20 December, 2012

Delineations of the darkness....


Mandrake: The Death Light




Penetrate Peroketh: Da'athian Ingression




The Serpent in the Tree of Knowledge




The Aureole of Qayin




The Sacred Heart of Death




The Umbrageous Idol of the Grim Garden




"I am an immeasurable immensity - spacious spiritual-field - incarnating via the matrix of time and space: assumption of reality through usurping the flesh; all body is my body and may be taken when desire deems the dream to be in its favour. To live is to die, to dream is to be; but if thou dream, dream beyond that which you can conceive - I am the imagination of God(s)-head and through me all is possibility, for I am the dreamer of the dream and once dream't is reified as reality. Darkness externalizing flashes of omni-sentient phosphorescence, as a breath(ing) exhaled and inhaled to create and erect the illusion of separation: individuality created for the sake of immolation - the grand sacrifice of self to Self, for self is Self-begotten!"

~ Verse 8, Spectral Effigies: A Vulvic Trans-Missionary


* All images and written work © Patrick John Larabee. Not to be used without permission.

To see more artwork of mine please visit:

02 September, 2012

The Verdant Skull of Qayin...


 
 "Forth come from Lands of Nod,
from the East I await your arrival,
a brilliant Light from all Darkness born,
as the Sun illuminates the Night,
make Thyself known unto my Sight!

I call unto you, QAYIN!
Master of the Dead and Guide unto the Spirits of the Night,
I beseech Thee to come unto me in the Dark Mother's Name,
come forth from the Void of All,
Son of the Light!"

~ text taken from Whisperings from the Void: The Amaranthine Arcanum 
of Holy Image and Revealed Exegesis 
by Patrick J. Larabee
Copyright 2012 - All rights reserved. 

15 July, 2012

In the baptism of His wisdom...




O' Baphomet! Mystery of Mysteries!

I call Thee Black Goat of the Sabbat,
let the Light of Illumination shine!
From on high Thy radiance is as a hidden grace falling,
taken up by those who wonder the lonely road.
From betwist Thy Horns the Heavenly Numina blazes!
In the Darkest of Nights your Light reveals the path we shall walk.
Hidden, but seen by those with the Eye to See!
I ask Thee forth from the Dark to come,
as a Firey Brilliance as bright as the Sun!

Baph-Metis! Lord of the Horns!
Holy Androgyne! From Thy Double-Sexuality I am born!

O' Baphomet! Horned Spirit of Eternity!

Come forth! King of Night's Delights and Master of the Midnight Sun!
Thou art Man and Woman!
MAN and BEAST!
Unity in Multiplicity!
The Many in ONE!

O' Baphomet! Lord of the Infinite Mysteries of True Midnight!

I seek Thee to Open the Gates of the Self's own Light!
I beseech Thee to reveal the Heart of All within All,
to grant a Vision both Infernal and Divine!
All that I am,
between Head and Foot,
is Thine!

Baph-Metis! Lord of the Horns!
Holy Androgyne! From Thy Double-Sexuality I am born!

O' Baphomet! Holder of the Flame of Gnosis!

I ask Thee to come forth!
As Thy servant I adjure Thee!
To bestow the Baptism of Wisdom,
to purge my Soul of the detritis of ages.
To uncover the Spirit's Light in Man!
To breathe forth the Breath of Stars,
the Heart-Fire to fan.

O' Baphomet! Great Goat-God of Mendes!

Thy Wings are all Space and Thy Light every Star!
And Your Benediction the Blessing and the Curse of Life.
For that which we seek is found in the Darkest Places of Wisdom,
until we enter the Gates of Thy Kingdom!
Grant me the understanding that all shall be endured,
for in Your Light we illuminate the Darkest of Nights!

Baph-Metis! Lord of the Horns!
Holy Androgyne! From Thy Double-Sexuality I am born!




~ From my forthcoming work Whisperings from the Void: The Amarathine Arcanum of Holy Image and Revealed Exegesis available from Aeon Sophia Press: http://www.aeonsophiapress.com/-PRE-ORDER_Patrick_John_Larabee_Whisperings_from_the_Void/p1293621_6551529.aspx

Copyright - Patrick Larabee and Aeon Sophia Press - 2012

05 June, 2012

Finding joy in adversity...

Life is an adventure, it is a journey, full of all the joy and hope and sorrow and sadness that anyone of us, I am sure, can give testament to. We each have come upon our own trials and tribulations, have found ourselves head first up against the many barriers and walls that so often seem to be right there in front of us; do we knock them down, climb over them, or as is often the most simple, just walk around them til we get to the other side? I have found that rather than avoiding a situation it is best to confront it, this is of course the hardest path to take because it causes the most friction, it give us the most resistance. But it must be said that by facing our problems head on, facing up to what blocks us, we learn, we progress through a "hard time", and rather then simply ignoring such an occurence we deal with it, move on, and don't have to worry about it rearing its ugly head again.





Each thing that we have to fight for, work for, is worth more! It can definitely be said that life would be easier if we simply just didn't care enough to fight our way through and then just sailed on our merry way, but I don't thnk life is meant to be easy. I mean if life were meant to be this paradise of bliss and joy and fulfilled desire there would not be this constant yearning to become more, to learn more, to experience more. Life is hard, we each know that, but how often do we contemplate that each and every situation we have been through is in fact a piece of a puzzle that is perhaps to large for our human eyes to see, that even though we might not be able to see the "big picture" does not mean that we should stop searcing for the "pieces" that make it complete. That is life, life is the desire to complete the "picture", to obtain those bits and pieces that go to make us a whole.





We should not be afraid to face things head on, to confront our adversaries, to overcome out obstacles; when we do so we are the ones who lose, no one else, just us. I wish I could say otherwise, but no ones else cares enough either to do it for you because they are too busy getting through, or avoiding, all of their own barriers in life. It must be said though that when we do face these barries in our life and come to terms with our life situation and circumstances, we win more than we ever could lose. It is frightening I admit, and one must be courageous and bold and have strength, but really it is a matter of Will and of Heart, because really once we know what we seek, most of us would say Truth, which is the foundation of both the True Heart and the True Will, we know that with each ordeal that is passed we are one more step closer to discovering Truth; which is really just us removing the veils of illusion that hide from us that we are ourselves manifestations of Truth, that we Love and that we are Beauty incarnate.




I know many will say it's too hard, it is difficult, but that is the way of all things. All that is worth anything, is something that must be worked for, those who seek the easy way out leave this life with just about as much as they came into it with. We all want so desparately to Become, not more, not greater, but simply to BE. The conundrum in all of this however is that in order to Be we must Become, and if we are to Become, we have to embrace Life in all it's aspects, the good, the evil, the joyous and the sorrowful, we can not accept one half of Life, ignoring the other half, and expect to have anything but a mediocre life. If we want to live life to the fullest we have to dive head first into the pool and just hope we don't drown. Avoidance is the fool's route and not much will be reaped from walking this path but fools gold, and that is nothing.




Remember, that our time here is limited and yet we each fill that our Work is more than we could ever accomplish, in fact it is so, that not one of us ever completes the work of the Soul in just one lifetime. Does this mean we forfeit the work that needs to be done simply due to its being "too hard"? No, this means that we press on with the daily reminder that Death is always at our doorstep, knowing each day that passes could be our last, and with this thought in mind we must really get on with it or we get left behind; or even worse, we regret when the day comes for us to "meet out maker" and we wish we would have done things differently and with that will come the horrible realisation that it's too late.


By going through the darkness we come to the light enshrined therein. Do not be afraid.

25 May, 2012

Whisperings from the Void - New Book Via Aeon Sophia Press

I would like to take a moment to announce that in August my very first book will be published via Aeon Sophia Press.

Pre-order reservations are not being accepted.

Whisperings from the Void: The Amaranthine Arcanum of Holy Image and Revealed Exegesis.

"From Thy Forked Tongue speak thy Gnosis from  Starry Heaven made,
and here cast down the Secret Seraph's Flaming Blade."
"Whisperings from the Void: The Amaranthine Arcanum of Holy Image and Revealed Exegesis'' consists of two books that are connected by various threads of thought and philosophy, emotion and praxis, devotion and gnosis. Though sundered, they do united become whole; the force and the form of a path straying between the realms of night and day.
~ BOOK I ~
Book I: The Path of the Hermit- an anthology of essays which seek to illuminate by way of written word and artistic fashioning myriad interests regarding such topics as the Void, the Undefined Desire of the Universe as both source and foundation of the material Cosmos the Womb and opposing Tomb of all existence; the nature of the Self and Consciousnes. The Dualism of Subject and Object including the ever present reality shared between each; A personal account of the Unseen world existing in tandem to our own, as well as its effects upon us and vice versa. The Mask and the Mystery; the reality of the Soul and its placement within the Sorcerous Arte, the inheritance of Sorcerous Fire from the Witch Goddess, and the concept of discovery and growth through adversarial opposition. The lighting of the darker paths of wisdom, locating there the ever blazing flame of the Art Magical behind all veils; The true Solitary nature of the Path towards Discovery of Divinity. Of seeking to examine the multitude aspects of Being both as spiritual and earthly entities, as well as exploring our individually created and maintained universe in terms of the emotive, mental, imaginative and phantastic emanations.
In many ways this work entire must be considered ‘liminal’ in that it inhabits a space betwixt: between the auspices of writ and limn and so too of the peripheries of waking and dreaming, leading beyond worlds of spirit and of the flesh in order to issue forth from a domain of devotion and praxis, Balance and Beauty, the gnostic revelation of Lux Veritas.
Amidst all this is also featured the artwork series ‘Hermit Pathos’: 12 full page renderings, representing various concepts not readily identifiable through the conventions of articulated word, as well as a collection of sorcerous sigils acting as Keys to the world existent beyond all which is scribed: to bypass the filters of conscious mind via symbol, ordaining the opening of the gateways to the unseen and unconscious self to pour through into our world and behold the shadow-realm with eyes of pure light.
"On another level, purely visionary one could say, there exists within us an ‘eye’ of sorts, not just any eye but a Spiritual Eye, that sees and beholds ALL. It resides in the deepest parts of ourselves and yet never ceases to watch, to observe, to look out as well as within.  This Eye could be said to be the equivalent of the Third-Eye, the Ajna, the source of what has over time become know as the ‘Second-Sight’, it is via this inner ability to see both the seen and the unseen that we experience visions, partake of the Imaginal worlds, and have the ability to ‘see’ into other worlds, other dimensions. It through attuning this Spiritual Eye through various means such as occult praxis and meditation, rites and rituals, devotion and hard work that we start to open up to the invisible worlds around us, to actually hear the Voices of the Gods and Spirits, and to partake of that Grander Vision of the Universal and Infinite Godhead."

~ BOOK II ~
Book II: The Book of Blood- A treatise of prose serving to describe by various means the Path and Praxis of the Sorcerous Arte: containing prayers, devotionals, rites and modes of Praxis which commit to explaining in detail particular aspects of ritual and spirit-congress, including but not limited to: icons and invocations unto the Masculine and Feminine aspects of the Godhead through various masks called herein the Holy Sorcerous Daemonic Host; those Devils and Angels of the Arte otherwise known as the Intelligences who preside as Patrons of the Dark Arte: a path trampled through the Lands of Nod, those Dreaming Worlds of the Soul leading to the Spiritual fountain of Wisdom.
As a collective of work based upon profound personal experience and dedication to the very Gods typified within, we once more bear witness to the same dynamic fusion of prose and art which includes a series of invocations and sigillic accompaniments pertaining to each God and Goddess by which the complete manifestation of Libri ab Sanguis is intended as presented here through a succession of mystery-rites.

Libri ab Sanguis as featured here in a series of 19 full page icons along with their accompanying text and insignia shall reveal through such twin aesthetics another set of Keys which open out into the vistas of Spirit. Each deity named and petitioned represents a power and as such all image becomes a gateway revealing sigils, features and habitations which both veils and reveals their essence. Though these are but masks they allow equally the discovery of means by which they may be lifted and through which understanding of their true nature may be realised; each must be engendered and embraced if one is to locate the heart of each Mystery as it is envisioned.
"Rituals and rites are about congress with the unseen powers of the Universe, within rite we consciously interact with the powers of Heaven, Earth and the Underworld, with Gods and Spirits both Empyrean and Infernal, it is about experiencing the spiritual aspect of reality whilst incarnate, a way of enfleshing upon the Earth the Mysteries of the Eternal. It can be seen as a process that brings the seeker into communion with Divine Presence and Wsdom, Spirit unto spirit, Soul unto soul and Self unto self, it is about reaching out into Otherness."
Each work spoken of above is herein bound and presented as a single breath, One heart: in order to inform and ensoul its twin through a chaotic interplay of artistic phantasia and gnostic revelation.
"In the Blackest Light of Azazel I Illuminate the Secret House of
the Hidden God: shine I with the Radiance of the Divine ever concealed
beneath the Veils of Flesh!"





10 March, 2012

And the Shadow is cast....

So often we live in a world that only we can see, a world that is wholly ours and in becoming aware of both others and Other, we seek to project ourselves into and upon it in order to make sense of their existence when in reality they exist for the exact same reason you do, just because. There is not fault in this, there is no one way to view it, it simply is. It is hard to make room for people in your life when one already has the whole world crowding in, stooping over like a vulture that is just waiting for you to die so it can feed upon the carcass of your remains, of what is left when you give up. The thing is that when we decide to give up, when we tire of trying, we seek to place the blame on someone else, we seek to shift the responsibility to another, to someone outside of ourselves, to Other.

We blame family, friends, loved ones, 'God', all the while never truly realising that we are the ones who have made the decision to let go, to stop fighting, to give up, to become carrion for the vultures, this weight can never be placed upon the shoulders of another, as hard as we may wish it could be so, it cannot be and when we try to force it we only ever hurt those who are only trying their hardest to be there for us, to help us, to love us.

Life is hard and living is even harder, but in realising that some will only try and cover it up makes it even worse. I have realised that we see the worst in others because we possess that within ourselves and when we chose not to realise that we are the ones projecting, transferring these darknesses onto those we have in our lives is when we attack them for being what is essentially ourselves.

There is a bible quote that I find to be apt for this subject and it goes "So why do you see the piece of sawdust in another believer's eye and not notice the wooden beam in your own eye?" and it is because rather than attacking ourselves for a specific unwanted behaviour we would rather attack someone else for it, it's like fighting a battle with yourself but using another person to fight it out, in the end however nothing is resolved and we only wind up hurting others in the process.

I have always found so much truth to the words inscribed above the entrance of the Delphi Oracle, where it says "Know Thyself", we have all read these words repeated in so many books of wisdom, spoken by teachers since ancient times, and yet how many of us truly know what they mean? I cannot say I truly know but I do have my own ideas and here I will share with you those ideas, it seems that so often we forget ourselves in relation to a world that is just as diverse as the thoughts in our heads, we wish to know and yet we take no time to acquaint ourselves with the knower, the seer, the watcher, the I inside, in seeking to obtain knowledge of the world and ourselves we seek outside of ourselves, taking what we find and applying it to ourselves rather than finding ourselves and applying it to the world, this can lay a difficult path before us as we then desire to become what the world wants, no, expects of us, rather then taking the world and making it ours.

We each are dealt a specific set of cards and we don't always end up with a good hand and many of us opt out rather than playing the game to the end, I can only gather that is a personal choice and one that we each must make as we play the game of life. But who really loses? The one who sticks it out even though they know they might not win or the one who gives up before all the cards have been played? I know this analogy has been spoken of before but perhaps people have never really thought about it as too many give up before the game is over.

I cannot and could not ever speak for everyone but I can speak for myself and I know that I am guilty of projecting my faults onto others, of attacking others for things I myself cannot deal with, does this make me a loser, does this make me a fool, does this make me a bad person? No. It makes me human. The human being is an enigmatic figure and one that I feel will ever be so, but does this mean that in the process we shouldn't strive to learn as much about ourselves as possible? I think it is our responsibility to discover as much as we can about ourselves, especially if we ever expect to hold a respectful and desireable relation to another. If we are constantly trying to outrun ourselves by projecting all of our faults, self-hatred, unfulfilled desires, sadness and failings onto others, onto Other, we miss out on half of lifes lessons. It is not easy to admit ones own faults, ones own shortcomings, but if we can muster just half the courage to admit that just half of what befalls us is of our own doing we open the door to the possibility to becoming so much more.

We so often attack others out of this need to place blame, to seek a release from the shadows that grip us and hold tight to us, when in truth the shadows are but the smaller parts of the light that surrounds us, we all get lost from time to time but I remember something that a great man once said " it is in straying that I found the path direct". We all lose our way from time to time, we all try so hard to become something other than exactly what we are meant to be and this is okay, at least we are trying, pushing ourselves, working on becoming more ourselves than we wish to be, we just need to be mindful and careful of whom we hurt in the process. No one is entirely happy with life, that's how it is, we either deal with it or we don't. But by giving up we lose that which is most precious, ourselves.

It is true when they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but this is true of so much, not just beauty. For in the end the world we see is the world we behold via our own vision, it is as we are, not the other way around.


Shadow by Steven Kenny

27 February, 2012

An eternal Nature held forever within our hearts...

Recently on spending some much needed time out in Nature I had dawn upon me a revelation, one which I had thought on from time to time but never really given much time to. And this is the place that Nature holds in the more primeval/primitive and yet constantly changing and evolving Magical Artes, especically those areas known more specifically as Traditional Witchcrafts. It is from this realm that we drawn most of our inspiration and power, it is the home of much of our gnosis and knowledge within the Artes. Many of us have either been guided or chosen to enter into a direct communication or congress with the spirits of the Land and the intelligences that find their homes within the Realms of the Green, both benevolent and sinister, for that is the way of Nature, a blessing and a curse.


I went to a wooded area that, as a youth, I spent much of, it not all of my time running around in and this place held such magic for me, it was a home away from home. A true Eden, a Garden of Paradise, a retreat from the world of man in my childhood. I remember it vividly and all of it is remembered fondly. Yet, having visited this place years and years later, now as an adult. I noticed that the magic was gone, the trees bare, the paths overgrown, trash littered the forest floor and I could tell that this once beautiful place that was often frequented by not just myself but other children also searching for a place where they too could leave behind the cares of a world that has not much time for children.


As I walked down the now hidden paths that were once clearly defined and walked often, it dawned on me that this once marvelous and enchanted place that as I child I set aside, perhaps as the only place wherein I found any true sense of a god, had fallen into ruin and despair, that in so many ways it was now symbolic of the state of the world and the ideals that are now upheld by humanity, that nature, once it all its glory and held in reverence, had now become nothing more than a product,something to be used and abused, to be resourced and sold and bought by the highest bidder, only to be raped and ravaged. Destroyed. The magic was gone.


I was saddened by this, by the blatant, wreckless, and uncaring attitude with which this once truly holy place had come to be treated. Totally devoid of the magic that it once held, all that now stood there was a symbol of the world of man and his irreverence to anything truly holy and divine. I stood amidst the tress, in which I still saw glory trying to shine from out of a darkness, and yet I also stood amongst the trash thrown upon the ground from various generations, the soda cans, the refuse of the people to lazy to dispose of their garbage properly, the now rusted coffee tins that were jagged and bent, just like the people who left them there. But in so many ways I could still see myself as a child running through this one miraculous place, playing games with friends, riding my bike, building forts, and yes, doing magic that issued from my own innocence as a child is wont to do when the world of the adults if no longer impinging upon our minds, when we escape their desires and their needs to experience our own.


I now find myself wondering if it is us who hold the magic, that it is we who see through a veil of enchantment, of illumination, that it is our desire to see the beautiful and truthful aspects of a world that is so often left behind as we grow up that allows us to see what others refuse to even acknowledge? No, it is not simply we who possess this, for Nature, the Wilderness, IS MAGIC! It is a divine realm and one that we must now seek out and respect, for it has withdrawn from the many and is only revered now by the few. I can only hope and pray that one day, that children like myself and others who truly understand what place the natural world has in our lives, stand up and re-erect the Emerald Chapels of the Enchanted Realms of the Green.


In many ways I understand that we live in a dying world, but it is not yet dead and to treat it as such will only bring to you what you have sown and you shall wind up with the gold of the Fae, nothing! I pray that one day the world will be a brighter place, a balanced place, where each woman, man and child, can live in harmony with the world as it was when we were brought forth from its mighty and nurturing bosom, we have outgrown ourselves and forgotten our place.


We might be children of the starry heavens but this place is our home for the time being and as such it should be treated with the love, kindness and respect that it deserves. We are not alone here, this much is obvious to anyone who takes just a small amount of time to enter into this world within our own. Life is everywhere, and it possesses such beauty, such strength, and in it we will find the Truth we all seek if we but open our arms and our eyes to receive it once again and feel within our own beings that rhythm of Natures heart as it beats in pace with our own, for they are one and the same.

~Patrick Larabee