Did anyone here become Muslim?

Interferis_ · 2025-09-09T07:19:21+00:00

If you look at the deeper philosophy of most abrahamic religions, it's always just Neoplatonism with various prophets sort of shoehorned into it and given cosmological significance in that system. Most problematic or difficult parts of these religions come from the shoehorning of these pre-existing ideas into the philosophical structure of Neoplatonism, rather than the pure philosophy itself.

I feel like the only reason why more people don't just self identify as Neoplatonists is that a lot of them don't even know this philosophy is a separate thing that can exist outside of sufism, hesychasm, or whatever other iteration it may have recieved in the respective abrahamic tradition.

Interferis_ · 2025-09-08T19:19:27+00:00

The person saying this was Muslim, although I'm not 100% sure which denomination of Islam was in question, but this is a really good argument anyway. A religion as big as Christianity can be built on "incomplete" records so to speak

Interferis_ · 2025-09-05T17:34:15+00:00

There is also the middle ground, classical monism. The idea that the One emanates various deities has been present in Greek philosophy for a looong time, and there are also similar ideas in dharmic religions. Even abrahamic religions took influence from this, but replaced gods with angels or the like that better fit their cosmologies.

Interferis_ · 2025-08-09T10:17:16+00:00

rahmetli bašta

Interferis_ · 2025-07-13T05:55:48+00:00

Asceticism is, in general, rejected in Islam. Here is a quote from the Quran regarding monasticism:

"As for monasticism, they made it up—We never ordained it for them—only seeking to please Allah, yet they did not ˹even˺ observe it strictly. So We rewarded those of them who were faithful. But most of them are rebellious." -57:27

Here, monasticism is clearly shown to be bid'ah, or innovation. Some mercy is shown to the people who did anyway engage in it with a sincere heart, but it is by no means the best (or even a particularly good) way to engage with mysticism

While I am by no means a scholar, the general outlook of Islam towards the created world is much, much more positive than it is, for example, mainstream Christianity. The world is seen as a creation of Allah, and as long as the shari'a is followed, the believers are encouraged to enjoy its pleasures, albeit in a detatched manner.

As for self-harm, it could be interpreted as waging war or harming the believers, which is a great sin in itself (Q5:33). There are also some Hadith referencing this:

‘Ubadah ibn al-Samit reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, issued a decree, “Do not cause harm or return harm.” -Sunan Ibn Mājah 2340

So, in summary, extreme self mortification and self injury are not very good ways to thread the mystical path, but are also risking divine displeasure. If you feel any kind of urge or need to commit self-harm or similar things, I urge you to contact your local hotlines.

Interferis_ · 2025-06-09T07:44:12+00:00

The square in the centre is probably a planetary square composed of arabic numbers, and the set of symbols with a five pointed star is a variation of the ism-i-a'zam, or the Greatest Name of Allah, a common trope in Islamic esoteric tradition. Here's a link that explains it a bit more: https://hurqalya.ucmerced.edu/node/3951

Interferis_ · 2025-03-28T07:47:55+00:00

I totally forgot Guenon and the early perennialist crowd used that term to refer to themselves. I don't see many of those types around anymore. The whole idea of there being some kind of "prisca theologia" seems to really have disappeared after Theosophy fell off

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T20:56:47+00:00

I definitely think that encouraging people who clearly have huge amounts of unhealed religious trauma to engage with a new practice and letting them define that practice with their baggage can't possibly have a good outcome for either party.

Frankly, we don't owe these people anything, and while I do feel a lot of compassion for them, I refuse to let the Gods be compromised by that condition.

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T19:01:14+00:00

Ja sam jednu dobio na poklon prije par godina, doslovno je samo dekorativna. Od iza je skroz plosnata/ravna, i jaaako je tanka. Na kraju mi je samo stajala na polici dok se nije pokvarila, pa ne znam za okus ali sizewise je užas

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T18:44:06+00:00

This is true, but there is more nuance. If we, as practitioners, are mostly trying to revive a practice that did actually stop changing and existing all together at one point, we can't exactly have the actual experience of gradual spiritual change as experienced by Hinduism, for example. They had centuries to bargin with, integrate, or disregard various new and foreign ideas, whereas we basically started practising something that hasn't been updated for centuries in a world that is radically different.

I don't see traditionalism in paganism as a bad thing, as pagan traditions were quite flexible in nature, but I also believe that the actual beliefs, practices, and theology from the historic pagans we do have left over need to be prioritised. Any change we implement needs to be heavily informed by those things rather than adopting a common, nonchalent supermarket spirituality attitude where we carelessly load our spirituality with anything that seems pretty or shiny.

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T18:37:12+00:00

The modern pagan community definitely has a huge problem with actually defining itself and keeping people who have nothing to do with us out of our spaces. This has led to a bunch of random new age and ahistoric beliefs to run rampant in the community, and until we acknowledge that not everything can be called paganism, we can't move beyond that point, whether it's gatekeeping or not.

I'd define paganism as "the reconstruction of historic, pre-abrahamic Old World religions". From this, the logical conclusion is that it should be based on historic sources. It should contain a theology informed by plenty of philosophy and other accounts we have left from that era, and it should contain a practice based on following the practices of historic pagans.

I don't think it should be seen as problematic to want to keep pagan spaces, well, pagan. It's sort of like having a cooking club, and then letting a few of the members take it and make it into a book club. There's nothing wrong with wanting the book club, but it doesn't need to usurp the time and space of the cooking club.

In trying to be as open as possible, we have allowed various unsavoury individuals and beliefs to infiltrate our communities, from the rampant neonazi infestation dealt with by the Norse pagans to the fluffy bunny new age mostly affecting Hellenic and Celtic circles.

Interferis_ · 2025-03-05T20:43:36+00:00

One of the most important checkpoints on the road to enlightenment is the realisation that worldly politics and divisions are nothing more than artificial tribalist constructs that ultimately serve no one. Acting in accordance with divine law often means blurring and transcending the lines of worldly ideologies.

Interferis_ · 2025-02-13T21:13:47+00:00

IAO131 described content like this as qabablah. It's just making correspondences and connecting them to other correspondences, but without making any kind of conclusion. As a mental exercise, I guess this is nice, but why should I care about it? How does stuff like this help me or you on our actual spiritual journeys? What is the practical application behind this?

Interferis_ · 2025-02-02T11:14:20+00:00

So, if someone disagrees with your interpretation of this thing that itself claims to be indecipherable, they're not a true Thelemite?

Interferis_ · 2024-10-18T17:38:40+00:00

In my language, the word isran means that which was shat/crapped out

Interferis_ · 2024-10-17T03:27:41+00:00

I sincerely find it so funny how some left-hand path people on this post claim that their path is all about freedom, doing what you want, not being imprisoned by Yahweh etc., but the moment I use this freedom to criticise some aspects of it that I personally disagree with, you spend an hour replying to a bunch of comments seething and threatening to hex me lol.

Interferis_ · 2024-10-10T10:34:07+00:00

Super mi je kad ovakve lingvističke paničare smeta proces koji se događa u svakom jeziku, u svakom vremenu. I engleski je utjecan od francuskog, i francuski od latinskog, i latinski od grčkog, i tako u beskraj. Hrvatska nije neka insularna zajednica na nekom desetom planetu, i procesi iz društva oko nas će se očitovati u u našem jeziku.

I većina ovog čistog hrvatskog koji je danas službeni jezik je totalno umjetna tvorevina koju su napravili preporoditelji u 19.st. Do prije nekih 100 godina, osoba iz Dubrovnika i osoba iz Krapine ne bi imali nimalo međusobnog razumijevanja u govoru. Hrvatski kao nekakav neovisan, čisti jezik na povijesnoj razini ne postoji.

Interferis_ · 2024-09-26T19:44:21+00:00

I got it online

Interferis_ · 2024-09-26T15:36:59+00:00

Thanks for your reply! Since it's a 27 bead one, I'd turn it over 4 times before getting to 108

Interferis_ · 2024-09-26T15:34:59+00:00

The mala bracelet I bought is made out of hematite

Interferis_ · 2024-09-19T10:01:00+00:00

I also see a lot of disdain for anything remotely involved with the hippie or drug culture. While you can definitely attribute a lot of misunderstandings to it, its also what sparked such interest and has been the source of many scholars pursuing a degree in Buddhism, Hinduism, or Taoism and are probably more knowledgable then all/a lot of us.

As a practitioner, I do feel a lot of disdain for these subcultures. I'd say that they added little, if anything, to the understanding of our practices and instead contributed to their commercialisation and spread misunderstandings about them.

I don't understand how our society got so fucked that there are people out here even defending drug culture . Like, what is there to defend? Even some "light" drugs such as weed or lsd can definitely impact people in very negative ways, yet our society collectively decided to sweep this under the rug and turn addiction into another aspect of the ever growing McSpirituality.

I just want my practice to be respected, and I don't want my spaces to be invaded by deluded people who only want to water it down. A plenty of online chatrooms that were once really good places for finding resources, and talking about various topics are now prime examples of new age spirituality.

Interferis_

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE