Aaron Gach/Center for Tactical Magic “Island of Light/Island of Illusion”

Island of Light/Island of Illusion as imagined by Aaron Gach/Center for Tactical Magic, One of fifteen islands fabricated by Greg Sholette based on ideas proposed by invited collaborators, Mixed media, 2012

Greg,

When I first thought about creating an island, I vacillated between isolated utopias, secret lairs, fantasy escapes, and mysterious training grounds. In the end, my island is an amalgam of all of the above; a cross between Francis Bacon‘s New Atlantis and Robert Anton Wilson‘s Discordia, with a gloss of the Sephirot, and a pinch of H.P. Lovecraft, for good measure. I envision it as an invisible island wandering through the sea. It lies just below the surface, extending into the stygian depths in the form of a great, inverted ziggurat. Some may happen upon it by accident or fate, others seek it out intentionally. To enter, one is literally sucked into it by an eldritch whirlpool that threatens madness (or worse). Once inside, the visitors encounter a vast confederation of independent lodges representing all sorts of opinions, often hostile to one another, and possessing each its own rite or constitution. Philosophy, magic and occultism alike find a shelter in it. Each Tier of the inverted ziggurat is characterized by a quote from a particular magical text, rite, or ritual as follows:

Tier 1 – Sun-souled Lucifer: With Love and Knowledge drove out innocence; The Key of Joy is disobedience.
Tier 2 – Magicians guard an empty safe.
Tier 3 – Reaction is inevitable. In their abuse of analysis they had too persistently sacrificed sentiment to reason. Here and now, they become intoxicated on imagination.
Tier 4 – Make conditions to suit yourself. But make it dead certain of not holding you.
Tier 5 – The criers of the Mysteries speak again, bidding all welcome to the House of Light. The great institution of materiality has failed.
Tier 6 – One technique is as effective as another. You cannot know which one will best serve your needs until you know what those needs are. Choose the one that you can handle most deceptively. In
many cases you can present the same basic illusion as either fantasy or reality.
Tier 7 – A lamp is lit on a dark and stormy night. A candidate is introduced and has to run round the interior three times on all fours. In the morning, all have disappeared, returning to their daily labour, whilst the castles and mansions set on fire in the night send their lurid flames up to the sky.

Tier 9

Tier 8 – Invoke often and banish often. What I tell you three times is true.
Tier 9 – (see inset image)
Tier 10 – The Great Work performed.

-Aaron

Aaron Gach/Center for Tactical Magic fuses the forces of the artist, the magician, the ninja, and the private investigator in order to animate latent energies focused on positive social transformation.

aaron-gach-tier-9

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