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Benjamin Rowe

  
 
Doc Checkmate
19:48 / 19.06.06
(The majority of Benjamin Rowe´s available writings can be found here.

I have to admit I´m fascinated by Benjamin Rowe. His Enochian writings are brilliant, deranged cocktails of sci-fi cosmology, quasi-millenialist "Age of Aquarius" astrology, and audacious self-mythologizing. The narratives of his magical workings cut from astral visions of his smoking, effulgent, super-saiyan-like thought body--reflection of a mighty soul which the Seniors of the Earth Tablet swear belongs to all-powerful Set himself--to descriptions of the demeaning loss of his low-level government job and a near-miss involving suspicious cops and a concealed bag of weed. All of which he manages to incorporate, just short of seamlessly, into his epic good-vs-evil biography (which is, of course, inextricably intertwined with both the history of human life and the aeons-long struggle with his nemesis, the being who would be called both Horus and Aleister Crowley). The keenness of his mind and his wild creativity are obvious from his online writing, but I´m left wondering whether he was a once-in-a-generation magical visionary or a lonely, highly intelligent man with an unsatisfying job and a remarkably rich fantasy life. Or both, or neither.

Among his (frankly astonishing) innovations are his instructions for transforming an Enochian elemental tablet into an Enochian Temple, which the magician constructs in full 3D in his astral vision using very specific portions of the tablet for the floor, pillars, roof-struts, etc. Rowe describes using this temple to focus his visions and magnify his astral reach. In his various writings on the topic, Rowe reveals his personal cosmology, allegedly taught him by Enochian forces, in which the universe is a sort of cosmic confederation of neighboring bubbles of influence. Each bubble usually encompasses a single solar system and each has its own Creator God, who enjoys full freedom to try out his own ideas. In other words, there´s no universe-wide consensus on how reality should operate. Very similar to the concept of "states as laboratories" that we kick around in law school. Rowe used his Enochian Temple to open gateways to these "extra-solar" territories and visit with the bizarre entities residing there.

I guess my question is: what´s everyone´s take on this guy? Was Benjamin Rowe the avatar of Set? Was he a charlatan (I have trouble buying this one)? Are his self-glorifying visions completely valid Enochian scrying sessions which merely reaffirm the subjective and "compliant" nature of Enochian forces? Rowe himself points out that an Enochian angel will happily conform itself to whatever pre-conceived elemental, planetary, zodiacal etc nature you assign it. There´s no denying he was a dedicated and thorough Enochian researcher--whether or not you agree with his alterations to the Golden Dawn system, it´s clear that he had a sharp mind and put in the work. Also, I´ll always be grateful to him for writing "The Essential Skills of Magick," which was exactly what I needed at exactly the time I found it. I´m working my way through this "A Short Course on Scrying", largely so that I´ll have the skills to try out his experiments myself and see if his results are reproducible. Has anyone on this board given them a whirl?

Please forgive the haziness of this post and just let loose with whatever you think about any part of the scattered mess I´ve presented here.
 
 
illmatic
11:11 / 20.06.06
Just giving this one a bump. I know very little about the guy but from what you've said above, he may be hte example par excellence of someone using staid ol' Western systems as a vehicle for their creativity (a subject touched on round here recently).

I have read his short essay on The Abyss and found it really impressive. It reads like the work of someone with a lot of profound personal experinece to draw on and I like his rejection of Crowley's assumptions. I've also read the "Short Course" and thought it was great. Didn't do much with it, though - maybe I'll dig it out.

Can someone scare up some links?
 
 
Doc Checkmate
11:59 / 20.06.06
Oof. I just re-read my post. It´s a bit disjointed, typos aside, and someone who´s not already familiar with Rowe´s stuff or with Enochian might just cock an eyebrow and mosey along. Sorry about that--I was in a hurry to make a tango lesson with the old lady, and I didn't give the post a proper look-over. So, for those who are interested and have a cubicle wall between them and their boss, here´s a quick menu of tasty Ben Rowe treats for the discriminating dilettante. All from the page I linked to in my earlier post.

Godzilla Meets E.T., Part 1 and Part 2: Ben's re-formulation of the Enochian method, including a streamlined use of the Calls and a pretty scathing dismissal/remixing of the Golden Dawn attributions for the Tablets. Based, as always, on his own research, deductions, and scrying.

The Book of Seniors: Ben invokes each of the Seniors of the Earth Tablet, who tell Ben his own past-life story. Whatever your take on the validity of Rowe's visions, this is a cracking good read. The Seniors reveal that Ben is not truly human, but an ancient and powerful being, a cosmic "sport" neither man nor god, whose existence has directly shaped the course of human history throughout his many incarnations. Sentient planets, Egyptian incest cults, and a truly wild sci-fi take on the nature of gods, souls, and the universe. Good vs. Evil! Achad vs. Perdurabo! Set vs. Horus, and you'll be SHOCKED at who you're rooting for! 'Nuff said!

Enochian Temples: Ben's instructions for converting an Elemental Tablet into an astral building that amplifies the power of invoked forces. An interesting skim, unless you really dig Enochian stuff and your active imagination is good enough to try this out.

A Short Course in Scrying: Rowe's instructions for GETTING your active imagination good enough to try it out. I'm hopping on this as soon as I finish my current projects.

The Lotus of the Temple: Ben's instructions for using the Enochian Temple as a sort of stargate for astral voyages to "reality bubbles" beyond our solar system (see my initial post). Further elaboration on Ben's view of the universe as a collection of diverse experiments in reality-structuring, with solar systems as the testing grounds. Rowe's cosmology is seductive in its elegance and utter lunacy.
 
 
illmatic
12:13 / 20.06.06
What is this "Enochian tangoing" you're playing at? I'm all for creativity in magick but, well... I feel you may be going too far. Should you really be involving your partner?

Cheers for the links and cheers also for halving the chances that I'm going to get any work done this afternoon. I've done a lot of acitve imagination work so I may re-read SCOS and add some comments.
 
 
squareye
20:54 / 05.11.06
I, too, have a soft spot for the writings of Ben Rowe and lament his recent demise.

His short course on skrying I came across a few years ago and set to building a magical space which I still use. I believe (although it is some time since I read the paper), he suggested creating multiple spaces for different types of magic including Enochian experiments, this I haven't done. However the skrying carried out using his method has been very satisfactory over the years and it is true that using the same space does build up a 'real feel' over time. I tend to use one space and build 'extentions' to the geography as and when necessary.

A couple of observations on his methods.

The whole idea of building up a 3D Enochian Temple from the Tablets is very similar to the practices of Mandala meditations in Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana). The mandala represent different powers of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other celestial beings. However the various parts of the mandala represent the floor, walls ceiling, roof and garden to be visualised by the practitioner. In the end, s/he will have a 3D temple to that power and will go in to perform the devotional practices conneted with that divinity. - This info I got from a recent visit to the Buddhist Society in London where some monks from Tashi Lluhnpo (sp.?), were creating a mandala the information was given by a Jane Naish.

The works of Jan Fries also reflect great similarities with the suggestions of Ben Rowe about astral worlds and skrying in general. See Fries 'Helrunar' for further details.

The great power of this method is the flexibility of it. You can do magic anywhere with no need for a physical temple. Drawbacks are you don't get to dress up in fancy clothes and dance around much in your body.

One final thing, if you try using seidr, that is trembling and shaking for 10-15 minutes before starting viz it makes it much more powerful. In other words imagination is vastly improved if power is raised in the body beforehand. A good invocation that makes you shake all over also works a treat!
 
  
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