted to call it magic, well fine! I don't think magic is a well-defined term, nor need it be... it's like "meditation", endlessly argued-over.

 

What about Hermes Trismegustus he seems to be a central character of Western occult and magik. Do you think these practices have a common root or different cultures developed there own magik on there own?

 

He certainly is central. I find him in the northern practices under the name of Odin as well.

 

I have noticed incredible congruences worldwide between practices myths and beliefs, but I have no idea why they are there!

 

best NN

[freeform]

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Edited October 23, 2019 by freeform

[Guest Nnonnth]

Yes I'm familiar with Joseph Campbell.

 

As to all the rest of what you said... I have no idea really! I simply do what seems right to me and try to figure what to do after that, and somehow it all starts to add up into something. I have no real opinion on the "true nature" of Taoism, magic, or indeed mythology. I just say I have no real answer, and this seems to cover it. I am not good at the whole philosophy thing and prefer to think in poetical terms.

 

I don't know, but maybe the article on OBEs I just posted here will indicate my attitude to the way I work - as well as containing OB info which I remember interested you. I have no idea whether the way I work is typical or correct for a magician and frankly the question seems to me to be of marginal interest at best! Probably the biggest reason I call myself a "magician" is that most of my favourite writers do the same. However if these people all got together they would argue endlessly. If it comes down to a question whether one is a "good magician" or a "good Taoist" or what have you... well I tend to just intuit things like that.

 

best NN

[freeform]

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Edited October 23, 2019 by freeform

[Guest Nnonnth]

Once you notice the structure and how it works you can make use of it much more pragmatically instead of getting stuck in the symbolism.

 

That seems very sensible to me. best NN

[sean]

Hello. I've been looking around and I feel that Taoism is not really for me, at the moment anyhow, so I think I am in the wrong place. I wish you all the best of luck. NN

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Nnonnth, I haven't caught up on recent posts over the weekend yet so I've probably missed something that explains your feelings ... One thing I wanted to say is that this forum isn't just about Taoism ... many of us are dabblers in many traditions. I know of three other members off the top of my head who are into Fries and Bardon. Fries is also on my must read list and I'm slowly plodding through Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics at the moment. Currently building my "white mirror". Oddly finding it much more difficult than the black one.

 

Anyway ... you are always welcome on The Tao Bums.

 

Sean