[This is an excerpt from our first issue of "GNOSTIC COMMUNICATIONS", Vesta (December), 1997.] For Common Month Correspondences refer to Archives/Gnostic Pagan Calendar of Celebrated Days
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EDITORIAL: THE ONES MOTHER GIVES YOU...
A.E.S.
(AWARENESS ENHANCING SUBSTANCES)
--And--
THE POLITICAL HYPOCRISY OVER PRESCRIBED MEDICATION
As materialists, we recognize the obvious ability of certain natural substances to provide various degrees of relief from nausea associated with advanced H.I.V. and cancer therapies, as well as to offer a temporary diversion from...well, frankly...plain ol' boredom.
As pagan spiritualists, we have directly experienced the multi-dimensional realities induced by LSD or a variety of other psychedelic Awareness Enhancing Substances such as peyote and carefully harvested mushrooms, fungi, herbs, etc. We are also fully aware that the habitual, daily use of marijuana or hashish, for example, can lead to an opposite, dulling effect on the brain. Thus we elect to endorse the selective ritual use of these substances by knowledgeable Celebrants in good physical and emotional health. The fact that many of these substances are often abused for profit by gangsters (as well as the Pentagon and the CIA) should only provide a greater argument for their legalization.
We support the decriminalization of marijuana and psychedelics for private healing, pain relief, and ceremonial use. Cautiously utilized, A.E.S. represent an alchemical mental stage in the process of The Great Work--the individual and collective transubstantiation of reality. With the flowering of Gnosis personified in the New Aeon, these substances will once again be respected, understood and appreciated for their intrinsic metaphysical properties. They will be used to expand the awareness of the Collective Race and to alleviate human suffering.
Denying the legal right of desperately ill people to use marijuana for medical purposes amounts to political oppression and physical torture based on ignorance. Mortal laws prohibiting the spiritual or ritual use of Awareness Enhancing Substances are fossils from the Old Aeon of the Dying God, and need not bind Celebrants of the Gnostic Pagan tradition.
Don't let them tame you
Get real,
Washington,
CONVERT TOBACCO
FARMS & GROW POT!
PSEUDO-"PSYCHICS" CLIP THE MASSES!
The astronomical annual corporate profits grossed--and we do mean GROSSED--by so-called "psychic" hot lines run into the multi-million $$$'s. These predatory businesses are operated like metaphysical, cottage-industry sweatshops, recruiting desperate and impoverished people to impersonate psychic advisors in order to fleece the naive and unsuspecting consumer with legally questionable gimmicks and false claims of authenticity.
Sold as a slick form of "entertainment," these "services" are peddled on television in sickeningly phony "interviews" and "infomercials." These ads are designed to primarily target sections of the population who can least afford the outrageous and often hidden costs of the manipulative scams. Talk shows have featured stories about how hot line "clients" have actually gone into debt and even bankruptcy owing to these Psychics-of-Deceit.
Shame on them!
According to the Gnostic Pagan view, everyone is capable of developing unified or psychic awareness--magick--for themselves, and can share this gnosis with their friends free of charge.
JUST SAY NO TO PHONY PSYCHICS.
(As a
footnote to the above, we excerpt from an article, False Mediums and the
"Spirit World” Demeter, 1998):
...Our contempt for phony commercial psychics extends to so-called "mediums" and bogus "spirit guides." Are we so naive as to really believe that the souls of the dearly departed actually float around in some sort of developmentally challenged limbo, just dying (excuse the pun) to communicate with hapless relatives on this side of the vale? Puh-leeeze! It's curious how the Spirit Guides always seem to take on forms popular to the times. At the turn-of-the-century (1900's, that is), we were treated to "Indian Guides" in line with the interest in Theosophy and the Far East in general. Today we hear of much the same thing, often embellished with outer space lore sprinkled with pseudo-technological terms...these morbid mentalists belong in a cocktail lounge--at best--not given national attention on shows such as "Larry King Live."
[NOTE: 4/01. Although CNN “Star” Larry King often presents more-or-less “relevant” guests, the show is usually a presentation of Capitalistically “acceptable” personalities such as cultural pimp Jerry Springer, Jerry Farwell, the Fundamentalist Jim & Tammy Baker Show, Shoe-Queen Fetishist Emelda Marcos, Arch-Reactionary Nancy Reagan along with a host of other tawdry characters—and, most recently, celeb-vampire Christian Hudson.
There’s very little here to respect anyway…
PS. Rock, this one’s for you]
U.S. Beats War Drums--Again
& Again & Again...
...World Weary of Tune
Once again Washington is threatening military action against Iraq for supposed "failure to comply" with its imperialist diktats. Apparently, previous efforts to bomb this Middle Eastern country back to the Stone Age and starving its people isn't enough for the chauvinist U.S. elite and its scandal-ridden Clinton Administration. Fortunately for the rest of the civilized world, only Great Britain is encouraging this latest round of bluster and aggression.
Nations outside the Anglo-Saxon alliance are more circumspect, opting for diplomacy over rant.
We hope that the voice of Sanity and Peace will prevail this time around.
Our position today remains as it was at the beginning of the Iraqi conflict in 1990-91--and that is complete opposition to any and all attacks on Iraq from the imperialist powers, while at the same time encouraging the Iraqi people to overthrow the nationalist aggressor Saddam on their own initiative without outside manipulation by the United States.
Gnostic Pagans defend the right of sovereignty for every nation--while at the same time pointing out the desirability of a united world based on international co-operation and universal spiritual culture. Thus, we are not pacifists in the strictest sense of that word, but would always prefer diplomatic means to military in order to resolve national disputes and claims of self-determination. We deplore the suffering and destruction generated by territorial greed and sectarian rivalry. We believe in standing outside the mainstream or majority politically if that stance promotes social evolution.
War has always been used to bind a tribal or nationalist society in blood; and in the USA, all nationalist wars of the 20th Century (and now spilling into the 21st) have been ushered in by a Democratic Party leadership--thus making international aggression more palatable to organized labor and the American electorate in general.
The world today remains in a state of violence--with the threat of global destruction always a distinct possibility--because humans persist in glorifying war and promoting the lunacy that species destruction is some sort of god-given duty or social expectation. The majority may see the insanity in this, but are too weak or intimidated to break out of the mold. We do not believe that truth is dependent upon majority consent enforced by terror, nor do we believe in a "lesser evil."
As stated in our Founding Document, we believe that "the ends justify the means only when the means themselves are justified," & apply this gnosis to every facet of life, including our refusal to take part in nationalist aggressive social conditioning.
Kofi Annan Delivers the Goods--U.S. War Machine Checked...For Now
Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations from Ghana, completed a successful diplomatic mission to Iraq, thereby preventing the threat of escalating U.S. aggression in the region. The Secretary General's action and persistence proves he is a world leader we can enthusiastically support in this time of old aeon crisis...our applause to this courageous man!
[NOTE: Since this report we have concluded that the United Nations has increasingly become a rubber stamp for the New Rome (Washington). The U.N. pullout of Rwanda, for example, was a despicable act of racist cowardice--and the failure of the U.N. to condemn the constant on-going British and American attacks in the air over Iraq is unforgivable. We very regretfully must withhold political support to the United Nations at this time (3/99), as the U.N. is devolving into a feeble cat's paw for U.S.-NATO reaction.]
"Therapeutic
Touch" Debunked?
"New Age" vs. New Aeon
The nebulous world of "New Age" lifestyles was rocked this month when it was revealed that a high school student's science project had apparently proven that the alternative healing method known as "Therapeutic Touch" was bogus! What next?!!! Those crystals are just magnificently pretty rocks??? What's the (New Age) World Coming to?
Through double-bind experiments the enterprising female student was able to demonstrate that any sense of healing was probably all in the mind of the patient. And why not? Pan-Psychic Materialists understood this already. Yet at the same time the project was also instrumental in stirring up the credibility problems shared by so many New Age "healers" and Practioners.
Gnostic Pagans perceive a very real difference in the terms "New Age" and New Aeon.
"New Age" refers to a wide assortment of principles, beliefs, practices and fads. We share some of the principles, beliefs and (ritual magick) practices. As for the fads, they are the exclusive products of fraudulent exploiters of genuine spirituality. We share the truly New Age longing for a peaceful world and spiritual renaissance, and support those activists who are working to protect the environment and expand the more positive aspects of human potential.
The New Aeon refers to the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child, first heralded by Aleister Crowley, and remarkably set forth in his last published work, THE BOOK OF THOTH.
This New Aeon is symbolized by the falcon-headed god Horus, and represents the evolutionary spiritual power currently manifesting on Earth. Pan-Psychic Materialism, the union of Spirit (daemonic or transliteral reality) and Matter (biological or historic reality)--as well as the harmonious cultural inter-relationship of Religion, Science and Technology--is the formula representing our integrated world-view, including the Gnostic Pagan interpretation of The New Aeon of the Conquering Child.
Prophets of Doom Plot Global Destruction
...from Nostradamus to Hollywood and New Age Holy-Rollers, the word is out: the world as we know it is about to be blown, burned, smashed, frozen, drowned, crushed, crumbled out of existence! So why bother cleaning the house this week? Why bother about anything? This posture might be OK for meditation, but one does go on living on the mundane (physical) plane, after all. The fundamentalists want us to believe that the end is nigh, to frighten us into submission to "the Rapture." They have been doing this for 2,000 years. At the turn of the last millennium (1000 C.E.) legions of the faithful, convinced themselves the Second Coming was a-comin', so they bricked themselves and their families into dark fortresses and slowly--and no doubt hideously--died of starvation. Less zealous fanatics went from town to town lugging wooden crosses and whipping themselves into frenzy. Very kinky indeed--and painfully futile. It could well be that the world is just about to go to hell in a hand basket--but if it does, it will be probably more through human meddling than divine intervention. Old Aeon reactionaries threaten Doom & Gloom, because it reflects their own spiritual destitution. Gnostic Pagans celebrate the living light of Gnosis and bring this Light to a New World.
"Zippergate" Exposes Moral Bankruptcy of Both State Parties
The Clinton Administration and its archconservative enemies, working in tandem like some diabolical doppelganger, have done more than would have seemed hitherto possible to undermine the stature and dignity of the U.S. Presidency. That august Office, hailed as the pinnacle of leadership for the "free world"--has been degraded to being the brunt of international raunchy jokes and off-color jibes. Nowhere is this disgraceful soap opera more exploited than by the chronically biased U.S. media. The world audience has been treated to unrelenting screaming matches waged by mean-spirited factions from both sides, broadcasting such nauseating news flashes as the shape of Bill's winkie, (do we really care???), to more than anyone would ever wish to know about Monica, Linda and the rest of the tawdry cast of B-characters (most of whom will no doubt go on to rake in BIG $$$'s thanks to the scandal). There are so many more important issues to address: the environment continues to be degraded; right-wing domestic terrorism and racist attacks are on the rise in the U.S. despite all the propaganda about the falling crime rate in America; quality health care increasingly becomes another privilege for the wealthy; and children continue to starve and pointlessly suffer all around the world. When a society rewards snitching, sleaze and greed, why should it surprise anybody that said society is surrounded by snitching, sleaze and greed? The entire unseemly morass in Washington (The New Imperialist Rome) only goes to reveal the moral bankruptcy of both factions (Democrats AND Republicans) who tenaciously and tastelessly hold on to the monopoly of State power.
[NOTE: The first month in 2000 saw Linda getting a nose job and peddling a book no one cares to read--and poor ol' Monica is selling herself per pound to the exploitative fat farm industry. The American Dream gone utterly grotesque.]
Condemn U.S. Embassy Bombings...and American Counter-Attack!
7. Demeter.
Powerful bombs were detonated outside the U.S. embassies in the capitol of Tanzania and almost simultaneously in Nairobi, Kenya. Hundreds of people were killed and hundreds more severely injured as a result of the blasts. What makes these attacks all the more vile is the fact that the majority of victims were Africans on the street who had no connection with the U.S. government...Terrorism can never be defended...and represents the policies of hopelessly desperate people and/or outright psychopaths. Attacks against any national embassy also represent an untenable violation of international law and norms...and cannot be tolerated under any circumstances...
While we thoroughly condemn this savagery, it must be clearly pointed out that those who most likely committed this offence were probably the very Taliban reactionary terrorists the United States hailed as "freedom fighters" during the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. During that conflict the Soviet army was (reluctantly and for their own self-interest) drawn in to protect an ostensibly "socialist", progressive (and, of course, pro-Soviet) regime in Kabul. The U.S.-backed reactionary terrorists tortured and murdered women and girls for the "crime" of learning to read and write, forcing them back into feudal slavery. The United States government, including its so-called "feminist" supporters, turned a blind eye as human rights were trampled in Afghanistan--all in the name of Cold War anti-Sovietism. It is not surprising at all that the Universal Law of Cause and Effect/Action and Reaction (karma) should manifest against the United States...and we also condemn the U.S. counter-attacks in Sudan and Afghanistan that...also break international law and amount to virtual declarations of war against these impoverished countries.
Throughout its' 200 year + history, the United States has demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the lives of non-Anglo-Saxon populations, evidenced in its treatment of Native Americans, African slaves, Hawaiians and persecution of its own citizens of Japanese descent, to list just a few examples. The U.S. has also engaged in scores of dirty little wars including the invasions of Cuba, Granada and Panama (where hundreds, possibly thousands of that countries poorest of the poor were sacrificed by the American war machine in order to bring a renegade and former ally to "justice."), as well as support to psychotic reactionaries around the globe...the recent bombings in East Africa and American counter-attacks (particularly unjustified in the case of Sudan) could easily have killed thousands of innocent people...The world stands right on the brink of its most perilous point in human history. Terrorism in ALL its forms must be denounced. Instead of providing moral or spiritual leadership, Washington only knows how to dictate and increase world tension--proving once again that old aeon politics and religion are the greatest threat to world peace and stability.
[NOTE: Subsequent to this article we viewed a PBS segment of the series "In the Path of Alexander" which documented the recent divesting destruction to the Kabul Museum of Ancient History, caused by years of fundamentalist-inspired civil war in Afghanistan. This cultural trashing is on a par with the burning of the Library of Alexandria (46 B.C.E.) by Roman "protectors." It is an appalling loss of human history and achievement.]
[NOTE 05/99]: The USA and NATO, in their barbaric attack on Yugoslavia, (see also,N.A.T.O. = North American Terrorist (Dis-) Organization, editorial, Ostara, 1999 bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade "by accident." Now as ever before, The New Rome (Washington) is revealed to be the arch-hypocrite and enemy of world peace.]
Economic Crisis
Unravels False Hopes
in Capitalism
The Dow Jones closed down 357.36 today, reacting to the worsening Asian economic crisis and the even more breath-taking political and economic breakdown in Russia.
The Russian disaster is caused by elements of the old bureaucracy and their pro-capitalist, yuppie supporters who have literally robbed the country blind, selling off State (socialized) property at bargain basement rates (to themselves and their cronies), and taking enormous loans from the IMF in order to line their own Swiss bank accounts, thereby plunging the country more hopelessly into debt and desperation.
It hasn't taken long for the average Russian--particularly the elderly and the poor--to realize that there is a downside to old aeon capitalism (just as they knew the dishonesty and incompetence of the old aeon, mechanistic, anti-individualist Communist system run by a single party dictatorship). However, in completely dismantling the historically progressive socialized economy and replacing it with a ruthlessly greedy state capitalism, they have thrown the baby out with the bath water (without ousting the bureaucrats who betrayed them in the first place), and have experienced only the bust of capitalism without the boom.
The West, even that great citadel of Free Enterprise, the U.S., is now too beginning to feel the pinch. In this Global World with its Global Economy, no one is safe from an impending Global Economic Catastrophe.
The capitalist system breeds false hopes in the lower and middle classes, hopes that through hard work and heavy investment in the stock market they will be assured a comfortable retirement. The fact that they are expected to spend their prime working for the benefit of someone else is glossed over by fantasies of the Golden Years. Well, those years may be looking more like a blitzkrieg for a lot of people in the not too distant future...
Is it purely a coincidence that both the leader of the world super-power (Clinton), and former super-power (Yeltsin) are limping to a "summit" amidst scandal, crisis and increasing calls for them both to resign? We think not. The acceleration of the dissolution of old aeon structures is increasing as the world nears the fateful date of 23. Vesta (December) 2012 (the fifth and final "Sun" of the Mayan calendar), considered by many to represent the time of Kali Yuga or Universal Destruction.
It is obvious that the old forms must end before new (aeon) life can fully begin. We believe that a core of spiritually evolved Celebrants, independently strong and unified around a principled and ethical metaphysical program, will be of immeasurable assistance--beyond what their actual numbers may indicate-- in offsetting the negative, and promoting the positive aspects of "the Shift." We sincerely hope the Aeon of the Conquering Child will be allowed to reign without the world having to experience a prolonged Age of Barbarism, or outright annihilation, first.
People of Iraq:
No Reliance on Western Front Groups
Lock Up Saddam
And Throw Away the Key
Once again the political thug and dangerous idiot Saddam Hussein is pushing Iraq to the brink of destruction--and this time even the diplomatic efforts of Kofi Anan may turn against him. We remain firm in our denunciation of any bombing of Iraq by U.N. forces led by Great Britain and the United States--while calling on the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam and establish a democracy free from nationalist, religious and sectarian oppression.
Saddam Hussein consolidated power in 1979, partly as a consequence of justified Iraqi fears of Western and Israeli intervention. Israel's bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 (supported by the U.S.) only increased the hostility directed against the West--and bolstered Saddam's position. Nonetheless, his persecution of political opponents and the Kurds is criminal. We denounced as foolish, self-serving adventurism Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which in turn triggered the Gulf War--and fueled U.S. ultra-nationalism and war hysteria. Consequently, unknown thousands upon thousands of Iraqis were killed as the ancient land of the Sun God Shamash was bombed back to the Stone Age as crowed by U.S. militarists. (The arch-capitalist oligarchy in Kuwait needs to be overthrown by a democratic-socialist revolution, not replaced by yet another reactionary jackass.) The debacle was used by the United States to line up large segments of a complacent and materialistically obsessed population behind resurgent militarism and nationalist conditioning. What fragile peace movement existed in the U.S. (for the exception of Quakers and scattered others, including Gnostic Pagans) evaporated with the first mass bombing and easy win. As long as Saddam continues to misrepresent Iraq, that much easier will it be for the Western imperialist war machine (hardly even bothering to hide behind the U.N.) to justify its disrespect for Iraqi sovereignty.
The Iraqi people must come to realize that Saddam Hussein uses the constant threat of war and crisis (goaded by the U.S.) to maintain his "popularity" and stranglehold on State power. They will need to organize underground with the intent of locking up this tyrant and bringing him to trial. His war crimes must be exposed and condemned by the people at home he has caused to suffer so mercilessly. In place of a military junta, a true democratic government must be established by and for the people of Iraq without Western manipulation.
In turn, U.S. citizens should kick out (at the very least) sexual predator and pathological liar Clinton, along with his purse-lipped agents Cohen and Albright. Unfortunately, going by the polls, the American public majority doesn't give a damn how corrupt and repulsive their national leaders are, just so long as the economy keeps-a-boomin'! Obviously it will take the next Depression before the USA can progress beyond its' inverted, tunnel-vision world-view.
FOR A DEMOCRATIC (SOCIALIST) REVOLUTION IN
IRAQ
[NOTE: The Iraqi government is INSANE to allow CNN (that U.S. propaganda machine par excellence) to continue broadcasting U.S. sneak attacks. If they think broadcasting their humiliation will result in sympathy from the American people, the Iraqis are sadly mistaken. CNN is making mega-profits with their ghoulish coverage to a complacently UN-sympathetic audience. Now that the world knows for A FACT that the so-called "inspection teams" served as a front for U.S. spying on Iraq, are the American people aware of it? Do they care???]
MAGICK = THE ART OF LIVING CHANGE
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