Argoni-info

Zajímáte se o Ezoteriku. Jak jste se k tomu dostal?

Jednoduše a zárověň složitě - jen co jsem v dětství pobral trochu rozumu, začal jsem hledat pravdu. Chtěl jsem všemu přijít na kloub a všemu porozumět. Záhy jsem zjistil, že to není možné, ale že je možné se k pravdě alespoň přiblížit nebo řeknu to jinak, že je možné vyhnout se díky vlastnímu uvažování největším lžím, které nám jsou od narození vtloukány do hlavy. Dnes tomu říkám 4 hlavní lži, na kterých je postavený tento svět. Pokud se ptáte, které lži to jsou - je to politika, náboženství, ekonomika a etika. Politika vás učí, že nemáte být samostatní, že se máte při jakémkoliv životním rozhodování spoléhat na lidi, kteří vás osobně neznají a vůbec jim na vás nezáleží. Klidně vám postaví před nosem atomovou elektrárnu nebo vás pošlou do války, popřípadě vás bez mrknutí oka nechají zlikvidovat, když „zlobíte“. Náboženství se vám snaží nakukat, že existuje nějaká vyšší síla, která má na zemi zástupce, což jsou šéfové náboženské organizace. Vy můžete s nejvyšší silou komunikovat, ale pouze přes tyto zástupce. Náboženství staví na hlavu přirozené lidské chování pomocí tzv. desatera, což jsou sepsaná pravidla, natolik odcizená od normálních lidských sklonů, že je není možné dodržovat a zachovat si přitom duševní zdraví. Po překročení těchto norem si ovšem můžete koupit odpuštění, prominutí hříchů. Nejvyšší síla promíjí, ale platí se jejím zástupcům. Že jsou to ti praví zástupci, víme zpravidla pouze od nich.

Ekonomika, to je kapitola sama pro sebe, protože se nám snaží nakukat, že když ničíme své životní prostředí, třeba i tím způsobem, že sotva přežíváme, vytváříme hodnoty. Při jakékoliv změně energie dochází ke zvýšení entropie, čili neuspořádanosti systému, jinými slovy, pokud si rozdělám ohníček, vytěžím rudu, vytavím železo a z toho železa vykovám například podkovu (ať už pro koně nebo pro štěstí), způsobím škodu na životním prostředí dejme tomu ve výši dvou tisíc korun. Místo abych své bližní odškodnil, tím, že jim zaplatím celkem dva tisíce korun, tak jim drze nabídnu mnou vyrobenou podkovu, dejme tomu za tři stovky a oni jsou tak hloupí, že mi ty tři stovky dají a ještě si pochvalují, že mám levné podkovy. Je to stejné, jako kdybych na ulici někomu ukradl kolo a potom mu je prodal zpátky. Ekonomika staví na hlavu všechny skutečné hodnoty, proto nelze ani pochopit, jak je možné, že někdo dostane za ekonomiku Nobelovu cenu. Aby měl jakýkoli výrobek vůbec nějakou cenu, musí na počátku výpočtu jeho ceny stát krádež. Pravda je taková, že všechno, co se v lidské společnosti vyrobí, by mělo zadarma a ještě bychom měli od výrobce dostat menší vyrovnání jako odškodné za nenávratně poškozené životní prostředí. Jediný správný ekonomický zákon zní, že bychom měli za jakoukoliv činnost, která narušuje přirozenou ekologii systému vyplácet od rána do večera odškodné, které by správně mělo být vždy o něco vyšší, než je cena výrobku nebo produktu.

Etika je další tah na bránu naší chápavosti - učíme se, že existuje správné chování, máme ctít otce svého i matku svou, i kdyby to byli třeba váleční zločinci, alkoholici nebo diktátoři a učíme se pomáhat druhým. Nejlépe tak, že jim dáme něco, co už sami nepotřebujeme.

Pomoc existuje jenom jedna jediná - když chci někomu skutečně pomoct, tak ho vezmu do svého businessu. To ale nikdo neudělá, protože si chce svůj business před vlivem ostatních a vlivem konkurence uchránit. Žádný moderátor vám nikdy nenabídne, abyste jednou moderovali jeho show místo něho. Vezme si vás tam jako hosta, udělá si s vás před ostatními srandu, příště si tam vezme zase někoho jiného, ale svého místa se nikdy nevzdá. Pomoc utlačovaným národům se zakládá na tom samém principu - my jim dáme potraviny, postavíme na návsi hliněnou školu, dáme jim trochu peněz, ale nikdy je nevezmeme do svého businessu, přestože by to byla jediná pomoc, která by je mohla zajímat. Etika říká, že krást a zabíjet se nemá, ale všechny velké civilizace, včetně naší, vznikly jen díky tomu, že potlačily, vyvraždily, vyždímaly, okradly a zlikvidovaly celé národy. Bohatství starých jihoamerických, indických, afrických a čínských kultur se ocitlo v Evropě.

Pokud přijmu život v evropské kultuře, měl bych si stále uvědomovat, že kvůli tomu, abych se měl dobře, zemřelo (v přepočtu na moji hlavu) několik desítek nebo stovek lidí.

Když mi bylo asi deset let, začal jsem číst filozofické knihy a byl jsem jimi nadšený. Filozofové byli lidé, kteří učili ostatní lidi myslet. Dokázali každou, i poměrně jednoduchou věc tak rozebrat, že ji nikdo nepochopil. Byl jsem nadšený učením o paradoxech - jestli je pánbůh všemocný, proč nemůže stvořit tak těžký balvan, že by jej sám neuzdvihl? Nebo záhada letícího šípu, to je prostě fantastické. Pokud připustíme, že letící šíp během svého letu zaujme určité souřadnice, jeho špička je v naprosto přesně definovaném bodě - jak dlouho tam je? Na to se dost těžko odpovídá, protože i za tisícinku vteřiny se ten nešťastný šíp trochu pohne. Dokonce i za milióntinu vteřiny se o malinko posune, i kdyby to byla jen milióntina milimetru. Staří filosofové tvrdili, že pohybovat se znamená na určitém místě současně být i nebýt. To se mi líbilo. To byla správná odpověď na hamletovskou otázku. Být či nebýt? Být i nebýt! Potom jsem zjistil, že obor, který hledá pravdu naprosto všude, snad i tam, kde není, se nazývá ezoterika.

Ezoterika se snaží vidět všechno naprosto komplexně, v ohromné jednotě. V ezoterice nás zajímá nejen to, že vodík během chemické reakce uniká, ale i to, jaké ponožky má experimentátor na nohou. Ezoterické náměty k přemýšlení jsou fantastické - můžeme slyšet tlesknutí jedné dlaně? Když v lese spadne strom a nikdo jej přitom nepozoruje, vydá ten strom při pádu nějaký zvuk? Toť otázka. Věda zkoumá věci, které jsou dokazatelné a reprodukovatelné. Ale co když existují věci, které se mohou odehrát pouze jednou za celou dobu trvání vesmíru? Co když se může něco stát pouze v případě, když to nikdo nepozoruje? Pokud věda tvrdí, že je to nesmysl, opouštím vědecké myšlení a pouštím se do ezoteriky. Je srdci mému bližší. Jen tak mimochodem - věda už přesvědčivě dokázala, že ani jedna z teorií o vzniku života na zemi nemůže být pravdivá. Vzato přísně vědecky, tady nejsme a na Zemi neexistuje život. Jenomže my ten život vidíme - jak se dá tento paradox vysvětlit? Pomocí mimozemšťanů? Vědecky se dá vysvětlit, že pravděpodobnost mimozemských návštěv na zeměkouli se rovná nule. Nevím, jestli někoho napadlo, že když pomocí nějakého systému dojdu k závěru, že nemůže existovat něco, co už dávno existuje, tak asi bude špatný, nefungující a nevyhovující ten systém. Z ezoterického hlediska se dá vysvětlit jak vznik života na zemi, tak i proces domestikace, který rovněž přísným a striktním vědcům dělá vrásky na čele. Zřejmě zde ale platí to, co říkal jeden šaman, když se ho ptali, na co která bylina je a on jim to nechtěl prozradit, protože - když se něco bílý muž dozví, tak to přestane fungovat. Ezoterika, zvláště potom ezoterická psychologie je největší dobrodružství, s jakým jsem se během svého života setkal.

Předpovídáte budoucnost z tarotových karet nebo z astrologických konstelací. Dají se tyto dvě

metody kombinovat?

Samozřejmě se dají obě tyto metody kombinovat a většinou to také dělám. Podívám se do tarotových karet a podívám se na astrologické konstelace. Karty, ani postavení planet nemají na osud žádný přímý vliv. Věštba nebo konzultace se uskutečňuje díky takzvané synchronicitě, neboli souběžnosti různých náhod. Je to jako s příslovečnou černou kočkou, která vám přeběhne přes cestu. Je to znamení. Ta kočka na vás nepůsobí žádnou silou, která by vás mohla vtáhnout do nebezpečí nebo do neštěstí, stejně na vás z fyzikálního hlediska nepůsobí rozložené karty, ani hvězdy, či planety.

Z astrologického hlediska je zajímavý paradox dvojčat - dva lidé se narodí prakticky ve stejný okamžik na stejném místě, ale mohou mít rozdílný osud. Například jeden je slavný, druhý žije v ústraní. Jeden je nemocný, téměř nepohyblivý, druhý dělá na hrazdě veletoče. Jeden už je napůl mrtvý a druhý kypí zdravím a prohání se po společenských večírcích. Já to vidím tak, že v syrové, ezoterické podstatě jsou na tom oba stejně.

Podle astrologických konstelací víte, kdy bude konec světa. Prozradíte nám o tom něco?

Už se to blíží, tedy nikoliv konec světa v pravém slova smyslu, ale konec naší civilizace. Vypuknou obrovské epidemie a viry a bakterie nám předvedou, kdo je skutečným vládcem této planety. Člověk zmizí z povrchu země a nastane dlouhé období míru a prosperity. A samozřejmě i zvýšené radioaktivity, jako pozůstatek po naší civilizaci. Potom všechno zmizí a zůstanou jen egyptské pyramidy, které patrně přečkají i konec naší sluneční soustavy.

Nabízeli jste kurzy, které vedou k potlačení stáří. Opravdu to funguje?

Funguje to docela dobře.

Kolik takový kurz stojí a jak dlouho trvá?

V současné době již tento kurz nenabízím.

Jak vznikají vaše fotografie?

Těžce a v potu tváře, většinou se přitom tak zahřejeme, že musíme odložit veškerý oděv, potom to vypadá, že fotíme nějakou erotiku nebo porno, ve skutečnosti jsme ale neobyčejně cudní a v partnerství až konzervativně rezervovaní. Fotky většinou vznikají přímo při rituálech a meditacích. Je zajímavé, že s Arianou jsem se seznámil při fotografování (já jsem tam byl jako pan fotograf a ona jako slečna modelka), hned jsme si padli do oka, začali jsme se bavit samozřejmě o ezoterice, o psychologii, o filozofii. Mě zaujaly její názory, Arianu zaujaly dva nebo tři moje názory, které mi později rozmluvila.

Všechny fotky jsou přímo z našeho života. To je něco tak originálního, že to nemá ve světě obdoby, dodnes se marně rozhlížím, jestli někde, třeba i v kulturnějších státech najdu podobnou dvojici s podobnýma fotkama. Třeba budeme jednou chránění jako kulturní památka, samozřejmě ne u nás, tady to nikoho nezajímá, protože ani není čím, ale z praktického hlediska je ještě zajímavé, že se naše fotky těžko napodobují. Právě proto, že fotíme sami sebe. Každý může fotit třeba jako fotograf Brdečka, který fotí hřbitovní zdi nebo jako fotograf Kolohnátek, který fotí otevřená okna nebo jako fotograf Nemusil, který fotografuje jarní módu nebo jako fotograf Pařát, který fotografuje zvířata, ale nikdo nemůže fotit jako my, kteří fotíme sami sebe. Z toho plyne poučení - foťte sami sebe a budete originální. Nemusíte se nikdy rozčilovatl, že vás někdo napodobuje, třeba jen tím, že taky používá při focení fotoaparát.

Vydali jste několik knih, která z nich měla u čtenářů největší úspěch a která se naopak nejvíce líbila vám?

Vydali jsme Knihu času, Magii života, Magii sexu, Věčný příběh, Astrální magii a celou nepřehlednou řadu různých brožurek, nejvíce k srdci mi přirostla Magie sexu, ale už ani nevím, o čem vlastně byla, asi o sexu, v současné době je téměř beznadějné ji sehnat. Magie života se otočila třikrát, je to takový základ našeho učení o meditacích a o hledání pravdy. Knížky jsou zajímavé tím, že jsou v nich naše fotky a že jsou neobyčejně levné. Jsou levné, protože jsme se nedokázali dohodnout s vydavatelem na jejich správně ceně. Podle našeho názoru měla jejich cena být kolem 350,- Kč, protože každá kniha typu „Karl-Heinz Chrudoš vzpomíná na své nepovedené herecké začátky“ stojí kolem 350,- Kč a naše filosofické a fotografické skvosty se prodávaly za 179,- Kč, dnes už pomalu mizí z regálů a lidé je dále shánějí, například za Magii Sexu mi nedávno kdosi nabízel 500,- Kč, ale už se nedá sehnat a vzhledem k tomu, že jsme se na našem trhu už tolikrát doslova spálili, odmítáme další nabídky na vydávání knih. Dvě knížky zůstaly napsané pouze v rukopise, možná je budeme dávat k dobru na pokračování na našich www.argoni.com ale rozhodně je nechci vydávat knižně. Celkem jsme těch našich knížek a publikací vydali a prodali asi třičtvrtě miliónu. Po vydání první publikace, to ještě byly takové sešitky, ale prodávaly se dobře, se můj tehdejší spolupracovník a vydavatel projevil jako sprostý zloděj, okradl mě asi o milión korun, prostě si ty peníze nechal, což dodnes nemohu pochopit, ale jediné, co si přeji, kromě toho, aby umíral dlouho a v bolestech, je, abychom se už nikdy nepotkali. Jakmile slyším slova „kniha“ a „vydávat“ tak dostávám kopřivku.

Co pro vás znamená nahota?

Nahota je přirozenost, pravda, nevinnost. Navíc vypadá výpravně a pokud je nahý člověk hezký, zvláště jedná-li se o ženu, je to magnet pro lidské oko. Víte, že nejpřitažlivější barva pro lidské oko je tělová?

Co je to tantra? A proč je tak často spojována se sexem?

Tantra je učení o vyrovnávání protikladů a o rovnoprávnosti pohlaví. Mnoho tantrických cvičení souvisí se sexem nebo je přímo sexuálních. Základem mnoha tantrických cvičení je rituální pohlavní styk, maithuna, vzrušování a oddalování orgasmu. Jsou to velmi příjemné a silné zážitky, řekl bych, že právě díky tantře si mohu říct, že jsem nežil nadarmo.

Popíšete nám magický sex, o kterém píšete na vašich stránkách?

To se nedá popsat, to se musí prostě zažít. Je to rituál, čili dopředu víte, jak bude všechno probíhat (právě to je na rituálech tak zajímavé), pokud samozřejmě pod vámi nevybuchne sopka nebo nenastane zemětřesení, ale to už spadá do oblasti náhod, které se stávají jednou za hodně dlouhou dobu. Většina magických rituálů spočívá ve vzrušování a oddalování orgasmu. Pokud jste si to už někdy zkoušeli jen tak pro legraci, tak už jste byli blízko tantrickým rituálům. Takové rituály se mohou protáhnout na mnoho hodin, až na několik dní, sexuální extáze je zdravá, nemá žádné vedlejší následky a není po ní kocovina. To říkám hlavně proto, že pořád ještě existuje mnoho lidí, kteří se na sex dívají skrz prsty a nejraději by všechno, co se týká sexu zakázali. Katolická církev se potýká se sexem už asi 2000 let, naštěstí marně, je to předem prohraný boj, protože sex je život a sexualita je to samé jako životní síla. Magický sex je nejpřirozenější cesta ke svobodě a ke svobodnému myšlení. Spojuje sexuální zážitek se zážitkem rituálním. Cílem magického sexu je především zdraví, kondice, mládí a fyzická krása. Za to už přece stojí souložit, ne?

Co je to vlastně osud?

Osud je náhoda. Náhoda je absolutně nevyzpytatelný jev, který nás provází od narození do smrti. Náhodou se narodíme v určitý čas na určitém místě a do určité rodiny, musíme absolvovat určitou výchovu, musíme snášet přítomnost určitých lidí, do dospělosti se musíme podřizovat všem těmto náhodám, kterým říkáme osud. Vykládejte týranému dítěti, že každý je osudu svého strůjcem, to je jako kdybyste si z něho ještě dělali srandu.

Osud je takové množství různých náhod, že jak se lidově říká, aby se v tom prase vyznalo - nu a tím prasetem se občas stává astrolog nebo zručná kartářka, či kartář. Nejde poznat, jaké bude příští týden počasí, jaká bude vláda, jaké budou ceny, kdo umře, neumře, kdo se narodí, či nenarodí, nejde na 100% poznat vůbec nic, všechno je to otázka spolupráce všech existujících náhod. V USA je oficiálně vyhlášená docela slušná cena pro kohokoliv, kdo prokáže, že má telepatické nebo telekinetické, léčitelské nebo diagnostické schopnosti, prostě jakékoliv fungující magické schopnosti, to znamená, že by třeba dokázal magicky odhalit neznámého vraha nebo přesně poznat, co se odehraje v blízké budoucnosti, pokud by se mu to povedlo, tak získá asi dva melouny v dolarech. Zatím ji nikdo nezískal.

Naše práce je především konzultační, psychoterapeutická, nejde o žádné napřirozené schopnosti nebo pohledy do budoucnosti, to je nesmysl, to neumí nikdo. Náhodu nelze vystihnout, vystopovat, ani ovlivnit. Pokud hledáte jméno skutečného boha, tak vám je prozradím - je to pan nebo paní Náhoda. V klasické ezoterice odpovídala této veličině bohyně Fortuna, mohla dávat, ale také mohla ucuknout a všechno zase sebrat. Jak už to v životě chodí.

Může člověk svůj osud ovlivnit?

Malinko jo, ale když se mluví třeba o cvičení nebo vzdělání, tak si hned vzpomenu, jak se jeden Arianin spolužák, hned poté, co maturoval, zabil doma ve vaně. Ale i snaha je z ezoterického pohledu na svět vítaná. Z filozofického pohledu je náš život poměrně smutný - jednak je bezúčelný, nemá žádný vyšší smysl, sám o sobě nemá vůbec žádný smysl, Kdyby člověk najednou zmizel, tak si ostatní oddechnou, ale když zmizí jakýkoliv jiný živočišný druh, je to pro přírodu rána. Ovlivňovat můžeme svůj osud tím, že pracujeme na sobě a nepleteme se do osudů jiných lidí, snažíme se nevnucovat své názory druhým, jako to dělala katolická církev, to by měl být odstrašující příklad navěky.

Raven

------------------------------------

!!!Důležitá novinka!!!

Jelikož Knihu času a Magii sexu již prakticky nelze sehnat, zasedl jsem obětavě ke compteru a obě knihy jsem po nocích naskenoval, k tomu jsem ještě přidal hromadu našich fotek, které jsme mívali na našich webových stránkách a to celé zapsal na CD. Takže, všichni, kdo si chtějí prostudovat dnes již klasickou část našeho životního díla, mohou si napsat na

raven@argoni.com

CD stojí pouhých 500,- Kč

Platbu stačí převést na naše konto

105677704/0300

a na mail mi napište adresu, na kterou chcete

CD s Knihou času a Magií sexu poslat.

---------------------------------------------------------

Magic of Life – The Royal Path

Raven Argoni

Only the one, who understands the meaning of their path, understands the meaning of life.

When you decide to learn to meditate, sooner or later, you will come across a nice and fitting esoteric principle - the path is usually more important than the goal. If we think of our existence as a path, and of death as a goal, it is completely understandable, that out of different paths, leading to the same goal, we choose the longest and the most interesting one.

I am sixty and I should soon be getting ready for a quiet life of a respectable pensioner. I must say I do not feel my age a bit. No backaches or jointaches either, digestion works fine, my heart is as sound as a bell ,and generally speaking, I feel the same physically as when I was twenty-five or thirty. I could say I feel even better, because I am rarely ill. Quite often we hear derisory remarks about the unfortunate combination of higher age and sexual performance. Do not be mistaken. As far as I know, flaccidity does not in any way correlate with getting older. Also in that respect, I function as eagerly as when I was twenty. You could say that I am a perfectly normal person. I have a lot more muscles and much less fat than it is usual for a person of my age, I feel really young, I have a quarter of a century younger wife. However, the most important thing is, I do not notice any signs of near twilight of life. My biological clock has slowed down. I am not saying that I am not getting any older, that would be against nature. I do not want to play an eternal youth or try to hide my age either, but I claim that how you age, i.e. how aging affects your life (the loss of condition, typical diseases), you choose yourself. We have become accustomed to aging according to a certain stereotype and I have decided to break this generally accepted habit.

During the long time when I was tirelessly collecting experiences of esoterics, martial arts, meditations and various diets, I was also putting together my own training system, a path that I have already been following for many years now.

To separate the wheat from the chaff in the spiritual sense is never easy. Daily we see a fair amount of ‘guaranteed’ recipes how to reach ‘perfection’ or ‘enlightenment’, how to draw energy from the space, how to wake up a ‘sleeping’ brain (of which we use only one tenth), how to learn something in a trice and how to get a perfect rest in five minutes after that. It is probably true about the one tenth of our brains being used, because how would you explain otherwise that so many people believe such nonsense? There are also people who think that they can achieve a master’s degree (e.g. in healing, in magic) during a two-day course. It is true that during a short course you can get to know what, how and where to learn all that is needed, but you cannot leave with a certificate of proficiency in your pocket. It is still happening, though. If you could only manage university studies and getting a degree like that! It would not be bad, but unfortunately it is not possible. Whatever you are learning, it needs its time, and you can bypass that only in special cases.

An important point in my life came when I understood that every disease symbolizes an error on psychic level. It can be a passed on error, a wrong opinion or a bad habit, but until we remove it, the disease, either latent or manifested, will govern our bodies. Looking for errors in opinions, in thinking and in action, is the best healing procedure that I have got to know so far.

On my spiritual path I have been influenced the most by eastern philosophy: tantra, tao-yoga and martial arts. I have always liked the idea of perfect connection between body and mind. I am still convinced that one cannot exist without the other – spirit without body is the same nonsense as body without spirit. I was interested a lot in the basic idea of The Book of Changes – everything in the world is constantly changing into its opposite. It beautifully expresses the mutual interconnection of the seemingly conflicting qualities Jin and Jang.

People noticed a long time ago that everything is subject to time, but they also realized that we can understand time either linearly (as an arrow flying into the unpredictable future), or cyclically (as an eternal cycle of similar events).

People who experience time linearly try to live life unfortunately according to the motto ‘after us the flood.’ Cyclic understanding of time is much more considerate of the life on this planet. I do not agree with the statement that ‘we, people, have ruined this planet.’ I believe that with most people you can talk sensibly, but amongst us there are not only serial killers, thieves and troublemakers, but also ecological criminals. It would be useless to say that these include all people living on this planet.

It is five or six people who decide the buiding of a nuclear power plant, starting up a waste dump or cutting down of a rainforest, but unfortunately they have the economic and political power. If they really wanted, they would make you mince each other into meat cans. This is how it is.

Our bodies are woven out of atoms which are as old as the universe, that is 14 billion years. A body gets born, grows up, gets olds and dies according to statistics (in the Czech Republic) in seventy (men) or seventy-seven years (women). At the same time, it is highly probable that atoms and molecules are subject to time and ‘get old’ in their own way. However, with them it happens much more slowly.

I have pondered over this fact for many years, and have even discovered how this could be connected to the alchemical elixir of eternal youth, and that it would be possible to make ‘water of life’ and ‘water of death.’ Even though I know that alchemy is mostly about psyche, spirit and constructive meditations, I think that it is technically possible to change normal water into ‘live’ and ‘dead.’ It is also quite probable that during the preparation of ‘live’ and ‘dead’ water in ancient Egyptian alchemy, the mysterious pyramids played their part. This is definitely a topic that I would like to write about in more detail later. You will see that you will be inspired!

The wisemen of eastern peoples have always tried to train body and mind at the same time. If you, for instance, see only simple gymnastics in yoga, you will not get anywhere. The idea of a yogi as a supple old man does not correspond to the reality. There is an incredible complex of special thinking states and feelings that belong to yoga. Also, the place where we exercise regularly has a major impact. To sit down and meditate on a mat in a room with the tv on is certainly not the right thing. If you emphasise only the physical side of yoga, you will soon look like Madonna, in whose face there is greyness and tiredness, but no joy. What is the benefit if she can put her leg behind her head, when it is obvious that she is not healthy?

The West made us slaves of form and divided the essence of exercise sets into spiritual and physical. We are obsessed with tips how to improve health and lose a couple of kilos, but we still do not understand that the most important part of any physical act is the state of mind. Mind is the basis.

For that reason, I first learned to work with thoughts. I learned how to meditate and concentrate without being easily distracted. I managed to get into a state at some points, when a person does not polarise and stops to perceive that there is some good and evil. It is difficult to explain to people who had to experience something really bad, but fate really does not work to the intent that it would bring good or bad events. We are the ones putting the labels of good and evil on various situations.

The meaning of what we mark as tragedy or evil is a message. We should learn and understand why something unpleasant happened, but at the same time, we have to learn to set the balance inside ourselves. Even if the evil concerned us directly.

When I was a little over twenty, I worked as a director of animated films. It was a privileged position then, but I did not feel free and so I emigrated. The job taught me to notice details and work with symbols. I was already at that time, fascinated with how you can tell the whole story by means of a couple of graphic symbols. And everybody will understand it, all around the world, whatever language they may speak. In Germany I had a great opportunity to go through all available esoteric, magical and alchemical literature, which was quite rare at that time. I had a chance to familiarise myself with tao-yoga, transcendental meditation, magic and tarot.

I was interested in zen-buddhism, taoism and tantra. I also got into the Maharishi institute of transcendental meditation, which was a large buiding of a one-time Franciscan monastery. It was so massive that you could hardly walk around it during one hour. For the first time, I realized what this transcendental meditation is really good for. During that time Maharishi had quite a lot of similar palaces in 140 countries all over the world. Although not in Germany, because there they were immune to his pseudoscientific babble about levitation possibilities. I am talking about an institute in Holland. The courses were expensive and ended with some kind of ‘funny-initiation’, but it did not seem to be leading anywhere. There would certainly be much better use for the beautiful building.

I then met Ariana who initiated me into so much more than Maharishi jumping on a mat. I got to know the principle of youth and the irrational, the principle of constant changes, and obsession with expressing feelings and emotions. Right in the beginning of our life together, we left for New Mexico where we were so lucky to meet many interesting people. Everything just came spontaneously without us planning it or waiting for it. It probably had to be like that. We met shamans and asked them to initiate us into their art. Ariana was initiated by a shaman called River, an old lady who helped Ariana a great deal. I was initiated by Grey Wolf. We underwent a ritual connected with the use of halucinogens, when a person is thrown back on their own powers. The past leaves the body, which means vomiting and diarrhoea, and after proper cleansing comes a vision in which you see your totem guardians. Indians believe that every person has their own guardian in a form of an animal which accompanies them throughout their whole lives. I chose my name after my guardian.

Ariana was experiencing complicated states which were probably caused by her experience - she was raped still in her childhood - but after incredible attacks, cramps, physical and psychical pains, came the peace and she experienced her own vision. Her guardian was a spotted mustang. Now she also has a spotted guardian named Jack who is similarly wild.

The roots that started off my path I found mostly in tantra and Chinese taoism. Both schools are based on the idea of absolute balance between masculine and feminine world. It was not only the sexual basis in tantra that got me interested, but mainly the belief that woman is the essence, the source that everything comes from, and man is the one who draws energy from her, thanks to which he can live. I have basically become a feminist.

Another philosophical basis for me was the work of Prentice Mulford (quite unknown in our country), the American author of the ingenious book called Gift of the Spirit. We draw upon his work with Ariana even nowadays.

I am a man and that is why I was of course interested in the philosophy of martial arts, mainly karate, kung-fu, thai box, aikido and jiu-jitsu. Quite many Asian fighters incline towards buddhism. They are probably close to the first noble truth of Buddha which says that everything is suffering and if we understand that, we will feel relief. We realize that whatever we do is so limited by our senses and ego and our undeveleped real self, that when we want to get higher, we just have to suffer.

I learned to meditate for many years. Meditation exercises are difficult and not everybody can go straight into them, because the meditating person learns to experience the present. Although it sound simple, it is in fact the most difficult thing in our lives. A common, ‘not knowing man’ resists experiencing the present tooth and nail. It is the disease of our time. Everybody lives in their thoughts of the future or of the past. The present is something like a gift we despise. It is similar to meeting God (who would not have anything better to do than talk to you) and who would ask you: ‘Do you want anything from what you see around you?’ and you would asnwer: ‘No thank you, not yet. I will cut the costs and wait…,but I will be looking forward to it.’

Meditation as well as the tantric sex ties us to the present, it teaches us to experience feelings which are happening now, in the present. It is the same with martial arts. If you have to face your enemy, it is happening ‘here and now’, we cannot postpone the defence or counter-attack until the next week, tomorrow or some other time.

Meditations linked with physical exercises are closely connected to the philosophy of fear. Fear is what ruins most people’s lives. Overwhelming fear which they cannot handle. Fear of death, of the present, of not succeeding, of ridicule, of missing the train, or of not being able to do something. Fear of sanctions if they do not meet the requirements of those more powerful. Thousands of various fears accompanying untrained persons from dawn to dusk. The easiest but the worst solution to problems is running away from them. Where to and how? In thoughts into the future. Do I have nowhere to live? Do I have no job? I will at least imagine how beautiful it will be when I have my own flat and a good job. Do I have no money? Maybe I will be rich one day. What would I buy, if I had suddenly for instance fifty million euros? I would show them all how good I am!

Be careful, idle fantacising is something else than targeted visualization, during which we see the future with the eyes of the present. We can set off to the future when we deal with the present. Let us try answer some questions. Who am I really? What can I do really well? What can I offer? Can I take care of myself or am I dependent on somebody?

The result of my long-time effort in the field of esoterics is a system of exercises which I have named The Royal Path. There are 22 basic exercises and each one of them is related to a specific tarot card from the major arcana. Tarot cards represent basic tasks, archetypes, which we all have to encounter and go through. If we do not experience them, the outcome is some kind of inability, phobia, fear or feeling of loss that appears in our life.

There are three basic aspects hidden in the tarot cards of the major arcana, therefore they have three meanings.

The first of them is mantic – you can use the cards for interpreting the future.

The second is philosophical – you can meditate on each card and try to experience a specific principle of life on a spiritual level.

The third meaning is magical – if you want to affect your life and your fate, use a card that symbolically corresponds to your problem in a magical ritual.

The Royal Path, either in alchemy or in tarot, contains the secret of immortality. It is a path towards the essence of life. Each card represents a step towards enlightenment. It does not matter in which order we decide to study and exercise individual cards. In practice it is done so that we shuffle the 22 cards of the major arcana and randomly choose one of them.

The chance which is in this case the best trainer, decides the exercise, visualization and meditation that is to be practised the next day.

The whole system is adjusted to a busy life style, that is why there are two main time points given for the meditations – the point right before going to sleep and the point right after waking up. We devote ourselves to the thought concentration and visualization for a couple of seconds, a couple of minutes at maximum. The same applies to the physical exercise. The exercises are perfectly simple, anybody who can move themselves into the kitchen or toilet can manage. The breathing exercises are again so simple that we devote a while for them for example when we are waiting for something or going somewhere (unless we are in a panic hurry of course). The physical exercise related to the randomly chosen card is practised several times a day, depending on how it suits our schedule. It can be again right after waking up or right before going to bed. You do not have to go anywhere to perform these or attend courses. You will start noticing changes incredibly fast. After two months of regular simple exercises, you will start to feel that your biological clock is slowly going backwards. Your physical condition will increase and so will your immunity to diseases. Your mood will get better and you will be able to control your mind and fear better.

C. G. Jung called the classic alchemical Royal path individuation, which is a special state of mind that comes when a person understands the meaning of all the obstacles that he has encountered throughout his lifetime. His ego disappears and he sees the reality as it is. It is the principle of self-improvement. The path to perfection is often marked as ‘the only right path, that a man can walk to find the meaning of his life.’ I have to mention again that the kind of aging we know is not a natural process, it is a kind of epidemic, to which we might be even forced, because from the economic and political viewpoint the fast renewal of the ‘human material’ is favourable. Political power is easy to build on young, physically fit people who have almost none of their own experience. The older and the old who have reached the knowledge, that most importantly you should have your own opinion and not let anybody interfere in your privacy, they are so weak that they mean practically nothing. A totally different situation would be, if the aging people were not losing their physical condition, because strength, intelligence and life experience represent the most dangerous combination.

If we look at aging as a disease and we realise that everything from hemorrhoids to cancer is related to the errors in thinking, we become aware of how important it is to link the body to the mind. The body is a gift, it is the best we could get from the nature. If the body ends, the whole person ends. Our body is a incredible life factory where every second billions of processes take place. And in the meantime we run around the world, we laugh or have depressions, and we do not even notice what we carry with us the whole time and what we should respect the most. Our own body should be first on list of our priorities. The spirit is a feature of the matter, but it is so connected to it that it is pointless to think of the spiritual and physical side of life in isolation.

The Spiritual and the Material Paths

Sooner or later everybody starts to think about what is the most important thing for them, whether the path of the spirit or of matter. Then they start to find differences between the spiritual and the material path. They will of course find a lot of contradictions which are not easily explained. I will start studying philosophy, art and magic, in order to attract success, money and beautiful women with the knowledge that I have acquired. If I succeed, will I go the spiritual or the matterial way? Is the spiritual way compatible with the desire for material possession? If not, how do I get to the enlightened thoughts of other people as a poor person? It would be nice to go to a concert, where the ticket costs over 40 euros and at the entrance say: ‘Excuse me, I am a yogi, I walk the path of the righteousness and I do not have any money for the ticket…’ ,and they would reply, ‘That is all right, go to the end of the corridor, then turn to the right, there is a yogi lounge.’ Unfortunately, this is not how it works. I have even heard some comical opinions that a person who goes the spiritual way does not need to consume the art work of others. Only a basket case can say something so stupid. Mostly, there is an effort to start and keep their own sect behind this. Then the thoughts and ideas of others are dangerous, especially if they are good. Or is it so that a normal perceptive person can voluntarily give up the chance to listen to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or ignore the works of ingenious impressionists, for example our favourite van Gogh, or the classics like Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci? If we start to think about the meaning of life, we realize that the life itself has no meaning, but we have a chance to give it some meaning. How? First of all, we can get to know the greatest works of art, so that we become aware what is possible to achieve thanks to talent, exercise and the art of concentration. The world’s greatest artists show us what mastery really is about. It is true that when a trained yogi can hold his breath for five minutes, it is also a considerable performance, although it is not so uplifting as Bach’s music.

Nevetheless, let us get back to the exploration of the conflict between mind and matter. Let us start with the basic Paracelsus’ idea that everything around us, really anything, can harm us or even kill us. Everything can prove to be poisonlike – it only depends on the dose. Even water that is seemingly harmless has its own lethal dose. We would suffer a serious damage to our health, if we swallowed the contents of the saltcellar on the dinner table. We can get injured by too much oxygen or too much food. Even too much rest can result in decomposition of bone tissue, or continuously listening to an ingenious piece of music can lead to permanent psychic damage. The magical charm of success lies in its correct dosage. Then we do not have to think about whether to avoid the dessert, because it contains the harmful sugar. We should rather avoid the main course, if we are tempted to try the legendary puffer fish that can, thanks to the unpredictable chance, contain also the tetraodotoxin which is a substance 275 times more poisonous than cyanide. It all depends on our free will and the right decision.

According to our philosophy it is not so important to ask whether to go the spiritual or the material way, the most important is to ask, whether we decide to do something for ourselves. If you decide to really work on yourself, you will end up with the combination meditation/physical exercise anyway. You cannot exercise just the body and leave the mind to laze away, but the other way is also not possible. In other words, physical exercise belongs to esoterics just as mantras or incense sticks. If somebody says that they engage in esoterics but no exercise, as well as avoid regular muscle work, they will get to the level of laic theorist at most, but that is all. The difference between such theorist and the real esotericist is the same as between a top sportsman and a tv viewer who just watches all from an armchair with crisps on the knees.

Maybe you ask now what is the difference between meditation connected with movement and normal exercise where a sportsman has to concentrate as much as if he were meditating? Can you consider the first football league or bodybuilding to be branches of esoterics? It is a well known fact that modern gladiators often use amulets, some pray before a match, some concentrate their thoughts or try to get rid of thoughts (sometimes that does not take so much work). Arnold Schwarzenegger writes in his memoirs (it is interesting that we are the same age, but I have not got myself to write memoirs, I am waiting for Alzheimer to have it easier) that always when he exercised, he imagined that the exercised muscle e.g.biceps grows and grows until it is so big that it fills the whole space until it does no longer fit the fitness centre – it is a classic example of a magical visualisation. It is quite difficult to see Mr Schwarznegger as a spiritual man, because the criterion for measuring his success is mainly rational. He became a famous action movie hero, he was elected the governor of Califfornia and he is the owner of three or four huge residencies in Los Angeles. He has his own publishing company and companies dealing with healthy nutrition. It is quite hard to match his success, event hough besides those visualisations in the gym ‘godly Arnie’ did not show much spiritual side. He was the master of concentration, he managed to perfectly concentrate on one thing that he followed with persistence of a pitbull. Easier said than done, but try hard for ten years to get big biceps and round calves. In half a year you will give it up, because your mind will be fragmentised into thousands of other interests and you will just wonder how come the light of your torch has not the stridence of a laser.

Let me finally get to the heart of the matter – what is the difference between motional meditation and top sport or bodybuilding? During an esoteric exercise I do not compete with anybody, I do not try to fit into any success scale. My own experience is decisive, also the feeling I gain when I keep my physical condition to a degree which is pleasant for me. Which means I do not compare myself with anybody in a sense that I would try to be better or, in case of bodybuiding, larger. Sport nowadays (and the same applies to professional bodybuilding), is a fanatical hunt for better perfomance than the others show. From the esoteric point of view, this is nonsense. What benefit do I get if I can lift one more kilo than somebody else? Yes, I can win some money in a competition, that is true, but it will cost me my health. I will spend the money in a couple of days, but I will not have my health back. By the way, I have already won two of ‘The strongest man’ competitions, but I did not give me anything. Now I am working on myself to keep fit and mainly to keep myself in the state of ‘not aging.’ I have seen for myself that it is possible, that it is realistic, so why should I change my ‘training plan?’ My advice to others – do not think about the difference between the material and spiritual way, think your own way and mainly about what you can do for yourself thanks to correct exercising and meditation. You will not get anything better from life.

The Fight Against Time

(a unique method to slow down your ageing process by using Tarot)

Since man started to think he started to fight against time. But surely this fight is foolish. Solomon said: „Futility above futility“

However, wellknown Czech magicians, photographers and authors of many books on Magic, Ariana &Raven Argoni talk about their „fight against time“ as the highest form of magic.

Raven Argoni says it is possible to slow down your ageing process. He has been working on this program for many years and time itself has proved it works.

Here is what he and his wife Ariana say about their own experience of making magic and Tarot work against time, and share some of the philosophy behind it.

You have become well-known in The Czech Republic as magicians, authors and photographers and above all as masters of Tarot, Tantra and Sexual magic. What actually is magic?

Raven:

Magic is the most complex and the deepest psychology as you can imagine. It is an understanding of the power by which reality and thoughts can influence each other.

Some people think of us as dark Magicians doing Black magic. They imagine me in a black robe and of course Ariana dancing naked around the fire at midnight, or beheading a black cockerel. Or, they imagine us doing wild sexual rituals which is closer.

The „naked“ truth is that everyone can do sexual magic. Magic is only about working with yourself. And it should have an effect on you that you can see.

In our opinion, Magicians can slow the ageing process, enjoy life and have a great love partner. A real witch should be beautiful from the inside out, even when she is old. She should be elegant with powerful energy around her. A real witch is humble yet have strong charisma. A power schould emanate from her every gesture. A witch can move her hands in such a way that it gives you a shiver.

The classic example of black magic is a gossip and a slanderer. To insult someone just from envy is the worst thing one can do to another. We experienced this form of black magic from people who even didn’t know us, who judged us and then, when they needed advice and help, they came to us and realized they hadn’t known anything about who we were. Once we were photographed doing a ritual for one big newspaper. They did an interview with Ariana but they didn’t write our names. It was like we didn’t exist. This shows editors‘ fear of public judgement. They would rather stick to news about ageing pop stars and their holidays. If you ask me to express this in a picture I would make a photomontage of a man stumbling on his brain.

Which philosophers have influenced you?

Ariana:

There were lots of them. We always see philosophers as people who give advice about how to live well. In our opinion, a philosopher is a shaman, psychologist, psychotherapist. We always judge people according to what they achieved in their lives and how they lived. The first thing that becomes noticeable is that history of philosophy is „a man thing“. There is hardly any evidence of women philosophers. And it is interesting that men were never worried about women’s absence. It obviously didn’t occur to them that it never worked for good in nature when there were too many males together. When men invent it’s most often destructive. They have one purpose – to destroy a rival.

Our favourite philosophers are Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Seneca, Nietzsche (he said: „what doesn’t kill you make you stronger“ - he went mad, which didn’t kill him but didn’t make him stronger either) but most of all Prentice Mulford the founder of positive thinking. Mulford explains what thought is and how it can influence our world. We can find some great thinking in many classic philosophers but we can hardly identify ourselves with all of their work. Seneca wrote a remarkable piece about anger and nervousness. He says, it is normal if we can not work something out or it is not what we want it to be. We should accept it as it is and not get too upset. Anger is the most dangerous feeling. If we get something right it means it is good luck and we should accept it as it is. We can not assume that the next thing will be successful as well. People usually expect to succeed again just because they succeeded at something before. If they study Seneca they would save themselves many disappointments. Seneca was a teacher of Emperor Nero. Nero had a palace built. It was built from gold. There were great statues, a lake with exotic fishes, a dining room was built like a spinning wheel with a view of a lake and the stars. There were showers with perfume installed in the ceilings. Walls were covered with the finest marble and gemstones. When Nero entered his palace, he looked around and said in very satisfied voice : „At last, I can live as a human being“.

So, is it worth to read classic philosophy? It certainly is. We learn to think and as you learn to think you learn how to live. Certainly, philosophy, magic and the way of living are all connected.

You have written books whose titles include „Magic of Life“, „Magic of Sex“, „Astral Magic“, „Everlasting Story“, „The Book of Time“. What essentially are your books about?

A&R:

They tell you how to slow the ageing process and about the feminine principle, which has much to do with this. Everyone knows that everything consists of Yin and Yang. We can ask such a question as: „could we divide the Yang into another Yang and Yin?“ but there are probably some things which are definite and things which are relative. Lets have a look at relative ones. Yang carries male energy, which is dynamic, active, moving, creative and rational. The Yin aspect is feminine, passive, receptive, submisive, flexible, irrational, emotional. Imagine a vagina. It’s a hole. Nothing in something. And here we encounter a paradox. The hole itself can not be seen. It is made by what surrounds it. It can’t exist on its own. If we také the surroundings away, the hole would disappear. It is irrational, mysterious and feminine. In general it is said that men embody the rational, logical principle. Women embody the irrational, feminine, intuitive and emotional principle. But if we look around we notice that women often behave more rationally than men.For example: Men are willing to build miniature traintracks during nights which women normally don’t do. Men like meetings and conferences, inventing rules and laws which usually don’t work; they analyse, test and support other men who play football or hockey for them. It’s very irrational. None of these activities are about protecting life. Let’s accept one thing. It’s mostly men who are willing to enlist into the army and to go to a war. This makes me think that men are not rational. Men’s thinking is piercing, irrational and not logical. Women’s thinking is rational but intuitive. It is focused on protecting life. A woman is the one who gives life and this huge responsibility makes them perceive the world differently. The priority of female principle is set by nature. Try to imagine the Universe. What does it look like? More like a penis or a vagina?

And now tell me about your systém „Magic of Life“. How does it work and how it can slow ageing process?

Raven:

I found out about this when I had to emigrate to Germany. I lost everything and had to start from the very begining twice in my life. I spent 8 years in exile in a country I don’t like. I studied esoterics, tantra, tao-joga and sexual magic and Tarot. While I was in Nordrhein-Westfalen I had plenty of time for meditation and exercise. I promised myself not to get old so that I would have enough strength to start again when I got back to my own country. I finally returned when I was 42. I read everything about tao-yoga, which is about immortality, and then I put together my own programme, which works well. There are 22 excercises which I have chosen from the martial arts. Some of them I invented. They are easy and its power dwells in repeating them. I connected each exercise to each of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana. Every day I draw 1 card randomly and I do the exercise as often as I can during the day. I have been doing this for 20 years and I get results. My ageing process slowed. I don’t have any problems with my back or joints. I don’t have any troubles with my digestive systém or with weight gain. I don’t diet, don’t use any medicines or supplements or vitamins and can eat anything I want. I don’t need to avoid alcohol or cigarettes. I sleep well even though I often work until 3 or 4 in the morning. I don’t get ill and I must say before that I used to be ill very often. I am happy and full of energy. I can lift the same weights (100kg) in a gym as I used to when I was 25 (I am almost to 58 now). I married Ariana who is more than 20 years younger than me. We have been together for 15 years and it never happened that I couldn’t keep up with her in anything. I named my method „Magic of Life“ and put it together with my course of Astral Magic and Sexual Magic. I have written a lot about my method in many Czech esoteric magazines and I offer my method to people by course.

For more information contact Raven on raven@argoni.com

Interview

Sexual magi Ariana + Raven Argoni

How long have you been engaged in magic and what brought you to the esoteric path?

Ariana: Since my birth. Thoughts are the instrument of magic. Every image, desire, everything influences our fate. I have noticed that if I wish for something really hard, it will come true. Therefore I became confident that it must be some kind of law and that I can affect reality. I do not like using the words ‘to control reality’, because magic, especially the medieval one, called ritual magic, is associated with a figure of magus who cracks the whip angrily against a pantacle (the name of a certain entity) during a ritual, and he commands and controls. This is the wrong form of magic, and a typically masculine approach. Eventually I understood not only that I can change my fate, but that also it is my duty. We were born to fulfill the laws and tasks of fate, and if we fail (sometimes this is called not understanding of one’s mission, the reason, why we are here), we get born again and the teaching continues. The irony is that a person does not make the same mistakes all the time, but the same mistake. One basic mistake, a concrete mistake that during the course of life takes on various disguises and the person keeps encountering it. This goes on until he understands it and overcomes the mistake.

For example – extreme submissiveness, distrust in one’s self or continuous raking over the ashes. A person cannot experience the present, but we create our future with the present. It is a vicious circle.

Or egoism, exaggerated competitiveness, overestimating one’s abilities. Depressions were my mistake. Only after a long time I understood what the core of depression was – suppressed life energy, hyperactivity which cannot be let out or vented. However, when I started carrying out my suppressed desires, the depression disappeared. I began to photograph, write, engage in magic, go through all we write about with my husband…, so I was brought to the esoteric path by realising that the only mission of man is to work on themselves or the motto – if I change myself, I will change the whole world. I have been connected to nature and animals and immersed in the world of fantasy, vision and dreams since youth. At the point when I was able to go through all in reality fully, I was healed.

Raven: I like the name sexual magi, it is somehow exciting, but we like to call ourselves the naked philosophers, because we have been doing nude photographs for 14 years for the reason, that there is truth in nudity. Seeing that there is only the two of us, a man and a woman, we fulfill the essence of harmony or philosophy. I am rather a rationalist who studied at the university of chemistry and technology. The irony is that thanks to the chemical studies, when a person gets to know the essence of matter and does experiments with chemicals, I began to get closer to esoterics. Already then I felt more like an alchemist than a chemist. It is the same as nowadays in physics and mathematics, the more the scientists try to get to the essence of matter and our existence, and functionality of basic laws, the more they find themselves on the philosophical level. If you take for instance the fractals in mathematics, or quantum theory and the theory of superstrings in physics, these are actually philosophy and irrationality itself. There was also the love of photography that brought me to magic - mainly the process of developing. The chemist inside of me cannot be denied when I see how the light is born out of the darkness in the darkroom, the light captured on the negative, and out of the developer gradually appears the picture that was created by the sun. I feel like a successful spiritist, in front of whom a called ghost materialises. I had a lot of interesting friends who organized spiritistic seances and did various rituals. That was when I was around 18 (Ariana would say it was at the beginning of the universe - her universe certainly), and I witnessed things that I could not comprehend rationally.

There were three things that had the biggest influence on me. When I was eleven, during my stay with parents at the Červený Dvůr palace (I come from the French aristocratic family de Toure – which is funny, because it means something like a journey or a traveller and later we took on the surname Argoni from the legendary Argonauts, but I did not connect it at that time). In one of those long palace hallways I met something one evening, an entity, a ghost, simply a semi-transparent figure floating in the air that perfectly scared me, surprised me and awoke me forever.

The second experience has to do with student disturbances. My friend and I were put into prison for one night (I was the editor of a student magazine called Elixir which was not desired in the previous regime), and my friend – a spiritist, did an incredible thing with a magical formula. He opened, as he said, with the help of a serving spirit, the heavy door of the cell. I still see the astonished face of the guard when out of the blue the locked cell door opened. It even had a bar on the other side!

The third thing that confirmed I was going the right way was meeting with a girl with green eyes who could talk to animals, read everything by Socrates-Plato, Nietsche, Sartre, Kant, Hegel, Dante, Shakespeare, and could discuss quantum physics with me passionately as well as that god is not male but female, and the time when a woman is sacred will come again. She was a fresh grammar school graduate and a beginning model. When I saw her, I knew that she was the girl of my dreams, imaginations and poems which I had been writing even before she was born. My femme fatale – Ariana. I never met anyone with whom I could make love passionately, and then discuss buddhism, kabbala, occultism, philosophy and photography. So we have stayed together and it has been 14 years now. Ariana is a hard-core feminist, and a witch and that is why she never wanted to get married. I had to come up with a trick and make a mayor of a village to marry us in such manner that Ariana did not notice at first. She did not know where we were going or what was going on. It was only after she said the fatal yes that she understood what had transpired – she was now my wife and I, her husband.

Ariana: And I never regretted it.

What about the age difference? How did you manage to even out the difference of a quarter of a centure that is between you?

Ariana: We are 13,5 billion years old, as the universe. We are made of atoms, particles, superstrings which originated then. Every man, every animal and every tree is the same age. That is why time and age difference does not play any role. We do not follow the linear time with Raven, which is the time created by humans, but we follow the cyclic time, the time that the nature conforms to, the real time. The time defined by man is unfortunately just an illusion that the mankind accepted and became its slave, and this is why there is so little time for the spiritual and the spiritual growth of every one of us. Everybody is in a crazy hurry, but actually they are like hamsters in their running circles where they feel running but are stuck at one point. Besides that I said to myself that I would never conform myself to Raven’s opinions and that I will always be in opposition, and instead of me getting getting older, Raven got younger.

Usually it is the other way round. A girl marries a much older partner and then quickly gets old, maybe because she sees in him a paternal authority and subconsciously wants to adjust. But I am stubborn and I always go my own way without adjusting to the masculine world. I like being a woman, I do not want to behave and look like a man. It is a difficult job, because we live in a world ruled by men. I am fascinated by girls and women who have high posts, who are indepenent of men, have their own firm or they are managers, but at they same time they behave and look like women. Such are rare exceptions in this world. A woman either completely adapts to the male world or loses her femininity totally. The worst thing is that she does not even realize it. She feels like it is her duty, her female destiny, but there is no such thing. Then there are women who fight with the masculine world in such a way that they too start to adopt masculine opinions. After a while, they begin to behave like men and start to look like men. There is for example a woman politician in our country who started as a woman – behaved and looked like one and now she is like a typical man. She has smaller breasts, she had her hair cut and the feminity is over.

These are the women labelled as feminists, but I am mad, because the word feminist is derived from the word woman, and not all women who fight for female rights are proud of being women. They burn bras, they have ‘sporty’ haircuts and have a mustache. As Raven says, there is a sleeping goddess in every woman, but in some it is really sound asleep.

How did you get to do such photographs with their mystic charge?

Ariana: Before he met me, Raven had photographed nudes which he collaged, meaning he put together illogical things, for instance, a naked girl sitting on a Trabant car ended up pierced through with swords . This gave him unbelievable safisfaction. In the beginning I was also an accessory in his photographs, a piece of meat, but as I have mentioned earlier, thanks to my stubborness, I started to have a say about his work which became then our work. I told myself that I will practise what I preach instead of making a fool of myself as an extra in his photographs. Hence I told him why it was important to establish coequality, and that I do not see a reason why I could not be a photographer and a model at the same time, and also why he could not be a photographer and a model just like me. He was forty-five then. I made him undress and stand in front of the lens. And to learn to pose, because to look naturally in a photograph and be naked and to express something, some noble thought, just with the body, is really difficult. I remember his modelling beginnings how he was struggling with his arms and legs and he felt really weird, how unnaturally and distortedly he had to stand, so that it would look natural. He also quite enjoyed it, especially when I instructed him like: ‘I want your profile, but at the same time you should turn your upper body towards the lens, tilt your head back, put it in semi-profile, bend your arm and stretch the arm at the back…’ For a long time he could not understand which arm is ‘at the back’ but in the end he managed perfectly and nowadays he poses for dear life. The first step towards balance between a man and a woman was thus made. The second one, where our photographs were supposed to get a mystical, even magical charge, was achieved so that we started using a black and white film and then colorise it. Thanks to the fact that Raven was a close friend of Jan Saudek, we could use his atelier and he also taught me to colorise.

That is how our photos started to become pictures which we were satisfied with. We still cooperate with Jan, you could say we are sort of his pupils who first borrowed his wall and then made their own. Our wall symbolises the universe, ocean, timelessness and Jan’s wall is 1920s and 1930s, but that is nothing magical. Magic is unbounded, it exists outside time. That is why our photos do not come from a certain time, they just are.

By the way, once I was addressed by a booker in a concert of The Cure and that is how I met Raven. He really was the cure for me.

How did you get to fortune-telling? And how does writing, photographing and reading cards fit together?

Raven: We discovered tarot by Aleister Crowley which is by the way the best tarot ever, because it has absolutely pure symbolics. Coincidentally we started studying C. G. Jung with Ariana at that time, and he had studied the cards with the thoroughness of a scientist. He found out that the 22 cards of the major arcana represent the path to the enlightenment or how he named it, individuation. He called the symbols in those pictures archetypes and he claimed that every man, regardless of their race or religion, has these archetypes coded in what we could call the memory of mankind, the collective subconsciousness. Then he suggested that the alchemical transmutation and the mystical royal path are the same thing – that they talk about experiencing and irrational understanding of all archetypes in our mind and in our life. When a person familiarises themselves with these, accepts them and copes with them, they reach absolution or fulfil their fate. Alchemists called it transmutation and it was not about chemical elements and their transformation into gold. That would be a really shallow understanding of alchemy. The chemical elements or ‘metals’ were not chemical, but thoughts, processes in mind and consequently in body that the alchemist worked so hard on and this connected him with higher dimensions. His mind and body became perfect instruments to such an extent that you could say that people who went through the royal path have almost supernatural powers.

Ariana: Since we are interested in everything that has to do with the path which connects mind and body like buddhism, taoism, tantra, as well as bushido – the way of the samurai, we started to perceive tarot not only as a divination tool, but as a mirror where we can see all our mistakes, and a path to managing them. Therefore the tarot interpretation is to show mainly the path that you can walk. We can of course show our clients, point out the mistakes they make, but they have to walk the path of fate alone.

So, you do not think of body and mind separately?

Ariana: Not at all. Thanks to the body the mind can perfect itself. It is the same with gravity, everybody cursed it at some point, especially when they had problems with balance or had to carry something heavy up to the fifth floor without a lift. But if there was no gravity, we could not develop at all. The same goes for the relationship between body and soul. That is why we can safely say that the body is the visible part of the soul. For example astronauts when they land after a long time in space, they do not get off, they have to be carried off. They cannot walk on their own. This is what the absence of gravity causes. There is nothing to overcome and the body declines.

Raven: Many esotericists consider the body to be the prison of the soul, but that is a big mistake. Try to answer the question what is the most important for a man. If you say it is his body, there will hardly be a better answer. Money? Education? Love? Native country? Health? It all loses its meaning, if the common body we take for granted, and most people do not care about was missing. People who especially deal with the spiritual, try to supress their bodies and become extremely outraged if we appear with our open approach towards sex in a magazine that specialises in spiritual path. Sex is a part of reality, and most pseudoesotericists try to run away from it, because they are failures in normal life.

Many religions proclaim that this world is nothing but hell, and that only after death can a person get into the paradise, which he has to deserve already now if he obeys the laws of a certain religion or sect.

Ariana: This holds true for Christianity or Hinduism; basically for all religions which are androcratic, meaning they have males as the main authority. At the same time, a man is just an altered woman. Every fetus is female right from the beginning, only with the effect of testosterone can it become male. The remainders of the female essence are for instance the nipples. And if we are to talk about paradise – everybody knows nowadays that our Earth is just a tiny island surrounded by inhospitable universe, from which we are separated by a thin layer of fragile atmosphere. What else do you need to be able to imagine a perfect paradise? Unfortunately, it is the Earth, our paradise, out of which we are expulsing ourselves.

Therefore we practise natural religion. Nature is our temple, god and goddess, and we honestly respect the gift of life. Unlike the people who think that they are here as a punishment, and that life is just a curse, and that only after death they will be surrounded by bosomy houris which they will bonk with their unlimited manly power and the next day they will be virgins again. This is for example, the core of Islam, the Islamic fighters believe in it when they are coming down on a building in a plane or when they are exploding themselves.

What have you conjured up yet?

Ariana: Once I put a stone with a wish on the grave of rabbi Löw in a Jewish graveyard. I wanted to meet the man of my dreams, to be a model, a writer and a witch, and it all came true. On top of that we now have an oracle near the grave of rabbi Löw which I named At the Golden Snake. It is in Břehová street, which is really near to Oldnew Synagogue (and to Pařížská street where I buy handbags and shoes). At the Golden Snake there is special energy that curls like a snake or like a giant spiral and it is at the exact spot where we have our divinatory table. Some people feel they get rid of headaches and backaches there. It is probably the same thing that the Celts called Wujwer and the Chinese called it White Dragon. A strong stream of energy, a strong fault of the earth. It is a very good place for meditation. By the way, meditation is nothing but worship of the present which is so important for the mind and the body.

We like to surround ourselves with peculiar things – taken from the viewpoint of an ordinary citizen - which connect us with life even though they are linked to death. For instance we collect skulls, real skulls. Two skulls are our big pride, they are 3,500 years old from the Early Bronze Age. They were two ritually sacrificed girls, in all probability decapitated. Since I got them from a friend,an archaelogist, I have been satisfied with them. And I feel great peace as if they reconciled me with the death principle.

Another special piece we own is a Chinese ritual blood vessel. We also collect samurai swords – katanas. Two of them were tempered in human blood.

We often go to take pictures in graveyards. There is a fantastic graveyard under Bertramka in Smíchov (Prague) where there is a very special atmosphere and it looks great in photographs. It is interesting how beautiful the combination of a naked body, and an ancient gravestone leaved with ivy can be. As if it awoke the lust for life in a person.

Raven: Moreover skull is a symbol of mind. The Celts worshipped it and many other peoples like Aztecs, but also alchemists. It is easily understood, because skull and brain in it produce mind, and mind is what makes us human. If anybody thinks that these are morbid and perverted symbols, it is their problem. Without a skull, even their head would look rather strange.

What reactions do you get from people?

Raven: People are mostly scared of us and keep their distance. In the Czech Republic whoever is connected to magic is automatically linked to something dark, almost satanic. Therefore it is no surprise the communist regime lasted so long here. We have few friends but the more genuine.

Ariana: Maybe we are strange. What can you expect from people who do magic, take pictures of themselves naked and do sexual magic