We deal with practical magic: we create, we destroy and we re-create in a constantly ongoing process. By the nature of our practices we deal with phenomena that are ancient and contemporary simultaneously. I originally wanted to cover several subjects along this trait in this text, but since no-one will read that much on a blog, I will instead divide this into two or three blog posts. This one deals with written sources, and the subjects I will touch upon in the future is practical magic and antinomianism seen from the very same perspective. The discussions regarding the truth or value of ancient written sources and contemporary ones is quite daunting. If I had a penny for each time I heard someone saying ”always go to the source, the modern stuff is shit” I would at least be able to buy slightly more expensive coffee once in a while. The insinuations are almost always that the past was more accurate, pure and reliable. Let us start with philosophy. The ancient sources are without doubt of the highest value to us, but should we stick to Plato for the sake of sticking to Plato? I see no reason for that. Going to the older sources are a part of understanding ourselves and the collective subconscious in the here and now. Inspiring and interesting philosophers will, however, always exist, and they are a part of a line of thought that will extend from here to eternity. Spinoza, Nietzsche or Merleau-Ponty are just as valuable to study as Plato or Aristotle. Even in thesis-antithesis-synthesis situations, one always relies on and somehow takes a stance in relation what one sees as the flaws in certain ideas. When you oppose something in an unintelligent way, your stubborn attitude will always hinder your evolution. You will simply integrate the flaws you’re opposing into your own world-view, and do remember, we construct big parts of our world-view. People who fall into this stubborn trap are, to be quite frank, acting as spoiled children. One main difference between magicians and religious people is that we take charge of this construction: it’s not solely built upon by someone else’s ethics, which in turn in no way makes it immoral. The Left Hand Path is about growing up spiritually, it could be the paradigm for a grown up species, finally absorbing the forbidden fruit and leaving the idea of Eden. This is a crucial insight for any of us, and also a part of the qliphotic initiatory process. I say ”a part” since the initiating forces aren’t mind ghosts of some repressed childhood memory, but actual entities guiding and initiating to the beyond. Taking charge of your own world-view, and refusing to let the mass of information we are force-fed with, will lead you on a way more interesting route. This is Faustian and Luciferian to the core. We’re taking the long way around and it is certainly harder and more draconian than that of contemporary sloth, but also so much more rewarding as the light of the Black Sun burns our skin from near and afar. Never be too conservative regarding ideas, it will only lead you to dead ends where your principles become more important than your personal evolution. Always be open to have your opinions shattered, always be prepared to have your worldview turned to dust, and be prepared to destroy it by your own Will. If you are a devoted practitioner of occultism on the Dark Path, this will be inevitable during several parts of the initiatory process. This is also one of the harshest phenomena on our path: we are by nature so fond of comfort, and our age (at least here in the West) is without doubt the most comfortable we have ever seen. The focus of life for a lot of people here is social media, streaming services and consumption, and to get there they work for 8 hours a day. You can do the full equation of daily hours yourself. So, to sum things up regarding philosophy and ideas: be open, but never turn into a cherry-picker to prove your own stances or even be open for the sake of being open. Respect tradition, but always research the new. Never accept established truths or ideals without questioning them. Had Plato been born in 2019, I hardly think his brilliant mind would have ended up in ideas that would have resounded those of 300-400 B.C. He would have delved into the treasures of philosophy and ended up with radically different conclusions. We owe a lot to Gutenberg, but I daresay that we owe even more to Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf in our current state of being. One thing I find quite interesting is why so called ”left hand path practitioners” so often dismiss modern philosophy, but then again, it is always hard to see what the ideas of your own zeitgeist are on a deeper level: it is hard to discern the diamonds from the faeces. Future generations are left with the hard task of doing demarcations there, ironically thank to, well, Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf. The same, I believe, is true for the spiritual, religious and magical sources: when we see things from magical perspective and not from a strict academic one, the ancient sources will always unfold and represent themselves in new ways. The Bible, Bhagavad Gita, The Zohar, The Hymns of the Yezidis, The Book of the Dead and countless other sources are both ancient and contemporary from an esoteric point of view. Newer texts, such as the grimoires of the Middle Ages stretching up to 100-200 years ago, are also constantly relevant and the practices that follow from them will always change. Our path is not stagnant. The problem with a lot of contemporary literature on Left Hand Path practices is the lack of substance. There are true gems out there, but also countless ”how to do books” that seem to be written by people who are more competent posing as occultist than they actually are magically. The issue here is really one of ”wanting to be someone”. The real hardship now is to learn how to discern between the fake and the true. I am biased, of course, but the internal material of Dragon Rouge surpasses most of that which has been written on Left Hand Path practices, but I can argue for my stance: we practice magic, we constantly evolve, we never settle in comfort and we always go deeper. We are an Order with just as firm feet in the ancient as in the future, but this does not mean that we should be ”too proud” to look into the great work others are doing within Left Hand Path magic right now. We are all a part of a new paradigm, and we should learn from each other. This is, again, truly Faustian and Luciferian. When people say ”go to the source” on a shallow level, they talk about texts and books, when we go to the source within Dragon Rouge, we actually do it: we go to the powers described in such literature and they become our teachers, initiators and allies. We thrust through myth to find the essentia of the source. This is where literature actually becomes important. It inspires to new workings, it inspires us to go into new fields and unveil the Dark mysteries more and more, it reanimates itself through our work. We should never rest, never assume that we’re perfect, but always find a trap-door leading further below. There is always another door behind that one we just found.