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sub figura 98

Publication in Class C
 

On the various manifestations of The Black Lodge
and the Vacillations of Being

Of Particular Importance for the Practicus

First of all, there are as many roads to failure as to success, and the fallen, the Black Brothers will show up in numerous variants preferring one error before another. We must also point out the distinction between the black and the black; meaning there is a Black School of Magick, also referred to as left hand path. It means there is a sane work to execute on the Pillar of Severity and the success there is also the fundament for later successes on the Pillar of Mildness.

To distinguish:
The Christist: One who still uses the non-purged (Cf. AL II.5) formulas of Christianity in a world where these don’t work, and are thus destined for corruption. 

The Black Brother: A Magickian working on the left pillar and with the forces of Aub. Or a non-Magickian that has fallen into these pits and tries to find a way of living with or through these forces. Both can be very troublesome as the viewpoint of the Pillar of Severity (the ‘left’ side) provides bitter and disillusioning lessons.

The fallen: the ‘Shutups;’ the spiritual criminal; those undead and non-living, the zombies and vampires, the ghoul, lichen and so on; these are connected to the qliphoth, and bring the qliphoth into the real world.  It must also be said that it is possible to work with the qliphoth without becoming undead or to have bring this into reality.  This is in a path well-traveled by Kenneth Grant, though he seems not to have traversed it successfully.  Indeed, there is certain evidence of his possession that becomes most readily apparent in his tome:  The Ninth Gate.

Crowley’s writings on the Black Lodge can be found in Liber CDXVIII, and also several of the chapters in Liber Aleph. A central focus on the "shut-ups" as found in Chapter 89 of Liber CCCXXXIII provides a core principle the formulation of the Black Brother.  People that refuse to face reality or more typically, certain parts of it; recreating and reinterpreting the details they can see of reality in order to conceal the things they can’t or won’t see.  The loop is also a tool to use for those who managed to get to this state by Magick, and that means creating actions and circumstances which will not give a result to grow on, but returning to the point of origin; inexperienced and therefore unchanged.  In other words, the idea that we are simply children of God, having left heaven and seeking only to return to it is a false notion. 

Hitherto we have had the confusing of terms regarding the fallen and the Black Brother. This is due to the fact that the Pillar of Severity presents zones of blindness, which also is logical as they contain the Aub; the black light, which prevents humans from gazing beyond them, and to the higher abodes.  So this blindness is both natural and a disease; natural for the inexperienced, but sick to those who fail to grasp its lessons. Only by working through these zones can one overcome the blindness and again become a true vessel of the Light. And as experienced, the Light is stronger and goes further.

Acting without acknowledging that consequences can and do occur, is a good example of the blindness of the Shutups.  The very idea that someone can escape the fruit of their own karma is a false notion.  Motta writes quite eloquently on this subject:

The petty man is not ashamed of what is not benevolent, nor fears doing what is not right.  Without prospect of profit, he does not dedicate himself to what is good, and without pressure from others; he does not redress his errors.  However, self-correction in small things would make him chary in things of greater consequence.  If good deeds are not accumulated, they will not be sufficient to create character in us; if bad deeds are not accumulated, they will not be sufficient to disrupt our lives.  The petty man thinks that small good deeds are unimportant and does not do them; he thinks that small bad deeds are unimportant and does not abstain from them.  Thus his evil accumulates until it can no longer be disguised, and his guilt grows until it becomes intolerable.

Crowley stated that Christianity suffers foremost on its ignorance of the facts of nature.  It is easy enough for us to see that the general focus upon blind faith is a perfect tool for creating a Shut up.  As the term ‘Christist’ is really a term that covers all religions with consoler gods, the problem is really quite widespread.  Humanity at-large shut itself off from acknowledging the subtler forces.  This can be shown biologically as the focus of the brain moved away from the cerebellum and into the development of the cerebral cortex with its two hemispheres and centralized corpus collosum.

Christianity today operates with so many contradictions and hollowed teachings that its end product appears more often as a culture living in constant irony; a culture living in an alternative and  secluded reality where the falseness is so evenly distributed that its followers manages to believe its supposed to be so.  And contradiction is the foremost characteristic of the nature of the Qliphoth. This is why Crowley makes so much sense when he says the pronunciation of the Law makes the sun to shine and the flowers to bloom. It restores nature and allows it be natural and nothing else. Indeed, uttering the word of the Magus makes the world go round, renews the world and makes one access the one and only reality.

In essence, the Black Brother is a Solipsist; one who says that existence is for “me, my existence and my mental states; everything that I experience of the seeming world outside myself is simply the contents of my own consciousness.”  Yet there’s a conundrum in considering the fact that the brain, which houses the mind is directly connected to and inter-related with the body.  If one’s body is perceived as solely separate and distinct from all the other bodies of the Universe (human and otherwise), then one truly finds a lonely tower.

This extremist viewpoint (solipsism) is still one of the lessons of the left Pillar. Few people can imagine the reality occurring on the left pillar as it truly is unbalanced force in itself, still its the Magickian’s duty to chisel out this extremity, balance it and later put it in a larger context, by the aid of the following Sephiroth. The truth of solipsism is rather than itself; the span it creates with the opposite viewpoint of total unity, for in this span humanity prefers to be living; sometimes a little bit alone, at other times close to unity in love.  Let’s face it; we are living in a reality composed of opposites, where the poles of these pairs appear meaningless; like objectivity or subjectivity isolated. Its just like in politics, the extreme left and right are outright madness and must often be protected from the world. Also; Insofar we realize the solipsism paradigm’s failure to make sense on its own , we also are realizing the lie which constitutes our reality in creation. This is why these cornerstones are such a dangerous find, as they are directly touched by Choronzon.

But by Magick we have got a tool to examine the extreme cornerstones of reality in secure circumstances. And such work IS to be done in a Magickal order that does not present itself as a Middle Pillar tradition, but as an order dedicated to all Sephiroth.  The failure to face the apparent madness on the close-up view of the left pillar, is likely to create desperate recovery maneuvers on behalf of one’s own psyche and in this way people usually go from bad to worse. The seed of the fallen is sown. And it may grow, as they can’t catch the far-reaching validity of the following instruction from Liber AL vel Legis:

“For I am divided for Love`s sake, for the chance of union.”  AL I.29

“This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.”  AL I.30

The common problem in our world isn’t the hardcore undead. It is the petty errors that force people to keep their vacillations; these being connected to something that its keeper seems to find unsolvable or even unapproachable. And we could say that accumulation of these vacillations manage to make their host into the class described in The Book of the Law as The Filthy.

The cure is in cultivating the double current or what also may be nicknamed sane schizophrenia.  It implies removing planar or level confusion, which is done by committing to a specific plane; by refusing to accept any other truths than those existing there, and then tidying this level by its inherent logic. Understand that we here refer to the solitary work on the individual Sephirah. (And that this work may at times be troublesome to combine with normal work in the world. Let’s say for example: If you work as a.teacher, you still must keep yourself open on all planes to be able to respond to world and its multifaceted reality.)  And the sephirotic work gives access to the particulars of the next point, which is the cultivation of the double current.

This at large refers to the implementation of opposites and of the lessons of the black and white pillar (AUD and AUB). It means treating the powers of life with the principle of expansion, while the powers of the shadow and nothing is given over to restriction. And the general way to success is by common sense; giving ones faculties individual and separate treatment in accordance with their favorite circumstances, so that one ends up by classic solutions as “A warm heart and a cool mind.”  What remains is laziness, and that  is solved by commitment and discipline.

The Averse Way

From Liber HHH

Two are the methods of becoming God: the Upright and the Averse.  Let the Mind become as a flame [Upright], or as a well of still water [Averse].

It can be debated whether 666 by the Averse method referred to work on the Black pillar or to the work on the Qliphoth; the averse side; however the principles of working are the same here; restriction, silencing, tidying, balancing, the unpacking of forgotten knots (problems) and the careful tending by loving approach to recreate a clean well of water that is ready to respond to a single drop of water.

Karl Jasper gives us an interesting account of this experience in his book:  General Psychopathology:

I believe I caused the illness myself.  In my attempt to penetrate the other world I met its natural guardians, the embodiment of my own weaknesses and faults.  I first thought these demons were lowly inhabitants of the other world who could play me like a ball because I went into these regions unprepared and lost my way.  Later I thought they were split-off parts of my own mind (passions), which existed near me in free space and thrived on my feelings.  I believed everyone else had these too but did not perceive them, thanks to the protective successful deceit of the feeling of personal existence.  I thought the latter was an artifact of memory, thought-complexes, etc., a doll that was nice enough to look at from outside but nothing real inside it.

In my case the personal self had grown porous because of my dimmed consciousness.  Through it I wanted to bring myself closer to the higher sources of life.  I should have prepared myself for this over a long period by invoking in me a higher, impersonal self, since "nectar" is not for mortal lips.  It acted destructively on the animal-human self, split it up into its parts.  These gradually disintegrated, the doll was really broken and the body damaged.  I had forced untimely access to the "source of life," the curse of the "gods" descended on me.  I recognized too late that murky elements had taken a hand.  I got to know them after they had already too much power.  There was no way back.  I now had the world of spirits I had wanted to see.  The demons came up from the abyss, as guardian Cerberi, denying admission to the unauthorized.  I decided to take up the life-and-death struggle.  This meant for me in the end a decision to die, since I had to put aside everything that maintained the enemy, but this was also everything that maintained life.  I wanted to enter death without going mad and stood before the Sphinx: either thou into the abyss or I!

Then came illumination. I fasted and so penetrated into the true nature of my seducers. They were pimps and deceivers of my dear personal self, which seemed as much a thing of naught as they. A larger and more comprehensive self emerged and I could abandon the previous personality with its entire entourage. I saw this earlier personality could never enter transcendental realms. I felt as a result a terrible pain, like an annihilating blow, but I was rescued, the demons shriveled, vanished and perished. A new life began for me and from now on I felt different from other people. A self that consisted of conventional lies, shams, self-deceptions, memory images, a self just like that of other people, grew in me again but behind and above it stood a greater and more comprehensive self which impressed me with something of what is eternal, unchanging, immortal and inviolable and which ever since that time has been my protector and refuge. I believe it would be good for many if they were acquainted with such a higher self and that there are people who have attained this goal in fact by kinder means.

An emptiness from within could develop as the serious Aspirant will probably encounter no reciprocal relation with the world.  This is the shadow that vacillates with the developed ego of the Zelator.  And the shadow must be indulged, as its negative existence is an essential part of one's nature.  Motta hints at this:

Certain people have a greater developed astral body than the norm, either due to deliberate training, genetic inheritance, magnetic influences of where they live or the people with which they enter into contact with.  For example, trained Initiates, are themselves, developed to a high degree, but not of a degree raised enough to have overwhelmed the Ego, possess intensely magnetic, disturbing personalities for sensible people who are not accustomed to the existing presence of psychic force in high tension.  In circumstances in the which Aspirants already of a certain development extend the conscience of the internal vehicles with greater ease, those that are not prepared can  become extremely disturbed by the constant presence of an initiate.  Therefore, advanced occultists that, without having yet reached total balance and destruction of one’s powers, and allow the profane to enter in one’s circle, are being imprudent and until indiscreet.  But they cannot, in all fairness, be accused of abusing their faculties. They emanate force involuntarily, due to its high internal load.  The initiates of higher advancement always live away from the multitude, they not only need isolation for their work, but know its influence produces a violent psychic reaction in the profane.

It seems that only by bringing forth the shadow, can we then work through its affectation upon one's psyche.  This sets up the vacillations.  The two natures of the psyche are brought forth simultaneously…it's a schizophrenia!  But if done right, a controlled one at that.  The Zelator has defined his or her own ego without intrusion from the world outside oneself.  But this has become alienated from the world at-large.  The desire then becomes for that 'one' that will reside with him or her on that fortified island.  For this of course, there is the Angel.  One's full attention has to be given to the Angel as the one other, or “IT.”  And the shadow yet, will protrude its emptiness.  It will evoke the violence of the world.

We can find this schizophrenia in the life of Aleister Crowley…from his mother referring to him as 'the Beast,' to the reaction against him by his fellow members of the Golden Dawn when he sought initiation into the inner grades…based in part on his homo or bi-sexuality. There was also a difference between Aleister Crowley, the misogynist, and the Master Therion who saw the equivalent status and importance of the opposite gender. The inner and the outer seemed to be leading two different lives.

“Stooping down, dipping my wings, I came unto the darkly-splendid abodes. There in that formless abyss was I made a partaker of the Mysteries Averse." LXV II.4

Motta:

The Godhead, in order to realize itself, must involuntarily submit to undergo the experience of imperfection. It must take the Sacrament which unites it with the dark glamour of “Evil,'' the counterpart of that which exalts the “Sinner'' to Godhead.

Crowley:

The concept of God coming down into matter in order to “redeem” it is false, connected with the psychological hiatus between Chesed and Binah. The fable of the Fall was invented to explain why man is so unfortunately constituted (from the point of view of lazy men, of course), and to uphold the Father-Image at any cost. In reality, the hiatus is due to the fact that man is a Spiritual entity quickening the body and mind of an animal. There is no physiological connection in the brain between the faculties called the Supernals by the Qabalists and the highest faculty of the homo saps: Chesed. Daath is therefore an artificial construct (again the Ahamkara) with the purpose of making possible integration between the God and the man. Its inefficiancy is due to its very recent apparition. All the faculties related to the higher Manas and to Buddhi-Manas are liable to confusion and error at this stage of evolution, because they are new, and still at the experimental stage. And the lower faculties, left to themselves, work well from a worldly point of view: the man (or woman) is happy, contented, prosperous, and dead to the higher life. As soon as the higher faculties become active, happiness of this sort disappears. The man, no matter how brilliant, proves incapable of providing his own living or that of his family; becomes “anti-social” and quite often ends up in prison or in the asylum. In the land of the blind the one-eyed man had better run for his life. Check Liber VII II.27-33.

The purpose is to create a human type capable of living the higher life while in the body of flesh, and doing it without trouble, perturbation or unnecessary pain. This purpose may take Us a few hundred thousand years yet to accomplish, but that is Our program. Until then.

Why then does God come into matter? To enrich His-Her-Its Experience. And this enriching of experience is basically a selfish impulse. We are not trying to “save” man. Dammit, We are man. Without Us, there is only the monkey and the blind thing of slime here, as LXV itself will make clear later on.