Ep345: Against the Stream Magick, Awakening, & Crowley - Alan Chapman & Duncan Barford

In this episode I am joined by British occultists, authors, and creative collaborators Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford.

Alan and Duncan reflect on their decades of shared magickal practice and creative collaboration. They recall their first meeting at the secret society the “Illuminates of Thanateros” and muse on the gatekeeping and status games of the Chaos magick scene. They explain why they feel their emphasis on awakening and association with Buddhist writer and self-proclaimed arhat Daniel Ingram has contributed to their being shunned by leading figures in British occultism.

Alan and Duncan take a deep dive into their controversial new understanding of Aleister Crowley, address criticism levelled at them, and reveal the idealogical mistake that drove Alan to withdraw one of his biggest public projects.

Alan and Duncan also share their current practices, detail how to develop visionary capability, give their best understanding about how magick really works, and offer their advice for those who wish to enter the path of Western occultism.

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Video: guruviking.com/podcast/ep345-magick-awakening-…

Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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Topics include:

00:00 - Intro
01:13 - Meeting at an occult secret society
06:29 - Formative experiences of group magick
07:36 - Should you join the IoT?
07:53 - The importance of group magick
08:19 - Timidity in magickal practice
10:20 - What does magick have to do with enlightenment?
12:03 - Jealousy in spiritual circles
14:38 - Peter Carroll vs Neoplatonism
17:11 - Alan and Duncan’s contribution to Chaos Magick
19:07 - Feuds between religionists
20:33 - What kind of person is drawn to Chaos Magick?
22:25 - Gatekeeping and status games
23:10 - The best thing about Chaos Magicians
25:45 - Bad uses of Chaos Magick
28:38 - Being ignored by the magickal community
29:24 - Why were Alan and Duncan ignored?
30:!4 - Controversial association with Daniel Ingram
31:54 - Why did Peter Carroll dislike Alan and Duncan?
33:01 - How to understand magickal results and synchronicities
36:46 - How Duncan’s practice has changed over time
40:13- Awakening and the structure of things
43:16 - Alan’s current practice
43:57 - The everyday as a basis
45:07 - How to get started in magick
52:35 - Permission and confidence
53:41 - Developing visionary capability
54:55 - Alan’s understanding of the path
01:00:32 - Pinnacle of practical magick
01:01:46 - Duncan’s Goddess vision
01:03:14 - The basis of the path
01:07:50 - How magick works
01:09:00 - Criticism of Alan abandoning projects
01:16:14 - Sigmund Freud
01:16:57 - Why do people criticise Alan?
01:18:56 - One thing that really annoys Alan
01:20:53 - Resentment and psychological shadow
01:22:43 - Malevolence and denying enlightenment
01:29:26 - A dark occult conference experience
01:31:20 - Envy and counter-initiation
01:33:51 - Creative journey
01:35:49 - The toxic belief in cultural progress
01:39:38 - Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory
01:41:10 - Daniel Ingram’s pivot to science
01:42:19 - The spirit of the times
01:44:08 - Realising cultural chauvinism
01:49:53 - Desire to do something else
01:51:30 - Source of many problems
01:53:23 - The Crowley project
02:01:15 - Alan’s academic approach
02:03:53 - Legal challenges
02:06:34 - Crowley on Chinese wisdom
02:09:05 - Dao De Jing
02:17:24 - Misunderstandings about the Dao De Jing
02:19:03 - Jung’s (mis?)undersanding of Asian classics
02:21:06 - Western alchemy and spirit writing
02:23:19 - Two kinds of researchers
02:290:02 - Life of Aleister Crowley
02:31:28 - The Inner Church
02:33:28 - The Bornless Rite
02:35:18 - The Book of the Law
02:45:24 - Crossing the abyss
02:47:39 - Mad or enlightened?
02:52:20 - Liber 31
02:53:53 - Crowley’s failures
02:55:57 - Jung and Philip K Dick
02:56:41 - Controversial take on Crowley
03:00:48 - Why follow Crowley’s path?

Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James