The Beast Bay
Thank You
It was fun while it lasted. While The Beast Bay is no more, the archive of the many articles and postings remains. Over the next few months, I hope to repair some of the decaying infrastructure, such as the broken search engine. In the meantime, I've set up this new front page, with my picks for a few of the highlights of The Beast Bay's two-year run. – Xnoubis
Posted by <Marfiza> on January 28, 2002 @ 09:56 PM
from the Ohhh-Rosaree-why-can't-you-be-true dept.
Many traditions use a rosary, mala, or prayer beads of some stripe as an aid to meditation, prayer, and magickal working.
I've found few experiences as trance-inducing and powerful as that of reciting the (RC) Rosary in the context of a vigil for the recently-deceased, where the prayers are recited many many times over, in a ritual lasting three hours or more.
Recently, I became interested in the idea of developing a Thelemic “rosary” – fully aware that I'm not the first person to try this experiment. I made an in-depth study of as many (again, RC) rosaries and “chaplets” (chaplet being a sort of lesser rosary dedicated to a particular Saint or concept such as the Sacred Heart or the Holy Spirit) as I could find in my research, and extrapolated from them all to develop the ritual that follows.
Posted by Laurie Lovekraft on April 06, 2000 @ 10:21 AM
from the keeping-abreast dept.
On Wednesday March 29, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Erie, Pennsylvania law criminalizing nudity in public places, forcing exotic dancers to perform wearing pasties and G-strings. The law was justified, in the view of the court, as it was intended to fight the secondary effects of nude dancing, such as crime and threats to public safety. A full report can be found here. In a Beast Bay exclusive, libidinal crusader and one-time exotic dancer Laurie Lovekraft speaks out on the court's decision.
Posted by <Mordecai> on November 02, 2001 @ 04:48 PM
from the you-caressed dept.
In the east of the ritual chamber is a throne consisting of a platform one foot high by two feet wide by three feet long, on the back end of which is placed a one-and-a-half foot cube. This throne is decorated in a manner reminiscent of Ra-Hoor-Khuit's throne in the Stele of Revealing. A round table, 31 inches high, supported by one graceful central column, is to the south and in front of the throne. On it are a glass, and enough sweet champagne to give everyone in the Company, and the Scribe, a glassful, and a covered platter holding enough cakes so that everyone in the Company, and the Scribe, may consume one.
Posted by Sam Webster on January 01, 2001 @ 10:35 PM
from the om-on-the-range dept.
One of the most useful practices to come out of the Dzog Chen view of the ground as sheer openness is the process of 'Self-Liberation.' What follows is a short exposition of the process and a method for employing it.
Posted by <Eric> on October 19, 2001 @ 04:16 PM
from the hope-for-the-beth dept.
[As performed September 19, 2001 e.v., at Metaversal Lightcraft, Berkeley.]
Posted by Nathan W. Bjorge on October 08, 2000 @ 12:58 PM
from the tractacus-logico-hocus-poceus dept.
On the face of it the whole idea of coming up with some kind of theory of Magick is a bad one. It's simply hubris to think that one could intellectually encompass Spirit. Conceiving of Spirit as some static configuration of things, present at hand before us, to be subjected to analysis – this approach is part and parcel of our technological attitude. This attitude sees all beings and being itself as paraded before a detached, separate and cynical Cartesian subject. A subject which assigns any value itself, with no criteria other than its own autonomous reason, which sees all beings and being itself as available for use, for manipulation and exploitation as plastic medium devoid of inherent value.
Posted by <Samael> on February 12, 2001 @ 11:58 AM
from the live-free-or-die dept.
Aleister Crowley: Libertarian Minarchist or Anarcho-fascist? Are Thelema and Liberty truly compatible?
Aleister Crowley has made Reason Magazine's February issue, in an editorial on AC's “Libertarian Authoritarianism” (though I'd have thought Ayn Rand would have won that prize…). Though I do not agree all the editor's opinions, I think he raises some valid points. Crowley in some places talks like a contributing editor of “Spotlight” magazine, and at others like a top-down social planner. Will the real AC please stand up?
In my opinion, Crowley's political philosophy was his least well thought out, and some of his opinions seem inconsistent.
I'd be interested to hear what other Libertarians and or Thelemites have to say about this article.
Posted by Johannes Ayres on November 19, 2001 @ 01:50 PM
from the parsifaegressive dept.
The Temple of MA'AT
and
Metaversal Magickal Theatre
present
The Adventures of
Ferdinand the Bull
in the Underworld
A Taurus/Scorpio Axis Rite
Presented October 31st [2001] at Metaversal Lightcraft
Posted by David R. Jones on March 26, 2000 @ 10:07 AM
from the communionist-manifesto dept.
This mystery is quite interesting. The Book of the Law clearly indicates that the Cakes should be burnt. This would seem to be an oblique reference to the Phoenix. Now if a cake is made with living ingredients and burnt, then these cakes ground and distributed into a larger batch, they could be revivified by the formula of contagion. Id est a new cake containing fresh element or elements from the Priest and Priestess could be used in the ritual of the Mass, in either form, and (in the Gnostic form) if a common cup is then used, the life of the sacrament will be passed to the cake eaten within the body of the congregant when the ritual wine is consumed with the cake, likewise the blood of the conjurer will vivify the form in the Phoenix. In both cases the cakes would be literally transubstantiated. Note how the Gnostic form fulfills the Pelican formula as in “feeding her young.” Note also that the cup can be used to fill other cups and still retain the formula, but the congregants cannot be served from the bottle directly, if the details of the Gnostic Mass only have been maintained. Thus does life both rise from the ashes and feed her young.
For those who are interested, the formula of the Phoenix has the authority of Clement who was after Peter primate of Rome: I Clement XXV.
Posted by Cybele Nightshade on August 27, 2000 @ 08:28 PM
from the sisters-are-doin'-it-for-themselves dept.
Liber AL vel Legis
Sub figura CCXX
As delivered by
XCIII = 418
To
DCLXVI
With the comment of
CLVI, 9*=22
on this, her word and tongue
UNA NE AMA
Posted by Mark Shekoyan on March 30, 2001 @ 08:09 PM
from the utopiate-of-the-masses dept.
Of the numerous social philosophers of the 19th Century, Charles Fourier stands as one of the most unknown, yet potentially prophetic visionaries of a liberated world. Similar in spirit to the individualist anarchism of Max Stirner, yet devoid of the alienated egotism, Fourier provides a radical philosophy of liberty which posits the evolution of social, global, and cosmic harmony through the liberation of desire. To quote Hakim Bey's summary of Fourier's philosophy extensively…
Posted by Marc Cohen on December 21, 2001 @ 04:27 PM
from the seer's-poncho dept.
Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
The Logos that is To Mega Therion was conceived in the womb of the 19th century; I, Zarathustra the Godless, plowed therein a Seed.
The Eternal Recurrence is the Dance of Nuit and Hadit, the spiral coil of ecstasy. Eternity is the fractal infinitude of Qabalistic Zero – which Thou Art! But verily, this be a Mystery of the Fool… look forth upon Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the sub-title thereof shall Initiate you. Away with this ghastly speech, on to the Dance!
Posted by Michael Sanborn on April 30, 2000 @ 07:22 AM
from the immanentizing-the-eschaton-for-dummies dept.
One of my favorite cartoons depicts a roman orgy. There's a marble pool with bodies thrashing around in the water, men in togas chasing giggling women around the edge of the pool, people dancing, laughing, feasting. In the midst of this recline two men, obviously in their cups, red-nosed, holding up goblets of wine. And one says to the other, “I forget exactly what our religion worships, but we have a hell of a good time!”
This, I think, is something like the problem that the newcomer faces when approaching Thelema. There's obviously a lot going on, with many people exhibiting great enthusiasm. But it's not always easy to discover what the foundation is for all of that enthusiasm, since many of us are too caught up in the experience to explain what's going on, and what's going on is, in some ways, rather complex.
In Memoriam
Tim Maroney (1962-2003) who, as “Alcofribas Nasier,” poured an extraordinary amount of work into this website, for very little reward.
THELEMA
MAGICK
SELF-REALIZATION
SOCIAL JUSTICE
SEX WORSHIP
ART
WEIRDNESS
Read Welcome to The Beast Bay to learn about what it's all about.
- The Devil's Charter by Barnabe Barnes
- Secret Agent 666 by Richard B. Spence
- Music of a Distant Drum trans. by Bernard Lewis
- Puerilities trans. by Daryl Hine
- The Spike by Damien Broderick
- A.I. directed by Steven Spielberg
- The Complete Poems of Constantine P. Cavafy by Theoharis Constantine Theoharis
- Trance: From Magic to Technology by Dennis R. Wier
- The Queen's Conjurer by Benjamin Woolley
- The Greek Qabalah by Kieran Barry
- Open Society by George Soros
- Soul Without Shame by Byron Brown
- The Elements of the I Ching by Stephen Karcher, Ph.D.
- Time, Space, and Knowledge by Tarthang Tulku.
- Maat Magick by Nema.
- The Pearl Beyond Price by A. H. Almass.
Quick Links
For information about the OTO Lodge closest to the Beast Bay Command Compound, visit The Abbey of Thelema.
For a tribute to one of the San Francisco Bay Area's brightest lights, see Ebony Anpu's Memorial Museum of Magick.
For a glimpse of another epochal English genius, visit In Memory of Stafford Beer.
“As St. Paul says, 'Without shedding of blood there is no remission,' and who are we to argue with St. Paul?” – Aleister Crowley
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