Tag Archives: Metaphysics

Before metaphysics can be explained by discursive means, the terms used must be redefined. Metaphysics is meant here in the etymological sense of the word, which is to say, ‘beyond the physical’, and so nothing to do with the chemical state of the body or brain, or the psychological domain. Metaphysics refers to the infinite, unlimited universal doctrine that can only be known metaphysically. As it depends from a supra-human source, it can never be a branch of philosophy or some other science. Indeed, philosophy and the other modern theoretical sciences were originally derived from metaphysics and not vice versa.

Symbolism is the only way to convey metaphysical reality without direct knowledge; language itself comprises a set of symbols. Ancient languages, with all their subtlety of etymology, roots of words and phonetics, are nonetheless well equipped to symbolise metaphysics, which is solely concerned with principles that amount to pure knowledge. Such principial knowledge is most adequately set down in the Hindu Vedas and Vedanta. Such knowledge is not in any way derived from an individual author, as is the case with all Western philosophical theories. With the Vedanta, the goal is always that of pure knowledge: untransmissible, infinite and absolute reality. That is what we mean by ‘metaphysics’.

This knowledge is not then in any way apprehended by reason or argument as it is derived from a supra-human source. All dialectics of the ancient sciences, including Hermeticism for example—something that in itself has been confused with profane science—form only an outward veil of that which is truly esoteric, which is inevitable. The ordinary meaning of the term ‘dialectic’, derived from Greek (διαλεκτικη), means ‘a discussion’, and that word derives from analysis, which is necessarily confined to the domain of reason. The limitation imposed by this is such that the conventional modern dictionary definition, ‘enquiry into metaphysical contradictions and their solutions’, is confused in its very nature and rests on total misunderstanding of the word’s meaning. Such an enquiry removes the enquirer from anything metaphysical, even in the etymological sense. There can be no contradiction in metaphysical or principial reality, which is infinite and contains all possibilities within Itself without any disharmony entering therein. The dictionary will even inform us that metaphysics is concerned with ‘abstraction’ that has ‘no basis in reality’! This owes to the fact that modern science imagines ‘concrete existence’ to be the only reality. Some scholars have even attempted to reduce the meaning of metaphysics to the level of the utterly inane, until it becomes no more than ‘in addition to’ or ‘after’, as with the appendices of a book![1]

Inevitably, some Sanskrit terms must be used when expressing a metaphysical idea, for there are no words in modern languages to describe Atma or Brahma, for example, let alone the vast array of other technical terms and their different contextual uses. Sanskrit has the vocabulary of a complete science of consciousness itself; this is better understood if the universe is considered as ontological and not material; unfortunately even that completely escapes the grasp of ordinary rational comprehension and is only truly conveyed by direct knowledge. The means of acquiring such knowledge is the subject of the Yoga-Sutras, for example, but few are prepared to make the intense and prolonged effort that is needed.

We must then rely on symbolism and language, whatever its shortcomings, if we are to communicate anything at all. That limits our scope to a few that are prepared to work diligently towards an understanding, putting aside any preconceived notions they might hold. It is these few persons that we are addressing, for the rest are as in a deep sleep, lacking the strength or will to awaken. In fact, these sleepers are even the enemies of the knowledge that is our subject and our ultimate goal, which means they will never acquire it. As it is put very succinctly in the alchemical text Aurora Consurgens,

Fools despise this glorious Science of God, and the Doctrine of the Secrets, and the Secret of the Philosophers, and the Medicine of the Physicians, because they do not know what she really is. … And nor is this kind of wisdom suited to the ignorant because everyone who is ignorant of her is her enemy, and not without cause, as the Observer of All Things says. … Nor will the spirit of this Wisdom enter into a coarse body, and nor can a fool ever grasp it, due to the poverty of his reasoning, because the wise have not spoken to the foolish, for he who speaks to a fool speaks to someone who is asleep.[2]

Notes
[1] We refer to S.M. Cohen, ‘Aristotle’s Metaphysics’ [Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, California].
[2] Book I: ııı.

From the book Metamorphosis (Oliver St. John) expected to be released in 2024.

Initiation and Counter-Initiation

The term ‘initiation’ is frequently used without qualification. It is used to describe various things, some of which are mutually contradictory. There is thus no common agreement on what initiation even means, so it is not then surprising that confusion exists around the subject. The etymology of the word simply means ‘to start something off’, and yet there is no consensus on even that, the broadest definition possible. In fact it is so broad a definition that it necessarily narrows and limits the meaning to an ordinary material action. A trumpet can be blown to announce the commencement of some game, act or play, none of which concerns us here.

Path of the Arrow or Rainbow: The Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake includes three major grades or initiatic degrees. The Student (not a grade) must show an intellectual understanding of the work, and be prepared to study recommended texts. If they are accepted for practical work, and are duly prepared, they take the Oath of an Apprentice. Initiation is confirmed with entry to the Iº Neophyte grade.

A common error to be made concerning initiatic organisations is that initiation, or a rite of initiation, is no more than a means of induction into a particular group or body. That may be the case with some organisations, but those are not in any way initiatic, which is to say, their purpose is in no way to transmit a spiritual influence and consists only of social, political or other profane concerns. From this mistaken idea of induction into a social or other group comes forth even worse confusion, for example that initiation is no more than ‘psychological process’.

The Jungians and other rationalists that for various reasons made it their business to comment on things of which they were, by their disposition, not qualified to speak of, have denounced elite initiatic organisations. They did this on the grounds that all such groups can achieve is the immersion of an individual in a collective mind or egregore—we use the latter word here in its conventional sense. It would be as though some souls, too weak to help themselves, need the safety net of a collective body until such a time as they are ready for what Jungians term as ‘individuation’. The word ‘egregore’ has been used to reduce and nullify all public knowledge of initiatic organisations through misunderstanding and confusion. Before this could be done the word had first to suffer a degraded meaning. The meaning has by now become so far removed from its original sense that the word ‘egregore’ is even used to describe the motivations, attitudes and opinions of a corporate body, for example.

Initiation or Egregore?

Originally, egregore, derived from the Greek egregoros, ‘wakeful’, was associated with ‘Watchers’, of the Enochian tradition.[1] Far from being any kind of collective mind (if such a thing can even exist), the Watchers hint at the central mystery of initiation, which is concerned with non-human, praeterhuman or ‘beyond human’ intelligence. The Polish author Count Jan Potocki (1761–1815) wrote The Saragossa Manuscript in the early 1800s. This features the term ‘egregores’ in relation to certain illustrious fallen angels—which is a reference to the book of Enoch and the brief mention in Genesis of descendants of the elder race called Nephilim. Eliphas Lévi, in The Great Mystery, 1868, identifies egregores with the Watchers, the fathers of the Nephilim, describing them as “terrible beings” that “crush us without pity because they are unaware of our existence.” The description is complete fantasy on the part of Lévi, based on what he had read in the Bible and Apocrypha, which was overwritten from the surviving fragments by scribes completely unaware of the real meaning of the narrative. The accounts are therefore fascinating but corrupt. We shall turn to René Guénon for a precise explanation of what initiation means in our present context.[2]

Initiation must have a non-human origin, for without this it can never attain its final end, which extends beyond the domain of individual possibilities. That is why truly initiatic rites cannot be attributed to human authors; in fact, we can no more know the authors than we can know the inventors of traditional symbols, and for the same reason, for these symbols are equally non-human in their origin and essence.

He goes on to mention that there are strong lines between rites and symbols. By ‘rites’ he does not mean something made up or created, obviously. The original meaning of a ‘rite’ is more in the way of divine ordination, and of setting things in order. Thus any scholarly enquiry into the ‘authenticity’ of rites through an examination of authorship or historical facts can tell us absolutely nothing of any real significance concerning this matter. The true origin of an effective rite is beyond the bounds of the corporeal world of time and space.

This leads us to the matter of individuals conferring initiation on another, or others. Such a person is a transmitter, for he does not act as an individual, which would render any real initiation impossible. A transmitter is a ‘link in the chain’, as it were, and the support of an influence—but that influence has nothing to do with the individual domain. He does not act in his own name but in the name of the principle that the initiatic organisation represents. For this reason the effectiveness of any rite, even a religious one as opposed to an initiatic one, does not in any way depend on the individual merit of the initiator. The accomplishment of the rite is then made possible not through individual or personal qualities, or even their ability or knowledge, but through the power invested in the initiator. Thus it is possible for the hierophant to close the proceedings under some circumstances without the requirements of ‘ceremony’, which sometimes forms an additional part of a rite, but through simply declaring the closure, “By the power invested in this sceptre”, for example. The sceptre is the symbol of the principle and so of spiritual authority, though never the authority of the individual person themselves.

The initiator, perhaps needless to say, cannot be ‘anybody’, but must be invested with the function of transmitter. The initiator must also ‘know the rules’ of the rite, and be able to perform it without error. Even if the members of such an organisation have only what Guénon terms as ‘virtual initiation’, a spiritual influence can be effectively transmitted so long as the traditional chain is unbroken and the organisation or body of initiates must be truly a repository of a spiritual influence, which it carries. By ‘virtual’ initiates, Guénon, writing in 1946, does not of course refer to digital technology. He is referring to an organisation where the members have, through deviation or necessity such as is brought about by the extremely unnatural conditions imposed by the modern world, forgotten the true meaning and purpose of the rites and teaching. These can nonetheless be transmitters of the initiatic current, even when they do not know it themselves.

Anti-Initiation

Once psychological explanations of initiation gained dominance, the Western world was subjected to a plethora of ‘self-help’ literature and even professional guidance for those with disposable income and time on their hands. This counterfeit initiatic movement emerged from incomprehension of spiritual traditions combined with the arrogant presumption typified by modernism. Initiation by therapy or ‘healing’ swiftly gained popularity over the last half century, forming a covert anti-tradition. By placing all emphasis on the individual it destroys all possibilities of initiatic transmission in those who adopt its mind-set, for initiation must by definition have its origin outside and beyond the human sphere. This element of counter-initiation is ‘covert’ in so far as even the few remaining cosmic mediators in the last generation were persuaded by the claims of Jung and his followers that psychoanalysis might in some way be helpful, even essential, in matters of initiation—or even worse, that a therapeutic approach to the subject is in some way a healthier alternative. It was a serious deviation—destructive to whole generations in so far as it has rendered them impervious to any possibility of real initiation. We will turn once more to Guénon:[3

Thus it is altogether erroneous to identify initiatic organisations with secret societies, as is commonly done. First of all, it is very evident that the two expressions cannot in any way coincide in their application, for in fact there are many kinds of secret societies that have nothing initiatic about them since they can be formed by mere individual initiative and for any goal whatsoever…

Guénon here discerns a difference between groups that are societies, which are by definition purely exterior organisations, whether ‘secret’ or not, and initiatic organisations. He does this because even those who profess knowledge, or profane scholars who profess to ‘facts’ and ‘evidence’ commonly confuse the two things. He is prepared to concede, on the other hand, that genuinely initiatic organisations can sometimes take on the outward appearance of societies, in which case they automatically deviate in some ways from the original purpose of any initiatic organisation. He later qualifies the point further, by pointing out that in some circumstances, mainly those conditions that affect the modern Western world, this becomes inevitable. He therefore continues at some length describing in broad terms the different kinds of organisations that exist, for some of these are initiatic and some are not at all initiatic.

In all of the quarrels relating to secret societies, or to what are so called, either initiatic organisations are not involved, or at least it is not their initiatic character as such that is involved, something, moreover, that would be impossible for other profound reasons that the rest of our account will better explain.

Guénon alludes here to the disputes, frequently carried out in public, among members of various organisations claiming to be initiatic. This often revolves around ‘authenticity’, ‘lineage’ and so forth. As he has already made clear, none of that can have anything to do with a truly initiatic Order. Sometimes an organisation might be initiatic, or was once, but the members have lost sight of the true meaning and purpose of initiation through social or other aims. Guénon refers to this as ‘contamination’ or ‘deviation’.

Whether or not an organisation clothes itself in the particular and moreover wholly outward forms that permit it to be defined as a society, it can be qualified as secret in the widest sense of this word, and without attaching to it the least unfavourable intention…

Organisations are often accused of being secret societies once their presence, or at least their outer appearance, has become known. This rests purely on the fact of secrecy, as though that were objectionable in itself. There are two kinds of secret that an organisation may harbour. The first is that of initiation itself, which is incommunicable by profane means and completely ungraspable by the materialist—for even if such a person knew the rites from reading them in books (for example), they could not receive initiation, being impervious to any spiritual influence or transmission. The second kind is that of very ordinary secrets that are no more than outward signs, words or symbols conveyed to the members so they can recognise each other.

Once the difference between a ‘secret society’ and an initiatic Order is understood, it becomes clear why it is that the member of a truly initiatic organisation can never leave it. It is easily possible to leave, or be expelled, from any profane society, for it is only governed by the same rules that govern any other purely exoteric body, and so the being is not in any way changed by this. Any ties forged or broken are entirely outward. In the case of an initiatic organisation, however, which transmits a spiritual influence, the person that has received an effective initiation is changed permanently—no merely formal or administrative means can alter the fact. Furthermore, whereas a society can be the target of attacks from outside—because it is itself ‘on the outside’—and can be removed by political or other means, an initiatic organisation, by its very nature, is not in any way affected. Guénon goes on to say that such an organisation exists so long as “even one single member remains alive”. An initiatic organisation cannot be attacked or dissolved from without, for such a body is invisible to the profane world. Even if no representative is still living, we should understand that the ending of the spiritual transmission was willed from within and not as a consequence of attacks from without, or from any exterior cause.

It is necessary to qualify the different kinds of organisations, both initiatic and non-initiatic. While some have remained purely initiatic, others have deviated, for example by introducing political or social ideals or agendas, but they remain initiatic at their core, even if the members or even the representatives do not understand this. Then there are pseudo-initiatic organisations, which are a counterfeit, for example those that have a purely ‘psychological’ basis. In addition, there are some organisations wholly opposed to all initiatic tradition whatsoever, and this can include merely conventional, non-initiatic or pseudo-initiatic bodies. The pseudo-initiatic organisations, as they are as profane as the declared anti-initiatic, are equally opposed to any true or genuine initiatic tradition, even those elements that have deviated yet retain an initiatic core.

There is a popular fantasy that confuses initiatic Orders with some political secret or covert project—the name of the Illuminati is often used, even though that was a real but profane organisation with a rationalist ideal. All this is conflated with ‘conspiracy theories’, which has nothing to do with either. It has lately been used as a political means of suppressing all dissent from the official line—it is only necessary to attack one that declares perfectly reasonable and quite ordinary facts to be a believer in ‘conspiracy theories’ and the public are ready to join in the condemnation, aiding and abetting the suppression of knowledge and reinforcing their subservience.

When a genuinely initiatic organisation holds a secret, that can only be a symbol or some outward token of the true initiatic secret, which of course can neither be disclosed or betrayed by any means available to the profane, for it is incommunicable. The outward ‘secret’ is then a purely secondary element, having no real value or significance in itself. No truly initiatic secret can be betrayed and no exterior force can betray any truly initiatic body.

Finally, there are, and have been for centuries, organisations that parody initiatic organisations, without concealing anything though they sometimes pretend to keep some secret. There are some such groups that emerged in Britain and America from the 18th century continuing to the present day. One obvious example is the ‘Hellfire Club’, which served no other purpose than to entertain the whims and excesses of English lords.[4]

Notes

1. The only authentic account of the Nephilim or ‘Watchers’ is preserved in the opening paragraphs of ‘The Sethian Gnosis’, Thrice Greatest Hermes, G.R.S. Mead.
2. Guénon, pp. 52–53, Perspectives on Initiation [1947—republished in 2001 by Sophia Perennis].
3. Guénon [ibid].
4. The first Hellfire Club was founded in London in 1718, by Philip, Duke of Wharton, but gained notoriety through the English club established by Sir Francis Dashwood (1749 to around 1760). The Club was later associated with Brooks’s (1764). Other Hellfire Clubs sprang up throughout the 18th century, most of them in Ireland after Wharton’s had been dissolved.

This article is abridged from Nu Hermetica—Initiation and Metaphysical Reality. Nu Hermetica addresses the difficulty of initiation in the twenty-first century—for the Way has not changed but the conditions we work under certainly have. Laws, news, facts and even history are updated, deleted, replaced and rewritten on a daily basis. So-called alternative movements, some of which even claim to be ‘spiritual’, only serve to reinforce profane, anti-spiritual notions. There is a need to pass on real knowledge to those few that are willing and able to receive it.

Related on this website:

Crisis of the Modern World Revisited (on René Guénon, in view of the present times)

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Magick

Posted on 6th January 2024 by Metamorphosis

Magick and theurgy are usually descriptive of two quite different things but in either case there is no such thing as self-initiation. We can try to lift ourselves by our own bootstraps but the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Magical Theurgy comprises ritual directed towards God-Realisation—solipsism is therefore a considerable bar to meaningful progress.[1] There is no ‘monadic’ intelligence in reality. Isolationism is the curse of the modern age.

It is impossible to convey any sense of what magick is to the mind of the person who lacks the will to perceive it. To explain and rationalise magick in the hope that ‘men of science’ and other worthies might achieve illumination is a mission doomed to failure from the outset. Every idea the mind of man is able to conceive breaks down when subjected to analysis. The fact completely escapes those requiring proof of reality. Magick includes many traditional sciences, including but by no means limited to astrology, divination and the science of numbers. Magick embraces the life of the human soul. While the most superficial understanding of magick explains it as mere manipulation of phenomena, if used intelligently, combining knowledge of the true principles with the concentration of the mind afforded by yoga, magick can be used as a support to real and effective initiation.

The limitation, more or less severe, placed on the possibilities for real spiritual realisation by the systematic approach used in neo-spiritualism today means we had to revise our approach to the subject quite drastically. Since computers became the dominant force in the world for shaping the minds of men, the urge towards classification and tabulation has by now been taken to the extreme where systems analysts produce popular books about magick. Those who produce these—and there are very many of them—usually have university degrees they are proud of but no real knowledge whatsoever. Most of them are even atheists and among these, a degree in psychology is considered a ‘qualification’, whereas in fact that kind of mentality automatically disqualifies a person from any real initiation or spiritual realisation. These always emphasise a kind of artificial ‘psychism’, where visualisation techniques are used along with the ubiquitous auto-hypnotism. As a consequence we now have book-learned ‘adepts’ claiming high degrees of initiation and whose knowledge extends no further than the ordinary man in the street, though that does not it seems prevent them from pretending to teach and even initiate others, sometimes through the convenient means of internet video links and even social media—which is a kind of oxymoron as anything ‘social’ automatically discounts esotericism.

Magick and its Governance

For all this mania for selling delusion to the masses—who already accept the most fantastic lies from governments, corporations and ‘official’ science—we now place much greater emphasis on theoretical knowledge, by which is meant traditional cosmology and ontology, and the practice of yoga, than at any time before. According to René Guénon,

Of all preliminary means, theoretical knowledge alone is absolutely indispensible, and that later, when one passes to actual realisation, it is concentration that matters most and that leads to it in the most immediate way, for it is directly bound up with knowledge.[2]

We have always, right from the veriest beginning, insisted that one works from the highest principle. While that is no certain guarantee that heedless fools will not come unstuck, the Hermetic axiom ‘As above and so below’ has far greater import than is afforded it by today’s postmodern ‘experts’.[3] Magick, if not torn wholly asunder from its governing principles in the natural and supernatural order, can be very efficacious as a support to the path of true knowledge, and in the times we now live we need all the assistance we can get.

Practice of Magick

It is seldom realised that many rituals in our older works are fully adaptable to different needs, and that their use can sometimes go much further than the necessarily brief descriptions afforded by such a book.[4] The ‘Ritual for Psychic Self Defence’ provides an example of a ritual where the practical operations can go further than as is implied by the titles and brief description given in the textbook.[5] Cases of actual psychic attack, where the antagonist intentionally takes their malice to the Hermetic level, are rare. While there might be many persons in the world today who would indeed use magical means to harm others, given the availability of the rituals and methods in the public domain, few would be prepared to go to the painstaking lengths necessary. It is well indeed that few persons now have the expertise and knowledge necessary, even if that kind of knowledge is relatively ordinary. Anyone that had real knowledge would never consider such a thing. It is more likely that such an attack would be unintentional, arising from anger or some other affliction.

It must also be said that whatever the real source of a psychic attack, there must be a sympathetic response from the victim, who is more alike the attacker than they care to admit in so far as they have retained harmful mental impressions that lead to what are called kléshas in Sanskrit, ‘harmful afflictions’.[6] Thus, in understanding the ritual of Psychic Self Defence, it becomes apparent that whether a cause is seen as external or internal, there is a need to loosen the bonds of attachment to harmful sense impressions that, when retained (through the faculties such as memory), amount to serious obstructions to the goal of yoga. The Ritual of Psychic Self Defence can be taken further than that, as we have indicated, but to explain that we need first to refer to the way the ritual is constructed:

The ritual begins as do most rituals with a general opening of the temple that orders the sphere of the practitioner as according to cosmological principles. Every Zelator has a ritually consecrated dagger to symbolise the whole realm of Air, and this is then used to perform a thorough purification of that realm in the name of its various hierarchical names and powers, making the appropriate pentagrams and so forth around the place of work.

It should be mentioned that the ‘realm of Air’ corresponds in this Hermetic schema particularly to Yesod, the ninth sephira called the Foundation in Qabalah. However, the etherial designation is really inclusive of the whole domain of the individual ruach or mind-intelligence.

There then follows a general purification (by holy water) and consecration (by incense perfume) of the person and the place, in all four quarters. Following purification, the element is re-invoked and an Egyptian deity is called in to assist in linking the elemental sphere with higher and divine forces, as well as to place a seal upon the sphere of the practitioner to strengthen it against all malefic influences. Even this very brief overview should be enough to show that the ritual is far more than being about ‘getting rid of’ things, or even of nullifying some external aggression. The deity Anubis is heard to say here,

I stand between the invisible and the visible.

But more than that, as Guardian of the Threshold he crosses the bridge from the unmanifest to the manifest and so is able to return the way he came:

My mother is darkness and my father the night: thus do I come forth, bearing the Ineffable Light!

Anyone that has passed through the Neophyte ritual will recollect from this that Anubis guards the temple outside with a sword and also appears within the circle, as the bearer of the Lamp of Light by which the Candidate is conducted around the new world in which they have entered.[6]

Such a ritual as has here been described also corresponds to traditional magick lore, involving a ‘moving of the air’, or ‘changing of the winds’. We think that enough has been said here regarding the adaptability of rituals.

Notes

1. Our book Magical Theurgy—Rituals of the Tarot combines magick with theurgy.
2. ‘Conclusions’, Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines.
3. Indeed, one of the latter went so far as to reverse the axiom to imply that the higher could be magically forced to change in accordance with the low and very ordinary intentions of the magician. That is a typically ‘satanic’ inversion of the natural order and while it could certainly effect results in the sphere of the practitioner, such results, owing to the inversion, could only increase ignorance and delusion still further.
4. For example Ritual Magick—Initiation of the Star and Snake.
5. Ritual Magick [ibid].
6. See Part Two of Thunder Perect Gnosis, which includes a study of the Vedantic science of the mind. In particular, ‘Yoga of the Mind’.
7. See The Phoenix and other Stellar Rites of Initiation.

The illustration is from the painting The Spell, by William Fettes Douglas (1822–1891), which is held at the National Galleries, Scotland. The full painting can be viewed here.

© Oliver St. John 2023, 2024
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