Lectures About Magick (vol. 2) 01:What is magic(k)?

[@Eliphas_Leary]

One aspect of practical (as in every day life) magic(k) is the ability to help translating between people from different "realities" (religions, social tiers or cultural backgrounds). Metaphysics can be of great help doing that, not only because they can help you to prepare people to listen to what others have to say.

[@Lunali57]

"magicians are priest" yep! I was not good in math myself...now Im finding out with the magicianship Ive earned in the astral has taught me that Mathmatics i.e. numbers and patterns explains more than words themselves could ever do! And my mathmatical skills have done a complete 180 directional turn due to my education with those little pockets of energy we see as entities in the astral.

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Actually, the acronym "LAM" is an innuendo, and a hommage to Kenneth Grant. Your stuff is very good, I like the hand made imagery more than the computer works, there's more of a personal note in those.

[@PeeteyP]

your talk on magicians vs theists and magicians vs atheists was personally spot on. As an atheist (agnostic...) and student of the weird collection of practices we call religion, I know I could become a minister, but I refuse to do that. Still I feel I have something to offer in the realm of metaphysics, not as an apologetic but more of a zealot.

[@Eliphas_Leary]

I'm amazed of how close your definition of religion comes to my favorite one, the one by Gustav Mensching (a definition I can't possibly translate into english, I'm afraid).

[@CajunCraft24]

I agree, but (respectfully)my take on this real/fantasy argument is that thoughts are things. We ARE creators & thus able to manipulate the non-physical. I, too, have experienced quite real entities but I think personally that their point of origin was THOUGHT, ancient and reinforced over time by others. In the Astral this is so obvious & instant- it's possible to interact with pre-existing thought forms someone else left there, or your own. Focus and perspective (belief) are always factors.

[@zone66]

Through the darkness of future past The magician longs to see One chance out between two worlds: Fire walk with me

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Personal experience with beings doesn't mean they are real. It's not about "archetype images", it's about personified aspects of (sub)consciousness, which allows realistic interaction with these aspects and much more. But I'm open to the possibility that there really are entities out there, and with some cases I experienced I can't "explain away" what happened. Nontheless, this "explaining away" is the most important part of banishing and avoiding unhealthy possession.

[@BStoltman]

I am really glad to see your back! Have you considered getting a new webcam for the new series to really distinguish yourself from the first series to the next Perhaps you could even take donations to get it. I am half temped to purchase you a logitech C910 to give you a new HD and clear picture! Just a few things to consider, keep up the great work, I love it either way!

[@LightcraftDesignCrew]

Will you please explain numenous powers in a scientific manner? & Who created you/us if you/we created god? What about the aetheric intelligence of Mercury? Has it not existed ere we have named and thereby labled it? Are there more invisible higher entities than we have yet experienced? Is there a kind of Exo Magic that is performed by beings in the spiritual realms? Is Magick a pschophysical phenomenon that you would link to quantum mechanics?

[@Christianflorescordova]

After practicing some Enochian invocation, the LAM began appearing and wait theres more.

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Thank you, there's plenty of stuff on the way. Actually this is a new webcam, but I don't consider doing HD. Well, for videos about art, yes, but not when I'm just sitting there talking about stuff... :0)

[@TheVisionaryKing]

Thanks for doing the excellent video. Very interesting examination of the meaning of magick, particularly the portion regarding atheism. I hadn't thought about the relationship between atheists and magicians in quite that way before. I disagree with the idea that atheists are closer to understanding existence than theists are. Whether God/s created us or we created them is a bit like the chicken and the egg, in my opinion. To me, the Divine is "I am" and everything else is interpretation.

[@TheVisionaryKing]

By the way, nice touch with the Guy Fawkes mask on the opening chaos star character animation. Does the LAM mascot have a name? If not, he needs one. lol

[@Eliphas_Leary]

3+4.: Mercury & the like (in chaos magic: gods of the orange gnosis) are, as I said, symbols for our ability to think, to reason and to solve problems. The existence of some "aetheric" plane has been falsified (see Michelson-Morley-experiment), so I see no reason to take claims of such a plane serious. 5.: Foshizzle! There are as many entities as we wanna make up. And with the right methods we can experience them. 6.: Ockham's razor is an important tool when dealing with occult stuff.

[@Eliphas_Leary]

1.: Numinous, as accoriding to Rudolf Otto, is "the sacred minus it's moral moment", i.e. an attempt to find something that is objectively sacred. Illustration: for some tribes canibalism is sacred, for us it isn't because of our subjective moral values. 2.: The question is loaded and therefore flawed, because it implies that there has to be a creator. There are enough discussions about creationism on KZbin already, I recommend to watch some episodes of "the Atheist Experience".

[@LightcraftDesignCrew]

Say, has there been a planetary consciousness within Mercury befor we worshiped it?

[@Eliphas_Leary]

The question is: IS there a planetary consciousness in Mercury at all and if so how can we verify that objectively?

[@TheVisionaryKing]

I see your point, but sadly every atheist I've ever known (including myself, when I was one in my younger days) seems to throw out the baby with the bathwater. They strip away the influence and programming of religion, but in the process they lose their spirituality. "Faith" is practically a synonym with "insanity" these days. I find that disturbing. BUT, in that context, I obviously can relate to what you mean. Sometimes it takes a dark night of the soul for the dawn to break upon a new day.

[@Christianflorescordova]

LAM means Evil Backwards in Spanish... :)

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Thanks, I just had to do this. And the little guy's name is Levi A. Thundings (check out the backdrop of my channel page for a little surprise...).

[@TheVisionaryKing]

Faith is the projection of belief beyond appearances. I don't see why anyone without at least some degree of faith would bother getting out of bed in the morning. Nothing beyond a completely mechanistic world-view can hold up to logical examination without the injection of *some* form of faith. I don't equate this to religion. Religion is the organized shaping, programming and standardization of the individual faiths of a group of people who hold the dogma to be true.

[@Eliphas_Leary]

7.: Since I understand enough about quantum mechanics to say that I don't understand quantum mechanics (see Feynman's famous quote about the subject), I would never link something like magic or occultism to quantum mechanics. It's a sure sign that someone is talking nonsense and is just abusing words and concepts s/he doesn't understand anything about, when quantum mechanics is mentioned outside the context of physics.

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Somewhere (don't ask me where exactly) Crowley wrote that atheism is an important step on the way to god. I hope I din't say anything like atheists being closer to understanding anything better than theists do, because atheism has nothing to do with understanding anything. On the other hand theism has a tendency to cloud ones judgement about facts, which results in more scientists being atheists than theists. To me, the Divine is shutting up in amazement, while interpretation may follow... ;0)

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Well, "faith" is also a synonym for "religion", which is simply false (modern gnostic religions or certain schools of Yoga don't require faith). And some atheists get rid of the direct influence of christianity, but they don't really get rid of the programming, what sometimes leads to those atheists parroting christian propaganda.

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Should you have any evidence for your assertion that "back in the day [..] their magic was strong", now is your chance to present that evidence. Otherwise: wishful thinking invites certain crooks to abuse that notion, I refrain from such charlatanry and try to help my fellow human beings to set free their natural potential (which observers often confuse with "supernaural powers"). What's your path: preserving ancient dreams and illusions or striving for freedom and understanding?

[@Eliphas_Leary]

Oooh, then you might like that channel I mentioned, Numberphile. Whacky mathematicians trying to explain what they do...