What is the point of belonging to a group such as the naths? The first job is to heal and develop one’s personal psychology. We will never be perfect, but we can become functional. At least psychosis is reduced to mild neurosis, one has become alert to the workings and machinations of one’s ego and one is determined to get on with ones life plan. I don’t believe this work can be achieved alone. The very first work of the guru/chela relationship is to reduce and become aware of ego but, lacking competent gurus, we must continually be tossed and turned in the polishing vat, knocking off each others rough edges. First we learn how to manage our own selves, so that we are able to proceed with the very long and difficult work of becoming god. Becoming ego-identified with a guru or cult is delusional. It is a klesha. We are working towards the ability to bear the pure light, no relative concept to rest on, no theory to depend on, complete non-identification. We are supposedly training ourselves to walk naked in the void (or plenum).

We must challenge each other, often and thoughtfully. Scoring points is ego work. Inducing wisdom in a fool is good work. We are all fools, but lets work to help each other see what is so difficult to see. The nose on my face, that which is too close to be visible to me is the proper target for attacks, jeers, gentle pointers. (hahaha my nose is an easy target) The more outrage I feel the more likely the shot has been accurate. (Now that is a useful piece of info if you don’t already know it). Lashing out at one who has just helped you is neurotic and an immediate signal that work needs to be done. We must become functional on these basic psychological levels before we can proceed to the esoteric heights. Know your ego! It is trickier than any magical spell or spirit in the night. It will hold us back more than any lack of intellect, or knowledge or definition, lore or history.

Due to our lack of experienced gurus I propose we take a page out of modern times. Lets get commercial and hire the specific folks that we need. Counsellors and shrinks for our psychological development, Monroe Institute for the technology for astral travel, the Buddhists to develop our meditation skills, various shamans to hone our magical abilities, gypsies for fortune telling and small charms, Gurdjieffians to keep our self-pacifying to a minimum, yogis to teach us relaxation and clean living, and lets get some good musicians in to improve the drumming!

PART 2

Now I wish to discuss basic questions about Naths and our relationship to that name. The Naths in India are ancient and well-known today. They are a large and well-established cult. I know almost nothing about this group. The nath name arrived in the west as an idea of Mahendranath. At first it seemed we were to call ourselves Adinaths but Mahendranath turned against that idea. Mahendranath repeatedly stated that we are not related to the Naths in India because we are not sannyasi. He did not want us to adopt their ideas and practices wholesale. He had already done the sifting and choosing of ideas he considered the true gold embedded in the dross. His claim to being the last Adi Nath was not ego aggrandizement. It was made to reinforce the fact that although we carry the nath name we are not related to the Indian Naths. We honour and receive inspiration from them and their wonderful history by using the Nath name.

We have a core of ideas, which came mostly through Mahendranath, which define us. We cybernath together in order to discuss and develop and experiment and re-define and experience in our own lives the effect of these ideas. Many of the activities of ANS for instance seem to originate far from the original writings. This is an ideal situation for experimentation, testing, research and just plain craziness and excess that provide the rich compost for new understanding to bloom. INO preserves the words of Mahendranath’s writings and presents them, accurately (mostly) and beautifully to the public through the internet. As a member of both these groups I delight in this complementary pair. Very Yin/Yang, Siva/Shakti, Creator/preserver/ destroyer yet to come.

In theory, initiation into the hierarchical, initiatic cult of INO is a deep commitment between guru and chela to work together to achieve god-hood and liberation. This is the classical guru chela relationship which is spelled out very clearly throughout Hindu and Buddhist tradition. This is the ancient tradition, transfer of power and information, a spiritual birth. Initiation into ANS has been offered in a very different spirit. Initiation into ANS is a lucky charm, an indication of interest,a coyote-kiss, a toy, a courtesy. A few of those who have received initiation into this deeply serious, happy-go-lucky nath manifestation have had a reaction of deep spiritual opening. These few have the karmas and I wish them well. You have made a very good start.

I like the liberating term neo-naths. I have used many Indian forms, words, ideas and imagery in the things I have written. I have indulged my own mystical feelings about nath and my personal belief systems abundantly and repeatedly. I must state, that does not make these things objectively, measurably, true. When I describe the Nine Naths as living Beings … this may or may not be taken as objectively true. Readers choose at that moment. This style of writing is meant to be useful on an emotional level. It is part of my toolkit, using my imagination to augment and accelerate the effectiveness of an idea or a situation. Purposely superposing two non-converging ideas upon each other is a skill I am developing as a magician. Not only for flexibility which is crucial, but in order to function in accord with basic quantum principles. I have to live and think and eat these principles. Quantum realms are the magical realms of this age, in my opinion.

Thus, we are a group (or not) of western based spiritual pilgrims unconnected except through Mahendranath with India in any way except a combination of letters that occurs in our name. On the other hand we may also be mystically bound to the ancient and magical cult of the Nine Naths and the mysterious and eternal Wanderers; Gorakshnath and Matsyendranath and Dattatreya who are the guardians of this cult. We fearlessly appropriate the name and do whatever we please with it because we are Naths and that is what we do. I wouldn’t advise pushing the second option too publicly and not at all in India. However it is a splendid tool and should be kept brightly polished in order to propel us into the ancient halls of the nath enlightenment machine, an altered and heightened state of consciousness that is difficult to reach at the best of times. As neo-naths we appropriate these rights to ourselves without compromising the Naths in India in any way.
Hmmm that makes us a non-local entanglement with the Indian Naths, possibly affecting the situation in both directions of time. Nice. Thus by describing, measuring and observing ourselves we affect Indian Naths if only by the comparison between us and them.

The same ideas can be applied to Mahendranath himself. On the one hand he was an adventurous human among many who went into new and unexplored regions. He never returned but he left us with some good maps to find our own adventurous way. His writing is useful and specialized and the ideas are new to us, although they certainly came from Indian ancient sources and were filtered through Mahendranaths consciousness before arriving in our brains. What he did, we can all achieve because it is obviously within the realm of human abilities. I choose to believe that he is an enlightened being and still human, well within the grasp of human endeavour.

There is another wildly unrestrained view of the man. This is how we view our Gurus and heroes and love objects. This is the work of the devotee and devotion which is so full of magical potential as we act in bizarre and unlikely ways in order to fulfill our own idea of the demands of that devotion. We will sacrifice our time, our money, even our life and life energy and purpose in order to propitiate this Ideal Being. This is called BHAKTI. The inspiration and power to understand and learn that comes from that intense love and sympathy with an Ideal Being is enormous and well documented .. again a suitable realm for magicians. The transformative power of identification with a quite possibly non-existent Ideal should not be discarded in an argument over relative objective existence in a taxpaying world. The one view must not negate the other even if they are mutually exclusive.

Calling ourselves Adinaths, against Mahendranath’s express wishes is a possibility. Since there is no proof of the existence of this panth beyond the assertions of a few people (like me, and I don’t mind), we tread on few toes in appropriating this name. Aditya’s proposal to call us Mahendranath sampradaya, despite my jeering is another possibility. I think he means panth though. Sampradaya is the entire cult. We wouldn’t be naths, we would be mahendriastes or perhaps mahendriazzis. Are INO and ANS and AMOOKOS perhaps newly emerging panths? Much of this strikes me as premature. We are very new and young and haven’t shown what we are capable of yet. First steps have not yet been taken in the most basic direction of evolving and training the SELF.

Is any of this useful in reconciling the schismatic tendencies of the western naths? Does any of this alleviate the anxieties of Aditya caused by my unkind merriment at his expense?

Part 3

I cribbed these facile definitions of difficult and obscure quantum physics from “Science” July 1st, 2005. This is the magazine of AAAS, the American Assoc. for Advancement of Science. I make no apologies for constantly encroaching on the territory of quantum science. No use to tell me this only applies to tiny objects, my ideas do not work, are non-scientific and I understand wrongly. I know that already. I am thinking, feeling and acting in a mystic state where “above and below”, “micro and macro”, the “visible and the invisible”, the “true and the could-be” intersect in my head. This stuff actually works in my life. I believe it is the true operating theatre for 21st century magical investigation and experimentation. .. Unless you really are only in it for the love spells!

SUPERPOSITION; an object having 2 mutually exclusive properties at the same time .. until observed or disturbed, at which time the superposition collapses and the object is found to be in one or the other place.

NON-LOCALITY; “entangled” particles that are separated in space but not in time, they affect each other at any distance and may in theory become entangled at a time after they have been observed or measured.

UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE; objects’ positions and momenta are “smeary and ill-defined”. Gaining knowledge about one means losing knowledge about the other. Things aren’t IS but, rather, probability waves that become real when observed or measured.

IMPROBABILITY: this definition never came up .. sorry .. it’s my favourite idea of the whole lot.

Wow! what a ‘plastic’ malleable universe. What a thrill! How truly uncertain and improbable!

.

This vagueness is quite liberating. We don’t want to reproduce the dreadful fundamentalism of some indian Nath centers which are currently highly political and inappropriate.

In the 1924 book “Gorakshnath and the Kanphata Yogis” the naths of india are surveyed by the british and appear to be hindu and muslim and male and female in equal numbers. This is no longer true today. The great majority of women have fled to the astral planes and I doubt there are many actual muslim naths although I have met a wonderful Pirnath (Pir is a muslim title) who had a very Kabir like equanimity toward religion altogether.

Mahendranath despaired of western naths ever developing new patterns that respond to a new era and a new society. If he had lived a little longer he would have been pleased, I think. We have become cybernaths, joined together in a McLuhanesque global neural network, a mystical body of nath. Come to think of it the internet was born just as Mahendranath died in 1992. I visualize planetary magic timed and held together by the internet, but I am an old timer and I think the young naths will come up with many more far out and bizarre ideas and scenarios.

I want to discuss nath iconography and in this I borrow almost entirely from India and the past. We gather, practice and according to our own ideas we worship at the DHUNI. This is the firepit. I encourage all naths to spend long hours in front of the fire. There is a great deal of knowledge, insight and detachment to be gained from this practice. Develop our own system of approaching flame. Certainly make offerings of everything from sage and incense (samagri) to books, money and valued and sentimental objects. Such destruction and sweetness will lead naturally to our greatest sacrament which is ASH.

ASH is our most important substance. Naths smear our bodies in ash, cover our heads in ash, make our cult marks in ash, heal the sick with a pinch of ash which has been charged with energy. We use it as a vibe and energy collector and we mark time by the accumulation of mountains of ash created through endless ascetic practice and devotion to the care of the dhuni. For those of Hindu tendency it is a joining with the ultimate Adinath the ash-smeared god of the burning ground, the Great Lord Shiva himself. Ash speaks of the end of all things, of destruction of form, end to desire, karma, and the end of attachment. All things are eventually brought to the fire and reduced to the essence which is ash.

One emblem which we all share is the TRISHUL or trident, another sign of Shiva, of the outsider the transgressor of societal virtue, the left hand practitioner, the one who eats less, sleeps less, speaks rarely, desires little and owns nothing…the all powerful magician who walks in darkness without fear and without baggage.

We are accompanied by the DAMERU, the double-headed drum with which we mark the heartbeat of passing time and of the stars which dance in that other sky which will appear to the exhausted seeker sitting by the fire. The drum (and it need not be dameru) is the first step in the ancient nath study of SABD, sound, both the outer sound of the planet roaring through the cosmic vastness and the inner sounds of bees and spirit voices singing, of intuition and insight found only in the inner temple of our awakened mind. We chant the MANTRAs of ancient days and modern days too, as offerings to the fire and as inquiry into the secrets of sound. We naths have our own mantras. Make efforts to seek them out.

We share the RUDRAKSHA bead with all Shaivites. It is the round seed of a certain tree and, when strung together, it is used as a MALA and as necklace, bracelets and can even be wrapped tightly around the trunk of the body to ensure one never sleeps soundly and comfy again. This is a good thing actually…. for a while.

All of this, firepit, ash, trident, drum and mantra, rudraksha and mala are outer signs of our inner work. Obviously we can let slip all these outer manifestations and still, through inner work, emerge as the new, the liberated, the enlightened, self-created Being.

But when and if we ever gather together again in a great international nath mela let our signs and symbols, our cult marks, our legends, our songs, drumbeats and mantras, our poems and above all our fires show that we are united in a great effort to transform ourselves and the world into a free and joyous home, a place worthy of incarnation and deep transformation. Potential fulfilled to the brim!
jai Nathji

PART TWO___

Mahendranath developed a group of core concepts that anyone could do well to read and understand. The three K’s : Karmas are our starting point in life, the traits and personality that comes packaged with our body. The kleshas are the 5 obstructions; ego, ignorance, attachment, repulsion and clinging to life. Konditioning is the subtle, indeed barely detectable, forces with which we are tamed and how we become acceptable members of our society. These are negative forces affecting our ability to function properly.

Samarasa is a complex idea that in its simplest expression means sameness, we remain in a simple and balanced state, not driven by desire and disgust. Svecchachara means that we do our own will and once again are not driven by the forces of ego, society, civilisation and the teachings of our mothers and leaders. This leads to spontaneous and unconditioned response that can never fail to answer the needs of the moment. We will all be wrestling with these key ideas as long as we call ourselves naths.

These ideas are meant to lead us to enlightenment, to inner freedom and finally to the state of Being which we call the AVADHOOT. Descriptions of the Avadhoot are very important because there is no use striving for the undefined and unknown. We must have some picture of the goal. Finding a living example of such a being is the greatest blessing we can receive in this life. Please keep your minds and your mind’s eye open! Such beings most definitely exist in every age and in many places. One thing of which we can be sure…nobody else has ever recognised this being. They will be strange, attractive, charming and magical as quarks and will probably be skirting jail and the nuthouse at all times. There will be no group of fans clinging to this disreputable scoundrel and one will very possibly be greeted by shit and lies and every form of dissimulation. How to distinguish this person from a madman or a jerk is up to your insight/intuition. Nobody can help you here. Nobody will ever confirm your choice as right or wrong. Good luck with this!

How, practically do we walk this path in the 21st century in this western civilisation? I really don’t know. I know that in olden times in India the path was fairly well described. First the aspirant made vows in which they renounced family, accumulation, this world and the next. Then they devoted themselves and humbled themselves to a guru in whom they had complete faith. This guru would use any and all means to diminish the ego and the badly aimed drives of the student (and often try to make a profit too!). The student would use meditation, fasting, yoga, silence, prayer, solitude and renouncement as tools to entirely remake themselves. Knowing the ancient stories of saints and gods, they would strive to emulate these astonishing heroes of old. They would go on long, dangerous and difficult pilgrimage and take every opportunity to bathe in the waves of grace which emanate from all realized beings and even their graves, of any and all persuasions.

Again the ability to discriminate between one thing and another was key to success. Ultimately there is no predictor of success, there is no path which guarantees we will reach the goal. Nobody knows who, nobody knows how or why any being may attain enlightenment. The efforts made seem to stay with us to some degree and it is believed that the tiniest increments made over endless spans of lifetimes will eventually lead to heaven. Believe it if you must, but I suggest you make great wrenching efforts and plan to succeed now in this lifetime. We are all, every one of us, in our most nuclear form, enlightened and omniscient. We are starlight and yogis of great power. That may be the greatest key of all. If I could just get out of my own way… if I would just acknowledge my own divinity…listen to my own voice and follow myself on my own path… well its possible I may succeed. It could happen.

PART III

I am sitting at my computer watching photos drift by on the screen. They are my digital images of late summer and autumn leaves in the north. Mixed in with landscapes are photos of friends, some laughter, some anxiety, adventures. A years’ worth of photos of people, places, trees, airports artworks sit on the hard-drive and cycle through endlessly. Because these images are painted with light they are hyper-real in appearance and occasionally slip over into surreal, either through manipulation or by accident. They each represent a distinct link to my consciousness, to my unique viewpoint on this planet. After all I can only be in spot at once and nothing else can be in that spot at the same time. It is time and space making a nice graph of my life and each photo a point.

The music is a medley that I had put together for an acquaintance. Freddy Fender, TexMex music god, starts to sing about how things are for him out along the border. Suddenly the lyrics, the music, the images, all synchronize. When he sings about a shining path the perfect photo appears. When he sings about friends, my friends faces come on the screen. The image on the computer is framed by a blasting winter snowstorm outside the window.

I had just finished seeing a friend off. It had been an enlightening visit. I had captured some of the surface and some of the depths in photos. I loaded the woodstove, fed the birds, did the dishes then the laundry, swept the floor and finally sat back with that deeply self satisfied relaxation and sigh of contentment.

The combination of deeply content relaxation, disconsonant visuals and synchronous music worked to launch me into a deeply altered consciousness. The images became an oracle, which spoke through the music. I had a reflecting, many-mirrored conversation with “myself” as expressed through self created links to other spots on my recent timeline. This unusual pattern is of course a product of tech and what I can do with it, or else what I can do to myself, using tech and virtuality to create strange roads along which I can walk..

Intensive creativity, repeatedly using imagery, sound, emotion, and time space soundbites are a useful toolset for altering consciousness. The new oracle is effective in a most tantric way. Self reflecting self, enjoying and confirming the inner temple with images from outside that are still self and of course digital self and rainbowlight self too. Ego, finding so much self must panic and sink through the cracks at least for a time. Long enough to get the messsage through to yourself from your self. On the other hand the music just comes from the radio.

The origins of this working sprang from the heart of the magician at the center of the working. His joyous mystical vision inspired all that was to follow.

“I’ve passed through these mystical states off and on my entire
meditation career, these waves of unbearably good news when the hope
and joy and reality of the future just pours off me and all I can see
of human life and human history is suffering annhilated by love and
wisdom.

Wherever you are, this blessing is carried to you, not from me, even
from us, but from Lalita, the Goddess herself who is beginning to show
her face around here, and the radiance of her smile blinds us to all
pain. Om”

After this vision he stated his intent. It was focussed and personal and aggressively attacked a corrupting and alien occult formulation which was in opposition to the kulas aims and human welfare. This intent could be understood by others on many levels starting with the intimate psychological need to confront the source of dark childhood fears. These fears are a response to the actual abusive, brutal and terrifying forces and events that shape many children into adult members of society. The terrors of childhood, though forgotten and dismissed, easily provide the powerful energy needed for magic work. Suppressed sensations of terror are easily extended into the mythological world, where we combat alien demons and the dark spirits of our imagination. At the same time these demons and spirits are as real and as manifest as anything else in the material world. The intent is to make room for life and growth and the enjoyment of happiness and fearlessness in the world of here and now.

This message of intent was sent out to nath internet community sites. I responded with delight and excitement mixed with fear. I felt such pleasure from the truthful words of a heart in mystic communion with itself and the group. My personal response was to build a protective circle around the magicians who would do the actual work. The forces they must encounter were known to be dangerous and powerful. The potential for ‘blowback’ was great. My own fears were drawn in the very forms they were about to engage in battle.

I saw potential for re-uniting some of the fractured elements of the nath community. I called on those with whom I had previously done magical work to join me in forming a protective shield around our magicians. Rather than feeling disheartened by the at best petty and at worst zero responses from these naths, I decided that the work being done by the Chicago mages would clear the way for american naths to function as a continental kula of magicians. The ‘immune system’ of american culture had certainly left me unable to work for a long time. It was only when the magician at the center of this working magically removed the thick shell which was suffocating me, that I understood something about this ‘immune system’. We do need to earn our right to operate here. We are culturally dissonant with the commonly held beliefs and values of america. We are something new! And we’re not welcome yet.

One exception to the general disdain and torpor of the american naths was our Kula mom, the Firecat of Boston. She understands her role as kula mother. Her love overcame inertia and she threw her energy into our working. The encompassing love of the kula mother is the beginning of real Tantra. The kula mother is the one who puts her shoulder to the wheel of Tantric interaction and begins the process of acknowledgment and mirroring that lights the fire of inspiration that could burn so brightly in our clan hearts and our clan homes.

The entire working was internet based. I realized that there would be no great continental cone of energy raised by american magicians so I decided to try “The Fiction Suit”. In “The Invisibles” by Grant Morrison, Raggedy Robin, isolated in a kind of space suit in the future, writes the storyline that is being enacted by the cast of her friends. It is a barely developed idea but it has captured the attention of many young magicians and this old one too. I only dimly grasp the meaning and procedure of this idea and what follows is definitely flying by nightlight. I began to script the protective circle idea. I wrote the same storyline four different ways. I hoped to be understood on at least one level, speaking to the heart, the mind, the body and at least to a sense of humour. I used the language of battle as it seemed the most dramatic and suitable to the job. Respectfully I suggested that naths view with their own magical mystical methods to see if my vision had any reality for them.

I quickly entered into one of my own magical personae, Bujungi, and the world began to shift as I fed myself a diet of my own fictional efforts. My totem animals began to gather and I took them for long night walks down dark country roads and into the bush. I read a description of our personified targets and the weapons and tools they are known to use. I befriended the insects and animals that are usually theirs, working metaphorically and in absolutely literal ways too. I made deals with spiders and horses. Butterflies, frogs, hawks, wolves and a bear joined into the magic whirlwind which I was creating. (I am writing from a remote and wild part of Canada’s north. All these animals are part of my life here.)

An experienced nath from the antipodes joined us. The sight of an ally on such a lonely field of action was beautiful. The mantras were proclaimed and posted to the net. The Mantra of the Nine Naths was used because from the beginning I had felt these mythical and very real Beings were the inspiration and the heart of this Work. I had brought this mantra from India. We would then use Mahendranath’s mantra. This powerful and ancient formula came from the war god Virabhadra and had been given by him to Krishna as an aid to perform an impossible feat. The sigil was posted by the magician in Chicago. It had been drawn in such a way that it continually shifted from 2 to 3 dimensions and therefore fascinated the eye and was appropriate to the Work. More than 50 pages of internet postings flew out in 3 days. Coordination between magician and protective circle was terse but forcefully furthered the magic. The date was set for the 7th and 8th of October. On the 6th I built a fire and began chanting the mantras, visualizing the sigil and above all visualising the circle of protection.

The circle, to my tremendously affected sight was a beautiful vision. Astral beings and the astral body of the occasional embodied one began to gather in the gloom. Big cats and wolves patrolled the perimeter. These manifested as self-motivated, fully conscious, delighted and amused beings. Friends from among the dead began to appear. Our pilgrim workings on Bear Butte now brought native american friends into the circle. The antipodean mage appeared as many fierce and beautiful warriors, tattooed, drumming and wonderfully dressed for battle. Our local Rimpoche suddenly appeared with his famous shotgun, much stronger in the astral than in his ailing body at home. My recently deceased but oh so feisty 92 year old aunt appeared in all her 80 lb. fightin’ glory.

I began to receive internal voice messages at a furious rate. Fire, incense, offerings, mantras, devotion, emotion, ash and smoke added to my intense inner experience. A need to accommodate Buddhists, Sufis and various styles and belief systems arose.The cone of energy abruptly rose above our huge and motley circle. The great energetically charged and lightning filled creation of our combined effort began to function and poured light energy and protection down on the mages in the center.

Suddenly a memory of a story I had read long ago surfaced. These dark forces enter the internet and operate from there. The story will permit them this escape route, as they can use their own fiction suit material. I sent out a warning to the Firecat and Chicago. “Don’t let them escape into the Web!!” G-mail flickered and went down for a moment, but came on again almost instantly. I saw the dark forces leaving the planet in a broad beam of grey, like a reversed rainstorm in the distance. I saw the sigil must be placed in the sky as a warning against their return to Earth.

Exhausted, I broke my vigil and made a cup of tea. It dawned on me that it was already over. The actual magical work lasted no more than an hour. I emailed the magician. Yes, as I had perceived at that great distance, the working was almost instantaneously successful. Once such fearsome beings, they had grown fat and lazy from years of easy pickings among the corrupt and easily lead.

That night at midnight I checked the crossroads. I stood alone in the lonely windy darkness, vulnerable and a little afraid. Nothing. All was clear. I shot the sigil into the sky one more time and warned the invaders to never return. I went home to bed. America had changed. Would the naths benefit?

PART TWO

This short description is written entirely from within the world view of magic reality. To an outsider the belief that my ‘hallucinations’ and internal dialogue have an external validity and an effect outside of my own mind appears to be nonsense, insanity or at best an example of pre-scientific, primitive thought.

Our magical tools are usually taken from a pre-scientific age. When modern science was born it was suckled on the debunking of our most basic human beliefs. This was liberating to the vast majority as we took back the night from the relentless fear of lurking supernatural evil and the dangerous otherworldly humans that haunted our lives with their curses and traffic with dark spirits. Simple disbelief in anything that was not material and measurable and malleable to our needs was the remedy to aeons of terror. Disbelief has liberated us from the coercive power of the churches that promise punishment of hell and reward of heaven. Why would we ever return to such darkness?

Much like the domestication of animals loses them their freedom while earning them a steady food supply and a measure of safety, science has been a double edged sword for us.

Freedom is our first reason for approaching magic again. Magic is individual, lacks rules or form and permits the poorest and lowliest among us to effect change without tools or permissions or specialized knowledge. At this point it has no context within our culture and as outsider activity it is unbounded by the usual conventions. We all dream of a life where we can do exactly as we see fit, a life that reflects our inner vision and our personal reasons for incarnating on planet earth.
A carefully de-conditioned mind and powerful magical intent can deliver us this life. Do as thou wilt, as free as the sky. This is the life of the Avadhoot.

When we work as a group we become the kula, the clan, the tribe. This must be a tantric undertaking as nothing else forges the true links between and among us. Tantra on this level is very much acknowledging another and then others. This is too simple to be easy. After acknowledgment comes mirroring (I need a better word!). This is how we work together without coercion, bosses, single aims, or self-sacrifice to the group will. This is also too simple to be easy. It is at the very core and heart of tantra. [No good love and sex without it!]

As a kula we create our own world, our own magical consensus reality. I mean this as literally as aboriginal ‘dreamtime’ as what the yaquis and the egyptians and everybody else has built for themselves. We could actually carve out an astral world, another reality in another space outside of time and other earthbound limitations. From this shared secret place, created by repeated acts of imagination and creative intent, we can wander and create in the outer reaches of the imagination, the only frontier that is never fully explored. We could practice on the internet.

The rational scientific mind that finds this a toxic brew of lunacy and delusion is now out of date. The maxim “As above, So below” permits me to co-opt sub-atomic science as my own psychological reality. Probability theory becomes the royal road to magic. Science and magic only parted ways for a short time and now we are becoming reacquainted. Religion and fundamentalism are our true opposition because they forbid free exploration of own consciousness and our own imagination.

Howler Nath is the great Nath Magician. He is guided by his mysterious, powerful and deeply meaningful Guru. He gathers about him the bravest and truest of young magicians. They have answered his call to battle and they arrive prepared. They are naked boys and girls, fierce, wise, painted with their cult marks and their personal symbols. Many sport dreadlocks and many are covered in ash. Among their weapons are tridents, guns, warplanes, magic words and mudras, sigils and over-arching vision.

ZigZag Nath calls together the outer circle. She calls to the honourable, noble and big-hearted Naths, the playful and skillful Buddhists, the daring and devious Sufis. Together they head into battle against dark blood-eating aliens..unh..maybe demons.. that infest our new homeland.

Like magicians before him the mighty Howler slays or even converts to guardians the embodied evil that he encounters on the great battlefield. Reminiscent of the Kalachakra, he fights for the spiritual survival and health of all beings.

This magician is strengthened by the jeers from the cheap seats, their insults polish him to shining bronze. Adversity increases his lustre. Hunger sharpens his senses. Poverty heals his spirit. Almost invincible, what tragic flaw could betray him….?

The ‘off’ button is: wag your finger in the mirror and say three times, NO NO NO, THIS ISN’T REALLY HAPPENING. Go home and sleep well.

The rest of you may be interested in the implications of the Fiction Suit. It is a modern magical device invented by that excellent magician Grant Morrison. His text is called “The Invisibles” and it is a major late 20th century Tantra . The world of magic must be found through a creative act on the part of the seeker. The Outer Improbability Fields can only be found in improbable ways. The Fiction Suit is a modern route to magical reality…and it’s ssstylin’.

Sometimes twilight language uses an outright lie, an assertion that can only be dissolved by thinking clearly for oneself. Again the body, providing you are actually in it and not 6 in. over, is a great tool for recognizing a lie, a bad situation or an ill-intentioned charmer. This language plays with our expectations and our preconceptions. The successful use of TL should feel like getting the right thread and easily pulling the whole fabric apart. It could feel like a circular unzipping of the thick skin around our minds, like a light going on in a vastly more spacious inner vision. Aha! I see. Everything I say is a lie.

Mahendranath says naths should not be named with god names. It is arrogant and disrespectful.
But Mahendra is a god’s name. The rule dissolves leaving nothing but fundamentalist attitude exposed. Rules written in twilight language are always tricky and are like traps for the unwary. The Discordian Bible is a masterpiece of jokes and puns and rebellion against the status quo. It is a great hilarious romp. It is written almost entirely in TL and very rewarding to study. fnord
to be continued……

All Naths, whether from ancient India or the modern world, share one great desire. We seek direct knowledge of the Absolute, knowing full well that we will be forever transformed on every level of our existence and Being through such contact.

Naths have traditionally been masters of Yoga. Yoga is anything that brings one closer to the goal of union with the Absolute.

Naths do not seek the great treasures of this world nor the great pleasures. This means we are no longer playing by the rules. Subtract desire for wealth, fame, power, knowledge, family, love, security and comfort from the equation of life and what have you got? If nothing else the discomfort factor provides impetus to get the whole damn thing done as soon as possible. Liberation is the goal, pain drives us, curiosity leads us, but what attracts us? Unless we have witnessed and recognised the Avadhoot we travel with the same hope, illusion and blind faith as all the other pilgrims on this earth.

All the knowledge and technique in the world is useless baggage, unless it successfully contributes to the Ultimate Transformation, changing a severely under-performing human into the bizarre, self-realized, liberated Avadhoot.

Because we are newcomers to the territory, we have little to go on except wild assertions from ancient times and translations that never quite mean what they say. Culturally our central obsession doesn’t even register as existing let alone being of any importance. The aims, methods and results are alien to the modern mind.

I don’t know what you are doing here, but I wish you