WHISPERINGS FROM THE VOID BOOK REVIEW BY NICHOLAJ FRISVOLD

'Tracing the Solitary Path' a book review of Whisperings from the Void by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold.

Patrick John Larabee Whisperings from the Void (Aeon Sophia Press, 2012)

‘Whisperings from the Void’ is a revelation through words, images, hymns, prayer and rituals in honour
of the Lonely Road, a testimony of how gnosis and enlightenment can be found in isolation and solitude,
amidst the denizens of the healing bush and poison apple, within the void and the winds of night.

It is an intimate and philosophical text constantly questioning the very substance of being, nothingness,
soul and spirit that in its exegesis takes the shape of a Valentinian revelation colored with the gestalts of
our fragmented and constantly recreated worlds and our perception of these worlds as we see, watch,
feel and enter into communion with the other side on the wings of dream and the lone sojourner’s
ecstasy.

Central for the book is the quintessence of magic as revealed in leaps and states of dream congress with
the otherness along the via negativa. It is the void and nothingness that is the womb and tomb for the
possibilities enacted in the sensorial and ensouled body adorned by spirit. It is the void that is conceived
as beginning and therefore affirmation of all that is by a constant reference to transformation.

A recurring theme in the book is the meditations upon the nature of the soul. These meditations turn
from contemplations of the soul in light of the Aristotelian soul as the life-giving power to a thing, to
seeing the soul as dream proper. By presenting such meditations and paradoxes Larabee is constantly
accepting and deconstructing not only the soul, but also key concepts in the book, such as ‘dream’,
‘void’, ‘flesh’, ‘awareness’, ‘senses’ - and in this the book turns into an exercise and testament-giving
word to the constant transmutability of the ensorceled witch.
The one constant in the book, the pole and anchor that transformation dances around and within is the
‘I’ – the Self as revealed through its self awareness. It is this perpetual constant that is the axis that
enables understanding and knowledge for the transformation of perception, meditation and experience
throughout the book. As Larabee writes:

“We so often believe that we are the same being all of the time, but this is not the truth, for we are
ever-changing sentient entities that are constantly in flux, every moment adapting to both our inner and
outer realities.” (p.55)

All this must be brought into unity – and unity is not a Self defined by categories and forms – but a still
centre of reflection and understanding that enables interaction within the worlds that are in a constant
transformation.

Larabee is cunningly describing the apparent duality of the world, and sees this as something that must
be subject for unity by a dual acceptance of the world of clay and the world of spirit – it is only here the
soul can be at peace and cling to the axis of ‘I’. As he writes:

“Here though it must be stated that we are each capable of containing both heavens and hells, that
when we reach into the heavens of our own selves we must also reach down into our own self created
hells; we each are a legion of demons and angels and we are constantly at work within this battlefield of
the mind, of the soul, there is never a cessation of this inner turmoil, whether positive or negative.” (p
22/23)

This constant turmoil is experienced as fragments, parts of a yet unknown whole that must be brought
together. Larabee sees this as crucial to the Lonely Wanderer, and this also implies making peace with
the world of profane reality as much as the ideal world where spirits more pure reign. The Solitary Witch
is in a constant exile – and it is perhaps because of this acceptance of exile the perception of the Witch is
often so different and often provocative for the mundane world. As he writes:

“Exile is both a blessing and a curse, in that through it we are placed outside of the boundaries of the
world as we know it, yet it is this very placement that gives exile its power, its purpose.” (p.32)
It is the exile itself that enables the establishment of the ‘I’ because exile forces one to look at the axis
from the outside… and this leads to the following conclusion, that:

“The Man of Spirit lives within the spiritual moment, the ever-present, becoming, the Eternal Now;
which is the vertical-axis which intersects the horizontal-plane of manifest reality.” (p.73)

The second part of the book is ritualistic in nature as it details and suggests ways of spirit congress
through soul travel and the placement of the sensorial body as the ritual field in the Eden of the Witch
gods and goddesses. The Compass and crossroad are used as points of entrance both to the spirits of the
land, the Mighty Dead and the wielders of witchblood. In this, the Dream Sabbath becomes the
metastasis of ‘I’ and is resurrected into a perpetual possibility that turns the lonely road crowded with
spirits from all possible kingdoms and the route towards Self.

The book concludes with a series of invocations to sixteen faithful gods and goddesses that encircle the
‘I’ and this retinue is given as: Hekate, Qayin, Lucifer, Lilith, Samael, Rahab-Tiamat, Baphomet, Tubal
Cain, Naamah, Mahazhael, Lilis, Janus, Ruha, Azazel, Lucifera, Asmodeus, all of them with deep and thick
ties to witchblood proper.

‘Whisperings from the Void’ is a companion for the Witch on the Lonely Road, it is an exegesis on
themes of grave importance to the exile and it is a constant meditation on the nature and substance of
the ensorcelled Self or ‘I’. As such Patrick John Larabee has given from his soul a testimony of the hooks
and crooks of the path that should be read with care and received in gratitude – especially for the
Solitary sojourner.

There is a distinct sense of generosity in ‘Whisperings from the Void’, a desire to share and not to
overwhelm, which gives this book a beauty in its nakedness that by itself makes this testimony of the
Solitary path worthy and good!

Book review by Shani Oates.

An exploratory and astonishingly beautiful narrative; a glorification of the Greatest Mystery – that of
Illumination. Equally, the subtext remains skillfully dedicated to the varied threads and causeways of
inspired and revealed gnosis, the strands and super-strands of ‘Fate.’
Richly symbolic sigils illustrate arte-fully this sacred pilgrimage through the lonely Arcanum of the ONE.
Herein, the Beloved calls to Her Lover. To all those She inspires, Her Lover manifests Her Grand Design,
Her divine Creativity in Word and Image via the liminality of ‘Being.’

Separated into two halves, book one accompanies the Fool into the Paradisial Sojourn; book two
experiences the realised man, reveling in his own divinity. Together they herald the divine ecstasies.
Enthralled and enrapt – this is the fascinating engagement of the ‘other.’

Perception and perspective become challenged, rocked, nay torn from the very apposite status quo. The
reader is cunningly drawn in to view the veil, thereto find themselves victim to its ‘light’ but conversely
subject to its elusive shadows. Whisperings from the Void resides as a work for all workers of the arte.
From within the shadows habit, doubt and superstition all become ameliorated upon the Great Pyre of
Truth!

In prose and verse, the dominion of flesh is illuminated by ‘Presence.’This Matrix of the Collective
weaves intricate threads to access the infinitesimal Wyrd, facilitating an inexplicable subtle vibrational
causality. Degrees of separation exist only in our narcissistic perception.

Choosing the mentor of the ‘Hidden One’ within, Patrick Larabee provokes the inspiritus guide of the
individual. The sentient, Multiplicity of Being is drawn from the Void of Being and tho’ oft imagined
clearly through the great eye, its inner vista splintered as the prismatic reflection of the ‘Other.’ Death is
but a transformation of consciousness; it is but a singular dream of the Singularity and one that unites
dream with the dreaming, the reality of actuality. In real time, duality is transformed. Unity reigns
supreme.

The world of insistent spirit exists as a vehicle for its own corporeality – it becomes an experiential
journey, a foray designed to stimulate a realisation of Truth, the binder of Mind and Memory, the twin
virtues of the soul’s evolutionary journey. Will, ever the arcane virtue of the formidable becomes the fop
to a multi-dimensional absolute within and without the machine of the ‘self - the impedimenta of
gnosis.

All is simplicity, sheer elegance of mechanism, economy of unilateral impact. Confronted by the eternal
and unchanging Abyss, the quintessential mask is the panoply of illumination. Kalas sheath and bathe
the body. Such intimate transmutations are generally passed through dreamscapes to materialise within
the Nexus, the divine Hub.

Every human vacillates between the poles of extremism. The journey is the measure of self-awareness,
sentience and self gnosis. Whim and desire are distractions, No more, no less. Likewise the Sandman
and the Reaper are the regulators of the patterns we spin upon the arcane hub - the quaternary of spirit,
soul, psyche and flesh!

Disciplined praxis presents unswerving examples of prose and verse to deepen the reader’s experience
of these time-honoured battles. These pages are dedicated to the primal Covenant; in serving that
vainglorious deed, convocations to several, specific, named sheaths of spirit, whose forms are explored
in Rites inspired for and by them. These include the laying of the Compass proper; the Rising of Sensorial
and Peripheral Being; Envelopment within the Primal Matriarch and the Father, Absorption through the
Mother and Illumination inspired by all the virtues and spirits of Day and of Night, all in the immediacy
of the eternal moment.

Strength, vitality and endurance are of the forge and furnace deep in the stygian darkness, of the
Mound and Caverns of the seas and lakes. Universal symphonics enthuse a resonance of place in
accord with divine will. Mother of exilic wanderers, Lilith, the bridge of chaos and storm winds of all
change; She ushers the dynamic we least expect to challenge the status quo, rending outworn
modalities from their inhibiting tethers. Together with Samael they nurture all kin in Holt and Hearth.

Entreaties are lauded to the Great Mistress of the Absu, Tiamat, Leviathon of old. Baphomet is called
upon to assist in the attainment of the inner amoral androgynous Self in likeness of this realised Soul.
Tubal Cain and Naamah, weavers and forgers of Fate are set beside Janus, guardian of all portals and
guide to the wanderer traversing the labyrinthine paths. The Holy Spirit Ruach whose breath inspires all
to rise to their divine potential is honoured here also.

These are but some of the Mighty Ones whose Titanic Virtue is recognised in reciprocal
acknowledgement of the golden chain of being. For we are not so much the reflection of the divine as
we are its tangible projection, a holy manifestation of Truth, Love and Beauty. Thus are we truly the
‘fallen’ as Spirit upon the Earth; and thus are we Spirit, elevated within the Light of the World.

Shani Oates