From:    Serpens                                Area: Night Side
To:      Rex Irae                                6 Oct 92 20:28:08
Subject: Re: WORD FOR TODAY..                   UpdReq 

Rex -
One can argue whether magick is a "cerebral" pursuit. If you mean it is inside 
the magician's head, we can agree. But if you mean cerebral as in rational, 
considered, etc. that is not necessarily so. It overlooks ecstatic approaches 
to magick (which are often FAR from dignified in any exoteric sense, though 
ecstasy has a dignity of its own - see any Dionysiac example of ritual in, 
say voudoun, or classical shamanism).
 Moreover, noting all the stories of "absent-minded professors," or the 
terrible indignities that his condition wreaks upon one of the most 
intelligent men on the planet, Stephen Hawking, the contention that the more 
intelligent one is, the more dignified they seek to be seem flawed at its 
base.
 All this presupposes that dignity relates to how one is observed by others.
 If you see it sa referring to the stability of how one views oneself, the 
unshakeable rightness of a personal world-view, then I might venture to 
suggest that no one is more dignified than a paranoid schizophrenic.
 Paul

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