The Organisation and Religion to Re-unite All Religions

THE DARK ARTS

Lord Awen Eldorath
High Priest-Cove of Light
High Priest-ORRAR
http://www.geocities.com/blakes_sara/
http://www.orrar.net

The concept of the "dark arts" means many different things to many different people. Most view it as the intentional practice of "black" or "evil" magick, and for some this does seem to hold true.

Before going further, let us examine how the terms for the dark arts have developed. Alchemy was originally an Arabic word which combined the word for Egypt (which was known as the "black earth") and magic, and which could be translated loosely as "black magic," or the "magic of the people of the black earth."

The Greeks sometimes referred to nigromancy or negromancy, which literally means "black magic" and which is often closely associated with necromancy, "magic dealing with the dead"; so much so that the two have become synonymous--though the latter has become perhaps more well known.

Much of the taboos which have arisen about the dark arts is due largely to the influences of solar-based religions, such as Christianity, which have sometimes decried nighttime, darkness, and even the feminine, as "evil" or "unholy" times when "heathens" gathered in secret to worship "devils" and partake in sexual deviancies and human sacrifices. It is this line of thinking that has translated "occult" not as the original Latin "hidden," but as being some sort of "unnatural satanic practice”; and it is this line of thinking that has equated all things nocturnal with "evil."

The association with the Left Hand Path derives from the Greek words dexter and sinister, which meant, "right" and "left" respectively. For whatever the reasons--maybe because the lefties were less common and thought somehow different or unnatural--sinister and thus left became associated with evil, and the association stuck.

In the Qabalah, there are the left hand, right hand, and middle pillars, which comprise the Tree of Life. The Qabalist seeks to balance the Tree through the Middle Pillar in order to attain enlightenment and oneness with the Godhead. The inverse of the Qabalah is the Qliphoth, the Tree of Death, which leads to destruction and chaos.

As with most other forms of magick, the dark arts can be either a highly complicated system of rituals and ceremonies or it can be a very simple form of "practical" magick. Some are simply based on nocturnal energies, deities, and associations. Others involve spirits and the "supernatural." Still others include such practices as Satanism, Voudon, and Santeria. Some are purely concerned with satisfying the ego, others with true spirituality.

 

To me, the Dark Arts are primarily nocturnal magick, nocturnal energies, and nocturnal Gods and Goddesses. The dark arts encompass the hidden and unknown aspects of life often called occult and frequently mistaken for "evil."

The Dark Arts deal with Death. It is acceptance of Death, darkness, and the Night as integral and beautiful aspects of life. Without darkness, there could be no light; without night there can be no day. Darkness hides and Death takes away, and the Cycle starts again. This concept is familiar to every faith on the face of the Earth since before the dawn of recorded time, and will continue until all fades to dust and nothingness...

"Not all who wander" these shadowy paths are "lost" to paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien--indeed, Truth is found in Darkness. This Darkness is also the innermost regions of the Soul, which all too often lie hidden beneath the layers of ego and false self and where some seem to fear to tread. Yet, if we but look deeply within and examine ourselves, we may find beauty in the most unexpected places and be the better for it.  The lotus, one of the most beautiful flowers in the world, grows and thrives in otherwise unappealing places.

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