Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in lapidus_93's LiveJournal:

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Friday, July 31st, 2009
12:18 pm	Freinds Only This journal is now “friends only.” Please don’t take it personally if I don’t add you. I do not add very many people these days. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 29th, 2006
1:51 am	Thelema Versus Parenthood I am beginning to wonder if there are aspects of Thelema, and dynamics inherent in the roles and responsibilities of parenthood, which tend to make the two incompatible (or at least place them in a state of tension). Thelema places supreme importance upon the gnosis and realization of the True Will by the kingly individual. Parenthood requires at least some real measure of subordination of individual interests to those of the child, and the family as a collective group. ( Read more... ) (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 28th, 2006
1:04 pm	Kids and a Bookshop Yesterday I made a brief stop at Alchemy Arts, an occult bookstore in Chicago. I had my seven year old daughter (cute and smart) and five year old son (charming in some ways but autistic and non-verbal) in tow. In a display case at the counter I saw a copy of "From Inferno To Zos", a large hardcover compilation of Spare material. I wondered if it was the same copy I had sold to the shop (along with the Mandrake Press edition of "The Rites of Eleusis") a couple of years earlier when I found myself strapped for cash for an initiation fee. This seems unlikely as so much time had passed since then. My little girl enjoyed visiting with two cats who were also patronizing the store. From the shop's extensive used book section I selected a paperback copy of "Esoterism as Principle and as Way" by Frithjof Schoun (who is sometimes categorized as one of the traditionalists) and a hardcover edition of "The Romance of Sorcery" by Sax Rohmer (best known for the Fu Manchu novels). I had been curious about the Rohmer book for some time. After about ten minutes my son lost patience with a place he evidently found boring and began to pitch a loud whiny temper tantrum (I hope he can be trained out of this behavior before he becomes too much bigger). I took that as my cue to make my purchases and leave. The three of us then spent some time at a playground down the street. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 24th, 2006
1:10 pm	My “Librarything” Catalog Now is probably as good a time as any to mention (for those who may be interested) that I have gradually been cataloging my books at the Librarything website (www.librarything.com) under the user name “hipgnosis.” For the time being my catalog is visible to the public. So far I have added three hundred seventy five books, representing a little over half of the total I poses. I have not cataloged any of my wife’s books and don’t plan to; were I to do so the “index” of subject matter would start to look much more normal and the concentration of fiction would rise dramatically from near zero. For those unfamiliar with this cataloging tool, the contents of catalogs can be displayed in variable ways as the visitor changes the columns of information shown, clicks on user created tags, etc. The tool is also able to export the contents of a catalog as a comma separated text file which can be imported to an excel spreadsheet with a little minor tweaking. I have been using the tagging feature pretty extensively, and have begun to include the number of pages in each item as one of the tags. Loading items is quite easy, I have found that about one out of twenty of my books (some of the older and more obscure) requires manually entering all of the information, the rest simply require that the ISBN number be added to an uploaded list, the information then being imported from Amazon, the Library of Congress, or another source. This activity is not a priority of mine and it will be some time before I am finished. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 27th, 2005
12:43 pm	Found Note Folded note found on the front stairway of my apartment building: DO THE HULA DANCE WITH MOTIONS! HULA-HULA LILL (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005
12:03 pm	Intelligent Design and Divine Emanation The current brouhaha regarding the teaching of “intelligent design” in public school science classes in the U.S.A. has led me to do a little reflecting. I have come to two conclusions I think are relevant to Thelemites and occultists generally: 1. “Intelligent design” should not be included in the curriculum of public school science classes because it is not a part of the modern scientific enterprise as it has been defined by people like Karl Popper in The Logic of Scientific Discovery, and Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2. “Intelligent design” is fully consonant with (and is in fact normally a component of) world views which involve the progressive emanation of the material cosmos (including living organisms) from an exalted divine source. These schools include (but are obviously not limited to) Neo-Platonism, Kabbalah, and Blavatsky style Theosophy. This is one of the reasons I do not join in mocking or ridiculing those who, through wrong-headedness, think that the notion of intelligent design belongs in the biology curriculum of public high schools. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 17th, 2005
12:10 pm	Chaldean Oracles Clarification for "iaosaboa" I have two different editions of the "Chaldean Oracles": FIRST: The Chaldean Oracles As Set Down By Julianus Translated into the latin by Francesco Patrizzi and translated into the english by Thomas Stanley Heptangle Books, ISBN: 0-935214-11-9 This edition is hardcover, 109 pages. It has the english translation first, followed by the latin version. It has two appendices: "Oracles by Porphyry [in Westcott's edition]", and "Oracles in Westcott but not in Stanley." Also included are a publisher's forward, Westcott's preface, an introduction by Percy Bullock, and a preface by Thomas Stanley. SECOND: The Chaldean Oracles Attributed to Zoroaster "Edited and Revised by Sapere Aude, with an introduction by L.O." This edition includes the preface by Westcott (Sapere Aude). It was produced by Sure Fire Press / Holmes Publishing Group. 54 pages, staple-bound (as you'd expect from this publisher) ISBN: 0-916411-16-8 (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 6th, 2005
1:50 pm	Book Just Arrived in the Mail "The Angel of the West Window" (Dedalus European Classics) By: Gustav Meyrink This is by the author of the novel "The Golem" which was made into a notable film. It is almost unheard of for me to buy fiction these days. I made an exception for this. Reviewer: First published in 1927, with the decidedly Victorian dread spun by the likes of H.P.Lovecraft, Meyrink takes us into the slowly evolving nightmare of a man as he uncovers the secrets of his ancestor, John Dee; occultist and metaphysician to Queen Elizabeth I. Ultimately, one wonders whether the main character is losing himself in John Dee or if John Dee is dreaming the future of his own bloodline. Either way, the atmosphere is creepy as a crypt, and the labyrinth of deftly constructed alchemical symbolism marks Meyrink as an adept of literature as well as the Dark Arts ISBN 0946626650 (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 2nd, 2005
12:14 pm	“Just Do It” Do your damn practices! The above statement is primarily directed at me. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
1:42 pm	Women and Rape A lot has been said about how to prevent rape. Women should learn self-defence. Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark. Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts. Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Fuck, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all. instead of that bullshit, how about: if a woman is drunk, don't rape her. if a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her. if a women is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her. if a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her. if a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don't rape her. if a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her. if a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her. if a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her. if a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her. if a woman is in a coma, don't rape her. if a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her. if a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her. if a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her. if your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her. if your step-daughter is watching tv, don't rape her. if you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her. if your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend. if your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police. if your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and tell the guy he's a rapist. tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it's not okay to rape someone. don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x. don't imply that it's in any way her fault. don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl. don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions. You can, too, help yourself. If you agree, repost it. It's that important. (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
2:09 pm	Gnostic Eucharist I have an acquaintance who, like many other people, was strongly affected by reading Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code”. She has become very interested in the subjects of Gnostic Christianity, the Divine Feminine, and Mary Magdalene. I was searching online, looking for some good articles on these subjects for her to read, when I encountered a passage on the Christian Eucharist in the middle of a short essay on Jesus & Mary Magdalene which struck me forcefully: The idea is not so much a salvation from original sin, but salvation by restoration to the original blessing, which occurs in the unification of male and female. Accordingly, the bread represents the Logos and the wine represents the Sophia, the male and female aspects of the Christos. Thus the Eucharist is a ceremony celebrating their mystical union or sacred marriage in the union of the Divine Masculine and Feminine through which all creation transpires, as well as redemption through divine illumination. I think that with just a little minor tweaking this could be applicable to the Gnostic Mass (in my uninitiated opinion, of course). This article, with a very positive slant on Gnostic religion and sexual mysticism, is on a website aimed at fans of Brown's novel. Some people snicker at the widespread interest Brown’s book has aroused, but I think that it is leading some Christians, not to turn against their religion, but to try to see possibilities in that are more expansive, and from my point of view, more valid. Anything which can get some mainstream Americans, such as my acquaintance, interested in Gnosticism and the Divine Feminine can’t be all bad, IMO. The article the above passage is from can be found here. (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 9th, 2005
9:33 am	Hard Sayings of Thelema The Christian religion has, in the gospel narratives, what are known as the hard sayings of Jesus. These were teachings given by Christ which his followers, even those most fervent and closest to him, found difficult to deal with. This is illustrated in the following passage from the gospel of John: Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" John, Ch. 6, V. 53-60 ( Read more... ) (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 3rd, 2005
10:49 am	Old Timey Children's Records This is aimed at parents of young children and also anyone with an interest in, or appreciation of, americana. There is an excellent website called Kiddie Records which features free mp3 format downloads of old children's records from the mid 1940s to early 1950s. There are lots of stories such as Robin Hood, the Adventures of Tom Thumb, etc. The site also features zipped image files of the records which include album covers, liners, and pages (if the jacket included book type illustration pages). A lot of fine graphic work here. It looks like they have files for fifty-two records available currently. I've started downloading here, but naturally not on a dial-up connection. The site says that these downloads were intended to be available for a period of two years, but I'm not sure when that period started so I can't say how long they will be up for retrieval. Thanks to keith418 for alerting folks to this site. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 1st, 2005
10:32 am	Soggy Samhain Halloween was a little disappointing here in Chicago this year. It was raining too heavily for us to take the kids out to stroll the sidewalks. We've been lucky on previous years though, with fine autumn evenings. My six year old girl and five year old boy did get to participate in one Halloween activity earlier in the day though. The elementary school they attend had a little Halloween parade. My wife got a chance to see them march around outside with the other children, our daughter dressed like a princess in pink, and our son wearing a pretty good costume intended to look like a Roman soldier. My wife managed to take some photos. The little baby kind of participated because he was wearing a jumpsuit with a hood intended to resemble a horses head as he lay in his stroller. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 29th, 2005
12:32 pm	Dead Faces One can really catch a glimpse of the soul or spiritual state of a totalitarian society by taking a good look at the official art produced or promoted by the state (Communist, Fascist or whatever). Now I'm not referring here to museum pieces such as Russian ballet actually created during th time of the Czars and then carefully reproduced by the twentieth century regime. I'm talking about such things as monumental public sculpture and propaganda posters and murals. The faces and eyes of the human figures in such art are always lifeless, inert, phony, like mannequins or dummies. This is because these images are merely cyphers or characters intended to symbolize mass humanity (even when depicting an idealized leader or hero). We should understand that they cannot be taken to represent real willful human beings with rich inner lives and spiritual tap-roots. Just contrast these products of a dehumanizing "massifying" culture with human figures from ancient Greece, the European Renaissance, or even the decadent and symbolist art of the 1890s. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
12:40 pm	A Few Favorites I thought I would be lazy today and post a handful of links to a few of my very favorite public posts in other people’s journals. These were not chosen for entertainment value or drama quotient, but because I regard the contents as worthwhile, and because they are accessible to all. From: paradoxosalpha A remarkable set of commentaries on Liber Tzaddi From: t_satanas You won't find the items on this short, annotated reading list mentioned many other places From: tausirhasirim Detailed information on a magical system quite unknown to me until very recently Also from: tausirhasirim More on the same series of experiments (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 13th, 2005
12:20 pm	Yeshiva The other day I watched a television program about the history of the Jewish community in Chicago. Viewers were shown a scene at a yeshiva and were told of the long, involved process of study the students at such institutions devoted to the Talmud and Torah. How earnest, purposeful and dedicated they are. This, I thought is the level of intensity which should be brought to the study of Thelema’s Holy Books and other texts. (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
1:00 pm	Prophet and Saint I wish all who read this strength and joy on this day, the birthday of our prophet and saint, Aleister Crowley! (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 9th, 2005
12:34 pm	Threefold Division Some time ago a friend I have since lost touch with related an idea to me which has stuck with me ever since. Unfortunately I don't remember what I was told regarding the source of this idea. It may have been one of those "Black Hebrew" groups. Anyway, the idea is that it is useful to regard human beings as being divided into three basic types: the thinking of the first and most degraded group is focused on people. The second and intermediate type is preoccupied with events. The thoughts of the third and most evolved type are centered on ideas. I realize that this is like many, many sayings which begin: "there are three (or two, or four) types of people in this world..." I also see this scheme as being somewhat similar to the categories of some Gnostic sects of the ancient world: the hylics, psychics, and pneumatics. It is also a little reminiscent of the Platonic and Neo-Platonic idea of progressive emanation from a world of ideal forms to the material world. In any case my friends instruction resonates with me. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
10:40 am	Magical Motto I have chosen a new magical motto to employ with my work and meditation. This was not done in association with any initiation or particular special experience. I will not state it explicitly in this journal; I think that in this case I should pay at least a measure of respect to the fourth power of the Sphinx - and keep silent. I chose a phrase expressing ideas which, for me, have associations with eucharistic magic and with the Gnostic Mass. I also connect this phrase with the attainment of exalted states of consciousness. It was taken from the lyrics of a popular song, but that does not diminish its sublimity for me. I had assistance from a young sister in the Order who rendered the phrase into latin for me. I confess that I'm not certain why I wanted my new signifier to be in this now antique language (admiration for the Golden Dawn, perhaps?). I am grateful to her for her help. (1 Comment |Comment on this)