#158

sound advice, as ever!

@ht73 do rest, reorient, and return refreshed!

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#160

these folks have some heavily magical stuff going on in their work, tho i can’t & won’t speak to their process. i’m sharing this in the hopes that gavin (i know you’re lurking!) will make an account & contribute to this conversation.

that said, i saw them play here on 10/16, and the…effects of that show were very much in alignment with workings that i’ve been engaged with (& were also relevant to my co-operator, who also attended).

for me: literally a temporary healing & an angelic visitation. ripples still spreading, we’ll see how it all feeds back.

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#161

Hello all,

This thread is fascinating to me as a British Traditional Witch who has had an interest in paganism and the occult from a young age. (BTW is different from Wicca, drawn from folklore and historical records but many of the modern paths were devised just prior to or during the advent of Wicca).
I often feared that electronic music and witchcraft were somewhat incompatible, but this thread is really making me think about ways to further incorporate my Craft into my artistic output!

(Also, science is great! It does not have to stand in opposition to our spiritual understanding. Plenty of our most incredible scientists were/are believers. There’s some really interesting quantum theories of consciousness regarding the soul but I digress. :slight_smile: )

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#162

reading your post, i immediately thought of coil’s moon’s milk (in four phases), which is a collection of EPs created for the cross-quarter days.

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#163

Oooh lovely, thanks :slight_smile:

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#164

For sure, aspects of the occult have influenced all my life, including patching up modular synths. About 20 years ago, before I had a modular, I would use AudioMulch to patch together a Tree of Life made out of 10 contraptions or VST plugins linked together by the paths. Loads of feedback insanity going on, and you could tap off the audio from various parts and mix it together. Loads of fun. I did something similar when I had my Frac system too.

That was a very process oriented approach, but for ritual I will always do something meaningful before making a recording of my own, even if it’s just light a candle and have a few moments silence.

Can apply to all aspects of the creative process, music making, playing and instrument, performing, DJing etc. Creating a positively charged space, and then holding it for the duration.

Huge AOS fan here, have about 50 books, various prints, and one original Adventures of Limbo sketch from 1945. Probably gonna let a load of the books go (including John Balance’s copy of Gavin Semple’s ‘Zos Kia’) soon though, just keep the art ones, not so interested in all the essays about him.

Always been into this stuff for as long as I can remember. Know lots of people in groups but never joined one myself.

4 Likes
#165

Hello all,

I lurk somewhat but am interested in this. I have ongoing projects to do with hermeticism and sound. And recently, modular.

But what i wanted to flag up is a 1 day symposium and concert that may be of interest-i hope!- to some.

Short link. https://wp.me/P7P2kZ-hr

Mark your diaries now…Wednesday 25th March at National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth we present: The Shining Pyramid, a one day symposium with night concert presenting new experimental music and talks inspired by the alchemy, magic and folklore of Wales as suggested by writers including Arthur Machen, Thomas & Henry Vaughan, John Cowper Powys and others-full line-up to seep out in due course, but we still seek your involvement…

Wanted-Papers, pieces, experimental media, sound-works, AV/film and talks

Sound and music & presentations that relate to broad themes of alchemy, magic, folklore and superstition are welcome, especially where these relate or refer to their sonic aspects, audio visual responses that relate to the works of Arthur Machen are sought, as well as those which may treat the theme generally.

Visionary experimentalists, DIY musicians, composers, academics, non affiliated researchers, AV and film-makers, researchers/writers/natural philosophers are welcome.

Unless otherwise agreed there is no funding in place for your fees/development/travel and subsistence.

However, for participants there is no registration fee and entry to concert is waived.

Talks/papers/pieces/film should be up to 20 min duration

Enquiries and submissions should be directed to drdafydd.roberts (at) gmail (dot) com, please mark your subject SOUND.

Submission Details
Deadline for proposals is December 20th.

Proposals for papers and presentations should be made by emailing 1 pdf document of your proposal, name, email contact, affiliation if appropriate and ensure you include active links to your music/film pages, duration of your performance/piece. Please ensure you describe how your proposal relates to the theme of the event.

Technical Details

Laptop/usb PowerPoint is available should you need it, please ensure you have the right connectors, PowerPoint is not obligatory.

Performers will have access to a small mixer and 2 channel active speakers and should ensure they bring all leads and peripherals.

Thanks

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#166

this thread has been fascinating for me to read thru! so many things people’ve said that resonate with me.

i absolutely approach making music, and with the modular as my instrument, as a magical practice. from the really basic, kind of funny way you can think of that idea:

all the way to thinking about my musical practice, and process of creating, as a ritual practice much like tarot, or astrology, or any other. for me, making music is a ritual of inward reflection and meditation. if you put it in scientific terms it might be close to ‘art therapy’ but to me… every patch is a spell, and every ritual session an opening of a gateway into something emotionally resonant, deeper than just designing a sound or programming a beat.

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#167

Bless Micro Research

ERD/BREATH is designed for the precise voltage control (CV) of heat and thus smoke production within a modular, eurorack setting.

ERD/BREATH allows for controlled summoning and nourishment of (artificial and benevolent) demons, for the offering of sacrificial vapours, and for any modular use of multiple incenses or other smoke-producing resins, herbs and natural substances. A small sample of sage is included for preliminary cleansing of the modular environ. This should be placed on the middle wire heating element which will become very hot and should not be touched.

The burnt offering is a wolf’s eye, storax gum, cassia, balsam gum and whatever is valued among the spices.

breath001
breath0011024×683 105 KB

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#168

#169

The two books i used for my record done with Two Coptic Ministers @ 89 & 92 years old back in 1997 “The Canals of the Atlantean plain” were based on the mathematical/anthro-cultural work of Ernest Mclain. The Pyathagorean Plato and the his other one “The Myth of Invariance” are worth a gander

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#170

When I was writing my diploma work on “Non-scientific sources of knowledge” back in 1994 I had to formulate a philosophical thesis, namely that humans need to divide reality into pieces, divide unity into a plurality (at least a duality) to be able to measure and thus understand our cosmos. As soon as you do it you get numbers or geometrical shapes, which are objects to interpretation. Most “occult” (this word is somewhat laden with negative connotation, which I don’t like that much) schools are based on this, be it Qabbalah, Tarot or astrology.

It was 2 years later that I encountered synthesizers and am now musician in my second profession. But the parallels to music making are obvious now.

In the modular world indeed random generators are essentially tools for divination, for counting the fabric of time and to attach a meaning to a particular moment of time. This is why genius heads from Mozart to Philip K. Dick were trying to use them (dice, I Ging) for composition and writing.

Having said that, in hermetic systems (western ones) music and occult/mystics belong to the same symbolic complex, Neptune. Which totally makes sense.

LC

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#171

I agree with that even the Beat Step Pro has a randomness amount and percentages which are always quite interesting

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#172

Isnt it the case that the occult world view doesnt really hold with the random? Seemingly random operations falling under the influence of other forces- especially in modes of divination such as the I Ching.

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#173

nothing is really random in electronics, unless you wanted to irradiate your setup… maybe in a broader sense, as soon as there is any construct, shapes or not, assigning it meaning isn’t far away.

mmm… meaning. feels comfortable. and so does the searching for it. but the moment the question or some answer has an influence on the creative mind, there emerges a value of sorts. hard to quantify as every mind is different.

i don’t patch sigils. i guess with the proximity of music to geometry and, generally, math, one doesn’t have to actually go into shapes or prescribed actions. but some days i tune into some numbers, other days into others, in that sense going with the flow is a kind of ritual.

occasionally i listen to ritualistic music - be it ceremonial on traditional instruments, or audience-dividing electronic noise - always for the inimitable atmosphere.

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#174

You folks might find this interesting.
https://somasynths.com/quantum-ocean/

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#175

I highly recommend this book by Dane Rudhyar:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/magic-of-toneart-mus_dane-rudhyar/427348/#isbn=0394708873

He describes how music developed from a ritual to what it is today in the western world, and also he explains the esoteric meaning of the harmonic row.

LC

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#181

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#183

This appears to be readable online (I haven’t seen the physical book and can’t speak to how this may differ):
http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/mt/

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#184

Sure, that is the book. I read it in a German translation back then. Thanks for the link !

LC