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Intro thread

The Bastard
(prev. TheSauce)

00:45 / 16.04.08

Hi everybody! To be honest, I can't remember exactly how I found myself at Barbelith, but I've been lurking for awhile. Now that my registration's through, I'm finally able to start posting. I like the look and feel of this place.

So, yeah, I should probably at least give a brief overview of myself, so here goes: I'm 24, live together with my girl in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I manage a mobile phone store for a living at the moment. I'm a writer of both comics and prose, and really just starting out in getting into magic, although I've been interested in the occult since I was a kid.

The Natural Way

00:49 / 16.04.08

Don't get too used to it...

But, hey, welcome newbloke!

The Bastard
(prev. TheSauce)

00:51 / 16.04.08

Don't get too used to what, liking the place? Thanks for the welcome!

03:55 / 16.04.08

What flavor magics?

And what do you do for kicks?

The Bastard
(prev. TheSauce)

04:39 / 16.04.08

Right now, still exploring; chaos magic caught my eye when I was younger, so I'm exploring that more; sigil work mostly, but I plan to try my hand at pathworking in the near future. Haven't really gone beyond the boundaries of that yet.

For fun? Write, read, theatre, hanging out; the usual stuff, really. I have this absolute infatuation/love affair with karaoke; being in front of a crowd of people tweaks me(especially when singing, it's a complicated thing), but when I can throw all the baggage off for 3-5 minutes, sing, and get genuine applause(as opposed to "oh, he tried" applause), I love it.

15:51 / 16.04.08

Wow, first post i read after registering is a fellow Bostonian. Uhm . . . represent, as they used to say.

Anyway, i'm new, a cyber-refugee from a much less happy place: i like girls, Irish whiskey, Lacan, bourbon, the American Pragmatists, scotch, comics, predictably obscure and standardly eclectic varieties of music, the German Idealists, zombies, Gunter Grass, Proust, Nabokov, pot, The Economist, cereal, coffee . . . and turtles.

If any of you knew me before you now know me again.

and please, you gotta treat the new guy right. i'm thrilled to be here.

I am a bat. I am a man.
(prev. Triplets)

15:55 / 16.04.08

What is your opinion on The Invisibles?

This could, I suppose, apply to us all in... this place, but I thought I'd ask the two of you.

16:17 / 16.04.08

Well, %much as i hate to be contrarian and unconventional% i have to admit that i prefer the Doom Patrol run to anything else of his that i've read - but i've never read beyond the first Invisibles tpb, so maybe i'm not really in a position to render a sealed opinion.

The Bastard
(prev. TheSauce)

16:42 / 16.04.08

That is pretty funny, another Bostonian.

I like the Invisibles so far; I'm only on the second trade, but I like what I've read so far. But then I love most of Morrison's work.

19:49 / 16.04.08

Another newbie here (guess a batch of invites just got done did eh?).

I'm not from Boston though, can I still join the (tea) party (arf)?

I'm historically a cynic but I'm going through some outlook changes (second puberty, early mid-life crisis, call it what you will) and opening up to a lot I would have dismissed out of hand in the past:

Had an hour to kill earlier and did some research on chaos magic after reading your intro Mr TheSauce, and it looks like interesting stuff. I've started working on my own take on a Kiaist sigil which I plan to have tattooed to mark/encourage this altered state I am entering - you've only been here a day and you're already inspiring a fellow Barbeloid! Grats!

As for all the negative thought around here, maybe we should organise another synchronised self-love session?

Mordant
(prev. This is *my* hole.)

20:04 / 16.04.08

Another one? It's not even Friday.

20:50 / 16.04.08

Hello All...
Just a small intro: I stumbled onto Barbelith a year ago after reading The Invisibles: I used to collect comix from 1989-1993 and had just missed out on GM's comic when it was fresh...
Not that it's sour, now.
I read alot and am really interested in magick at the moment, I like ckecking out Barbelith and key64 to see what's going on in the outer territories...
I look forward to posting and chatting.
Cameron

21:10 / 16.04.08

Why, welcome on board the HMS Barbelith all you noobies. The band's still playing. Feel free to rearrange the deckchairs as you wish.

21:15 / 16.04.08

Lacan??

Why??

A Hu-Li
(prev. Darrell Rivers)

21:33 / 16.04.08

Now, now, he had some interesting ideas, only his writing is impenetrable.

21:58 / 16.04.08

Because he's fun to play with - he builds the coolest sandcastles of any other kid i know.

The Great Green Elbow
(prev. Gotham City Blues (aka D-Megs))

22:19 / 16.04.08

It seems like someone is wetting the newbies. well, as long as no one feeds them after midnight...

Anyway, welcomes people!

The Bastard
(prev. TheSauce)

01:15 / 17.04.08

you've only been here a day and you're already inspiring a fellow Barbeloid! Grats!

Happy to be of service! Might I suggest looking into Phil Hine's stuff? He's very good, and accessible.

10:06 / 17.04.08

Now, now, he had some interesting ideas, only his writing is impenetrable.

15:56 / 17.04.08

Phil Hine's stuff

Just an opinion but Phil Hine nearly killed my interest in chaos magick. A lot of what he recommends seems to stem from cognitive/clinical psychology. Don't get me wrong, one major point of CM is using whatever belief system you need to find this stuff believable but I don't personally enjoy the belief that I am just "tricking" myself with psychology.

If I want that I will just read one of the multitude of reputable self-help guides written by clinical psychologists. If I pick up a book proclaiming to be about magick, I want some magick dammit! Or at least some dubious interpretations of quantum physics

*phew*

But on the other hand it does makes this more digestable (if that's what you need).

Personally I recommend working through PJ Carroll's two books and possibly combining that with some of RA Wilson's works.

16:47 / 17.04.08

I don't personally enjoy the belief that I am just "tricking" myself with psychology.

It's been awhile since I've read either of his books on chaos magic, but I can't remember coming away from them with the impression that they were all about "tricking" yourself with psychology.

A Hu-Li
(prev. Darrell Rivers)

17:17 / 17.04.08

I recommend working through PJ Carroll's two books

Now, now, he had some interesting ideas, only his writing is impenetrable.

The Bastard
(prev. TheSauce)

17:43 / 17.04.08

Personally I recommend working through PJ Carroll's two books and possibly combining that with some of RA Wilson's works.

I own Liber Null/Psychonaut and Liber Kaos; Liber Null was actually the first book on Chaos Magic that I picked up, but I find Condensed Chaos to be more accessible from the start. Which isn't to say Carroll's not worth it. I haven't read any of Wilson's work, anything you'd recommend to start?

And I'll agree with GL, I haven't gotten the impression that Hine advocates tricking yourself with psychology.

13:17 / 18.04.08

anything you'd recommend to start

I haven't read all of RAW to be honest but Quantum Psychology was worthwhile (and the exercises are *not* necessary). He presents a few models of reality based on quantum weirdness that seem to support parapsychology and/or magick (if there's a difference).

The acronyms are classic clinical psychology/CBT. So many acronyms. One specific acroynym (can't recall the exact acronym) was linked with planning a ritual/sigil in which you need to list all the ways ("P"athways) through which the desired result may manifest normally without "magickal" intervention. I found this completely took the mystery out of the whole experience for me: without circumstances converging to manifest the desired result in an unexpected manner where's the magick???

The difference with Carroll is that he tries to explain how desires might manifest given what physicists understand about the universe. This is why I found QP by RAW so useful; as I said, he offers a bunch of mechanisms for this, most of which have been suggested by physicists rather than engineers turned occult authors for example.

13:32 / 18.04.08

(and the exercises are *not* necessary)

I'd disagree with that and go as far as to say that with most magical or self helpy type books, the exercises - and actually doing them - are the point. The various points when I've managed to transcend my own inertia and get on with some work always been really valuable to me, even if whatever has happened doesn't match my preconceptions.

15:05 / 18.04.08

So this place really is dead unless your into mystic practices, huh?

I'd heard so many good things ...

15:42 / 18.04.08

It's dead even if you are into mystic practices.

The only difference is that mystic practices give you recourse to necromancy.

Not always a good idea though.

19:32 / 18.04.08

Ha! Not always still means sometimes . . .
;-)

Glenn Ponder & Lazarus
(prev. Glenn: douchegate veteran)

00:59 / 19.04.08

I must say how refreshing I find it to see some discussion of Khaos Majick on this site, having assumed that it was - well, let's just say that certain posters aren't too keen on the occult world's response to post-modernism. I do think, though, that it might be better placed in the Temple. Gwaaan, you know you want to...

Glenn Ponder & Lazarus
(prev. Glenn: douchegate veteran)

01:05 / 19.04.08

And may I just add: and so we return to begin again?

02:15 / 19.04.08

how do you begin that which was never unbegun?

Phex: Dorset Doom

02:30 / 19.04.08

Now, now, he had some interesting ideas, only his writing is impenetrable.

Sorry. Everybody else was doing it.

02:48 / 19.04.08

if everbody else was jumping off a cliff would you do it too?

- well yeah, i mean they obviously know something i don't right?