Why did you choose your Bluelight user name?

[J.Wallace]

It was my forum name over at Grasscity before they closed Pandora's Box. Blasphemy, everyone knows once you open Pandora's box, there is no closing it!

 

[BlindHelperMonkey]

@jwallace;

mythologically speaking, its not that pandora's box couldnt be closed but rather everything bad and fucked up had already escaped into the world upon its opening. gate, horse, bolted et cetera

 

[Mental Kenny]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSh1fI5qGLk

For some reason my ket fried head on one heavy marathon kept thinking Cartman was saying Kenny, instead of Kitty, in the epic catnip episode. Luckily cause Mental Kitty would sounded a bit puff.

 

[Sepher]

It's a shorter and easier to type variation of Sepher Sephiroth, which is:

1) A username I first used on a website devoted to the late 19th / early 20th century Golden Dawn system of magic that offered a free course of study purportedly endorsed by some one or other of the any number of modern-day groups sporting some variant of the Golden Dawn name and claiming to be the true inheritors of the authentic G.D. 'magical current', whatever that's meant to mean, it being derived from

2) the title of the final dull as ditchwater section of '777 and other Qabalistic writings of Aleister Crowley', that section being concerned with the numeric values of a shedload of Hebrew words that might be of use to any aspiring magicians out there looking for hidden meanings and coded information in magical texts and sacred books like the Torah / Old Testment, the idea being that for any given word in Hebrew there are any number of other words whose letters add to the same number value and those words are connected in some profound and deep way even if they're seemingly completely unrelated in meaning. For instance, YHVH as God's true name adds up to 26, as do the two words AHBH ( love ) and AChD ( unity ), so the substitution by Gematria is deemed to reveal a couple of your Old Testament God's qualities. Like I said, dull as ditchwater, and hardly a great read!

My username maybe made more sense when I had the Tree Of Life as an avatar, maybe not so much since I put the daft ferret head up.

 

[Myshkin]

It's Hebrew for 'book', essentially. No doubt you already knew that, but for those who are unaware, it's an old-fashioned transliteration of ספר. Mostly these days you'd find it rendered as 'Sefer'.

Do you believe in Gematria then? Like (excuse the pun) literally?

the title of the final dull as ditchwater section of '777 and other Qabalistic writings of Aleister Crowley'

It was an independent text that was appended to 777 for that particular edition (Weiser).

It's not meant to be a 'good read' any more than the telephone directory is, so I'm not surprised you found it 'dull as ditchwater'.

 

[Sepher]

Indeed Samhain, Sepher = book, Sepher Sephiroth = book of enumeration / book of counting. Sefirot would probably be closer transliterating than Sefiroth too. The final Tav is nearer T than Th I think though my Hebrew is VERY rusty. Never that good to begin with truth be told, good as starting from scratch with it again! Knew you were clued up on the stuff. You commented once when I had the tree up as my av, though it wasn't a particularly clear image once shrunk to avatar size IIRC?

I don't believe in any of this stuff literally. It's a kind of symbolic language isn't it, all the God names, angelic names, spirits, planets, attributes of the spheres and paths, attributes of the letters themselves, it's one big meditational / psycho-analytical system. Can get some interesting connections though playing around with Gematria like in the above examples, or Gen 18:2 "Lo, three men stood by him" being equivalent numerically to "these are Michael, Gabriel and Raphael", or by Notariqon the first word in Genesis, Berashith ( in the beginning ) being deemed an acronym of "In the beginning God saw that Israel would accept the Law". It's interesting stuff, if you're into that sort of thing and I haven't already bored the pants of you with this!

 

[YellowPolkaDotHalo]

Indeed Samhain, Sepher = book, Sepher Sephiroth = book of enumeration / book of counting. Sefirot would probably be closer transliterating than Sefiroth too. The final Tav is nearer T than Th I think though my Hebrew is VERY rusty. Never that good to begin with truth be told, good as starting from scratch with it again! Knew you were clued up on the stuff. You commented once when I had the tree up as my av, though it wasn't a particularly clear image once shrunk to avatar size IIRC?

I don't believe in any of this stuff literally. It's a kind of symbolic language isn't it, all the God names, angelic names, spirits, planets, attributes of the spheres and paths, attributes of the letters themselves, it's one big meditational / psycho-analytical system. Can get some interesting connections though playing around with Gematria like in the above examples, or Gen 18:2 "Lo, three men stood by him" being equivalent numerically to "these are Michael, Gabriel and Raphael", or by Notariqon the first word in Genesis, Berashith ( in the beginning ) being deemed an acronym of "In the beginning God saw that Israel would accept the Law". It's interesting stuff, if you're into that sort of thing and I haven't already bored the pants of you with this!

Wouldn't it also be possible, by using codes, to interpret Gen 18.2 as 'these are Geoffry, Zippy and Bungle'?

I'm not knocking Kabbalah by the way. My mum filled the house with the stuff when I was a kid.. I find it fascinating. Only lately i've been wondering at the value of esotericism. So its kinda coincidental to stumble into your post here.

Can things just be as they are without us having to attach meaning beyond themselves?

 

[Sepher]

Oh sure YPDH, I guess so. Just look at some of the Bible Code nonsense working with nothing more than repeating patterns in the text. Can almost force the kinda stuff you want to find out if you lay a text out in a certain way. Crowley certainly tied himself up in knots at times trying to get a result he wanted playing around with alternate spellings or translating Hebrew to say Greek and then re-enumerating I think.

The esoteric thing, I dunno. I attach no 'spiritual' significance to any of this. I'm not looking for ghosts in the machine if you like, anything like that. I'm a rationalist at the end of the day. The Kabbalah stuff is interesting intellectually as a system but I don't really believe it's a ladder of lights to God. Thelema is supremely rational ( our method is science, our aim is religion ) and that's really what I'm looking into most lately having connected with a local oasis of the O.T.O., but I'm not some mystic hippy believes there's fairies at the bottom of his garden by any stretch! The magick thing goes very much hand in hand with a developing interest in buddhism / zen / yoga / meditation, that sort of thing, is as valid as those systems I think. All different sides of the same many-sided coin really.

 

[Myshkin]

The Kabbalah stuff is interesting intellectually as a system but I don't really believe it's a ladder of lights to God.

We have to be clear here (for those who might not know) that the word 'Kabbalah' means several different things to different people. We're talking Hermetic Kabbalah here, not Madonna's hobby of a few years back. Nor the actual Jewish Kabbalah, from which it differs significantly.

I'm glad you said that. Though it's important to separate the (Hermetic) Kabbalastic doctrine on the nature of the universe (which in many aspects is eerily close to some of the ideas put forward by quantum physics) and Gematria - which, to my mind, is at best arbitrary and at worst total superstitious nonsense, although it can be useful in a meditative / contemplative / imaginative context.

Crowley certainly tied himself up in knots at times trying to get a result he wanted playing around with alternate spellings or translating Hebrew to say Greek and then re-enumerating I think.

Oh, he certainly did. But did Crowley take Gematria (excuse the pun again) literally?

I think he saw it ultimately as a means to an end in the way I've described above. Kenneth Grant - now there was a guy who played with Gematria.

and that's really what I'm looking into most lately having connected with a local oasis of the O.T.O

You mean The OTO®, aka the 'Caliphate'?

I'd save your fees and obtain all the AA study materials instead to be honest. Unless you like getting naked with Games Workshop types. Though I'm not going to hold that against you if it's your thing.

As you can tell, I'm not a Thelemite.

 

[Sepher]

Unless you like getting naked with Games Workshop types. Though I'm not going to hold that against you if it's your thing.

I've not yet progressed to nekkid role playing Sam. Maybe that comes once you do the Minerval? Can't tell if it's my thing or not ( it probably is though! Ha! ).

And yeah, if I had my way I'd be playing out with a GD group or connecting with the AA but the first are very thin on the ground, AA members perhaps even more so, I dunno? Figured O.T.O. was the best available option open to me that may lead to one or the other of the first two. We shall see.

As you can tell, I'm not a Thelemite.

Nor me really, though IAO131's blog makes for some very interesting reading that cuts through a lot of the mystic mumbo jumbo tends to get associated with this kinda thing. Erwin Hessle too. Like I say, the O.T.O. / Thelema is the nearest I've come to a magical group of any description so that's what I'm running with at the minute, see where it goes.

 

[Myshkin]

And yeah, if I had my way I'd be playing out with a GD group or connecting with the AA but the first are very thin on the ground, AA members perhaps even more so, I dunno? Figured O.T.O. was the best available option open to me that may lead to one or the other of the first two. We shall see.

In that case, I've no doubt there'll be at least one person who can point you in the right direction on that front.

Like I always say, the map ain't the territory, so you might find a map that works for you. IAO131's blog is definitely a comprehensive resource.

As for Hessle, I don't approve of the dogmatic nature of his rationalism (or its pomposity), but it pays to look at things from a different angle I suppose. I only wish Wilson had lived to tear a few strips off him.

Anyway, should you be talking to a Black Brother of the left-hand path?

 

[Sepher]

Anyway, should you be talking to a Black Brother of the left-hand path?

ZOMG, no, not at all. Get thee hence. Burn him, burn the witch! He be in league with the devil and will be putting hexes on us all, turning yer milk sour and impregnating jackals with Satan spawn and shit, you mark my words!

 

[BlindHelperMonkey]

i may be imagining this, but didnt the doctor who refused crowley morphine and who was duly cursed by said lord of darkness live quite happily for decades before dying peacefully in his own home?

 

[Si Dread]

My names Si & I was plugging record sales on my INGWE label back when I joined BL over 10 years ago. I'm usually known as Si Dread, coz I'm scary Lol

 

[Swarm]

I'm glad you said that. Though it's important to separate the (Hermetic) Kabbalastic doctrine on the nature of the universe (which in many aspects is eerily close to some of the ideas put forward by quantum physics) and Gematria - which, to my mind, is at best arbitrary and at worst total superstitious nonsense, although it can be useful in a meditative / contemplative / imaginative context.

Interesting point about quantum physics. A lot of mathematical phyicists out there certainly seem to know how to take their scratch pads and run away with the fairies. Kudos to their skills though. I'd love to be able to get my head around a lot of that math, though preferably without inhabiting Narnia 24/7, or whatever slice of the multiverse they're drawing their theoretical explanations from.

 

[tekkeN]

^ :D

think when I joined in 2007 me an my mates just smoked loads of skunk / hash an played Tekken a lot

 

[1394]

Because it makes sense

 

[farmaz]

it was one of a multitude of old handles used by a group of misanthropic hackers, html-terrorists and proto-trolls i was a part between 1999-2003. our group was originally active on certain manga forums but specifically based around invitation-only EZ boards in which we discussed and initiated such nefarious crap as mass board attacks, hostile takeovers, garnering/pooling various admin-positions and postal drug-receipt/forwarding (which was pretty successful until an inevitable proclivity towards greed ended up fucking things up)


screenname and i.p bans were sidestepped with proxy servers and an almost endless supply of communal accounts that would be meaningless and generic by necessity but as a means to recognise eachother anonymously around the places we frequented - a set of names was agreed upon and used, these included;


jacks smirking revenge

agent_orange

mr_foresight

MADali

hayatul_mujahidah

h4x02 (yes, back when you could talk leet incognito)





oh and of course, blind_helper_monkey :D

Hell's kitchen was the dog's bollocks back in the day :D
I still feel sorry for that guy with the Salvia tbh, 1 day God will make me pay for that crime
The board we had as our own private place was nice too, I dread to think what the people that ran the actual site may have seen on there

 

[botfly]

because I couldn't think of a name then thought botfly is a funny word. can you do name changes here?

 

[Kronos]

Only if yer a mod i think, apply next time eadd needs one then quit right after!