As Above, So Below.

I thought that this was cool. It’s a drawing of the Kaballah Tree of Life, made to look like a London tube map.

Apparently, it was originally published in the comic book Promethea, by Alan Moore, but I found it on Strange Maps.

I’ve read a couple of books on the Kaballah, but I could never get into them. Hebrew mysticism is too much like math.

Time Travel

I’m stealing an idea from Amuirin, who stole it from someone who stole it from someone.

Anyway, what I’m going to do is set the Wayback Machine backwards in 5 year increments, so you can see what kind of twit I was growing up!

2002-age 25
I got married in August, and though it was a great wedding, in hindsight, the signs that it was doomed were there. The soon-to-be-wife and I fought a lot, especially as the wedding approached.

Two years before that, my best friend and I got into a HUGE fight that was still affecting my life with feelings of guilt and uncertainty. I’ve come to terms with that time now, but I was still was still a wreck in 2002.

Let’s see…2002, I was living in an apartment with the gf/wife. We watched a lot of TV, and spent too much time in altered states of conciousness. We also ate way too much pizza.

1997-age 20. I was recently kicked out of my parents’ house for cussing my mother out (to this day, I swear that it was justified!). I stayed at the aforementioned best friend’s house for a while; then, I moved to my girlfriend’s mother’s house. I spent too much money on comic books that year, if I recall.

This was also the year I really started reading books on religions other than Christianity. As a consequense of this spiritual journey, I began dabbling in magick, and I started weaning myself off of meat. I never looked back.

1992-age 15 I was just starting high school this year, which was much better than junior high. Nobody wanted to beat me up in high school, and my behavior that was concidered weird in junior high was now concidered “alternative.” I began listening to “alternative” music, as well, and shunned top 40 radio forever. I also began to grow my hair long.

I played a lot of video games in 1992. Nintendo was my God.

1987-age 10. I think this was when my friends and I started out Max Headroom fan club. We played a lot of Nintendo, but our big thing was G.I. Joe. Looking back, I think that this was the root of my writing ability: creating stories with these figures. My friends and I would take the time to ensure that there was some form of narrative. I remember one game of G.I. Joe we played in my attic that lasted a month and took a day and a half to prepare for. I think that this was around the time I could see the ghosts that haunted my parents’ basement.

1982-age 5. Hmmm….lots of Atari 2600. Video games have always played a big part in my life.

I started going to kindergarten, I think, but I cried a lot. I was an overly sensative child, and didn’t deal with the stress of being left somewhere everyday. I met my friend Shane Davis, who would later betray me and join the gangs that liked beating me up. He would also go on to use a lot of drugs, clean himself up, then die of cancer.

Let’s see…vague images of sticker books and Star Wars figures.

1977-Age 0. I was born 2 weeks before Star Wars came out, a fact that I feel is cosmically significant. I don’t remember anything about this year, but I’ve been told that I cried a lot, and I learned to talk early. My first word was “gimmie.”

So, let’s keep this ball rollling….someone else better do this, too!

What I’ve Been Listening to

Okkervil River Black Sheep Boy Appendix. Nice SHORT album. Kind of folkey, kind of country-y, and very whiney, but in a good way. “Another Radio Song” is probably the best track.” Apparently, this is a companion to the album Black Sheep Boy, which I’d really like to hear.

David Bowie Station to Station. Not the best of Bowie’s 70’s work, but it’s better than most of his 80’s and 90’s stuff. Another short album. “TVC-15″, “Golden Years”, and the title track are great, “Wild is the Wind” is my favorite. I read an interview with the Thin White Duke where he said that the song “Station to Station” was his treatise on black magic. The Kaballah references are obvious.

Bloc Party A Weekend in the City. When I saw their first video from the album Silent Alarm, I thought they sounded alright but seemed a little pre-fabricated. I didn’t really give them a chance. This album changed my mind. Not brilliant stuff, but danceable pop-rock. The first song quotes Bret Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero, so they get extra points.

Wilco Sky Blue Sky. I’ve never been a fan of Wilco, but this album has changed my mind about them. Sky Blue Sky was the musical highlight of my week. You’ve probably heard “Either Way” on the Volkswagen commercial; it’s the 1st track of the album. Other highlights are “Sky Blue Sky”, “Shake it off”, and “Leave me (Like You Found Me)”. On “Impossible Germany”, Tweedy and Co. sound like Walls and Bridges era John Lennon. I’ll give this a “Buy It”, a 3.75 stars, and 2 random appendages up.

Single: Serj Tankian “The Unthinking Majority”. Serj’s, as well as his band System of a Down’s, political songs are a lot like the video that goes with “The Unthinking Majority”: ritiously angry, loud, meaningful, but essentially cartoony. What, Serj? “Anti-depressants /Controlling tools of your system/ Making life more tolerable”? Yeah, because we know how the government makes all kinds of drugs affordable. Anyway, Serj wants us to know that we allowed Bush to get into power, that the war in Iraq is wrong, and that the Republicans are evil. I’m glad he is here to tell us this, as no one else is. [/sarcasm]

Magical Movies

Those of you who know me may know that I have an interest in magic. Not the stage-kind, mind you (though that, too, is interesting). I’m taking about magick. The black arts. Sorcery.

Movies often deal with magic and the supernatural, to varying degrees of realsim. Some get it “right”, while some are so hokey that even the completely mundane-minded know it’s wrong. Here are some movies that deal with magic in one form or another, and how I think they did.

The Skeleton Key. I know a lot of people who didn’t like this, for one reason or another. One think I can say about it is that it’s one of the most realistic depictions of magic I’ve seen. Almost everything that happens can be explained by coincidence (which works because magic travels the path of least resistance), or psychology.

The Dark Crystal As a child, this movie got me interested in magic. There was something that felt genuine, even to my six-year-old mind, about the circle and line drawings that the Mystics drew. Later, when reading a book on the making of this film, I found out that the shapes are loosely based on the Kaballah, which would explain the realism. I love this movie.

Constantine Don’t get me started. Actually, aspects of this felt right, but it was way to action-based. The opening exorcism is great until Keanustantine says, “I’m John Constantine, asshole!” and punches the demon in the face. I’m sure this movies good if you’re drunk.

Nightwatch. OK. A lot of this movie was just a cool, supernatural action movie, but the stuff near the beginning, when Anton is talking to the witch was pretty good. Oh, and all those magical shapes on his desk come out of The Key of Solomon, The Goetia, and The Grimorium Verum. I checked them with my own copies.

Willow Yeah, I know. It’s another fantasy movie. However, it does have one valuable lesson about magic…it’s about confidence. When Willow fails to become the next apprentice, it is due to self doubt, which is the magician’s bane. Also, the fact that magic, when used to mess with someone’s will, doesn’t make he or she do something he or she wouldn’t do anyway is a good lesson. We see this when Madmartigan falls in love with Sorsha (mmmm…Joanne Whalley…).

So….anyone else care to discuss?