The Beginner’s Guide to Metaphysics

“That’s why we look behind appearances, see the world like the eye on the pyramids” – Raiza Biza

In today’s society, “magic” and “religion” have become loaded words. From a scientific perspective, they have become akin to fairy-tales, folklore, and psychological simplicity. Those who find the value in it are sometimes treated with a condescending nature, or politely asked how they could put some much merit into “blind faith.” While it’s true that at times it does misplace and mis-interpret the idea of faith, considering religion and magic (or mysticism, as they will be referred to together from hereon out for scholastic reasons) a psychological crutch is not only incredibly conceited, but also incredibly illogical and irrational.

The mind of the modern, science-exclusive person, paints as many broad strokes in ideology as the mysticism it critiques, and today the theories of the Big Bang and even Darwinism and Relativity are indeed contested due to their scientific discrepancies. This is not to say that they are entirely untrue, but that they are merely incomplete in their current representations. Some may scoff at the idea, but there is a great deal of philosophy (most notably David Hume) that strongly argues how the idea of “empiricism” (empirical deduction in science) cannot be a truly objective form of investigation. This is not meant to discredit the value of empirical thought, but rather to equate ideas of mysticism and science through the common denominator of theory – nothing is set in stone, and so all is subject to change. After all, the data may be accurate, but human error in translation of the data will be ever-pervasive.

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The problem here is that “Ideas” have been compartmentalized into a million different names. What started out simply as “Philosophy” in ancient societies has now become religion, politics, science, psychology, medicine, et cetera – not even counting all the secular schools of thought within these topics. The ideas of human progress must once again be reunited under one banner. It doesn’t matter what it’s called, the important part is that not a single piece of data is excluded from the process – all must be taken into account, and filtered through the context of two ways of action: 1) Helping life flourish, and 2) Helping life diminish.

This is a fundamental truth of the Earth and the life she carries, as demonstrated by the classical thought-experiment of watching a lion, for instance, stalk its prey so that it may feed its cubs later. If the lion, in this case, were stalking its prey to rape and murder them, this would be an evident example of #2.

Mysticism is such a difficult field to enter into from a research-perspective because its ideas are always tossing around concrete resolutions that were developed to contain doublespeak – Mysticism is allegorical/analogical thought, and without the knowledge of the allegory, the ideas held about the mystical/religious principles are incomplete – this is the equation of symbolism and the context of its knowledge. This is why a person cannot equate one specific deity or entity to “Good” and “Evil” because the deity is only half of the equation – when considering “God” only as a monotheistic deity, the allegory that this image was meant to evoke has become lost, and what is left is merely and incomplete concept.

Likewise, there are ideas like “the Devil.” While this could upset a lot of people’s understandings here: just because a person is a Luciferian does not mean that they do things like sacrifice virgins, drink blood, and have orgies in the name of evil. To briefly explain this before moving on, the allegory that the image of Lucifer represents in Christianity serves an entirely different purpose to the pupil than what Lucifer represents to an actual Luciferian. To a Luciferian, Lucifer is not considered a Christian “Satanic Devil” but a “Light Bringer” synonymous with the archetype that the Greek titan Promeutheus as well represents. The archetype of the Light Bringer (Light Bringer being what Lucifer literally translates to) is meant to represent a bringer of truth, knowledge, and wisdom, thus becoming two totally separate entities in their function, despite sharing symbolism. This is not to say that the Satan/Lucifer of Catholicism is something that anyone should ever consider “worshipping” because this would be an entirely separate archetype represented by a Luciferian’s representation of the Light Bringer, which is an inherently positive thing to the Luciferian.

What follows in this article will be a brief, connective roadmap between the recurring ideologies of the surviving schools of mysticism in order to bring to discussion the second half of mysticism as a whole – its allegory. This allegory is what occultists, mystics, and scholars alike consider the “Old Religion” or “Prisca Theologia,” which is described as the recurring, underlying and fundamental truths that can be found in all forms of mysticism throughout human history. In fact, the idea of this Prisca Theologia is the actual definition of what is considered “the Occult,” and those considering the Occult to have a negative connotation have yet to breach one of the barriers to understanding metaphysics.

The important thing to remember from here on out, is that the choice in religion/mysticism was never meant to be either “Right” or “wrong” in and of themselves, only their interpretations can be bent around an individual’s good or evil wills. A dogmatic person will, of course, vehemently disagree with this, but progress has never been made through dogma, and in order to empirically assess the body of metaphysics from a scientific viewpoint, they all must be considered from the same objective viewpoint, with good and evil separated from the data and left in the realm of human emotion.

Perhaps a disappointment to some, a beginner’s guide to metaphysics does not come with any answers. The beginning of metaphysics is not finding hidden truths about the world or yourself–that comes later. The real beginning is learning to ask the right questions. True to this idea, the following analysis focuses on the mindset that each ideology is aimed to cultivate within an individual, and what types of questions that these mindsets are aimed to pose.

Eastern Mysticism – Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism

Eastern Mysticism can be considered as three major schools of thought, more or less: Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Their precursor, generally speaking, was the ancient Indian mysticism “Jainism,” which is the origin of the Swastika as a symbol of the union with the Cycle of Life, and is one of the oldest recorded religions on the planet. Jainism quickly evolved, and developed under the variety of Eastern metaphysics that is with society today. Like most ideologies, Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism tend to break off into a variety of interpretations; and in the case of Buddhism, for instance, it was developed as a protest to the “religious flare” that Hinduism brought with its variety of gods under different human incarnations, and ritualism.

To the original Buddhists, the rituals and symbols of the Veda (Hindus) was a convolution of the mental faculties, and that a deeper form of metaphysic asceticism was required in order to truly understand reality. As the Hindus sought to understand the microcosm of human psychology in relation to the macrocosm of the cosmos, Buddhists attempted to do the exact opposite by analyzing the macrocosm of the cosmos (and human society) in order to gain a deeper understanding of the self. Of course, this is a bit of a generalization as well, since both philosophies focused on both aspects; but to explain this a step further: while Hinduism used their theology and symbolism in allegory to the experience, the Buddhists tended to perceive the human experience as allegory for the divine.

Meanwhile, in China, ancient metaphysicists like Lao-Tze took these ideas of the microcosm and macrocosm to an entirely different, perhaps more applicable level. Using an asceticism likened to Buddhism, and a mystical, selfless awareness likened to Hinduism, Taoism can perhaps be considered the most pragmatic of the metaphysics, producing such works as the I-Ching, which serves as a geometric codex to understand and decipher the nature of the Tao (reality, so to speak), and can be seen in full right here.

All these discussed forms of mysticism were heavily contingent upon the idea of reincarnation as a spiritual-evolutionary progress through the illusions of the dualism between the physical and metaphysical, the “Veil of Maya” in Buddhism. It was taught that energy created cannot be destroyed, only recycled, and so did the cognizant soul perspective’s present moment continue to be recycled through life experiences, until the individual shed the confines of its karmic limitations, on its path towards “enlightenment.” To the Eastern mystics, karma was seen as sort of physical limitation to the mental faculties, impeding a person’s deeper understanding of themselves and the universe, in order to achieve a state of metaphysical transcendence. This state of transcendence is generally considered as an overall integration into the “Tao” or the “divine essence” in all things.

On a final note in this section, it is a common misconception that Eastern mystics did not have traditions of “Heaven” and “Hell,” or “angels” and “demons,” and there is basically no form of mysticism that does not involve supernatural entities and varying metaphysical states of consciousness. To the East, this is exactly what Heaven and Hell were: states of consciousness that occurred during and after physical incarnation. A person had the choice between Heaven and Hell at all times in the present moment, and whether they realized it or not, they were always making the decision between the two. Eastern Mysticism made the effort to train the thought processes toward divine potential and away from human illusion. In this respect, states of karmic thought-process were considered a determinant factor between Heaven and Hell, a notion that Dr. Stanislav Grof has put 50 years of psychiatric research into through his ideas of “Condensed Experience System” (CoEx Systems).

All in all, Eastern Metaphysics can be considered the mindset that requires cultivation during times of spiritual famine. A man bereft of his amenities would be forced to find the value in asceticism if he wanted to prosper; a man bereft of love and affection would be forced to find these things within himself, alone, before he could discover anything more; and a man with the turbulent wind of restless thoughts would only find peace and solace in his discipline of emptying his mind, so that he may place new and better ideas within it.

Witchcraft – Paganism, Voodoo and Native American Mysticism

Paganism, Voodoo, and the spirituality of Native Americans are put in the same category in this article not to generalize them as completely the same, but because so much of the cause and effect within the mysticisms are the same, and unite under the same method of spirituality: witchcraft.

Witchcraft, from the anthropological definition, is a spiritual belief in the presence of Nature itself, very generally speaking. Witchcraft was developed as peasant religions during times of cultural and philosophical discrimination, and because of this, witches developed an intimate and observation-based connection between themselves, the world around them, and the metaphysical world of “spirits” that connected them. Witchcraft in the West had been around long before the Catholic church, and because of this, it was considered one of its primary targets–as well, because of the Church’s detest for Witchcraft, it is one of the first times in recorded history that the ideology becomes more of a recorded social philosophy. Up until that point, Witchcraft (Paganism, in this case) had been more of a collection of ideas that different people pursued in very different ways, for very different reasons. There was never any set gods or goddesses and witchcraft perceived the god of individual worship to be dependent on the individual–because it was meant to be a reflection of the individual’s higher self, something akin to Plato’s “ideal forms.”

Spirits were seen in everything everywhere, because they were the divinity in all things – and the capacity for all things to be engaged with (magick). Those who practice Witchcraft and Voodoo alike, considered the ability of magick to be an engagement between their spirit and the spirit within the object. In consideration of “magick,” it is an endlessly convoluted term, and has as many broad applications as the term “science.” Magick from a historical point of view involves knowledge of plant medicines and poisons for “potions,” an understanding of occult knowledge/symbolism to any varying degree, a manipulative charisma that could practically “charm” people, and understandings of psychology and things like hypnotism. Beyond that, there is plenty of argument for extra-sensory perceptions as well, like clairvoyance, precognition, astral travel, telepathy, and communion with metaphysical entities to a varying physical degree – but for brevity, it will be left at that.

Voodoo, which was born out of the juxtaposed African culture in slave society, can be seen as a conjugation of orthodox Catholicism and African tribal shamanism, by using the Christian explanations of angels and demons, et cetera, to map out their shamanistic traditions. In an attempt to generalize here, both African and Native American (including Mesoamerican) mysticism can be seen under the same context as the origins of pagan witchcraft (although it is undeniable that there was a trickle effect of the Mystery Initiations and their esoteric knowledge into peasant-oriented witchcraft). Witchcraft, being the anthropological definitions of the mysticism of the Pagans, the Voodoo, and the Native Americans, is characterized as a peasant religion, based on the observation of nature, and the integration of its patterns into human life on a personal and social level. This is enacted by a variety of symbolism and ritual that is predominantly associated with shamanism. However, it cannot be denied that all forms of witchcraft can and were used for nefarious activities, as black sabbaths and black magick have been a recurring theme throughout all of human mysticism. To the adepts of witchcraft, the fields of study also involved various modes of alchemy, astrology, and numerology, depending on cultural context of these ideas.

Abrahamic Mysticism – Catholicism, Kabbalah and Islam

Abrahamic Mysticism consists primarily of the metaphysics of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. While these religions today are heavily used throughout society with little incorporation of metaphysic understanding, mysticism would not be the same without them. Easily the most dominant contribution to the occult of these would be Judaism, through a form of ancient Hewbrew, spelt “Kabbalah,” “Qabala,” et cetera. Since there isn’t a precise translation of the name into English, there are quite a few differential spellings based on the pronunciation more so than the spelling itself. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, the wise, old Kabbalists were considered to be in communion with highly powerful demons throughout the cosmos, because the Kabbalistic “Tree of Life” is considered to be a map of reality, in a very, very loose sense of the phrase. Containing ten spheres or “sephiroth” of “types of existence,” whether this be a metaphysical dimension, a mental dimension, an alchemical state, or otherwise, the Tree of Life is one of the most prized and withstanding teachings of ancient mysticism, and tends to be one of the first things researched by newcomers to the subject.

While it seems quite evident that numerology was developed by the Mystery Initiations, the Kabbalists were generally the first people to begin assembling the processes of uses of numerology in the West, which is scholastically called “gematria.” Also heavily prevalent in the esoteric beliefs of Greece and Egypt, gematria was the number system used to graph out the Old Testament. Yes, “graph” it out. The Old Testament was originally written by Kabbalists to bear not only many layers of linguistic understanding of their teachings, but mathematic understandings of their teachings as well. While being highly controversial to some people, it has become a common understanding in mysticism and comparative-religious historical analysis, that most, if not all of the names of the members of the Bible are mathematic, gematrian equations.

Additionally, this was a common practice throughout ancient history and, for example, Greek philosophers Aristotle, Plato and Socrates are considered by scholars to have those “names/titles” which they earned by their lot in life – their character. Consequently, the names of the Bible represent the same concept. Jesus Christ himself has been heavily speculated and researched to be a traveling monk from the east, or even possibly a group of monks, Christ becoming an archetype for the metaphysician. However, this is far from the only theory behind the matter. Other occult sources – and, notably, a larger amount of the sources – accredit Christ’s initiation into metaphysics by the Gnostic Egyptian Mystery Initiations. In fact, not only have a number of occult researchers touched on this subject, it has even been researched and discussed on the radio show, Coast To Coast AM by historian, Tricia McCannon.

McCannon’s research illustrates the account of a Christ with origins in Celtic royalty from ancient Britain. According to the line of research, Christ visited the Celts as a young boy and studied with them. He then eventually traveled to India and studied with the Brahmins (maybe the Buddhist, hence the Buddhist monk theories?), where he eventually made his way to the Egyptian Initiations, before returning to his homeland. In this line of research, the “Christ” is as well-considered a title that Jesus earned, being a bringer of light, as many have phrased it, anointed Jesus “the Christ.”

For what it’s worth, Tricia McCannon is far from the only source that recounts this narrative, and it’s an incredibly viable theory. Outside of traditional Christian canon, it is probably the most accurate historical account of Christ to date. With this background in mind, Jesus returned to his homeland, in realistic terms, to combat the oppression of the state with “gnosis” or knowledge of the ancient sciences and mysticism. At this point, Judaism was already well on its way to being an oppressive, social-norm reinforcement mechanism of political administration (aside from Kabbalism), and Jesus saw himself as the bringer of the “light” of knowledge to his people. From this perspective, perhaps the reason that Jesus has survived in legend throughout the ages is that he was one of the original social activists against the Surveillance State, with the blood of a true political anarchist. Other accounts even still tell the tale of Jesus’ escape from crucifixion as proposed by Dr. Courtney Brown of the Farsight Institute. This, albeit, is a bit more speculative than the documentation for Jesus’ initiations into the Egyptian Mysteries.

Perhaps from here it should be mentioned that this article does not seek to tarnish any person’s own ideologies. The purpose here is to lay out these ideologies from more of a historical perspective, and from an overarching perspective that takes all mysticism/occult into account for a more wholesome perspective of metaphysics. With that being said, the modes of affect that Christianity was propagated for became known in the eyes of the Occult as misinterpretation, disinformation, and overall insincere in its beliefs. Claiming that Christianity is inaccurate from a metaphysic standpoint is not to say that it is unhelpful or misleading, but that its dogma was constructed by its leaders in order to limit the perceptual faculties of the religion’s followers. Furthermore, this is a testament to the true power of Jesus Christ’s word; it was seen as such a threat to the ancient power systems, that elitists such as Constantine and King James saw how deeply the common people were inspired by Jesus, and played this to their advantage. From this perspective, the institution of the Church is the inherent inversion and counter-mimicry of Jesus Christ’s true teaching, and is meant as a diversion from authentic metaphysics. Not to mention the fact that what is known as “the Bible” today is meant to be an accurate representation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, when it leaves out such scrolls about Mary Magdelin, Judas, Enoch, and even the Nag Hammadi Scrolls. To say that this is “God’s will” to have these scrolls edited out of the Bible is fundamentally putting a great deal of merit into the decisions of elitist rulers like King James and Constantine.

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This can be more accurately explained by three examples in Christianity’s belief system: the belief that no one else is correct, and that all are damned but Christians; the emphasis on doctrine and ritual, with less emphasis on the self’s relationship to the world and more so on the Christian-world’s relationship to the self. This, in a generalized sense, was seen by many as a formation of social-norms administrated by the Catholic church in order to subvert outlier ideologies. The Catholic Church, throughout history, primarily revolved around domination and control, and while other religions are guilty of the same, they are not in question here. This is not to say that there is anything “evil” about Christianity’s beliefs and dogmas, but the Catholic church is being judged here on its effect in the mind of the individual, and not for the types of methods that it uses. An example of these types of methods, is what more and more alternative researchers are pointing red flags towards: the Catholic Church’s relationship to governmental centralization and globalization through the “Jesuit Order.” This is not meant to diminish any attributions that Christianity made to Mysticism.

Most of what was said about Christianity and its reinforcement of social-norms and incomplete teachings of metaphysics processes, can be said about Islam as well. However, despite its reputation in the West today, Islam also contributed to the body of metaphysic information with its Sufism ideology. Much like the Kabbalists, the Sufis were sometimes even persecuted by their own mother-religion because of their incredibly allegorical interpretations of doctrine. Sufis (again, like Kabbalists) saw the monotheistic god as an allegory for the macrocosm of the universe, the self-regulating nature of the universe, the “Tao,” whether it be human cells or planets. Perhaps not surprising at this point, there is a heavy amount of documentation today that suggests that Sufism was considered heretical by many Islamic sects because it was not of Islamic origins. Rather, it was an Islamic interpretation of the ancient sciences of the Egyptian Mystery Initiations. It is also considered that the Sufis were intimately connected with the Kabbalists of the day, perhaps developing the Islamic understanding of the Mysteries through contact with the Kabbalists.

Overall, Abrahamic mysticism can be considered the inversion of a politically hijacked school of thought. By extrapolating social-norm reinforcements from ancient metaphysics, the “traditional” interpretations of the Abrahamic religions subsequently severed the connection between their doctrine and its hidden allegory. Thus, the Abrahamic mystics were a cultural retreat to the roots of the ideas within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Gnosticism

The keepers of the Library of Alexandria, and the upholders of the secret Mystery Initiations of Greece and Egypt, Gnosticism remains one of the most poignant parallels to scientific thought out of all mysticism. Deriving its concept of divinity from “gnosis,” which means knowledge, Gnosticism can very literally be considered a religion of knowledge. Yet it goes deeper than this, for even the word “knowledge” can still be a somewhat broad definition. The Gnostics taught that what was considered “God” or the “Tao” to others, for instance, was what they considered as the mother goddess “Sophia” (pronounced Soe – fie – ah). Sophia allegorically represented to the Gnostics the root of empirical, objective truth that had the potential to be seen and realized in any given formation or concept or entity.

The Gnostics as well taught that physical matter was a sort of inversion–a perversion of the metaphysical soul – and they considered good and evil as the duality between the metaphysical and physical realms, respectively. In a deeper sense, physical matter was seen as the ultimate obstruction to the ever-pervasive gnosis in all concepts, and because of this, it was seen as an obstacle to the soul, something that had to be understood and overcome first and foremost. However, this does not mean that Gnostic idea of physical matter could be equated to an evil akin to the Christian “Satan,” and ironically, the Gnostics considered Jehovah himself to be this type archetypal evil – an ultimate obstruction of gnosis – and they called Jehovah the “Demiurge.”

While the concept of the “Demiurge” is a wonderful speculation to have today, it unfortunately proved to be a major factor in the Catholic Church’s targeting and near-annihilation of Gnostic tradition. It is said that the Gnostics generally had a reputation for taking to the streets and instigating philosophical debates between people, especially with Christians, in a way that seems humorously reminiscent of something like ambush journalism.

A final important highlight of Gnostic ideology is the term that confuses the hell out of some people, completely awes others, and yet still causes some to scoff and shake their heads: the idea of the “archon.” Firstly, the primary reason that pseudo-intellectuals scoff at the idea of the metaphysical “archon” is because in ancient Greece, where Gnosticism was heavily prevalent (and upheld the Eleusinian Mysteries) “archon” was a pejorative term for a social elitist. While this is true, and the Gnostics obviously chose this for the metaphysic diction with the cultural definition in mind, it only takes a “Google Search” of the Nag Hammadi Scrolls and some basic reading to see that the context is blatantly much deeper than this.

The reasons that Gnostics considered Jehovah and physical matter as villainous concepts is because of their obstructive properties; essentially, the primary foundational root of these obstructive properties was considered “archon.” Thus, there is the dualism of the Sophianic gnosis and its inversion, the archon; objective truth and higher understanding, or subjective lies and the depths of un-corrected error. The part that gets really strange, is in the ways that the Gnostics described the archons. Far from being any social elitist, the archons were seen as metaphysical entities that attached onto “human error” by a modality that can be considered today as Hertz radio waves, theoretically. Today, it is basic scientific understanding that all human thoughts are emitted from the brain as Hertz waves, which are the same waves that radio transistors pick up and play stations with–so in this regard, “un-corrected human error” could be considered a condensed and reinforced Hertz wave pattern that is repeated throughout the person’s daily life, inhibiting them from achieving gnosis of themselves. Dr Stanislav Grof has laid some incredible groundwork into the psychology of the self-condensed and reinforced mental cycles, which he calls “CoEx System,” for brain pathways of condensed experience.

In relation to Gnostic scripture, the archons were seen as parasitic metaphysical waveforms that attached onto the physical emanation of human error, and fed off of it. To make it more clear, the archon was perceived as a physical happenstance, exterior to human thoughts, that played a direct role in obstructing gnosis and propagating human error. How much of this is allegory, and how much is to be taken literally is still highly debated among even the most learned postmodern Gnostic scholars. Some consider the Christian “demons” and this recurring theme of negative entities in religions as archons, and some branch out even further and connect these to extra-terrestrial activity, while others argue that this is solely an allegory for the parasitic nature of the energetic/metaphysical dependency that comes from un-corrected human error.

All in all, Gnosticism played a crucial addition to mysticism that was nearly wiped out of recorded history, and has barely survived. It proves to be a definitive precursor to modern-day empiricism as well, and provides a peek into today’s secret societies like Freemasonry, through its history with the Mystery Initiations of Greece and Egypt.

The Mystery Initiations of Greece and Egypt

The “Mysteries” of ancient Greece and Egypt were, in a sense, the original formation of secret societies with ancient knowledge, and were the original formation of this knowledge concentrated within family blood lines. However, this is not meant to demonize the Mystery Initiations with such an equation, but Freemasonry would be significantly different in its rituals, symbols, and beliefs without the Mystery “Schools.” It is also commonly accepted among researchers that the Egyptian Mysteries were the etymological origin of occult organization (in recorded history, at least), having been fully operational around 5,000 years ago.

The Mystery Schools, were indeed a sort of schooling for the young initiate to the intricacies of metaphysics, psychological symbolism, and a recollection of the higher consciousness within the self or the “soul.” The Mysteries taught that a man or woman who had found themselves seeking initiation were the ones who were seeking the deeper awakening of the reincarnated soul. Thus, the initiations were designed to bring about this type of awakening within the individual, and not without a heavy price either. Many did not even survive the perils of the initiations within the catacombs and secret compartments of the Giza, and even if one did not die in their initiation, a failure midway through a rite could as well result in an execution, since the initiate had only proved himself through half of the rite, and thus was not fit to know any of it in the eyes of the priests.

The Egyptian Mysteries as well reveal the true nature of the pyramids (or at least some of their nature), their architecture being carefully and specifically designed for these type of rituals to lead to an individual’s spiritual “awakening.” Additionally, researchers like Carl Munck are popular for going to extensive lengths to research, document, and classify the architecture of the pyramids as having a gematrian context – meaning that every single detail of the design of the pyramids, was created to contain ancient mathematics in order to further preserve it, and create an adequate environment for their initiations.

It is also speculated that the Egyptian Mysteries utilized, at certain times, hallucinogenic compounds from plants during their initiations in order to propel them to a deeper state of consciousness. While this does seems likely, there is even more evidence to show that the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece were likely to use a special brew containing LSA (a precursor chemical to LSD) found in grain molds like barley during the final stages of their initiations. Inspired by the esoteric traditions of Egypt, ancient Greece incorporated these ancient initiations and themes into the context of their own spirituality and culture. Thus, the Egyptian “god,” Thoth, the scribe of reality and crucial to the initiatic rites, was adopted by the Greeks as Hermes Trismegistus. Pythagorus and Plato are some of the most famous initiates and contributors to the Eleusinian Mysteries throughout history, although there are a great deal more of them, since it was incredibly common for Greek logicians and philosophers to eventually find their way to the Mystery Initiations.

With the prevalent use of numerology and mathematics in Egypt, it is clear (though perhaps the specifics are still blurry) that those like Pythagoras had their own knowledge carefully handed down to them after initiations, whereupon Pythagoras did a great deal of work with what today is called “cymatics” among his other, more well known work, which is using sound waves to produce geometric, physical objects/patterns. In science, this is demonstrated by putting granules on a vibratory plate, and at specific rates, the granules will create different and increasingly intricate geometric shapes. Pythagoras and those of the initiations were aware of these parallels, and that music was merely a byproduct of mathematic resonance.

The Eleusinian Mysteries were the ones to eventually introduce the performing arts to the society of ancient Greece, with theatre, music, and the like, and eventually the Initiations were morphed to better suit Greek society, transitioning from less of an anonymous tradition and into more of a cultured social tradition. The Mysteries became further secularized to specific Greek family blood lines that welcomed outsiders of a likened mind. During this time, the Mystery Initiations and their knowledge became a tool of political administration in Greece, something that many alternative researchers may find quite interesting, since this was one of the precursors to today’s secret societies.

The “Mysteries” of the ancient world were originally designed by Gnosticism as a way to expedite the spiritual development of those who were willing and able, so that they may continue in the esoteric tradition, which consisted of ancient quantum physics, psychology, sociology, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, et cetera. Eventually, these Mysteries formulated into forms of political rule meant to guide the Greeks in the way of the gods. Over time, not only did the esoteric tradition of politics become forgotten, but so did the esoteric nature of the politicians as well.

Secret Societies – Freemasonry, Illuminati and Bohemian Grove

In discussion of the occult, and especially occult history, the ideas would be incomplete if they did not take secret societies into account. Quickly, let’s dispel with some misconceptions here. This is not going to be a rant about the “New World Order,” although the relevancy of this topic will be addressed briefly. As well, this is not in any way meant to sympathize with secret societies, but simply to state the facts as they seem to be presented. The fact of the matter is that there is an equation between NWO politics and secret societies, but it is only in this general sense; and drawing any specific conclusions to groups like Freemasonry and the Illuminati tends to oftentimes convolute the understanding of the matter with half-truths. When discussing the New World Order and secret societies, it is much more poignant to discuss Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the like.

From an etymological point of view, there isn’t even any real evidence for a group that actually calls themselves the “Illuminati” in today’s society, and rather, the word “illuminati” is simply an occult term meant to signify “illumination” or enlightenment to the higher self. Within this context, there has become a hidden ruling élite class that hoards its wealth and its esoteric knowledge through secret societies by passing these amenities down through their blood lines. These people, while possibly having some precursors beforehand, can be seen as products of the Rockefeller/Rothschild Dynasty of Western Institutionalization towards uniformed, globally centralized government systems.

For those unfamiliar, the American Rockefellers started out selling literal snake-oil in the 1800’s, struck oil, and never turned back; becoming the primary monopolistic power over oil in the west, and eventually the globe through control of the market. The Rothschilds made their name in banking, and being of Zionist Jewish lineage, they are why so many researchers are quick to be anti-Semitic, sometimes even claiming that “Jews run the world.” While these phrases are not endorsed here in this article, from this perspective, there is technically somewhat of an argument for it. Monopolizing money and oil in the West, the Rothschild and Rockefeller families shared their resources in order to monopolize the energy and currency market, eventually creating the “petrodollar.” For more information of this narrative, James Corbett’s documentary and article, “How Big Oil Took Over the World” is a good place to start.

From here, it is considered that through metaphysics of the Mystery Initiations, handed down by Freemasonry and other off-shoot societies, that the Rockefeller/Rothschild Dynasty began to monopolize esoteric knowledge as well, and implementing it into their agendas that were eventually facilitated by Sigmund Freud’s research into psychoanalysis, as proposed by Freud’s American nephew, Edward Bernays. The father of modern propaganda, Bernays was one of the primary founders of the American “Public Relations” department, and, using his Uncle Sigmund’s pessimistic ideas on human collective consciousness, found it instrumental to constantly “manufacture consent” of the people, so as to guide their animalistic, barbaric impulses of their subconscious mind from harming them and threatening the power structure that was doing so much to “help” them survive.

It is simply a matter of record from here on out that the Rockefellers monopolized Western Medicine by buying out the funding of the dominant medical schools and injecting Big Pharma economics into their treatment plans, subsequently eliminating holistic medicine from practice. Through this process, the Rockefellers continued to rot out the rest of the college institution through affect. Through the inspirations of public relations war propaganda of the World Wars, the rise of the medias like television and music were quickly monopolized so as to properly “direct” the “banal, animalistic impulses” of the commoner’s subconscious as well. Today, a variety of this hidden esoteric symbolism can be seen flaunted in the mainstream Western pop culture media with endless doublespeak, allegorical imagery, and subliminal messaging; to use the most basic example, a variety of hand-gestures such as the triangle that is flashed by movie stars like Denzel Washington and Brad Pitt, to music icons like Jay Z, Beyonce, and Justin Bieber.

This does not prove that these people have ill-intentions, although it is suggestive of it. Presumably, when someone flaunts this symbolism, it suggests that they have been approached and endorsed by the Western institution of the Rockefeller/Rothschild dynasty or New World Order; but what the consistency of ancient symbolism represents here is that these celebrities, through the journey of their career into “stardom,” are becoming “illuminated” with the esoteric knowledge of the Gnostic Mystery Initiations through the teachings’ survival in secret societies. It does not mean that these people are directly involved with secret societies (although any of them could be), and it doesn’t even necessarily suggest that they have any accurate understanding of ancient mysticism (although they probably do). The same goes for politicians.

This is the connection that secret societies have to the Rockefeller/Rothschild New World Order: elitism, money, and blood lines. That’s basically it. Freemasonry does not directly equate to the NWO, and Adam Weishaupt’s “Illuminati” (which was a rebellion against the Catholic Church) was predominantly active at the end of the 18th century (1776, on record). Researchers like James Corbett also report how Weisphaut’s Illuminati actually had ties to the Catholic Jesuit Order; and if this is true, then it proves that there is still quite a bit more to be fleshed out on this subject. Either way, there is definitely more research to be done on the matter. Even if the Illuminati had continued and had ominous intentions, there is little evidence to suggest that anything other than the symbolism that they borrowed survives to this day.

The Skull and Bones Society, with George H. Bush

In a final consideration of Freemasonry, it is only very loosely centralized to begin with–and each “lodge” of Freemasonry is independent to a large degree, allowing for all sorts of misinterpretations and false-equivalence, since lodges can ultimately have very different reasons for their founding. The Skull and Bones Society at Yale, due to heavy ties to political elitism, does seem to be some facet of Freemasonry and esoteric knowledge that is inherently corrupt. Additionally, there is an increasingly overwhelming body of evidence to suggest that the Western institutions of surveillance, involving the CIA and many high level politicians directly related to this New World Order complex, are involved with intricate and continuously run child sex trafficking rings that, believe it or not, are always reported with black magick ritualism. “Bohemian Grove,” which is an annual pagan ritual attended by some of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the US elite, is unfortunately a well documented event that involves this type of New World Order corruption of esoteric knowledge. Furthermore, Bohemian Grove is on public record as a private camping ground in Monte Rio California; reportedly has ties to the child sex trafficking; and has been around since the early 20th century, at least. Additionally, the “Grove” seems to be one of the primary distortions of esoteric knowledge by the New World Order.

Whatever is going on in today’s secret societies is by no means certain, but there is a lot of information available that people are still not looking into–hence the convolution and confusion in many of today’s discussions among researchers.

Science and Mysticism Unified

“Human beings have always tried to make sense of the world around them. In modern times we often look to science to give us explanations for the way things are. Way back, in the distant past, our ancestors probably would have turned to the spirits and what we would now call magic as a source of information. Today, in Western societies, this way of thinking has been devalued. Magic, has often been contrasted with both science and religion. However, magic is similar to science in the way that if offers an explanation of the world, although it uses the medium of spiritual connection, which cannot be observed or measured in a laboratory; the cause-and-effect relationship between an act and its consequence is spiritual, rather than scientifically validated and observable. More recently, there has been a shift from comparing magic and science to looking at the different ways of thinking. All human beings are capable of exercising two ways of thinking: these are logical analytical thought, the thought required to work out a complex mathematical formula, for example; and analogical thought or magical thinking, the state of mind required to enter a trance, such as a shamanic journey. Both can be examined and understood through a scientific world-view.”

— From Anthropologist, Dr. Susan Greenwood’s encyclopedic work, Witchcraft: A History

For an example, Nikola Tesla had extended communication with the Hindu, Swami Vivekananda at the end of the 19th century, and incorporated a great deal of Vedic metaphysics into work with free-energy physics. The separation of science from religion and mysticism has been a true travesty of the modern era, and the fact that they are incompatible is utterly false. In order to understand this link between mysticism and science, psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung’s studies into collective consciousness, Archetypal Symbolism of the mind, and Synchronicity events, are a good starting point in bridging the gap of the information.

In order to understand mysticism and religion from an empirical standpoint, it is important to understand the mechanisms of the analogical thought-process. As discussed at the beginning of this article, those who judge a Mystic by his or her symbols are falling for the first pitfall – the first archon in the way of true gnosis on the subject. Rather, the quality of a person’s religious philosophy cannot accurately be determined by their modalities of expression, but rather, by the cause and effect of these modalities. Principles enacted for detrimental and villainous purposes are “Evil,” and principles enacted with love and constructive altruism are “Good.”

In this regard, from a scientific, empirical perspective, a Luciferian Satanist and Roman Catholic can be, for all intents and purposes, theoretically working for the same greater good, depending on the individuals in question. Furthermore, the archetype that Lucifer represents is present in many different theologies (such as Prometheus of Greece), and these different representations represented the “Light Bringer” (the translation of the name “Lucifer,” after all) which was, up until Catholicism, always considered a positive thing. Furthermore, the archetype of the Light Bringer was around long before the idea of Lucifer in the Catholic Church, so which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The intention is not to endorse Satanism, but simply explaining the triviality of many of these “wholesale” statements of good and evil. As with science, the results of a study do not make the information good or evil, but rather, the context that this information creates, and the effects that come from it, and only this, is what can be considered the defining line of good and evil.

As a final point on the matter, the Left Handed Path and Right Handed Paths of Buddhism can be considered. The Left Hand/Right Hand path is a recurring dichotomy in occult philosophy, and in the West it is predominantly misinterpreted as “Left equals Evil” and “Right equals good.” Basic physics can best explain the fallacy of this black-and-white thinking. In terms of the atom, the positive charge of the proton and the negative charge of the electron simply cannot be considered in the context of “good equals positive” and “bad equals negative.” The same can be said in regards to metaphysics, as positive and negative energies are simply modalities of existence.

Rather than eliminating one, it is important to find the metaphysical balance between the two; because, in a general sense, balance creates divine or “goodness,” and imbalance creates error or “evil.” In Buddhism, the Right Handed path is considered the orthodox, traditional path to Buddhahood, and while they consider their method the most effective, they acknowledge that their Left Handed counterparts have the same likelihood of being correct. The Left Handed Buddhists, considered as Tantric, incorporate Yoga, sex, entheogenic use, et cetera, into their esoteric rituals and metaphysics; and instead of demonizing this, the orthodox Buddhists recognize different people’s needs for different ways to Buddhahood. The important thing is what the path is being used for.

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About the author:

A journalist/author from Anchorage, Alaska, Anthony Tyler is a purveyor of the esoteric. He seeks to twist the knife in phony New Age ideals, big government agendas, and today’s contrived state of scientific materialism. Far from being “Satanist,” the esoteric (i.e. occultism) etymologically marks the beginning of mathematics, astronomy, psychology and psychotherapy, medicine, and even politics through historical veins such as the Gnostic Mystery Initiations. Too few people today understand that ancient man considered “God” to be an ideal of ultimate Truth, and thus religion and science were never conceived to be separated. These truths have become a mere forgotten birthright into today’s postmodern society, but with esoteric data that men died to conceal for thousands of years now just an internet-search away, the opportunity for a societal balance presents itself.

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Respect and gratitude to The Last American Vagabond, where this article first appeared.

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