#mark stavish

[jasper-book-stash]

So...my thoughts on Egregores: The Occult Entities That Watch Over Human Destiny by Mark Stavish is that there is nothing to gain here.

I stumbled through several pages of a man whitesplaining Tibetan Buddhism to me, Islamophobia, weird statements about children, and somehow more.

I even skipped to other areas to see if it got better, more informative, or more interesting, but it was genuinely downhill the entire time.

The author's insistence on a white, Christian-originated universalism and treating people of other religions and cultures as if they knew nothing about their own things just because he was making up some sort of "true" reason behind their things was utterly painful.

Egregore is still a useful word when it comes to energyforms, but I don't think I agree with this fuckhead that every deity and demon are egregores. My problem is not that the word "egregore" exists. I actually very much like the word and concept in theory. What I have a problem with is the pick-and-choose and appropriation used to make it seem more "legitimate" and thus enforcing this one dude's colonization insistence that they all secretly support his Pennsylvania occultist circlejerk. No offense to anyone from Pennsylvania, but this author is also from there, so if you're in Wyoming, Pennsylvania and come across Mark Stavish, make sure you give him a thumbs-down from me.

This is just a (presumably) white, Christian-raised-but-now-probably-atheist man very boldly making statements about things he is entirely wrong in and trying to enforce a colonizer universalism across all kinds of separate cultures. (Also, side note, he's also got a book named "Kabbalah for Health and Wellness", so add potential antisemitism to that list too...)

The tipping point for me were these two pages. Content warning for Islamophobia and weird statements about children.

Lowkey, why do most books on chaos magic suck ass from a "why are you being such a piece of shit to other cultures and religions" angle? My forays into books on the subject are reaching deeper and deeper levels of rock bottom.

[didanawisgi]

Here, buried in the depths of matter, is the secret name. Here, in the most material of locations, is the truth each Mason seeks. Like the Secret Fire of the alchemists, the Lost Word is found in this world, not in the next.

Mark Stavish, Freemasonry: Rituals, Symbols & History of the Secret Society

[ceremonialmagick]

The Mind of Hermes: Visionary Experiences in Western Esotericism

[jasper-book-stash]

December 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

I've read eight books this month, and most were entirely neutral to good for me...with one exception. That means that my grand total of books for 2024 was 103, though I only enjoyed somewhere around 30 of them. Anyway, here's the December list:

Religious Text

None applicable.

1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?

Egregores: The Occult Entities That Watch Over Human Destiny | Mark Stavish

Just gonna link this...

2/10 - Trash

None applicable.

3/10 - Meh

None applicable.

4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier

Seventy-Eight Degrees Of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey To Self-Awareness | Rachel Pollack

I respect what this book has historically done for tarot and tarot reading, but as a standalone book outside of that context, I didn't...enjoy it.

7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats

Scorpions Of Medical Importance | Hugh L Keegan

A very fascinating book on scorpions from 1980. Despite this, not every scorpion depicted here is deadly. What I thought was most fascinating was the fact that it called the deathstalker (Leiurus quinquestriatus) the only species in Leiurus...because 18 out of 19 of the other ones were only discovered after the book was published. It is pretty outdated as far as listed places with antivenins goes, though.

Scorpions: Plus Other Popular Invertebrates | Jerry G Walls

A decent book on caring for scorpions, considering it goes really in-depth despite only having 88 pages. I did skip over the appendices at the back about other invertebrates though, because while I'm not scared of scorpions, I'm scared of many of the other bugs and arachnids in the back. No thank you.

Garfield Fat Cat 3-Pack, volume 25 | Jim Davis

I picked this one on a whim from the library I work at because I love Garfield comics. Fuck you. The caveat I have for this one is that if you don't enjoy reading 286 pages of mostly-three-panel-comics, it won't be enjoyable. I had fun though.

9/10 - Very Very Good

The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art Of Decluttering And Organizing | Marie Kondo

I actually found this book surprisingly helpful??? Which was irritating to me, because I'm always surprised when popular things are actually...good. Though Marie Kondo's theory doesn't work for everyone since it's very focused on how you feel, and if you're struggling to feel anything for any reason, it's not gonna help much. I do think it's very funny that she outright encourages you to send her book away if it doesn't spark joy either. Incredible.

Michelangelo: Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture | Ludwig Goldscheider

This is a series of photographs of many, many of Michelangelo's works, and the quality of the photos are gorgeous. I found this on the free table of the library I work at and enjoyed flipping through and admiring the details.

Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated, volume 1 | Katsura Ise, Takuma Yokota

Yes, yes, this is a new printing of an old Magic: The Gathering manga about players playing the game. I didn't expect the prophecies of Nostradamus to be a major plot point. And I fucking loved it.

10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone

None applicable.

[didanawisgi]

[didanawisgi]

Preserving the Living Traditions of Western Esotericism Mark Stavish, Founder & Director of Studies Ancient Practices for Modern Practitione

[plotinuslovemachine]

The technique known as Assumption of the Godform is among the most impressive, as well as challenging techniques in esotericism. A careful study of a chosen pantheon in depth is often required, along with the willingness to spend a great deal of time in extended meditation and devotion each of the pantheon's deities. Yet, if done carefully and in a progressive and step-by-step manner, Assumption of the Godform can offer practical occultists insights into the depth and power of ancient cults, practices, and ideas that simply reading about them can not.

Assumption of the Godform Mark Stavish, M.A.

13 April 1998

Think of a place and thou are there. Think of a thing, and thou are it.

The fundamental idea behind “Assumption of the Godform is that within each of us there are power that lie in potential for awakening, and that by identifying ourselves with those idealized expressions of those power from ancient times, in the form of ‘gods', we can awaken through resonance, similar powers and wisdom within our own psyche

[ripe-ruin-repeat]

The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Read

Modern spirituality is filled with lies, half-truths, and misconceptions, all designed to part would-be seekers from their cash as well as their self-respect. Here is the sum of all truths; meditate on it and everything else with fall into its proper perspective.

1. There can be no physical healing without emotional healing first; there can be no emotional healing without first enlarging our spiritual view; there can be no spiritual growth without ethical growth first. Spirituality. healing, and ethics are all synonymous.

2. Devotion and discipline are the most important qualities for pursuing the Path-devotion to the ideal and regular practise.

3. Practise often. Remind yourself daily, even hourly if only for a moment, that all is One and that you abide in the power, wisdom, and happiness of divine tranquility. From this, feel within yourself that you can solve all problems and resolves all inconsistencies.

4. Develop the trait of positive indifference or imperturbability. Recognise all situations in life as an expression of your own Inner Self, and recognise that through them you can remove the habitual stains (karma) on your consciousness that obscure the Inner Light. See both the enjoyable and the sorrowful as expressions of the same truth.

5. Everything is in constant flux; everything changes. Neither health nor sickness, life nor death, are permanent states of being. Only consciousness is eternal.                                                               6. Fear born of ignorance of our limitless nature is the source of all suffering, illness, and pain in human life.

7. The subconscious synthesises our experiences to produce “order out of Chaos.” To assist it, we need to pick a spiritual discipline and stick to it. Hopping from system to system looking for the magic key, or the false ideal of some kind of multicultural eclecticism, produces only confusion and spiritual failure. Universal truths exist, but they are always present and used in a synthetic manner in authentic systems, not attached to each like poorly designed additions to a home.

8. Seek to serve, rather than to be served.

In the end, all esoteric practises are based on the simple truth that we become what we identify with. Through various methods, we can come to see life as the Path, and the Path as a process hereby we become the objects of our heart’s desire. The single greatest thing we must overcome is our own fear- the “Guardian of the Threshold.”