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Another placeholder: (Scientology v. Rosicrucian magic) Hubbard wrote: Cf. David Griffin's The Ritual Magic Manual: David Griffin wrote: Initiation into any genuine Magical Order or Tradition inevitably includes magical as well as psychological aspects. Appendix V, "Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn, and Psychotherapy" demonstrates that, from a psychological perspective, genuine self initiation is virtually impossible. Nonetheless, under certain circumstances the solitary student can indeed accomplish the magical function of Initiation through discipline and persistence in the practice of Ceremonial Magic. The magical aims of Initiation are the systematic awakening of certain Forces in the Sphere of Sensation ("Aura" or "Energy Body") of the student, and the strengthening thereof.
The Adept over time learns to embody, transmit, and direct ever increasing amounts of Magical Current. There has been a great deal of misunderstanding regarding Magical Current, the Energy known in Rosicrucian Magic as LVX [lux]. More than an intellectual idea, this Energy is as physically real as electricity or fire and can be felt within and flowing through the body. Furthermore, LVX is the Force with which the Magician invests his Magical Weapons and Talismans during their consecration.
Griffin, D. (1999). The Ritual Magic Manual: A Complete Course in Practical Magic. Beverly Hills, Golden Dawn Publishing. In The Ritual Magic Manual's Appendix V: Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn, and Psychotherapy, David Griffin and Cris Monnastre wrote: When Regardie [Wikipedia: Israel Regardie] was a young man, he fervently wished to become a magician. He considered Aleister Crowley to be the foremost magician of the period and, having introduced himself to Crowley by means of an admiring letter, began to work as his personal secretary in Paris in 1928. After several years with Crowley, Regardie was forced to leave as the result of a painful rupture with his mentor. The trauma caused by this breach wounded Regardie deeply; he later said it took him nearly seven years to recover from it.
Impoverished and confused, Regardie was taken in as a house guest of Dion Fortune, who was living near Glastonbury in southwest England. Fortune was not only a talented magician but a natural clairvoyant as well. Until he died he never forgot her hospitality and generosity during this difficult period.
Dion Fortune influenced Regardie in a completely unexpected direction. She had been instrumental in bringing Sigmund Freud's ideas to England and had written a collection of short stories called The Secrets of Dr. Taverner. Although she characterized these stories as fiction, she said that Dr. Taverner actually existed and that the stories reflected factual case studies in which psychological and magical processes were linked.
It was at Dion Fortune's dinner table that Regardie was first exposed to the ideas of Freud and C. G. Jung. Shortly thereafter, still struggling with the onslaught of emotions stemming from his breach with Crowley, Regardie entered first into Freudian psychoanalysis and later into Jungian analysis. During this phase Regardie became aware of how great a role his own unresolved emotional conflicts from early childhood had played in his rupture with Crowley. Regardie eventually concluded that it was such unresolved infantility that accounted for most of the chaotic group dynamics of earlier esoteric fraternities. This would lead him to insist on the necessity of psychotherapy for anyone seriously practicing any spiritual discipline.
Regardie later moved to the U.S., where he became familiar witli the ideas of Wilhelm Reich and entered into Reichian therapy. He also began to correspond with Reich's daughter Eva, which stimulated him to take a serious interest in the mind-body connection And at length to train as a chiropractor.
Even toward the end of his lite, Regardie continued to respect both Freudian psychoanalysis and the ideas of Jung. He ultimately concluded that verbal therapy of any orientation pale4d in the light of Reich's bodywork, and that the techniques of ceremonial magic would one day become a powerful adjunct to psychotherapy.
As a therapist and a bodyworker, Regardie combined Reich's approach with minor chiropractic adjustments, basic magical techniques, and hatha yoga. In a typical session, Regardie would begin by initiating deep, rhythmic breathing in the client for a considerable period of time. This hyperventilation would create a slightly altered state of consciousness. During this process Regardie would survey various areas of tension on the body and would reduce their tightness with a type of deep and at times painful massage.
Both Regardie and Reich felt that unresolved emotional conflicts were stored in the body as tension. Using a physical approach would release blockages so that life energy, which Reich called "orgone," could pass freely through the entire body. During the course of a session, a great deal of emotion would frequently emerge, which the client was encouraged to express.
Regardie often related Reichian ideas to the magic of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He was particularly fond of one magical exercise called the Middle Pillar Ritual. In this technique the magician visualizes successive spheres of light at various points above, below, and along the spinal column while vibrating certain words. This generates a certain kind of energy, which, according to Regardie, is identical to Reich's orgone. This energy is then circulated around and through the entire body by means of further visualization.
Legitimate esoteric orders have always been primarily intended to provide a context within which initiation may safely and effectively occur. As will be shown here, there are many parallels between initiation and forms of psychotherapy that take into account the spiritual dimensions of growth. Regardie even advised that the two should be considered as complementary processes, and that initiation should always be accompanied by some form of psychotherapy.
Regardie of course considered Reichian therapy to be the most useful adjunct to magical work. In view of the current lack of trained Reichian therapists, however, other schools of psychology suitable for work alongside magical training are those that include spiritual growth as a part of their paradigm, such as the Jungian and Transpersonal orientations, Psychosynthesis, and the emerging school of Esoteric Psychology.
Why does a candidate for initiation need psychotherapy? Any form of spiritual training, when practiced with enough sincerity and discipline, will eventually activate what Jung calls the complexes of the personal unconscious. These may be defined as infantile emotional patterns left over from very early childhood that revolve around unresolved parental conflicts. These complexes are symbolized in the diagrams in this appendix by the seven-headed dragon. Frequently they are energized by spiritual practices.
Unless the complexes are allowed to emerge into consciousness in a safe and controlled fashion, they can be acted out in dangerous ways. This helps explain why many "spiritual" groups have become dysfunctional and at times even destructive.
Admittedly, combining initiation and psychotherapy does involve some difficulties. Whereas psychotherapy is unlikely to harm the effectiveness of an initiation or of any other genuinely spiritual process, not everyone seeking initiation can afford the substantial expense of psychotherapy. Furthermore the average lay person may find it difficult to distinguish an effective therapist from an incompetent one. Unfortunately, inept and destructive psychotherapists are frequently easier to find than capable ones, and the same holds true for initiators and initiating orders. Far too many esoteric groups are primarily motivated by their leaders' needs for money or manipulative control over people's lives.
True initiation is a process not unlike that of psychotherapy in that the skill and personal ethics of the initiator are crucial to a successful outcome. Moreover a relationship with an unethical initiator can be as damaging as one with an unethical psychotherapist. Anyone seeking initiation thus needs to be extremely discriminating in the choice of an initiator or order.
The seeker also needs to distinguish between initiating orders and personality cults, since far too many spiritual groups have been built around the personalities of charismatic but manipulative leaders. This phenomenon, combined with a disregard for the psychological issues that may arise, accounts for many of the abuses that have plagued the esoteric community.
An analysis of the psychological dynamics underlying initiation will help to clarify why such abuses occur. The initiatic process of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn clearly illustrates the dangers as well as the potential of initiation. But let us first consider the primary differences between initiation and psychotherapy.
Initiation, as its name suggests, may be defined as a new beginning. In the Golden Dawn system, the initiatic process has a magical as well as a psychological component. The magical component may be described as the systematic awakening or ignition of certain forces or energies in the "Sphere of Sensation" of the initiate. (The Sphere of Sensation is the term used by the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis to describe what is commonly called the energy body or the aura.)
This process requires an initiator in whom these forces are already awakened and active, since initiation occurs through an actual transmission of energies. Thus from a magical perspective, the relationship between the initiator and the candidate is crucial. In this sense genuine self-initiation, if not altogether impossible, is at least extremely difficult to achieve. It is nonetheless possible, although difficult, to accomplish much of this magical aim of initiation through systematically and repeatedly invoking the correct magical energies using ceremonial magic.
Griffin, D. (1999). The Ritual Magic Manual: A Complete Course in Practical Magic. Beverly Hills, Golden Dawn Publishing. Compare Body thetans v. Demons, Qlippoth, etc.: David Griffin wrote: Psychology and Evocation
One may best understand the function of Magical Evocation within Rosicrucian Magic from a psychological perspective. Modern psychology offers the Magician important insight into processes known to Theurgists for thousands of years. The notion of the Unconscious, an aspect of the psyche lying beneath the threshold of conscious awareness, provides new insight into the nature of the Entities previously understood as Demons. Israel Regardie suggested that: "The term 'complex' has achieved a fairly wide notoriety during the last quarter century since the circulation of the ideas of Freud and Jung. It means an aggregation or group of ideas in the mind with a strong emotional charge, capable of affecting conscious thought and behavior."[7] Living in the dark realm beyond the light of consciousness, the complexes enjoy a sort of semi-autonomy within the psyche.
7. Israel Regardie, The Art and Meaning of Magic (Toddington: Helios, 1964), p. 32.
Whether the Magical Forces, Angels, and Demons exist objectively or rather merely subjectively within the psyche of the Magician is an epistemological question that goes beyond the scope of the present discussion. For practical purposes, it is quite useful to consider the Forces at times as though they were objective and in other instances to treat them as though they were purely subjective psychic contents of the Magician. This is not dissimilar to the scientific understanding of light. We may best understand certain properties of light by considering it as a wave and others by considering light as a particle. We may thus gain new insight into the nature of Demons by considering the Averse Forces as subjective Forces within the Psyche of the Magician. These complexes exist beyond the threshold of consciousness, beyond the light of reason so to speak, in the darkness of the psyche. In Qabalistic terms, the four Worlds of Aziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah, with their corresponding Gods, Archangels, and Angels are Forces of Light. They exist in the Light of consciousness. The Averse Forces, Qlippoth, Spirits, and Demons are unconscious Forces, which exist in the dark realm beyond our conscious awareness.
Indeed, the Demons are but the "Shadows of the Gods." A lotus flower opens gracefully in the light, but its root grows in the dark slime beneath the water. Each of the Forces attributed the Tree of Life may be likened to a lotus flower. The Divine Names, Archangels, Angels, and Spheres corresponding to each Force are like the petals of the lotus, bathing in the light of consciousness. The corresponding Qlippoth, Spirits, and Demons are the root of the lotus growing in the dark slime. The Gods, Archangels, and Angels are rational or conscious Forces. The Averse Forces comprise the dark, non-rational, frequently repressed, instinctual, and emotive counterparts of the same.
These Dark Forces exert a great power over consciousness. They move us instinctually, emotionally, and frequently completely unobserved and unnoticed. Who has not experienced being "carried away" by a strong emotion, like anger, which colors consciousness temporarily with nearly irresistible power? Who has not said, at one time or another, "I just don't know what came over me?" Indeed, unconscious Forces play a far more active and fundamental role in day-to-day life then we are normally aware. They manifest autonomously, in response to stimuli in the environment, and independently of our will and awareness. It is the task of the Major Adept to grow in awareness of, to make conscious, and to master these Forces.
From this perspective, Magical Evocation bears a certain resemblance to the process of psychotherapy, since it involves the bringing of unconscious contents to light. By evoking the Averse Forces into the Triangle of Art, the Magician brings them into the light of consciousness, virtually comes to see them, and attempts learn about their nature, function, and mode of operation in the process.
Before the Evocation, this had remained completely unconscious or, so to speak, in the darkness. With time, the Adept learns to quickly recognize these Forces whenever they manifest in his or her day-today life and to direct their operation to the service of greater psychic unity and harmony. As Israel Regardie put it: "No longer are they [the Demons] independent spirits roaming the astral world, or partial systems roaming the unconscious, disrupting the individual's conscious life. They are brought back once more into the personality where they become useful citizens so to speak, integral parts of the psyche, instead of outlaws and gangsters, grievous and dangerous enemies threatening psychic unity and integrity."8
[8] Ibid., p. 36
It is frequently easier to recognize the manifestation of these Forces in retrospect rather than during their manifestation moment-to-moment. These processes are very subtle and extremely easy to overlook. The Magical Diary or Journal is therefore an important tool in becoming conscious of these Forces, as we frequently notice them first during the process of reflection.
Thus we have seen that modern psychology illuminates processes underlying Ceremonial Magic. It would behoove psychologists and psychotherapists as well, however, to pay closer attention to Ceremonial Magic. Through Rituals like Magical Evocation, Ceremonial Magic has a great deal to offer psychology, especially regarding technique and methodology.
Griffin, D. (1999). The Ritual Magic Manual: A Complete Course in Practical Magic. Beverly Hills, Golden Dawn Publishing.
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INTELLIGENCE SPECIALIST TRAINING ROUTINE – TR L
Purpose: To train the student to give a false statement with good TR-1. To train the student to outflow false data effectively.
Commands: Part l “Tell me a lie”.
Last edited by caroline on Sun Oct 02, 2011 5:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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