Tons of video footage from esoZone.
esoZone on Grey Pod (stay tuned!).
Plus:
TagTemporary Autonomous Zones
Including Foolish People, Rex Church, Paul Laffoley, and Freeman himself. Plus: Freeman’s UFO encounter on the way to esoZone.
From the New Introduction:
Join the Party
This is the record of the AAAZ, the Antarctic Astral Autonomous Zone, that occurred on the night of August 31st – September 1st, 1987.
Hakim Bey is the author of Temporary Autonomous Zone. It’s a cultural milestone for a wide variety of subversives from anarchists, occultists, vandal artists, and freaky festival people. The main idea of TAZ was to create exactly what it sounds like TAZ is about: creating places that serve as alternative realities to the prevailing system of control. Specific times and spaces designated to let chaos free, and allow psychological and social mechanisms to self regulate and mutate beyond the confines of so-called consensus reality.
The focus is on having individuals find and establish meaning on their own terms. Creating a TAZ requires face to face interaction and dialog, in a sense, creating an art form which is impossible to ever fully record or understand. In the void where stagnancy and boredom once ruled, wild fantasies called real life take root. The elusive genuine article, with no possible televised reenactments.
Before TAZ’s thought virus would reach the anti-capitalists and the rave scene as it did in the 90’s, many of the people who recognized the value of Bey’s work were few and far apart. Mail order culture was the primary mode of communication with the underground for many people in the 80’s. The postal world seen within the pages of High Weirdness by Mail by Ivan Stang has now mostly migrated to cyberspace, where many of these fringe cultures have exploded into bonafide phenomenas. In the meantime, the mutants who were plugged into the paper trail of fresh ideas were yearning for an opportunity to encounter a TAZ. This meant finding a ‘Zone’ which was totally unexpected.
It was decided to meet astrally or in dreams, at a specific sacred space in Antarctica. Bey sent invites out to his network, and arranged for everyone who participated to send him their experiences, which he would then compile and send back out. What you end up with is an compilation of rare works by an all-star cast of individuals who comprised the occulture before there was a word for it. In this instance, the media created here facilitated a syncing up of communal experiences, and was an essential component of the AAAZ, yet not the AAAZ in itself.
The objective reality of astral projection is inconsequential to the AAAZ. What is of importance is the narrative, lives encouraged to be lived mythically, drawing those lives together in the process. Then again, for those who do entertain astral experiences as accepted facets of reality, the AAAZ was most likely one of the earliest documented records of shared lucid dreams and consciousness. It is historically important for occultists, and personally fulfilling for those who got to participate in it.
The AAAZ is a window into the past, where long distance communications were laced with art and magic, and the viability of a tangible occult community was seemingly infinitesimal. This book provided my endeavors with a deeper sense of purpose to what I have been developing with esoZone, and PDXocculture, an open group in Portland, OR for individuals with esoteric interests. It was as if my magic was supplemented by ancient spells spoke at the AAAZ, spells that were finally close to reaching total fruition. “Find the Others”, Leary’s famous phrase, has become irrelevant. More people are networked than ever before, and they are well on their way to having an alternative reality subsume the toxic aeon preceding it.
This is a rare work that has only been previously released to the original participants. It is provided in its first reprinting to the participants of esoZone as a bonus gift, and as a memetic primer. Be sure to look out for works by Coil, Shirley Maclaine, James Koehnline, Ivan Stang, Feral Faun (aka Apio), Reverand Crowbar (aka Susan Poe), Trevor Blake, and of course Hakim Bey. All notables to be sure, but I can think of someone more important.
This is where you come in.
The coincidences you are experiencing as part of esoZone ARE REAL.
All the doorways of the venue have been transmuted into portals.
They lead twenty years into the past from Portland [Land of Portals] to the Antarctican AAAZ.
As you navigate the space of esoZone, you may notice dimensional leakage.
It is no accident and a very special effect. Have fun with it.
Interact with entities and your awareness of the past and present places, slipstreaming into the future.Tell your friends.
If you are up for it, during the exact 20 year anniversary of the AAAZ, on the night of Aug. 31st, take an astral voyage. Bring your memory back to esoZone, and the experiences you had within it, and use the doorway Portals to the AAAZ of 87. The rest of this book should prep you for the journey.
This time, there will be no zine compiling the experiences. Take advantage of our Aeon. Post about your adventures online wherever you normally post, and if you do not have a space for that, start an account on Irreality.net. Your words will find their proper destination, and be part of a grand chain of events that leads to something currently inconceivable, twenty more years down the line.
Danny Chaoflux
New Alamut, Portal Palace
July 2007
But in an analysis of the organization’s tax filings by Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based nonprofit watchdog group, the Black Rock Arts Foundation earned an “exceptionally poor” rating. The analyst found errors in reporting, a low revenue-to-grant ratio that showed artists receive on average 27 cents for every $1 spent – less than half the industry standard – and a conflict of interest involving David Best, a local artist best known for his intricate temples that rise at Burning Man.
Sandra Miniutti, an analyst at Charity Navigator who reviewed the filings at the request of The Chronicle, said donors to the foundation should be concerned by its poor practices.
“This is not a financially healthy organization,” Miniutti said. “If I were a donor, I’d think long and hard before I sent money their way.”
Thursday 8/9/07 pre-party at the Goodfoot, plus pics from night 1 (8/10/07) by Vincent Al Keen.
If you’ve been putting off buying your tickets, do it now, space is limited! http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/11610
The full schedule is now available, so start planning your weekend – http://www.esozone.com/schedule
See you soon!
Sadly I won’t be able to attend:
Sat thru Wed, August 18-22, 2K7, the week after esoZone in Portland, you should come to the Mystic Mountain Magick Meadow Retreat. After all of the workshops and events in esoZone, wouldn’t you like to spend more Quality time with all of these people you met and networked with in PDX? Wouldn’t you like to continue to meet even more like-minded people along the I-5 corridor? Aren’t you tired of always hearing a bunch of Talk about networking with other Magi, but very little Action? Haven’t you been meaning to get away for at least a few days with like-minded folk in the Mountains, working Magick?
Here’s the simple solution:
As I mentioned a few days ago, I am inviting other Experienced Magi to join me in my yearly Retreat in a location that is absolutely perfect for what will eventually host a yearly gathering of up to several hundred Magickal Practitioners. Not everyone will be able to stay all the way through Wed, but coming for a few days is better than not coming at all! We will be setting up a Temporary Autonomous Zone on Sat, with Closing ceremonies done on Wed.
There have been a few questions as far as what this event will be about, what to bring and expect, etc.:
The T.A.Z. will basically be a “Free Play Zone”.
It will be very Magickally Active–I do some of my most intensive Magick during my Retreats.
There will be plenty of opportunities for both Alone & Social Time.
One Intent I have for this year’s Gathering is to discuss all of these Networking projects that have been gathering Momentum, e.g. the I-5 Occulte’ Empyre, the Willamette Valley Magick Network, etc.
Some of the things that I like to do include Relaxing, Resting, Reflecting, Recuperating, ReCreating, ReJuvenating, Reading, Meditating, Trancing, Journeying, Magicking, Sharing, Teaching, Learning, Exploring, Hiking, Playing, Nothing, Slacking, Just Be-ing, etc…
The few Expectations I have for the Mystic Mountain Magick Meadow Retreat would include:
…no noisy machines, electronics, motors, music, etc. (although natural noises are encouraged!)
…encouraging Physical Safety
…self-reliance/bring what you will need–Sharing is encouraged, but not mandatory
…shedding Identities and truly Retreating for a time in the Mountains
…Respect others’ Space
…being a “Drama Free Zone”
…to Play NiceTo join us for the 2nd Annual Mystic Mountain Magick Meadow Retreat, please respond here or email me at
xi_o_teaz AT chaosmatrix DOT org
In a couple of weeks, we will be setting up a meeting place so that we can all drive to the Retreat together on Saturday afternoon (and then you may leave whenever you wish, should you need to leave early, etc).
Looking Forward!
Agape!
“Know Thy Selves”
When Bob Dylan sang, ‘To live outside the law you must be honest,’ he probably wasn’t thinking of seventeenth-century pirate captains. Nonetheless, his dictum seems to apply to them. While pirates were certainly cruel and violent criminals, pirate ships were hardly the floating tyrannies of popular imagination. As a fascinating new paper (pdf) by Peter Leeson, an economist at George Mason University, and ‘The Republic of Pirates,’ a new book by Colin Woodard, make clear, pirate ships limited the power of captains and guaranteed crew members a say in the ship’s affairs. The surprising thing is that, even with this untraditional power structure, pirates were, in Leeson’s words, among ‘the most sophisticated and successful criminal organizations in history.’
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