ooc: of names

[do_what_thou_wilt]

	{| of names. |} proper names are poetry in the raw. like all poetry they are untranslatable." - w. h. auden given name: auryn surname: connor username: do-what-thou-wilt

	{| auryn |} AURYN (also stylized A U R Y N) is a mystical Ouroboros* talisman in The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. [Auryn in canon is absolutely named after The Neverending Story: his parents are totally those kind of geeks.] (…)There's some interesting bits in the wiki about AURYN's relationship with/to the Childlike Empress which might be incidentally amusing if my Auryn gets super intertwined with Nerium maybe but aren't super important to how I think about the character(...) Two mythological serpents, symmetrical, bite at the other's tail. In the book, they form an oval, and are not intertwined. One serpent is white and one is black. Each has an eye to correspond to the color of the book's print, red and green. The two snakes represent the dual nature of the two worlds, Fantastica and Reality, but also the twin nature of their mutual creation and destruction. On the back of AURYN are these words: "Do What thou wilt" (German: "Tu, was du willst").* , ...to which only one of the snakes agrees. Ouroboros: The Ouroboros often symbolizes self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, (…). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. While first emerging in Ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism. and Hermeticism*. In alchemy*, the Ouroboros is a sigil. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw the Ouroboros as an archetype. Jung also defined the relationship of the Ouroboros to alchemy: The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. The Ouroboros has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the Ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The Ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of theprima materia which [...] unquestionably stems from man's unconscious. [Finding this interesting both in the sense that Auryn sees himself as a tool of his own work and ultimately mutable in the name of magic, as well as the idea of a "clash of opposites" bringing about a greater being or whole. The snakes devour each other but ultimately they require each other to survive. Likewise, Auryn is perfectly willing to terrify and fight those who would destroy his kind. But it's not actually possible to have peace if one or the other - witches or humans - are fully destroyed, regardless of how he feels about that right now.] The famous Ouroboros drawing from the early alchemical text The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra dating to 2nd century Alexandria encloses the words hen to pan, "one is the all". Its black and white halves represent the Gnostic duality of existence. Hermeticism: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeticism - there's a lot to talk about regarding Hermeticism. Basically, though, it's importantly one of the early belief sets that allowed science and the occult to interact. Mainly, I'm interested, for reasons of crossover, in this part: ] The Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was open to both sexes and treated them as equals. The Order was a specifically Hermetic society that taught alchemy, kabbalah, and the magic of Hermes, along with the principles of occult science. (…)Many present-day concepts of ritual and magic that are at the centre of contemporary traditions, such as Wicca and Thelema*, were inspired by the Golden Dawn, which became one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism.

	{| connor |} Connor, from Conchobar, is an Irish name meaning "Wolf Kin", "Lover of Wolves" or "Lover of Hounds". Conchobar mac Nessa was the king of Ulster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology and ruled from Eamhain Macha ("Macha's Twins", or modern Navan Fort/Eamhain Mhacha, near Armagh); he was the son of Ness and either the son or foster son of the druid Cathban. Conchobhar (Anglicized "Conor," and Latinized "Conquovarus" and "Cornelius,") became a surname, as in the family of the O'Conors, kings of Connaught, and others of that name in Ireland.  This name is also derived from "Cu" or "Con," hound, or figuratively 'swift-footed warrior' and "Cobhair," aid (…) [I like the story where the druid is his father, both because of Brigid's suspicion that Auryn has druid blood, and also because in that version this is what happens: In the earliest, Ness, daughter of (...)the then king of Ulster, asks the druid Cathbad what it is an auspicious time for. Cathbad replies, "for begetting a king on a queen". There are no other men around, so Ness takes Cathbad to bed and conceives a son. Smooth, Cathbad. In either case he raises Conchobhar as his own.] There are also about five other kings with this name.

	{| do what thou wilt. |} Etched on the back of AURYN in the Neverending Story. This quote comes most notably from Thelema, a philosophical law developed in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley based on a spiritual experience in Egypt, which has been adopted by some religious organizations as a central tenet: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will. however prior to this "do what thou wilt" was also the motto of the Hellfire Club (/Monks of Medmenham) and was a direct reference to the writings of Franciscan monk François Rabelais, and his fictional abbey Thélème. This quote is often used in variants of the Wiccan Rede, which was likely influenced by Crowley. The most common form is 'An it harm none, do what ye will' but 'An it harm none, do what thou wilt' is common as well. True Will: According to Crowley, every individual has a True Will, to be distinguished from the ordinary wants and desires of the ego. The True Will is essentially one's "calling" or "purpose" in life.(…) Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law for Crowley refers not to hedonism, fulfilling everyday desires, but to acting in response to that calling. (…) In order for the individual to be able to follow their True Will, the everyday self's socially-instilled inhibitions may have to be overcome via deconditioning. Crowley believed that in order to discover the True Will, one had to free the desires of the subconscious mind from the control of the conscious mind, especially the restrictions placed on sexual expression, which he associated with the power of divine creation. Thelema: The word θέλημα (thelema) is rare in classical Greek, where it "signifies the appetitive will: desire, sometimes even sexual" but it is frequent in the Septuagint (the translation of the Hebrew Bible and related writings into Greek). One well-known example is in the "Lord's Prayer", “Thy kingdom come. Thy will (Θελημα) be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” (…) In his 5th-century Sermon, Augustine of Hippo gave a similar instruction (to Crowley's): "Love, and what you will, do." (Dilige et quod vis fac). Thelemic magick (with a k to differentiate between stage magic) is a system of physical, mental, and spiritual exercises which practitioners believe are of benefit. (…) Generally, magical practices in Thelema are designed to assist in finding and manifesting the True Will, although some include celebratory aspects as well. Crowley taught skeptical examination of all results obtained through meditation or magick, at least for the student. He tied this to the necessity of keeping a magical record or diary, that attempts to list all conditions of the event. (…)Crowley stated that his work and that of his followers used "the method of science; the aim of religion",[73] and that the genuine powers of the magician could in some way be objectively tested. This idea has been taken on by later practitioners of Thelema, chaos magic* and magick in general. Crowley's Liber Oz enumerates some of the rights of the individual implied by the one overarching right, "Do what thou wilt". For each person, these include the right to: live by one's own law; live in the way that one wills to do; work, play, and rest as one will; die when and how one will; eat and drink what one will; live where one will; move about the earth as one will; think, speak, write, draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build, and dress as one will; love when, where and with whom one will; and kill those who would thwart these rights.

key:
bold - applicable to auryn /subheadings
italics - my own annotations/ pullquotes