Some of you may be asking yourselves why I am suddenly posting so much biographical data, particularly about things that happened over 30 years ago? I must apologize if these articles appear kind of boring or irrelevant. However, I am feeling the need to put my story out there, since it concerns a period of time where a lot of the pagan and occult disciplines have their origin. The ‘60's and ‘70's were a formative period for all of the major paths of occultism in the Western Mystery Tradition. It is a period that saw the revitalization of practices, beliefs and studies that had been neglected for decades, especially the period from the 1930's through the 1950's. Humanity was highly distracted by first, the Great Depression, then World War II, and the following cultural stasis of the early cold war era. It took the impact of the counter culture to really change the way people saw the world and its possibilities. We are still affected by that time even today, whether we realize it or not.
When I was teenager, the counter culture was in full swing, spawning a number of resilient offshoots, such as the revival of Eastern mysticism, the scientific study of the paranormal, and a revival of Western occultism. Neopaganism and wicca were brought into the mainstream of popular culture during that time. My interests and pursuits of the study and practice of ritual magick and witchcraft were nothing more than trendy outliers of a time of exploration and experimentation. So one could say that I was one of many who were engaged in a religious resurgence that has produced today one of the fastest growing religions in the U.S., and possibly Europe as well. Those were formative years, today is the net result of what they produced, and the future will probably see these new religions become more established and part of the fabric of religious life in the West. They were exciting times, but today is also just as exciting. However, by knowing what happened in those bygone decades, we may be able to understand the movement today and possibility determine where it’s going in the future.
For me, the successful performance of the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal has unlocked my past and made it more available to me than at any previous time. Many things that I had forgotten or put away as not relevant to me today have reentered my mind with a vengeance. I seem to be reliving one of the more strategic times of my life, which was the years 1972 through 1973. What happened then seemed to forge the very foundation of my spiritual and magickal pursuits today. Such a continuity would seem strange to most people, but I have been practicing intense forms of ritual magick for many decades, so it could be that events in the past have a certain power or activity if they were also periods of intense magickal phenomena. I have verified that this is the case, so those times are powerfully impacting me today.
Therefore, in sharing past events and parts of my life with my readers, perhaps they will see analogies to their own path and processes. There is something to be learned from my history, and also something important to remember. To forget and lose the past is a terrible loss for a group or even an entire culture. Our stories should be preserved, so that someday in the remote future, others will be able to trace the origins of our practices and beliefs that have their source in the 60's and 70's. So this is why I am telling the story of my life and experiences - so everyone will know where we’ve been and what we have gained in the long passage of years.
My reason for telling the story about Bill Schnoebelen and the revelation of my four year sojourn with his hellish coven is also an important way of not only preserving the past, but ensuring that the truth about such a controversial individual is known in the occult community. Bill is now claiming to have been an important member of the underground organization called the Illuminati, a claim that has become a touchstone for the popular imagination, particularly since Dan Brown’s book and the recent popular movie. The fact that this claim is not only preposterous, but that all of the high (Palladian) masonic initiations and material that Bill acquired was from a single and completely disreputable source, a man named David DePaul from Wheaton, IL. I can make this statement because I was there, I knew this David, and also knew that he was a poor misguided delusional person who actively practiced a form of raw Satanism. Bill has a made a big deal out of this connection, but the person in question had no official degrees nor was he wealthy, powerful or had connections with powerful individuals. In a word, he was an impoverished nobody with delusions of grandeur. From this source, Bill built his bonafide that he was initiated into an ultra secret cabal of the Illuminati.
Good thing there are people around like me who know the truth and can state that Bill is once again a purveyor of confabulated baloney.
When I was teenager, the counter culture was in full swing, spawning a number of resilient offshoots, such as the revival of Eastern mysticism, the scientific study of the paranormal, and a revival of Western occultism. Neopaganism and wicca were brought into the mainstream of popular culture during that time. My interests and pursuits of the study and practice of ritual magick and witchcraft were nothing more than trendy outliers of a time of exploration and experimentation. So one could say that I was one of many who were engaged in a religious resurgence that has produced today one of the fastest growing religions in the U.S., and possibly Europe as well. Those were formative years, today is the net result of what they produced, and the future will probably see these new religions become more established and part of the fabric of religious life in the West. They were exciting times, but today is also just as exciting. However, by knowing what happened in those bygone decades, we may be able to understand the movement today and possibility determine where it’s going in the future.
For me, the successful performance of the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal has unlocked my past and made it more available to me than at any previous time. Many things that I had forgotten or put away as not relevant to me today have reentered my mind with a vengeance. I seem to be reliving one of the more strategic times of my life, which was the years 1972 through 1973. What happened then seemed to forge the very foundation of my spiritual and magickal pursuits today. Such a continuity would seem strange to most people, but I have been practicing intense forms of ritual magick for many decades, so it could be that events in the past have a certain power or activity if they were also periods of intense magickal phenomena. I have verified that this is the case, so those times are powerfully impacting me today.
Therefore, in sharing past events and parts of my life with my readers, perhaps they will see analogies to their own path and processes. There is something to be learned from my history, and also something important to remember. To forget and lose the past is a terrible loss for a group or even an entire culture. Our stories should be preserved, so that someday in the remote future, others will be able to trace the origins of our practices and beliefs that have their source in the 60's and 70's. So this is why I am telling the story of my life and experiences - so everyone will know where we’ve been and what we have gained in the long passage of years.
My reason for telling the story about Bill Schnoebelen and the revelation of my four year sojourn with his hellish coven is also an important way of not only preserving the past, but ensuring that the truth about such a controversial individual is known in the occult community. Bill is now claiming to have been an important member of the underground organization called the Illuminati, a claim that has become a touchstone for the popular imagination, particularly since Dan Brown’s book and the recent popular movie. The fact that this claim is not only preposterous, but that all of the high (Palladian) masonic initiations and material that Bill acquired was from a single and completely disreputable source, a man named David DePaul from Wheaton, IL. I can make this statement because I was there, I knew this David, and also knew that he was a poor misguided delusional person who actively practiced a form of raw Satanism. Bill has a made a big deal out of this connection, but the person in question had no official degrees nor was he wealthy, powerful or had connections with powerful individuals. In a word, he was an impoverished nobody with delusions of grandeur. From this source, Bill built his bonafide that he was initiated into an ultra secret cabal of the Illuminati.
Good thing there are people around like me who know the truth and can state that Bill is once again a purveyor of confabulated baloney.
Frater Barrabbas
I think your writings about Bill Schnoebelen are tremendously important, and I've linked to them in today's post at The Wild Hunt.
ReplyDeleteOn a personal note, I would LOVE it if more folks who were around and participating in the Pagan/occult scene(s) during the 60s & 70s would write about their experiences. We risk losing whole chunks of our shared history if folks don't share it with us. I'd love it if a publisher put together a collection of such writings.
Please do keep posting these. I know that the natural tendency of most people, myself included, is to think that one's own life experiences are hopelessly dull, but one of the things it took me awhile to figure out is that you only think those experiences are boring because they already happened to you. The rest of us really do want to know, especially in the case of somebody like Bill Schnoebelen who publicly defames Paganism.
ReplyDeleteNot only does the truth need to be told, but I'm honestly willing to bet that if you sat down and wrote a book about your experiences a lot of Pagans would be interested in buying it and it might also lead to the exposure of Schnoebelen as a complete huckster and fraud. Honest Christians who want to know what really happened might be interested in reading it as well.
It's nice to see you opening up. In your books you reveal so little of who you are and what has shaped you as a person. These things you're sharing are important! Thanks.
ReplyDelete