serpent.antonchanning.com

They are a nexus connecting to different spaces and joying the world of man with that of nature. To be under the bridge is to be outside the world and among the mechanisms that allow it to operate. It is a zone of multple flows, orthogonal at different layers.

The Lion’s Gate Bridge in vancouver has struts the shape of inguz and the perfect shade of green, The shade of growing, the colour of an open heart chakra. The colours and shapes I tattooed on my solar plexus.

{Lion,Sun,Heart}+{Ing,Blooming,Green}

A bunch of stuff I’ve done over the years, all writing and drawing and digital design by Michael Robin Cooke, all rites reserved.

A young Austin Spare in a Chaostar

This is a t-shirt design, meant to be printed on the bottom of a shirt so the top of the snake looks like it’s emerging from the wearer’s pants when shirt is tucked in.

an ifrit

the ’straight white men’ cartoon

cartoon based on a historical ZEN koan

Based on an interview on an old Nancy Reagan "Just say NO" tv special.

an example of my digitally designed sigils, this one is positive for steady employment.

If you pay attention to the news, we’re in a recession and perhaps a second Great Depression. In my case it’s affected me personally, soon I’ll be in Ithaca trying to get back on my feet, but in the here and now I’m stuck on a remote farm unemployed and sponging off family.

I’ve been thinking about what’s possible in the here and now, and the gross stuff – money!

A couple thoughts are in my head. For example, employees are slaves that are rented and paid. Free people own their own business. A business meme is that employees must be hungry or they won’t work. Employees, if they work hard and make a lot of profit for their employer, they see no benefit themselves – that’s what makes an employee a slave, the static pay-scale exploits them when business does well. The static pay-scale kills a business when business does poorly. So just looking from businesses doing poorly, Trade Unions get grief from business hypnotized conservatives.

So, just coming from employment as renting slaves and slavery being bad and wrong – the idea of ‘employee owned’ gets awesomely validated. But at the cost of the capitalist meme? If you don’t want to be rich, meaning richer than others, it’s because you’re lying to yourself or you’re very accomplished at the non attachment thing. And if you’re really above greed, you don’t suppose you wouldn’t be an ideal steward of weath?

So I have all this graphic design and screen printing expertise, and no one will hire me for that in Ithaca. I can get a basic set up for a few grand and start printing REALLY NICE t-shirts. Ithaca is a college town, t-shirts can sell there. That’s my personal idea. I got other ideas too (refurbishing cheap computers, custom painting them, installing a customized ‘edubuntu’ OS and selling to Ithacan’s as kid’s computers for modest profit). Worst case scenario, is I’m making shirts and selling them at local markets and making a very modest supplement to my job income. Best case scenario, I get a lot of business and have to buy serious hard ware and hire people to keep up production to meet the demand.

There’s no serious silk screen printer in Ithaca, other than an ‘eco friendly’ tshirt business that has child friendly graphics I don’t care for and is limited to cutting film for designs (the photo emulsion technique I’d use is also mildly toxic, they’d never touch it). Ithaca has school teams and is local to many small towns with school teams, college groups … and so forth that will buy custom t-shirts. I’m a kick ass graphic artist so I can make their crude efforts cool. So I’m optimistic a silk screen business in Ithaca could attract considerable business and I’d have to look at actually hiring people.

But how do I do it? I wanna get rich, so I should hire folks as temporary slaves at minimum wage and take all the profit myself right? But, I’ve worked in the silk screen business. The employees can be hard on equipment and let a lot of bad prints pass if I don’t hire someone to manage them and be a hard ass. Is there an alternative to exploitation? Employee owned? Fuck that! It’s MY company, It’s my idea! I want the ownership, the money! And what about stock? I’ll need to sell stock to raise money, no?

So here’s my idea: 51, 40,9. I retain 51% ownership, 40% ownership is reserved for employees, 9% ownership is available for outsiders to purchase. New employees would have some of their pay reserved to buy their share, this would be mandatory, and should they quit or be fired, that money would be returned to them. It’s make book keeping a headache. C’est la Vie.

But just thinking about it, the more money the company makes, the more money employees make. If the business is failing, as owners the employees will take the necessary pay cuts if that’s what’s required to save the business. But no pay cut or increase is permanent – it’s all contingent on how well the business does. And the workers, the prints we produce are THEIRS, there could even be a sense of pride. Who knows?

So yeah, I’m new to the business thing. Feedback would be appreciated. I figure if there’s no jobs, we got to start a business and make our own damn job. In Ithaca as a local I can get shit jobs with local employment agencies (it’s what businesses do with no employees -use temps as needed) and raise some money (helps I’m single and can live like a pauper comfortably). I will write up a business plan and try to get a loan, I know banks don’t give loans, but the Ithaca Credit Union might and there is little competition. Wish me luck.

Yeah, on kitschchaos.com I’m all about online marketing and I’ll keep a foot in that too. You Google "Ithaca silk screen" and you get a business in Iowa – so I figure I’ll start a business in Ithaca and pitch it to people living in Iowa. lol.

In my previous article I discussed Baphomet’s possible origins in the Arabic names Bahumed or Bahamut, the latter of which takes its name from the biblical Behemoth and its form from a chymera of the biblical Behemoth and Leviathan, with the connection to the mysteries of the hippopotamus and the elephant that this implies. [...]

…and have flying monkeys backing you up!

Ok, but seriously….or not…

I’m living in Kauai now (pop 60K)…..absolutely fabulous. I’m the brokest I’ve ever been (no, really…really….like almost gonna live on the beach broke), but have found my passion again. Energetically, this place is what I can only describe as ‘primitive’ or ‘pristine,’ yet those words just don’t seem to give it justice. On the one hand, we have all the conveniences of the mainland (though tech seems to be less than convenient)….on the other we have a sheer primal undeveloped natural ecosystem that massive populations of sheople haven’t vamped it out. I’ve hiked into areas where I followed pig trails as there was no *true* trail and it was quite evident NO ONE had been there for a long time. Even the Discovery Channel has admitted that the ley lines are strong here…LMAO.

So given that the energies are so potent here, I’ve done a lotta work to tap into that. I’ve also asked many locals about Kauai as an energetic force. This is a place where healers are a dime a dozen….a sort of Avalon of the Pacific. More specifically where Healers go to be healed. Considering that the last year was perhaps the worst of my life, it’s only apropo that a Healer like myself has ended up here. On the other hand, it forces me to work in a spa environment…but I digress.

Given that the energies are so strong here….my paranoid conspiracy theory upbringing throw up curious glances at the Pacific Rim Missile Facility. That’s right…here in paradise….overlooking one of the most spiritual beaches in Kauai…where the dead are said to leave the island….are friggin’ NUKES. And a HUGE military base tapping into the energies here.Oh yeah….that missile N. Korea shot last year that "failed?" The locals can tell ya more about that.This island is under a grid that I’m just now learning about and still in awe of. Considering global relationships with said country, my 80’s Cold War paranoia kinda screams sometimes.

I’m told by those who’ve weathered such storms, that in the event of a hurricane causing electrical outings a nuclear sub pipes in to power the island. Most areas have power available within a couple of days. Gee, after Hurricane Katrina people were S.O.L. for weeks, but on this tiny little rock in the most remote part of the Pacific gets its own private sub? Impressive.

However, I find that the general lifestyle and the tech are a good 20yrs behind. Life is simpler here….folks recognize that Mother Nature can kick your ass at any moment. Wifi isn’t publicly available in the convenience most on the mainland take for granted. Barter is an active form of business. Oh oh wait…where the ONLY places you can afford to shop are Walmart and Kmart (mind you the options aren’t great)……where that guy in the dirty shirt and rusted truck is a millionaire….and the coconut wireless runs faster than a T1 line…at the same time, some of the most advanced technology the military has to offer exists on this island. Tell me that you don’t find it ironic that I live somewhere that is completely monitored by the military at one of THE current most important tactical support sites….in a state where the President comes from…..but in order to send a FAX or go to Starbuck’s I have to drive 30 min?

Just sayin’.

I have read this essay about two weeks ago:

Money Magick that works

Some of the ideas in it did I already know from a Frater V.’.D.’. book. I don’t know who copied whom here. But some things in the essay were new and proved really useful. I had concentrated on getting money before without much success. When that essay told me to rather conentrate on what I want to buy with the money, I got that very quickly then, much cheaper than I had expected.

I don’t know there seem to be talents for certain topics. There are things in life I can repeatedly conjure quite easily, while for money there seemed to be a block mightier than me, at least recently (that used to be quite different years ago).

It’s as if this article is written for several types of people with different talents for money. But it seems useful in changing the perspective as needed for everyone – like not every paragraph is for the same person.

I like the essay, so I thought I’d share it and maybe we can discuss something about it.

Well… today I realized I am approaching the lowest point in my life, while simultaneously finding the mojo again.

Mundanely I’m at the worst point I’ve been in since suicide was a serious consideration. IF I was the person I was then, I probably would have killed myself this week. Despite being in the EXACT situation I’ve dreaded for… well… a long time, I can’t actually bring myself to feel bad. I think I bottom out at 60%

I also realized that I was plugged into the synchronous field again. It was subtle… faint and tenuous in a way it never was before but IT WAS THERE. I suspect it was so faint because I just haven’t been paying it attention. Or that my frequency just hasn’t been compatible.

Over the last few days I’ve been “walking the circuits” and “feeding the spirits.” At some point I consciously realized (or decided) that’s what I was doing. As such I’ve been noticing zones, components and um powers coming online again with the kind of flicker and hum of cold war era bunker systems booting up.

Part of this remembering/deciding is that I’m not going to worship the gods of damaged goods (at least for a while) but will instead invoke the angels of my better nature. First on the docket is (feel free to laugh, I don’t mind) Sheriff Andy Taylor.

PS if anyone has questions about my highly personal terminology, I’d be happy to attempt explanation.

There’s a new book by Peter Sloterdijk which should soon be available to you in English. This article tells you some basics about it:

[pervegalit.wordpress.com]

I was given the book as a present and have started to read it. As Sloterdijk tends to keep some things open and ambiguous I cannot tell you final judgments about the book until I have read it in full.

But I do recommend the book as a philosophy book which can possibly be very useful to occultists. I even find Sloterdijk’s style highly entertaining. The whole topic of the book is exercise and training and it opens a philosophical perspective, or even many perspectives on this topic. Matters of Esotericism, Mysticism and the Occult are not dealt with very explicitly but sometimes lightly touched upon, at least within the 200 pages I have read. However the ideas in this book can very easily be aplied by occultists in their practice I think.

Presently Sloterdijk gets criticised (once again) for political implications some people see in his present work. But once again the journalists prove at least selective perception. Some passages look politically weird to me as well, but I don’t have the final judgment, yet, as I said. It’s very much a matter of context. And there are clearly very humane concepts in this book, which get ignored by some journalists.

Some passages show a uniquely humane version of Nietzscheanism, which I am very fond of.

Sloterdijk often causes his own problems with sentences that selectively quoted look highly stupid in political matters. However I swear, in context it’s entirely different.

Maybe I’ll tell you more about this book when I have finished it.

Lolita has posted a beautiful account of how we have been celebrating Diwali on her kiamagic.com blog.

   Tonight is the last evening of Diwali- Festiwal of Lights. I’m going to light divas and have some blooming tea. I don’t know how traditional this is but I like blooming teas on all occasions. The tradition of Diwali involves sharing sweets/snacks with others, wearing new clothes, worshipping cows, taking a bath before sunrise, meeting family and friends and burning little clay oil lamps. Sweets seem a similar idea to trick-or-treat. I didn’t embrace all aspect of Diwali. There are different traditions regarding Festival of Lights in each part of India and Nepal. It is celebrated all over the world. I only found out about Diwali this summer and decided it will be lovely to join the celebration. 

   For me Diwali started from lovely dinner in local, authentic Indian restaurant ‘Ganesha’. I broke my vegetarian diet having a little bit of lamb, tasted absolutely amazing! We shared bottle of white Indian wine- admittedly one of tastiest white wines I had for a long time. At the end me and Anton tried original Indian desert with kulfi ice cream. After coming back home we lighted divas, burned lots of incense and prepared blooming tea. It was charming evening. I will definitely include Diwali in the list of festivals I celebrate each year. Indeed, I hope one day to celebrate it in India. Finishing, happy Diwali to everyone!