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The following is draft chapter for a book on magical techniques,
principles, and concepts, synthesising traditional magical
concepts and modern Psychosynthesis principles.
To understand the nature of esoteric and occult secrets it is
worthwhile looking at origin of the words esoteric and occult.
Esoteric derives from the Greek word esoterikos, from the root
word eso, 'within' . The word occult derives from the Latin words
occulere, 'conceal' and occultus, 'secret' . Both of these words,
esoteric and occult, are used to describe the study of arcane
wisdom, the spiritual mysteries, and magical and hermetic
philosophies.
'Secrets' often form the basis of many mystery schools, occult
organisations, and magical groups. Often there are various oaths
and obligations a student or member is expected to undertake and
uphold, even if they end their association with the group or
philosophy. There was, and still is, often said to be a punishment
for revealing of the 'secrets' to non-members, sometimes to be
enforced by members of the group or perhaps via karmic laws or
self-inflicted punishment of guardian of one's own soul.
The safeguarding of 'secrets' by groups often forms a control
structure that is designed and enforced via a hierarchy. Perhaps
it is solely at the discretion of a group's leader, or perhaps via
a council, committee, or members of a certain rank or grade.
There may be many reasons given for the control of such
information, such that it is incredibly powerful, dangerous in the
wrong hands, or that it will not be understood, abused, or
ridiculed by non-occultists. There even may just be some emphasis
on the importance of keeping secrets, maintaining oaths and
obligations, or working out of sight (as is the essence of
occult). Generally what it boils down to though is control, with
the leader or leadership seeking to control who can and who can't
learn the so-called 'secrets' peculiar to their system. I would
even go as far as saying that for some groups or ideologies, the
careful controlling of 'secrets' is to cover up the lack of true
wisdom and understanding.
I am not suggesting that these groups don't have knowledge that
they closely guard and keep secret. However, I do call into
question the occult and esoteric nature of these 'secrets'. The
can keep knowledge hidden, and call it a 'secret'. They can
maintain that it is wisdom, and claim that a person needs a
certain amount of understanding to understand and safely or
correctly use the information, concept or technique.
Knowledge can be gained others; individuals, groups, books, etc.
There is no doubt about that. The modern Information Age has seen
a proliferation of philosophic, hermetic, magical and religious
texts either via books or in more modern times via the Internet.
All manner of once secret information has now been revealed, and
is easily obtainable by anyone with access to a search engine.
Sometimes various control mechanisms have been invoked to have
'secrets' removed from the web pages, even to the point of
lawsuits to target those who revealed the information.
Some will argue that these groups have the right to control their
knowledge, their information, and only reveal it to those they
deem worthy of it. Perhaps it is their right to attempt to control
information they are in possession of. I would like to suggest
that all the energy put into controlling and maintaining secrecy
is pointless and doesn't really assist in understanding and wisdom
of esoteric and occult concepts. Further, I would like to suggest
that true occult and esoteric secrets cannot be revealed � they
must be experienced, thereby making the revelation of the
information portion of a 'secret' relatively useless to someone
who has no context for the information.
True 'secrets' tend to be of a personal nature gained by
experiences, intuition, and revelations from the Higher Self.
Esoteric secrets are the secrets within. Occult secrets are hidden
deep within our psyche. Gnothi Seauton (Know Thyself) of the
ancient Greek's gives us an indication that knowledge of the Self
is a central part to learning the Mysteries. It is only via our
Self that we can access our Higher Self � the part of us that is
described as being of a higher dimension, metaphorically described
as higher or deeper within our psyche.
It is the Self and the Higher Self that are ultimately the holders
of all our personal 'secrets' of occult and esoteric wisdom and
understanding. As our Higher Self contains the blueprint for our
life's purpose there is nothing we cannot learn from our Higher
Self that we need to know, if we need to know it. Seeking out
knowledge for the sake of hoarding it doesn't help us unfold our
life's purpose. By spending time and energy maintaining and
controlling 'secret' knowledge we are likewise wasting time and
energy that could be better put to use in living our life,
exploring our purpose, and continuing our journey and evolution.
Another important point, I believe, is that due to the individual
nature of our personal journey, knowledge that is a revelation to
us, revealed via our Higher Self, may have little importance to
someone else's path and journey. It is more important for them to
learn and understand how to arrive at their own conclusions, their
own wisdom and understanding, and essentially their own secrets
about their purpose in life. This aspect breaks down control
structures, disempowering hierarchies and empowering the
individual. It is a 'feature' of true wisdom that it cannot
actually be controlled. Control is part of the polarities of the
physical world where someone can have power and disempower someone
else. Once wisdom and understanding are actually achieved, the
true 'secret' can be synthesised from this. I believe that this
true 'secret' or 'truth' will be easy to recognise within our own
psyche (the inner world), as well as an applicable principle
present and observable within the external world � as above, so
below.
Once someone is familiar with the process of learning from their
Higher Self they no longer require other's to reveal secret
knowledge to them. The source of all their wisdom is easily
accessible and the truth of the 'secrets' can easily be
demonstrated or observed, both internally and externally. Others
may well know the truths, secrets, and principles already, and
they may carefully guard those secrets and control who can and who
cannot be told them. If the secrets are universal principles and
not only relevant to an individual then it is completely pointless
wasting energy on concealing them, as they are already concealed
from those who do not currently understand how to discover them
for themselves. If the 'secret' is of an individual nature, only
of use to that individual's purpose and journey, then it is
likewise a waste to conceal the secret from other's, as other's
cannot benefit from the knowledge anyway.
This is not to say that there is any point, or need, to reveal to
all and sundry what knowledge, wisdom and understanding one finds
from the esoteric and occult secrets revealed by their Higher
Self. One can work in silence, in the background, without any
effort to maintain secrecy, unless secrecy is actually necessary
and needs to be maintained for a particular part of one's journey.
If you are following your life's path, or at least attempting to
follow the guidance of your Higher Self then the need for control
is gone. Secrecy will be maintained if secrecy needs to be
maintained, because that is what your Higher Self will provide for
you. There is unlikely to be a struggle, unless there are
particular lessons contained in the experience of that struggle
that you need to learn.
Feedback is welcomed on this article. You may contact the author
by email:
[email protected]
With courtesy of
www.magicalpath.net
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