With the soon-to-be released initial manifestastion of 'Pillars' by Anathema Press, we take the time to speak with one of its contributors and discover a little more about them and their role with the occult. Based in the United Kingdom, Ash Nostro Morg has worked behind the scenes for a well-know and respected Left Hand publisher as well as contributing to various magazines and research.
His first book is currently in the process of completion to be released in Summer-Autumn 2013.
First, I would like to take a moment
to thank you for doing this interview with Lilith's Lantern Press.
Let us start off with letting you tell us a bit about yourself. If
you don't mind, can you share with us a small insight into your own
praxis, beliefs, and modes of interaction within the sorcerous
artes?
Greetings and Benisons.
The alpha being the obvious point
of progression is often the most confounding, and so it remains true
as of present moment. Without straying into the realms of verbosity
and irrelevance about personal affairs I shall say that I'm an
Englishman living in the Cotswolds (my family herald from old
Sebbescumbe some generations back, yet moved marginally nearer to
Glevum in the backbone of 5 Valleys) and I am both blessed and
humbled to live in proximity to both some awe-inspiring and
tremendous ancient and semi-ancient woodland, as well as millennial
churches and abbeys, built upon the old pagan places of power where
the dragon-lines slumber until they are awoken once more.
My beliefs are thus inherently
influenced by my surroundings and the spiritual landscape involving
communion and convokation of the Geni Locii, the Daeva, Dragons, Dead
and of course the Daemonic intercessors of our Green Kin, though much
as the Stang, my spirit is not fettered and thus all worlds of Chaos
reside where the wayfaring spirit tramples. My praxis I would
title as a syncreticism which takes raw aspects of Shamanism,
Sorcery, Monasticism and sundry other sources as Pillars for my Faith
and of which through the crucible of ordeal and experience (both
ecstatic and horrific) is synthesised into what I deem to term
'sorcery' through my own unique understanding and practice.
I
live with two cats, a rottweiler (they all get along quite
considerably) and a perpetual encroachment of molluscs which I fend
off from devouring my garden entire.
In my free time, besides traversing the sylan realm, I am partial
to tea-drinking, reading, growing venefic plants, travel and am fond
of polite-company and dry, oak-matured cider. I practice the
mysteries of the Warrior through learning the Eastern-discipline of
Kendo at the nearest Dojo.
What are your main areas of
interest, both esoteric and exoteric? Outside of occult studies, are
there any other areas that interest you?
This is a
somewhat incongruous question for I would not usually abide the
implication that my Faith is an 'interest' for I infer such idiolect
to assume that my beliefs are somewhat frivolous and a hobby which
may be entertained or discarded by whim.
My interests within
causal, mundane existence are primarily oriented towards ecology and
conservation. By trade I am an environmental consultant who
specialises in issues regarding mammalia with an onus upon
microchiroptera, but I also harbour a somewhat frustrating
fascination with mycology. I hold a BSc(hons) in Environmental
Science & Conservation and so in that particular regard I unify
my mundane existence in a manner complimentary to my foremost
spiritual existence. These are of course not on a par, for the
mundane exoteric aspect of being is little more than a temporal
facade we embrace with extreme hubris in our vain attempt to
understand our environment, seeking a key to understand our own
purpose and function upon terra.
Esoterically I am, as stated
previously, enthralled and exhilarated by the Green Kingdom and its
Daemonic powers. I reason to eschew the works of most groups who
purport to be authorities on such and especially the self-titled
figureheads who preside over them. This is not for the sake of mere
antagonism but rather that there is no work literary or oral which
may otherwise inform my own path to the divine grace of Pleroma other
than my own existence and the circumstantial which flavour my
sojourn.
In terms of the exoteric and by dint of such, mundane
interests, I like most others am interested in all manner of
pheneomena. I enjoy music, poetry, many sensory feasts (of which my
mind is gravid with memory thereof) and particularly rural traditions
which I honour as homage as well as life-breath to my roots.
Travel
is always welcome (airports and flying are however not so welcome)
and I am fortunate that as a child I was well-traveled to many
distant shores (much to the ire of my educators!) which has relieved
the burden of adulthood and having to fund my own journeys there!
I
greatly appreciate artwork, especially those holding to archetypal
aesthetics of witchcraft, sorcery, shamanism as well as some of the
more macabre realisations of artistic-genius and the poetics of
grief. Noteable personalities whose artwork I would say fulfils this
role with distinction would be yourself [Patrick Larabee], Namtaru,
Johfra Bosschart, Albrecht Durer, Waterhouse, Jacopo Vignali, Gerald
Finzi, Daniel Schulke, Liv Rainey-Smith, Kyle Fite, Wiebke Rost, et
al.
The soon to be released 'Pillars' from Anathema Press
will include some of your work: how did this come about and can you
give us an idea of what to expect?
Indeed, this will not
be my first release into the public domain, but little else is known
and shall be revealed by myself as to previous works.
This particular article took form
of its own and wandered away from me to root itself within Pillars.
It is an old piece from circa 2007 during my jaunt at university in
the North of England. Primarily it is a summation and annotation of
wisdom gleaned through an extremely personal communion with Hekate in
Her aspect as Psychopompic Avatar by way of the Mistress of Sorrows,
looking at four particular key-essences to the work or 'Graces' of
Hekate as they became known to myself. This is a deviation from the
Greco-Roman Hekate and abandons the more historic and academic rigor
of Her devotion in favour of a more personal, gnostic recognition of
Her essence.
What do you consider your own path to be?
Would it be traditional witchcraft? Sorcery? I have to say that there
is definitely a gnostic nature inherent within what you do and your
work, would you agree with that?
An interesting question
and one which is offered to the gods of banality with obscene
effusiveness these days. In fact, barely a moment passes where I do
not happen upon the question of somebodies Path and the inevitably
occurring and subsequent petty-bickering it invites to the table. No,
there can be True definition for that which dwarfs me and I am not so
arrogant to attempt such. I employ the title 'sorcerer' for lack of a
better term to myself if context demands, though mostly I try
desperately to avoid the pitfall of engendering such a discussion and
fortunately the calibre of those I converse and correspond with is
such that it seldom breaches the topic of conversation (which I have
just likely shattered the harmony of through this interview and all
is about to change...such is life.).
I would not disagree
that there are ostensibly recognisble sparks of Gnosticism within my
work and also my belief, but the same may be said of all who are
inspired by the Muse and whom pursue the Truth beyond the Lie and its
crooked mask. I would say that I hold true to the belief that Chaos
is a particularly pure manifestation of Truth in that it is unbridled
and may never be yoked by the lie or structures otherwise rampant
within cosmos.
What do you consider the essential
'trademark' of a gnosticly derived practice?
Purity of
Spirit. You may write reems of the most stunning poetry or prose with
the most empowered formula and evokations....and without such purity
and conviction, it is little more than vulgar words.
The power to
hold to your beliefs and faith, to harken the Gods calling even if it
breaks from edins grain and pits you against the archons of the
present status-quo, is a rare and wonderful benison of which is sadly
now endangered in our world as the locusts devour and consume
anything to fill the hollow-space of their degenerate and sycophantic
existence.
Though of course there is no such
thing as a 'trademark' per se, there is only power and those keys
which we, as seekers, are cognizant.
This as well as a
connection to our Gods even during the most taxing and mundane of
times (sat in an airport or on a train, or with herds of people in
general who scitter like insects in the din of their material world)
are for me, personally, the driving-force behind all else that forges
my spiritual being.
This statement in particular, offered as
honey to the soul by the true Maid of the Clan of Tubal Cain embodies
much of what I consider the very purity which enables one to
truthfully appeal to unified internal and external
Gnostic-revelation:
"'....'in fate and the overcoming of
fate.....' lies our destiny - the acquisition of the Graal; this
realisation frees us from the fear of an uncertain death and of an
uncertain life. Thus prepared, each day is a good day to die..."-
Shani Oates.
It has been rumoured that you're currently working
on a manuscript for publication. Is there anything that you can tell
us about this? How the idea came to be? How it began?
If
"rumoured" is a polite euphemism for 'plastered over the
internet' then you might perhaps be onto something!
I am indeed currently in the midst
of a particular work but its content shall be revealed at such a time
as the publisher announces it after their next (and eagerly awaited
by myself) publication is released and settles.
The 'idea' did
not so much come to be, as I was working on a pieces reserved for
internal-distribution amongst my peers and Brethren when I was
informed via spiritual-mandate to release the work into cosmos.
As
an author yourself, and as any honest author will concede, the form
is as much as journey as the wisdom therein. My determination to
exhaust all avenues of wisdom available to me has seen me in contact
and at the table with all manner of souls and the wisdom and Truth I
have experienced has had a particularly quiet yet substantive impact
upon me.
Do you have plans for any future work?
I
do not discount the idea but after completing my latest endeavour I
plan to take some time for myself and to uproot myself for a short
while. My next significant journey is to Israel as well as
Turkish-Cyprus which, as readers no doubt aware, are both
inspiritational locations. Israel in particular calls to me for the
religious iconography alone is of such vastness that one may explore
the dust of ages until one becomes dust themselves. However, the
political nerves in that region are frayed and it seems that conflict
is likely to erupt at any given moment; as such plans may change as
is lifes want and I may be drawn to another direction and if the Gods
and Spirits deem it so, I shall be a suitable receptacle for their
Will and a humble scribe for their yield.
Have there been
any special moments or experiences that you would consider
instrumental to your own praxis?
Many, each far too
personal and/or traumatic to elaborate upon.
How long have
you been involved in the magickal artes? And what was it that lead
you to the path that you currently walk?
Quite a while.
Rather than offering you some phatic and silly response about
parental lineages and the like I will say that my grandfather, a man
who farmed the land whilst his strength endured, often transfixed
myself and my siblings with tales of the 'little people' and sowed
within us a deep sense of respect (and fear) for the natural world
and the wildwoods (earning him swift rebuke from my mother). This
germinated within me and that respect, though nurtured in my own
fleeting youth transformed into affinity and later Kindred with the
entities of the Green Realm. I later explored the neo-pagan movement
and became involved in experiencing various Druidic practices and
ritual, though this quickly dimmed and I saw it as little more than a
gathering of the wretched, the lonely, the contented and other of
lives exiles. Thus I set upon the Dragons spine once more and
traversed my own...leading my here.
Are you now or have you
in the past been affiliated or worked with any groups that you would
like to speak about? Or are there any magical orders that have
influenced you?
I am neither now, nor have been affiliated
with any particular groups. I undeniably love and acknowledge my Kith
& Kin, but one of life's ironies is that for those of us
wayfaring the Green Kingdom, despite being emancipated and alleviated
of the rooms and routines which imprison most people, despite the
vast open-space which we are absorbed into as womb....there is little
room on the path for company. It is a narrow road indeed.
I am
influenced by the insights of Roy Bowers, Evan John Jones, Shani
Oates & Robin-the-Dart, as well as having read some of the works
of Chumbley, Howard, Schulke, Tyson, Carlsson, Crowley, Grant and the
other staples of modern occultism.
Though I acknowledge skill in such
literature and they undeniably make fascinating and wonderful objects
to venerate...I see most of what is spewed forth these days as
excessive posturing and egoism, mingled with unsavoury narcissism.
Frankly, I am disgusted by the
modern day 'pseudo witch-cults' and throngs of mindless followers, who deify men and book, even more so the
puppeteers who pull their strings. Equally, I disdain and countenance
contempt for the very modern phenomenon of clasping onto books as
foundation for ones own identity and in some (unbeknownst to myself)
manner said book lending credence to ones endeavours and praxis. This
puerile consequence has left a bitter taste in my mouth and for my
part I try these days to avoid such myself.
As a rule (and I
say this of all books and I say it especially for my own works) I
follow a particular method: Read, learn, question, disassemble,
investigate, reformat, revive and unify to yourself so the original
text -though resonant to ones being- becomes your own. Yes it
demands time and effort, but there is truth to that tedious adage
that 'you reap what you sow' or 'you get out equally what you put
in'.
As people more often these days, and with unparalleled
enthusiasm, cast aside their own experiences in favour of the
gratuitous fix which the scribed work and experience of others
offers, certain veins of wisdom wither and die and the world is the
worse for it: allowing only certain streams to flourish and thus
choking the beauty of the muse and diversity.
What
would you say is the most influential aspect of your own
praxis?
Death, Her beauty, Silence, Terror, Ecstasy,
Beauty, Sorrow.....a feast of memories and a goblet raised to days
past, present and future which offer omnia both fair and foul and the
Chaos within which lies rapturous Truth, radiant and ensphered in
Black and Green Fire.
Well, it's about time we bring
this to a close and again we would like to thank you for your time
and your sharing a bit about yourself with us. Are there any last
words or comments you wish to make?
Never submit to
anyone, especially those who question the authority by which your
actions manifest themselves. You answer to no man regardless of the
self-impressed crown they wear.
Realise the Truth which separates
the Lie; that those in positions of authority and lacking humility
become infected with ego...and this infection becomes communicable
through its own insidious cunning, to others.
Stand before the Gods and Spirits
in Love and Fear and all is undone.
Also....beware of Princes.
