The Anti-Occultist

Sticky Biscuits

The 20th Century’s most prominent occultists, Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, and Kenneth Grant, are all guilty of sacrificing their humanity to myth. It wasn’t enough for Crowley to produce an unprecedented working synthesis of the (then available) world’s wisdom traditions and present a unique approach to enlightenment; he had to levitate, defeat the Black Lodge in magical combat, cause world catastrophes and serve as the divinely ordained World Teacher. It wasn’t sufficient that Austin Osman Spare was an artistic genius who found Crowley’s occult system effective; he had to deliberately obfuscate and conceal the occult ideas and methods of the time - in an insufferable and inexcusable butchery of the english language within the pages of inscrutable grimoires, and then concoct or promote fantastical accounts of his magical prowess (such as the time he grew his penis so large no prostitute could accommodate him) in a bid to foster his legend as the mysterious artist ‘walking between worlds’. It was obviously inadequate for Kenneth Grant to encourage and preserve for posterity much of Crowley and Spare’s great work; as he appears to have been compelled to syphon off whatever he could in order to create mythical artifacts in support of his intergalactic Lovecraftian pseudo-Thelemic ravings, of which he produced nine volumes, all of which were lapped up by the occult scene.

The legacy of Crowley, Spare and Grant is a community squabbling over the right to offer themselves up to whatever myths have been left behind. Who is the ‘one’ prophesied to come after Crowley? Who is really in contact with the Secret Chiefs? Claims of the advent of yet another earth shattering, epoch-spanning ‘aeon’ abound. Stories of Spare’s paintings coming to life and leaving the canvas proliferate. Many adopt Grant’s pseudo-magical posturing to validate and lay claim to his dark and self-consciously portentous current. But it could have been all very different.

(It is worth pausing to note here that it is genuinely shameful that I cannot speak of the aim of the Western tradition - what our medieval forebears called the Great Work - without evoking to visible manifestation the pathologically mythical bogey of awakening or enlightenment as an unattainable, God-like achievement accessible only by the very pompous, which grants the ability to fly, to know all specific knowledge, to teleport, to transform into pure energy, to read minds, to exercise invulnerability, to render immortal, etc.)

There is evidence that Crowley experienced the genuine, human phenomenon of awakening or enlightenment (and it seems Spare had at least some taste of it); but he failed spectacularly to articulate the experience and its ramifications, with its embodiment clearly swamped by the force of the peculiarly intense mythical occult perspective. The opportunities to present and offer a profound and accessible worldview based on realisation - something appropriate for the modern west - were missed sufficiently to render impossible any chance of a demonstrably beneficial impact on our wider culture. 

Personally, I owe a lot to Crowley, and consider him my root teacher. Thelema itself is deeply profound and worthy of extensive and comparative study alongside the world’s wisdom traditions. But these human concerns are buried deep in the bowels of the ‘Beast’, an archetype that consumed Crowley and his work whole, and continues to overshadow the innovation of Thelema sufficiently that its most staunch and learned proponents are content to wallow in a culture of pseudo-mystery and a pursuit of anti-realism, all the while slurring something about ‘doing what you want’ over a glass of Tesco Value wine, drooling over the tits of the priestess at the Gnostic Mass, and wanking into a tub of biscuit mix.

I’m yet to see a Thelemic contribution to the world, and they’ve had over half a century; once Spare is accepted publicly and academically as a great artist, I see no further explanation for the worship of his myth; and there categorically will not be a return of the Great Old Ones to reclaim the planet, regardless of Grant’s plagiarised, mashed up ravings.

This is our occult inheritance. 

Is it foolish to believe we could leave a better one for the next generation? 

A Sham of Occultists

Perhaps the most amusing example of the occult tendency to hyper-mythologise is found in occult collectives, no doubt due to a concentration in individual mythologising power and the often underrated catalyst of group consent. Predictably, we find magical organisations based on Lodge principles dating back hundreds of years, and most with a world-changing agenda or mission to safeguard the species and the planet. 

To take the most obvious example, consider the Ordo Templi Orientis, an occult organisation founded by Carl Kellner in the 19th Century to protect and transmit what he believed to be the greatest occult secret of the ages, which he discovered in a book. (Later, Aleister Crowley would revise the OTO structure to reflect his teaching of Thelema.) The OTO grading system is supposed to prepare and train the aspirant to wield the OTO’s potentially earth-changing secret formula, bestowing its select members with awesome titles such as ‘Knight of the Red Eagle and Member of the Senate of Knight Hermetic Philosophers’. 

Considering the OTO has been using this secret occult method for at least a century, I’m at a loss to discover any evidence of its world-changing potential. If the world we inhabit is indeed the best a ‘Perfect Pontiff of the Illuminati’ can muster with his awesome occult power, might Kellner and Crowley have oversold the efficacy of the method?

And indeed they have: the mega-secret is nothing more than a specific sex magick technique, a variation of which is usually found within the first few pages of any practical magical text and available in the Mind, Body, Spirit section of any good bookshop. Sex magick techniques are generally considered suitable for rank beginners too as the best kind of introduction to the occult method, as it requires no paraphernalia and it’s probably something you are going to be doing anyway. As with all magick, you can expect the result to manifest as a synchronicity, and only within the available means of manifestation. (Sorry, no miracles! And that means no reshaping of the world to match the mythic values enshrined in a pastiche of a 19th Century magical order.) 

So what is the point of the OTO? Or any of the occult organisations for that matter?

Shhh, I’m going to enter this room to do mysterious things

Private meetings are an unavoidable necessity, but many traditions - both religious and secular - are content to enter a room and lock the door. 

But this isn’t enough for occultists: hoods must be worn, pseudonyms employed, lights turned low, handshakes and passwords exchanged, and a nod and a wink given to any chance onlookers as the occultists slip inside the smokey room before nailing the door shut. 

What exactly is the purpose of this overt, public secrecy? 

It isn’t to hide techniques; they’re widely free and available (you can purchase a good survey in my book Advanced Magick for Beginners). 

Perhaps the secrecy is required to protect identities? After all, it is a common fear amongst practicing occultists that knowledge of their pastime might somehow reach the ears of family, friends or (Lord forbid!) work colleagues. Keeping the evoking of angels on the quiet is usually justified as a tactic in avoiding gossip and prejudice. 

Yet I fail to see how drawing attention to yourself as a mysterious cult is the best way of protecting yourself against a lynching by superstitious peasants.

And that’s just it, isn’t it? The concern expressed is at root mythic and based upon a medieval view of what it means to engage with mystery. The truth is, occultism wants us - needs us - to know how important it is, so we will willingly offer ourselves to its slimy tentacles. And this is the tragedy: by offering up the human to the myth, what is really important is swallowed and buried in the bowels of delusion.

Where are the occult organisations contributing to the day to day concerns of our family, friends, culture or society? Where are the Secret Chiefs manifesting authentic wisdom and compassion in the world? 

(Hell, even that occult old bogey the Church has been responsible for Good Works.)

Why do the various brands of occultism remain secret traditions in a world where a demented sci-fi religion such as Scientology is big business and, not only that, is actively spreading ignorance and suffering? Shouldn’t any authentic wisdom tradition be stepping up to make the world a better place?

Of course, there are many who will offer the objection that these aims are not what occult traditions are for.

Very good! Then what are they for?

Human Sacrifice

The anti-realism of the occultist isn’t confined to the pursuit of what looks like mystery; rather, the investigation of mystery is simply one example of what really concerns the occultist: myth.

The magician is an archetype, the story of the loner individual who finds power and knowledge in the secret exploration of life’s mysteries; and by aping these mythic aesthetics, the occultist is gladly sacrificing what is real - which includes him or herself - to the myth in question.

Consider the criteria for the western spiritual teacher or leader: his rise to prominence is prophesied, his past incarnations portentous for his current role, the movement that forms around him the work of his singular gifts and effort, and his every pronouncement and action a perfect expression of the divine.

Weaving the story of the western spiritual teacher into the over-arching narrative of destiny assures his mythic status, adding an inevitability to our acceptance of him as the invited and necessary saviour.  As a heaven-sent spiritual representative, all creative credit for the teaching and culture is extracted not only from the community but from the individual himself and centralised into the myth. The teacher and the teaching are rendered inhuman, the reality replaced by the myth; and where there is no escape from acknowledgment of failure (such as an overwhelming number of abuse and fraud cases within the community), only then is there a recognition of the human in all of this, if only to lay the blame on the shoulders of ‘the weak human vessel’. The teacher’s every action is accepted by his community as perfect, and any critique deviating from this myth is always taken as a sign of the limitations of human understanding (while those claiming this seem perfectly able to grasp the ‘divine wisdom’ evident in the teacher’s questionable behaviour).

The spiritual leader and his community are swallowed whole by the myth, gladly offering themselves up to its infant jaws, till it reaches maturation in posterity: the legend of the Great World Teacher.  The myth outlives the individuals involved, and all trace of the human has vanished.

And a new generation arises whose inevitable seduction by the myth is assured, and the cycle of anti-realism begins anew. 

Pseudo-Mystery: the Pursuit of Anti-Realism

The romance of mystery shapes occultism sufficiently that it can seem impossible to imagine the tradition without it; and yet it is an infatuation with a very specific view of mystery shaped by usually unacknowledged cultural forces. A few brief examples:

For the Western magician, medieval aesthetics define the investigation of mystery, as he does his best to let everyone know he is being secret. Yet today the romance of exploring life’s mysteries takes place in dedicated institutions in contemporary architectural wonders, not dressed in robes within the walls of a castle; nor do modern spies relay their secrets in alchemical symbols and secret handshakes. Many traditions - both religious and secular - are content to enter a room and lock the door; occultism has to shout across the room to let us know it will be hiding in a dark little corner, desperately trying to convince us of its self-serving mystery.

For the shaman, mystery is all feathers and twigs, dream-catchers and badly brewed medicine, a manufactured stereotype of the Native American or Peruvian tribesman. But shamanism in the West owes everything to what Michael Harner teaches middle-aged white Americans, and nothing to the Jivaro or the historically recent tradition of Amazonian Ayahuasqueros.

For the Western initiate of the African Diaspora, rattles and drums and butchered Portuguese paint a picture of a mystery primal and brutalised (and perhaps himself Politically Correct and Racially Guilty), and in the case of traditions such as Quimbanda and Palo Mayombe, even criminal and psychopathic. But the terror of these practices - which some practitioners find so alluring, and which some occult hucksters play on - is nothing but a product of our Colonial hang ups, the cheap horror of Hollywood, and the superstitions inherent in the traditions themselves. As for the attraction of dabbling with a 'primal power' from the home of the human race, the Diaspora bears only a passing resemblance to its roots in the ancient traditions of the Yoruba and Kongo; and the darkness promoted by prejudice, and those practitioners who seem to revel in the reputation of their given tradition, is at worst amorality: anything for a swig of rum and toke of cigar, and any initiation for the right price.

The mystery of occultism is actually a pseudo-mystery: a calcified notion of what mystery looks like. Worse, it’s a pastiche of what mystery looks like for a medieval european, a new age baby-boomer, a colonial Christian or the superstitious South-American poor. 

Standard occult currency includes overtly secret meetings in spooky ruins, poor imitation Spare-like automatic scrawlings, top hats and tattoos, unexplainable superstitious exaggerations of synchronicities, and pompous titles that hint at profound insight for the occult equivalent of an office manager; which all amounts to a replacing of any genuine exploration of mystery with a naive indulgence of incomprehension, hard-bound and available for a meagre £40 from the local new age shop. 

Despite what the occultist thinks, the pseudo-mystery of occultism is a breed of anti-realism. The occultist and his culture actively and joyfully foists up a very particular and well defined notion of ‘the mysterious’ between himself and the world; but how is a genuine and honest exploration of ourselves and reality supposed to occur if we are unwilling to see the world however it may present itself?

Is there really nothing mysterious within our immediate awareness such that we have to go searching for what looks like a mystery to the uneducated mind of a medieval peasant, or the over-educated mind of a Californian woman (frantically pursuing a desperate power animal), or the superstitious and ignorant mind of a post-colonial European?

Case Study: Zero State

A new esoteric movement by the name of Zero State dropped into my inbox today, passed on by a 'techno-mage'. From the site:

Zero State is a movement, or more accurately a Praxis; a translation of ideas into action. We believe in transhumanism and singularitarianism (i.e. that the human condition should be improved through technology, and that technological development is accelerating), and that considered action is to be preferred over pointless conversation. 

(If you fancy being 'initiated', you need simply click on the banner featuring Robert Anton Wilson to join the ZS Facebook page.)

Both transhumanism and singularitarianism are common occult preoccupations, both of which have their roots in millenarianism, or the belief in a future millennium where Christ will reign over heaven on earth (see Revelation 20:1-5). 

Millenarianism consists of two defining components: first, the end of everything as we know it. From the Principles of the ZeroState:

A 
wave
 of 
technological 
change 
unprecedented 
in
 human 
history 
is
 coming,
 and 
it
 will
 sweep 
away 
the
 world
 we
 know. Technological
 development 
and
 its
 effects 
on 
culture 
are
 accelerating 
exponentially.
 After
 a
 critical 
rate 
of
change
 is 
reached, 
the
 sum
 of 
human
 knowledge 
important 
to 
civilization
 will 
reduce 
to 
zero.
The
 terms 
'Zero
 State'
 and 
'Doctrine
 Zero'
 refer 
to 
our
 lack
 of 
certainty 
in 
knowing
 what 
the
 future 
holds.

Second, the arrival of Heaven on Earth. In the very next paragraph of the Principles, and despite the professed lack of certainty:

Although 
we
 cannot
 predict 
exactly 
what
 will
 happen,
 we 
expect 
that
 Artificial
 and 
Augmented 
Intelligence
 (AI)
 will
 develop 
the
 potential
 to 
solve
 the 
world's
 problems,
 while
 Virtual
 Reality 
(VR)
 and
 nanotechnologies
 will
 develop 
the
 potential 
to 
recreate 
the
 world 
and 
its 
inhabitants.

You may protest that transhumanism and singularitarianism are both relatively new concepts, based upon technological advancements; but this is just a change in dress for the same old myths. Christ has been replaced by AI (is this a sign of things to come?) or more generally science and rationality, and the inescapable return of Christ and his reign on earth has morphed into the unavoidable climax of the myth of progress. 

But this transition from Christ to Science didn't happen over night; Zero State is simply one more reiteration of technological millenarianism that has its roots in the replacement of God with Humanity during the Enlightenment (Comte's Religion of Humanity is a gross example) and which found perhaps its most disturbing expression in the Bolshevik God-Builders:

A kind of secular mystery cult, God-building was another part of the late nineteenth-century European current in which occultism and science marched hand in hand. The God-builders believed a true revolutionary must aim to deify humanity, an enterprise that includes the abolition of death. 

- The Immortalization Commission, John Gray.

From Gorky's hope that humanity would eventually become pure energy, Lysenko's desire to create a new species of human, Tsiolkovsky's Cosmist philosophy that human's could liberate themselves from death in outer space, to Federov's campaign to resurrect everyone who has ever lived, we have numerous examples of 'scientific' occultists attempting to solve the problem of the human condition and even reality itself that predates the ZeroState movement by a century.

It's difficult to estimate how many people have suffered due to overtly Christian millenarianism, but in the case of the God-builders we know this particular campaign against reality contributed to the deaths of over 20 million people.

I think there is good reason to understand the origins, history and nature of the myths we adopt; it's a shame so many occultists are oblivious.

The Modern Occultist

The modern occultist considers himself an explorer on the fringes of consciousness, a powerful agent able to bend reality to his will. A student of a secret history that shapes the world, he’s an adept of forgotten technologies, a prophet of a world in spiritual transformation. 

The occultist is an outlaw: his practice transgressive of social norms, his sacrament illegal. As a psychonaut of good historical company, he is one in a long line to oppose the superstition of the Church and the occult machinations of the State, an heretical champion of reason and liberty.

But the modern occultist is deluded and the opposite to what he believes. The great irony of the occultist is that the very institutions he rails against are the hidden forces that resolutely define him, and the Enlightenment values he champions the enemy of his project. 

It’s a common assumption that occultism has always been the arch-enemy of religion, due to its persistent vilification and persecution by the Church. But this is not so; medieval occultism was highly religious, as a glance at any medieval grimoire will reveal. The entities evoked are angels or demons, the commands are guaranteed by God and his Son, the authority is transmitted by the angelic hierarchy, and innumerable supplications and prayers are required. Medieval occultism was Esoteric Christianity, and just one more genre of heterodox Christianity persecuted by the Church, when it wasn’t practiced by its priests and popes. 

Esoteric Christianity is readily identified by its doctrines: the metaphysics of heaven and hell, the hidden dimensions of angels and demons affecting this world from behind the scenes, the epic battle between good and evil, the idea of divine revelation, the investment in millenarianism, the mysticism of union with God, the divinely-ordained submission of nature and spirits to Man. Magic was seen as a natural science that worked through divine mandate, and existed for man to exploit just as much as the rest of creation.

With the advent of secularism we are supposed to believe medieval metaphysics came to an end with the ascendancy of Rationalism: the development of a set of rational principles from which to proceed to understand the world. However, this common story is absurdly confused and backwards. For centuries the Church operated from a set of rational principles, as a cursory exploration of theology would demonstrate, and it was the revolution of rejecting this approach in favour of direct, personal experience and observation that informed the scientific revolution. 

The rational principles and values we consider today as a product of the Enlightenment - which owed everything to an anti-rational approach - are nothing but Christian dogmas in new clothes. The myth of progress is millenarianism (the belief we are naturally heading to a utopian state); the myth of science as perfecter of the species is a doctrine of Original Sin and Salvation; and the myth of science as the sole provider of truth is a return to scriptural and Church authority.  

Far from being the antithesis of monotheistic religion, modern occultism is a champion of underground Christianity. What is the 2012 prophecy if not the fulfillment of Christ’s promise in different guise? What is the preoccupation with a Quantum explanation for magic if not the return of angels and demons working from behind the scenes? What is the emphasis on results magic if not the honouring of God’s creation as submissive to man?

Is there nothing more absurd than the current occult project of attempting to prove and explain magic - a practice based upon personal, direct experience - in terms of a set of rational dogmas, so that it might be validated, saved and perfected by Science - the secular equivalent of Christianity?

The modern occultist is the medieval esoteric christian, but with the added confusion of consciously opposing the very beliefs that unconsciously shape him. At least the medieval magician possessed clarity around the nature and history of his tradition and where this positioned him in the world; the modern occultist is lost at sea with his map upside down.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, over the coming weeks we will see that the modern occultist is no consciousness explorer at all; expose the delusion of the magician as a manipulator of reality; demonstrate the hidden medieval aesthetics that shape occultism; discover the real reason occultism refuses to leave its dark corner; and reveal the shocking truth that human sacrifice is very much a reality for the occultist and his community.