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Recent events and fire birds made of stone

 
 
ValseLunaire
02:12 / 15.04.04
Hullo everyone.
I found this site by chance, and I'm quite happy I did. I was searching for information on Internet/computer magick and found an old thread on just that. Either way, I subsequently joined and now here I am. (I know that introductions are generally frowned upon, but bear with me ^_^)
Around the place that I live, there have been many of what some friends and I have dubbed 'awakenings'. Basically, people are becoming aware of the cosmic energies that drive them; they are beginning to listen to their sincronicities. My first question to the board is why. Why is this happening? I love that it is, and its appearance fills me with a sense of hope for the human race, but I don't know why it is happening.
My second question/topic for discussion is an ominous feeling that I, and some other of my friends (awakened, or at least we think so) have been feeling. It is as though something large and possibly unpleasent is looming over us, and we aren't sure what to think.
My third and last topic is two words: Concrete Pheonix.
If anyone has any idea what this could mean, or has heard it before, then please speak out.
In closing, please ignore any spelling mistakes that may have slipped past. Thank you for your time.
 
 
The Prince of All Lies
04:09 / 15.04.04
where do you live, man? I'd love to awaken a lot of people around here, but I've found the only way to do that is by spreading the word (that there is no "word")..
Sorry, concrete phoenix doesn't ring a bell..but it seems like an urban reference, like a phoenix rising from concrete instead of fire...maybe a reference to the "awakening" you've been experiencing in the context of the city? Where did you hear that term, in a dream or something like that?
 
 
Shanghai Quasar
05:54 / 15.04.04
Concrete "Phoenix" units were used to make breakwaters for the invasion of Normandy. I doubt that's at all useful, but there you are.

As far as awakenings and ominous feelings are concerned, I'm not certain what to say. It could be any number of things. Perhaps if you were to provide more information, it may be easier to understand where you're coming from.
 
 
Z. deScathach
07:38 / 15.04.04
I've often thought that all of the magickal work that is being done is producing generalized changes in terms of localized fields. I've known people who are magickal practitoners in New Orleans, for example, that have long maintained that magick literally permeates the city. With the amount of work being done elsewhere, why shouldn't that be happening to a greater and greater degree, in more and more places? There's never been a time where magickal practice has existed at this level, at least not in recorded history. For the first time, one can go into any bookstore, and buy books that teach basic magickal practice. Back in the seventies, there were very few books on magick available. When I was in middle school, I found a copy of Magic: An Occult Primer in of all places, a local grocery store, but other than that, there was almost nothing. Now you can find books on not just one discipline, but a ton of them. I live in a town of 8,000 people, and there is an occult bookstore with a magickal book club that meets once a month. All of this magickal work has to be having a general effect. I remember that there was a thread about this previously, that questioned whether there was a "magickal snowball effect". That more magickal practice would open more people up psychically which would cause more people to study magick which would open more people, and so on and so on. In terms of "Concrete Phoenix", I wouldn't have the foggiest.
 
 
ValseLunaire
02:35 / 16.04.04
Thanks for the replies all!
Well, I live in a medium-sized city in Notheren Ontario, Canada. We have at least two occult shops, if not a few more that I havn't found yet and although we do have our share of closed minded fundamentalists, the "pagans" seem to almost rival that number. That number is growing as the word is spread. People who "don't dream" have been beginning to, and coincidences (syncroniticy, to use an old buzzword) have been bringing people together, and leading them down their paths. Perhaps this has always been there and this is simply my reaction to noticing these things, I'm not sure.
As for the ominous feeling, I'm not sure theres any other way to describe it. The waryness that prey percieves when being stalked by the preditor, perhaps. Either way, it is as though something is going to happen, perhaps here, perhaps worldwide. There is so much that I don't know...
The Concrete Pheonix is just something that has been bothering me for a while. The words came up during a conversation that two of my friends were having, and they didn't really know where it came from. In any case, thanks for the input!
 
 
---
02:47 / 16.04.04
I'm in no way sure, but Concrete Phoenix could be meaning a Phoenix that is yet to purge itself of it's earth element before it rises. Alchemy is about getting rid of the matter and rising into the heavens/fire, so the concrete Phoenix could be symbolizing something that has to be changed in order to rise from the ashes/concrete. Maybe intuition/knowledge/energy/fire is needed so that the Phoenix can fly freely.

If this is true i guess your task is to start the flame off by working out what the phoenix is actually representing, then although it maybe a hard task, at least you'll know what to work on.
 
 
madhatter
11:57 / 16.04.04
cities, like every landscape, seem to have their 'dreamtime'. the land dreams, we share parts of the dream, that's one of the ways we work 'magick', and that is as it ever was.
but what if a certain landscape (here: a city) - not it's inhabitants, but it's own self - is about to awaken? a 'concrete phoenix' rising??? and - from what fire...?
maybe this fits also with the recent 'awakenings' around you. and with the feeling of being somethings prey.

(but maybe...we all read to much fantasy-literature.)
(err...and sorry for my bad english.)
 
 
Z. deScathach
23:39 / 16.04.04
That is certainly an interesting point, and a valid one. I've always felt that there are localized effects having to do with the goings on in a particular area. I have to say though that I've gotten similar impressions from where I live. I wonder if others are perceiving similarly. I don't really have a sense of dread, but it does seem that what it means to be a human is going to radically change soon, and I believe for the better, but not without things getting rather messy first. Think about it, if we are creating a "magickal field" that is increasing in strength, well, look at how we've done with other forms of power. Still, that level of connection actually holds out some possibilities for unification on a level previously unheard of.
 
 
akira
23:45 / 16.04.04
Like a hypermedia landscape? Helping or reacting to you on your chosen path?
 
 
---
00:39 / 17.04.04
Can you explain that a bit more Akira, your idea of a hypermedia landscape? That sounds cool.

I think when you change your perception to include the city as a natural part of nature, wierd things can follow.....when i go into town now it feels more alive.

I need the book City Magick.

Alan Moore's Watchmen, a Pete Carroll book on Chaos Magick or City Magick?

Money first i suppose.
 
 
akira
00:43 / 17.04.04
Its a phrase I just made up, you can have it.
 
 
---
00:49 / 17.04.04
Woah that was quick. Erm, cheers, i'm interested in the word Hypermagick, it keeps coming back to me, but i've not found anything to do with it.

Hypermagick......Hypermedia landscape.......something could be on the way.

I'm getting closer to finding my own way of Magick, but that's not really saying anything, it could take ages yet, but i get the feeling it's gonna be really wierd and wonderful.
 
 
Charlie's Horse
02:58 / 17.04.04
"Hypermedia Landscape?"

Anyone remember the Boy Saga part of The Invisibles' second season? She meets with a member of Cell 23 (Coyote) and he mentions the Infranet. An information network comprised of the surrounding cityscape: all the billboards and graffiti'd symbols as pure information to those who know how to read the lingo. With the right frame of mind an 'aimless' walk around town can be as informative as tossing down Tarot cards or asking an angel for advice. You stretch the existing media above and beyond it's intent. Plus you get the wunder of light exercise...

Like the City Bus system of divination mentioned earlier on the board, when you ride a bus with one specific question in mind until a billboard/restuarant sign/assorted kitsch answers your question.

That's my understanding - if it needs revision or a good beating just post it up. I didn't want to try to stop myself from defining it - maybe it'll give somebody something to work with. Plus, I don't go a day without referencing The Invisibles - nothing like a viral hypersigil for a magical personalities' breakfast.

- keflexive

just another language junkie
 
 
trouser the trouserian
09:30 / 17.04.04
hypermedia landscape

Sounds liks someone's been channeling Marshall McLuhan

Just as Paglia learns to thrive in a sea of competing stimuli, so must we learn to thrive in a sea of constant change. We must train ourselves to look at every fact, every person, as part of an ongoing process rather than a discrete instant. Only by being aware of these connections can we function effectively. The landscape of hypermedia is not one of places, it is one of relationships. It is by these relationships that we must navigate. If we place our faith in anything in this medium, it is in the idea that there is an overall pattern which underlies and binds these relationships together. Holography might offer some insight into the nature of that pattern. Every part of a holographic image contains and reflects the whole of the image. Similarly, every relationship in the hypermedia landscape reflects the overall pattern. By examining the similarities between these relationships, we can hope to gain an intuitive understanding of the whole.
 
 
---
09:43 / 17.04.04
Thanks absence of gravitas, (how do i shorten that one down? If i call you gravitas, that would seem wrong when your name implies an absence of it......ramble ramble) that sounds cool, i'm going to try and raise my awareness and perception when i'm next in town and see if i notice any more strangeness than usual.
 
 
akira
10:31 / 17.04.04
Try not to stand in dog shit.
 
 
---
10:33 / 17.04.04
But everythings connected! It could lead me to SATORI!!!
 
 
Simulacra
02:14 / 25.04.04
Odd. Just wrote an article about what you'd might call the hypermedia landscape... but judge for yourself if it's relevant.

Simulacra Warfare
 
 
mixmage
23:57 / 26.04.04
but what if a certain landscape (here: a city) - not it's inhabitants, but it's own self - is about to awaken? a 'concrete phoenix' rising???

Concrete "Phoenix" units were used to make breakwaters for the invasion of Normandy.

Just musing, but I like the way these two interpretations fit together: as if each individual awakening helps to build the beachhead.
 
 
cusm
19:07 / 27.04.04
On the "Awakening and feelings of dread" bit, its been my experience that this is a common experience for "awakened" folk, especially those new to it. I'm a bit torn on it having Real Cosmic Signifigance or being an expression of the experience itself, leaning towards both at once. That is, one becomes aware of the flow, and thus aware that THINGS ARE CHANGING AT TERRIFYING SPEEDS! So surely, it must be armegeddon, etc. And maybe it is, but if so the apocolypse has been going on for years and seems to have quite a bit of kick left to it yet.

As for magick picking up speed in general, you betcha it is. And I'm lovin it.
 
 
Simulacra
23:48 / 27.04.04
Just go with the flow.
 
 
flufeemunk effluvia
01:10 / 28.04.04
the apocolypse has been going on for years

I suddenly think of the Labratory thread about the human race being a mass extinction event (i.e. the end of the mammal age). I can't really think of how that relates to a concrete phoenix, except for maybe the thought of new life springing from post-human ruins? Nevermind...
 
  
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