THE COSMIC COMPUTER

As DL’s
mirror-image implies, the message is: look at things from a different
viewpoint. The key to Occult knowledge is self-knowledge; and nothing can be
known until it has been thoroughly examined from all angles.

In
mundane life, one can manage perfectly well with a degree of knowledge; I do
not need to know anything about the internal boards and wiring of a computer, I
only have to know which disc to insert and which keys to press. Occult
knowledge requires complete understanding of the working’s of one’s own mind,
and this understanding must be achieved before anything can be accomplished.

If I
press a certain key, a column of figures or words is rearranged, and it does
not matter to me what electrical impulses have been whizzing around behind the
screen to make that happen. If my mind received a certain stimulus, the
equivalent of pressing a key, then a decision might be made or an opinion
revised, and I need to understand every detail of the mental circuitry which
brought about that affect.

In
dealing with one’s own mental computer, one has to be all things, programmer,
operator and engineer; and a gap in the knowledge will blow the whole system.

To continue the computer analogy,
in relation to the teachings of the Adept who guides DL, within your own mind
is a terminal, connected to the main-frame which is the Universe. So everything
that ever has been and ever will be is available to you when you know which
keys to press. Access to this capacity exists inside your subconscious mind. It
is and always has been a part of you, and successfully invoking it activates a
hitherto unknown and unexplored part of your brain which will do what is
required when you have the ability to direct it. Acquiring this power is the
aim – does that sound easy? In fact, it is the hardest task in the world. It
has to be, for that is the way of the Adept.

Psychologists
say that the average person uses 3% of his brain capacity, the other 97%
remains dormant. The percentages may be accurate enough, but “unrecognised” is
a better description than “dormant”. A lot is happening within that terra
incognita, most of it detrimental to the host body.

A form
of insanity has been defined as “having another person inside your head.”
Accordingly, we are all insane, because we all have this other person inside
our heads; the subconscious is an independent entity.

Easy to
believe in demons in the dark; not so easy to accept the real “demon” who has
been with you all your life, manipulating your every thought and action. An
unaware person has never made an independent decision; he does not know it, but
the subconscious has influences him in all things.

To take
one example, think back: how many times have you decided (or thought it was you
that did the deciding) to do something which was not in your own best
interests? “For reasons of security”… “because what I really wanted might have
hurt someone”… or any other excuse your subconscious chose to feed to you.

When you
become interested in the Occult, you have, whether you realise it or not,
declared war on your subconscious. The subconscious will not go to Red Alert at
this stage, because it does not think very highly of your capacity to challenge
its supremacy (why should it? You’ve never given it any bother before). It will
issue a few minor warnings: fears, unease. Quite enough to make sure that most
aspiring Occultists stick to their books, learning which colour candle to light
and the correct way to dance in their coven. Safe within your magick circle,
you exorcise demons; the real demon, inside your head, has never laughed to
much in his life.

“Dark
Night of the Soul” is a foolishly optimistic description. A “night” that lasts
for years. If you are lucky, you will doubt your own sanity; if you are not so
lucky, someone else will certify you.

Examine
every thought and every action. When you think you know why, look at it in
another way and assess the further possibilities.

And
never forget that you are aiming for the control, not the elimination of
your subconscious. To use it instead of being used by it. Expel your
subconscious and you have pulled the plug on your terminal.

I have
taken eight hundred words to deal with what has been said in two: “KNOW
THYSELF”. It was carved in stone at the Temple of the Oracle; so many of the
Pythia’s credulous clients read those deceptively simple words but did not
understand them.

When you
know yourself, you are on-line to the Universe.

Anonymous article taken from the Dark Lily Journal No 8,
Society of Dark Lily (London 1989).