Egotism
One of the great dangers inherent within the practice of Magic and indeed
of all the occult arts -- is the development of an enormous egotism characterized
by messianic feelings, infantile omnipotence and the utter destruction of
any capacity for effective self-criticism. It appears that as the student
becomes more adept in the skills of meditation, skrying, or ceremonial work,
he becomes more threatened by an inflation of the ego. It appears slowly
and insidiously, without apparent warning. Only those people who are closely
related to or associated with the student become aware of the subtle
metamorphosis that occurs. The student rarely is conscious of the unconscious
transformation. Attempting to make him aware of this egotism is doomed to
failure; it is like knocking on a stone wall.
It seems to afflict the aspirant who functions outside the borders of an
occcult order or legitimate magical school. In this sense, most students
come within the jurisdiction of this definition. Those who practice their
occult work under the aegis of a legitimate magical body or under the guidance
of an experienced and wise guru or teacher seem to be more protected from
this inflation -- unless the guru has himself fallen under the spell of his
own messianic fantasies and inflation. if he has, then he communicates his
fatal sickness to this students, or else he is wholly blinded to the debacle
about to occur to his student.
One has only to look at the history of most modern occultists and I use them
preferentially because their history is more readily authenticated than those
of earlier times -- to perceive how valid this phenomenon is. So many of
them developed fantastice notions of their own unique importance and role
in the world or even cosmic picture. Only recently I heard of one who claimed
to have been the teacher of Jesus! There are an almost infinite number of
variations of this theme.
It is a definite and ever present danger, and all students of occultism within
or without occult orders must become conscious of this phenomenn. Otherwise
they are doomed. They experience what appears to be at first an enhancement
of life-feelings, a rich harvest of previously unknown information and knowledge,
and the awareness that destiny has suddenly acquired a new direction, --
only to collapse later in total frustration, ignominy, and exile from all
of society.
From the theoretical viewpoint, the gradual expansion of the confines of
the limited ego by magical practices, leads to contact of some kind with
the 'unconscious'. A new source of energy is released, an energy which is
seen as carrying with it not only new feelings but new knowledge and a greater
capacity for self-confidence with the ability to impress and motivate one's
fellow man. This energy floods the unprepared ego with almost infinite promise.
Unless the candidate is properly prepared for this phenomenon, or is guided
and guarded by a competent experienced teacher, he is likely to take this
seriously. Effective self-criticism seems to have vanished in thin air.
Crowley seems to have been most conscious of this in some of his earlier
work. he himself had a couple of admirable teachers -- Alan Bennett, George
Cecil Jones and Oscar Eckenstein. For example in one section of Liber O he
wrote: 'This book is very easy to misunderstand; readers are asked to use
the most minute critical care in the study of it, even as we have done in
its preparation. In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths;
of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes and many other things
which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not.
By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly
warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any
of them. There is little danger that any student, however idle or stupid,
will fail to get some result; but there is great danger that he will be led
astray, obsessed and overwhelmed by his results, even though it be by those
which it is necessary that he should attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh
the final resting-place for the goal, and taketh off his armour as if he
were a victor ere the fight is well begun.'
Some few other occultists familiar with the practical side of things also
utter similar warnings. Blavatsky in her Voice of the Silence also warns
that 'under every flower a serpent coiled.' And in a footnote in this warning,
she adds: 'The astral region, the psychic world of supersensous perception
and of deceptive sights -- the world of mediums. It is the great ' Astral
Serpent' of Eliphas Levi. No blossom picked in those regions has ever yet
been brought down to earth without its serpent coiled around the stem. It
is the world of the Great Illusion.'
Only a good guru of almost superhuman powers of effective self-evaluation
and examination provide the means of avoiding inflation and the consequent
disaster. A third means is almost any form of good psychotherapy. The latter
appears to be able to drain off the massive uncontrolled quantities of energy
that are released and direct them into new and constructive goals. Those
Reichians who have an understanding of 'occult' matters would appear to be
more effective than most in dealing with the phenomenon.
Jung has also described it most extensively in an extraordinarily good essay
in a book entitiled Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. However, the methods
of therapy described by Jung and practised by his followers leave a lot to
be desired. Every occult student should not merely read this book but own
it, in order to provide the opportunity to read and re-read many times the
chapter dealing with inflation of the ego.
It is his contention that the analysand, the patient undergoing therapy --
analagous to the enterprising student beginning his occult work -- attempts
to identify his ego with the collective psyche. He does this as a means of
escaping the pain and anxiety resulting from the collapse of his conscious
persona or self, which is one of the primary effects of the analysis. To
free himself from the seductive embrace of the collective psyche, instead
of denying it as some others have done, he accepts it so totally that he
is devoured or overwhelmed by it, becomes lost in it, and thus is no longer
capable of perceiving it as a separate entity. As another student once put
it, instead of realizing that they have become illuminated by God, they affirm
that they are God. Thus the inflation begins. It ends disastrously when or
if the 'God' discovers he is not omniscient or omnipotent. But by then it
is generally too late.
It would not do the student harm to re-read the statement by Hyatt and myself
on the problems confronting the serious occult student in the beginning of
this book. Also while at times outrageous Hyatt's book Undoing Yourself with
Energized Meditation (Falcon Press, 1982), makes good sense in this context.
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