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Title: **Anarchist Spirituality** Author: At'Alma Date: May 8, 2021 Language: en Topics: Occult, religion, spirituality. Magic Source: Retrieved on 12/03/01 from https://twitter.com/VoidTori/status/1391118005128544259?s=20
"I invoke the cursed winds of the world,
May they quicken my wit as I scribe down these words,
May the words be given meaning to the reader,
May the black star of anarchy always burn darkly in their heart,
May they tear their enemies to shred
May they burn the old world to ash as they destroy compassionately
May the old world quake in fear of you,
For you, I present no fear,
You are the darkest of dark stars."
“If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him.” ― Mikhail
Bakunin
These words, written by Mikhail Bakunin, often lend themselves to an
anti-theistic view of anarchism. The basis here is not entirely
unwarranted, the quote comes from Bakunin’s piece, “God and The State”
which deals with a criticism of clericalism in christianity and it's
role in keeping the masses of Europe in check. One need not look hard at
the history of Europe and see how intertwined religion and politics were
and still are. However, Bakunin's main criticisms are of clericalism,
not of religion as a whole.
Ironically, or perhaps understandably, however, Bakunin’s rival, Karl
Marx, had a very similar view of religion. We have all at one point or
another heard the phrase, “Religion is the opiate of the masses,” but
very few have heard the full context. “Religious suffering is, at one
and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest
against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,
the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It
is the opium of the people.”^([1]) In this way it suggests that religion
is the result of the material conditions of a society rather than some
extraneous force. If we accept this criticism to be true, then it is
safe to say that religion as it exists now would not exist in a
communist society. This would go beyond tithing and beyond scripture,
the needs of the flock would be entirely different. What’s more, with
more time to devote to spirituality, the spiritual individual would come
to new, perhaps even more radical, conclusions about the nature of the
divine. In fact Marx makes this assertion when describing communism,
“society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for
me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning,
fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after
dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman,
herdsman or critic.”
Anti-theism then should be understood as inherently anti-anarchist.
Anti-theism would call upon individuals to do away with all
spirituality, believing then it would provide happiness and health for
it's adherents. I go back to my earlier reference to Marx, it’s foolish
to believe that the abolition of religion will do anything. Spirituality
will always exist in some form or another, instead your target should be
clericalism. When people cite things such as the inquisition, sharia
law, the papacy, the church, these things are clericalism. The church,
it’s dogma, it’s institution, not spirituality as a whole. Spirituality,
as this author uses it, is the belief that there are things beyond the
material. Religions are merely the product of their adherents, who are
the products of their environment. In this way, religions are shaped by
and shape the environments of their adherents. Someone having the belief
in a god is not harming themself in any reasonable sense, the issue
comes when they are a bishop using their power to enforce their will on
their flock. The adherent is not the problem, it is the systems around
the adherent that enable them to control other adherents and so-called
heretics and infidels. Just as it is a suppression of the individual to
limit their interpretations of the divine, it is a suppression to
prevent any expression of the divine.
What then of the church itself? The church is a hierarchy and should be
opposed at every opportunity. Any clerical institution is inherently
going to lend itself to a cult. If we look at the catholic church for
example, they declare themselves to be the sole arbiters of the
scriptures, any argument with a catholic inherently goes back to the
claim that Jesus handed Peter the keys to shape christianity and it’s
institutions as they please. They will simply argue any piece that does
not fit into catholic doctrine is heretical and discredit it’s findings,
so much so as to condemn them in the bible itself.
I would apply these things to the pagans, the occultists, the muslims,
the jews, and any other faith. The hierarchical institutions of
clericalism ultimately limit an individual's connection to the divine.
It tells you what to think, it inhibits you from making your own
personal opinions and inquiries into the nature of the divine. Be it a
priest, an imam, a rabbi, a priestess, etc. anyone who tells you that
the divine can only be interpreted in a specific way or understood
through reading a set of texts deemed “canon” is inherently working
against your interests. If an individual could come to their own
conclusions on the divine, think for themselves, what good is the
church? What good is the pastor?
In regards to magick, magick is a science and an art in most pagan and
occultist circles. It’s the science of changing the universe in
conformity to will. Magick is also for anyone and everyone. A great
magician can come from anywhere, be they a coal mine worker to a retail
worker typing away on their phone as they type some inane nonsense
entitled “Anarchist Spirituality.”
What does magick, let alone spirituality, have to do with anarchism?
Why, it is so inextricably linked of course! Stirner and Novatore showed
us this best, the universe is yours to control. You may change it
directly in accordance to your will, physically or otherwise. Take it as
you please. No laws, no morals, no state to hold you down, just your own
will. What’s more, they emphasized that the individual is a unique, a
multifaceted entity which is constantly in a state of becoming. These
ideas are cornerstones of magickal study in the 21st century and present
a very unique opportunity for individuals to empower themselves. As I
write this I find that occultism is popularly dominated by ideological
liberalism. Commonly I find it in the ways that it discusses “moral”
ways to live or how best to live one’s life in accordance to your divine
purpose. What’s more it would demand we protect the very liberal
institutions of intellectual property or even to stumble back in the
face of repression. I declare that my life is my own, and that is me who
decides where I go, how I worship and how I fulfill myself. I declare
that I will not stumble back and instead shall stand firm in the face of
the repression of the state, the face of the repression of the mob, that
individuals should spit on all that is sacred in their mind and stamp
out the tyranny of the phantom! People are chained beasts under
capitalism, incapable of moving forward without criticism from their
peers or fear of reprisal in the form of the dangers that are so common
in a capitalist society. It should be the goal of any anarchist project
to make any type of literature and knowledge, radical or otherwise,
freely and easily accessible.
“Stirner full of dignity proclaims;
You bend your willpower and you dare to call yourselves free.
You become accustomed to slavery
Down with dogmatism, down with law.”^([2])
If we are to reject all things that are sacred, what does that mean in
regards to the gods? The gods are not sacred, they are not above me,
they are my equals, and I theirs. They are to me what a friend is to me.
I walk with the spirits in every aspect of my life, I work with them, I
engage with them, I talk to them, and together we work to move the
universe. “How can this be?” you ask. It is because I claim it to be.
The gods exist because we will them to exist, and they are worshipped
because we choose to, as such we choose to work with them because we
choose to. They are individuals too, each of them, we have merely placed
them above us at the behest of old clerics. Of course, show respect to
them as you would show respect to anyone you respect. I respect Loki for
his talents, his cunning and his will, but I do not bend for him, I will
not prostrate myself for him, I will not degrade myself for him, if I
respect him, and he respects me, we will walk as equals. To understand
our relationship to the divine be one of submission is to ignore the
fact that we as individuals have an ability to make it into anything we
want to be.
It is in this that we can now see why anarchism is imperative to the
spiritual and occult advancement of humanity. We are limited right now
in our understanding of these concepts; we have barely scratched the
surface. We cannot assert ourselves to understand the divine until we
break through the veil and smash it to bits. Without the material
conditions that presently exist, our understandings of the spiritual
will change dramatically. Anarchism will allow for a greater freedom of
study of spirituality than has ever been seen in human history except
for perhaps our paleolithic origins.
With that, I leave you this quote:
“It is a mistake to consider any belief more liberated than another. It
is the possibility of change which is important. Every new form of
liberation is destined to eventually become another form of enslavement
for most of it's adherents. There is no freedom from duality on this
plane of existence, but one may at least aspire to choice of
duality.”^([3])
Bibliography
Carroll, Peter J. Liber Null and Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos
Magic. Weiser Books, 1987.
Marx, Karl. “ Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy
of Right 1844. ” Marxist Internet Archive. Marxist Internet Archive.
Accessed May 8, 2021.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm.
Arvon, Henri. Aux Sources De L'existentialisme: Max Stirner . Paris:
Presses universitaires de France, 1954.
Bakunin, Mikhail Aleksandrovich. God and the State. Singapore: Origami
Books Pte. Ltd., 2020.
Special Thanks
Nikki Chavelas
Am_Dampierre
Collette
Lunar System
Gnostic Apple
And many, many others
[1] Karl Marx, “Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's
Philosophy of Right 1844,” Marxist Internet Archive (Marxist Internet
Archive), accessed May 8, 2021,
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm.
[2] Henri Arvon, Aux sources de 1'existentialisme Max Stirner (Paris,
1954), p. 14.
[3] Peter J. Carroll, Liber Null and Psychonaut: An Introduction to
Chaos Magic (Weiser Books, 1987).