If the soup nazi was a gnostic

It seems there is a confusion between what the difference is between the esoteric and the exoteric strands of Christianity.

If I got a coin everytime someone complains to me that Gnosticism is dualistic or that the myths are difficult to swallow, or the fact that its confusing there are so many different myths, I would probably have enough money to build my own church.

I think I can safely try and not have verbal diarrhea in writing this time around and simply state the obvious.

If you swallow the myth, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim, or any other religion for that matter, then you are following the religion. To believe, accept and follow you need faith.

If you would swallow one of the gnostic myths, as so many, many do, then you are not actually a Gnostic. Following the Christian doctrine and believing in it fully, you are not a Theosopher.

The myths serve a purpose, in the same way as certain Tools or magical processes do. They give you an approximation a way to make sense of the inner processes.

If you believe in any specific gnostic myth in the same way as a fundie believes in the second coming of christ, if you think that any revealed text to be truthful, then you are doing a very very good job. Of being a Psychic, but Gnostic you are not.

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Tools for the common man

To avoid having to write the same email over and over again:

Most people do not actually want to learn magick. Most people do not actually want to get knee-deep into western esotericism. What you think you know about the esoteric tradition, what you have read in books, on blogs, that is still exotericism. Even I am not talking openly about many things here as I am not an idiot.

The truth is, most just want to mess about with parts of the system.

I have met many who should just shut up, and fit into society.

I have met many who spend years of their life doing theurgy and hating every moment of it because what they actually WANT is religion. But they have been indoctrinated by the "books claiming to the esoteric" that religion is bad as it is exoteric. That the smart people, the people who understand postmodernism, and "spirituality" who want to get somehewhere in life and with the "work" do not follow exoteric religions.

The exact same goes for people doing mystical work.

Same thing with people using the wrong tools for the job. People who deep down are Christian trying to become Buddhist because they get a mental stiffy out of its projected orientalism and doctrine that makes mental sense. (even though they would pray to god the moment i shove a revolver into their mouths...)

People who try to use practical magick to accomplish spiritual ends, people who think praying to Sophia will make them better people. Psychological issues we try to fix with magick even though there are more effective means.... the list is endless and 9 out of 10 seekers are dead wrong in where they are heading.

If you want to have tools to become a better person, if you want to develop a deeper relationship with the source, if you want the bortherhood. If you want to start the path, by linking yourself one way or another to what is one of the few representatives of the existing western transmission outside Europe, become a Mason.

1 You believe in a higher power and you will develop your relationship to it

2 it will show you what a functioning lodge is

3 you will be forced to work with so many other people with different backgrounds that your bubble will open up

4 the Egregore of the order will have a good influence on you

you will NOT learn magic from them. You will not learn alchemy. No. You will simply become part of a massive brotherhood and you will start to work on yourself and you will receive tools to work with.

For most this will be enough. Magick or mysticism for spiritual purposes is not for everyone and you should never ever feel like you HAVE TO do it. Become a Master Mason. Manifest it fully in your life.

Gnostics usually say that Psychics are doing an excellent job. Keep up the good work :P

Even if you want to learn goety, thaumaturgy or theurgy this will give you a good grounding, and certain things you might be able to find in books and certain things there are groups for.

Read EVERYTHING you can get a hold of from Evola. Enjoy.

If you seek a more spiritual approach: Go to a monastery of your faith for a while. Preferably 2 weeks. Pray. If you do not believe in God because you think she is a silly notion then how the hell do you propose to become a mystic?

If you truly honestly feel that you want to spend your time and energy developing a further relationship with the divine?

Read Theosophia : Wisdoms Children and start to have a practice.

Find out if there is a local Martinist group you may be able to join, seek initiation from one of them accepted by the others, use the tools and be aware that there is no further goal then Universal Reintegration.

If none of this is what you want, if you just want those sixpacks and get laid, then do what the rest of the world does;

Stop bitching about spirits, stop sitting for hours meditating without moving, stop doing rituals for some odd end. Get a haircut. Start to work out. Get an education for the job you want and live and enjoy life fully. With as many pretty pentagrams or crosses for decoration as you may or may not want. The Esoteric tradition is not self help.

For goodness sake.

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What do you want?

Many find magick and the esoteric fascinating.

Some are attracted by the idea of visible effects. Some want to break the code and have more power. Some are loosers who have shit lives and want to escape into a world where they mean something and can do a career out of being initiated into something.

All reasons are equally valid. You can find a nice religion masquerading as something deeply esoteric. Some need that. Others just want to be normalised.

Write down the answers to the following questions:

"What do I believe about the world, its creation its purpose and my place in it."

(Make it into an essay. It is worth it.)

What is my relationship to :

God

Myself

Nature

Other people

(again, essay)

What is it that I am looking for?

(To learn to do 99,9% success love spells? To learn how to dominate people? To have a better relationship with god, myself, others, the world?)

What completely mundane things can I do to accomplish this?

Get a social life, a career, actually swallow my stupid projections about the outer rules of the faith, stop praying to God dressup (cough most neopagans cough) or in Drag (cough goddess centered wicca cough) and actually just go to church?

Once you have written down the above, you have a plan. You might realise this is all very fun and interesting but nothing more then an interest. Thats fine. It is OK to be interested in things and not make it into your life. I like Top Gear and nice cars. I'm not a mechanic. I am interested in natural sciences and read a lot about animal behaviour and I even know a lot of fun trivia about animal life, yet I do not aspire to be the next Sir David Attenborough.

If you just want to be a Darren Brown, thats OK. If you realise you are a social misfit and you were just looking for an alternate reality to share with your friends, that also fine because now you are aware of it. If you realise you want to experience mystical states you finally will start to pray instead of doing magick, and if you want to evoke demons you will know that now you can stop meditating for hours a day and feel bad when you miss your meditation because evocation and meditation are two skillsets with as much in common as I have with a puppy.

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With feeling?

I have a theory :it could be demons....?

I have a theory :it could be bunnies.

There are 2 sides to ceremonial magick, theurgy and thaumaturgy. If you focus too much on theurgy you become stuck in using magick only to progress on a spiritual path towards enlightenment and refuse to use magick to find a job for example, but you get a cool alchemical process. This also leads to constantly being unsure where the subjective/objective line goes. It might even make you look down upon people who do practical magick, believing that they are deluding themselves. This also leads to the dark side of the force.... Err I mean the psychological model of magick.

If you only do thaumaturgy you become a devout believer in a specific set of rules like Lisewski, Greer or Warnock, very good at manipulating the coincidence, or however practical magick works, but then one is still stuck on this side of the fates and one misstakes the rules and thinks the symbol is the signified not the signifyer. This also leads to the dark side of the force.

Demons, angels, signified or signifiers? Tools for our internal life or separate entities? When we work theurgy do we contact the same spirit as when we do thaumaturgy? The truth of the matter might surprise you.

Its not angels. Its not demons.

Its

Bunnies?

Bunnies!

Do both. Theurgy plus Thaumaturgy= fun. Simple scientifically proven equation.

This way you can work out why they need carrots.

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The brain

I was recently honored to be invited to a reading group where practical spirituality was discussed. The head of the group is a resident fellow, 80 or more years of age. We also had 2 psychologists, a professor of philosophy and a science doctor join us.

The fellow in charge of the group thought we would enjoy discussing the recent headways made in the field of Neuroscience linked with meditative practices.

I will not bore you with the details of the 4 hour talk.

The short version of the story is:

The researchers have found two types of "meditation."

1 Active

2 Passive

Active meditation is characterised by what in academia is referred to as magickal practices. Possession by spirits, exorcism performed by Bon Buddhists, Tantrics removing curses and evangelicals speaking in toungues.

Passive meditation is when the meditator is fully focused inward, whether sat still, performing a tea ceremony or performing the orthodox Jesus prayer.

The scientists found a few interesting things.

In cases of active meditation, the meditators felt themselves to be vessels or conduits of something beyond themselves, their brain halves started to mirror eachother more and the back side of the brain is enlarged and hyper active. The practitioners are very "situated" in where they are and feelings of power are reported though it is power harnessed not owned.

In cases of passive meditation, the area of the brain we usually call the third eye is the only active part, it also grows and the rest of the brain is strangely, FULLY shut down. This removes all aspects of language and we are unable to experience anything but unity as the parts that understand ideas of Space are not in use. Practitioners experience what is referred to as Unio Mystica, divine union with all.

Why is this interesting?

Firstly, practices have a clear physiological effect.

Secondly, no matter how bad you are at one, practice DOES make perfect.

Thirdly, it shows that a varied practice, contemplation and performance will develop your faculties.

Last, it shows that some of us are more drawn biologically to one way of working over another and it does explain why you might feel difficulties with certain inner or outer practices.

Persevere. The brain is elastic, like molten plastic.

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