SOMEONE has complained recently of "the stagnation throughout the world in the matter of occult study"! The appearance of such a state of affairs is directly due to insularity, or, shall we say, selfishness of groups. It is a fact very well known to all advanced occultists that no Attainment soever is officially recognised by the Masters unless the immediate inferior of the person in question has been fitted by him to take his place. Every man or woman living on this planet came here at a definite moment for a definite purpose. The general term which covers every single one of these myriad purposes is this, the performance of THE GREAT WORK. Each child at birth is fully equipped with all the power necessary to accomplish that part of this Task which is allotted to the particular incarnation undertaken. As the child grows and unfolds its personality it moves with unhesitating footsteps toward its final destiny. Before a certain stage of illumination has been reached all progress is blind. Consciousness, complacent and conceited, conceives itself the master. The true Master is hidden beyond the Abyss contriving and directing even the tiniest and palpably insignificant detail. During this period of darkness the aspirant is merely collecting and co-ordinating the forces united together within his own magical being; these are the integral spiritual entities conquered and assimilated in the course of the person's previous lives. You may ask why is not one born with perfect self-possession and awareness of identity? The answer is simply that Nature is the enemy of Man, and in the brief space between death and re-birth so successfully perplexes the naked soul that often scores of years of the following life glide away ere the tangle is loosened and the man or woman gets hold of the rights and privileges he or she has once earned. Nevertheless this very moment comes to every one of us; perhaps, to some, not until the hour of another dying. No two seers, mystics, or teachers are likely to describe this peculiar experience in the same language, by reason of cecity and bigotry. This is the fault of the schools and movements. Each occult association has been devoting all its time to its own aggrandisement, leaving the fate of all other occult orders to the malice of the powers that be, whether of good or evil.
Obviously no society can as a whole
pass any barrier which stops even one
of its members. Indeed it might be
suggested that some societies sever the
link which binds certain members to
the body, as a therapeutic measure, not
otherwise than a physician excises a
malignant tumour. But of course such
procedure could not be countenanced by
the Great White Brotherhood, for
whenever a candidate is accepted the
Order which takes him must also take
over all responsibility for the neophyte
building the being of the new member
up into its own magical hierarchy. This
represents a tremendous gain to the
person brought within the pale, however
at the same time the Order is
assuming a very serious trust, namely
the total Karma of the candidate.
Knowledge of this fact may explain
the severity and rigidity of tests instituted
to ward the portals of certain
Brotherhoods whose robes are not the
whitest of the white. These misguided
brethren presume that it is part of
wisdom not to undertake too much burdensome
Karma. Thus they imagine
to preserve their own strength husbanding
their accumulated wealth for
their own advancement. But an error
of this type is fatal. The secret of
opening the barriers above lies in opening
those below (see the Emerald Tablet
of Hermes). Just as no individual
can rise unless he helps his fellowmen,
similarly no Organization can enter the
Sanctuary before it be wholly purged
of greed.
The majority of existing occult
bodies today find themselves on a pilgrimage
in a dark, dark country. They
grope for light from the center of the
shadow cast by the blackness of their
own hearts; the source of Light, Life,
Love and Liberty is obscured by their
own folly and weakness in supposing
for an instant to set themselves apart
from other bodies of initiates and semi-initiates.
The inevitable result is nothing
but a conglomeration of creeds, a
confusion and confliction of congregations
and sects. Unless the executive
heads of all the occult orders on this
planet awake in time to the significance
of this warning, the actual interpretation
of "the Dark Night of the World
Soul," they will have to face as best
they can, a fierce attack on their corporate
stronghold from an entirely unexpected
quarter.
Religions incarnate even as individuals.
If it should happen that a new
god, that is yet one exceedingly ancient,
should have been born recently, and
with incurred Karma so well disciplined
that even its tiny, infant fingers
could brush away the cobwebs the enemy
has spun to blur its vision, then
mankind throughout the world would
suddenly receive an illumination simultaneously
with the complete overthrow
of the old and the establishment of the
new religion. Whether or not this
would be fortunate for the human race
is a question it would be idle to discuss.
The really pertinent question is
how such an event interests and would
affect the great number of occult societies.
Those which have already abandoned
their swaddling clothes, and
attained consciousness of their corporate
identity with its attendant responsibilities
have nothing to fear, they will
continue on their courses as stars
through the heavens absolutely free
from interference. On the other hand,
those who have shut themselves up,
"who refuse their blood to the Cup, who
have trampled Love in the race for
self-aggrandisement" shall quite naturally
become "Eaters of Dung in the
Day of Be-with-us."
To summarize the whole business in
a few words: let all those, both societies
and individuals, who feel themselves
in a state of dryness with regard
to occult matters, realize that the
genuine cause is the thirst of their
companions for Love. The Law of
Love decrees that individuals and societies
shall unite to perform THE
GREAT WORK!