© fra Nefastos 2007
After several inquiries on this subject some clarifying notions about the practical work of the Star of Azazel obviously need to be presented.
In a flyer that was made at the time of the foundation of the society we presented our view on the practical work as follows: ”Each member strives to develop himself to be an active center which operates by the principles of the society in its all-inclusive life. This method in it’s extreme simplicity is also the most fruitful one in the achievement of any long-term goal. The short-term goals possibly adopted by the society are secondary and the communal visibility and the alterations of external matters are relatively meaningless. Thus our aim is not to contribute in the external but in the internal accomplishment of our ideology because according to our view of the world external effect will follow the actual change in the internal idea quite easily and quickly. All work accomplished in the aspiration of the ideal is positively for the good of both the individual and the society…”
This approach underlines, once again, the personal responsibility of a member. No specific action is required from a member but this doesn’t mean that we don’t WISH action, personal exertion and consideration on the form the exertion takes in the current events of the member’s life. Membership doesn’t change the every-day life of the member in any way nor gives the member a chance to project his own personal needs to the needs of the wider circle: the society hasn’t got any one-sided aims for it’s essence is both unifying and separating; as the wording of our constitution suggests, the main point is expansion and that expansion has to happen under love. This eliminates all fanaticism, cliqueism and sectarianism from our aims and it also makes our principle of operation difficult to apprehend to the kind of person who believes in form and external acuteness.
It is necessary to emphasize the fact that the society has no prepared policy but that a member prepares his own policy by his own terms. His life won’t take a new course because of the membership and evidently it doesn’t gain any new external effects. The more he can ”open” to the society or the brotherhood, the more he will add to it’s gain and gain himself. At least in this sense, if not in the more exacting sense, our community is purely occultic as a society: the added effect of the the Star of Azazel is based in the formation of a spiritual group, not in the preparation of an operational group. Every member accomplishing the ideology of the society with active work, in a way or another, has the full support of the society – but nothing else.
The society doesn’t have any external or ritualistic hierarchy for the simple reason that we don’t think that a small group needs any external mainstays as long as the subjects can be presented member to member. The smaller the group, the less dogmatics, surfaces or prepared patterns are needed. Maybe in the future, if the member-count keeps on growing, there might be a need for the external level but currently there isn’t. Everyone who comes into the unity of the society, comes freely: nothing concrete is required from him and nothing concrete will he get from it.
For this reason the society has no official get-togethers. The meetings related to possible projects or the other encounters of the members are fully unofficial and devoid of all ritualism. The society has no need to maintain curtains, frontages or formalities that so easily wither and destroy the spirit; each member is taken as himself and without secret handshakes.
Nor do the members have common magical rituals. We take magic far too seriously to resort into that kind of diletantism (for a magical ritual is diletantism if it’s not based on exact information – information our members cannot possibly possess, especially as a collective) , and ourselves far too humorously that we would be able to intensify the group’s spirits with cloaks and candles.
The most essential factor in the operation of the society is the EGO – in the occult, not the common meaning of the word. Everyone is responsible for himself and if the members of the society share the ideology and the same passion for seeking the truth, a powerful vortex will form itself. This common vortex is thus like a reserve for energy under a certain tune, to which every member adds to and from which he gains.
But maybe this is still too high-flown speech as some of our readers might think. For them we could rephrase the subject like this: the operation of the society doesn’t presuppose concrete communication but in order to gain from a membership and to strive for those values, that got him to apply for the society, we encourage a member to work spontaneously for the sake of the common good. This work can take several forms. For example:
– Going through subjective philosophical, ethical and possibly magical research – in a word: every-day craft of life – with other members and learning from this kind of communication.
– Representing the ideology of the society, correcting misunderstandings and similar pr-work (not in the sense of conversion).
– Possibly contributing to the literary work in presenting the matters of the society, if the member is apt to it.
There is much work in the translation of many essential texts from Finnish to English and vice versa.
– Directing one’s own artistic work to parallel and express the principles and ideas of the society.
– Directing the external form of the society to a systematical direction with different kinds of projects, such as the magazine, internet-pages and similar work.
And so forth; the possibilities are almost infinite. In reality all work can be made as a part of an idealistic practice with a simple method of focusing of the interest. All action can be seen as development regardless of the temper and personal skills for every member has something he can use to help to accomplish the common idea.
Finally to be mentioned is yet another vision that can be taken as an aim by those interested, that is expanding the work of the society to so called religious work. There might be useful sides in regrouping to a socially religious group and it should be taken into consideration. There’s no need to mention that this kind of religious attitude would be far away from all fundamentalism, pretending and dogmatics. Re-forming the society to a religious community (too) could aid in the manifestation of it’s aims if this is thought as a needed change in the future. These, and other visions we summon new members to dream of and to accomplish with their own efforts.