LETTER 5

5. THE DAKINI DAEMONICON OF MARK DUNN AKA FAUSTUS CROWS

Sunday, February 15, 2009 6:25 PM
From: "toyin adepoju"

I would like to draw attention to a remarkable discovery I made recently.This is the discovery of the daemonic text of the magical artist Mark Dunn,also known as Faustus Crow.I discovered it through an image in a Facebook photo album of a Facebook friend.

I have posted below the photo albums and blog I use in introducing this work. The photo albums I have set up to showcase this work.These albums are on the photo sharing site Multiply,which you can access without registering and Facebook,which you might have to register.I am also setting up a blog for the images and text.The blog has only one post now because I need to move more carefully there,since the posts cannot be easily modified as in the other electronic fora I am using.With timer,I will add David Mann's texts which complement the images.

The Multiply images have the advantage of having a zoom and a slide show function.The slide show is particularly good.

I must note that even though the images are often beautiful,they will not appeal to all sensibilities.

This is because,for one,they are often of naked women.The second is that they involve ideas that would be repellent to many people. The third is that even though the images are beautiful,showing marked visual and combinatorial skills,they are to be approached with caution,because they deal with figures whom the artist calls daemons,but who correspond to what are understood as demons in the history of Western demonology.The person who drew the figures believes they exist and describes his images as visual aids to enable the human being to invoke them.I believe that results commensurate with what is described as to be expected when they are invoked, should occur if the ritual procedure is followed correctly,with repeated persistence and with dedicated will.The great English occultist Aleister Crowley stated,if I remember well,that even the very act of drawing the sigils,the line configurations that represent such spirits,is enough to invite their presence.Crowley' s perspectives on this subject seem to be quite complex,however, and one would need to study his various works carefully to get a complete picture of these views.

I urge that one does not try to invoke them.The kind of power they are associated with and the demands they are described as making on the magician,demands which if not met,could result in the magician's destruction, make such efforts not to be worthwhile,in my view.They are described as being capable of providing recondite forms of knowledge in various academic disciplines as well as occult powers.In my view,it is much safer and much wiser to try to gain such knowledge and abilities through conventional methods,including the benign techniques of spiritual development taught by many schools.

Devoting so much effort to what could be described as a demonology,a classification and depiction of demons,I hope I do the same with an angelology and similar figures.These could emerge from the same Western magical tradition to which Dunn's work belongs.Relevant texts would be Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabala and Cosmic Doctrine ,as well as the Christian works,the Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius and Dante's Divine Comedy which is great on both demonology and angelology,and the Western esoteric work of Alice Bailey and the Arcane School,,Blavatsky' s Secret Doctrine and other Theosophical works,African deity figures,as the Yoruba Orisa (although these are more complex characterisations than the figures from the other traditions previously mentioned)and deities and ancestors from other African people,such as Khambageu and Nyikang,described by Mbiti in his African Religions and Philosophy,and figures from Native American and other traditions.

It would be most interesting, though,to find such a passionately visualised characterisation of holy figures in terms of visual art,if I might so describe them,depicting them in terms that are both intensely human and intercultural, as Dunn has done withn his daemonology. .One artist who comes close is the Austrian-Nigerian artist Susanne Wenger but Dunn's visual work is more accessible than hers,less esoteric,thereby delivering a more immediate visual appeal, but I wonder if it is as complex.The German artist Anselm Kiefer also depicts such preter-natural figures,but his work is marked by such a powerful sense of gravitas,a Saturnian brooding,that contrasts strongly with David Mann's depiction of powerful and often dangerous spirits in the light hearted intensity of the erotic.

My discovery of Dunn's feminine characterisations of the Goetic spirits might be a climatic point in my study of feminine symbolism,particula rly as it emerges in relation to the symbolic associations of feminine biological spaces and the manifestation of such symbolism in the Yoruba Orisa tradition.The Classical Yoruba conception of the feminine is deeply ambivalent,an ambivalence crystallised in the conception of the dreaded Aje as both "Our Mothers" and figures who can both deliver good and wreak evil through a power embodied in their biology.Such conceptions could be related to the characterisation of characterisation of Iyan Nla,the Earth,the patron of the Aje,as she who posseses as vagina that suffocates like dry yam in the throat,the big pot that swallows a man without vomiting,as described by Babatunde Lawal in The Gelede Spectacle,and who is yet the mother of all.Such dualities could also be better understood in relation to the the Hindu conception of the Great Mother,who is both Kali,who creates and destroys as well as She who sustains the cosmos

David Mann's website is here:

http://www.goetia- girls.com/

It is important to heed his warnings about entering his site:

THIS IS STRICTLY ADULT TERRITORY, CHILDREN ARE NOT ALLOWED WHETHER LITERALLY OF PHYSICAL AGE OR THAT OF CHILD'S MIND IN ADULT BODY!

THIS BE A SHAMAN CHAOS MAGICK OCCULT ART GALLERY GRIMOIRE OF EROTIC GOETIA SURREALISM, WHICH IS NO PLACE FOR THOSE UNDERAGE TO ENTER INTO!

THOSE INDIVIDUALS WHOSE SENSIBILITIES ARE EASILY SWAYED, WHO COULD BE OFFENDED BY THAT, WHICH THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE LOOKED INTO OF NECRONOMICON; GO NO FURTHER, FOR THE CTHULHU PROMETHEAN FIRE DOES BURN THE UNWARY.

IF ONE BE OF A DOGMATIC TRADITIONALALIST STANCE OF ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION OR OTHERWISE OF SIMILAR CLOSED MIND 'SQUARE' PERCEPTION ONE SHOULD KEEP ONES DISTANCE. IF NONE OF THE ABOVE APPLIES TO ONE OF OPEN MIND 'CIRCULAR,' THEN VERILY ENTER, IF IT BE YOUR DARK DESIRE.

For those who are tempted to try the techniques of invocation Mann describes,which seem quite simple,the words of an editor of the Goetia, the from which Mann draws his inspiration, are relevant:

"My final note is to the "Magickians" - The Goetic Spirits (I use the term with great caution because of it's neutrality) are powerful entities, and are not to be trifled with by dabblers. They are often termed Demons, and rightly so! The last thing we need is an evil Spirit called into this dimension and set free by someone who has WAY too much confidence in themselves and their ability. Right now, the world has enough evil of its own to deal with, without adding to it. Summoning and controlling these Spirits is not an easy task..."

from

The 7th Star

at

http://www.geocitie s.com/xeroiii/ Goetia/8GoetiaNo tes.htm

To compare Mann's use of the original material of the Solomonic Goetria,one can go here,which is close,if not identical,to his depiction of the invocatory sigils:

http://www.geocitie s.com/xeroiii/ Goetia/8GoetiaI. htm

Or see the cruder depictions here:
http://www.esoteric archives. com/solomon/ goetia.htm

The Multiply photo sharing site where I placed a selection of Mann's images is here:

http://danteadinkra .multiply. com/photos/ album/2/THE_ DAKINI_DAEMONICO N_OF_MARK_ DUNN_AKA_ FAUSTUS_CROW_

The Facebook photo album is here:

www.facebook. com/home. php

The blog is here:

http://dakinidaemon iconoffaustuscro w.blogspot. com/



INTRODUCTIONS TO ALBUMS:

This album celebrates and responds to the remarkable artistic and conceptual achievement of the magical visual and verbal art of Mark Dunn,also known by his magical name of Faustus Crow,through a selection from his sumptuous and amazing website Goetia-Girls at

http://www.goetia- girls.com/


Dunn's work is remarkable for a number of reasons.These are centred on his creation of a unique daemonology, a catalogue and description of daemons,as well as a grimoire,a text for magical practice,for invoking the daemons,from ancient sources,particularl y the Goetia,or list of spirits in the medieval text The Lesser Key of Solomon the King,interpreting them in terms on an intercultural range of contemporary ideas and images,from Russian history,to UFOs,to Classical African art and iconography, to Australian Aboriginal art and spirituality, to the children's literature fantasy classic,Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland, to the Harry Potter novels of J.K.Rowling, using models drawn from Western,Asian and African ethnicities. Mann describes these beings as "daemons" rather than "demons",although their characteristics demonstrate some of the feature attributed to demons in the history of Western demonology.
One will have will have to study his text carefully in order to understand why he uses that term and what it means to him.

His fascination with the erotic gives striking visual embodiment to what he describes as the demonic forms as embodied expressions of inorganic female intelligences. A fundamental aspect of the originality of his work is his visualising the spirits of the Goetia in The Lesser Key of Solomon as purely female.This depiction is carried through in terms of his visual imagery,the verbal descriptions of the methods of manifestations of the spirits, their ontological characterisations as forms of being and the epistemic implications of how they are to be contacted.

As he warns,the grimoire,a text for demonic invocation,is strictly out of bounds to both children and all others who are repulsed by or cannot manage such information. As he asserts,these images are not simply beautiful pictures,but are mandalas,visual forms designed to assist with relating the human being to the sentient non-material forms,also known as spirits,that they symbolise.To that effect,integrated into the visual composition, blending with the visual environment but markedly visible,are the patterns of lines,the sigils,understood as vital to invoking these demonic figures.

These figures are often not benign.According to Dunn,if invoked by the magician,the magician must follow particular procedures or risk being destroyed by them.These procedures are described as leading to the establishing of a bond with the magician,which the magician must honour or risk being destroyed.These inorganic/organic forms are also understood to protect the magician's interests,as long as the magician is able to abide by the rules of the relationship and to enable the magician acquire various forms of recondite academic knowledge,such as in the sciences.Whether the dangers of such alliances are justified in contrast to the conventional method of simply working at learning these disciplines through conventional methods,which do not require such portentous demands,and whether the long history of great achievers in these fields demonstrates any evidence of such dangerous learning methods, is an important point to bear in mind.

From the title of this collection of images and texts that constitutes Dunn's grimoire,one of his sources is the conception of the Dakini in Tibetan Buddhism.The Dakini is one of the more enigmatic forms of that aspect of Buddhism.The name Dakini means "traveller in space.The space in which the Dakini travels might best be understood as the metaphorical space representing ultimate consciousness, the zone the Buddhist strives to actualise in their selves as a permanent,self conscious constitution of consciousness. The Dakini is a female figure,who,in her integration of both the focus on exalted conceptions of consciousness characteristic of Buddhism,and more earthy and even at times gory characterisations, could represent influences from the older Tibetan Bon religion.The Dakini is described as a guide to the Buddhist's enlightenment, their awakening to a self conscious realisation of their underlying centre of consciousness, as well as a figure who is at times depicted as dancing naked,holding a skull containing blood.These depictions are explained as symbols that suggest aspects of the awakening of consciousness the Buddhist strives for.

Dunn's Dakini Daemons,as we might call them,are also often described in terms of attributes that would not be appealing to conventional sensibilities, and even depicted at times in terms of such extremes as murder and bestiality.One would need to read Dunn's text carefully to see if these acts are interpreted in relation to more exalted symbolic conceptions or are understood as literal expressions of the fundamental character of theses beings,something basically inimical to civilised human existence but which the courageous magician may harness to their own ends.Images which evoke such negative activities are not included in this selection from Mark Dunn's Dakini Daemonica.

Dunn is inspired by the demonology and grimoire of the European medieval book The Lesser Key of Solomon the King,which purportedly lists the demons with whose aid the Jewish King Solomon built the temple at Jerusalem and which is a compendium of magical workings,which could have been central to Western magic from the seminal Order,the Golden Dawn to witchcraft,even when it has nothing to do with invoking demons. He also seems to have been inspired by the multifarious influence of the one of the greatest religious figures ever,the kaleidoscopic genius of the great and controversial English occultist,Aleister Crowley,who explored Western magic all the way to its borders and sometimes beyond,and who,at least once,in his description in his autobiography of the invocation of the demon Choronzon,describes himself as invoking a demon in order to learn from it.

Dunn's work is also inspired by the epistemic and cosmic horror of the famous US writer H.P.Lovecraft. He adapts some of the resonant terminology that marks Lovecraft's evocations of encounters between non-human extraterrestrial, aquatic and chtonic intelligences and often bewildered humans who often become mentally unhinged by the irruptions of such forbidden realities into the light of consciousness.

Other influences are the magical phantasmagoric art and magical theory of Austin Osman Spare,the Amerindian shamanism of Carlos Castaneda and the philosophy and techniques of Chaos magic.Wikipedia is a useful starting point in the study of these influences.

Dunn's verbal text,which accompanies his images develops an elaborate metaphysics in relation to the inorganic/organic intelligences the work is meant to assist in invoking.He works out an ontology which situates these beings in terms of their distinctive natures in relation to other beings,including human beings.He also elaborates upon the psychological conditions involved in trying to make contact with them and the techniques required to achieve this.

Having got Mark Dunn's permission,I will update this album with his descriptions of the figures he has so compellingly visualised,as well as my own responses to the artistic power of his images..The text will be a transposition of Mann's original text since the depth of thought,poetic power of expression and the intercultural range of the ideas in the text are not reflected ion the quality of the English grammar,suggesting that the text might be a rough translation from another language into English.With these transpositions, I expect to better understand and represent the thought of the artist and thinker but must mention that inadequacies could still exist,on account of,among other factors,the fact this text seems to be the w