Yes, Gardner 's fondness for flagellation, amongst other related ritual incidents, seems to be quite well documented from other sources also. The question is, was the manuscript pertaining to ritual flagellation actually genuine? Some people have expressed the opinion that Gardner was a fraud. However, as a number of initiation processes seem to involve some form of pain, it does not surprise me to see it being used - indeed there are far more painful incidents one can experience during initiations, particularly those of the shamanic variety. I would say though, that there is a fine line between the use of such procedures in ritual and fetishism - with Gardner probably leaning
more towards the latter. A number of 'current' occultists seem to have adopted Gardner 's and Crowley 's stance of the 'sexualisation of ritual', to the point where there are now advocates of sado-masochistic sex 'magick', of whom Zeena Shreck (formerly Le Vey) would a prime example. Obviously in her case, it is pure fetishism, of the lowest variety.
I did not mean to imply 'formal education' with my prior statement, the only distinction between formal and informal is a nice laminated bit of expensive paper. Very decorative, but really, what is it good for? Rather I intended that comment towards a certain type of
individual, whom regardless of their income, assets or whatever, makes no strive to educate themselves. That type of person can be found within an academic environment as easy as than can be found on the street.
I will go back and explore earlier posts to locate the previous instalments of Racial Education. I have not been on this list very long, and had not realised they were a regular feature. I am sure starting with the first chapter, instead of the ninth will aid me immeasurably.
evola_as_he_is <evola_as_he_is@...> wrote:
At current in the West there is definitely "an unfortunate trend to
associate Crowley as the 'beginning and end' of all things esoteric" -
whether to the educated or to the uneducated, and, considering the
kind of teaching which is given currently in schools, even in the
most renowned and most expensive institutions, there is no longer
much difference between so-called educated people and so-called
uneducated people from a spiritual standpoint, so much so that it is
a misuse of language to speak of 'education' with respect to the
teaching which is not so much given as rented or sold there, and
which, instead of forming the spirit, the character of a given
person, is only designed to provide him with new knowledge, or rather
new pieces of information, according to the egalitarian nature of its
premises, whose damaging effects were brought to light and duly
denounced by Evola and Guénon.
To go back over Crowley, whose lady-friends sounded like 'educated'
persons, one only needs to read the chapter which Evola devoted to
his work and to de Naglowska's in 'Metaphysics of Sex' to realise
that he was perfectly aware of the falsifications and of the
deviations which the former's contains.
The sentimentalist tone of the correspondence of Crowley and his lady-
friends doesn't exactly contribute to make it more interesting than,
for instance, a Master's thesis on Laclos' 'Les liaisons
dangereuses'. Before they accepted to be, for instance, flogged
within an initiatory context, or rather within what appeared to them
as being an initiatory context, it sounds like Crowley's lady-friends
had to be soft-soaped. In ancient Rome, it was not the case of the
Matrones who ordered their slaves to whip them ritually before having
sex, it being understood that, after having been whipped by their
slaves for their own sake, it was not with them that they had sex.
From a footnote to 'Metaphysics of Sex' in which Evola tells us that
G.B. Gardner showed him a manuscript which contained an ancient
ritual related to flagellation practices within the context of sexual
initiation, it can be gathered that the founder of the Wicca movement
was deeply interested in that aspect of a certain feminine
initiation. Futher research has shown that, contrary to what Evola
tended to assume, the scenes of flagellation of young girls and women
on Ancient Roman frescos were not only "essentially symbolical".
Three heavens there are; two Savitar's, adjacent:
In Yama's world is one, home of heroes.
As on a linch-pin, firm, rest things immortal:
He who hath known it, let him here declare it.
- Rig Veda I.35 (Griffith)
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