Author: vargr

I dance on the edge of the knife without falling

I persist in the face of all adversity

We are defined by our borders, boundaries, and barriers. Humans seem to take great pleasure in and spend much energy on dividing themselves into groups based on which side of an often-arbitrary line they fall on, whether it be geographic, cultural, or philosophical. These boundaries not only define, but also constrain.  Despite this, these constructs are not entirely negative. Within the realm of individual psychology, it is both natural and necessary to set boundaries.

One boundary of great import to mankind is that between that which is deemed to be reality and that which is labeled as fantasy. Robert Anton Wilson famously observed that “the border between the Real and the Unreal was not fixed, but just marked the last place where rival gangs of shamans had fought each other to a stalemate.” This was an apt observation. We see this line move in fits and starts, as technological advances and new scientific discoveries redefine what is possible in our world.

The Wall has existed as long as human consciousness. Disbelief strengthens it. Since the dawn of the so-called Age of Reason, it has gotten stronger, as belief in the numinous has declined. It is as if the static produced by the subconscious minds of good “rational” folk has coalesced into a structure. Even the minds of operant magical practitioners are not above reproach in this construct, as the personal ‘psychic censor’ is a constituent of the Wall.

This boundary may be more permeable in certain liminal spaces. It also serves as a buffer between the mundane world and the more resistant metaphysical barrier that stands between the mind and the manifestation of Will. This barrier that tries to prevent magical effects from taking place can be seen as a luminous wall, and it is this wall you’ve got to get your intent through, over, or under. That’s the thing that resists us. That’s the one thing that we ultimately have to penetrate, that’s what that diagram in the Consensus article was all about. I’ve referred to this in the past as the barrier of ambient Will.

The firing off of the encapsulated, concentrated intent at the wall should be like a railgun firing a projectile. Fire as hard as you can with as much focus, intent, and intensity as you can. That’s one way to get through the Wall. The projectile, or payload, is a magical construct itself. Picture it as a concentric shell or slug composed of several layers. The intent is wrapped around a kernel concept, that magic is real, is effective, and can be performed by the casting sorcerer. This is the foundation upon which all magical work is carried out. The intent may be reduced to a symbol and visualized. Lastly, an outer shell of incredible strength and slipperiness to help it penetrate the wall.

Mose Smith was billed as
“The Greatest Tattooed Man in the World”
born: June 21, 1891 died: November 6, 1948

Mose was a tattooed man and later a calliope player on the following shows:

1915 Famous Robinson Shows

1916-1918 John Robinson Circus

John Robinson Ten Big Shows Souvenir Route Season 1916

John Robinson Ten Big Shows Souvenir Route 93rd Year Season 1917

1920 Ringling Bros, Barnum & Baily Circus

1925 Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Real Wild West and Great far East Shows

Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Real Wild West and Great Far East Official Season’s Route Season 1925

1931-1932 Rubin & Cherry Model Show

In July of 1925, he married Gertrude “Gertie” Pickel, a dancer with whom he performed in Doc Oyler’s Sideshow within the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Real Wild West and Great far East Shows.

“Mose is some tattooer, and is getting by with it.” – The Mitchell Commercial, Nov 25, 1915.

As was the case with many tattooed men, he also practiced the art himself. By 1920, he had worked in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast and in the Bowery district in New York City. By 1928, Mose was operating his own studio in Chicago, located in an arcade at 534 S. State St. He spoke in an interview of using India stick ink mixed with Listerine, since prohibition had made alcohol unavailable. Here are several examples of his work:

In the 1930’s and into the 40’s, he was the owner and operator of a Monster and Snake show. The Billboard Magazine from October 1942 lists him as appearing with Oscar Bloom’s Gold Medal Shows in Alabama. He appeared with J.F. Sparks Shows in 1944, then back to the Gold Medal Shows for the 1945 and 1946 seasons. On June 14, 1947 his “Big Snake” attraction is named as part of John R. Quinn’s World of Pleasure Shows touring Michigan at the time.

Mose was my Great Grand Uncle (my great-grandfather’s brother), and my dad remembers Mose coming to Terre Haute with an orangutan and a wagon full of snakes. The children in the neighborhood would gather to watch him feed them.

I am always seeking any and all available information on Mose to further expand this resource about his career as a tattooed man, so that he will not be forgotten.

In addition to my family, the following people and organizations have helped me so far, and my gratitude knows no bounds:

Fred Dahlinger (Circus World Museum)
Chuck Eldridge (Tattoo Archive)
Darlene (101 Ranch Old Timers)
Carmen Forquer (Tattoo historian and Great Grand Niece of Bert Grimm)
Lance Johnson Studio (for permission to use the Russel Bros. photo)
Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, IN
The Vigo County Public Library, In Terre Haute, IN
The Public Library of Anniston-Calhoun County, Anniston, AL

Sam Stamper postcards from the Tattoo Photograph Collection, #064-03-01, Special Collections, Providence Public Library.

The above image is an attempt to recreate what I saw when meditating on what my physical altar and temple space look like in virtual or astral space. It was all neon wireframes of the physical objects, like something from Tron. Energy pulsed and flowed all throughout. Diaphanous tendrils of light converged on the stele of Ellis, radiating out into the Web. Packets of data drifted towards the sigil of Nexus 0xC, sent by the many nodes of that servitor swarm. The static of the Noosphere was held at bay by the membrane that surrounds the space, recreated anew in each weekly working.

Agent Smith said:

Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is?
A virus.

He wasn’t entirely wrong. Why do we do this? Humans are renowned for our reasoning skills, but here they fail us. Otherwise we’d grasp the dangers of overpopulation and environmental depletion. Carrying on as we do wouldn’t seem to be in our collective best interest, and yet we do as we do. This leads to us murdering one another over territory and resources. If it isn’t in our best interest, than whose? Is our detrimental behavior for the benefit of some unseen mover? Perhaps some distant deity is growing souls to harvest into his celestial host. Or maybe we’re merely kine for some sinister alien race. The truth is likely far more dull than either of these options, but I’m curious to know nonetheless.

The twin DKMU egregores Enu and Nul are the bringers of wonder, discovery, rebirth and renewal. To engage with them is to invite them to touch your life and bring these aspects to bear on your behalf. That is the purpose of this working. It begins on the Full Moon, runs through the New Moon, and then concludes on until the night before the subsequent Full Moon. There are additional observations at the Third Quarter and First Quarter. 

In addition to these rites, a meditation on the twin whose time in the cycle it is should be performed each day throughout the cycle:

Enu, Light Sister, bathe me in your radiance and bring me wonder. 

Nul, Dark Brother, shroud me in your shadows and bring me peace. 

Enu is in the peak of her power at Full moon.
She is joined by Nul at the Third Quarter, as the light wanes.
He is in the peak of his power at New Moon.
He is joined by Enu at the First Quarter as the light waxes.

The Working

Upon the Full Moon:

Now begins the cycle of Enu and Nul!
The Light Sister and Dark Brother,
Scions of the moon, the Zenith and the Nadir.
The bright face and the shadowy visage.
Ever as one in the cycle eternal.
Let us join together in wonder.

Enu, Light sister, radiance of the full moon,
I entreat you to cast your bright gaze upon my works of Will.
You who are the mistress of light,
Illuminate my path and clear all obstacles from my way.
Hail to the light that burns bright in a darkened world,
And gives hope in the face of dissonance and doubt.
Io Enu, Io Enu, Io Enu!

Upon the Third Quarter:

Comes now the Dark Brother, to join the Light Sister
Darkness waxes as the light begins to wane
The gloaming offers respite from the glare
Old patterns fade away as new ones are forged
Io Enu, Io Nul, Hail to the Scions!

Upon the New Moon:

Nul, Dark brother, emanation of the Void,
I entreat you to guide my path through the darkness.
You who are the walker in the twilight,
Lend your wit to my works and your discernment to my perception.
Hail to the shadow that holds no fear,
But brings only wonder.
Io Nul, Io Nul, Io Nul!

Upon the First Quarter:

Comes now the Light Sister, to join the Dark Brother
The light waxes as the darkness begins to wane
The glow illuminates and awakens the Will
The hidden is revealed and all broken things are made whole again
Io Nul, Io Enu, Hail to the Scions!

Night before the next Full Moon:

Now ends the cycle of Enu and Nul,
The Light Sister and Dark Brother.
Scions of the moon, the Zenith and the Nadir.
The bright face and the shadowy visage.
Ever as one in the cycle eternal.

Liber LS Volume 3 is now available! It is the result of contributions by many Marauders, and I am happy to be one of them.

In the early hours of October 21st, I was in an online thread wherein we were discussing how to remove a curse that had been embedded on a digital file. This was honestly not something that I had ever considered before. Since a file is conceptually and physically an object, even if only a sequence of magnetic values in a storage array in some far-off data center, it is theoretically possible that someone could put a curse on it. 

I wrote:

To hack the curse in my own Info model paradigm I’d consider the e-book as a construct in the information field of the universe. Construct a  one-shot curse-killer virtual phage servitor with the scope of operations = to “consume and nullify baleful magic associated with a given title” or similar, then launch that servitor as I see fit. Altering a passive informational pattern like a static text, either at the object or instance level  is a lot less complex than altering a living pattern, or a system of patterns.

And I immediately set about creating this servitor. I named it Curse Killer, and I envision it as a script to execute within the infosphere. The magical equivalent of sudo ./crsklr. This phrase was rendered into the following sigil:

Crskilr is a fire-and-forget agent. It identifies the baleful magical signature attached to any object (be that physical or conceptual) and removes it, sending it to ground. It then similarly dissipates to ground itself.

Originally Posted 6/14/2006.

This is a simple talisman that I created out of a short piece of aluminum tubing.

The Process is simple, given the right tools.

Cut a short length of aluminum craft tubing.
Write a statement of intent, sigil, or other magical inscription on a small piece of paper.
Empower the inscription by any preferred means.
Roll up the paper and insert it into the tube.
Crimp the ends of the tube shut by squeezing them in a bench vise or with pliers.
Clean the flattened edges with a file to remove any burrs.
Use a metal punch to make a hole through one end of the capsule.
Use a standard craft/jewelry jump ring to attach the capsule to a chain or thong.
Wear it or give it away.
This same basic design can also be used to enclose herbs, metals, or whatever is desired. The capsule could also be decorated or painted if desired.

Vargr
6/14/06