Most powerful and dangerous currents on the planet?

E.A. Koetting
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Vodoun. Norse Magick. The Path of Smoke (Black Magick of Ahriman). Qliphothic Magick. Santeria. Chaos Magick. Draconian Magick. Folk magick. Quimbanda. Qabbalah. Necromancy. Lovecraftian Magick.

There are more currents than any one human being has time for. Each one of these currents is unique in their own right.

Each has its strengths, and weaknesses.

The question is, how do they stack up against each other?

Many people equate this question to Martial Arts. Many people say that it is not the martial art, but the martial artist that matters. I believe that these people are wrong.

I believe that not all martial arts are created equal. I believe that certain martial arts are not only more practical, but more effective than others.

Everyday, competition and warfare prove beyond a reasonable doubt which martial arts are more effective. For example, if you take a guy who has trained MMA 5 days a week for 10 years versus a guy who has done Aikido 5 days a week for 10 years, and both of them have the same height, weight and reach, the Aikido guy is getting going to sleep one way or the other.

In other words, there is a reason why no Aikido or Ninjitsu “fighters” have ever (or most likely will ever) win a UFC championship belt. For another example, there is a reason why no soldier deployed in Afghanistan is going to use Kung Fu or Tai Chi instead of military combatives involving firearms, body armor, explosives, and fixed blade knives etc.

The reason is that certain Martial Arts are more effective, practical, and proven to work both in competition and on the battlefield. I believe such is the case with magickal currents as well.

I am sure many of you reading this may disagree with my opinion, and that is okay.

For the sake of academia and helping other members of the community, imagine a hypothetical situation where you HAD to rank and evaluate Magickal currents based on five simple criteria. These criteria are:

  1. Practicality - Consider ease of use, simplicity, applications within the ritual space and in daily life, initiation, immersion, strenghts and weaknesses, applicability, reliance on tools/fetishes, length of incantations, etc.
  2. Potency - Consider raw power of the current itself and the entities within it, effectiveness of rituals, the amount of time it takes for rituals to manifest, etc.
  3. Potential for spiritual growth - Consider alchemical change in the practitioner, whether or not the current is a lifetime of work, etc.
  4. Danger - Consider what/how much is on the line when working within said current, the nature of the entities within that current and how they interact with humans, the necessity of devotion, potential health risks, etc.
  5. Dogma - Consider the philosophy, beliefs, lore, goal(s) of the current and its practitioners, etc

If it is easier for you to compare hypothetical practitioners of a particular current against hypothetical practitioners of another current, assume that each hypothetical practitioner has studied for 5 years in order to level the playing field.

In order to tangibly quantify and simplify such a herculean and complex task, pick a few currents you have at least some experience in and use a 5 point rating system for each criteria point. 5 being the most practical/dangerous/potent, one being the least.

Let your biases show, but feel free to add a short little blurb explaining your evaluation of a current if something in particular stands out to you. Try to stay away from currents you are not experienced with.

***For example:

Path of Smoke- Practicality (3), Potency (5) Potential for Growth (5), Danger (5), Dogma (4)
Qliphothic Magick- Practicality (4), Potency (5), Potential for Growth (5), Potency (4), Danger (4), Dogma (2)
Vodoun- Practicality (5), Potency (5), Potential for Growth (5), Danger (5), Dogma (4)
Right Hand Path Qabbalah- Practicality (1), Potency (2), Potential for Growth (3), Danger (3) Dogma (5)
Demonolatry- Practicality (4), Potency (4), Potential for Growth (5), Danger (3), Dogma (2)

I gave the Path of smoke a 3 in practicality because it relies heavily upon fetishes that can be difficult to obtain (large amounts of soil from underneath a tree struck by lightning and/or graveyard, a living snake to be sacrificed etc.) I gave it a 5 in potency because it is one of the most powerful currents I have ever experienced. etc etc

I have Qliphothic Magick a 4 in danger because health risks may manifest in your life and quite honestly the forces of Gamaliel nearly destroyed my life during Lilith’s vetting process. etc etc***

The idea is not necessarily to say one current is simply better or worse than another, as we all know each current excels in different areas (much like individuals themselves).

The idea is to give newcomers to the community valuable information on which path or current they should choose first, and to give more experienced magicians an idea of which path or current to work through next.

Everyone should know ahead of time what they do and do not want to call into their life.

Based on the aforementioned criteria (practicality, potency, potential for spiritual growth, danger, dogma) what are your top 3-5 currents and why?

Obviously, with E.A. being among the most (if not THE most) experienced magician with regards to pathworking through various currents, I would love to hear what he has to say. However, I would also love to hear from Timothy, Asenath Mason, Kurtis Joseph, the other authors at BALG, and all of you out there in the community!

Let’s keep it honest and friendly out there folks. We are all on the same team here and we can all be of so much help to each other.

Much love and respect to you all. Keep practicing, keep kicking ass and taking names, wherever you are.

May you all find what you are looking for and Godlike power to you all!

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interesting question, but I disagree wholeheartedly with your martial arts analogy.

I am highly doubtful that an MMA fighter could beat a skilled Aikido or Ninjitsu practitioner. There is a big difference in being technically proficient in a variety of techniques versus mastering an art. The same goes for magick. As is said in martial arts, the strongest spirit wins.

Everybody has different aptitudes regarding what they have an affinity for so it is really difficult to asses what each current can do based on your criteria. For example, I do not have an affinity for energy manipulation, but I seem to have a natural clairaudience ability which makes evocation easier for me. I have not worked with many currents however, so cannot say how they would “stack up.” EA’s system has been my main one for ten years now though I am interested in the Voodoo current, and will soon be diving into the Lovecraftian one.

That being said, I am curious to how those who have tasted more currents than I have, respond. You pose some good food for thought.

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Multidimensional magick, is the strongest, and has most potential to go wrong. In my humble opinion.

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Chaos is the most powerful and practical, because it’s a metaform of magickal styles. It isn’t a style/current/path in itself, so much as a streamlined and unified form of all other styles.

When discussing practicality and potency, it is both the most practical as well as potentially the most potent. It is the most adaptable path due to it’s nature and integral fluidity of adapting new ideas, hence the inherent practicality. It is potentially the most powerful because it is an amalgam of all paths that the practitioner takes the time to learn of and experiment with… It is literally taking the strengths of all other paths, and keeping the fluidity and adaptability that makes it the most practical.

As far as spiritual growth, it has the same potential to be the strongest in this area as well, but is still limited to what the practitioner takes the time to learn and explore.

As far as dangers are concerned, it is inherently more dangerous because it lacks the inborn stability of other paths. While a skilled practitioner on the chaos path is perfectly safe, someone just starting out might not have the foundation of skills that keep them from danger that a similarly initiated member of another path might have.

When it comes to dogma, chaos runs into issues. On one hand, there are the pure chaotes like myself who reject dogma and instead keep pure to the original ideals of chaos style magick, but on the other hand, most writings of chaos magick are just circle-jerking each other while simultaneously sucking off the AO Spare method for creating sigils. If you look past the dogma that most ‘chaotes’ have from failing to understand the core ideals behind the path, and actually look at things with the mentality of a pure chaote, you are only restricted by yourself, which makes dogma a non-issue for the practitioner.

In short, a proper chaote is potentially the most powerful and practical practitioner you could encounter, assuming they get passed the initial formative phases where they are still trying to forge their personal path. If you practice chaos magick, there is nothing holding you from godhood other than yourself. If you want to blend kabbalistic hermeticism with vodun-style shamanism and norse heathenry, there is nothing stopping you other than your initiative to learn and adapt and think.

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Vote #1 for me is Theogenesis, which is not merger back INTO Source, but drawing nigh-on infinite Source power under the thinnest overlay of personal ego:

Practicality (5), requires no tools, education, beliefs (outside that it’s possible), all people are emanations of Source, so not one single person is excluded.

Potency (5), by working with what creates all laws and fabrics of reality (including lesser magicks), nothing is excluded from its reach

Potential for Growth (5), when you realise everything was emenating from you anyway you are encouraged to review beliefs held in a more everyday state of mind, and along with that, acquire a ruthlessness that in itself brings growth and the shedding of moralistic illusions

Outside that, it’s a thing that can be learned, but probably not taught, since the Kybalion which contains a clear pathway lit with neon signs has existed for decades, and even in the Bible there are hints of this…

Danger (5), could easily lead to madness, not only does reality cease to be real but so does everyone and everything you ever loved, and all you have accomplished in life

Dogma (0), needs no belief in anything except what can be personally experienced (I define dogma as adherence to a principle over reality, to the detriment of the self or others), also you get to admit you want to eradicate persons or things because they mess with your creation, so you don’t need to look down the back of the sofa for a high-minded reason!

All other currents can lead to the realisations, through practical experience not words and theory, so I would be hard-pressed to choose runners-up but probably:

2: RHP yoga (seeking union, not just the asanas) as a surefire, if often psychologically costly, fast-track, also possibly the Ahrimanic yoga as a less messy option based on descriptions, and

3: all paths in which the person first works with, then assumes qualities OF, the gods or spirits, which is a trad. that dates right bacl to the PGM, possibly even early cave-paintings of shamans dressed in masks and animal skins.

All those can link you up fast to what lies “back of, and beneath” your own consciousness.

While I see what you’re saying @Azi_Dahaka insofar as some martial arts are objectively better than others, therefore probably some paths are, the extent to which the person is able to follow them will differ, someone doing a good MA badly would lose in a fight against another person doing a weaker one with excellence, and with magick, people bring different personal qualities, pereferences, and skills to these, so that IMO will mean there is never one definitive best path for all.

Even straight-up theogenesis is only attainable by people willing to push hard into one of more currents and break the perception of duality from the One, Manifiold, and Void Source, and then be able to come back and discover ways to operate in that state whilst remaining self-aware as an individual.

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And which is the darkest one, in your opinion?

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My take is that darkest or lightest are not commendations of a great path, any more than an MA that’s all about upper body strength and moves, or only all about lower body, would be somehow better. Or, only about speed, or strength, but not both, and so on.

Both light and dark are emanations of Source, both have power, mastery lies beyond accepting them as subjective limitations though.

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I don’t really like the idea of rating a system. I mean we can all agree that Wicca is dogshit but certain systems in certain hands can be very powerful. But it depends mostly on the individual and if the system jives. At least in my experience anyway. However for me personally, I think the most powerful systems are the most ancient and primal. Vodun, Norse magick, and Mesopotamian magick all can be practiced with amazing results and they can give you a pretty wide range of tools. So while I don’t like to rate systems, this is a really interesting though experiment and I’m excited to see the replies.

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It’s a big and well-known thing that’s made magick seem far less frightening, gives a lot of comfort to people who can’t swallow monotheism but aren’t ready to make the leap into being LHP magicians, so I would say it has real value, even the watered down “every girl with a henna tattoo and a spice rack thinks she’s a sister to the dark ones” versions!

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@Lady_Eva I agree with you there. It’s like a gateway drug. But there’s a reason that any magician worth his/her salt moves on to something else eventually.

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Excellent question! I am quite curious for any responses, though I tend to think this (and for that matter, probably any) type of rating system will ultimately be too subjective and dependent on the individual to be useful in any pragmatic way.

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That still makes me chuckle.[quote=“TheStorm, post:13, topic:20590”]
Powerful definitely. I do feel that many practitioners (including myself) don’t experience the full depth of the current though.
[/quote]

Because it takes a massive amount of time plus the fact it can drive. You. Crazy. Lol.[quote=“TheStorm, post:13, topic:20590”]
Maerzjiran:
[/quote]

I don’t understand why some people go so crazy over the cabal. Could you explain why?[quote=“FraterMagni, post:8, topic:20590”]
I don’t really like the idea of rating a system
[/quote]

I agree. The most powerful systems I’ve encountered are: Mesopotamian, Norse, Vodoun, Hindu, and Lovecraftian.
Top four being: Lovecraftian, Hindu, Vodoun and one other.

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Yes. Agreed.[quote=“Aiden_Crow, post:14, topic:20590”]
I don’t understand why some people go so crazy over the cabal. Could you explain why?
[/quote]
They have quite a unique style of magick that’s fast to execute and fast to manifest. Even at a basic level the Whispers do produce quite a shattering amounts of power. There’s just nothing quite like weaving Necromancy with a few Whispered words and a flick of the wrist, and watching the world change soon after. It cuts down on all the ritual while still remaining a very very powerful system.

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Hm… interesting. I might experience it for myself. Hopefully it’s not disappointing.

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@Aiden_Crow Rites in the Thirteen Tongues is the way to go if you want impressive. Either that or Charnel Whispers if you are into Necromancy.

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Do you mean by Lovecraft S ben book on here ?

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I think @Aiden_Crow is speaking about the current in general. Working in this current can kinda pull you to the otherside of the veil as it were pretty fast which is why life can go a bit sideways because you arnt as anchored here.

It doesnt help the energies of the entities has a kind of toxin effect if you immerse self in their energies more than you are ready to handle. Speaking from first hand experience on this last point.

Back in the February, The crawling chaos and Cthulhu were teaching me an exercise almost identical to the “emanating the black sun” exercise in black magic of ahriman. Fucked me up physically for about a month solid. This was before i had ever heard of kurtis’s work. Few months later videos for his book were basically getting thrown at me almost daily through youtubes recommended section. Along with a message “study this and evolve so you dont melt your brain!” So that is what I am doing. :grin:

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I might’ve had that with luci[quote=“Dinmiatus, post:20, topic:20590”]
think @Aiden_Crow is speaking about the current in general. Working in this current can kinda pull you to the otherside of the veil as it were pretty fast which is why life can go a bit sideways because you arnt as anchored here.
[/quote]

Yup yup

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Dont recognize the name.

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Lucifer. It’s my nickname for him. He seems to like it lol.

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