www.billnelson.com

I don't read much these days, not books anyway , the last being 'The Holographic Universe' a few years back . I've got a decidedly mystical bent to my outlook, tempered by a bit of scientific practicality, so after a few years of hints about Hermetic philosophy in Bill's music , I poked around a little a couple years ago and found that to be up my alley. I also ran across some of those principles in a book that works at finding common ground between metaphysics and science .

I've also asked Bill a question or two, and one answer I got back was 'Austen Osman Spare' , and after I saw the name come up again in a recent thread, I thought I'd ask if someone might have a specific suggestion of something by AOS , applying what I've said about myself to the response. I never got into the magick thing , but have no shortage of impossible things going on in my noggin .

Muchas Gracias,
Dar

Bill recommended these:

Obviously I don't get out much . Thx, a !. (& Bill)

"I 'ate you Butler!....uuuuuurgh!.."

Sorry, wrong thread

Yes; you have written about this guy elsewhere and I must pick up some of his writings.

I did notice a new esoteric bookstore in a suburb near-by to here recently. I must scope them out for some of Spare's titles.......

Wasn't it his book on Automatic Drawing that inspired you as far as composing music Bill? Instant composition, or something like that...?

I took the entire list you had from both the Acquitted By Mirrors magazines and the old Permanent Flame website to my local library, and could not find a single title anywhere. Are these more readily published and/or available in England?

Tom

I'm new to a lot of that but as soon as I read the Kybalion it seemed like variations of what I was already doing on a fundamental level , and reading in one place about the basic seven Hermetic Principles from the scientific standpoint of being expressions of the underlying nature of 'life, the universe, and everything' (gotta keep it somewhat light ) , I felt at home. But I can feel at home in a hundred different world views, looking more for my own experience of that underlying wahtever that people are trying to describe , than building a view dependent on those descriptions and experiences of others .
Not that I don't modify my pictures as I go along, taking this and that from here and there , but it's like I say about music : it's my own version when it's in my head , and I even make my own music ; the Beholder thing, you know .



I wouldn't call my interest in anything like this stuff to be idle curiosity . I was idly curious back when I was about 13 , before I started doing psychedelics and reading about Harry Krishna .

Thanks for the input though ; I have wondered about the references in Kybalion to people walking around in the world , seemingly normal people (which they also are , of course) who have applied fluency with
Hermetics . I wouldn't say I'm interested in ceremonial magick , or that I even really know what it is . The alterations that have happened to me and that I've done to myself are along the lines of Eastern mysticism and some other weird stuff I'm not even going to bring up here . New technology ; but what you speak of interests me to a degree and what Kybalion outlines fits right into my pictures of reality .

I'm never done exploring but it's not like there's an empty hole that's dying to be filled anymore . My cup is full but it don't runneth over because it keeps getting bigger (or something like that) .

Dar

Bill,
Given your precaution regarding the dabbling/usage of magik/power/abilites.... Would you care to comment on the sound bite used in one of your recordings that cautions one regarding the misuse of mind stuff (or something to that affect). With your comment on the veggie thread regarding implications of eating meat, I'm inquiring if you might have some insights that can be shared.

A bit of history: I went to a Center, a long time ago, where the instructor/guru warned about how highly addidtive the misuse of the chakras was (worse than any drug was his comment). As the years passed I began to realize that more and more people were gaining the abilities he spoke about (reference-movie-Men Who Stare at Goats). I now experience a world that is using all the techniques/abilities/powers/gifts offered by this instructor/guru, but applied by its practioners with a range that focuses on their own self interests to groups supporting extreme prejudical religious and/or political points of view with them with near terroristic zeal.

Comment/Insight: In the picture Excalibur (1981) the filmaker visually relates that their was a direct relation to the fall of Camelot (and chaos in England) and the misuse of power. Noting the world economic condition, I sometime can't help but wonder if there is a parallel; since from what I can gather all the world has been involved in the process related to in A Bit of History above.

Your insights/comments would be welcomed.
Sincerely, Serge Ruel

interesting, serge. inspires me to say more about my own outlook . without getting carried away
(been there done that on other boards, got tired of it and came back here) I'll say that I always liked having in the back of my head (or the front or side or wherever) the idea that Bill was into Buddhism to whatever degree he is . I also gather that he has come to a place of transcendence, for lack of a better word , wherein he does not define himself as being of or especially adherent to any particular 'religion' or philosophy, having something of a broader overview than is afforded by just about any one 'philosophy'and I really like that (assuming I gather correctly, and even if I don't , I still really like Bill ) because that's a very similar place to where I ended up , though the road goes ever on.

I like the Bhuddist outlook of the motivation not being about manipulating or controlling others , but about transforming yourself, your awareness , into a greater vision of 'what is'. Discovery and appreciation of the all ; not an agenda of gaining poer to impose personal will onto the universe.
Power is addictive and alluring , and a trap . The way I see things , the real power , or the power directed in a more positive way, is about the mental alchemy involved in transforming one's own awareness, in allowing that (inevitable, imho) process to unfold more easily and/or in being more aware of that happening .

The things I've briefly read about developing mental powers are tantalizing , but it hasn't been my path. When I was in a place where I would have really wanted them, I would have abused them, and now I don't see the point in controlling others . To me , allowance is important, karmically , energetically , and like I already said the energy I might have used on manipulating things is now directed more inwardly. Then there's the thing of the power of attention, and intention , and we all do our bit of manipulating the universe by what we focus our energy and awareness on. Like someone said a while back "the universe loves you so much that it rearranges itself to accomodate your pictures of reality".

But more than enough about me