Peter Levenda's new book...

[R.K. Locke]

I've now finished Levenda's The Dark Lord and it has been fascinating and informative reading. Levenda is very obviously knowledgeable and experienced in aspects of Crowley's Thelema based religion as well as Grants's system as well. I've come away from the book knowing and understanding a great more about these two than I previously had.

I also came away alarmed.

Both Crowley and Grant, in my view, are entirely wrong headed - and yet both have considerable followings. Both focused their entire occult systems on sexual techniques - sex magick (1) - as a means of gathering the necessary energy (usually described as "power") in order to thrust their consciousness into what Grant called the Mauve zone (what used to be called astral travelling). The difference between them and others, so far as I can judge, is that they actively pursued knowledge of the dark/negative side of creation - hence the "Dark Lord". And again, so far as I can judge, the results they obtained confirmed their expectations. No surprises there, then.

It is true that anyone who operates in this area, sooner or later, does have to confront and absorb their own shadow (2). Doing so results in that part of the life energy (libido) that streams through one that has hitherto been siphoned off by the shadow is ultimately recovered and becomes available for positive use. That, combined with the cleansing technique that Israel Regardie called the Middle Pillar exercise (the circulation of light), plus other techniques including breathing, focusing and concentration exercises etc., all combine with the use of what Jung called "Active Imagination" are patiently developed over an extended period of time, for the purpose of accessing "that place between sleep and awake" that was described by J M Barrie in his book Peter Pan.

That realm is neither here, nor there, and neither then or now. It is alien but also world-like. The golden rules when travelling to this "far abroad" is to be polite and considerate, patient and questioning. Open doors when confronted with them. Ask questions of the intelligences you meet. Again politely, even when the answers you may receive are abrupt. The face you present is the face you will meet.

Untold numbers have been visitors in that land. Far more than is ever realized.

I have never before spoken so openly about these things before for obvious reasons. It is a subject that is very easily misunderstood and misinterpreted. But times are changing. The whole purpose underlying this is to become more conscious and more individually responsible for who you are. Recovering energy from the personal Shadow has the added benefit of marginally reducing the energy available to the Collective Shadow, simply because the latter is the aggregation of all the former. This is why Jung said that "man is the origin of all coming evil" and that "the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger". Many people are aware of the fact that Crowley called himself the Beast and ascribed to himself the number "666" using Gematria. That number as most of us know biblically is said to e the number of the Devil. However, far fewer people are aware that the number 666 is actually the number of man.

Use of the occult techniques of power as exemplified by Crowley and Grant are, for me, abusive, dangerous, unnecessary and for the most part for entirely the wrong motives. Use of what are usually referred to as lower techniques: sex magick and drugs etc., to reach these ends are, as Levenda rightly points out dangerous - often very dangerous - because conscious control is relinquished and because it is quite likely that an unbalanced - even a marginally unbalanced - personality will be further tipped into neurotic - and God forbid, possibly even psychotic behaviours. Whomsoever teaches dangerous techniques to another who then falls into these ways bears a considerable degree of responsibility for the outcome. Their card will be marked.

Besides this, there is really no need to proceed with such brute force when far more controlled and sympathetic means and measures are available. Only impatience and imprudence would permit such trespassing. Properly trained and schooled, the time and experiences spent in the there and then can be safely brought back to the here and now under control --- for slow absorption and digestion. Digestion will take many, many years to achieve. Decades, probably.

I hope the foregoing is of use to someone. God knows who though. ::


(1) If not sex, then the use of drugs etc., could be used in place of the sex rite.
(2) This is considerably different to dealing with the Collective Shadow, however - a much more dangerous and ill considered idea.

Thank you for sharing this David, Its very thoughtful. Ive been trying to wrap my head about these issue for the past couple of years. I also think that its important to look at the political historical context out of which Crowley and his acolytes were created. I think its ignorant to smear everything considered "occult" as "Satanic", which is a Christian concept. Crowley was a creation of the British Empire. I just realized not to long ago that Annie Besant (Theosophist leader) was responsible for creating the Indian Congress Party.

Annie Besant also had a connection with the Marx family, as you may know.


Re: the occult and geopolitics, I often harken back to this quote from Lars Schall's interview with Guido Preparata:

L.S.: You are writing in your book that Hitler's party was a front organization for a religious cult that was embodied by the Thule society. What was the core belief of that secret society and where did it came from?

G.P.: All is religion. All history is a reflection of the battle that spiritual forces wage against one another on other planes. It is not economics and least of all the survival instinct (whatever that is) that drives history, but the quest for power, and power in its elaborate institutional manifestations is a form of (psychical) space that utterly transcends the relationship of production and distribution, let alone the basic dynamics of the wolf pack, or the more elaborate political economy of the beehive.

Power is a purely human suggestion. Suggested by whom? That is the question.

That is, indeed, the question.