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To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick.moderated,talk.religion.misc,talk.religon.buddhism,alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva) Subject: Cosmologic Sources of Authority (Was Re: Regardie and Blavatsky...) Date: 5 Feb 1996 18:13:54 -0800 kaliyuga 49960205 markk@West.Sun.COM (Mark Kampe): |I doubt that the "secret chiefs" concept originated from Blavatsky. |Didn't the Rosicrucians have secret masters (e.g. Frater CRC and his |desciples)? Well, you were talking about Crowley wrt the SCfs. I read recently: Crowley first became aware of the existence of a hierarchy of spiritual powers in 1898 when he read *The Cloud upon the Sanctuary*, by Karl von Eckartshausen.... Although *The Cloud upon the Sanctuary* was written in the language of Christian mysticism, the idea of a spiritual hierarchy at which it hints is not confined to Christianity. It is to be found also in the Buddhist system; in the line of mystical Hindu gurus that preceded the present Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham; in the spiritual *sampradaya*, or lineage, of Ghoraknath and the Nath Siddhas, and similar hiearchies.... After Crowley read *The Cloud upon the Sanctuary* he aspired to contact the hidden Order which the book describes. As a result of his endeavours he met George Cecil Jones (Frater D.D.S.), a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.... The Golden Dawn underwent great changes owing to the failure of Mathers to maintain a magical link with the occult Current informing the A.'.A.'. (the Order of the Silver Star) and the subsequent dissolution of his contacts on the Inner Planes by the Secret Chiefs of the Order (the Ordrs of the Rosy Cross and of the Cross of Gold), Mathers had given more than a hint as to what this contact implied: As to the Secret Chiefs with whom I am in touch and from whom I have received the wisdom of the Second Order which I communicated to you, I can tell you nothing. I do not even know their Earthly names, and I have very seldom seen Them in their physical bodies.... I felt I was in contact with a force so terrible that I can only compare it to the shock one would receive from being near a flash of lightning during a great thunder-storm, experiencing at the same time great difficulty in breathing.... _Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God_, Kenneth Grant, Skoob bookS, 1992; pp. 6-9. _____________________________________________________ That said, I think that I've seen in Rosicrucia pprs the consistent notion of 'Great White Brotherhood' as 'secret masters'. Is this what you mean? Does it relate at all to _The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary_? |With a little abstraction, I think it becomes clear the "secret chief" |concept is really just another instance of the active ingredient in |all "revealed religions". 'Cept in most revealed religions the door is closed to 'becoming the prophet(s)', which is not the case in early Rosihermineutism. If one is diligent and pure of intent one may either transit the Expanse separating the Peons from the Masters during one's lifetime (as some occultists have claimed they've done, as Crowley) or ascend to this holy and vaunted position after one 'leaves bodily form'. Personally I think they are all lovely metaphors. |Lots of people can figure out reasonable things, but nobody will |listen to them. If, however, they can claim that they got these |"reasonable things" from a burning bush, or an angel, or in blind |dictation, or through some other extrordinary means, people will |come from half-way around the world to pay to hear the same theories. Only if one specifies that these cannot be obtained from the original source oneself (else everyone would proceed to the well rather than attempt to taste your backwash). |How much difference is their between a cult-leader who claims to be |in communication with "secret chiefs" and a prophet who claims to |have had communion with the creator or one of his angels? If there |is any difference, it must be exceedingly subtle. That would depend on the cosmological position that the Secret Chiefs hold. The angels and the creator are central to the cosmological paradigm of Judeo-Christian spewings. |But this was long after he and Westcott had started the order with |its own (bogus) secret chiefs. I don't know how you can determine, without blatant recantations on the part of these men, whether their contact was 'bogus' or not. It seems to me that the important element is not whether their masters were 'bogus', but whether the materials they brought forward are at all USEFUL to you. The Secret Chiefs are a symptom of authority-worship evident within occult traditions (and beyond). The extent to which emphasis is placed upon *another*'s 'inner plane contacts' is indicative of the depravity of the ascriber. Surely they are important, but when this contravenes the subjective experience of another then we can know of its corruption. It is reminiscent of other aspects of Hermeticism in which outside sources of authority are given superior status to individual experience. That it must be connected to some 'system of authority' is merely an indicator that the measures are shifting slightly away from creator- god traditions and/or singular Personages whose cosmological status is intended to persuade. Cf. in particular the Prajnaparamita Sutra, central to Mahayana Buddhism, which was supposedly dictated by Gautama Buddha to the nagas prior to Nagarjuna's receipt, or the various termas discovered by Tibetan Buddhists, usually ascribed to Padmasambhava or his immediate students. tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com nagasiva -- To ensure my response CC all public replies to email (READ alt.magick.tyagi) (emailed replies may be posted) * http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/nagasiva.html INTENTIONAL .SIG PROTEST: FUCK SHIT PISS COCKSUCKER MOTHERFUCKER TITS CUNT
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