Readers Questions DL8

READERS’ QUESTIONS

The Adept replies…

Referring to a question you discussed in DL2: the
type of person who would try to save others in a disaster – you used the
example of a ship sinking, and you said that a natural winner in life
would try to save others. Would you say that an Adept is a natural winner?
If so, doesn’t the act of trying to save others – at the risk of his own
life – conflict with the fact that an Adept is not concerned with other
people?

Whether he lives or dies is
totally immaterial to an Adept. In such circumstances as you describe, he might
or might not take action to rescue people; it would depend on how he felt at
the time. If he did not attempt to save other lives, it would not be because he
was afraid of losing his own. If you rely on physical life, you are not an
Adept. When you have seen the beginning and the ending of the Universe, what is
death to you?

When you say that one becomes detached from the
world, how far should that detachment go? For instance, if you saw someone
collapse in the street, would you step over him or give First-Aid? When I
was particularly impressed by a charity advertisement in the newspaper the
other day and sent them ten pounds, was that wrong?

If someone chooses not to give
first-aid either because giving help would cost him something, such as time and
effort, or because the person in the gutter is inferior, that is proof (if
needed) that he is not an Adept. To an Adept, no act ever costs anything, and a
person just is.

You
should analyse your own reaction to the appeal. Responding or not responding is
neither right nor wrong, but you need to know why you did it.

Are there any spells which really work? I know you
said one shouldn’t use Occult means to solve a non-Occult problem, but
this person is my enemy because I am an Occultist, so surely I am
justified in trying to protect myself by Occult means.

An enemy is a person who wishes
to gain advantage over you. People who are merely petty or vindictive are not
your enemies.

If
you ask me how to solve a problem which you have concerning another person, I
might say ‘shoot that person’. You would reply ‘but I don’t want to shoot him’.
Why not? Because you feel that the problem is not important enough to justify
murder. So how important is it? That is the assessment which you have to make.

If
all problems of the world were put into a pile and people walked past, they
would pick their own problems out again.

Other
people do not have it easier than you, though it might seem to you that they
do.

It is
not the spells which do not work, it is the people.

I can’t understand why Satanists claim that they
don’t believe in Satan. Are you saying that there is no power other than
that controlled by human beings?

The
first part of this question is answered in every DL, but the concept that you
are your only god is very difficult to come to terms with, especially when you
have been involved in “traditional” Occultism and are accustomed to assuming an
external deity. Comprehension comes gradually and it is a good indication of
progress when you can face that reality without fear. The second part of the
question needs further definition; as it stands, it is meaningless. “Power”
exists everywhere, but it is insentient until controlled and directed by a
being who has the ability to do so.

Taken from the Dark Lily Journal No 8,
Society of Dark Lily (London 1989).