READERS’ QUESTIONS (DL3)
It seems that many Occultists are still stuck with
the simplistic concept that the Right Hand Path is “good” and the Left
Hand Path is “evil”. You explained in the last issue how an apparently RHP
working such as healing can actually do more harm than good, so isn’t it
time to re-define the concepts?
Some Occultists are content to practice what is, in
effect, their former orthodox religion with an overlay of Occultism. This
is called the Right Hand Path. Do any of them ever realise what they’re
missing?
If I told anyone I am a Satanist, they would
automatically assume that I indulge in sexual orgies, blood-letting,
drug-taking etc. Never having felt the inclination for any of these
pastimes, I find it rather annoying to be so misrepresented. Is there any
hope of re-educating the population?
Park your banners outside, we
haven’t time to bother with crusaders. You (and many others) are adopting the
RHP practice of being concerned with what other people think. The real problem
which you have to face is yourself and why you let other people’s opinions
affect you. It sounds as if there is a subconscious feeling of guilt and you
would like your acquaintances to understand that you are a nice kind person
even though you are a follower of the LHP. Why do you need their acceptance?
“Yes but I have to live in the world” you might say. If you progress far
enough, you will be in this world but not of this world, as explained in DL1.
Stop mirroring other people. Your own self is all that should concern you. Have
you ever wondered why, in the view of the orthodox religions, selfishness is
such a terrible sin?
I’m not particularly interested in survival. I want
to achieve things and have a good time here and now. Selling my soul
sounds like a reasonable deal – how do I go about it?
Selling your soul is begging-bowl
spirituality. If you try to take that way out, it shows a complete lack on
integrity. The price is extremely high, because everything that you buy with
it, you could have for nothing if you do it the right way. People never ask for
something that is completely out of reach.
If
you really want to do it, at lest negotiate better terms than were granted to
Faust and others. Teach Lucifer a few of the basic ground-rules of sale and
lease-back.
And
remember the moral of the story of the genie in the bottle: don’t seek what you
can’t handle. The genie’s offer might be to make you famous or leave you as you
are: which would you take?
An article in the last issue stated that, because
of the author’s devotion to Lucifer, he/she had gained material wealth and
power over others. If this is what the Left Hand Path has to offer, why is
it not more popular, because surely that is what most people are seeking.
The
LHP does not automatically bestow gifts upon its followers. It can teach you
how to acquire the abilities which make it possible for you to achieve wealth
and power if that is what you really want, and, of course, many people do
decide that that is what they want. If they are satisfied with material
achievement, they should not attempt to acquire further knowledge, because, by
the time one has attained certain abilities, one will also have attained a
clear enough insight to know that there are much more important things to go
for.
The
popular image of a Satanist is someone who is successful, wealthy and powerful.
The problem is that, when one approaches Adepthood, one realises that those
things are of no importance unless they are to be used in the furtherance of a
specific purpose.
If
you attach importance to your wealth, and your wealth depends on, for instance,
the Stock Exchange, you are always at the mercy of others. In the Great
Depression, the Wall Street Crash, many businessmen committed suicide because
they had been financially ruined. By that action, they were stating that money
was their only reason for existence. Of course they were not Occultists, and
this is an extreme example, but it illustrated the exaggerated importance
attached to material possessions. There was a case reported in the newspapers
some months ago, when a man lost his life because he went back into his burning
home to try to save an item of property.
You should work towards achieving the attitude that no possessions are of
any importance to you. Progress is not possible if material things rule you.
Wealth can be the mean of achieving certain objectives, but it must not be your
ultimate aim because that will give wealth too much power over you.
If
you are, at your present stage, aiming for power over others, you must first
ensure that you have power over yourself, and one of the requirement for this
is to allow nothing and no-one to have any power over you. Take first the
question of possessions. If your house caught fire, and, without incurring any
personal danger, you could save one, and only one, item as you made your
escape, what would that item be? Would you spend so much time deciding which to
take that you would be engulfed by the flames? Or would you, without
hesitation, seize one thing? Then consider why you need that object so much.
How different would your life be without it? Next, consider money. How would
you fare if you lost all your money, if, say, you were made bankrupt? No house,
no car… how would you cope? (If at this time you have nothing more than your
fortnightly giro, you are going through an essential stage on the way to
Adepthood, so make the most of it.)
Then
consider the power which other people have over you. But this is becoming far
too long as an answer to a question and you have plenty to do, for the time
being, in dealing with the previous points.
Unlike many mags and books, which profess to reveal
the Great Secret and in fact have nothing to offer, some of your articles
reveal too much. How can you justify such irresponsibility?
Occultism
has its own system of elitism which has nothing to do with snobbery. There is
no need for self-appointed Guardians of the Secrets because the secrets guard
themselves much more effectively. I can spell it out in the pages of Dark Lily,
and I have done so, but less than one per cent of our readers have realised
that, much less understood it.
It is
so much easier to put on the robes, light the candles and incense and summon a
monster from the Infernal Regions; he can be banished, probably without too much
trouble. But you will fare differently when you stand alone, without the
ceremonial trappings, and realise that this monster is actually within your own
mind and it would be more difficult to banish him than to amputate your own
arm. You might then regret stirring him up.
And
at what point in the last paragraph did you pull down the shutters of your
mind? You see, the Secrets do not need to be guarded. Their best defence is the
seekers themselves. You will protect yourself from the truth until you are
ready for it, and from then on you are on your own.
An excellent mag, and your exchange ads also
feature some very good mags and some absolute rubbish. Why?
If we mentioned by name the
magazine you condemn (which we have no intention of doing), we should probably
receive letters saying ‘I think it’s the greatest’. People are not at the same
level, they do not have the same tastes, and our advertisement section offers a
wide variety to cater for
all. The problem is with the writer of this
question. One great attribute which the editors of all these mags have in
common is that they have the wisdom to know that it takes much less energy to
be friendly. Don’t get into wars you don’t need. We all much more important
things to do.
From the Dark Lily Journal No 3, Society of Dark Lily
(London 1987).