Revered Elder Mech

I will be posting daily updates on the creative process with designing this Performance Art work.  The first point is my re-affirmation of the performance principles that we used with Kristine Ambrosia's works from 1978 through 1986:

• The work is based firmly in Industrial Culture
• The work is based firmly in the use of shamanic and occult principles
• Body modification and the use of SM, while not as overt on the surface, are still present in the context of the shamanic 
• The idea of "Astral Sculpture" and the use of subtle-energy life-flows is critical to the work. The surface aspect of the work is only complementary to the occult realities behind the surface.
• The work is designed as a classic Golden-Dawn style Pathworking, using the energies of the ancient Lemurian-Sumerian-Babylonian axis.

The work has four pieces:  The first is an introductory overview of the genesis of the Universe, the Demiurgos, Azathoth and his family of Great Ancient Ones. The Creation of the Black Iron Prison is also detailed.  The second piece is the coming of the 11 Tennocians from a Universe outside of ours in an attempt to break open the Black Iron Prison. They select the woman Loquai, whose name in the ancient Mantong tongue means "Let us explore what it means to inhabit the animal body" as their vessel for the creation of a device to crack open the Black Iron Prison.  The third section is Anton Szandon LaVey's famous "Invocation of Cthulhu" performed in the Elder tongue with English translation. The fourth is the dramatization of the meeting of Loquai and Nyarlathotep in his form of the "Bloated Woman" down in the cave networks underneath Nan Madol on the Island of Ponape.

The music is based precisely on four of the songs already posted to Reverbnation under "Sons of the Widow" however these songs are going to be stripped back to MIDI files, the sounds will all be replaced with sound effects and they will become an ambient background to the recorded story, which is, after all, the real medium and core of the performance. Additional, more musical elements will be provided by Arvid Peterson and Richard Rowlands with IOTN.

....in the creation of the essential Culture of the West is my current field of research. It appears in the oddest and least likely places at the strangest of times, but it is always there, providing a framework and scaffold for the Universal Work.  I am doing this research in the context of the "Consolamentum of Wisdom", my compendium of Gnosis and Alchemy. I have had some major breakthroughs in understanding the role of Mathematics in the Gnosis and I feel the pressures to record everything that I can for the good of the future. Music is key to much of this and I continue to write the music and words for "Queen of the Underworld" our performance on March 22nd which combines H.P Lovecraft, Richard Sharpe Shaver and Kristine Ambrosia's Performance art oracularisms of the 1980's with the Aliens known as the Tennocians and Goddess Loquai, the Star of the Sea. I spend much time in the House of the Star of the Sea, learning and growing in Wisdom these days.

Being an avid student of the film works of David Lynch, "Twin Peaks" is a constant study of mine. I am fascinated with the "Dugpas," the inter-dimensional black magicians who are attempting to infiltrate the FBI through the abduction and enslavement of FBI agents! There is a fascinating conspiracy story there, but what interests me here is one of the characters' depiction of them as having achieved access to a special place outside of time and space called the Black Lodge. They were supposed to have reached this place of power by their constant devotion to and purity of thought around Evil as an abstract force in Nature.  There is a referencing of Madame Blavatsky's work here which is worthy of its own study, however it is the idea of a purity of thought on Evil and suffering that interests me. The concept is identical to that of Clive Barker with his "Cenobites" in "The Hellbound Heart," a novella which became the basis for his "Hellraiser" film and its' successors.  The Cenobites are beings who have attained a place of power outside of time and space by their devotion to pain and suffering.  Both the Dugpas (there really are Tibetan monks and magicians called Dugpas who are tantric "Dragons" and fire-philosophers as we would call them in the Western esoteric tradition) and the Cenobites are marked by their practice of enticing, enslaving and consuming souls and both can only do so after the victim has given themselves over by freely willing to do so.  The Cenobites use curiosity in the solving of a puzzle box to entrap their victims while the Dugpas entice their victims with a fascination with fire. Both use an otherworldly eroticism as a tool in entrapment. The parallels are suggestive, but I doubt that there was any direct cross-feed between Clive Barker, Mark Frost (main writer of the Twin Peaks series) and David Lynch. Rather, I think that these authors were referring back to something quite real on the Astral Plane and something that Blavatsky does mention in her books. The idea of a band of "Black Brethren" as a counter to the "Great White Lodge" on the Astral Plane is very old and certainly does have a reality to it.  The Astral is by no means a place entirely consisting of fairies, elves and gentle fauns! Yogananda refers in his Autobiography of a Yogi to dark angels warring with the Light using bombs constructed of "Lifetronic" matter or Prana. There is a War in Heaven and it obviously extends towards the Physical Plane through the agencies of these Dark Brethren and their monkish devotion to Evil, Pain and Suffering as ends in themselves. This is worthy of more research in the annals of comparative Religion since it is clearly a topic of direct interest to those traveling through inner lands and spaces!

Those of you who remember my Performance Art work with Kristine Ambrosia will remember the luau performances and parties at 455 10th Street devoted to Goddess Loquai. well, Loquai is back and She is beginning a new series of works with me and Sons of the Widow (The Widow being Loquai as well as Isis!) Here are some recent guidances on who Loquai is and what she brings to the world:

She is above all, playful.

She is strongly desirous of inhabiting the flesh in order to spread her healing and erotic energy. She is an oracular Goddess.

She is absolutely full of Lemurian energy, connected with the Great Ancient Ones, especially their cousin Cthulhu and their Messenger Nyarlathotep in his aspect 0f the Bloated Woman.

She is also connected to the Babylonian current through the Phoenicians and other early sea-faring peoples. Loquai is also resonant with certain Interdimensional and Alien currents, like the Tennocians.

She is to be respected because of Her dark sides, but She always welcomes human mediumistic habitation to heal and spread Her celebration. She is related to Demeter/Adephagia among the Greeks and Ereshkigal/Ishtar among the Babylonians.

She is very tall, dark haired and golden complected, powerfully built, large voluptuous breasts, big strong hips and thighs, with a soft voluptuous belly.

She loves luau, celebration, healing, pleasure and spreading the Lemurian energy throughout the world. She is so strongly Female as to be terrifying to our Modern sensibility, but she maintains a calming and voluptuous energy when communicating with us so that we are relaxed.

She works best in music and performance when the crowd is open, mediumistic, and receptive. It is penultimate when they are having a lot of fun. She loves food, dance, music and erotic energy of a kind so powerful that we can scarce imagine. She is the ultimate tantric Goddess.

She relates to the six-rayed star, which is the Star of the Sea. The Pacific Ocean is her home and Ponape is her sacred place. Her Mysteries are those of the Sea and of the Stars which dwarf the mere human form yet she loves the feel of flesh and the ancient power of the human body.

More revelations to come as her story unfolds...

Slowly but surely finding my way into the labyrinthine Mysteries of the Pacific.  This is a deeply guarded and mysterious realm, which I cannot pretend to even vaguely understand, but somewhere out there lies the center of my hope and work. The magalithic ruins of Nan Madol on Ponape are like a magnet right now. I need to visit them and I know that somehow it will happen. Suffused last night with an overwhelming current of love from our Goddess Loquai, who is, after all, the one force in the Universe who has cared the most about me and made the flow happen! My art is shifting and whirling toward a giant influx of Lemurian-Babylonian energy...a strange but workable combination that will stand revealed in the House of the Star of the Sea!0.

I have focused exclusively on the Babylonian current of Magic(k) and esotericism because that is where I feel most at home. Simon's book is in my experience, useful, even if it is not the most scholarly or accurate. It catches the essential feeling of the Enuma Elish and the majesty of the epic battles between gods old and new by virtue of suggestion.  It has a definite power and that is a place to begin but not to end. 

Taking the current further into the stormy meeting of Tiamat and Apsu, salt water and fresh water, we have a key to a strange connection I wish to record here. While I was working with Kristine Ambrosia doing performance art some 20 years ago, she took me aside and suggested that I merge Babylonian magic with the Polynesian magic of Goddess Loqua; the mysterious alien interdimensional being that we had been working with in our performances.  Loquai seemed such an odd entity to combine with the Babylonians, but now I understand...the Lemurians, the Phoenicians, the Sumerians, all of the ancient sea-faring people carried this culture around the World and beyond. Now I can feel the very linkage between Pacific and Fertile Crescent as a Power.  The revelaton that Adam Weishaupt was obsessed with the Mysteries of Eleusis convinced me to move on from the Grecian lesser Circle to the Babylonian. I am much happier following Sar Peladan's obsession than Weishaupt's .

Art is something we cannot control or force. Self-discipline is critical, but if the well is dry, then it must needs be primed. My research of late has been much more in the fields of Physical Science and Anthropology. My core belief system has always centered around the Megalithic era and its' Mysteries but I have begun to make some progress in elucidation, thanks to Dr. Farrell, Mr. Dunn and Mr. Malinowski. Civilization X. Some 40,000 years ago there seems to have been an advanced civilization whose technology was based more on the peculiar properties of certain types of stones and the occult power of  water than upon steel, oil and microchips. The knowledge of sacred geometry, astronomy and the physics of water seems to have supplied Civilization X with powerful technologies of subtle energy and Earth-healing forces.  How this links with Art and Magick is not immediately obvious, but it does and it creates a whole new basis for uniting Art, Science and Spirituality.  Whatever else I have done during this lifetime, I hope I will be able to have contributed to that project, for it has ramifications for the future that are deep and lasting!

The first volume of the Consolamentum will simply be a collection of all of my previously published articles; around 40-50 of them, grouped into topics with commentary and some updating of content.  I chose the title "The Maelstrom" because that is what that whole period of the 1980's and 1990's felt like...a whirlwind of drama and revelation.  I think that the perspectives of time will allow me to place that whole period into a new level of understanding and closure that I need to move on into deeper and deeper waters.  The articles from "Apocalypse Culture," "Popular Alienation,"  "Occulture,. "Gnosis," "SOMA" and "Secret and Suppressed" will form the backbone, but it will also include all of the articles from "UnSound," "Another Room" and "Leonardo:A Journal of Science and Art" as well, since I want to work on the place of esoteric doctrine in the arts, history and science.  The goal date for completion is Christmas and I expect it to run 250-300 pages with illustrations done especially for this edition!

The"Consolation" was the sacramental acceptance of the holy life as practised by the Cathar Perfecti, the Good Men and Good Women of Southern France during the 11th through 13th Centuries who lived out a gnostic and dualist doctrine of great power and wisdom in the midst of hostile and ultimately deadly forces surrounding them.
 
My own "consolation"  or healing of the soul, consists of five large boxes of journal-books, articles, writings and documents which I have generated over my life and which will be collected into a series of volumes explaining the truths that I have won.

  My paintings, music, performance and creative documentations are a key part of the Consolamentum and will round out the story of a life devoted to Wisdom and Her peregrinations through the vales of pain.  There is an aspect of this project which is therapeutic in the self-healing of deep wounds and traumatic experiences accumulated over six decades of living on the edges of the Outside trying to save the Forgotten and Rejected Wisdom. 

The Outsider sees things from perspectives that no one could possibly imagine imagine and that is the source of power in living outside.  I can empathize with one of Clive Barker's infamous cenobites who utters the phrase: "We have such sights to show you."

   

The journey to the Holy Mountain, Abiegnus, begins wherever you are sitting and ends at the summit, wherein the twelve-gated Holy City of the Sages, there sits a run-down and presumably ancient structure.  The building is made of rough-cut stone, about twelve feet on a side, sitting on a three-step base with a pryamidal roof of old and worn copper, green with patina.  On top of the roof is a weather-vane...a black rooster...a pullet-noir perpetually pointing North.  The door of this small house is oak, stained dark with rain and disuse.  The area around the house is surrounded by a worn-down stone wall, about three feet high. 24 feet on a side..  The ground inside the wall is covered with grass grown out and uncut.  There are stepping stones leading to the door from the small iron gate in the wall that is the only opening into the compound.

It is deepest night in the Holy City at the summit of the great Mountain of the Philosophers, Abiegnus,  You walk through the swinging iron gate and down the short walk of stepping stones to the three steps at the base of the house.  You pause at the top of the third step and then gingerly reach toward the handle of the door.  It opens easily, without a sound and then you step into a small lighted vestibule, large enough for only one or two people at most.  Stained glass windows, depicting the five elements shed a gentle light into the vestibule from unknown sources and two small candles provide the only direct light.  There are two red velvet curtains at the end of the vestibule, leading into the innermost area of the house. You take a deep breath and step through the curtains...

The sight that greets you is an incredible vista of infinite dimensions...a beach, at night with gently lapping waves.  In the sky, there is a single star. You may have entered the vestibule with a friend and you may have both walked through the curtain together, but here, you are absolutely alone in the silence and peace and beauty of Nature.  The Star is a Mystery, not a mere thing to contemplate, but something to enter into a deep relationship with.  As you walk toward the waves, you will see a beautiful bronze chair, ornately decorated with the signs of Gemini, Cancer and Leo, the three signs of the Gate.  sit down in the chair, place your hands comfortably on your lap and simply gaze upwared at your Star.  Be mindful of your breath and focus all of your lifeforce from the magnetic force in your lungs toward the Star.  Feel a deep and satisfying sense of ecstatic peace as you begin to slowly and surely understand what the Star is and how it fits into your lfie.

In our next mediation, we will begin the ascent of Abiegnus, in order to enjoy the entire journey of the Mountain.  We will also learn to practice the circular and spherical circulations of the Mysteries as we ascend the Mountain.