By JOHN LAMB LASH—
In March 1991, Random House published The Seeker’s Handbook – The Complete Guide to Spiritual Pathfinding (TSH). The book was carefully timed to serve the need it defined, a need I identified in the social-spiritual trends of that moment: namely, the need for orientation to, and clarification of, the options presented in the New Age movement (NAM), loosely known as alternative spirituality.
The dawn of the 1990s saw that movement peaking. My intention with this book was to offer a pathfinding tool, something like an intellectual compass for navigating through the huge array of books, teachers, programs, and practices that had been proliferating massively since the 1960s.
To that end, I proposed the metaphor of the labyrinth to describe the multiple winding pathways facing modern truth-seekers. I also suggested that in our time, due to the very multiplicity of options for spiritual development – everything from Baha’i to Buddhism to body work, from alchemy to zen – the task of pathfinding itself becomes an art. Sorting out what principle, program, or person you are going to follow in undertaking a spiritual practice to guide your life is on its own terms a challenging practice, regardless of which practice you finally adopt! This observation is as true now, I would say, as it was when I wrote the book.
The Hermetica
It has not always been so, of course. I dedicated a long section of TSH to describe “how the radio came to the beach.” That is to say, how it developed historically that Western society today faces such a vast range of options for self-development along spiritual, metaphysical, and mystical lines. Without going back beyond the Dark Ages to the destruction of the Mysteries – another investigation, covered at length in Not in His Image – I came forward from the Renaissance. The key event that laid the foundation for today’s eclectic New Age spirituality was the discovery of a sheaf of writings entitled the Hermetica. The Lexicon of 1,000 entries in TSH defines Hermetics:
From Greek, Hermes, equivalent to the Egyptian Thoth, the God of writing, calculation and the sacred arts. Loosely, the body of technical and inspirational teachings believed to be derived from the secret schools of the Egyptian Mysteries. Specifically, the corpus of thirteen rare manuscripts introduced into Europe in the 15th century, which opened the way to independent spiritual seeking in the West, especially through disclosure of the concept of theogeny.
The inception of New Age spiritual pathfinding happened in an almost single-handed way due to the influence of a Florentine nobleman, Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464). When he received the Egyptian manuscripts, Cosimo deemed the “ancient wisdom” preserved therein to be of higher value than the Bible, and predating Moses. He instructed Marsilio Ficino, appointed by him to head the Florentine Academy of Arts and Sciences, to translate the Hermetica from Greek into Latin for the edification of the trendy Italian intelligentsia of his court. In that single act, Cosimo initiated a chain of events that led ultimately to the New Age movement of today.
TSH summarises sixteen key themes of the modern alternative spirituality, contrasted to conventional faiths such as Judaism, Christianity (Roman, Protestant, and Orthodox), and Islam: 1. ancient wisdom, 2. Gaia, goddess revival, 3. shamanism, 4. masters, 5. planetisation, 6. channeling, 7. holistics and healing arts, 8. East/West studies, 9. martial arts and the warrior path, 10. paranormal reality and psychic powers, 11. reincarnation, 12. earth changes, 13. service and group effort (Aquarian idealism), 14. metahistory (parallel or secret history), 15. para-physics, chaos/complexity theory, physics of consciousness, 16. co-creation.
In the context of this essay, the final theme has a telling import. In the ultimate sense, it could be said that the Hermetica introduced two closely linked themes into Western society, and from this dyad all other aspects and ramifications of the New Age outlook are generated. These themes are co-creation, “you create your own reality,” and theogeny, “you become as gods, knowing good and evil.” Theogeny is a made-up word I propose, not to be confused with theogony, meaning an account of the origin and genealogy of the gods – as found in Hesiod’s poem, Theogony, for instance. Theogeny means “the birth or genesis (-geneos) of divine potential (theo-) in the human species.” The assertion of this god-like potential and the call to cultivate it, is the hallmark of New Age philosophy and ethics at its best. It is also the key point of heresy that distinguishes alternative spirituality from conventional faith.
Not Illuminati
Gnostics of the Mysteries designated the root of human potential by the Greek word nous, “divine intelligence,” basis of the term noetic. The Mystery Schools were a network of regional campuses where illumined teachers called telestai, “those who are aimed,” taught a vast range of sciences, arts, and vocations. These illumined teachers were most certainly NOT illuminati-type psychopaths bent on mind control and social engineering. They were dedicated teachers who had attained an advanced realisation of the nature of consciousness (noesis) and the consciousness of nature (epitomised in a living being, the goddess Sophia, also called Sapientia). In Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, Theosophic scholar G.R.S. Mead restated “the persistent tradition in connection with all the great Mystery-institutions was that their several founders were the introducers of all the arts of civilisation… they were the teachers of the infant races [who] taught the arts, the nature of the gods, the unseen worlds, cosmology, anthropology, etc.”
Mead’s view is echoed by S. Angus, author of The Mystery-Religions: “The Mysteries were the last redoubts of Paganism to fall. Prior to that their adherents were the educators of the ancient world.”
Today it is widely argued that the Mystery Schools of pre-Christian antiquity were think tanks for the predecessors of the current CEOs of the New World Order (NWO), psychopathic control-freaks who aim to deceive, divide, and enslave humankind. Investigators such as David Icke and Michael Tsarion expostulate endlessly on the nefarious doings of the NWO gang, making them out to be dazzling adepts of occultism who hold the world under their spell. Unfortunately, Icke, Tsarion and others consistently attribute NWO methods and aims to Paganism (grossly and ignorantly equated with Satanism) and the Mystery Schools. Nothing could be further from the truth.
At this crucial moment in human history, when the moment comes to defeat the NWO agenda, it is a grotesque mistake to associate the globalist psychopaths with benevolent teachers of the Pagan Mystery Schools. There does not exist one shred of evidence linking the latter-day NWO agenda, derived from the Bavarian Illuminati of 1776, to those sacred institutions of education and enlightenment. I have repeatedly emphasised that self-styled detectives of the NWO agenda, having failed to do their homework, wrongly equate the rites of theocratic empowerment in ancient times with initiatory rites in the Mysteries. But the aim of the Mysteries was connection with the Great Goddess, Sophia, embodied in the earth, not social engineering under the insane presumptions of theocracy. Failure to make this distinction has mislead many investigators, not to mention those who uncritically follow them.
The fact that some modern (alleged or self-declared) Illuminati might attribute their origins to the Mysteries does not mean it is so. In reality, the distinguishing mark of the Illuminati today is the patent error, not to say insanity, of their views on themselves, their power, and their origins! The Illuminati represent the extreme distortion of human egotism toward behaviours of psychotic deviance that threaten all life on earth. That behaviour identifies the Illuminati, regardless of what principles and pretensions are assigned to them, and no matter what ancient pedigree they attribute to themselves. That behaviour is what has to end right now if humanity is to survive and thrive in an “Aquarian” world based on social enlightenment, harmony with nature, and mutual aid.
NWO Endgame
Many developments unfolded after the Renaissance, leading to the New Age movement (NAM) as it stands today… I cannot possibly summarise even the basic outlines of this trajectory in a short essay. (Readers may consult TSH for a more complete treatment.) Suffice it to say that the NWO agenda, if it is to be defeated, has to be seen as it relates to the New Age agenda. One must ask, how are the two related? Both present visions for a global or planet-wide society, but obviously two extremely different conceptions of such a society. Or are we considering one vision in two different guises? It has been argued that the NAM, especially in the visionary scheme formulated by Theosophists Madame Blavatsky and Alice A. Bailey, is nothing but a disingenuous program to sucker people into the NWO nightmare of globalist mind control, disguised as a vast spiritual awakening, guidance by a spiritual elite, the unity of all religions, etc.
The prospect of one world religion would indeed fit into the globalist plan for planet-wide centralisation and domination by a self-elected elite, but was the recent historical version of the NAM platform, following Blavatsky and others, originally conceived with that intention in mind?
Does the Illuminati hell of globalist tyranny, implemented in the style that combines 1984 and Brave New World, incorporate for its purposes the pernicious lure of an Aquarian heaven on earth? One could debate endlessly on this touchy issue. To do so would open up enough rabbit holes to occupy a team of 1,000 researchers for decades. For instance, how would you determine if the Lucis Trust – established by Alice A. Bailey to further the aims of the Himalayan Masters of the Great White Brotherhood (GWB), “the externalisation of the hierarchy” – due to having its offices at the United Nations, is accessory to the UN plan for world domination, bureaucratic tyranny, destruction of national sovereignty, elimination of personal and civil rights, etc? In other words, how can you prove that the hierarchy of Himalayan Masters, alleged to be the “elder brothers” of humanity who guide its long-term evolution, are not backing the NWO? Or that the GWB, whether or not it is a fiction (as I strongly suspect), is not being used as a psyop to that end? I assure you, anyone undertaking these issues will have one hell of a task to sort out the players, real and fictional, and define the agendas at play, not to mention the strategies for implementing those agendas.
So, allow me to propose a shortcut to determine if the global endgame of the NWO is working in lockstep with the supposed social idealism and religious syncretism of the NAM. The entire tentacular mess of speculations surrounding this topic can be resolved by considering this question: How do the NWO gang view those two key themes of co-creation and theogeny, compared to the views and assumptions of New Agers on the same matters? If these two views coincide and complement each other, we can infer that NWO orchestrations of social evil are indeed cooperating with NAM principles, perhaps by deliberately co-opting them, or merely due to contamination, guilt by association. It remains then for people who place themselves in alignment with New Age idealism to see through their own naiveté and abandon their views, or, if possible, reclaim them from co-optation. Let’s consider in more detail the specifics of this little exercise in spiritual discrimination.
Hijacking Truth
Around 1904, at the height of the Occult Revival in Europe – a late ramification of the Renaissance recovery of Hermetics and Pagan mysticism – self-styled magus Aleister Crowley declared a code for the Aeon of Horus, his version of the Aquarian Age: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will.” A great deal has been made of this banal proposition, as if it were a cosmic revelation of sorts. Crowley himself has been ridiculously idolised by a cult following, including David Bowie and many other denizens of the entertainment world – as if such attention whores need a mystical pretext for their egomania. Crowley was a sadistic, manipulative narcissist whose delusions of grandeur far exceeded actual skill in the magic arts – though his delusions were to prove highly contagious. The Book of the Law, channeled by his wife Rose Kelly, is endlessly cited as a lofty declaration of magical empowerment. In fact, the above words present nothing more than a hijacking and distortion of the Wiccan Creed: “An it harm none, do as ye will.” Significantly, Crowley dropped the crucial qualification, “an it harm none.” Hence, his thelemic law of magic comes across as an unqualified call for narcissistic indulgence, regardless of how it affects others.
The hijacking of the Wiccan Creed, and its perversion by exclusion of crucial syntax, exemplifies how self-serving psychopaths twist genuine and benevolent alternative spiritual principles to evil ends. Wicca is a genuine and benevolent path of alternative spirituality and Gaian ethics, closely aligned to the animist path of shamanism common to indigenous cultures around the world – known crudely as “nature worship.” But whatever is potentially correct for humanity in New Age philosophy can readily be twisted against human benefit. Almost everything for social control proposed under the NWO agenda today can be evaluated by asking how it adopts and perverts some principle of the New Age movement, or a truth drawn from indigenous wisdom. This is especially so for the two seminal principles that come to definition via Hermetics around 1500: co-creation and theogeny.
Consider theogeny first: correctly understood, this is cultivation of the divine potential inherent to the human species. But hijacked and perverted, it turns into the theocratic con of the ruling elite who take themselves for gods on earth, superhuman rulers of the world. This is a vivid example of a NAM concept perverted into a NWO imperative. Clearly, the behaviours generated by those who enact this delusion will be destructive to the world at large, and ultimately to themselves. So it goes with one of the major trends of the NWO agenda, epitomised in the toxic insanity of transhumanism.
Now consider that other key theme, co-creation. According to Hermetic sciences rooted in the Mysteries, co-creation meant the process of humanity achieving its divine potential by working with nature, via alchemical collaboration. Alchemists of genuine achievement, distinguished from the many charlatans, regarded themselves as heirs of the Hermetic sciences. In that spirit, they advised: “Nature performeth her operations gradually; and indeed I would have thee do the same: let thy imagination be guided wholly by nature. And observe according to nature, through whom the substances regenerate themselves in the bowels of the earth. And imagine this with true and not with fantastic imagination.” (The Art of Goldmaking, 17th Century)
In the Mystery School tradition, which might be considered the most reliable basis for genuine alternative spirituality in our time, co-creation went hand in hand with theogeny. The initiates of the Mysteries taught that humankind has been endowed with god-like potential (divine faculties, not divine identity) so that we can develop it within the setting of the divine experiment on this planet, the laboratory of nature. Clear enough, and that is about as cogent as it gets, perhaps – but what do the NWO psychopaths contrive when they hijack and pervert this proposition? They construct ecofascism as the cover for their program of looting nature and keeping all the spoils for themselves.
Ecofascism is a kind of false flag attack on nature, blaming humanity for posing a lethal threat to the environment and then demanding that humans pay for the crime of breathing. This ploy is an insidious perversion of the “Great Work” of co-creation: create a unique human reality on earth, an Aquarian utopia, by working in harmony with nature. Note that this principle so stated avoids the narcissistic assumption that “you (alone) create your own reality.” The assertion that we as a species create reality by using the power of imagination cooperatively with nature is a premise of the Sophianic vision of the Mysteries, recovered today in Planetary Tantra. The notion that anyone creates their own reality alone, without interaction with nature and collaboration with other people, is a narcissistic delusion of the New Age.
Discrimination
It may appear that I have tackled the daunting issue of how NWO schemes relate to New Age principles, including the Aquarian ideal, in a somewhat general and roundabout manner. But it would be impossible to make a satisfactory analysis of particulars in an essay of this length. Also, as I said, the number of rabbit holes to explore would be prohibitive even to a large team of investigators. Normally, I favour the inductive method of Socrates: argument from individual to general cases. But with the tricky and ambiguous issue of NWO/NAM overlay, the grasp of generalities is essential and favours sorting out the details and particulars of the larger picture.
In my analysis, principles and proposals of New Age or Aquarian Age spirituality may be adopted to the NWO agenda, but they can also remain free of that association. It depends wholly on who is trafficking in these principles and proposals, and for what purposes. To observe that ecofascism is a hijacked perversion of the alchemical principle of co-creation, does not mean that alchemists were predecessors of the current ecofascist scam. To observe that Gnostics taught theogeny, our endowment of divine potential, does not mean that Gnostics were forerunners of transhumanism and cybernetic immortality. To observe that Wiccans revere nature as a living presence does not mean that they are accessory to the insane scheme to depopulate the world on the phony pretext of unburdening Mother Earth. Deep ecology also asserts that nature has an intrinsic value on its own, regardless of it uses for human purposes. As I show in Not in His Image, this position is closely aligned to the Sophianic vision of the Mysteries, holding the earth as the embodiment of a divine being, the wisdom goddess. Any of these legitimate propositions can be perverted to the NWO agenda of domination by the elite, but that does not mean they were originally conceived to support such an agenda.
Let’s get these issues straight on general principles. Then we will be all the more prepared to interpret particular issues and instances in which the NWO agenda appears to draw from alternative spirituality, Wicca, Gnosticism, and Pagan culture.
In conclusion, I might add my personal view that the danger posed by NWO appropriation of alternative spirituality, including shamanism and indigenous wisdom, is amplified by the cowardice and naiveté of New Agers who refuse to look social evil in the face. Cocooned in their white-light jump suits of magical thinking, New Agers and other fantasists, including proponents of “The Secret,” persist in narcissistic con-games that blind them to the perversions of human nature to be seen in the NWO predators. But the god-complex of the NWO psychopaths and the self-fulfilling deification of NAM drones, are two poles of the same festering narcissistic disease. Whether the NWO control-freaks are using New Age idealism or not, the vast majority of New Agers are so lacking in discrimination, not to mention basic savvy for social observation, that they would not even know if their precious ideals were indeed being played in that manner. That ignorance is the real and present danger inherent to the New Age movement, making it the possible and plausible accessory to insidious agendas of social manipulation and mind control.
Ultimately, the two socio-historical trends leading toward the NWO hell and New Age heaven might converge, which would be a huge victory for the globalist psychopaths. To prevent such a horrific development, one paramount skill has to be mastered by those who embrace the New Age philosophy of Aquarian idealism – the skill of discrimination.
JOHN LAMB LASH is a leading exponent of the power of myth to direct individual experience and drive historical events over the long term. His website www.metahistory.org is an inquiry into the contemporary meaning of humanity’s myths and beliefs, with emphasis on star lore and the legend of the Grail. He has written a number of books, including The Seeker’s Handbook, Twins and the Double, The Hero – Manhood and Power, Quest for the Zodiac and Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief. He is featured on the DVD Sophia Returning: The Path To Planetary Tantra.
The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 132 (May-June 2012).
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