Ultraculture: Aryan People Only Please
Ultraculture is a wouldbe movement around magic and improving the world (so it claims). It is also a zine that has recently been put out.
Most it seems to focus on watered down chaos magic. It also apparently rejects the non-Western forms of spirituality which, conveniently, happen to be non-White as well. A little cultural imperialism for you? The one exception to this is an approved form of non-specific Nath spirituality.
As dkosopedia.com states in its entry on Ultraculture defines it as:
Ultraculture is a term coined by Jason Louv in 2004, and is a cultural movement based around the mass interest in magic and the concordent need to apply it to improving our thoroughly disturbed world. Ultraculture specifically means two things:
1) It is the name of a social networking system. Specifically, the idea behind “Ultraculture” is to apply the Indymedia model to magic, and establish open city-based “scenes” based around mailing lists and web pages where people can link up with people in their area interested in magic, esotericism, consciousness evolution, etc., discuss it in terms of how it applies to both their own experiences and their communities, and then determine their level of activity and involvement within that growing network.
Ultraculture is NOT another magical order, group or hierarchy, nor is it just another discussion forum; in this capacity it is only a social connecting system on both a local and global scale. Occultism has traditionally been the pursuit of the “Outsider” figure; Ultraculture then aims to situate magic more firmly as an activity of communities.
[...]2) If Ultraculture can be stated as a simple ideology, it is “The creating of solutions through (but not limited to) magic.” We are not interested in opposing culture, simply creating our own—and hopefully funnier, more intelligent and more erotic—versions of culture through DIY reality solutions. (Hence the “Ultra.”)
That which identifies itself as “counterculture” is doomed to fail by definition and can only find “pure” expression in acts of violence (in which case it acts only to further validate reactionary forms of government) or in “selling out”; its internal contradictions are far greater than any detectable within late capitalism, if a “counterculture” can even be said to truly exist at all.
Following its utter collapse into self-contradiction at the end of the 1990s, the counterculture in the West is re-emerging as a magical power battery, now acting as a full replacement and upgrade for culture instead of a critical voice within that culture. Everything culture can do, Ultraculture can do better. Applies specifically to anybody using magic to improve the world. The full form is Global Alchemical Ultraculture.
Ultraculture is a TURQUOISE-vMEME approach to cultural stimulation and growth, for those familiar with Spiral Dynamics or Integral theory. It aims to consolidate, utilize and respect all previous expressions of the human endeavor within a progression towards the living mystery of “life worth living” and a global culture worthy of being called such.
Ultraculture aims simply to be a space in which individuals and groups can be free to dream on the social and global level, in the company of supportive others, and find the tools necessary for manifestation of those dreams.
Apparently all of this talk of dreams, community and consciousness doesn’t apply to certain spiritual traditions or people that practice them. As a friend of mine pointed out today, there is a long thread on the Ultraculture google group in which two of the groups key people, Shivanath and Jason Louv (the founder), decry voudon as being evil.
Shivanath states:
Actually, my personal right to dislike things which I think are bad for people is just that: a right. Crack is a Bad Drug, and while it’s your right to do it, I’m absolutely free to say Crack is a Bad Drug. Voodoo is a Bad Tradition.
The basic mechanism: displacement of an individual human consciousness from their body and temporary replacement with a parasitic life-force-harvesting energy – this kind of psychic body prostitution in payment for magical favors – is inherently problematic. AAAW! You say, but it was the last resort of the oppressed! Well, so is hiding razor blades up your bum. But when the crisis is over – and, believe me, the people who are at risk from slavery now mainly live in Africa and Eastern Europe (and, depending on your particular views of economic coercion, China). It’s time for people to grow out of voodoo and start investing in approaches which are suited to the modern world, rather than dragging these horrible parasite-gods out of the Medieval Colonial Barbarism period into the present.
They should have died with slavery, in short, and to continue to feed them is perpetuating part of the slave system into the present day, under the guise of “liberation.”
Being enslaved to the parasite gods is not freedom.
He compares Voudon to Crack and then later on states:
So, at that point, I have first hand practical experience pointing out that this stuff is first class nasty evil shit, and that I know two women who were raped in voodoo rituals.
[..]
So, you know, give me credit for experience here. There’s not much in this world that I use the term “evil” for, but voodoo is like giving yourself blood diseases because you like the pretty patterns crawling along your veins.
Smart people avoid it at all costs, and if these guys show up and attempt to invade a magical or spiritual community (a favorite pass time: invade the temples, steal the accumulated energy, and breed on the women if there’s a chance) they must be met with lethal force. First one or two show up and introduce a few people to the practices, or they’ll take an arts scene or even a band, and just hang out at the edges, or back stage. Then, gradually, the parties start, and get more ritualistic, and there’s a division into the people who can be bent and then taken, used and discarded, broken – and those who won’t play ball and must be made to leave. After that, things go rapidly downhill.
Previously, Shivanath had posted a diatribe against Vajrayana Buddhism:
No. The doctrine that the Original Awareness is trapped in karma is absolute bunk and should be discarded immediately by anybody who wants any kind of relationship with that part of their being, or a full revelation of the nature of mind. You have to let go the concepts around karma and merit for a start – those are simply tools for keeping track of scores in games, like monopoly money. All bunk.
Let go fully of the division between the enlightened and unenlightened state and tell me once again why one even needs the union of political and spiritual power…
It’s *all* gross spiritual materialism, mate – they *embody* it because of the emphasis on unification of the fields. The Dalai Lama is a POPE, much like any other, head of an integrated Church-State, and no amount of window dressing reverses this.
I tell you, the Tibetans lost everything they knew of the non-dual tantric wisdom as soon as they tried to fuse Buddhism, with it’s essential misunderstanding of the amusing and recreational nature of Maya, with Tantra, which revolves around the simple truth that the concept of enlightenment is a semantic spook, a minor accident in the translation from reality to humanity’s ways.
I’ll go head to head with any Tibetan adept who thinks that they can win a Dharma Combat with me. Because, at the end of the day, I’ve seen what’s out there and, with all due respect, I’ve yet to see an enlightened Tibetan Buddhist. Lots of people trying, but nobody attains any more, and I see scant evidence of it for centuries. It’s over.
I’m goddamn sick and tired of seeing the seeds of confusion and of further entanglement in the non-fun aspects of Maya pouring forth from every bookstore, proclaiming the wisdom and compassion of this deeply flawed and incomplete tradition. It’s time to put it to bed and, when y’all reincarnate, to find a nice new religion.
When Jason Louv was called on whether these opinions are those of Ultraculture and whether its leaders hate Voudon and Buddhism, he said:
And nobody hates Buddhism (and it was Vajrayana being discussed, not Buddhism as a whole), simply exposing the very dark side that so many people remain willfully blind to.
And nobody hates Voudon. At the Atmanic level I love these people as emanations of the divine just like drug dealers, mobsters and Helena Bonham Carter are. But they are not coming in my house claiming turf.
No effin way.
He had also previously said:
You are misreading me. My opinions were not formed by Shivanath. My opinions were formed by doing voodoo first-hand and also by knowing many, many practictioners. The list of casualties is miles long.
So, there you have it. The new movement is a lot like the old movement. Typical wannabe occultist wankers. I think this is really just Jason trying to make a name for himself in the “occult” world, not because he wants to make change, but because he wants to sell books. His latest book, Generation Hex, has been out for a while and if he is going to be a big name occult author and publisher, he needs to keep driving sales and generating attention towards himself. If you do that for long enough, no matter how bogus your ideas are, someone will pay you to keep writing. That seems to be his plan for changing the world (well, his world anyway).
This is exactly the kind of shit that pushed me away from occultism and into becoming a Buddhist. There was the draw of Buddhist thought and tradition pulling me in and the craziness pushing me away. I doubt you’ll hear a Buddhist teacher (except for Brad Warner) calling anyone an “asswipe” soon as Shivanath did in the thread when someone disagreed.
I need to go work on generating some compassion for these fellows now because they sure need it.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
well, i’m not terribly impressed with those guys, either, but more from the perspecive that i haven’t seen any useful contributions whatsoever to the technical aspects of magical practice (with the caveat that their collective writing makes my eyes glaze over within minutes so i am likely missing some buried treasure;) however, in my eyes, the fundamentals of buddhism are entirely incompatible with a magical worldview. i’d rather play with reality then escape it, dammit. chain me to the wheel of karma, baby, cause i’m here for the long haul!
buddhism, of course, contains a long and damn fine list of useful tools for mind control and magic. oh blessed paradox!
finally, yes he’s right that those voodoo critters can mess you up, but it goes with the territory because they’re totally mercenary. that doesn’t make them a priori evil or bad, however.
so, as usual, i must respectfully both agree and disagree with your fine words. :)
April 19th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Typical! :-)
April 24th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
[...] response to my previous post about Ultraculture and its issues with Voudon and Buddhism, my nath and magician friends, Aion 131 [...]
April 6th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
This article makes some excellent points, but also seems a bit extreme in its conclusions. Just because a couple of persons (albeit KEY persons) behind the ultraculture movement express their personal opinions about aspects of Voudon and Buddhism does not mean would should leap to the conclusion that the ultraculture is Aryan only. That would be like saying that if a person does not like some Kosher food, they are a brown-shirt Nazi. I think Louv and Shivanath are providing only their impressions of other practices based from the perspective that theres is a better way…at least for them. This could be akin to prefering to paint with ater color because of the dangers associated with long-term exposure to oils. The preference does not mean the artist is decrying all oil-painters. Yes, the Voudon-crack comment was a little over the top, but so is seeing an ultraculture-Aryan connection. It sounds more like someone simply trying to find fault in something that is succeeding.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:47 pm
@ Jason: The “Aryan” thing is definitely a low-blow and pretty much fulfills the usual internet pattern where someone calls their opponent a Nazi. That said, I have to disagree with you.
“That would be like saying that if a person does not like some Kosher food, they are a brown-shirt Nazi. I think Louv and Shivanath are providing only their impressions of other practices based from the perspective that theres is a better way”
I’d advise going back to the original thread on Google. Louv and “Shivanath” are stating, in no uncertain terms, that Haitian Voodoo is outright evil from all perspectives and involves little more than feeding never-satisfied “hungry ghosts.” Maybe there’s some credence to that, but frankly, reading all the gory details convinced me that even if they are correct in that regard, they are simply paranoid and following a victim-script something along the lines of “look at how powerful those evil things are! therefore, we must also be powerful and important because they victimized us!”
“It sounds more like someone simply trying to find fault in something that is succeeding.”
At what are they succeeding? A failed attempt at applying the MySpace model to an initiatory body? I am more than happy not to have fallen in with this crowd, which I followed for some time. The more of their material one reads, the more they paint themselves into a paranoid corner. Since some of the prominent “Ultraculture” figures have made significant parts of their exploits and biographies part of the public record, you’re free to look into it, and it’s not a pretty, or even successful picture. Look at, e.g., Louv’s self-imploding review of “Shadow of the Dalai Lama” another classic work in the paranoid (e.g., it implicates Tibetan monks in the destruction of the WTC) Unfounded Occult Panic genre, and it’s clear that Louv is, at best, conflicted in his thinking.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Wouldn’t you be concerned if you *didn’t* find something about another person that conflicted with your own ideas and beliefs?
June 16th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Nope.
I don’t require difference or conflict in order to be complete.
I also don’t have much use for racists masking as something else.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
AL, I was not impressed, was rather distressed, by that thread and the behaviour of Shivanath particularly. But can you please explain to me your conclusion that they are racists? I see nothing to support such a strident label and I think it weakens your argument of a Western-centrism in their magical paradigm which I CAN see, but would be very shy of labelling outright ‘Racism’.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
The tone of their comments around Voodoo, which is African based (and some of their incidental comments while doing it) in comparison to the other, often rather left hand, systems that they embrace seems to be rooted in racism to me. I’m not sure if the entire threads are up anymore but that was my take on it at the time.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I agree their tone was very problematic but it was also very unequivocal and clear – i don’t think they were ‘masking’ anything as you put it. I remember Louv sarcastically defended himself from the charge of racism by saying something like ‘yeah i’m so racist i even exhorted people to explore further into the African Yoruba tradition’ i.e. look past Voodoo which him and Shivanath obviously considered a degraded/corrupted tradition. Now yes this seems very arrogant and myopic of them and I don’t agree with their argument – but it was clear to me whatever their argument was it didn’t stem from bald ‘white skin only please’ racism, I think that’s very reductionist and avoids and muddies the actual controversy. Maybe i’m wrong I just tend to think words like ‘racism’ should never be used lightly. Words being so slippery at best of time, accuracy is very important in any debate. Especially when being faced with horrible confrontational attitudes like that of Shivanath.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Extremely well said.
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:19 am
Belief Creates Reality! – Jason Louve
OLD TOPI PROVERBS AS FOLLOWS…
MAKE
SPACE TO BE
SPACE
A SOUL MUST LOSE ITS ATTACHEMENT TO HUMANITY
A MIND MUST LOSE ITS ATTACHEMENT TO SALVATION
A BRAIN MUST LOSE ITS ATTACHEMENT TO BODY
Those who accept Light Accept Mortality
Those who control Light Controll Immortality
Be Afraid to the point of formlessness
Be terrorized to the point of soundlessness
Be extreme to the point of powerlessness
OLD TOPI PROVERB^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Anything can be looked at in many ways !
I believe ULTRACOULTURE is a key to finding oneself in experience of combining Love and Loss to difficult relationships of people who by meeting changed both parties for the greatest good.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:39 am
There is no substitute for science and proven fact. Anybody who believes in magic in any form is misguided and clutching at straws.. This is just yet another ploy to take peoples money.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 am
Regaurding voodoo… THE COMMENT IN ULTRACULTURE …”Children shouldn't play with dead things” should be pointed out here.
Voodoo has many dangers considering in my opinion evil is where actions are taken out on another persons physical, mental, sexual or spiritual well being just to satisfy a deep seeded thirst for selfish controll over another persons well being for whatever reason is wrong!
Now Jason Louve commented his beliefs about the devil in the beginning about how the devil can only live in the human heart,
So considering the comments above along with the consideration of the women victimized by voodoo love spells, the possibility that any other help beyond the help that was offered them through tantra would have been innefective as they were obviously under strong bondage of anothers spell, leaving them misreable and lacking controll of self choices and situations.
Round of applause to the thoughtful hearted tantra teacher for risking his own ass to get them free.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
[...] Ultraculture: Aryan People Only Please – Typical wannabe occultist wankers. I think this is really just Jason trying to make a name for himself in the “occult” world, not because he wants to make change, but because he wants to sell books. His latest book, Generation Hex, has been out for a while and if he is going to be a big name occult author and publisher, he needs to keep driving sales and generating attention towards himself. If you do that for long enough, no matter how bogus your ideas are, someone will pay you to keep writing. That seems to be his plan for changing the world (well, his world anyway). [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Round of applause to the thoughtful hearted tantra teacher for risking his own ass to get them free.
Oh blah blah blah
All I see here is a lot of talk from two dorks who wouldn’t know what real magic was if it hit them in the head.
I read an interview with Jason where he expressed interest in magic for “healing”
Here’s a tip for Jason – if you explicitly exclude Afro-Caribbean traditions from your field of reference you are NEVER going to find out
Palo, Voudon etc are not theoretical new-age self-help movements these are practical solutions for people with very real survival concerns things like bankruptcy, divorce, debilitating illness, foreclosure, deportation etc
Thats why herbal knowledge and working with the dead play such a big part because they are effective and STRONG and FAST
Any palero who couldn’t solve these problems for his clients quickly and powerfully would see his client base dry up and would no longer be able to charge money for his services its that simple
As Louv and “Shivanasth” have discovered it is way easier to flap your gums and assign things you don’t understand to imaginary categories than it is to actually get your hands dirty helping real people
So I respect them both as first class mental-masturbators but as spiritual “teachers” of any sort… NO
February 7th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
[...] I was randonly googling around the other day and ran across a few posts discussing a 2007 controversy stemming from comments made by Louv and his sidekick “Shivanath” on the “Ultracultu… – a list for fans of Louv’s writing and apparent source of contributions for his next [...]
February 8th, 2009 at 1:51 am
[...] of molesting, what about Shivanath’s claim to “decondition” women “victimized” by voodoo love-spells through his “tantric” training – so does that make his hostility to Voudon a case of professional [...]