Henry: Thank you very much for the link!

Addendum to 666: My friend, Reiner, corrected me in my representation of the number 666, so I will – just for the sake of ‘numerological correctness’ – add the information here.

666 is the number of Sorath (SORTh). Sorath is the planetary Spirit of the SUN. Every planet has an ‘Intelligence’ (in the case of the Sun it’s Nakhiel/NKIAL- numerological value 111) and a Spirit that is associated with it.
The Spirit is NOT qliphothiic, but is regarded as ‘evil’ and as a shadow aspect anyhow, since it is grosser und more earth-bound (thence they are closer positioned to the Qliphoth). The Qliphoth / Qlippoth are the ’shadows’ of the Sephiroth – the Divine Emanations of God. They allegorize ‘peels’, ’shells’, ‘matter’ or the primeval ‘husks’ of impurity and refer to the representation of evil forces in the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah / Qabalah / QBL. Ok., now you are in the know. Thanks, Reiner!

I agree with what you said about Crowley: hermeneutically, his “Wirkungsgeschichte” (“effective history”) is deep and profound. Personally I am very moved by his daring magical experiments every time I read his writings. I have worked with Goetic forces before and they are extremely strong and difficult to control. I became seriously ill with a potentially fatal microorganism and it took me nearly a year to recover – the Norse gods really helped me with that, hence my pledge to study the Old Norse culture.

http://www.dulwichcentre.com.au/index.htm

your comments are so EXCELLENT that I wonder that you haven’t still written something, an article or so, for Elhaz Ablaze (in the Guest Journal or wherever). I already wanted to say that based on the comment you have given on Henry’s last article ‘Teufel Und Baum’. Please please please elaborate these thoughts for us – about Jacob Böhme, the Abyss, the Daimon etc.

As to the comparison with Northern spiritual concepts & Crowley’s stuff: I also see similarities, f.e. between the ‘Holy Guardian Angel’ & the Fetch etc. I approached Norse Magic very much from a ‘Western Magic(k)’ perspective, but this has its drawbacks. I really recommend to anyone coming from a different ‘tradition’ to ‘forget’ about all the stuff they have learned in a different system (though I love Comparative Studies, too, and think they CAN bring more clarity). You can see the drawback very easily, when an occultist approaches the Runes with concepts from ‘Western Magic’. They confuse more than they clarify.

As to Crowley: If he was weighed down with misfortunes is disputable. I know exactly what you mean, but just consider his influence on occultism & modern magical currents, including Chaos Magic, LaVeyian Satanism & Setianism. In many ways Crowley was very successful. But I tell you my take on Crowley’s failure:

First of all, he was a very neurotic & immature person – psychologically & spiritually speaking. He never integrated the pain of his childhood. I even think, he never really CONFRONTED the source of his pain caused by his parents, who were religious fanatics. To stay in the metaphor of storytelling: he changed his painful ‘childhood’ story by creating an anti-story, he being the Antichrist etc. (a bit of a yawn!). And, though he has climbed a few mountains (here: in a spiritual sense), he wasn’t cabable of integrating this into his daily life (which is, probably, the hardest task of all, but also the ESSENCE of any true path). So my explanation for his misfortunes is that he never conquered ‘the devil’ (in the sense like Henry used the word in ‘Baum Und Teufel’) & his ego, in the long run. This is even reflected in his wit & his humour: he gave himself the number ‘666′. Six in the QBL is the Sephiroth Tiphareth, the Spiritual Sun – the ‘Higher Self’. The number ‘666′ is the shadow (‘qliphotic’) quality of the Spiritual Sun: the egotistic aspect, the ‘false self’, the ‘dwarf’ pretentig to be a ‘god’. This qabalistic insight has been once demonstrated to me from a good friend of mine, who is an initiate of the Golden Dawn. So, it seems to me, Crowley knew about his weak points & played around with this. Finally he failed. The devil promised him sweeties, but the devil lied!

PS: Sweyn’s book, True Helm, is an illuminating Master Work of a true Rune Master. This book was actually the first book that got me into the Northern Tradition on a practical level and opened a whole new universe in front of me. I study (and try to apply) its contents to this day.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” – Einstein.

You might not be aware of a style of therapy called narrative therapy (an Australian invention I am proud to say), in which the therapist is not seen as an ‘expert’ who orders the client about but rather assists, through curiosity and open-mindedness, the client to elucidate both the ‘problem’ story they are living out and a new, preferred narrative.

The idea goes that problems get entrenched by ‘thin’ description – that is, when we settle into demoralising and self-perpetuating notions like “I’m just worthless” or “all women are stupid”. In other words we lose perspective and lose sight of the full picture.

You tend to see and experience more of what you expect and are looking out for. In mainstream psychology this is called the “confirmation bias” – the more evidence people gather the more stuck in their point of view they tend to get.

With simple compassion and curiousity the therapist and client gradually discover the ways that other stories are already active in the client’s life (either literally, imaginally, from the past, in the future, and many other permutations) and can begin to situate _these_ as the heart of the client’s life with richer, ‘thickened’ descriptions and understandings of the client’s experiences, abilities, desires and so forth.

The old ‘thin’ story begins to wither in the face of the expanding living reality which opens the door to a more positive experience.

This way of working tends to generate a whole new psychological theory for every client. I’ve been a client of this type of therapy and also employed it myself and it produces transformations and healings that on occasion have been so powerful that I would not have believed it if I had not been the counsellor or client there in that moment…

Incidentally… narrative therapy emerged as a therapeutic response to postmodernism!

H