K is for Kenneth Grant

Kenneth Grant (1924-2011) was an English magician and author.  Initially, he was a student and disciple of an even more (in)famous English magician -- Aleister Crowley -- but his time with the Old Beast was limited by the latter's death in 1947.  Grant soon branched out on his own into even more strange and eclectic realms of the occult.

Grant began publishing books in the 1970s that set out to explain some of the esoteric discoveries he made a few decades earlier.  The initial books started out with Crowley's philosophy of Thelema and explored its similarities with the Indian school of erotic magic and mysticism known as Tantra.  Grant soon found even those traditions to be too limiting, and he found much more to think about in the occult fictions of H. P. Lovecraft.  The idea that we can communicate with beings OUTSIDE the normal realm of human spirituality (extraterrestrial? extra-dimensional?) became a cornerstone of Grant's work.  He became convinced that the future of human evolution was along this path.  From 1955's Manifesto of the New Isis Lodge,

"A new and compelling influence is enveloping the earth, and, as yet, there are few individuals who are open to the influx of its subtle vibrations.  Its rays proceed from a source as yet unexplored by those who are not at one with it in essence and in spirit, and it finds its present focus in the outer universe in the transplutonic planet Isis.

In the inner being of man, also, this influence has a centre which will slowly begin to stir in mankind as a whole as the influence strengthens and flowers. As it is at the beginning of its course in relation to man, however, many ages will pass before he may avail himself fully of the great powers and energies which this influence is silently and continually bestowing on all who know how to identify the inner core of their being with its deep and inscrutable heart."

He also accessed his own subconscious (or supra-conscious?) to "receive" written transmissions such as The Book of the Spider and The Wisdom of S'lba.  The latter is a personal favorite of mine, since it's so many things at the same time.  It can be downright Taoist and serene...

"14. Learn to move by being still; to know by refusing knowledge of that which you desire to know.  This is the art of S'lba, motionless in vibrancy and wonder."

and it can be Lovecraftian and apocalyptic...

"158. The dust of the Old Ones shall dance again. In the writhing wind, brilliant with space-frozen flame, the formless again will form, the sleeping again shall awaken."

Kenneth Grant aimed to be a true explorer of unknown realms of thought.  Although I think that he and his followers sometimes take the symbolism a bit too literally, that doesn't take away from the artistic wonder these ideas and images can impart.  He had a unique view of the ways a single creative thinker could spur the thoughts and creativity in others...

"It is not my purpose to try to prove anything; my aim is to construct a magical mirror capable of expressing some of the less elusive images seen as shadows of a future aeon. This I do by means of suggestion, evocation, and by those oblique and 'inbetweenness concepts' that Austin Spare defined as 'Neither-Neither.' When this is understood, the reader’s mind becomes receptive to the influx of certain concepts that can, if received undistortedly, fertilize the unknown dimensions of his consciousness. In order to achieve this aim a new manner of communication has to be evolved; language itself has to be reborn, revivified, and given a new direction and a new momentum. The truly creative image is born of creative imagining, and this is -- ultimately -- an irrational process that transcends the grasp of human logic."

Kenneth Grant's work continues to spur magical thinkers and practitioners; the online forums devoted to Grant at the Aleister Crowley Society remain active and vibrant.