Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Policy & Help >

Changing the Temple forum description.

Page: (1)2 3

Less searchable M0rd4nt

17:28 / 29.01.06

Inspired by discussion here, I'd like to raise the matter of the forum description for the Temple, which currently reads: "Religion, mysticism, neo-paganism and Chaos Magick." A glance at the above discussion, let alone the forum itself, tells us that this is no longer adequate to describe what goes on down there. The forum has changed over the years and its subtitle should reflect that.

We need terms that are broader in scope, and maybe something to reflect the Temple's ongoing commitment to ethics and good conduct in magical practice.

I'd tentatively suggest something along the lines of Spirituality, faith, ritual and magick: beliefs, techniques and ethics, but I'm sure other posters can come up with something better.

18:11 / 29.01.06

Agreed. I really liked Dirty Ho's description that it was about ritualised change... that really struck a chord with me.

I mean, in practise, what do we deal with? The forum covers a wide base of applied psychology, martial arts, tantra, magic in a multitude of forms, psychogeography, philosophy... there is a cross over between other forums but there must be a good way of delineating what would make a thread more Temple than elsewhere.

I'd preferably like to avoid anything too specific or jargony, but still capture what the forum is about. I'll put my thinking cap on.

Tryphena Absent

19:47 / 29.01.06

How about(to reword Mordant's) The beliefs, techniques and ethics of magical, religious and spiritual practices? That kind of encompasses a whole variety of things but keeps the idea of a range of broad techniques at the forefront.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:15 / 30.01.06

I'd like to second the Dirty Ho suggestion as the first part of any of description. Maybe Theory, techniques and ethics of effecting change through ritual : Spiritual, meditative, devotional or magical.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:16 / 30.01.06

Seeing it 'back', a bit long, maybe!

09:39 / 30.01.06

Could we possibly include something about self-help//self-change applied psychology? Most of the people who seem to be put off by the subject matter seemed to be unaware that non magical "self-change" falls squarely within the Temple's remit.

I prefer Nina's last suggestion to Money Shot's: as a lof of this stuff is not applied through ritual.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:52 / 30.01.06

Cool.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

12:00 / 30.01.06

I think I prefer 'devotional' to 'religious', though, since it has less baggage, and the latter can scare people away, I think. I'm probably wrong though. If it looks like a duck....

Tryphena Absent

14:15 / 30.01.06

Self change through the beliefs, techniques and ethics of magical, devotional and spiritual practices?

I think if you don't term it around that people will misinterpret the forum. I'm not sure if the above description doesn't emphasise change a little too much?

20:50 / 30.01.06

I reckon either:

Magic, religion, bodywork and applied psychology: the beliefs and methods of self-change.

or:

Archeoptryx: Michael Change has the Healthiest Man-gina.

20:52 / 30.01.06

A way to avoid overstressing change might be something like this, only less crap: "Exploring the inner world: magically, spiritually, psychologically". My theory being that even the non-transformational magical bits still imply doing STUFF via internal methods.

As written that sucks, though, sorry.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:58 / 30.01.06

How about: "Mind, body, spirit, wrasslin." I think that covers everything, no?

Tryphena Absent

23:08 / 30.01.06

I like your second one Seth. Especially the use of the word man-gina.

05:02 / 31.01.06

I went back and looked at that post until I think I realised what your post might be hinting at, Nina. If I’m right, you’re drawing people’s attention to it because it could be seen as really damn offensive. And I now think it is too. I’m really sorry and I’m happy to move it for deletion.

It didn’t occur to me before. It was used by someone I know off board, and I never examined it further than finding the absurdist angle funny: how bizarre, what could it mean? But yeah, thanks for drawing attention to something I hadn’t considered (if that’s what you were doing).

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:54 / 31.01.06

Dude, I think she's probably sincere.

Tryphena Absent

08:21 / 31.01.06

It's true. It made me laugh.

Tryphena Absent

08:28 / 31.01.06

In addition I would like to apologise to all here for exposing you to my terrible sense of humour, which makes me sqwauk when I read about Michael's arcotrypal man-gina or whatever.

11:04 / 31.01.06

So you should be. Man-gina indeed.

I think something relatively simple would be best, like "Magic, Religion, Spirituality, Self change" or something with those keywords in. Or else 'P.I.M.P.s welcome here' courtesy of Illmatic.

12:06 / 31.01.06

I prefer the use of the word religion, if only to prove we're not afraid of discussing spirituality in entirely religious contexts... subtext, connotations, socio-political messes, true definitions and everything. The Temple serves not so much as an open-air one size fits all shrine, but as Grand Central to all matters of the soul and higher meaning.

17:01 / 31.01.06

Ha. I stand corrected on Nina's post, but maybe not on the man-gina. I could see how some people might...

Maybe we should start a man-gina thread in the Headshop to thrash this out in detail. Possibly even broadening it all out so we can come to a conclusion on the ever contentious front bum.

Tryphena Absent

00:13 / 01.02.06

I kind of see man-gina in the same light as the L-Word's Lisa, the lesbian identified male. I may have to ask people for help on why.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:35 / 03.02.06

Any more thoughts on this?

12:00 / 03.02.06

For my money, the main areas that we deal with in the forum are:

Magic – Which I think is fine as a catchall term and the best we’re going to find. Can’t see many people having a problem with this given the forum’s history.

Religion – A contentious word for some, but it seems to have as broad a currency as is available. I see Money $hot’s point about devotions, but I think that religion is a broader term that already encompasses that. I know there’s some disagreement over whether some strands of Buddhism and other philosophies/spiritualities are actually *religions* however, so this term may not be best fit for some.

Bodywork – What could be a better term for this? I’m thinking of the tantra/yoga/Reichian/NLP/martial arts/bioenergetics/body modification/alternative medicine/healing angle here.

Applied Psychology – I choose the word “applied” because the Temple forum has more leanings towards psychology in practise than it does the theoretical side (which I’d see as more the Headshop’s mandate) or the scientific side (which fits to me with the Laboratory). Again, could there be a better term for this.

I like these categorisations because if the idea is to make the Temple forum more appealing to people outside its regular posters then two out of these three headings (“bodywork” and “applied psychology”) don’t necessarily require much in the way of faith or belief in order to participate, and “religion” makes up a third heading that people generally seem able – if not always comfortable – to talk about, whether they see themselves as part of a religion or not.

So I’d offer up only a slight amendment to what I’ve already offered above:

Magic, religion, bodywork and applied psychology: the arts of changing the self.

I realise that some people may disagree with the use of the word *art* here, but for me it sums up the general way in which the forum approaches change. What do people think?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:50 / 03.02.06

I´m going to be awkward and say that while all magical practice ends up changing the self (and that arguably this should be something the magician strives for), external changes are also within the Temple's remit. How about "the arts of change"?

17:40 / 03.02.06

"transformative arts"?

"Bodywork" makes me think specifically of rolfing, reflexology and Hellerwork. "Martial arts" might be better -- there's an overlap with yoga & alternative medicine there, but it kind of leaves NLP and body modification out in the cold. Although NLP and Reichian therapy definitely seem to fall under the "applied psychology" umbrella....

23:39 / 03.02.06

Does every thread in the Temple forum concern change in some way? Because I think you could leave it as just magic, religion, bodywork and applied psychology (or whatever better terms we can find) and leave it there, because change would seem to be implicit. Although I quite like including a reference to change as an explicit statement of intent... Waffling. How about: the art of change in accordance with will?

And can we make reference to Rastafarianism somewhere?

Tryphena Absent

00:30 / 04.02.06

I think that's a little too broad to describe the forum- you could easily mistake it as a place for, say a thread on recycling and people might get a bit confused when people start focusing on changing yourself instead of, you know, sticking stuff in a bin.

Sorry, that was the best example I could think of.

Tryphena Absent

00:30 / 04.02.06

Unless you meant the bit in bold was an additional statement?

07:36 / 04.02.06

Yup, as an additional statement.

Tryphena Absent

01:12 / 05.02.06

Well I think it's damn hot then.

11:43 / 05.02.06

I appeal to dictionary.com as the arbiter:

bod·y·work

1. The metal or plastic external structure of a motor vehicle.
2. The act or process of repairing the bodies of motor vehicles.
3. The application of physical therapy methods such as massage, yoga, exercise, and relaxation techniques for the purpose of promoting physical and emotional well-being.

So do people have any objections to discussing cars in the Temple?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

16:18 / 05.02.06

We've done clothes and makeup in the Temple, why not?

13:57 / 06.02.06

I second that, let's have magic and welding, and maybe plastic surgery.

ForumDescriptionChangePatrolGo!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:39 / 06.02.06

Quants, you n00b, it's not plastic surgery, it's bod-mod.

You have to get more pierceder than King Mob or it's not proper. And maybe horns.

21:34 / 06.02.06

How much of this thread is about providing a descriptor of the forum as we see it now, and how much is about providing a mandate for where we want it to go in future?

Page: (1)2 3