[This FAQ will be posted every month to alt.magick and sci.skeptic.]


NIHILIST'S HIGH MAGIC FAQ: A MAGNUM OPUS
========================================

Version 1.0
By Nihilist, 10=1, CCCXXII



--- Does this FAQ pertain to all systems of high magic(k)?


Certainly not. I'm not even going to observe a spelling distinction. My
focus is on a particular breed of high magic, but I'm pretty sure that
what I say applies to many magical paths with a mystical bent.


--- I haven't seen these questions asked once on Usenet, let alone
frequently. What gives?


Such is the nature of an FAQ file.


--- What gives you the right to write this file, Nihilist? Are you
really an Ipsissimus?


Yes.


--- How can I take your word for that?


If you're reading this, chances are you've already developed facility
in taking another's word for anything and everything. If my claim puts
a strain on your habitual credulity, though, I am willing to
demonstrate to your satisfaction that I am an Ipsissimus. Simply list
the precise criteria used to determine whether someone has a particular
grade in high magic, and I shall see what I can do.

I must warn you: I have access to an extensive occult library, and my
Google skills are second to none. Maybe you ought to focus on what I
can do rather than what I know, for any piece of knowledge is simply a
predicate attached to a subject, and who really cares how many subjects
and predicates I have at my disposal?


--- Who really cares how many subjects and predicates you have at your
disposal?


No one who is serious about actual attainment as opposed to imagined
attainment. Being the finest adept in the world, I have nothing to do
with the vanity of Daath. What matters is what one can do and what one
does.

Furthermore, any "knowledge" I give you will be both right and wrong.
For more on this, keep reading! I suppose that extends to any answer in
this FAQ, too. Hrm. Deep.


--- Didn't you once post a mock alt.magick FAQ that said something
similar?


Absolutely. My wisdom is not a recent development.

I've taken the liberty to include a couple of answers from the other
FAQ, a file this current FAQ replaces. Here:


01.01 how do I become a mage?

You *are* a mage. Don't believe me? Ask a five-decade magician what
he or she can do that you can't do.

When you encounter students of magick or mysticism, the idea is to
let them have a soapbox for five hours. Let them drop their useless
trivia, unfounded claims, and metaphysical conjectures. Then you
simply ask...

(i) Yes. But what can you *do*?
or (ii) Yes. But what can *you* do?
or (iii) Yes. But what *can* you do?

Use (i) against magick trivia and dogma fuckwits.
Use (ii) against magick hearsay and relay fuckwits.
Use (iii) against magick it's-not-like-that and fluff fuckwits.

Personal investigation may lead you to conclude that being a mage
(or magician) is synonymous with being conscious.


02.01 what is "magick"? is it different from "magic"?

Modern Western occultists generally use "magic" to refer to
prestidigitation.

Pick a word that will act as an umbrella label for everything in
the world (including prestidigitation). "Magick" will do, but the
choice is yours. "Magick" is an attractive choice: It conjures up
images of powerful wizards, even though one of the Rites of Passage
for the real-world magician is spending ten years telling everyone
else that magick isn't like in the movies and that magick is really
about feeling happy and serene.

If you don't like the connotations of "magick," an alternative may
be "living."


--- Are you suggesting that high magicians spend an inordinate amount
of time memorizing "trivia" that has no practical utility?


Well, I think everything has at least some practical utility.
Developing a formidable memory can improve one's life in many areas, so
I'm by no means suggesting that high magic is completely without merit.
I once posted something on the art of memory.


--- Did you really?


Yes. Would you like to see it?


--- Sure.


That's not a question.


--- Are you able to paste your post about the art of memory?


Yes.


--- Please do so. Err, please do so?


Here ya go:

No, but the Golden Dawn Almanac is an ongoing project. Feel free to
add your findings to the dogmatism stew.

Obscurum per obscurius.

The Golden Dawn is a test of memory: You dedicate years to
memorizing mind-bending trivia that has no demonstrated utility.
This is why the highest grade of the Second Order, the grade
Adeptus Exemptus, corresponds to Chesed (or Gedulah). In the human
constitution, Chesed corresponds to the faculty of memory.

The Exempt Adept is an uncanny databank of useless lore.

Magick and memory have gone hand-in-hand for centuries. Numerous
philosophers, mystics, magicians, etc., contributed to the
tradition known as 'ars memoriae', the Art of Memory. See what the
Greeks and Romans had to say. See Bruno, Trithemius, and many
others. See those strange memory theaters.

The Tree of Life can be used as a sophisticated mnemonic device,
similar to the 'peg' and 'link' systems so named by modern personal
improvement authors. It is clear that only a mnemonic device of the
TOL's caliber could accommodate the hodgepodge of worthless trivia
fashioned by the Western Mystery Tradition.


--- That mentions the Golden Dawn. But you're talking about other
systems as well, right?


Absolutely. In Crowley's system, the Adeptus Exemptus is given the
exercise of past-life recall (see Liber 913). The memory correspondence
is obvious.


--- Speaking of Crowley, what do you think of his statement that every
intentional act is a magical act?


Well, I realize Crowley's statement reeks of the definist fallacy, so
that's why I've proposed changing Crowley's term "magick" to
"deliberation" or -- even better -- "intention." Witness: Every
intentional act is an intentional act.


--- OK, so what are you willing to _do_ to demonstrate that all those
superlatives you give yourself in your alt.magick posts really apply to
you?


Now we're talking, grasshopper. To demonstrate that I am the world's
finest adept, I am willing to outdo any other adept. Let another adept
do something, and I assure you I'll do something better.

If you want help weeding out the false adepts for my challenge, I
recommend eliminating anyone who has or who mentions bad health, a
full-time job, relationship problems, etc. Real adepts like me have
none of that.


--- Surely you're not the "greatest adept the world has ever known."
What about the stellar adepts of history?


Well, who? I have given credit where credit is due. For instance, check
out the following tribute I made to Bruno:

In 1600, Bruno was able to summon the Salamanders in a public
demonstration of elemental powers. Moreover, his precognitive
abilities were second to none. I recommend you read *Giordano Bruno
and the Hermetic Tradition* by Frances Yates. It's an excellent
book--boring at times, but on the whole, an example of impeccable
scholarship. Yates is to serious magick what Fortune, with one
exception, is to carnival freak shows.


--- Listen, smartass, just because an occultist was burnt at the stake
doesn't mean he or she had no powers. Where the fuck do you get off?


I'm not arguing with you. I mean, he may have had powers, but it's just
that they were pretty piss-weak compared with mine.


--- Why should I believe you have any occult powers whatsoever?


Hey, buddy, "do the work." And "spend a decade or two studying my
system before you criticize it." I don't need to demonstrate anything
to you, because I am above all that. It's immaterial to me whether you
believe me or not.

That said, I'll mention in passing that I can manipulate the Astral
Light to cause physical effects immediately. Don't believe me? Read
your Levi and your Kybalion.


--- Why don't you use your powers to help humanity? I mean, isn't it
selfish to sit atop your lofty mountain while the world is in tears?
What about the 2004 tsunami disaster? What about the Bush
administration? How can we reconcile your power and omnibenevolence
with tragedies such as those?


Ever hear of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake? That one earthquake so
troubled Kant and other philosophers that there was a crisis of faith.
Indeed, Voltaire's response to the event was the scathing satire
*Candide*, in which he tore apart Leibniz's best-of-all-worlds theory.

Anyway, the problem exists in one fatal assumption: omnibenevolence.
Being a master of high magic, I have transcended the duality of moral
and immoral to become amoral. That explains how both lesser magicians
and I can sit around doing what seems to be fuck all for humanity. But
we're enlightened and you're not, so I don't think your criticism
carries much weight. Nothing personal.

Your question about the Bush administration isn't very thoughtful. I
mean, I've been doing all I can to help the Bush administration. What
more do you expect me to do? Did you not see my post about how I've
fended off more than 12,000 magical attacks directed at Bush? If magic
really worked -- and it does -- you'd expect Bush to be dead by now,
wouldn't you? Well, look how I've protected him against thousands of
attacks.

Oh, there is another fatal assumption: tragedies. What is a tragedy?
Under the scientific paradigm, with a little metaphorical
embellishment, the tsunami disaster was simply a dance and interplay of
mass-energy in an ocean of space-time. We all have to die one day, and,
really, we're merely specks of dust in a vast expanse of space,
miniscule markings on a staggering time line.


--- Why don't you demonstrate your powers on the world stage to advance
human knowledge, to comfort those who have lost spiritual hope, to
propel humanity forward?


Oh, I'm above all that.


--- I thought an Ipsissimus was meant to have transcended the ego, yet
you're downright arrogant and have an ego like a raging tooth. What's
with that?


Your problem lies in the distinction you are making between having an
ego and not having an ego. When you master high magic, as I have done,
you will overcome your crippling duality.

Besides, you need an oversized ego to wield an ego stick. Just ask any
Eastern master.


--- Hang on. A recent post of yours suggested that I already am an
Ipsissimus. Why don't you paste that post?


OK, I'll have to concede you that point.
Here's the damn post:

Everyone is and is not an Ipsissimus.

Tradition failed to realize the implications of jerking off about
non-duality and other vague notions which the mouth can speak but
which the mind cannot apprehend.

The law of non-contradiction and other laws of logic are of the
Ruach -- not of the Neschamah or any mode of operation beyond the
Abyss. The purpose of Liber OS Abysmi vel Daath is to shatter the
Ruach. The student is told to study Kant's antinomies and Spencer's
*First Principles*, both works demonstrating the futility of human
reason and logic.

The only certainty of the Nephesch is sense-data. A parallel in
philosophy is Husserl's phenomenological reduction.

The only certainty of the Ruach is consciousness. A parallel in
philosophy is Descartes' cogito combined with the objection of
Lichtenberg, revealing mode but not substance.

Daath is false. Skepticism is the key to high magic.

I, Nihilist, the most advanced high magician in the world, have
shed some light on the following cryptic statements:

"This book is true up to the grade of Adeptus Exemptus."
-- Liber CCXXXI

"It has not been possible to construct this book on a basis of pure
Scepticism. This matters less, as the practice leads to Scepticism,
and it may be through it."
-- Liber CMXIII

All this nonsense combined gives anyone the right to claim any
grade of high magic she desires. The law of non-contradiction does
not apply.

My post is truth and lie and neither.

I recommend low magic instead of high magic for functioning in this
world. High magic is self-insulting, vaporous, and absurd.


To add to the above: Masters of high magic are beyond duality and
therefore don't differentiate between your being an adept and your not
being an adept (though they don't seem to mind the duality of duality
vs. non-duality). So you can consider yourself an adept. Hell, this
view even has an Eastern ring to it -- so abstruse, so penetrating, so
deep, so empty. Eastern mystics are all about being empty, though not
in the way they imagine.


--- Hmm, that tends to make sense, I dare say. So you recommend low
magic instead of high magic? Why?


Here's another recent post:

So what you've asked for is _useful_ info. You can't go wrong by
avoiding any system of magic that has come to be known as "high"
magic. High magic is a set of practices aimed at generating
warm-and-fuzzy feelings through the exercise of the imaginative
faculty -- much like daydreaming but with more pop. Typically, high
magicians favor the elaborate, the intricate, the complex; and they
don't concern themselves with such simple matters as, well,
achieving tangible results. You can demonstrate your proficiency in
high magic by saying that you are proficient in high magic. You can
claim all kinds of subjective attainments, and no one will be able
to tell the difference, because there are no criteria for putting
your claims to the test.

I recommend you investigate systems of magic that have become
stigmatized as "low" magic. Generally speaking, systems of low
magic are geared toward measurable results. And as I told someone
else, don't listen to the moralizing high magicians who should have
transcended the duality of moral and immoral to become amoral.


--- I recall you said something about theurgy and thaumaturgy. What was
that? It seems to have some connection here.


Wow, I'm amazed someone has been reading my posts. Here are some
scraps:

Using the broom called Spiritual Morality, theurgists sweep their
lack of thaumaturgic results under the rug and spout all kinds of
unfalsifiable theurgic claims. Failure to achieve thaumaturgic
results is turned into an estimable nonchalance. Failure becomes
success! Failure becomes theurgy!

Theurgists aren't above filling their books with thaumaturgic
claims. The reason is that there is no above: thaumaturgic claims
form the highest branch of the tree, and any lower branch results
in a complete loss of recognition and visibility. The problem is
that the branch of thaumaturgic claims isn't a particularly strong
branch. You see, theurgists need people focusing on colorful attire
and worthless trivia, for the branch is very fragile and may not
withstand even a casual glance. To keep people from looking at the
branch, theurgists rely on two common tactics. First, for the
incredulous and skeptical, who are likely to throw stones at the
branch, theurgists temporarily sacrifice much height and relocate
to a stronger branch--the branch called feel-good psycho-wanking,
which fends off the pests, who are made to think magick is another
name for psychotherapy. Second, for the credulous and gullible, who
aren't likely to throw stones at the branch, theurgists permit
themselves to remain on the branch, but seekers are directed to
look elsewhere, such as at the unreachable fluffy clouds; or
seekers are supposed to stand in awe at the splendid height of
theurgists sitting so high in the tree, so high above the profane
world of visceral desires; but seekers are instructed to ignore the
branch of thaumaturgic claims on which theurgists sit and from
where theurgists preside over mere mortals whose affection has been
won.


--- I don't know what to think. High magic has started to seem pretty
useless to me. Not to mention that I am already a high magician by the
very tenets of the upper echelon of high magic. I guess I don't know
what to ask here. I'm wondering why you even bother calling yourself
the most advanced high magician in the world.


Well, once again, I would caution against hastily attributing the term
"useless" to anything, though I have been guilty of doing so myself.
High magic can fulfill a human need. You see, in no other area does
human excellence require only one's say-so. High magic is a godsend to
underachievers and losers the world over. Someone has to take the
position of biggest loser of them all. I'm doing everyone a service.