left-reminders:

Something that will always annoy me:

How any structural critique of electoral politics is read as “don’t vote” and inevitably a bunch of liberals jump in to make sure you’re voting Democrat. Most leftists I know vote, and I don’t disagree with the idea of it as damage control of whatever, but there’s this massive Cult of the Vote™ in liberal circles that treats ballot-casting as the indispensable political act. Like, even leftists who endorse voting are still going to adamantly declare afterwards that unionizing, direct action, food drives, indigenous rights, resistance to white supremacy, community solidarity, dissemination of radical ideas, workplace democracy, prefiguration, etc. are all far more important in tilting the landscape leftward; and some liberals will concede that “sure, those other activities might be important”, but voting is still the only one that’s fetishized so strongly in these circles. Probably because “non-partisan” “rock the vote” sentiment is one of the least threatening movements in the eyes of the rich and powerful, and so it’s a sentiment that’s allowed to flourish and receive all these endorsements from celebrities and war criminals. In other words, you rarely see liberals wear shirts that say “unionize” or “restore the commons”, but you always see liberals wearing “rock the vote”-type shirts or “I just voted” stickers.

This isn’t me saying “don’t vote”. In fact, do vote. Damage control is good. But the way liberals approach this conversation perpetually shoots down any and all left-wing mobilization beyond the capitalist voting booth.

Haven’t posted politics in a while, but damn. This is the shit. I respect the choice to vote. I also respect the choice not to vote. As long as you are making a choice for good reasons.

zeenell:

tikkunolamorgtfo:

fieldbears:

fullmetalquest:

robotsandfrippary:

99laundry:

gogomrbrown:

I learned in a Latin Studies class (with a chill white dude professor) that when the Europeans first saw Aztec cities they were stunned by the grid. The Aztecs had city planning and that there was no rational lay out to European cities at the time. No organization.

When the Spanish first arrived in Tenochtitlan (now downtown mexico city) they thought they were dreaming. They had arrived from incredibly unsanitary medieval Europe to a city five times the size of that century’s london with a working sewage system, artificial “floating gardens” (chinampas), a grid system, and aqueducts providing fresh water. Which wasn’t even for drinking! Water from the aqueducts was used for washing and bathing- they preferred using nearby mountain springs for drinking. Hygiene was a huge part if their culture, most people bathed twice a day while the king bathed at least four times a day.
Located on an island in the middle of a lake, they used advanced causeways to allow access to the mainland that could be cut off to let canoes through or to defend the city. The Spanish saw their buildings and towers and thought they were rising out of the water. The city was one of the most advanced societies at the time.

Anyone who thinks that Native Americans were the savages instead of the filthy, disease ridden colonizers who appeared on their land is a damn fool.

They’ve also recently discovered a lost Native American city in Kansas called Etzanoa It rivals the size of Cahokia, which was very large as well.

Makes me happy to see people learn about the culture of my country 😀

Also, please remember that the idea of a nomadic or semi-nomadic culture being “less intelligent”, “less civilized” (and please unpack that word) was invented by people who wanted to make a graph where they were on the top.

Societies that functioned without 1) staying exclusively in one location or 2) having to make complicated, difficult-to-construct tools to go about their daily lives… were not somehow less valid than others.

This is why I fucking hate it when Europeans make jokes about how they have “more history” than the Americas. “This church is older than your country hahaha.” Actually, it’s older than the country you put there, massacring millions in the process, but go off, I guess. 

“We have this extraordinary conceit
in the West that while we’ve been hard at work in the creation of technological
wizardry and innovation, somehow the other cultures of the world have been
intellectually idle. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nor is this
difference due to some sort of inherent Western superiority. We now know to be
true biologically what we’ve always dreamed to be true philosophically, and
that is that we are all brothers and sisters. We are all, by definition, cut
from the same genetic cloth. That means every single human society and culture,
by definition, shares the same raw mental activity, the same intellectual
capacity. And whether that raw genius is placed in service of technological
wizardry or unraveling the complex thread of memory inherent in a myth is
simply a matter of choice and cultural orientation.”

         –
Wade Davis, The Ethnosphere and the
Academy

Frater T Explains the Egyptian Coffin Texts Pt 4

Okay, I’ll stop now (unless people really want me to continue with this spell by spell). But I will leave you with this:

The Egyptian Coffin Texts, in their entirety, are a receipt for the bribe you paid the temple priests. You see they are promising to say prayers for you long after you are dead. Essentially, you’ll have a bunch of highly trained magicians treating you like a great ancestor. This is spiritual currency in the land of the dead. The whole purpose of this is so you have a good time in the afterlife.

Frater T Explains the Egyptian Coffin Texts

Spell 3

“Ho! Take your staff, your loincloth and your sandals, and go down to the Tribunal, that you may be vindicated against your foes, male or female, against those who would harm you, and those who would have judgement against you in the Tribunal of Osiris on this happy day.”

Frater T’s Interpretation: Get your shit together, now. For the Day of the Lord cometh, like a thief in the night. If you fucked up, the gods will not be on your side. Appease the gods through Ma’at living. And if you have shortcomings make sure you have a good lawyer in the afterlife.

Frater T Explains the Egyptian Coffin Texts

Spell 2

“Geb has commanded, and the Double Lion has repeated, that you be given your soul which is in the earth and your shade which is in the hidden places.

Ho! Raise yourself, that you may be vindicated against your foes.”

Frater T’s Interpretation: When you dead, all them motherfuckers who talked shit about you when you were alive will be bragging to people that they were your friend.

Frater T Explains the Egyptian Coffin Texts

The Egyptian Coffin Texts – Spell 1, Paragraph 1.

“Here begins the book of vindicating a man in the realm of the dead. Ho! You are the Lion, you are the Double Lion, you are Horus, Protector of his father, you are the fourth of these four gods who are powerful and strong, who bring water and make the Nile through the power of their fathers. raise yourself on your left side, put yourself on your right side.”

Frater T’s Interpretation: Remember magus, when dealing with spirits, if someone asks if you are a god you say, yes! Your ancestors are strong and if you have been honoring them they will back your play.

 “I bring thee the flower which was in the beginning, the
glorious lily of the Great Water!“  

– Hieroglyphic text from Denderah

One can find depictions of the blue lotus flower in almost
every Ancient Egyptian temple and much of the sacred art.

The blue lotus was a symbol of rebirth as the flower closes in the evening and re-opens every day of its life-cycle.

In one of the
Egyptian creation myths a blue lotus, son of Nun and Nuit, emerges from the
primordial waters and opens, creating the world. 

It is also interesting to note that the blue lotus when
ingested has mild psychoactive properties not unlike MDMA. A favorite Egyptian pastime
was to drink wine that had been steeped in dried lotus flowers.

In my visions I sometimes see the scribe-priests of Khemenu,
after a long day copying and creating scrolls, walk down to the banks of the
Nile to enjoy the cool air. They would sail on small barges, drinking the blue
lotus wine late into the evening. As Nuit revealed her glory above they would participate
in what gnostics later called the, “Feast of Love.”

Today, on the sixteenth day of September, 2018, the first
day of the Feast of the Cyprians, I have completed the first draft of the book,
“Emergent Magick.” For over a year-and-a-half my beloved Thoth has been a
guide, an inspiration, and at times a harsh task master. So I bring to him this
offering of a crystal blue lotus flower, in gratitude for his aid in this great
accomplishment.

Praise Djhuety!

Now the hard work begins. Editing, lay-out, more editing,
re-writing, more editing, and production. It needs to be the best I can make
it, in honor of all those who inspired its creation. Stay tuned, as we will be
asking for help in the coming months with all that is necessary to bring the
book to print.

Revised Foreword – Emergent Magick

“It was right in everyone’s face.
Tyler and I just made it visible. It was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Tyler
and I just gave it a name.”

         –
Fight Club (1999)

Have you ever been to an
outdoor music festival? Saw the masses of people all moving to the same music?
Felt the connection, knowing you were with The People now, and this is has it
has always been? Asked yourself, what breaks this connection when the lights go
down and the band leaves the stage?

Have you been to Burning
Man, or one of the many regional burns? Saw the flames lick up into air? Felt
the ecstasy of release and jubilation? Succumbed to the moment?  Have you ever wondered if it could have a
deeper meaning?

Have you ever been to a
good party? On a camping trip around a campfire, or a bonfire in the backyard?
Witnessed the organic flow of the conversation? Been a part of the vibrations
of emotion and shared experience? Sensed the timeless quality of the night?
Felt a deep bond with all in the circle? Have you asked yourself, why do our
daily lives not feel this way?

This book is for you.

Because the answer to
these questions is magick. It’s really magick. A timeless art practiced by our
ancestors, and it has never really gone away. From the tribes of Africa, to the
Egyptians, the Greeks, the witches’ fires in the Middle Ages, magick ruled the
minds and hearts of human beings. It ruled their world. And every time someone
figured out a way to sell it, it lost some of its power.

It’s time to take it back.

In 1987, when Samuel
Weiser unleashed on the world the first mass market version of Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J.
Carroll, it included a flow chart that expressed the progress of magical
traditions. The chart declared the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of
Thanateros (IOT) as the culmination of all other magical tradition that
proceeded it. While the creators of this book would argue that the progression
of magick is decidedly non-linear, the chart does elegantly express the idea
that magick is not moribund in ancient tradition. That as a living, breathing
art form, those that practice it learn from what has come before and make
improvements. Certainly Carroll did not presume that the IOT and Chaos Magick,
as it would come to be called, would be the final destination of that
progression. Nor do we presume what lies within to be the last word on magical
practice.

It is the next step.

Emergent
Magick presents the
distilled learning of a multitude of magical practitioners who have worked in
multiple systems. It represents the cutting edge of magical thinking. If you
find the contents of this book familiar, it’s because they are things that many
practitioners have been saying for years. Sadly, we have found few books that
actually express these ideas concisely. All too often, magical tomes contain
in-depth explorations of a single paradigm, or worse yet, lists of spells
expected to work like recipes.

The creators wanted this
tome to be useful to a rank amateur with only a passing interest in magick. But
we haven’t “dumbed it down.” We advise those with no experience to consume this
book slowly, and do not shy away from researching while reading any concepts
you may be unfamiliar with. At the same time, experienced practitioners should
not just skip the “how-to” sections of this book as they represent the
application of the new theories put forth.

We hope that at the very
least this book generates worthy discussion on new magical theory. For those
who have just joined the ranks of the magi, we salute you.

Frater Threskiornis, 16670,
“Ego Sum Legio”

Scribe of the Order of
Emergent Magi

9/16/2018