Horrors from the Womb of Night
We have already discussed repeatedly, from the point of view of the Myth we are examining, ordered “daytime” consciousness is only a thin layer on the surface of the bottomless ocean of the Psychocosmos. In other words, the greater part of the psychocosmos is either only potentially ordered, or is entirely chaotic. As the saying goes, “most manifestations of consciousness are insane“, and therefore are often destructive.
When the “daytime”, relatively ordered mind contacts its “dark” layers, it may either gain strength and come to know itself through interaction, or — succumb to the hypnotic influence of chaos. The second case, in turn, leads either to a “lapse of mind into madness”, i.e. to the dissolution of the ordered portion of mind into the unordered, or — to its “cowering in a den from terror”, erecting walls and barriers to prevent chaos from penetrating the cosmos. It is clear that there are many more variants of destructive outcome, and their odds are much higher than the likelihood of a constructive “gaze into the darkness”.
However, ignoring or “brushing off” the grim reality of chaos also offers little in the way of constructive prospects, since it locks the mind into its narrow “daytime” world, considerably narrowing or entirely removing the possibilities for development. Development of consciousness is always a “step into the darkness“, a cosmization of chaos, the actualization of its potentials into an ordered actual state.
It follows that a magus (that is — one who has firmly resolved to develop their consciousness) has no other way but to “look into the darkness” and transmute it into the “light” of consciousness.
At the same time, it is important not to be seduced by the darkness (as, for example, Lovecraft and the chaos-worshippers who followed him were), not to imagine oneself a “fighter against darkness” who rejects all that is unordered (as many Christian fanatics do), not to dissolve in it (like hordes of maddened, failed magi), but to take one’s sure steps through it.
Nevertheless, the infernal horror that arises when the “daytime” mind contacts “night” manifestations is an integral element of the magus’s Way. We have already said that the mind reacts this way to any alien energies, and chaos in relation to the cosmos represents, of course, the ultimate otherness.
The inexplicable, irrational, destructive manifestations of chaos are well known to every explorer of the uncharted depths of the psychocosmos. This realm — the dwelling-place of the Rulers — Archons of the Interworld — they are its first offspring and oldest inhabitants. For some, they are an element of nightmares, in which the mind, wandering through the virtual spaces of the Interworld, encounters its underside; for others, they overtake people in ritual activity, mixing with the no less terrifying infernal manifestations of the Qliphoth; some meet them in Search rituals, and perhaps — in all of these situations together. In any case, a magus must understand that the “mad gods” of chaos will manifest themselves in his life one way or another, and if his Way reaches the Abyss — then this encounter will take on an imperative character.
This side of Magic, so painfully attractive to some and so repellent to others, is comparatively little described in “classical” grimoire literature, which has concentrated its attention on the shadowy side of the cosmos and left the “utter darkness” outside its scope.
True, as mentioned, the dark depths of the Qliphoth have also not been adequately described, since contact with them, as with the storms of chaos, is wholly destructive.
Despite their apparent phenomenological similarity, the destructive darkness of the “anti-cosmos” and the engulfing, dissolving darkness of chaos differ in nature and how they affect the “daytime” mind. As mentioned, the darkness of the Qliphoth is actively destructive — it seeks to “suck out” energy, light from the sephiroth, to consume it, whereas the maddening gloom of the Abyss is without qualities and blind, and its destructive activity is the product of its nature, not of its effort. At the same time, admitting the darkness of the Qliphoth into oneself, even in minimal amounts, makes a person incapable of love and turns one into a predator, often increasing calculation and cunning; the penetration of the darkness of chaos — on the contrary — sharpens the emotional and sensual side but reduces analytical capacity and intellectual performance and disorders the mind and its expressions.
Understanding the nature of the destructive forces a magus encounters on his Way, therefore, is a key point both for devising effective courses of action and for correctly diagnosing “infections” of the mind.
Is chaos here a force fundamentally alien to structured consciousness and the ability to concentrate on an orderly view of the world? But does it not simply activate its own unmanifested reflections, striving to reach order? If so, how can they bring harm, being an ordering potency?
Or are these forces not potential in the microcosm and are merely an external factor? Then where does the resonance come from and what is the meaning of such collisions, other than highlighting this area and symbolic knowledge?
Since consciousness has no borders or limits, the number of its potentials is also infinite. Moreover, for potential reality, the complete absence of vectors and directions is characteristic – this is precisely the function of “daytime” consciousness – mind. Therefore, the “virtual boiling” of potential medium, both in macrocosmos and psychocosmos, is completely unstructured. So it’s not about “harm.” It’s about polarities of nature. Chaos is neither good nor bad in and of itself. Just as the cosmos can be good or bad only for someone it influences. “Bad” is the effect that is contrary to the natural. A normal, natural process is the gradual “mastering” of chaos by the mind and its transformation into cosmos. The “absorption” of cosmos by chaos, however, is perceived negatively by the latter. And the “Meaning” is precisely to interact correctly, that is – in the right direction, of the ordered “surface” of consciousness with its unstructured depths.
Hello! The phenomenology of what you described is not entirely clear to me, in the sense of how one can follow that one is chaos, another is spirit, etc. For example, from personal experience: since childhood, there was a constant feeling of someone’s presence, strange sounds, visions, etc. Essentially, the fear of this pushed me to study magic. At first, meditations and OBE techniques helped me overcome fear, I tried to alter consciousness in different ways, when I started succeeding I saw who had been tormenting me all this time: essentially, animals like urban street dogs live alongside us, feeding on human waste, only they’re something like what you describe as red light that we dissipate, and people with unstable “daytime” consciousness like children, insane or just impressionable try to “pinch” like feathers from chickens. But these beings themselves are weak and extremely cowardly, “dripping” and escaping from direct attention, often cannot digest what they have eaten, which is why they look like they are sewn together from rags and pieces of something unclear; that is the danger from them, if there is any, is nominal. And essentially from what I’ve seen since then, these “beasts” are the only thing surrounding us in the “everyday spiritual” sense (I assume ghosts are of a similar nature) and this can essentially be studied safely. So, not specifically practicing calling magic, what characteristic signals could one accurately say signify: “don’t come here, run!”?
Yes, and the phenomenology of these “beasts” has been repeatedly described. They are elementals – scavengers:
https://enmerkar.com/en/myth/elementaries-empty-spirits-of-the-interworld
And there are also the scavengers-ghulus:
https://enmerkar.com/en/myth/langoliers
But real predators are a completely different story.
Indeed, I had already forgotten about what you wrote about them 🙂 But it would be interesting to learn how traditional magic teaches to recognize chaos – after all, as I understood there is also no conscious behavior as with the “beasts” of elementals.
Absolutely correct, and the absence of conscious behavior is exactly the sign of chaos.
Contact with a klippotic predator can be judged by the cooling of feelings (https://en.enmerkar.com/drugoe/oderzhanie-i-oderzhimost), while contact with chaos is indicated by a clouding of the mind. Moreover, both of these phenomena occur against the backdrop of energy outflow and weakening of will.
Quite an interesting article, thank you Enmerkar. When I read something, my associative perception kicks in. And the first thing that popped into my mind was the Moon (18th arcana, sephira Yesod…) Here it is worth mentioning the phrase “the dream of reason produces monsters.”
This word surfaced along with a dialogue. My opponent tried to convince me that the Moon, as a planet, is evil, created by extraterrestrial forces to corrupt people and their psyche. To which I replied that the Moon affects the unconscious, and in turn, like consciousness (which develops in earthly “roles” – child, adult, etc.), it also evolves having a gradation from beast to god. And those who do not engage in developing their psychic content are unconsciously at the level of a beast – these vices and fears are illuminated by the moon. A wise person feels calmness, serenity, looking at it and receives enlightenments.
There is no worse chaos than ILLUSION. And this first abyss has been overcome by very few throughout human history. Not to mention Daath…
Then I recalled a phrase like “the norm is an ILLUSION. What is normal for a spider is chaos for a fly…”
Know that sometimes there is a feeling when looking around you, a terrifying feeling of orderliness overtakes you. The movement of cars, the movement of people, the boxes of houses in a proper row, your mechanical actions evoke a sense of closed orderliness. This is terrifying. I want to scream that this is not normal! Bang my head against the brick walls, shocking those around… Perhaps those who go crazy do so because the inner structure has accepted brick frames of order, and consciousness (rather, the unconscious), with its abnormal actions, like a fly trapped in a jar, wants to expose this order? The unconscious desires freedom…
Of course, on the other hand, the minds slip because of the rush of the unconscious, due to chaos that consciousness cannot control and perceives its own distorted content as pure coin. And if something distorted is perceived by many people, in the perception of those many, they are normal.
Truth on the path of development is not clear about what is truly distorted… And what wants to break free, at least beyond the norm of its mind, may not actually be so inadequate. Chaos containing great order, while the Great Order from which the cosmos consists actually contains Chaos. And here, traditionally, one should add the word Duality. As it is known, as above, so below. Overcoming the first abyss – Overcoming illusion provides keys to Overcoming the subsequent ones.
In another moment, looking at the same people and the same cars, I can be overtaken by a state of chaos and it seems that I stand apart from the world, outside of it, and just observe it. In both cases, if you pay attention to it, the world is abnormal from any side. Truth, as you noticed, depends on the internal state.
There is indeed extremely little information about Klippot, and the little that exists suggests conscious distortion, tabooing and destruction of integrity. Crowley is a pleasant exception.