Posts Tagged ‘Writing as Magick’

MOMA: Manifesto Of Multidimensional Art

multidimensional art | Posted by jmoore
Apr 15 2011

horus1M.O.M.A.

MANIFESTO OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL ART

Being the founding document, in Class B of

S.M.A.C.

the Society for Multidimensional Art Concepts

and/or

the Sothis Medias Artist Collective

0. All created things manifest in this physical existence have their origins on the Astral and Subtle Planes. While physicality is common throughout the multiverse, material existence is but a dot on the continuum of consciousness. As such reified physical creations are not seen as being the only legitimate form of creativity. While artifacts, in whatever medium or media, are not to be denigrated, they are seen more as correlaries for something already existing in one of the many Astral Worlds or Imaginal Realms. Because conditions in the Astral World culminate and later manifest in the physical, the Multidimensional Artist seeks to create and sculpt the ideoplastic substance of the Ether into scripts and scenarios that will later be reflected here in the physical world. All impulse’s arise out of the mystical void.

I.AD0PT, ADAPT, ADEPT: The Crowning achievement of Multidimensional Artists will be their own enlightenment, individuation, initiation and adepthood. The Adept Ad0pts new behaviours as needed to Adapt to changing circumstances. The power to create comes from the Indwelling of the Divine. The impetus to create comes from the Godhead and connection to the world of spirits. The Multidimensional Artist is an Agent who seeks to reestablish Intelligence, by connecting with various beings, be they Spirits of the Land, or more Cosmic personalities, such as those associated with the Dog Star or Alpha Centauri, for example.

II. SEEKERS, KEEPERS AND SPEAKERS OF ECSTATIC & ENSTATIC WISDOM AND SACRED MEMORY: The Multidimensional Art Movement (M.A.M.) is one of Ecstasy. The Artist seeks out Ecstatic states, be they archaic, contemporary, or future forms of Gnosis. This is the Ecstasy of the shaman, the Greek Ekstasis of being outside oneself, where an individual is able to apprehend the true nature of the multiverse. The contemplation of Enstasis, of standing within oneself is also valued for the discipline and discernment it brings. Ecstasy can be seen as the gathering of new knowledge and insight, while Enstasy is the act of synthesizing the knowledge into useful vessels.Dancing, walking, movement, the beating of drums, and the clash of cymbals are just a few of the activities appropriate for entertaining Ecstasy. Writing, recording, and meditating are appropriate Enstatic activities. The Multidimensional Artist, being resourceful by definition, is able to appropriate pre-existing methods and brainstorm new modes of each. In addition to seeking out modes of Ecstasy and Enstasy, the Multidimensional Artist is a Keeper of Wisdom, and Speaker of Wisdom. These go hand in hand because wisdom is not meant to be kept to oneself, but given to others. Messages are both stored and transmitted. The various Arts of Memory are studied and applied.

III. THE GRAIL or SOUL FAMILIES, LINEAGES & VESSELS: One of the duties of a Multidimensional Artist is to create suitable vehicles for the containment of the Work. These vessels become bubbling cauldrons of inspiration. The people who drink from them then become Inspirators. This is how knowledge is passed, in a non-linear fashion, from one node of Multidimensional Artists to another. The blood of previous Artists, that is to say Magicians, Saints, Heroes and Adepts is mingled into the Grail of her own Understanding. The genealogy of Soul Families, as well as actual ancestors is an appropriate avenue of investigation in this regard. Drink of this vital blood –the knowledge of all past and future works of Art- and be refreshed. While the Multidimensional Artist is aware of tradition, she works to safely expand its parameters through exploration offering up new insights, publishing her findings, administering the Communion within the Community. Sharing the Work becomes an act of Sacrament. The Gift given by the blood of other Artists is returned through our own Gifts.

XI. OtherWorldly Knowledge: Knowledge is the Gateway to Universe B and the myriad other universes making up the Multiverse. The Multidimensional Artist is an Astral Cartographer whose duty is to map out the many territories he explores, but never losing sight of the maxim that the map is not the territory, all the while working to refine and add detail to the many interconnected maps which exist for navigating the labyrinthine tunnells of reality. The Multi-Dimensional artist is also concerned with World-Building in the broadest sense of the term. This includes everything from psychically terraforming the existing landscape, to creating new villages, towns, and cities on other planes, to the actual building of worlds, atom by atom.

IV. CHAOS: Multidimensional Artists work to keep Chaos playful and benign. They allow the inner wildness of the wilderness to come out of its shell. The Multidimensional Artist is at home throwing lavish banquets, is a consumate hostess of conferences, parties and all social gatherings from picnics to potlatch. Carnivals, festivals, and celebrations are all appropriate modes for the sharing of wealth. Nature is studied, and techniques of biomimicry are employed. The Multidimensional Scientist does not see evolution in terms of survival of the fittest, but working through what Peter Kropotkin termed Mutual Aid.

V. ORDER: The Multidimensional Anarcho-Activist is a Speaker for Trees, Animals and Plants. The benevolence of the Godhead is extended not only to humans but to all forms of life. The Activist uses his powers to stop the encroach of the Imperium over every aspect of life. Agitprop, pranks, and feral disobedience are employed. Anticorporate magick is used to restore Order. The Investigative Poetry of Ed Sanders is one possible method used for recording herstories that would otherwise be eradicated by the oppressors of Love, Light, Life and Liberty. The tendency for Multidimensional Anarcho-Activists to dwell in Utopian and Dystopian Fantasylands must be balanced by taking a stake in the Great Work of Transformation. The entire culture must be alchemized. The discontents of civilization must be shaken up and distilled in the Alembic of Art, for civilization has not yet been achieved.

VI. TRUTH AND BEAUTY / STELLAR MAGICK: The Multidimensional Artist is a servant of both Truth and Beauty. The two are not always aligned with eachother. Sometimes to tell the Truth a poet must express herself in terms most vile and ugly. Truth and Beauty must be upheld for their own sake. When dark Truths are exposed it creates opportunities for the beautiful to grow. The culture of misinformation, doublespeak, newspeak and a politics which is centered on Mammon as opposed to Earth and her children is inherently ugly. This dark reality cannot be ignored. As an investigator of new territories it is the job of the Artist to add to the sum total of knowledge, not censor or subtract from it. At the same time she must be an Inspirator –the worlds antidote to Conspirators, Imperators, and Dicktators. Visions of the beautiful must be elucidated to bring them into reality. Pictures of alternate paths and ways of living must be made. New Maps must be written that show how to reach New Worlds.

The stars have always been an inspiration to humanity. Sothis, the Greek word for Sirius which translates as the Star of Isis, is the Sun of our own Sun. In other words, our solar system rotates in an orbit around Sirius, just as Earth and her sister and brother planets rotate around Sol. Sothis is a higher octave of the solar vibration. Some say our origin is from the Stars and our destiny also lies among them. We are made of starstuff. The Multidimensional Artist is a Divine Astrologer whose goal is to make Contact with other Intelligences from the Stellar Realms.

VII. ORGONE ACCUMULATION: The Artist is a Multidimensional Accumulator of Orgone, well versed in the crafts of Love. Not only are techniques of Tantric-Taoist-Kama-Sutra-Sex-Magick known and employed to the delight of their lovers, but they are used to generate whole body kundalini orgasms that ejaculate out of the heart, third eye and crown chakras seeding the Astral Plane with altruistic children. Healthy sexual self expression is acknowledged as being a tool (always kept well pumped and primed) for breaking down the rigid Character Armor that is a precondition for the cancerous growth of fascist societies (see the works of Wilhelm Reich, especially The Function of the Orgasm and The Mass Psychology of Fascism). The Multidimensional Accumulator of Orgone is also a Healer, engaged with the practice and study of various vibrational healing modalities. Art therapy is also employed as a means for working through our own issues, neurosis, rigidities. It is most especially used for soul recovery.

VIII. MULTIMEDIA & MULTIDISCIPLINARY ART: While it is not enough for the Multidimensional Artist to work merely upon one plane of existence, it is acknowledged that much of the Work to be done is on the physical plane. As such any and all mediums for the working of Artistic Magick are fair game. While talent may specifically lie in one area for any individual artist, other mediums should not be dismissed, but rather explored so as to create iterative feedback loops informing a wide variety of disciplines. The Celtic God Lugh/Lleu is one possible patron in this area, as he is a master of many arts, and uses his mastery of them to open doors. Saraswati the Hindu Goddess of Knowledge, Music, and the Arts, is one possible matron. Devotion to the Work is in service to the Goddess.

IX. ONEIROMANCY / LUNAR MAGICK: The Multidimensional Artist is an investigative Dream Journalist. Dreams play a lead role in this art movement, as it is in the dream world where most acts of creation occur. Adept dreamers –or Oneiromancers- are as comfortable navigating the astral landscape as they are the physical. The dream world is acknowledged as the real world. Dreaming encompasses a wide variety of discipline and terrain. The intrepid explorer Robert Moss has laid a strong foundation in his approach called Active Dreaming,which is his personal synthesis of contemporary dreamwork, and ancient techniques including shamanism. This groundwork will be built upon further.

The Oneiromancer is attuned to the fluctuating rhythms of the M00n. The phases are studied, and the effects utilized for the benefit of the Artist. Plantings of Multidimensional Seed Thoughts can be done on both the New M00n and Full M00n. Plantings on the New M00ns are appropriate when the swift uprising of strong shoots is desired. F00l M00ns are sterling when it comes to the sinking down of deep roots. It is appropriate to communicate with the Intelligences of the Lunar Sphere.

X.STEWARDS OF THE QUEENDOM: The Multidimensional Artist is a steward of the Queendom of Earth. They are Gardeners and Wildcrafters alike. Seeds which were planted in the Void grow their roots in Heaven and the branches tumble down to our material Universe. The Queens and Kings who act as Stewards of this realm wear the Crown of Creation, for they have opened up the gates of reception and transmission of Divine Knowledge between the worlds. They do not rule with the iron fist of the Dicktator or Imperator, but as egalitarian equals. They do not see themselves as being elevated above humanity. Humiltiy is their watchword. But partaking as they do of many channels of reality, greater responsibilities are given to them. Part of that responsibility is awakening our fellow humans from the dangerous sleepwalk that has lead us to a brink where multiple systems, both Planetary and human are on the precipice of falling and failing. The extinction of many forms of Life, including are own are the stakes in this game. Part of being a steward includes working with and getting to know the Elemental forces of the Land. The Steward remembers that we nourish the Land just as the Land nourishes us. Soul must be restored to the Land. In that sense, while the Multidimensional Art Movement is multiversal in its scope, the work of individuals shall also be deeply rooted in the particulars of their own watersheds and bioregions. As the movement spreads, stewards shall arise from all corners of Earth to speak for Her.

As Michael Moorcock wrote in The Dreamthief’s Daughter, « There is something to be said for dedicating one’s life to an impossible cause. »

Let us now continue in the Great Work.

-Justin Patrick Moore

Cincinnati, Ohio

March 3rd, 2011

Note : A syllabus will be made available for those who wish to delve deeper into the ideas that gave birth to M.O.M.A. and the Society for Multidimensional Art Concepts. However, the advanced student is expected to write and study from her own syllabus.

This manifesto originally appeared in Silver Star Journal.

Also Available as a PDF in the “Essays” page.

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The Lions of Dreamland

Dream, Textuality | Posted by jmoore
Apr 12 2011

active_dreamingThis book could have just as easily been called “Community Dreaming”, and therein lies its strength. I see it as a sequel to one of his previous books “The Three Only Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence, and Imagination”. Where that book gave the individual a useful toolkit for opening themselves up to the deeper workings of the multidimensional universe, “Active Dreaming” sets the stage for taking those personal journeys out into the community. This is of great importance. In doing so, Robert is gently helping people reach out to and create something he calls, “The Place of the Lion”. What is the Place of the Lion? Through one of the stories Robert tells he shows that it is a place of “wild freedom” where a person can see past the limiting consensual hallucinations which have placed cages around and bars around what humanity thinks is possible.

The book is filled with inspiring stories and practical exercises. Personally, my favorite section is the appendix, “Dreamland: Documents of a Possible Future.” This dreamland has nothing to do with Area 51 (thank goodness), but shows a neutral society, or “Switzerland of the Mind” which has come into existence after a technological Singularity wreaks soul loss and ecocide across the planet. The Priestess-Scientists who guide this community are using the power of dreams to help repair the planet. This book will certainly benefit those who take the time to not only read it, but work with the material laid out in its pages. It is accessible to the beginner in dreamwork, while also giving some new games to the frequent fliers who have already been playing at this stuff for awhile. Coming from one of my favorite publishers, the dream elucidated between these covers really does give a road map to a New World.

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A Drink for Dream Archeaologists

Dream | Posted by jmoore
Mar 12 2011
chateau_jihauWhen on a whim I popped open “Uncorking the Past”, a book about ancient alcoholic beverages, I hadn’t counted on the possibility of slipping into the world of Neolithic Chinese shamanism. Nor had I expected to learn about how a dream inspired the label for a brew released by Dogfish Head, a recreation of the worlds oldest alcoholic beverage dug dug up by a team led by biomolecular archaeologist Patrick E. McGovern, who wrote the book. But such are the gifts of the Library Angel.
The discoveries have sprung up from Jiahu, an ealy Neolithic site in the Henan province of North Central China. Among the things discovered at the site were instruments made from shell, flutes, bones, and drinking vessels. Chemical analysis of the residue put the historians on a path of research leading to the scientific literature, and further study to investigate what plants were in the area at the time in the field. What they were able to conclude was that the people in the region brewed and drank a complex beverage consisting of a “grape and hawthorn-fruit wine, honey mead, and rice beer.” The author then speculates on how this beverage may have played an important role in a “shamanistic funeral feast associated with the musicians of Jiahu”, though he also surmises the imbibing of the beverage to be widespread throughout the community. They had just discovered the a drink 9,000 years old. 
    
After a bit of media hype they started thinking about bringing the old drink back to life. With the help of Sam Calagione, owner and brewer of Dogfish Head, and his experimental brewer Mike Gerhart, they were able to recreate the heady liquid.  But only after facing many challenges, false starts, and near misses. Later with the help of another Dogfish Head brewer, they tweaked the formula to give it a sweet and sour flavor, to match Chinese food. It was during this time when “Sam had slipped into shamanistic revelry. He recounted a dream in which a naked Chinese Neolithic girl, with long hair flowing down her back and buttocks, had approached him with the beverage.” Acting on the dream he commisioned designer Tara Macpherson to create the label (attached below). The designer had “placed a seemingly enigmatic tatoo, which had also been part of Sam’s dream, on the lower back of the the celebrant” gracing the label. The sign is the Chinese word for “wine”. The brew was named Chateau Jiahu, and it’s gone through a few incarnations. My own action plan based on this sequence of events is to find a bottle of the liquid past and crack it open.  
Source: Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages by Patrick E. McGovern.

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Dreams of China Mieville

Dream | Posted by jmoore
Feb 22 2011

china_mieville1The Tain and The Tain

I inhabit a crossroads where speculative literature, the occult and experimental music intersect. The thoughts, ideas, and personalities which daily percolate through my brain are later distilled as dreams in the alembic of my soul as I sleep creating a wonderful feedback loop. It should be no surprise that some of the characters I dream of are caricatures of authors I admire, both living and dead. I document these encounters in my dream journal. One of the most important things I learned from reading Aleister Crowley is that the diary, or the magickal record as he often called it, is the primary tool of the magician.

A fragment from July 2010 initiated a series of episodes revolving around China Mieville and his work. In it I am reading what I take to be part of the Bas-Lag Trilogy, but it takes place between The Scar and Iron Council. Waking up from this experience, I was very excited and when I got the chance, looked up Mieville’s bibliography to see what, if anything he had written between two aforementioned books, and learned he had written a novella, called The Tain. This was very significant to me on many levels. Celtic motifs have been recurring elements in my dreams, and as part of my research into Celtic folklore I have begun making my first tentative steps into Irish mythology and the Ulster cycle, and the tales which culminate in The Tain Bo Culaigne. I read Mieville’s The Tain and enjoyed it thoroughly, though I couldn’t find a scrap or hint of anything which seemed to point in the direction of the Irish Tain epic.

Mieville’s Tain was in part, however a riff based on a tale by Jorge Luis Borges, and this provided me with other joys. The word tain can also mean “a tinfoil used for the backing of mirrors” and this is the sense that Borges and Mieville use it. The novella takes the familiar post-apocalyptic trope and spins it on its head. The setting is a London where the surviving humans get by on their own wits while the failing military tries to impose martial law. The people are under attack by otherworldly beings called imagos who have come into this world from the other side of mirrors, from the reflections in pools, metal, anything that reflects. The novella itself is a reflection on the injustices of our own society, but the approach is never heavy handed, he never has to belabor the point at the expense of the story. Told with two monologues, the voice of the imagos is heard alongside that of the human narrator, creating what is essentially a view on both sides of the mirror.

I also spent some of this time delving into the Tain Bo Culaigne but must admit I still haven’t gotten into the thick of it yet. I tried out several translations, and have finally settled on one by Randy Lee Eickhoff. Now it sits once again in the lower portion of a book pile, of which I have many.

Sharing a Taxi with China

Then in October of 2010 I shared a taxi with China (in a dream). I get into a taxi. China Mieville is in the front, but also a passenger. We are in Northern Kentucky, either Covington or Newport. We get to talking. I tell him that I’m also a writer, and that I have written one novella that year, and a few short stories. “I’m going to revise the novella soon,” I say to him, “but I thought I’d work on the short stories.

Then I start telling him what I have read by him, clearly geeking out in fan mode, saying, “And I’ve read a number of stories in your short story collection, including The Tain.” He seems to be slightly annoyed by mention of The Tain. He says, “Oh yeah, The Tain.” I ask him when the taxi slows to a halt, “Is this where you live?” Thinking I might come by sometime. He doesn’t answer but all manner of information starts passing between us telepathically: He wrote The Tain while he was experiencing a block, or blocking himself from writing a much longer work. Still there is a knowing smill in Mieville when he beams this information to me. Thoughts of Borges and Mirrors pass between us as well. HE is dressed in a loose punk rock style, with a chain going through a loop in his jacket on his shoulder. Then more information passes between us about his publishing history. His most recent book, which is [in the dream] his first book King Rat, was self-published and done up nicely. Mieville, now established is moving into self-publishing.

I cannot account for the veracity of my dream. In fact aspects of it seem to be pure invention. As King Rat is not China’s most recent book, but his first book. It seems to have been traditionally published. The point of the matter is I awoke from this dream in a creative frenzy with tons of energy to get words on the page. I also felt it would be good for me to go ahead and self-publish, which I have recently done, in the most basic way, by uploading my novelette Trepanning for Gold as a free PDF. I also do not claim this was the “real” China Mieville visiting me in a dream, but rather a form my dream producers latched onto, a person who inspires me, and whose likeness in a dream inspired me to continue doing the necessary work.

King Rat

The next dream I had about China took place the day after the winter solstice. I am in my neighbor’s house. There are a bunch of people there, and everybody is kind of punk rock. The guy tells me that China Mieville lives in the neighborhood, and when he shows up I am very excited because I think I’ll be able to show him my manuscripts. Everybody is smoking. There is a nervous energy. Things speed up. I leave. China walks with me, and I tell him, “Hey, I’ve read a few of your books and short stories.” He seems pleased that I have done so.

I then say “And I just got a copy of King Rat from Earthling Publications. It’s really nice.” Mieville seems very fond of the book. He says, “Oh yes. Henric. Ratty,” and something else related to one of the characters in the book. Then I am some type of factory. I squeeze beneath some oil tubing spigots to get to the next scene.

A few weeks after the dream I finally got around to reading the book, and I wrote a review of it for Brainwashed which is up this week. King Rat was an important book for me in a number of ways, but two stand out: 1) the way he incorporates his love of music into the story 2) the way he twists a traditional fairy tale or legend (in this case The Pied Piper of Hamelin) and uses it as a sinister plot device.

I wouldn’t presume that China has the time or inclination to take a look at my stories, but I do know that my dreams of him have spurred my writing onwards. Consciously or subconsciously everything we writers read has an influence on us. Utilizing the energy and inspiration from our dreams can help a writer work consciously with the influences that are best suited to a person at a given time. In our dreams we also have direct access to teachers and masters of whatever art it is we are given to pursue. Tapping into them can be a source of tremendous strength and power.

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Soul Noir: Dreaming with “The Dreamthief’s Daughter”

Dream, Writing as Magick | Posted by jmoore
Jan 29 2011

dreamthiefs_daughter_robert_gould

Sometimes the atmosphere of a book is so strong, reading even just a few pages of it is enough to catapult a person into strange dreams. This was the case for me after I had read the first chapter of Michael Moorcock’s The Dreamthief’s Daughter. I turned off the light on my night stand, just before 11PM. In the hypnagogic zone I saw an image of myself standing in a room with my TV-B-Gone device and turning off a bunch of TVs mounted on the walls, before falling into a deeper sleep. Then at around 1AM I woke up mesmerized by the following dream.

I am in a bar at the library. A person is there who wants me to buy some drugs. I don’t want to, but I feel compelled by him to do so, but still don’t. Either way we leave the library together and go outside. Then he is gone and I see a library security guard driving a huge semi-truck. There is a hill, with a trench dug in it where a pipe is, but the pipe has been broken. I then realize, as I go into a dark room, that there is an aspect of myself -a shade or doppelganger- who is also at large, running around. This part of my self is a thief. I hear a voice in the dream. It is an older voice. It says “I have become worthless at my Art.” This doppelganger thief steals whatever it can because stealing is its very nature. Everything has been stolen from it and so it steals. I hear the voice “I steal because it is my soul and it is my soul to steal.” I realize I’m in the world of Moorcock, a hyper multiverse as I start to wake up.

Laying there in the darkness, tears start to well up in my eyes as I write scratchy lines in the dark in my notebook. Though I know I will not forget, they are an aid to remembrance. I have the immediate thought/feeling that this state of thievery is a form of collective soul loss. Words of a cryptic poem started to flood my mind:

Entrapped by a vicious circle of wolves
ensnared at a table
of poisonous soul food
I dine among thieves.
I dress as a turncoat
because my own pockets
have been picked.
I’m saddled to this rocking chair
and ridden by greed.
I’ve taken a sack of bones, without meat
and use them to clean my teeth
wiggled loose
by a tongue who knows only lies.
I cannot see myself
for I have fused with the disguise.

The plight of the modern soul lay bare to me in that moment. I wrote “I must do something to protect the naked children.”

I went back to sleep and more scenes unfolded. The next day I continued to work with the dream and the sequences that followed, all the while delving deeper into the drama of Ulric von Bek, the central character in Moorcock’s drama. Riveted by the tale, I soon learned one of the central themes it explores is that of the doppelganger. Ulric is a double of Elric of Melnibone (and in a convoluted way also his progeny) the Eternal Champion whose heroic efforts and feats are aimed at maintaining balance between Law and Chaos. In the story the first person narrative shifts back and forth a few times from Ulric’s point of view to Elric’s with only the mildest confusion. It is like the type of dream where one suddenly finds oneself in a different body. I feel that reading this type of fiction can help a person prepare for the doppelganger experience.

While my own dream had pointed out to me causes of personal soul loss, like the use of drugs, stealing the identity of another person because portions of my own soul had been taken from me, in an endless revolving door of thievery, from one person to the next, the book I was reading delved into the trauma of collective soul loss that was World War II. Another layer of resonance between dream and reading material was unveiling itself. I started speculating along unusual lines. The warfare of The Great War (WWI) had ripped a hole in reality itself, allowing for even more sinister beings to come through, motivating and taking possession of men like Hitler. Indeed a pre-existing collective soul loss seems to have been a precondition allowing for the atrocities the Nazis perpetrated. The hole was torn more widely open in WWII and the world is still not healed from the psychic shell shock inflicted on humanity then.

Moorcock himself writes, “The rise of fascism had shocked and exhausted her. Mussolini’s successes were an abomination to her, and Hitler was inconceivably shallow and vicious in his political rhetoric, his ambitions and claims. But as she said when I last saw her, Germany’s soul had been stolen already. Hitler was merely addressing the corpse of German democracy. He had killed nothing. He had grown out of the grave, she said. Grown out of that corpse like an epidemic which had rapidly infected the entire country. ‘And where is Germany’s soul?’ I asked. ‘Who stole it?’”

And again, “It was as if some demonic force had been attracted by the stink of the Boer War’s carnage, by Leopold’s Congo, by the Armenian genocide, by the Great War, by the millions of corpses which filled the ditches, gutters, and tranches of the world from Paris to Peking. Greedily feasting, the force grew strong enough to prey upon the living.”

All these thoughts have made me want to dip back into Wilhelm Reich’s excellent study The Mass Psychology of Fascism which I read about ten years ago.
Outside of all the seriousness within the story it is also a wonderful and magical adventure tale. It kept me up late for several nights as each scene unfolded, until I was finished. For the dreamer and the magically inclined it offers a great deal of speculation for study and active experimentation.

Not only do the characters tread the moonbeam roads of the multiverse, they spend a good deal of time in Mu Ooria, a type of Hollow Earth deep in the subterranean caverns of Earth, where dwell the Off Moo. The twin/double/doppelganger motif is repeated here, as the Off Moo frequently give birth to twins. Dreaming is also practiced as an art among the Off Moo. Healing was also a very refined magical art among the Off Moo. “Their bone setters and muscle soothers work mostly in the ponds…They have pools of river water, to which they have added certain other properties. No matter what the ailment, be it a broken bone, or a cancerous organ, it can be healed in the curing ponds with the application of certain other processes specific to your complaint. Music, for instance. And color. Consequently, timeless as this place is, we are even less aware of the familiar action of time as we know it on the surface.”

The mind bending complexity of the multiverse is another overarching theme, especially as it relates to time, a common trope in science fiction. Time seems to be different depending on what level of reality one is on in the multiverse. “I was having difficulties with Mittlemarch notions of time. It seemed as if we were all fated to live identical lives in billions of counterrealities, rarely able to change our stories, yet constantly striving to do so.”

As an Active Dreamer I believe we can change our story, and we can do so by tapping into the lives of our other selves taking place in different branches of the multiverse, or on different ‘branes of parallel realites that we can experience through dreams.

In Moorcock’s high concept literary fantasy the struggle taking place between overbearing Law and too lenient Chaos on Earth was mirrored on other orders of reality, by forces that had ever more awareness of the multiverse itself. In our struggles to create balance between Chaos and Order we can draw on the power of the Gods, Goddesses, and spirits who come to us in dreams.

In the last sequence of the dream I had on the night when I began the book I find myself standing across from a building where there are a group of workers who have climbed up several stories and smashed out the windows. I have a metal box on it with some buttons that make sounds in the building. I press the buttons. The workers don’t know where the music is coming from. I am frightened for them because they are being extremely careless for being up so high. I leave the scene and walk over to a door in a wall. As I step through the door, the whole wall smashes into pieces, I am in outer space and the debris from the wall is flying in every direction. I’m on to a new episode in the multiverse I realize, but then I wake up.

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Dreaming Better Cities

Dream, Writing as Magick | Posted by jmoore
Jul 28 2010

stun city rudy ruckerThe best part of the movie “Inception” was also the shortest.  It was the scene when Ariadne, the architect, takes Dom Cobb through the city she has created, when she bends the streets so that the city folds in on itself. The concept of an archictect designing dream cities holds a lot of potential. Unfortunately the dream cities of “Inception” were far less mysterious, fantastical, and imaginative as those I travel in my own dreams, or in the fiction I read.

Charles de Lint is one of my favorite writers. Recently I’ve been delving into the short stories contained in his collection “Tapping the Dream Tree”. All of these take place in his fictional North American city of Newford. Although not specified, I always imagine it to be somewhere in the North West, in Canada. Newford is a great place to hang out. It is a city where you are liable to stumble across a voodon ritual, meet up with the Crow girls to help retrieve someones lost soul, sip a pint of ale in one of the many magical music venues, go to an opening where you might meet someone who has Fairie blood, and encounter Pixies who’ve slipped out from the computer screen at a bookstore.  The girl with Fairie blood is Sophie, one of the recurring characters who appears throughout de Lint’s Newford books. Every night when she goes to sleep she enters the dream city of Mabon. It is a city she dreamed up herself, and yet it has taken on a life of its own. She has a whole other life going on in her dream city. It’s even where her boyfriend lives. Here we have the fictional city of Newford, and within it a dream city of Mabon. Dreams within dreams, and cities within cities. I love it.

Another excellent book featuring imaginative dream cities is “Palimpsest” by Catherynne M. Valente. It is a story of a sexually transmitted city. The city is reached in dreams, but only after the characters have sex with someone who has been there before. Those who have been there are marked forever by a tattoo of the city. This is how the city is transmitted.Don’t forget “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino either, as if you could.

It’s time to start mapping our own  internal cities, and bringing the energy from them into waking life. The better cities we will build on earth all have their origin in the imagination. Grown from seeds, they can be woven into the fabric of reality.

Image is “Stun City” by polymath Science Fiction writer Rudy Rucker.

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Some Notes on Keeping a Journal

Textuality, Writing as Magick | Posted by jmoore
Jul 11 2010

dream journalI’m almost 31 years old now, and I’ve been writing since I can remember. Looking through old school papers my Mom had saved I found my first science fiction story from around the third grade called “Space Quest”, and I remember the stories that I wrote as assignments in second grade already had chapters. But I started keeping a diary about my life in the 6th grade, a practice I’ve kept with throughout. I have a filing cabinet in the closet in my study/library/writing & music room filled with old notebooks and journals. It’s full now, and the journals I now keep spill onto my bookshelves -themselves already full, double rowed or with stacks of more books and papers in front. I write all this to say that over the years I’ve experimented with a number of ways of keeping my journals organized. This is how they stand now. Perhaps this set up will be helpful to others:

1. I keep a small moleskine or other durable memo pad (unlined if it can be helped) in my pocket, or next to me on my desk at work or when at home, at all times. This also sits on my nightstand for capturing things during the odd hours of night, morning or what have you. This pocket notebook is essential for writing down keywords from dreams, synchronicities as I notice them, intuitive flashes and ideas as I get them. First, I am a dreamer and a writer, but at this time I’m still working the proverbial day job at the local library (a great place for my ongoing researches in any case). The work for an essay, article, or story doesn’t stop when I put the pen down (it usually just joins the other one already in my pocket anyway); and as I get back to earning the green reality tickets we’ve all agreed upon to trade with by consensus (and perhaps stifled imagination) I continue to compose the story, essay, review, poem, etc. in my mind -especially, if I’ve just come back from my hour lunch break, which is really an hour break so I can write. The pocket notebook allows me to write some notes down, that I can get back to later, and I can sketch them in on the fly without annoying my co-workers too much. Anyway, they should be keeping a journal as well.

2. I used to keep separate books for my waking thoughts and my night dreams. These were black hard bound blank page notebooks. As I take my journal with me everywhere I go, along with a book or two  I’m reading, this set up became too cumbersome. As I started working with my dreams on a regular basis, it became apparent, that I was often writing about my waking thoughts, day time events, synchronicities, what I was reading, etc. and my dreams, all in context with each other, so the separation began to feel artificial. I now no longer worry about it. What I did do, though, and this I got from Robert Moss, was start keeping my stuff in a binder. I can’t stand to write on lined paper, so I take blank paper from the office and punch holes in it. Keeping things in a binder allows you to go back and add in some thoughts at a later time about a dream or event -especially useful, as pointed out in Robert’s “Dreaming True” book- when you’ve had a precognitive dream, or various types of “life rhymes” experiences.

3. Although I do not separate my dreams from my waking experiences in the journal any longer, I do have a few sections in my binder. A) Dreams, Waking Events, Ideas, Thoughts, etc. I index these by title/subject/theme at the beginning of each month. B) I already mentioned that I am a writer. If I don’t write I get really depressed and feel like I am not only letting myself down, but feel negligent for not doing what I know is part of my purpose in the world during this incarnation. I write poetry, stories, articles.  To stay organized I keep current drafts and print outs of finished pieces in a second section of my binder. c) Although I will often write about things I am reading and listening to in the fist section of my journal -as what I read is often based on research leads and cues from dreams and coincidence.  I also try to write at least a page or two of thoughts/notes/feelings about books and articles I’ve just finished reading, more if it is particularly important to my own path. Photocopies of relevant material, printouts from blogs, magazine articles and other stuff, along with my marginalia may also go in here.  As a huge music fan with my own radio show I also write music reviews for the independent music website Brainwashed.com. Printouts of the reviews of the albums I’ve listened to and written about also go in this section, because oftentimes the music I listen to is just as important to me as what I’ve been reading.

4. Lastly, I have a travel binder. This is the one I put in the bag that goes with me. (Interestingly enough I bought the bag at a yard sale from a lady who is a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams -before I knew she was a member.) When it starts getting too full, I take a month or two’s worth of dreams, drafts, and reading/music thoughts out and put those in separate large binders. So far I fill up about one large binder full of dream stuff per year. The drafts, printed copies of finished pieces, and reading notes fill up separate binders.

I’ve got a review to write now. You’re on your own when it comes to storing all those diaries you’ll be filling up.

This post started off as a comment over at the new Dreamgates blog by Robert Moss, where you’ll be sure to find me joining in the various discussions. Find it at the following address:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/dreamgates/

Specifically my comment was on this post: Why You Want to Keep A Journal

http://blog.beliefnet.com/dreamgates/2010/06/why-you-want-to-keep-a-journal.html

also of keen interest: Games to Play With Your Journal

http://blog.beliefnet.com/dreamgates/2010/06/games-to-play-with-your-journal.html

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Silver Star, Summer Solstice, Vol. 2, Issue 2

Magick, Text, Writing as Magick | Posted by jmoore
Jul 08 2010

I have a few pieces of writing up in the new Issue of the premiere online magickal magazine, Silver Star: A Journal of New Magick. So take a long hard gander at all the wondrous material contained in the Summer Solstice 2010, Volume 2, Issue 2 edition.

http://www.horusmaat.com/silverstar2/SILVERSTAR2.htm

Hyperlinks to my individual works within the webzine follow:

A Transmission from Chapel 23 a magickally informed cut-up.

Luciferins a poem.

A Writers Guide to the Library Oracle and It’s Angel an Essay.

My review of “The Bodmin Moor Zodiac” by Nigel Ayers, which originally appeared on Brainwashed.com also appears in the Popular Occulture 13 reviews section.

Shout outz to Robert Carey!!!

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Peter Lamborn Wilson’s “Abecedarium” & the Magick of Writing

Writing as Magick | Posted by jmoore
May 10 2010

abecedariumPeter Lamborn Wilson, aka, Hakim Bey has an amazing new book out exploring the esoteric mysteries of the alphabet. My review of it is now online at Brainwashed.

This book represents a foundation stone in a current area of my ongoing studies: the magick of writing. Specifically my focus is on magick books, particularly the magickal novel. The archetypal image of magick books is rife within fantastic literature and I grew up with this image in my mind. Aleister Crowley, in having his own books privately printed, knew more of the nuts and bolts of how to make magickal books. My own inspiration in this vein has come recently from Oryelle Defenestrate-Bascule’s “Tela Quadrivium” project, among other sources. The Tela Quadrivium is a series of four books, each one about one of the four phases of alchemy. So far Conjunctio has been released, and he is currently in the process of working on Coagula. In conjunctio a series of divine twins are presented on opposing pages. In turning the leaves, the beings mate. When the series is complete, all four books can be laid in a circle and the entire collection will be able to be read widdershins or deosil, as well as used for ritual purposes.

When Oryelle sent out an artists call for Silk Milk Four I had a dream about “Frontispiece Alchemy” which is recounted in the MagiZain alongside my own collage of mystic and alchemical imagery. After the printing press was invented, books often contained elaborate engraved frontispieces encoding much esoteric symbolism for those who knew what to look for.

frontispiece_monte_snyder

I started thinking about the sorry state of books these days. While there are many fine writers creating beautiful texts, for the most part the way these texts are bound in book form is lackluster. Now don’t get me wrong, I have a whole shelf of vintage SF paperbacks that are great for taking on the bus, and I know that there are still craftsman hard at work reviving and breathing new life into the art of bookmaking. Some of them are even of a magickal bent such as the fine folk at Fulgur Limited and Scarlet Imprint.  The same care and quality should be applied to novels, especially those dealing with overtly magickal themes, in order to create a unified magickal whole.

There has been a strong tradition of “Occult Novels” starting perhaps with the works of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, on to Aleister Crowley’s fiction in “Diary of A Drug Fiend” , “Moonchild” and the Simon Iff stories. Arthur Machen’s stories can also be seen in this light, as can books like “The Sea Priestess”, “Moon Magic” and “The Secrets of Dr. Tavener” by Dion Fortune. Who are the modern or contemporary proponents of this tradition? Once at a booksigning I met Clive Barker. At the age of seventeen I was convinced he was an occultist (see books like “Imajica”, “The Great and Secret Show” and “Everville”). After wading through the line when my friends and I finally got up to the table I asked, “Do you practice ritual magick?”. He told me flat out “my writing is my magic”. We were disappointed and it took me a long time to come back to what he said with fresh understanding.

One of my definite chief aims in life is to help shape a culture of dreaming and magick. I am a dream revivalist. The magickal revival and the dream revival are already well under way, but I intend to add to the conversation through my own writings, Radio-activity, musick and work in the arts in general. Part of the work is Jnana Yoga, or study, and I will be doing my own research on “the novel as a magickal artifact”. As a writer I find that I learn best by writing about what I love and crafting my own magickal and dream inspired fictions will give me “the practice” to balance the theory. I will also be reporting on my readings and gleanings from this field here.

Since the alphabet is the basic building block of the written language I write in, I will be following up “Abecedarium” with a read of “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: the Conflict Between Word and Image” by Leonard Shlain.

As always there is so much to read and write.

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