Vladimir Vysotsky (1938 – 1980) was a Soviet singer and songwriter, a "bard" as they were called in Soviet Russia, and actor. He was renowned for his distinctive singing style and lyrics that included social and political commentary in humorous street jargon. Despite being overlooked by the official cultural establishment, he enjoyed widespread popularity and left a lasting impact on many Russian musicians and actors.

One of the songs he wrote in 1969 was "The Ballad of Soul Transmigration." The song is quite humorous and is not to be taken seriously. Still, transmigration of souls is a topic you would not expect to hear about in Soviet Union which prided itself a bastion of rationality and "scientific materialism." The fact that Vysotsky wrote this song testifies to the existence of an esoteric underground in Russia at the time.

You can hear the song here:

...and here's the lyrics and the translation.

"Баллада о переселении душ"

Кто верит в Магомета, кто - в Аллаха, кто - в Иисуса,
Кто ни во что не верит - даже в черта, назло всем,-
Хорошую религию придумали индусы:
Что мы, отдав концы, не умираем насовсем.

Стремилась ввысь душа твоя -
Родишься вновь с мечтою,
Но если жил ты как свинья -
Останешься свиньею.

Пусть косо смотрят на тебя - привыкни к укоризне,-
Досадно - что ж, родишься вновь на колкости горазд.
И если видел смерть врага еще при этой жизни,
В другой тебе дарован будет верный зоркий глаз.

Живи себе нормальненько -
Есть повод веселиться:
Ведь, может быть, в начальника
Душа твоя вселится.

Пускай живешь ты дворником - родишься вновь прорабом,
А после из прораба до министра дорастешь,-
Но, если туп, как дерево - родишься баобабом
И будешь баобабом тыщу лет, пока помрешь.

Досадно попугаем жить,
Гадюкой с длинным веком,-
Не лучше ли при жизни быть
Приличным человеком?

Так кто есть кто, так кто был кем?- мы никогда не знаем.
С ума сошли генетики от ген и хромосом.
Быть может, тот облезлый кот - был раньше негодяем,
А этот милый человек - был раньше добрым псом.

Я от восторга прыгаю,
Я обхожу искусы,-
Удобную религию
Придумали индусы!

"The Ballad of Soul Transmigration"

Some believe in Mohammed, in Allah, some in Jesus,
Some believe in nothing - not even in the devil, to spite everyone, -
The Hindus came up with a good religion:
That we, having kicked the bucket, do not die for good.

If your soul aspired to the highest realm -
You will be born again with a dream,
But if you lived like a pig -
You will remain a pig.

Let them look at you sideways- get used to reproach -
It's annoying - well, you will be born again, good at taunts.

And if you saw the death of an enemy in this life,
In another you will be granted a faithful, keen eye.

Live at ease -
There is a reason for celebration:
After all, maybe you will transmigrate into a director.

Perhaps you live as a janitor - you can be reborn as a foreman,
And then from a foreman you will grow to be a minister,-
But if you are as dumb as a tree* - you will be born as a baobab
And you will be a baobab for a thousand years until you die.

It is annoying to live as a parrot,
As a viper with a long lifespan,-
Isn't it better to be 
A decent person?

So who is who, so who was who? - we never know.
Geneticists have gone crazy with genes and chromosomes.
Perhaps that mangy cat was once a scoundrel,
And that nice person was once a kind dog.

I jump with delight,
I bypass temptation,-
The Hindus came up with a good religion!

Today, we continue studying Konstantin Petrov’s (aka Volkhv Meragor) book, “The Secrets of Managing Humanity.” According to Petrov, the world history is a managed process. The world is ruled by an esoteric cabal known as the Global Predictor for its ability to foresee and alter the future. In chapter 13, “The Secrets of Sorcerers,” he delves into the societal control mechanisms known as egregores. Below is my summary / shortened translation. This part deals with relationships between humans and egregores. The opinions expressed here belong to Petrov, and I may disagree with them.

The Definition

First, Petrov looks at the word “egregore” itself. He traces it to Latin “aggregare,” which means «to aggregate» (or to unite). It is worth noting here that most modern occultist authorities in the West say that “egregore” is derived from the Ancient Greek “egrēgoros,” meaning “watchers” or “wakeful.” In the Universe, all processes are represented by oscillations emitted by various objects, both animate and inanimate, creating natural fields with unique characteristics. Each living organism produces its own "oscillation field,” and the interaction of these fields forms the One Field, while the characteristics of individual fields are interdependent. Likewise, humans emit a range of frequencies that form the oscillation field known as the human biofield.

In the 1930s, Soviet scientists Semyon and Valentina Kirlian experimented with electromagnetic fields and were the first in the world to record (in photographs) the aura of organic and inorganic objects. This became known as the Kirlian effect. However, it received little attention until 1978, when the USSR Academy of Sciences began research. It was discovered that a weak electromagnetic field exists around a person, the ions of which ionize air molecules, creating a unique biofield. Some people, called “clairvoyants,” can see this biofield or aura. Almost anyone can develop the ability to see an aura. The existence of an aura has been known since ancient times, as evidenced by images of halos on icons. Today, science recognizes the existence of biofields, although a complete understanding of this phenomenon has not yet been achieved.

A biofield is a set of oscillations with particular characteristics (frequencies, amplitudes, types, etc.). These characteristics will be primarily determined by the information these oscillations “carry” and the Mera [Measure, or Form] by which this information is measured. From the standpoint of the Triunity of the World [Information – Mera/Measure – Matter/Energy], a person radiates energy, which is often noted by “esoterically inclined people.” Energy is a transitional form of matter; in this case, it passes from a corporeal state to a zero state through radiation of vibrations. These vibrations contain certain information, which always has a measure. There is no information without a measure.

Thus, a person is not limited to his physical shell; his biofield is an “extension” of his essence. Although the oscillations in the biofield are less potent than those of radio stations, they still exist and can spread over large distances, although they fade with distance. Interacting with other oscillations in the Universe, they can “ride” on them and be transmitted far away, implying human oscillations exist in all corners of the Universe. After a person’s death, his emitted vibrations continue to exist and spread, like the light of an extinguished star, which continues to move for millions of years after its death. Although at great distances, a susceptible “receiver” is required to catch them. Recognition of the biofield’s existence and understanding the triunity help explain many mysterious and miraculous phenomena.

Then, it is necessary to connect all of the above with the notion of torsion fields discovered by physicists in the 90s. A physical vacuum is not emptiness but is a form of matter with a constant “birth” and “death” of particles with a short life cycle. Vacuum supports the life of the Universe. Each elementary particle has a spin that determines its properties, and the “rotation” of each particle forms a separate field, and all such fields make up the One Field of the Universe. All oscillatory processes mutually influence each other, which means that the oscillations of human biofields are also reflected in the One Field of the Universe.

Gennady Shipov, in his work A Theory of Physical Vacuum, claims that the speed of torsion waves can vary from the speed of light to infinity. This is related to tachyons - particles moving faster than light. He notes that the high group speed of torsion waves eliminates the problem of signal delay, allowing instantaneous transmission of information on the scale of the Universe. The One Field of the Universe is a colossal brain storing past, present, and future information. Resonance happens when the frequencies of oscillations that amplify each other coincide. If the oscillations of one person’s biofield coincide with the oscillations of others, they enter into resonance, creating a common biofield of similar oscillations. Thus, the biofield radiations of several people with the same information create an energy-information system on a field carrier called an egregore. The figures show the biofields of people entering resonance and the egregore diagram (see Figures below), illustrating the connection between people and the egregore. Phrases like “He opened a channel” reflect these processes. Although all people are inside the “airship-egregore,” a conditional diagram will simplify the explanation and show the interaction between people and the egregore.

an egregore representation

All people are different in appearance but similar in their physiology: They all have one head, two eyes, etc., which makes them similar “material carriers.” In terms of energy parameters, people are also close but differ in the power of energy. Understanding the trinity of “matter-information-measure” shows that in forming human egregores, informational features, not energy compatibility, play the central role. Consequently, the differences between egregores are based on their informational content. Energetically (and materially), people relate to egregores the same way as power plants and energy consumers. People with powerful energy fields feed the egregore, while people with weak energy fields leech the energy from it.

From the point of view of information, people create egregores similarly to how many computers can form a network for information processing. The human brain is a remarkable computer, transmitting information not through wires or radio waves but via its biofield. It “radiates” oscillations that, through resonance, spread across the entire egregore. This information then becomes accessible to others connected to that egregore, provided they can “tune” their own “receiver” to the right “wave.” The Measure of an egregore is the algorithm for processing its circulating information. This algorithm sets a specific order—a sequence of reasoning for individuals and the egregore. When people “reason” similarly, their biofields emit vibrations with closely aligned parameters, enabling resonance. This shared reasoning manifests as similar behavior when these people face similar situations. Thus, a human egregore is like a computer network with individual humans acting as computers in that network. The difference is that a human is much more complex than a computer, and the ability to exchange energy and information is much broader for humans.

Information Technology and Egregores

Humans exist at the intersection of the biosphere and the technosphere. The latter is created by the former. In the technosphere, there are many ways to store, process, and transmit information, which must have a certain measure and a material carrier. For example, radio, television, movies, computer networks, etc. Technical means involve people in their information streams. It is necessary to remember that technical media is just that – media for transmitting information. That information is created (formed) by people who pursue specific goals. Thus, these people can use technical means to support specific egregores, feeding them constantly the corresponding information.

This leads to the conclusion that, despite the diversity of information, a society can sustain numerous “small” egregores alongside one dominant egregore shaped by biblical ideas, which overshadows the rest. Although movies, radio, theater, books, and newspapers appear varied, they convey the same core ideas of this biblical worldview. [It is worth noting that the Bible is not the word of God for Petrov but only a mechanism for societal control.]

Television is a powerful tool that synchronously influences the psyche of an entire population, linking people to specific egregores and ultimately connecting everyone to a biblical egregore. Historically, this role was filled by churches, as there were no cinemas or cultural centers. People attended daily, weekly, and holiday prayers, often enjoying the social aspect. Few realized, however, that these services and rituals subtly influenced them, reinforced by sermons instructing them on proper behavior. In essence, they were being programmed.

Video games work similarly but go further than television by engaging users in dialog, where the psychological impact deepens through “feedback.” This interactive approach leads to stronger conditioning than passive television. Consequently, media owners incorporate “feedback” by allowing viewers and listeners to call in, which draws people more deeply into a targeted psychological state and strengthens their involvement in a specific egregore.

Egregores and individuals exchange energy and information. Many people resonate with multiple egregores, as their diverse life experiences—such as professions, hobbies, and education—shape these connections. Additionally, each person carries a unique “information baggage,” which includes smaller “fragments” like books they have read or knowledge gained from science, history, and politics. Similarly, a person’s energy can align with different egregores, depending on how they “tune” themselves as an emitter, receiver, or both.

Lifespan of an Egregore

Human egregores are created by people who are born and who die, causing each egregore’s membership and makeup to change over time. However, an egregore can persist across many generations if some people consistently support it energetically and informationally. This continuity explains the role of church rituals in sustaining certain egregores over centuries. When we consider the lifespan of egregores alongside historical time scales and the relationship between biological and societal time (the Law of Time), we begin to understand the vast changes in society today. The Law of Time challenges traditional hierarchies, pushing for new models of human relations and inevitably impacting related egregores.

Egregore as an Organism

An egregore, as a whole, is a unified organism. However, it is formed not from matter but from the fields generated by the individuals within it. The human body has many components: brain, eyes, heart, liver, circulatory system, nervous system, lungs, etc. All these components are interdependent and work harmoniously together in a healthy organism. Each organ corresponds to a specific frequency (vibration) that, when externally stimulated, causes that organ to resonate.

In an egregore, the biofields of each person and similar individuals occupy the same role that cells, specialized organs (like the liver and kidneys), and organ systems (such as the circulatory and digestive systems) do in a cohesive human body. The difference lies in the fact that the “assembly" of the egregore into a unified whole occurs not at the level of biological matter but at the level of the biofield. It is impossible to visually represent the structure of the egregore as a single organism, much like it’s challenging to depict the egregore itself. In the human body, there is a constant renewal of cells, exemplified by the skin. A similar process occurs within the egregore: individuals are born with the influence of long-lasting egregores. Even conception involves not only the biofields of the parents but also the participation of one or more egregores, and the birth of a child is even more so. People grow under the guidance of these egregores, and as they mature, their biofields support the egregore(s) until their physical death or departure from the egregore.

Egregores and the Afterlife

At the moment of death, the body emits an energy and information field with its own specific measure, which carries the soul from the body. This field is likely drawn to an egregore closely aligned with it regarding energy, information, and measure (information processing algorithm). The soul’s characteristics — its frequencies — resonate with those of the egregore, allowing it to continue existing within the egregore as long as the egregore persists. Essentially, the soul “transfers” from the human body to the egregore, which can explain the soul’s immortality and the purpose of life as one’s life experiences become accessible to others within the egregore. However, a question remains: does the soul of a living person fully match the soul that departs the body? Or is there a difference? At present, this question has no definitive answer.

Egregore as a Transpersonal Control Factor

An egregore coordinates the actions of all individuals connected to it. This coordination ensures that their efforts complement one another according to each person’s capabilities. Rather than simply combining individual efforts mechanically, the egregore achieves a specific goal for which it exists. Generally, this goal can be described as maintaining a stable and coherent process in the organization of human life. This support is facilitated through long-range channels of energy and information exchange. Remarkably, even when individuals are unaware of one another, the egregore—acting as a collective spirit—maintains awareness of each person.

Each egregore is a transpersonal factor, representing a higher level of hierarchical control than the self-management level of an individual within the egregore. This allows the egregore to manage people in diverse and varied ways. It doesn’t manipulate individuals like puppets on strings; instead, it influences them to varying degrees, impacting both the individuals and the circumstances surrounding them. Each egregore represents a facet of the objectively existing phenomenon known as “spiritual culture.” This spiritual culture generates and transforms the specific egregores characteristic of a particular society. In essence, a society’s “spiritual culture” encompasses all the egregores within that society. Because each egregore is connected to many individuals, it amalgamates their potential. Thus, the egregore’s power far exceeds any person’s individual energy and informational strength.

When a person’s energy parameters align with those of an egregore—such as the composition of fields in their biofield, field frequencies, and polarization—the egregore can exert various energetic influences on the individual:

• Burn Out: This is when someone feels overwhelmed at work or emotionally drained, often described as having “burned out.”
• Crush: when a person feels defeated or lethargic, often expressed as “losing motivation.”
• Lift and Carry Away: This describes moments when a person becomes excessively preoccupied or mentally unstable, referred to as “losing touch.”

This can also happen when a person struggles to detach from attempts by an egregore to trigger specific thoughts or feelings, which can lead to a strong attachment to that egregore. Many people have experienced persistent, intrusive thoughts that are hard to shake off. These thoughts are often the result of an egregore attempting to provoke specific information within the individual, guiding their actions and decisions according to that information. The nature of this information can vary widely, ranging from benign suggestions like “go have a drink” to more harmful impulses such as “go commit violence.”

Additionally, an egregore can temporarily block a person’s memory, intelligence, and various levels of psychological organization. This is often described with phrases like “I can’t think straight,” “I can’t remember,” or “It slipped my mind.” It’s important to note that such memory blockages are always temporary, though their effectiveness can vary. A person might forget something for a long time, quickly recall it, forget everything completely, or lose track of a specific detail or episode.

Egregores can also aid individuals. They can grant access to information that was previously unfamiliar to a person. This is when someone suddenly becomes interested in politics, history, or another field, seemingly “out of nowhere.” They can also introduce new information to a person during a biofield contact. This experience is often described as “insight” or “illumination.”

It’s essential to discern when a person acts from their own will and when they operate under the influence of an egregore.

Antagonistic Egregores

When a person’s psyche is influenced by mutually antagonistic egregores, they often feel an inner conflict. Observing their behavior over an extended period reveals inconsistency, leading to actions that seem contradictory. The underlying reasons for this behavior may not be apparent. Additionally, such individuals might experience sudden weakness and mental fatigue without apparent causes. This fatigue often stems from the egregores exploiting them as “energetic cash cows.” Similarly, sudden bouts of emotional excitement can occur, resembling intoxication, further demonstrating the impact of conflicting energies on their mental state. Understanding this dynamic can help individuals recognize the external influences affecting their emotional and psychological well-being.

For any practicing magician (whether a sorcerer, psychic, member of clergy, shaman, etc.), each available egregore—including non-human ones, such as those associated with animals—is a tool for influencing the life circumstances of individuals connected to that egregore. These practitioners harness the power of egregores to manipulate energies and information, allowing them to affect the outcomes in the lives of those under their influence.

In general terms, the scheme of such control can be outlined as follows:

1. Creation of a Thought-Form: The magician creates a specific thought-form representing a situation that they believe will positively alter the circumstances within their controlled group of individuals. This thought form is a concrete informational block endowed with a certain measure (textual, auditory, narrative, etc.). The material carriers of this information block are the magician’s brain, body, and biofield.
2. Transmission to the Egregore: The biofield transfers this informational block to a new material carrier—the egregore.
3. Processing and Emission by the Egregore: The egregore processes the informational block according to its own program (algorithm) and then emits the thought-form created by the magician to all individuals connected to that egregore. This is how “ideas seize the masses” to varying degrees.

The effect of influence depends on the “power” of the magician, their ability to create compelling thought-forms, and the establishment of a corresponding environment for the process of “accompanying the introduction of the thought-form” (such as rituals and similar actions in the visual and auditory spectrum). Examples of creating such an environment include:

• Shamanic Drumming: The rhythmic chanting and drumming by a shaman to induce altered states of consciousness and facilitate connection with the spiritual realm.
• Church Services: A religious service concluding with a sermon from the clergy aimed at reinforcing community beliefs and values.
• Masonic Gatherings: Rituals of initiation and other ceremonies that create a sense of belonging and shared purpose among members.
• Conferences of Scientists and Politicians: Events that involve rituals for electing leadership and speeches from “authorities” designed to influence collective decision-making and perceptions.

Through these mechanisms, magicians utilize the dynamics of egregores to manage the unfolding situations in people’s lives, demonstrating how collective belief and structured environments can amplify the impact of individual intentions.

A magician influences people through an egregore

A similar chart can describe the healing process conducted by a healer on a patient. It is commonly said that “every disease begins in the mind.” From the perspective we’ve explored, this suggests that a person’s “brain function algorithm” has malfunctioned or deviated from its normal operation. Practically, this means that the person is preoccupied with something, suffering from emotional distress or turmoil. This deviation in their “measure" within the larger multidimensional matrix has altered their informational state. Consequently, this change can lead to a physical manifestation of the issue—such as the emergence of a stomach ulcer.

While the individual may attempt to treat the “matter" with physical remedies—like medications or herbal tinctures—these solutions may provide temporary relief. However, the underlying issue often resurfaces, as the root cause remains unaddressed. True healing requires an understanding and resolution of the emotional or psychological factors contributing to the problem rather than merely treating the symptoms.

The healer sits in front of the patient and uses their “magical gaze,” whispers, and biofield, employing various “special techniques” to intentionally “shock" the patient. This isn’t random; it’s a focused effort. Through this informational influence, the healer alters the patient’s informational state, guiding their “partial measure” back toward balance and consequently affecting their “overall measure.”

According to the tri-unity principle, this process results in “materialization": the ulcer begins to heal. This framework outlines the healing process, but the healer needs to possess the skills to diagnose effectively, know how to observe and understand what to whisper to facilitate healing. Ultimately, the healer’s ability to connect with the patient’s energy and provide appropriate guidance is crucial for restoring harmony within the individual, leading to both physical and emotional recovery.

His informational influence can be complemented with herbs and infusions. However, these serve merely as an addition to the informational impact; they either help alleviate pain or enhance the informational effect. Many people need to see some medicine to believe in their healing. This reliance stems from their inability or unwillingness to recognize and understand the objective existence of information, thus failing to grasp the principle of tri-unity. Even if they attend church, many remain fundamentally materialistic in their views. This perspective limits their understanding of the deeper, non-material healing aspects and the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit.

As for the healers, they typically inherit their skills from parents or relatives. Nowadays, many people specifically train in these healing methods. Interestingly, this practice reflects ancient folk traditions and cultural heritage, yet these methods are often labeled “alternative.” In contrast, our current official medicine frequently employs what could be considered non-traditional methods. It should be clear to all readers that every individual has the potential to practice these techniques on themselves through self-mastery. The key is to teach these skills to people from childhood. However, this requires a different societal structure and a new public process management concept.

Levels of Hierarchy

It’s essential to recall the two types of worldviews: mosaic (complete) and kaleidoscopic (fragmentary). A magician creates a thought-image based on their subjective understanding of a situation. However, most existing magicians are trained and raised within a biblical culture. This upbringing dramatically influences the types of thought-images they are capable of creating.

Given the prevailing depravity in our society, many magicians may view the egregore as a means to anonymously exploit the abilities of individuals within their controlled egregore for personal gain. However, this exploitation is contingent on these individuals’ inability to identify the intentional stimulation of their psyche by the egregore. Even if they recognize such influence, they must also be able to disengage from its grasp. Finally, they need to protect their inner world from any intrusive egregore. Like all individuals, magicians must recognize that they, too, can be controlled by forces beyond their understanding. A magician’s sensitivity is not limitless, and the psyche of many individuals is organized hierarchically. Consequently, not all magicians can perceive the higher levels of the hierarchy within the subtle realm (i.e., the hierarchy of egregores). As a result, they may genuinely be unaware of their subservience to an egregore with a higher level of understanding and insight into the events of human society, particularly regarding global politics. This lack of awareness can lead to unintentional manipulation, where the magician’s actions align with the agendas of these more powerful entities rather than their own intentions.

A magician can become a blind servant and a prisoner of the egregore. This enslavement stems from the bioenergetic dependence of the magician on the egregore. Such dependence arises when the magician’s accustomed energy level (their energetic potential) becomes reliant on the redistribution of energy within the “magician — egregore — group of people” system.

An example of this energetic vampirism is found in “charismatic speakers.” These magicians or leaders derive pleasure from their performances before an audience. After their speeches, they often ask, “How did I do?” Their concern is more about the how rather than the what of their message. Most importantly, they cannot live comfortably without this “energy boost.” If they are forcibly removed from public speaking or choose to withdraw from the spotlight, their biofield will suffer, as these magicians cannot maintain their energetic levels without the support of the egregore.

Egregoric Guidance

Egregoric guidance can occur for an individual from mutually non-antagonistic egregores. Typically, the lifespan of such egregores can exceed that of the individual. This guidance follows the long-term strategy of a specific egregore and begins during the formative years of a person’s childhood. In simpler terms, the egregore possesses intelligence—much more potent than a single individual—and sets tasks for itself (forming a vector of goals). This allows the egregore to influence the individual’s development and life path, subtly steering them toward specific outcomes aligned with the egregore’s objectives. As a result, the person may find themselves guided by the egregore’s intentions, often without conscious awareness of this influence.

Egregores need human participation to solve problems and actively seek out suitable individuals. Once they find someone, egregores guide that person’s life—teaching, advising, assisting, and protecting them. This process can be challenging, as finding an adult with specific skills is difficult. Therefore, egregores may prefer to develop a “specialist” from childhood. For instance, a Buddhist egregore prepares a new Dalai Lama when needed. While this might seem beneficial, the implications of such guidance can be complex. It can foster an illusion of personal wisdom and foresight in individuals. Through the egregore, a person gains access to the experiences and capabilities of many generations. Illusions will inevitably fade like a dream. When these illusions vanish, disappointment—potentially leading to significant consequences—will become a harsh reality.

The egregore protects a person from situations that would expose their personal incompetence. As a result, such individuals not only see themselves as wise and infallible but also become unable to learn from their mistakes, reevaluate their decisions, and overcome challenges and failures. This can lead to a self-delusion of “personal wisdom” and the intentional or unintentional deception of those around them. Statistics may suggest that their decisions and actions are nearly flawless because the egregore guides them. Consequently, many may think, “Why bother thinking? Someone will make all the decisions for us!” This mentality represents an extreme form of collective “elitism.”

Follow the leader

It leads to an energetic dependence on the egregore, which influences a person’s growth and maturation. This mechanism of influence is outlined in the previous paragraph about magicians. Informational dependence, or “information captivity,” further strengthens energetic dependence.” The egregore shields its ward from contact with information deemed alien or unacceptable. As a result, the ward only knows what the egregore allows. Even if the egregore’s ward possesses a holistic character and worldview and a developed cultural perception, they will still have inherent flaws. These flaws manifest as a lack of information that the egregore does not accept. Since birth, the egregore has shielded the individual from “alien” or “inappropriate” information. When the person encounters such unacceptable information, their perception and processing may be distorted, perverted, or entirely blocked by the egregore.

As a result of all the above, the personality of such an individual represents merely a fragment of the egregore that guides them through life. This fragment exists within the person’s biological body, making them a “ward” of their egregore. It contains no information beyond what the egregore has determined for its existence. Consequently, the person’s will is not free; they are a prisoner of the egregore, unable to transcend the limitations of what their egregore provides. If a person’s personality guided by an egregore exhibits magical or other “superpowers,” this is inconsequential. They remain an integral part of their egregore and, in reality, a slave to it, as the egregore has shaped their personality.

A person must have access to all information to claim the status of God’s viceroy on Earth. This access and valid free will can only be achieved when an egregore slave can no longer block access to information deemed alien by the egregore. Only then can they consciously shape their behavior based on the newly available information? However, the “ward,” a slave to the egregore, cannot achieve this independently. They lack the necessary “information modules” because the egregore has shielded them from such knowledge and never considered providing it to them. Thus, outside assistance becomes essential in this process.

Such assistance can come from:

• Other people who understand the situation and are capable of providing practical help.
• God, who can directly intervene and do what is necessary. Divine mercy is granted based on purposes determined by God.

In both cases, it’s essential to consider that the egregore guiding the individual will also undergo some change after the person receives help. Free will is self-discipline in choosing goals and fulfilling opportunities. Human freedom lies solely in the ability to perceive the world through one’s senses. Beyond this, true freedom is absent. Even understanding information depends on an individual’s comprehension, which is influenced by the brain’s processing algorithms. These algorithms are shaped by various factors, including education and training, as well as the influence of egregores.

Egregoric Intrusion

A biofield intrusion of a person’s psyche by an egregore can occur only when there is an energy-informational commonality between the individual’s psyche (or fragments) and the egregore. One example of such an intrusion is when an egregore holds the souls of the deceased. In this case, some of these souls may act in the bodies of living individuals as “subtenants.”

A similar phenomenon occurs when demons enter an egregore. In his renowned “Explanatory Dictionary,” Dahl defines a “demon” as an evil, disembodied entity—essentially an information module on a field carrier, possibly a fragment of an egregore. He describes it as an evil spirit, Satan, Beelzebub, and a host of other epithets, each representing various negative characteristics and corresponding vibrations. When such vibrations penetrate the egregore, they continue to exist within it. Consequently, these entities can “invade” the bodies of living individuals, existing as “subtenants.”

A chyort, a demon.

In both scenarios, such “subtenants” become direct possessors of the souls of individuals whose psyches are influenced by the egregore, including the effects of various magicians and sorcerers. It’s also important to note the existence of less significant and less powerful information modules on field carriers that can harm a person, particularly their health. Psychics and healers often refer to these as “larvae.” These modules can attach to specific organs like the liver, kidneys, or intestines. This implies that a person must be able to manage their emotions and the meaning behind their thoughts. How can this be achieved? It is possible when a person lives a moral life, acts according to their conscience, and continuously seeks to expand their understanding. Such individuals are tough to “drag” into a negative egregore.

When a person detects an attempt at biofield intrusion—feeling that something “wrong” is happening without apparent cause—they should concentrate their consciousness on the alien information flow and maintain this focus while keeping their emotional and mental state calm. Managing sensitivity and the ability to recognize the situation is crucial to avoiding panic or fear. If a person can do this, they can consciously accept and analyze the intrusion’s program, strategy, and goals. After understanding what the egregore or magician desires, they can respond appropriately. They may agree with the implanted ideas and begin to implement them, take note of them to understand them better before making decisions, or actively resist the implantation. This is the model for personal protection against all external intrusions into your psyche. This includes threats from demons, the souls of the deceased, magicians, psychics, and opinions imposed by politicians, leaders, management, and the media—essentially, not just the effects of the egregore (egregoric intrusions). However, there is one caveat: information can be “planted” into a person if their “sensitivity threshold” is lowered. In this case, the individual may fail to notice what has been implanted. They will perceive the information as images they are not consciously aware of.

This type of information is called an “information mine,” which can be activated or “detonated” later, sometimes after a long time. Special services have employed this technology for years. You may have seen scenes in movies where an important figure—such as a party official or a mafia member—calmly jumps out of a window or shoots themselves after receiving a phone call. Clearly, they weren’t directly ordered to jump; instead, they were likely given a code word or a set of numbers that triggered a self-destruction program. This program is the same “information mine” implanted in them earlier, possibly years before. This process involves a kind of “coding” that many may recognize. The secret lies in a trinity: the word (measure) carries a specific image (information), which corresponds to a phenomenon (materialization) defined by both the word and the image.

A crucial aspect of planting an “information mine” is lowering a person’s sensitivity threshold. A straightforward method to achieve this is through alcohol consumption, which causes a person to lose self-control. This is the moment when the information mine is implanted. Therefore, it’s clear that individuals in certain professions and positions should avoid alcohol altogether. However, there are more subtle methods for lowering sensitivity. Many psychological tactics exploit a person’s weaknesses, allowing “miners” to create situations in which the individual unwittingly lowers their threshold. Beyond alcohol, other factors can include relationships with women, bribes, fear, and envy, among others.

Ancient advice on blocking the implantation of “information mines” emphasizes the importance of rejecting demons or negative influences that come into your psyche unsolicited. These entities often manifest as specific individuals or obsessions. It is crucial to avoid engaging with them under any circumstances. Demons may attempt to provoke you, trying to elicit an emotional response. Depending on the situation, you should take steps to prevent this, from simply leaving the interaction to exercising strong willpower and ignoring the demon altogether. Let them be; don’t allow them to disturb you. This principle applies not only to direct communication but also to discussions on online forums. It is equally relevant in relationships with egregores that distort or undermine a person’s will.

Sobor and Sobornost

“Sobor” refers to a gathering or council for important decision-making among officials or clergy. It can denote a national assembly, like the Sobor of Russian land, or a religious council, such as an Ecumenical Council, which includes all bishops. There are also local sobers, which involve clergy from a specific region, and “Black Sobors,” which consist solely of monks [named so for the traditional black monk robes]. In a broader sense, it can refer to the main church in a city or monastery.

“Sobornost” is spiritual closeness among people living together. This concept raises questions about how to measure spirituality. What standards do we use? Should we assess spirituality by church attendance, or is there a deeper, more subjective measure? This complexity reflects the challenge of defining and evaluating spiritual experiences and connections among individuals.

This is a sobor.

“Spirituality” can be defined as the degree to which an individual aligns with God’s will and purpose. This alignment involves adhering to rules and norms that reflect the objectives set by God. To discern these goals, a person must engage in direct dialogue with God, cultivating their sense of proportion and intuition. The validity of one’s understanding of divine guidance relies on personal assessment. By evaluating how consistently life circumstances align with their perceived divine instructions, individuals can gauge the accuracy of their insights. When a person correctly interprets what God communicates during moments of intuitive clarity and follows these “instructions from above,” they often find that life unfolds more successfully.

If people misinterpret God’s guidance, their lives become unstable. They may experience difficulties, such as crop failures or livestock losses. While some may enjoy periods of prosperity without recognizing divine influence, they often face significant challenges eventually. In today’s fast-paced information age, these consequences can occur more quickly. The repercussions of ignoring spiritual insights are felt sooner rather than later. Many examples, frequently reported in the media, illustrate how those who thrive without acknowledging a higher purpose often fall quickly.

Returning to the term “sobor,” modern patriots have adopted it to invoke ancient traditions and the spirit of the Holy Rus. However, they haven’t clarified its meaning. A “sobor” simply refers to a meeting that can include people with diverse opinions.

Patriots may believe that “spirituality” will unite them, but they haven’t defined what it is. Additionally, they overlook that patriots can belong to various political affiliations, not just monarchists or those who support traditional institutions. The term “patriot” itself, derived from various languages, signifies:

1. A person who loves their homeland passionately.
2. A person dedicated to a particular cause.

Thus, patriots can be found across various ideologies, including among communists - those who sacrificed their lives during the Great Patriotic War [World War 2] were undeniably patriots. There are also patriots within different organizations and parties, as well as among individuals who do not align with any political group.

However, the globalists have intentionally shaped and implanted a distinct narrative about how people should coexist, often through the influence of “scientists” and church leaders. This narrative extends to “spirituality,” which may differ significantly from various patriot groups’ genuine beliefs and values. This manipulation creates a conflict between authentic patriotism and the imposed understanding of spirituality, leading to confusion about national identity and purpose.

Now that we understand the objective phenomenon of spiritual life known as the egregore, we can define what a “sobor” is. A sobor is an egregore formed by the collective personalities of individuals who share a similar worldview, outlook, memory, and other abilities, which may be distributed among them. Their life rules closely align with divine principles. From the perspective of egregores, a sobor represents an egregore of individuals whose vibrations or biofields are very much alike, stemming from their shared commitment to rules of life oriented toward the divine. This creates a unified sobor personality, embodying the collective spiritual essence of its members.

The sobor [soboric?] personality serves as a SUPER-PERSONAL mechanism for coordinating the activities of all individuals within the egregore. Each member contributes only a portion of the knowledge and skills essential for the collective goals the egregore pursues. In this context, the egregore becomes a shared resource for all its members. It operates for the benefit of the group as a whole while also serving the interests of each individual. Moreover, it extends its influence to the broader society, working toward collective betterment.

Egregore as a soboric personality

It’s also crucial to differentiate between “sobornost” and “herd mentality.” This distinction can only be made by understanding the various types of psyche. Humans of a more animal type of psyche can only achieve herd mentality. Sobornost can only be cultivated among individuals who aspire to a more human psyche. An ideal sobor egregore can exist only in a society free from the division into the magician-rulers and the exploited masses. Such a harmonious state has yet to be realized in our contemporary society. [It is worth noting that the term “sobornost” is used in Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West. It was discussed here.]

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I have prepared a transcription of the whole interview, which you will find below. Some automation was used in producing this transcription, so I apologize for any inconsistencies that may be present.

The Interview

Host: This episode, I'm joined once again by writer and occultist John Michael Greer to discuss the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, along with a general discussion on esoteric groups throughout history. I'd like to say a big thank you to my paying patrons and subscribers for making all of this work possible. If you'd like to support the podcast and keep it running, please find the links in the description below. Otherwise, please enjoy.

So, John Michael Greer, thanks once again for joining me on this podcast.

John Michael Greer: Thank you for having me on.

Host: We are going to be discussing, probably for half of this conversation, a group called The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It's the most well-known and influential esoteric order of modern occultism, founded in—let me just get my dates right—1887, by William Robert Woodman, William Wescott, and Samuel Liddell Mathers. I don't want to dive too deep into the lineage and origins of the Golden Dawn just yet because that can be esoterically tricky. What I realized, because you mentioned this book by Ellic Howe about the history of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, is that there's a huge discussion, and a huge assumption—maybe something that's just given in esotericism, and possibly even in religions—that for those who know, the history is there the whole time. But perhaps, because it’s foundational, it's not always seen as a priority or a primary focus. I'm talking about groups—people coming together as a community under a leader, or a few leaders, a teacher, or a guru. I was thinking, day one of the history of Western esotericism really is a textual history. We have Pythagoras with his students, so from the beginning, we have groups. What is it about groups that is needed and natural within esotericism for them to form, do you think?

John Michael Greer: Well, it seems very simple to me. We can start with Pythagoras as a great example. Here's this guy who went to Egypt from the Greek world, managed to get his way into an Egyptian temple—very late in the history of Egypt's independence—and learned things that a lot of people in the Greek world did not know. Then, after he finished his training, he returned to the Greek world, settled in Crotona in the Greek colonial communities in what's now Italy, and said, "Oh, by the way, I have some stuff I'm willing to teach." So, what happened? A bunch of people showed up to learn from him. That's where you get a group.

Host: Do you think truth brings people together?

John Michael Greer: Well, I don't know if it's truth, but it's certainly curiosity. It's information, wanting to know something other than the generic stuff you would get growing up in a Greek society or any other society. The thing that esoteric traditions have to offer is something new, or maybe something old but unfamiliar. It's not just what you learned in Sunday school. So inevitably, whether we're talking about Pythagoras, Jesus of Nazareth, William Wescott, Dion Fortune, or anyone else, you have somebody with something to teach, something to offer. And other people are going to say, "Ooh, can I sit and listen? Will you tell me what you know? Will you give me some instructions?" Thus, the group is born. It's inevitable because, for the simple reason that there’s a tendency in some aspects of modern pop-cultural occultism to claim, "Well, you already know deep inside yourself all that you need to know." That is an excuse for fatal ignorance because, no, you don’t. There are people who know more than you do, people who've been doing this for a long time, who learned from others who also practiced for a long time. There are traditions, teachings, systems—you can learn them. You don’t already know them, and you might actually benefit from them. And so, again, groups become essential, unless you want to do it entirely on a one-on-one basis, but that tends to be time-intensive. So, pretty soon, yes, you end up with Pythagoras, Dion Fortune, or whoever, sitting there with a circle of people gathered around, going, "Now, what was that?" There's your group.

Host: It’s interesting you mentioned Jesus of Nazareth there. It's actually a fairly good example of the very early Christian Church, particularly during catechesis. There was a point in the mass where everyone could attend, and then, at a certain point—this is in very early Christianity, not now—a quite literal hermetic seal was put in place. Those who hadn’t gone through catechesis were asked to leave before the consumption of the host. So, the question I have is, what’s the difference between closing the door, allowing only certain people, and the distinction between a group and an esoteric group?

John Michael Greer: What you're asking about is the nature of initiation. In at least some of their documents, Christians still refer to the process where a person comes to be baptized for the first time as Christian initiation. The ceremony of baptism is the central initiatory rite, and you find equivalents throughout the ancient world. The Christian tradition's dependence on the old Mysteries is not small. If you’ve been through the initiation ritual, certain things are transmitted to you. I'm not talking about information; you get all the information during catechism classes, you learn what you're supposed to learn, and undergo various modes of preparation. Then, there’s a ceremony. Our culture often insists that all ceremonies are just empty forms and that nothing real can be communicated, but that’s simply the bias of our time. In fact, something is transmitted if the person performing the ceremony knows what they're doing and has the spiritual connection to make it possible. Something non-rational, transrational, is communicated that adds a further dimension to the experience. You've gone from being on the outside to being on the inside, and setting things up so that only those on the inside can attend certain ceremonies makes perfect sense in that context.

Host: A sort of loaded question: Is all initiation self-initiation?

John Michael Greer: No, self-initiation is not always sufficient, though it’s necessary. Let's imagine you're going to be baptized or you've applied to become a member of a lodge of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and are preparing for your neophyte grade. There are certain preparations, and then you go through the ceremony, whether it’s baptism or the neophyte initiation. After that, you have work to do. In the Christian context, this involves participating in the sacraments and the sacramental life of the church. In the Golden Dawn, it involves studying the first knowledge lecture and practicing rituals like the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. If you don't do the work, the initiation doesn't matter. Sure, you get that transmission, but it won't stick unless you work to keep it in place. Now, can you get to the same place without the ceremony? Yes, but it's not easy. The ceremony transmits that influence to give you a boost. I can’t speak to baptism, as I've never been baptized, but in the Golden Dawn system, I studied for many years before becoming a member of a Golden Dawn Temple. I did the necessary work to self-initiate in that tradition. When I became a member, it wasn’t a matter of, "Wow, here’s something completely new." It was more like, "Okay, I know this stuff; I’ve felt this energy before." It was a more diffuse experience over a period of self-initiatory work. So, it's not true that all initiation is self-initiation, but all initiation must be combined with personal effort. You don't have to go through the formal ceremony to reach certain levels of spiritual development, but it can help significantly.

Host: So, just to stay within this realm of groups generally, but focusing on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, what is it that groups can achieve that individuals can’t?

John Michael Greer: Very little, but we are social primates. We like to interact in groups, hang around with others who share our interests and concerns. You can do it yourself, but it will be slower. It will take a lot of personal work, and you'll probably make mistakes that you’ll need to correct over time. At this point, especially with all the relevant material published, you can do it all yourself, but it does get lonely. What you get from groups isn't that you have to belong to a specific group to achieve a certain level of spiritual development. It's that you gain the advantage of competent instruction and mutual support from other practitioners. You also get the social benefits of hanging out with people who share your interests. It’s a lot less lonely.

Host: Let’s talk about the most controversial aspect of groups—leaders, chiefs, gurus. You've been an archdruid in your time.

John Michael Greer: I have. I did 12 years as Grand Archdruid.

Host: Grand Archdruid, yes. That’s not a title you came up with, right?

John Michael Greer: No, I thought it was rather silly, but it's the traditional title: Grand Archdruid of the Grand Grove of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. That, and $3.50, will get you a cup of coffee. Again, we’re social primates; we like fancy titles. We like to say, "I'm the Grand Panjandrum," or whatever, and it's really rather silly.

Host: I think there's something to be said for tradition. My question was really about what makes the notion of a leader, in groups like the Golden Dawn, vital. Otherwise, you often end up in chaos. What's the difference between a good and a bad leader?

John Michael Greer: How many volumes of social psychology and leadership theory do you want to study? They still argue about what we can simply know by practice. A good leader minimizes quarreling and maximizes the amount of work that gets done. The Golden Dawn had a mixed record with that. Dion Fortune is a great example—she was able to pull together a group, make it function, and keep it going at a fairly intense pace for most of her adult life. It accomplished a great deal. The Golden Dawn had its leadership issues. Of the three founders you mentioned—Woodman, Westcott, and Mathers—Woodman was elderly and didn’t last long. Westcott was edged out at a certain point, and Mathers wasn’t a very good leader. He was very focused on how important he was and how everyone had to be loyal to him. This attitude led to a rebellion against him, and the Golden Dawn blew itself to smithereens. It was founded in 1887 and collapsed irrevocably in 1903. That’s only 16 years, not a very long history. Mathers was brilliant, a capable occultist, and a competent teacher, but he wasn’t good at managing the clash of egos in an organization like the Golden Dawn, and so it blew up.

Host: Before we get into the nitty-gritty with the Golden Dawn, why are we talking about them?

John Michael Greer: I think you’ve already settled that. It is, by far, the most famous and most influential of modern occult organizations in the English-speaking world, in that 16 years of life, the core members of the Golden Dawn created what is still the most exhaustively complete system of ceremonial magic in existence—a system that even those who claim to be dedicated Golden Dawn practitioners have rarely worked through in full. It appeared at the right time, just as the Theosophical Society was developing a market for public occultism in the Western world. Many influential esoteric groups in Britain, the United States, and several other parts of the world came straight out of it. Whether we talk about Dion Fortune in the UK, Paul Foster Case in the US, or any of half a dozen others, it was enormously influential. Its offshoots and the people it inspired—whether for good or ill—made a significant mark on the world. What all of these people learned from the Golden Dawn was a very important part of that.

Host: Now we get into a classic trope with individual esotericists. We see it with Blavatsky, with Gurdjieff—he had the same thing. He says, "I found these scrolls in the desert." Well, where exactly? Or Blavatsky with the Masters.

John Michael Greer: Oh yes, yes. Where she’s sitting there, picking telepathic messages out of the air.

Host: Exactly. Or Rudolf Steiner with the Akashic record— “I can just do this thing no one else can.” But anyway, you know what I’m going to mention. The cipher manuscript—was it a hoax?

John Michael Greer: Let me be precise. The cipher manuscripts are handwritten and do exist. Copies of them are readily available these days. The originals, including apparently the original set, are written in a handwriting and drawn in a style that appears to be the same as that of—oh, I’m going to forget his name now—one of the important occultists of the generation immediately before the Golden Dawn. He was Kenneth Mackenzie. Yes, Mackenzie. I just had to wrestle with my memory to get his name. The drawings, in particular, are done in an identical style to those Mackenzie had for an old Oddfellows ritual that he had in his collection, which I actually published a version of years back. So, probably wherever it came from originally, the cipher manuscript was in Mackenzie’s hands. It may have been his idea, but it ended up in the hands of Westcott. Westcott manufactured a very fine colorful late 19th-century sort of occult fiction story about a mysterious German adept, Fräulein Anna Sprengel, who conveniently left her contact information in this cipher manuscript. Westcott contacted her and immediately received, sight unseen, authorization to open a Golden Dawn temple in England. Suddenly, Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman were secret chiefs, and away we go. Of course, the trope of finding a mysterious manuscript in a bookstall was all over the potboiler occult literature of the time. I think one of Marie Corelli’s books even makes use of it. I know that a very similar theme is all over Bulwer-Lytton’s Zanoni. It was absolutely standard. So, I really question whether anyone even believed it at the time because it’s so obvious—like if someone were to claim that a flying saucer had descended and handed them mysterious silver scrolls. Everyone would be going, “Yeah, right.”

Host: But with that obviousness, which I think is apparent with many other esotericists, as I mentioned, there’s this sort of charisma that carries it on. Do you think there’s a collective need for something to be involved with? We want it to be interesting, but we also need that initial mystery. We can't fully accept that we’ve created it out of whole cloth because then we’d be able to look at the code, so to speak. We need some sort of drama to suspend—not necessarily disbelief—but to feel that it isn’t really just us.

John Michael Greer: I think your concept of suspending disbelief is very appropriate. At that time, many of these same people belonged to various fraternal orders with their own typically bogus origin stories. I hope it won’t shock any of my fellow Masons out there, but Freemasonry does not actually descend from King Solomon’s Temple. There’s this whole story about how this tradition comes from King Solomon’s Temple, but very clearly, that’s not what happened. It’s a builder’s guild from the Late Middle Ages that’s been reworked for new purposes, and so on. Of course, there were plenty of orders circulating at the same time that didn’t even have that much of a claim. I’ll hold the Druid orders, which were very active in Britain in the late 19th century, as a great example. Not one of them had the least connection to the ancient Druids. In many cases, it was very clear. One order, whose old ritual I happen to have read in detail, claimed to have been founded by an ancient, wise Druid named Togodubeline. Well, that’s what happens when you take the name of Togodumnus, a Celt who shows up in Caesar’s writings, and combine it with the name of Cymbeline, a character from Shakespeare. If this sounds bogus, I’m sure it did even more so back when everyone knew Caesar and Shakespeare. Yet, they had this whole business about Togodubeline, the great Druid. Suspension of disbelief doesn’t mean blind credulity. It means we’re going to play with this, have fun with it, and accept it as the ground rule for the game we’re playing. If there’s something useful involved—whether it’s a Druid order that does charitable work or a Golden Dawn that has valuable occult teachings—then let’s have fun.

Host: That’s exactly what I was about to say. On a surface, phenomenal level, we can deconstruct it, say how bogus it is, analyze the manuscripts, and do the handwriting analysis. It’s obviously just this. On another level—and I think the Druid example is key—there’s still a connection to something else. As you like to say, these manuscripts have a vibe.

John Michael Greer: The Druid Revival took off because people found that playing the game, putting on the silly white robes, and going down to Stonehenge does something—it connects them somehow. This is something people still experience, not necessarily all at Stonehenge. In the same way, people got involved in the Golden Dawn. They were used to canned origin stories; everybody has one. But then they got the knowledge. They went through the ceremonies and thought, “Wow, okay, there’s a lot of depth here.” They got their knowledge lectures, went through further degrees, and were asked to demonstrate proficiency in various areas. It became clear that while there’s a game, it’s not just a game—or if you will, it’s a game played very seriously. The alchemists were very into that. Michael Maier, a very important German alchemist in the early 17th century, wrote books with titles like Lusus Serius (A Serious Game) or Jocus Severus (A Severe Joke), where he included really silly stories. If I recall correctly, Lusus Serius is this long debate among the birds about who will be the king, with the owl taking one role and various others involved. It’s quite funny, but there’s a lot of alchemical tradition and insightful material—both physical and spiritual alchemy—passed on through this silly narrative about birds. So, the game can be a vehicle for something useful, even powerful. Yes, one can play the deconstructive role, but...Okay, you've deconstructed it—now put it back together again. You know, we ask someone to do that with a clock, and you'll have an interesting experience on your hands.

Host: I’m going to assume it was the crow that became the king of the birds.

John Michael Greer: It has been long enough since I read that piece of Maier’s work that I don’t remember who became the king of the birds.

Host: Damn, I’ll have to find it out. It sounds like it’s worth checking.

John Michael Greer: I wonder if it was the wren because the wren very often ended up as the king of the birds.

Host: Okay, back to these manuscripts—they are full to the brim with Kabbalah, astrology, alchemy—the grab bag of everything, really. So, what makes the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as they are organizing and structuring things, not just a simple collection of all these things they found? Look, I think—and I mean this in no cynical terms, but in a positive sense—when I say it, the history of occultism is a history of inventive plagiarism.

John Michael Greer: Absolutely.

Host: What makes this sort of collation of all these things more than just someone saying, “We’ve just put a load of things together”?

John Michael Greer: First of all, there's the old joke, “copy from one person, it’s plagiarism; copy from ten, it’s research; copy from a hundred, it’s genius.” The Golden Dawn copied from hundreds. Mathers, in particular, had a small income, and he spent all his time in the British Library going through reams of old occult literature. He had a solid knowledge of the subject. Westcott was a lifelong occultist, and those two, in particular, along with others as the order got going, had probably half the top occult talent in England at the time meeting at the Isis-Urania Lodge. They worked like beavers to create a synthesis of magical tradition—very inspired plagiarism in their case. The second thing is they also practiced it. It’s one thing to come up with a neat collation of documents; it’s another to say, “Okay, I’m going to do these rituals for a year and see what happens.” When you actually do the work, test it, adapt it, and refine it, you get a lot out of that. They also had the advantage, in terms of ritual work, that William Westcott was an extremely experienced Freemason. He was involved in the Lodge of Emulation, the main London lodge that taught Masons how to do ritual. Westcott was heavily involved in that, so he was simply an expert ritualist. He could review the various draft rituals, both the solitary and the lodge rituals, and suggest improvements. You end up with rituals that are dramatic and functional, if rather fussy. So, all of this comes together to make the Golden Dawn a brilliant collation and, in fact, a summary of an immense amount of the total body of Western esotericism—more, I think, than anybody else has put together into a single system.

Host: Because, you know, this notion of doing the work is key—though people always want to ignore it. “Which book should I read? Which book should I read?” Well, what about the one where you actually do it?

John Michael Greer: (Laughs)

Host: That brings to mind a question we probably should have brought up earlier. We’re talking late 19th century here. What was the occult atmosphere like at the time? Was there anything remotely like this around—any coherent, structured groups besides Freemasons? Was there anything new, any upcoming groups?

John Michael Greer: Okay, it was a bubbling cauldron of new groups. We had Freemasonry, of course, and various Masons were all saying, “This is very well and good, but let’s do something a little more esoteric, a little more occult.” In France, you could get away with almost anything because they didn’t have a coherent Grand Lodge structure. In England, you had to keep the Grand Lodge from getting too upset, but there was a lot of room within the Masonic community to tinker with things. There were a lot of slightly older traditions being brought over. You had stuff going on in Paris, which was an even hotter bed of occultism at the time. Various organizations were being founded, lodges, temples, and societies organized to do this kind of ritual work—each coming up with some of their own. McKenzie, who I mentioned earlier, was involved in several of these. Westcott, of course, had his fingers in every esoteric pie in England. So, you had all these organizations... One such organization was Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, founded in 1868 by Masons interested in Rosicrucian symbolism. It had its own system of initiation, somewhat similar to the Golden Dawn system, though it lacked the practical dimension. This was really a test bed because Mathers and Westcott were both heavily involved in it. They had a clear sense of what could be done with initiation rituals in that setting. They decided to take something outside the Masonic setting, open it to women as well as men, to non-Masons as well as Masons, and include practical work. Once they did that, people from other groups were intrigued because many of those groups lacked practical work. This was partly due to Theosophy. The Theosophical Society was focused on occult theory, and they thought it was great for everyone to sit and read vast amounts of literature and meditate. Blavatsky herself was very down on occult practice, and her successors continued this trend. As a result, many organizations tiptoed into practice. The Heretic Brotherhood of Luxor, for example, was deeply into practical work but crashed and burned in the early 1870s. Then came the Golden Dawn, a semi-secret organization passing on serious practical stuff. This created a stampede to join, attracting many who had experience with other practices. This is why the Golden Dawn took off the way it did.

Host: Was the Golden Dawn known to the public at the time, or was it more of a niche interest?

John Michael Greer: It was more of a niche interest. To know about it, you either had to be well-connected or pay close attention to small notes in publications like Notes and Queries. Generally, you had to know someone. The occult community in England was small, so if you were involved in occultism, you probably belonged to the local Theosophical group and attended lectures. You might have learned about the Golden Dawn through conversations with people you met at these events.

Host: Considering the eventual decline in interest in Theosophy, do you think the decline contributed to the rise of organizations like the Golden Dawn?

John Michael Greer: The decline in interest in Theosophy was not directly related to the rise of the Golden Dawn. There were always people who enjoyed reading about occultism but were not interested in practical work. Theosophy's death was more of a self-inflicted wound. I mean, we can get into the story, but it destroyed itself very efficiently. I hope it can manage to recover at some point, but it's been creeping along in a very small way ever since. Do you want me to cover the story?

Host: We can add it in. I think maybe it's around the same level; if you were to pick the two most influential groups in the English-speaking world, these are the two: the Theosophical Society and the Golden Dawn.

John Michael Greer: After Blavatsky died, power in the Theosophical Society transferred to Annie Besant. She was nothing like a skillful manager, politician, or organizer as Blavatsky had been. There were quarrels, and various people started splitting off and doing their own things. Not least because Besant was very much into protecting people she favored, including Charles Leadbeater, who had a problem with young boys. When that came out, Besant covered for him. That’s when Steiner split off and took half of European theosophy with him. That was when Mead split off and formed the Quest Society, and when William Quan Judge split off to form his rival, the Theosophical Society (American Section). As the 1920s built on, Besant became convinced that Jiddu Krishnamurti, the son of a servant at the Theosophical headquarters outside of Mumbai, was the Messiah, the next World Teacher. She had him raised with extensive training. In 1929, in the United States, as I recall, they had a grand meeting of the Order of the Star in the East, the organization Besant had founded to support Krishnamurti's claims to messiahship. Krishnamurti, in an act of impressive personal courage, stood before this immense worshiping crowd and said, "You're wrong. I'm not here to teach you. You can't learn anything that matters from anyone but yourself. Truth is a pathless land. I dissolve the Order of the Star in the East. I renounce any claim to Messiahhood. Go away." This fiasco caused an enormous drop-off in interest in Theosophy because Besant and the organization had piled so much credibility onto their claims. Shortly thereafter, within a couple of months, the stock market collapsed. Theosophy had a very substantial upper-middle-class membership, and many of its members were heavily invested in the market. When they lost everything, the Order suffered immense financial losses, and a huge number of people quit. They never got over it. So, the morals of the story are: First, if you're going to promote someone as the Messiah, make sure they'll go along with it. Second, don't make yourself dependent on the financial stability of a class of crazed speculators when the market is at an all-time high. I offer this for anyone interested in founding a movement—just keep those points in mind.

Host: Now, on to a related topic - schisms. This is something I wanted to bring up earlier. It also happens in the Order of the Golden Dawn. I noticed there's one Orthodox order, similar to the "Life of Brian" scenario…

John Michael Greer: Ah yes, the Judean People's Front, the People's Front of Judea, the Popular Judean Front, etc. We do it in Druidry as well. The Ancient Order of Druids in America is unrelated to the Ancient Order of Druids, and neither has anything to do with the Ancient Druid Order. I'm not making this up.

Host: I think every single esoteric or spiritual group that reaches a sufficient size or has a long enough history usually experiences splits, especially if there is a guru, such as Gurdjieff or Blavatsky. These splits often occur after the guru's death. I’ve never seen a significant split occur prior. These schisms are often due to charismatic infighting, but there can be other reasons as well?

John Michael Greer: It really varies from case to case. There are many good reasons for schisms, as well as many bad ones. If a charismatic leader, whom everyone accepts, dies without having chosen an equally charismatic successor, schisms are almost certain. Various individuals will vie for leadership, leading to conflict. Honest differences of opinion also arise; by the time the charismatic leader dies, there are often people who disagree on the direction the group should take, leading to schisms over doctrinal issues. For example, the Golden Dawn originally blew itself into three factions in 1903, with these factions eventually fragmenting further until they gradually disbanded. In the 1970s, a cheap, readily available edition of Regardie’s "The Golden Dawn" led to the formation of numerous new Golden Dawn orders. Many of these claimed bogus inheritances from the original order or invented secret chiefs. Regardless of the official connection or origin story, the rituals worked, leading to various independent Golden Dawn groups. I see it as healthy because it keeps the disfunctions of one leader from tainting the whole organization.

Host: To stick with the Golden Dawn and get into the nitty-gritty: My question is about your first book, Inside a Magical Lodge. Since you have a long history with the Golden Dawn, perhaps you can give us a brief overview. Of course, I don't expect you to reveal the great secrets of the Secret Chiefs, whom you've met, but opening doors to a Golden Dawn lodge and stepping inside is really the question on many people's minds. What is it like? What's the atmosphere?

John Michael Greer: OK, I'm going to take you up on the offer and give a very brief rundown of my own experience with the Golden Dawn. This will give some idea of how this happened. I didn’t get involved with the Golden Dawn as an organization until quite late in my career. I got involved with it as a tradition. I first learned about it from books starting in the winter of 1976-1977. I picked up a cheap paperback copy of Techniques of High Magic by Francis King and Stephen Skinner in a department store in Seattle, Washington. I thought I’d found the Holy Grail. I was a kid at the time.

Host: To start with Stephen Skinner's book was not too bad.

John Michael Greer: It was the best introductory book available at that time. There are other books, including some of mine, that have built on it and gone further, but it was a great place to start. I also had W. Butler's book The Magician his Training and Work and a few other things. This was all I had to go on. I was amazed by this discovery. At the time, I was around 14 or 15 years old. The Golden Dawn magic was almost all that was available in the U.S. during that period. People talk about the British Invasion in music, with various British bands coming over in the wake of The Beatles. We had a British Invasion in occultism also. There was a period in the latter part of the 20th century when if it wasn’t the Golden Dawn, Dion Fortune, Aleister Crowley, or Gerald Gardner’s version of Wicca - it didn’t exist. The generic American idea was that magic came from England. Wicca never really interested me at all. I read some of Aleister Crowley's works, chuckled, and returned them to the library. The Golden Dawn, however, was of interest, and that’s what I focused on. Over the years, I gradually built up a fair collection of Golden Dawn and Dion Fortune material. Years later, after publishing two…no, four books. I first contacted anyone practicing Golden Dawn magic outside my local circle in Seattle. This was over 20 years after I had originally encountered the material. I had done an enormous amount of work with it. I gradually discovered that there was indeed a whole world of people practicing Golden Dawn magic, with varying results. Eventually, I went through various Golden Dawn degrees and other practices. It's very difficult to explain the atmosphere of an esoteric lodge to someone who hasn’t been in one. It’s a very odd state. It’s not particularly spooky—there are no tentacles rising up or Satan and his minion gathering with flapping leathery wings. There’s a sense of being in two places at once. One place is a dusty rental hall, you can tell the Golden Dawn is a Victorian system, full of clutter and knickknacks. Many groups that spun off from the Golden Dawn decreased the amount of hardware. To some degree you have handmade stuff, the hand painted this and inexpensive cotton that. On the physical level, it has a school pageant quality. However, while you're at work, there is a sense of something else, something more complete, more gorgeous, and more real trying to come through.

It's as though you were at some kind of Tolkien fan convention, with everyone dressed up as Hobbits, elves, or soldiers of Gondor. All the while, there's an unnerving sense that Gandalf might actually be in the room somewhere— the real Gandalf, not just someone in costume. It feels like something real is trying to be born, which, if everything works right, can come through with enough power to change your life. That’s probably the best way I can describe being inside a magical lodge. The quality of the knickknacks and the decor doesn’t actually make much difference. You could be working with cardboard cutouts, and if everyone is truly concentrating and doing the inner work, you’re in a place not made with hands. There are angelic powers in the four quarters, and it really starts to hum. However, you can’t guarantee that this will happen. A good temple or lodge will achieve this far more often, but you're trying to bring the non-physical into the physical, the unseen into the seen, and spiritual energies into material manifestation. At least, that's the goal—to initiate someone and assist them in rising to a higher level of consciousness.

Host: What is it to respect that? That’s the question of the day regarding why some religions are just…you know, I get annoyed at myself, because technically it is my heritage, but when I look at the Church of England, there’s nothing there. And the question is of the respect for the sacred. And it’s a big question. As you said, being in two places at once—in a dusty church hall, a town hall, or elsewhere—something else is happening. And it comes from a certain respect.

John Michael Greer: That’s part of it. You have to be open to the idea that his other thing is trying to come through. If we consider the Church of England or most mainstream churches in the United States, the problem often lies in the education they get. They get an ordinary university education that is agnostic and aspiritual, lacking training in prayer, contemplation, and other tools used in a religious setting to bring through that sense of the other. In fact, such practices are often discouraged. The focus tends to be on being functionaries or bureaucrats who simply go through the little ceremonies on Sunday. It's really sad because those same ceremonies can be used to bring a tremendous amount of power. If you read about power, energy, or life force, it's not just a superficial concept. These forces bring the world into being. There is a great passage in C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength, where one of the characters has a religions experience. It occurs to her in that moment that all this while she thought of spirit as a meek, well-behaved thing you float up to like a vapor, and what is she is experiencing is strong hands reaching down to make or destroy. And so, we have far too many people, who if they understand that there’s anything spiritual, they think it’s a meek, well-behaved thing you float up to like a vapor, that it might be powerful, alive, and have its own will, intentions, and purpose with which you are expected to align yourself as the price of participating in it. This is not something you typically find in the training of modern Church of England pastors.

Host: With regards to participation… in the Golden Dawn curriculum what does it look like?

John Michael Greer: After completing the Neophyte ceremony, you might feel dazed and confused. An officer of the temple will instruct you on your next steps. You’ll receive papers with instructions to set aside half an hour a day for a simple ritual, such as the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram, followed by meditation and learning how to do divination. It is a practice to develop your intuition, and, oh yes, here's a bunch of stuff you also have to study. If you do that—and some people do, I should say—because normally at least half of the people who come in this way go out the same door they came in. They have had a ceremony but are not interested in doing the work and are not willing to commit, so they drift right back out again. But let’s assume you're not one of those people; that you are genuinely moved by a desire to experience magic. You are willing to set aside half an hour a day, perhaps setting the alarm a little earlier each morning to get up and do your practices. You would then go through another initiation ritual a month later. Here’s another packet: you’re still doing the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and meditation. Here is some new material to meditate on and additional things to study. Rinse and repeat as you progress through the different grades. Each time, you're getting more symbols, more material to study, and more things to meditate on. The practices begin to expand. At a certain point, you receive expansions to the pentagram ritual. Then comes the day—at least two years after you start—when you receive the Adeptus Minor grade, the first of the Inner Order grades. That ceremony is a four-alarm fire: extremely complicated, intricate, and gorgeous. After that, the Praemonstrator, or actually at that point, the Chief Adept because it's the Inner Order, sits you down and says, "Well, now you've done all the preliminary stuff." Then out comes a notebook about three inches thick. This is for you to work through at your own pace. You open it and find it packed to the bursting point with formulas for practical magic, divination, clairvoyance, and all kinds of other co-practices. But you're no longer being spoon-fed; you've been spoon-fed through the various degrees. “And, by the way, would you mind training so you can start taking part in performing this or that ritual? We’d like you to memorize these lines,” and away we go. What’s happening to you through those stages? Well, that depends because this is not like interchangeable parts going through a factory; these are human souls we’re dealing with, and every one of them is different. Broadly speaking, you are developing will and imagination. Instead of drifting through life, you reach the point of realizing that you can choose what you want in life and make things happen. There are ways to achieve this that are not necessarily obvious or visible or dependent on strict materialism. You’re developing your capacity to perceive things, even if they don’t fit within a narrow materialistic view. You’re learning to perceive and sense the unseen. You’re developing your imagination. We often dismiss imagination, “oh, it’s just imaginary,” but it is the single most important power we have as human beings. We literally construct the world we live in by using our imagination to piece together sensory data. We do it so quickly that we often don’t notice when we’ve woven in misjudgments, emotional hang-ups, and burdensome feelings from childhood. That’s why our lives suck. When you master your imagination, will, intuitive perceptions, and other magical practices, you can change this. You can stop treating every interaction with a person as if that person is going to bully you, even if that has been your experience since childhood. “Since I was three years old, I've been doing that, and, you know, all these kinds of bad problems have been happening. Okay, I'm going to stop,” and away we go. So that's the kind of thing that can happen. The Golden Dawn is fairly high intensity, and one problem with any high-intensity training program is that it can also lead to failures. On one hand, you have people who enter the system and, when faced with something that convinces them it’s real, run quickly.

Host: This is a good thing because it means they’ve realized the seriousness of the practice.

John Michael Greer: But the thing is, if they were brought into it more gently, they would be saying, "Oh, this is real," and then you calm them down, give them a cup of tea, and talk through it. Eventually, if you're doing it more gently, they aren't necessarily going to panic. The other kind of failure, which is disastrous, occurs when all this stuff can go to your head and feed your ego. A certain number of people who go through the Golden Dawn system reach the Adeptus Minor grade, which has a lot of solar symbolism, and their ego inflates to a colossal size. They immediately start picking fights with everyone else because they’re convinced they are the enlightened ones, the ones who have received the true word of the Aeon or whatever they’re into. That's where you get the Aleister Crowleys and others who could be named, for whom it’s all about them. It's sad, but that's the other problem you get with the Golden Dawn. One of the reasons Dion Fortune, for example, and many of the other Golden Dawn offshoot orders, ditched certain aspects of the Golden Dawn degree rituals or grade rituals and rewrote or replaced them, was to take that risk down several notches.

Host: There's a book I'm fond of, which is just a question-and-answer session with a chap called Lord Pentland, who was a student of Gurdjieff—one of the more developed students, should we say. But every other answer he gives is pretty much, "I don't know, you'll have to find out for yourself." This brings up what you spoke about earlier. One might be mistaken in thinking that this process—especially with the notion of grades, which appeals to the very quantified Western mind— is about advancement or adding. But would you say that, through this process, what's actually more important is learning what to shed—what you've added that you need to get rid of? And that shedding is equally, if not more, important?

John Michael Greer: I don't know that it's more important, but it's certainly equally important. Also, Rudolf Steiner had a very important point, which is that one of the basic requirements for any kind of spiritual development is the ability to recognize that something is greater than you are. You have to have that capacity for respect, that capacity for adoration, for admiration. Because if you can't conceive of anything better than you are now, you cannot achieve anything better than you are now. That’s something I think a well-designed course of mystical training will always include—focusing on recognizing that you are not "all that and a bag of chips." Even when you have received the ornate, funny hat that makes you the Grand Panjandrum of the purple horde of the glimmering tower of Beh, or what have you, you are still just a human being. You may be a human being who knows a little more than some others and has some skills that others don't have, but you are not that big of a deal in the great scheme of things. So, relax and get off your high horse.

Host: So, what are grades, then?

John Michael Greer: Grades are very much like the grades in our public schools. In your public schools—if they're like our public schools—you have first grade, second grade, third grade, and so on, where each year is a year of study, and you're expected to master certain things during that process. Each grade has a ritual, which is the initiation ritual. The word "initiation" means beginning. It introduces you to certain symbols and energies that you'll be working with over the course of that grade. Most esoteric schools—not all, by any means, but most—have a series of grades that you work through, simply because it's a lot easier than dumping everything on you all at once.

Host: Do you think we need this as Westerners?

John Michael Greer: The thing is, the concept of grades isn't always part of Eastern systems. However, a lot of esoteric Buddhism, for example, divides training into various steps. You might be assigned to do a set of meditations for a year or for 108 days, study these texts, and then move on to another type of meditation. You'll begin working on uniting yourself with certain this bodhisattva, and so on. It's very much the same principle of working through a graded system of study, and I think that's almost essential whenever you're dealing with any complex body of lore and practice. If you want to become an electrical engineer, you start at the beginning, learn the basics, and then go step by step until you can actually do the work of an electrical engineer. It's the same kind of thing.

Host: Is there anything you'd like to add about the Magic Order of the Golden Dawn that you feel is key and that we haven't covered?

John Michael Greer: Let's see. Mostly, the thing about the Golden Dawn is that it's not the only game in town, though some of its members have tended to treat it as though it were. There are actually many different traditions of esoteric study and practice in the Western tradition. The Golden Dawn is certainly one of them, and it's certainly valid. It works, has enormous potential, and has to be taken seriously and done completely. One of the other things I've noticed is that people sometimes take up the Golden Dawn, study it for a couple of years, and then say, "Well, this isn't working." It's because they're only doing the parts that interest them—they're not doing it as a complete system. It is a complete system; you actually have to do the meditations and all the other work, or you're not going to get far. I've harped on this in some of my books, but really, it was an enormously useful system at the time. It was revolutionary when it first came out, revolutionary when the Regardie book was published in the late 1930s, and again when it was republished in the 1970s. There are other systems, and increasingly, we're getting more information on some of the systems from the same time, both earlier and later. For example, we're seeing a lot more interest in Martinism these days, as well as in some of the Central European systems. I think it's certainly an option—it's not the only game in town. I hope that eventually, maybe a century from now, there will be a new synthesis that includes the best elements of the Golden Dawn and the best elements of some of these other things.

Host: Well, that's what I was going to ask. Where do we see the Golden Dawn's influence today? It's hard to find a Western group that doesn't have at least some connection to it.

John Michael Greer: Although, that's less true now than it used to be. For a long time, it was the Golden Dawn or a focus through Dion Fortune, through Aleister Crowley, or through a few others like Paul Foster Case. Since Gerald Gardner was a student of Crowley, that influence was also passed on. However, we're increasingly seeing the emergence, on a larger scale, of traditions that have much less influence or, in some cases—like Martinism—no influence at all. These traditions came about at the same time but simply weren't part of that cultural milieu. I think it's a good thing because the Golden Dawn was really useful in its time; it still has a lot to teach, but it's not the only option. To answer your question more straightforwardly, I think that in the years to come, we'll see more people taking the Golden Dawn material and combining it with other teachings to create new syntheses. This will likely be the cutting-edge of magic for a while.

Host: Where do you advise people to begin with the Golden Dawn? I know you've written a three-book series, right?

John Michael Greer: Yes, basically. What I would advise is starting with a book I co-wrote with my late wife and another person called Learning Ritual Magic. It was intended to be a nine-month training program for a little magical group we ran at one point. It has remained in print since we published it because many people find it to be the best simple introduction to Golden Dawn magic on your own. So, Learning Ritual Magic is a good place to start. Then, if you want to go further, my books Paths of Wisdom and Circles of Power deal with the theory and practice of Golden Dawn magic. After that, you can move on to Israel Regardie's big book, and away you go. Keep in mind, though, that this is a 10- to 20-year project. To actually master the Golden Dawn work requires about as much effort as it takes to get a doctorate degree from a university.

Host: Okay, listeners, bear that in mind. But, as you mentioned before, one of your first teachers said—and I think it's the most important thing for anyone getting involved in this sort of thing—not only to understand that this will take 10, 20, or more years, but also to realize that the end isn't the focus. Otherwise, you'll just be disappointed.

John Michael Greer: Exactly. This is going to take you the rest of your life, but you have the rest of your life, so why not? If you feel drawn to this path and want to walk it, it has enormous benefits, and those benefits don't wait until you become the Grand Panjandrum of the Purple Tower or whatever.

Host: What are you working on now?

John Michael Greer: Let's see. I'm just finishing up a translation from Latin of one of John Dee's neglected books on astrological magic and astrology. I should say it's a translation with commentary because it badly needs commentary for modern readers. It needs a little more work, but John Dee has been an on-and-off interest of mine for a long time. I decided it was time to focus on it, partly because I do Latin translation the way some people do crosswords, and with some of the things going on in my life, I needed the relaxation. So, I worked on Propaedeumata Aphoristica - “Aphorisms on astrology and magic” - that's the working title I'm using. This neglected book, one of John Dee's first serious publications, actually gives important keys to his very famous book, the Monas Hieroglyphica, which have been completely neglected because people haven't paid attention to this earlier work. So, I'm doing a lot of work with John Dee right now.

Host: Okay, well, that seems like a good place to finish up. I'll be sure to put the links for your Golden Dawn books in the description below, along with your blog. John Michael Greer, once again, thanks very much.

John Michael Greer: Thank you very much for having me on.

Today, I wish to discuss an important occult leader of early 20th-century Russia who influenced several generations of occultists both in Russia and the West. Despite his significance, he remained relatively unknown in the West outside of the French Martinist Order until recently.

Grigoriy Ottonovich Mebes was born in 1868 in Riga to a noble family. He graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Department of St. Petersburg University in 1891. During the 1904-1905 academic year, Mebes, a teacher of mathematics, physics, and French, taught at Tsarskoye Selo. He also taught physics and mathematics at the Nikolaevsky Gymnasium and physics at the women's school of the Ministry of Public Education.

Grigory Ottonovich was a respected teacher at the Page Corps, an elite educational institution attended by members of the highest Russian aristocracy, where he taught from 1906 to 1911. However, records of his teaching activities are scarce. A short memoir mentions G.O. Mebes: "Mebes nervously tugged at his mustache and, breaking the chalk on the blackboard, initiated us into the intricacies of Newton's binomial theorem."

Czeslaw Czynski

In 1910, Mebes's life took a turn that eventually led him to abandon his academic career. In St. Petersburg, he met Czeslaw Czynski, a delegate of the French Martinist Order and a man with a remarkable life story. Like many members of the Russian nobility at that time, Mebes was proficient in French and was strongly influenced by the works of the Martinists, who were active in occult education in France during the 19th and 20th centuries.

By the time he met Czynski, Mebes already had an excellent understanding of the Martinist tradition. Within two months, Czynski initiated Mebes into the degrees of Unknown Superior (S::I::) and Unknown Superior Initiator (S::I::I::), giving him full access to the hidden keys of this initiatory tradition.

Mebes also received a patent to establish a Martinist lodge. By the end of 1910, Papus awarded Mebes a Doctor of Hermeticism diploma from the Academy of Hermeticism, and Mebes became the General Inspector (Secretary) of the St. Petersburg branch of the Order, which he named the "Grand Lodge of Apollonius of Tyana."

In 1911-1912, Mebes, under the pseudonym GOM, gave a popular lecture course in St. Petersburg titled “A Course of the Encyclopedia of Occultism.” These lectures gained widespread acclaim, as evidenced by numerous memoirs and reviews of works on early 20th-century Russian occultism. In his course, GOM combined Kabbalah and Tarot cards into a single system of Arcana (Secrets).

In August 1912, Mebes tried to lead the Russian Martinist lodges and wrote to Papus requesting to be appointed as the Grand Master for Russia. However, he was rejected. In response, Mebes formed his own organization, the "Autonomous Rank of Martinism of Russian Obedience," where he continued to develop the study of Arcana.

an older GOM

In 1924, Martinist and other esoteric groups in Russia ceased their activities completely. Key leaders were arrested and exiled to Siberia, while materials and notebooks were confiscated, hidden, or taken abroad by students. Betrayed by one of his own students, Mebes was arrested by Soviet authorities and charged as the head of a Masonic organization, which was outlawed. He was sentenced to three years in exile, which was later extended by another three years. Mebes was exiled west of the Ural Mountains to Syktyvkar, known as Ust-Sysolsk at that time.

Some sources suggest that Mebes died in the labor camps in 1930 and was buried in Syktyvkar. However, others claim he was released and settled in Veliky Ustyug with his wife, Maria Nesterova, where he passed away in July 1934. The exact location of his burial remains unknown.

Remembering Mebes, Aleksandr Aseev, the publisher of the journal “Occultism and Yoga,” described Grigory Ottonovich as a large, broad-shouldered man with sharp facial features, a heavy nose, and thick eyebrows above calm, attentive gray eyes. He had a thick mustache and a wedge-shaped beard, and his auburn hair was streaked with gray. Mebes typically wore a black frock coat and had a calm, somewhat old-fashioned demeanor. He spoke with exquisite politeness, often inserting jokes into his speech.

Mebes's work produced two masters of Russian esotericism: Vladimir Alekseevich Shmakov, author of "The Sacred Book of Thoth" (1916), and Valentin Arnoldovich Tomberg, author of "Meditations on the Tarot" (1984). Tomberg's book is particularly noted among Catholic believers and clergy.

This was a brief biography of Grigory Ottonovich Mebes (GOM). Next time, I plan to discuss the core tenets of his philosophy.

This week I have something different for you. I made a transcript of a podcast, where the host, Scott Michael Harney of Esoteric Guides, interviews Mark Stavish about the latter’s predictions for 2023. The topics discussed here remain actual today. You can find the original video on YouTube.

The transcript

Host: I have Mark Stavish here. He's the director of studies for The Institute of Hermetic Studies, a lifelong student of esotericism with over 35 years in comparative religions philosophy and psychology and mysticism and you have an emphasis on traditional Western esotericism, and when I say traditional you know you follow a traditional path like Martinism and Masonry, as well as...

Mark Stavish: …Astrology, Golden Dawn, Alchemy, Kabbalah but as you would see them expressed in the Golden Dawn and Rosicrucianism and Martinism. We also have classical Theurgy and classical astrology as well so it's a nice wonderful program that we've got, a great program.

Host: Yeah, in fact what's the website for that?

Mark Stavish: hermeticinstitute.org where the Institute for Hermetic Studies is. So, if you just Google us we'll show up several hundred times there's no problem finding us. Institute for Hermetic Studies.

Host: Yeah, wonderful series of courses and teachings there. So, now we're about to enter 2023 and you had some very interesting insights last year. Actually, I think you are right spot on particularly with your insights into the media. So, what do you see for 2023?

Mark Stavish: As I mentioned to you last year, some people would ask me why I didn't predict the war in Ukraine, and I said I did, I just didn't want to feed into it. This is really an important part of our discussion today, and really any discussion of predictions. You know, when you take on the role of a prophet, there's a certain amount of moral and ethical responsibility that goes with what you say. The role of making a prediction is very often to give people a heads up, to give them a warning about what is coming their way so they can try to avoid it. You know, it does no good to just say to your friend, "Oh, you know the train is coming, the train is coming," but not yell it to the person standing on the tracks. And it also does no good for the person standing on the tracks to hear it if they don't get off the tracks and out of the way, if they expect someone to pull them out of the way. And I think that's where we're at when we look at predictions. I mentioned to you that this may be one of my last sets of public predictions for that reason. We're in a situation as a world that is quite precarious, and I don't think the listeners get it. And not just your listeners, I don't think many of the listeners seem to get it. There's a lot of interest in predictions as a form of information entertainment, but not in what they are meant to be, which is a warning. And when I said, you know, I looked at the chart and I kind of downplayed the Ukrainian conflict, it was for the reason that we're seeing now. We have two of the world's most heavily armed nuclear states, not quite toe-to-toe, but in a very dangerous dance with one another. And that's all there is to it, it's a dangerous dance. We have people talking about the ability to fight a nuclear war, to survive a nuclear war, and to win a nuclear war. And I want your listeners to really wrap their heads around what we're talking about here.

This doesn't mean it will happen, you know. This doesn't even mean we're even close to it. But as one person said, if there's even a five percent chance of that happening, is that something you want to bet your children and grandchildren's future on? So, when we look at all of these predictions that we're hearing, we have to ask ourselves, you know, what responsibility are we taking for making the world a better place? And that's really all it comes down to. So, in a sense, it's, you know, predictions be damned, because anyone with half a brain can look at where their life is now, look at how things went for the last year, and pretty much extrapolate how things are going to go into the next year or two. So, it's not as if you need to be terribly psychic or even terribly good at astrology. In fact, you can be very psychic and very good at astrology, and that's worthless if you don't have some common sense or even a good sense of history or human psychology. So, what I'd like your listeners to hear about the future is that we are in a very dangerous situation, and they have an obligation as people who say they're on some spiritual path to act in a manner that is going to create a future for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren.

I've mentioned this to you and I've mentioned this to others, and it's like one of those hand-to-the-head "I could have had a V8" moments, if anyone remembers that commercial. It's so obvious and yet it's missed. How many people do you know that will tell you they believe in reincarnation and then they'll turn around and say to you, "Oh well, I'm not going to have to worry about that problem, I'll be dead by then." Well, where do they think they're going to reincarnate to? I mean, you think this is like a rock star, you get to trash the hotel room and then they give you a new one? Well, even that new one cost somebody something. So, we have to start looking at, instead of predictions of what we think is going to happen and then passively sit by and go down a checklist or did or didn't it happen, how accurate was I or wasn't I, as to what is the world we are building for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, and ultimately ourselves, because we're going to be coming back here, probably whether we like it or not.

Host: So, my question is, in the past, we've been through a Cold War with the Soviet Union, and then we moved ahead of that. And people were talking about peace, getting along, but now our current leaders, and I talk about not only US but Europe, they don't seem to have that awareness or even desire for peace. What do you attribute this to, like from an esoteric point of view?

Mark Stavish: Well, I mean, esoterically speaking, this isn't rocket science. You know, you have a situation in various countries in which there is a certain disconnect that wealth and poverty create. So, when you're very poor, you're too busy surviving. When you're very wealthy, things don't really bother you. And wealth, of course, is relative on a personal scale. So many people have just not taken an interest in the political situations in their countries, or they have and come to the conclusions that there's very little they can do about it. Now, on that part is where we see many people in the spiritual community, and I have to say, that the contemporary spiritual community, and that would be from really the 1980s on but really in the last 15 or 20 years, has really been very cynical. And that kind of cynicism is counterproductive to spirituality, which generally requires, if not demands, a super heroic positivism about your capacity and potential. It doesn't mean that you're going to solve every problem perfectly, whatever that means, but it means that you have a potential and a capacity to address problems and make them better. So, what we've seen is spirituality, and I've mentioned this many times, move from being a practice to a form of political movement. So, we see generally most Western new and emerging religions, most religions in the West, do an emerge in religious movements, Buddhism, Hinduism, not that is non-native, various forms of New Age spiritual, neopagan, and esoteric movements have almost wholeheartedly in the last 10 or 15 years embraced politically progressive ideas. That is the true religion of most modern religious movements, and that in of itself is an abdication of personal responsibility and power because they're always then looking for someone to do something for them.

The true purpose of spirituality is to come to understand yourself and develop your own capacity. Once that is done, it is to then expand that into different areas and arenas. So, if someone wants to — it's a contradiction to say there's nothing I can do, but I want to vote for these people who've promised me stuff for nothing, but I'm studying esotericism, which has to do with my full actualization of my capacity. But again, there's nothing I can really do, you know, there's just too many contradictions that are built into the movements and the systems at this time. And one of the things we forget here or is woefully ignored is that our capacity as individuals when we come together to formulate ideas and beliefs can be very powerful. What we have to do is not have those beliefs guided or spoon-fed to us by media or the powers that be, but focus on something very general but at the same time beneficial to yourself and everyone else, which is some kind of generalization of peace. And I find that a lot of people in the spiritual movement fall into one of two categories, again, this is my experience after four years: they either make fun of the peace movement, you know, they used to be the jokes, "We're going to come together to meditate for World peace" or they tend to ignore that there really are some bad people in the world who do evil things and how do you contain them?

So, coming together, or coming to grips with these two dichotomies, is what we now have to do. We have to find a way within ourselves, individually and as a group, to address this reality that we are, as a nation, once again ramping up a very expensive military-industrial complex. And that's also cued in, by the way, Eisenhower's speech cued that into the education complex, so let's not forget that, although that often is, and with that, scientific research. They should read the full transcripts of the speech. But we see other nations doing it as well. We see that in Russia, we see that in China, we see that in all sorts of places, and all these resources being poured into weapons that want to be used. A weapon does not exist to not be used.

Host: Right. Same thing for armies.

Mark Stavish: Yeah, so we have to really take this seriously now, and again, not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren. And if we believe in reincarnation, where is it that we're going to come back to? Because I can't stress this enough, we are in a very dangerous situation. But we can avert it, we can fix it, we can change it for the better.

Host: So, what would you say as the role of spiritual practitioners, esotericists, or spiritual practitioners? What should our role be in this, you know, in creating a better world, in preventing this potential war?

Mark Stavish: Well, you have to spend time, of course, watching your thoughts, your words, and your deeds. So, where are your thoughts going? Where are they getting directed to? And then, how do you reel them back in and focus them on something that is, okay, that is the case, or maybe the case, but what can I do about it? And then you do something. And you may not be able to do anything about it directly, but you can generate goodwill. You can encourage others, people, to generate goodwill. You can try to slow this process of militarization of everything down. And, of course, what's really very important is the mental attitude, because the emotional content, the psychic content, that psychic energy, is what shapes the ultimate outcome of actions and events. So, the more we can get involved in—I hesitate to say peace movements because they have a patina to them that is reflective, again, of a definite political shade—but if we can get people involved in this notion of "peace is patriotic," that, I think, we need to recognize that.

Host: Right, yeah.

Mark Stavish: And again, I know what the world is like out there, I'm not foolish, you know. I know what kind of people there are. There's a reason we have prisons, you know. There's a reason a lot of people are in prison, who are in solitary confinement, because they don't even play well with others in jail. So, there's no, we're not saying to be foolish about this. What I'm saying is that with the current situation and the level of weaponry involved, we need to really slow this down.

Host: Steve Speer, who's gonna appear on New Occultism in Politics Year's Eve, he's an occultist, and his whole new attitude is, um, "politics is the new occultism." Financially, so he ran for Congress in the Medical Freedom Party. So, what's your opinion of that, of, you know, occultists actually getting involved in politics?

Mark Stavish: Well, I think that they have to decide what they're, what they are, and they better be very well established in the nature of their own being because politics is a rough and tumble business, and we saw what happened to many of your listeners may not remember, some will, but, Bill Scranton Jr. when he was running for, I believe it was governor of Pennsylvania, and of course, Carville, the political mastermind behind the Clintons, pulled out that wonderful campaign of having him dress, you know, they had pictures of him from when he was in India, dope-smoking hippie, okay, instead of the hero of Three Mile Island, which he was. So, you know, that's an early example of the kind of people you're dealing with, you know. So, we could have had a fantastic Republican governor, possibly presidential candidate at that point, but that was undermined by the Democrats. So now, let's flash forward, you know, we have some nonsense in the White House during the Clinton administration around spirituality and New Age movement, of course, you know, they care nothing for that except what it'll get them, and that needs to really be understood. I mean, for people who've known them. And then, of course, you flash forward to the last campaign, and who was it? Marianne Williamson was running, and of course, she lasted all of six minutes. So, I think when you go into this business, you have to be a politician first. You have to have a spiritual practice, right, that is really geared towards leadership. What does it mean to be a good leader, a strong leader within the spiritual domain?

Now, if you look at certain practices, they exist in other systems. Within Vajrayana Buddhism, they have the Gesar practices, Gesar of Ling, which is fascinating because those have been recently co-opted and politicized by the Chinese. So, you know, when you're dealing with practices like that, then you're getting into the nature of the egregore, what is the egregore you're dealing with? We see a lot of political practices during the Renaissance, and of course, Peter Mark Adams wrote his book "The Game of Saturn" on some of those, which were quite razor's edge, if you will. So, the idea that politics is the new occultism, I don't really even understand what that means. I would say that, if an esotericist or someone involved in occultism were to enter into the political arena, they better have a really good platform, and they'd better be able to really hold their ground. If they're advertising the fact that they're an occultist, I'm going to tell you right now, they're probably a pretty bad one, and they're going to be a pretty bad politician, because silence is where all this takes place. So, it should be done in silence.

Host: Yeah, though Tulsi Gabbard seemed like she still maintained her... I thought she did pretty well in the election, and she still has a pretty good public perception at this point.

Mark Stavish: I guess so. I mean, I watch her once in a while, but, you know, her background is…

Host: ISKCON.

Mark Stavish: ...and this puts her in a unique situation because, as much as they want to go after her for being ISKCON, they can't, because they'll come off as being a sexist, what else? I don't really want to say, "racist" is such an overused term. I'm looking for something more precise, some kind of bigotry towards her religious background. Because even though it is ISKCON, it's still Hinduism of some form, so it's too, it's too mainstream in a sense, even though it isn't, it's too big, that's still a third rail, it's not quite saying something about someone being Jewish, that's the real third rail that'll get you, but this, this is close to it. You could still say something about someone being Catholic because you'll go after maybe the questions on abortion and all that, but you know, that's not the point. The point is that all of these, those are all mainstream belief systems that have a strong entrenched presence in the political structure and system. Coming out and saying you're New Age or Wiccan or neopagan or this or that, that doesn't have a place in most people's framework, you know, it does more harm than good. You need to be a good politician in that second, and if you're looking for an example, look for the great stories of St. Germain. If you read his really only decent biography, which is by Jean Overton Fuller, there's almost no mention of his occultism or alchemy in there. It was just his life in politics, and that, of course, his involvement in Freemasonry and some other secret societies that are somewhat known from the period, that takes a secondary role, yeah, but if you organize meditations for peace, if you organize events for peace, then it doesn't matter.

Host: What are you seeing in 2023? You mentioned Egregores, and I know you wrote a book, a very successful book on it, because what are you seeing like right now for 2023 in that realm? You know, the movement of these Egregores right now, particularly in the United States.

Mark Stavish: It’s always the same ones. It doesn't change a lot because they're like balloons, they take a while to inflate, they take a while to deflate, and fundamentally, we're looking at the big one, of course, which is what I said earlier: this obsession with militarization. All the other ones come secondary to that.

Host: Right, that's strange because even in the Antiwar movement, the left has always been anti-war, but now you're getting people like even AOC who traditionally would be anti-war, supporting the Ukraine war, which is strange. The only anti-war voice is really hearing it are on the fringes of the Republican Party.

Mark Stavish: Well, and of course, things go, you know, that's the beauty of how things change. I mean, you know, we're talking about one and a half billion dollars on the books; we don't even know what's offline. It's one and a half billion dollars a month poured into this war. People need to stop and recognize this is going to be devastating to countries for at least a decade. At least a decade.

Host: Yeah, well, hopefully cooler heads will prevail. Um, there'll be some wisdom that will prevail at some point, you know, in the administration.

Mark Stavish: Well, and that's only going to happen if we force it though. The cooler heads will not prevail on their own. If they could have, they would have. It is our obligation as esotericists to get together on our own, meaning make it a focal point of your practice to engage in activities that promote peace. That's it.

Host: Absolutely.

Mark Stavish: And I can't say that's strong enough, because you know, if they could have done it, they would have done it. And it hasn't happened. Cooler heads have not prevailed because we're expecting too much of them. You know, we're expecting too much of people who fundamentally are dishonest.

Host: Yeah, they actually don't care, it's true.

Mark Stavish: And well, yeah, I mean, I don't want to put too much of a point on that. I mean, if you understood what goes on in Pennsylvania politics, so when someone says, you know, “Biden's from Scranton,” I'm saying, “you'd never vote for anybody from Scranton if you knew what went on.”

Host: Ha-ha, right!

Mark Stavish: I was just up there. It's a point where people, I think, that the average person doesn't want to realize just how precarious things are and just how uninformed and mismanaged things are. Now, that's not to say everyone is incompetent. There are a lot of good people out there, a lot of good people doing things. But that's why, if you really want to make a better world for yourself, your children, and your grandchildren, you have to make an effort at it. It's not going to happen on its own. There may be some candidates out there you can support—get behind them and support them. But more importantly, you have to generate goodwill. You have to generate the desire, the overwhelming condition, and quality of peace.

Host: As you mentioned before, I think a big part of this is the media and the perception that the media is giving. The media is definitely slanted. I graduated from journalism school way back when, at Boston University, and we were always taught to be objective, not take any sides. But, I mean, it's very hard to find that right now. I know you spoke extensively about the media last year. What are your views? Do you think the media is going to continue its same trajectory?

Mark Stavish: Oh, definitely, yeah. I mean, I was surprised. If you look at the reports within the media on the media within the last week, I mean, it's just eating itself. They're just laying people off because no one's paying attention to it, which means no one's paying for it, which means it's losing money. So, they're going to shed jobs. The notion of activist journalism, which dominated journalism probably for the last 20-25 years at least, has proven to be detrimental to long-term trust in the media. Activist journalism is not the same as investigative journalism. Investigative journalism takes time, money, and resources from the news department. Activist journalism just means you're advocating for a policy or position in your role as a journalist, and it's really detrimental. It's similar to what you see in judicial legislation - that is, legislation that won't make it through Congress is then enacted at the bench, which is why judicial appointments are so critical.

Host: I mean, I think Elon Musk seems like he's opened up some public space on Twitter, at least in my estimation. I think it's gotten a lot more interesting since he's taken over. What's your impression?

Mark Stavish: I don't pay too much attention to Twitter. I've only seen a few things, so I can't really comment on it, but he seems to have really stirred the bucket.

Host: Yeah, definitely. He's taken the curtain away, which is, you know…

Mark Stavish: Now notice how quickly he gets turned on. Now they're going to go after him with a hundred lawsuits for this, a hundred lawsuits for that. This is why, again, people don't want to go against the machine. But if you truly believe in reincarnation and you're not working to create a better environment for yourself, your children, and your grandchildren, you know, you could be a coward. Go ahead, be a coward, don't go against the machine. But who are you going to blame when you end up coming back to a place that's very undesirable because it's what you've made for yourself?

Host: Exactly.

Mark Stavish: Look, there was a picture going around — I don't know, it comes up every four years. It's supposedly of a crowd, and of course, we have to use the whipping child, the Nazis, because, of course, they're going to be the ultimate organized evil. Everyone's there giving a salute except one guy, and the guy is circled. I see all these people who think they're going to be that guy. Now, I knew people who went through the Nazi regime. I grew up around them, and it was a pretty terrible thing to experience. There was a lot of fear of arrest and terrible things. People think they're going to be that guy.

Host: Right.

Mark Stavish:Well, let me tell you, if you're not that guy right now, when you've got lights on and heat and food, you're not going to be that guy when you go to cryptocurrency. When they can just shut everything off, you know, based on a social credit score or something.

So, if you really think you've got the balls, if you've got the courage, it's time to show it. It's time to stand up and make intelligent, decisive decisions and actions geared towards peace, goodwill, and personal responsibility. Everyone here is going to be responsible; no one's going to get a free pass.

Host: Yeah, the thing about the media now, which I think is important as a former journalist, is that media is so dispersed now that there's no shared narrative anymore. There are many narratives. I think that's one of the issues as well. There's no shared sort of stories culturally that we have, you know, and it's creating, I think, a very fractionated society. That's my take on it.

Mark Stavish: Yeah, but that was inevitable. When, look, there's no such thing as multiculturalism. There's always a dominant culture. So, when you've destroyed the dominant culture, you're going to have some form of balkanization, as we call it. That's not rocket science; that was inevitable and predictable.

Host: Exactly. And then shared stories, I think, are very important.

Mark Stavish: The shared stories now are media stories. Because when you push everything down to the lowest common denominator, what's the lowest common denominator? Well, you know, it's going to be shelter, food, sex, clothing - your interpersonal value structure on a social level. And that's dominated by or defined by pop culture. So, when we look at the media structure and what dominates the last two generations, I see with my kids all the time and with their friends, you know, they don't care about anything but media, entertainment. And it's constant and relentless.

Yeah, so until that plug gets pulled, there's almost no reason to change, and that's the dangerous part. That's what the listeners need to understand. We're in a loop here, and getting out of that loop consciously is increasingly difficult because we've destroyed the necessary - what we mean is that we've allowed the educational system to degrade over the last 10 or 15 years, destroying the essential intellectual and cognitive skills necessary to advance on a spiritual path.

Host: Right, yeah. So, do you have any closing advice or blessings for 2023?

Mark Stavish: It just goes back to what I said earlier: we have to stop looking at predictions and prophecies as a form of entertainment. They're meant to be a direction and a warning, and we're to act on that. I would encourage listeners to go to Vox Hermes and read the essay that was posted there on predictions for 2023, 2024, and beyond.

Really take it to heart, and then start talking to your friends, talking to your family, talking to people you know who have some belief in these ideas - these spiritual ideas - and say, "Okay, what are we going to do to make our community, our neighborhood, our place the best we can without forcing others to do something? What are we going to take responsibility for?" Then go do it. Let that be the light you light - the city on the hill - the light that can't be put under a bushel. Then you know that you have done everything you can, and you get to live out your days and die very comfortably, knowing that you've done what you can. That's the best advice I can give you.

Host: Yeah, and now's the time for heroes to emerge.

Mark Stavish: I think that's right. Now's the time.

Host: So, I highly recommend to all of you - visit hermeticinstitute.org. I'll put the link in the YouTube description. You have a great school, and I think your school is a guide for people who are looking to get in touch with their inner selves and to make a difference in society.

Mark Stavish: Well, thank you very much. There are some great courses, and one that is six hours long, and it’s free: "Unfolding the Rose." Just sign up for it, and there's a lot of material there that'll make a definite difference in your life, a definite change for the better.

Host: Wonderful. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Blessings and Happy New Year!

Mark Stavish: Yes, very much.

Today, I present an article by Nina Rudnikova titled "Transfiguration of Evil". It was written closer to the end of her life and is one of her more mature works. In it, Nina Rudnikova talks about the necessity of inner transformation for spiritual development. I find it interesting that she used the word "transfiguration", rather than "transformation" or "transmutation", which she knew as she used it in her other works.

To overcome earthly chaos and pave the way for a new era of cosmic cooperation, the convergence of worlds, and the refinement of heavy earthly materiality, human consciousness, and creativity must now rise to the challenge. To overcome earthly chaos is to solve the problem of earthly evil and stop the latter’s existence, or, as figuratively expressed in the Bible, to "crush the serpent’s head".

Transfiguration by Alexander Ivanov, 1824

What is the cause of the earthly chaos, and where did the earthly evil come from? The reason for objective chaos is the subjective chaos of our consciousness, and man himself caused the earthly evil to exist.

The task set before mankind is to transform the material of the earth through cultural construction into the highest state of spirituality, which corresponds to the place occupied by the planet in the general cosmic chain, to establish the Kingdom of God, to realize the spiritual capabilities of the Universal Good – this is the creative joy of humanity. But attachment to earthly things darkened human consciousness. Instead of the creative joy of their transformation, it reached out for the "happiness" of their possession - and creative will turned into desires ... Buddha said that desire is the cause of all suffering (earthly evil).

The desire for abstract or specific possessions is the poison that, during evolution, corroded human consciousness and, historically, unfolded into a long scroll of human crimes, vices, falls, and misfortunes which we collectively call the earthly evil. This evil created the earthly chaos, in which we are now suffocating. The wrong orientation of the human will, which chose slavish "happiness" of possessing earthly things (parts of public material entrusted to humanity by the cosmic hierarchy) to the free creative joy of labor for the Universal Good, gave rise to evil on earth and corrupted our personalities which are tools of conducting spiritual creative impulse.

Therefore, the root of evil is in ourselves and, indeed, the head of the serpent seducing Eve, i.e., The perceiving part of human consciousness rests within our consciousness of each of us, and we are all responsible for the evil of the world. Earthly evil - personified or not - is a conglomerate of the consequences and the result of countless accumulated mistakes of mankind that arose from the darkening of consciousness through self-inflicted wounds and false ideas, false worldviews, vices, and passions. The repeatability of the main features created their overall image. And since each of us hourly populates the cellars of the Subtle World with new residents, we can only transfigure evil in ourselves to overcome the earthly chaos that is the objective accumulation of karmic human evil.

All religions teach selflessness, for it tears the root of evil from the human heart and dissolves the objective accumulation of evil in the mental atmosphere of the Earth.

However, the principle of selflessness is difficult to understand and even harder to implement. Many think they act selflessly only to increase chaos with earthly fanaticism, imposing one-sided truths, resentment, and absurd claims. Many want to fix the world, but few wish to fix themselves for the Universal Good.

The question of the struggle against evil arises before every profoundly thinking consciousness. But, of course, at first, it is necessary to struggle with subjective evil in the form of negative personality properties, for pure work should be done with clean hands. But, while the hands are dirty, they cannot be used for objective construction because they will stain the stones.

The subjective struggle against evil is the largest, hardest, and most incredible feat, and to truly implement it and transfigure your consciousness – you must be able to take it. Many failures and disappointments are not due to a lack of desire or volitional tension – a lack of strength – but due to misunderstanding the problem and ways to resolve it.

Many think they are fighting evil by suppressing the manifestation of their bad qualities, but since every quality is power, the suppressed force accumulates its tension in the subconscious. Sooner or later, it will break through and flood consciousness like a wave, destroying the dams of good intentions. Therefore, suppression of one’s bad qualities is permissible only as the first stage of the fight against evil, which does not solve the problem or lead to the transformation of the personality. This is only the prevention of the manifestation of evil. But it potentially remains, as the negative qualities of consciousness, which, invisibly accumulating, can explode under suitable conditions.

The second stage, often considered the final approach to overcoming evil in oneself, involves purposefully developing good qualities to counteract the evil ones. For instance, a person with a bad temper works on becoming non-aggressive, and a miser learns to be charitable. However, according to the basic law of mechanics, neutralizing opposing forces can diminish the overall dynamism of one's personality when using only this method to combat evil.

This happens because a part of its volitional force goes to suppress the evil qualities, using one power to cancel out the other. But this method is necessary as the second stage of the problem. As a result, the personality is enriched through the acquisition and development of positive qualities that have been dormant in it. Nonetheless, it brings a departure from the world’s evil, the forces raging around us, and a partial loss of internal contact with others.

Although this method creates light and benign personalities, it cannot be considered exhaustive for the task. Each personality quality is primarily a power, an ability that exists in the consciousness for its creative manifestation. Therefore, each negative quality is a power or possibility falsely directed at wrong goals with incorrect motivations in the narrow framework of a low plane of consciousness. Therefore, each negative quality has a basis in positive, creative power.

Therefore, we should not suppress these powers, not throw away the possibilities like garbage, but transfigure them by giving them to the service of the Universal Good. We must transform the motives of all our activities and actions from narrow and selfish to a broad and selfless creative impulse for the construction of culture. The general spiritualization of consciousness will transform the qualities of our personality into positive, creative powers. If we throw them out only because of their incorrect use, we risk impoverishing and exhausting our personalities. Even vices indicate a wealth of personality, and if sublimated (or spiritualized) and correctly applied, they turn into virtues.

Only after consciously purifying and spiritualizing our consciousness with a voluntary dedication to serve an ideal can we proceed with the sublimation of individual qualities, viewing them as abilities and powers subject to transformation. Thus, mental vices are transformed, sublimating from touching to the spiritual ideal: doubt turns into a conscientious review of ideas and benign analysis of their mental energies; conceit - into an adamant faith in oneself, necessary for every builder; a tendency to speculation - into the flexibility of intelligence to find new combinations necessary in construction; cunning - into resourcefulness; tendency to lie – into imagination; frivolity - into the plasticity of consciousness and readiness to change the forms of labor easily; lying - into adaptability and the capability to shift consciousness into the psyche of its neighbor, and so on.

Vices and emotions undergo a transformation: the spirit of contradiction becomes independence; weakness turns into gentleness; apathy evolves into patience and humility; adventurism shifts into spiritual exploration; impudence changes to boldness; stubbornness transforms into determination and persistence toward creative goals; the sense of ownership develops into a sense of responsibility; jealousy converts into attentiveness; recklessness or hooliganism refines into measured courage; cowardice matures into caution; servility progresses into reverence; stinginess adapts into balanced prudence; and wastefulness is replaced by the ease of generosity, among other changes.

Character flaws can be transformed as follows: bad temper becomes righteous anger; irritability shifts into sensitivity; gloominess turns into restraint; sensuality, which reveals an abundance of creative energy wasted on a lower plane, evolves into a fiery creative drive on psychic and mental levels; laziness changes into tranquility; numb indifference develops into the freedom of non-attachment; a tendency for excitement transforms into a productive temperament; the inclination to self-medicate, rooted in dissatisfaction with oneself and others, converts into the ability to explore other worlds through yoga in search of the right paths and connections; and so on. Weakness of will, characterized by being torn between numerous desires, can be transformed into diverse expressions through devotion to an ideal.

Negative personality elements so transformed ascend into the spirit, becoming what they are and should be - the qualities and strengths necessary for cooperation in creating the Universal Good. Thus, service to the ideal defangs evil.

There is no concept of evil for the consciousness transfigured by selfless service; there are lower and higher forces, centrifugal and centripetal energies, coagulating and rarefying energies, and Jacob's Ladder of the universal hierarchy, where everyone fulfills their task in their place. In extreme cases, there are mistakes in applying powers and irregularity in manifesting creative capabilities.

The transfiguration of evil into creative powers and possibilities within one's consciousness is the Great Work of humanity. This is the aim of Ethical Hermeticism, and the teachings of Living Ethics focus on this very issue. By spiritualizing one's consciousness through service to an ideal and converting negative qualities into positive powers, one can experience a "rebirth", "put on a new self", and contribute to the Universal Great Kingdom of God. In Ethical Hermeticism, the phrase "He reigns with the sky and hell serves him" refers to a consciousness that has both begun and completed this transformative work, thereby mastering the powers of both the "above" and the "below".

Only such a consciousness will know how to transfigure the evil of the objective world into powers and opportunities that serve the construction of the Universal Good into that genuine cultural creation that will establish the Kingdom of God on Earth.

I'll be honest. I've been holding this one back because I didn't know how to present it. We're all children of our time, and some ideas prevalent in the early 20th century are much less palatable to us in the early 21st century. So it is with Nina Rudnikova's essay "The Gypsies", which employs some ideas about different human races. It also makes some cultural references I do not understand. Elder Zosima is a Dostoyevsky character, but who are Hoggard and Lorenzo? Please let me know if you understand this reference.

In this work of fiction, Nina Rudnikova takes some creative liberties with historic and mythological figures. So we have Rama, a Celtic chieftain [sic!], meeting a tribe of Gypsies and teaching them his wisdom. Sometimes, I wonder if there's some unpublished work by Rudnikova where we can find a Scottish Hermes Trismegistus wearing a kilt.

The Gypsies by William Simpson (1823–1899)

On a more serious note, Rudnikova's works often revolve around the idea of bringing the East and the West together. In her perspective, the East represents spiritual wisdom and morality, while the West is seen as practical, worldly, and corrupt. This view may have been influenced by her personal experiences in Europe, where she may have felt out of place. According to Rudnikova, the unification of these two regions involves people from the East journeying to the West to redeem it by changing their hearts. This theme is especially evident in "The Gypsies".

It was a time unknown to history at the very dawn of the white race.

A wise and powerful chieftain named Rama led the newly born white race from the north of Europe to the East, to Asia, towards the rising Sun, to establish his kingdom there, in blue India, and to light the Sun of divine Wisdom and Revelations still accessible to the spirit of the young humanity…

Once on his journey, Rama encountered a tribe traveling from the East to the West. They were not wise, and their spirits could not hear the voice of Revelations, but their souls were compassionate and free, harboring a dormant, vague intuition of truth deep within. They were the Gypsies, and with innate instinct, they recognized Rama as the Great Chieftain and Teacher and paid him homage. They asked Rama, "O divine Rama, tell us where and why are we going? Driven by our boundless freedom, we cannot stop to set limits. We do not know our path or purpose as we strive further. Great and wise one, give us a task within our power!"

The Gypsies sought guidance from Rama to define their path and destiny. The Chieftain replied, "A wandering tribe, free nomads incapable of adhering to the conventions required for a settled life — I will chart your path and determine your destiny. I head east to ignite the unquenchable Sun of Wisdom and Revelations. Accept its beam in my blessing and preserve it within your dark soul. I venture east to kindle the inextinguishable Sun, whose light is unquenchable and whose rays are eternal and unchanging.

You, however, must journey into the dark, enigmatic West, tirelessly traversing the Sunset lands until you reach where the Sun, ignited by me, plunges into the sea of endless darkness and disappears forever into the waves of the dark night. There, your journey will end, and there you will find rest. Go forth, gathering everything dark and sinful along your way and illuminating it within yourselves with the ray of the blessing I have bestowed upon you.

Awaken the slumbering ray of spirit in those you encounter with the miracles of your hidden intuition, prompting their souls to ponder and face the rays of my Sun. Encourage those you meet to head east while you continue further and further west. When you grow weary, and my ray starts to dim within your souls, I will send you a leader, another, and a third. You will always resume your journey and tirelessly head further west until you reach the lands where the Sun, lit by me, sinks forever into the dark waves of the lightless sea."

With these words, the great Rama extended his hands over the Gypsies, blessing them, and then pointed to a star twinkling in the pink dawn sky.

He told them, "Let this star guide you. It has five rays, three pointing upwards and two pointing downwards. The three upper rays represent the light of my blessing for you, while the other two rays symbolize the curse and darkness of the land you are heading to, where the light of truth fades amidst the chaos of the eternal struggle between dual forces. This star is called Luminiferous; let the light triumph over darkness. Follow this star, free wanderers of the Earth, and remember your purpose."

So said Rama and went to the East, and the Gypsies went to the West.

Since then, they have traveled relentlessly, never staying in one place for too long, fearing the limitations of a settled lifestyle. Driven by their purpose, they journey through various countries, picking up the vices and darkness of the places they pass through. However, with their sinless freedom, illuminated by Rama's blessing, they purify the world's corruption in their innocent hearts.

They continue their journey, and with the miracles of their vague intuition, they impress the people of the Western countries with their divination and advice, simple yet profound. In these countries, the rays of the great Sun of Wisdom and Revelations, lit by Rama, barely reach. They venture into the pitch darkness of the unbelieving and non-wandering West and point towards the Eastern Sun to the best of their ability.

When they grow weary from their past travels and the burden of the darkness they've absorbed, Rama sends them a leader. Once again, knowing they won't be abandoned, they tirelessly continue west, towards the ever-setting, unquenchable Sun that disappears forever into the waves of darkness. There, they will finally find rest. So says the legend...

We stand at the border between the East and the West. Born in the East, we now venture into the shadows of the Western realm. Scattered across European cities like wandering nomads, we resemble the Gypsies. For years, we have absorbed the positivism and materialistic outlook of the enlightened West, where the Sun's light, ignited in the East and symbolizing mysticism and intuition, is extinguished by waves of desolate realism. Consequently, we have plunged headlong into the chasm of realism and zoologism crafted by the Red Devil.

We brought our Eastern essence to the lands of the setting sun, carrying our profound understanding of life and our quest for indescribable freedom. Our spirit knows no boundaries; we are the Gypsies, nomads of the spirit. The flight of our thought cannot be halted, for it is too free and fearful of the constraints of convention. Soaring ever higher, it seeks the radiant heights or delves into the unfathomable depths of the abyss, heedless of limits or prohibitions. For ages, we have startled Europe with the power of our peaks and valleys and our unending aspirations - a Europe characterized by sedentary, tranquil spirits. We compelled it to gaze eastward.

Our spirit continues to journey further into the shadowy lands of positive theories, where the deep intuitive understanding of life, kindled in the wise East like a ray of sunlight, gradually fades away. We press on, lamenting and groaning in the darkness like Hoggard and Lorenzo while also trembling in anticipation of the joy that stirs within us: "Behold, as the whole world agrees, so will Paradise come." We remember Elder Zosima's testament and follow the star of our enigmatic Slavic inheritance.

When our strength waned and our spirit dimmed under the weight of the unrelenting night, a leader of thought and creativity awakened us, reminding us that we had not been forsaken. Armed with the teachings of our leaders and creators, we resumed our journey as nomads of the spirit, as anarchists who refused to acknowledge barriers and laws in the realm of the spirit, delving further into the darkness of the Western lands.

As representatives of the Russian intelligentsia who are now dispersed across Western countries, we carry within our spirits the testimonies of the East and the boundless freedom that fears nothing. We seem to have reached a critical point where the Sun of Wisdom sets in the inky night of Bolshevism. This has been born from the West's positive theories and our Eastern inclination to go too far. We sense that our respite is near, and in that decisive moment, the entire Sun of the East will ignite within our souls, illuminating the darkness of the positive West.

Today, I want to present my translations of two of Nina Rudnikova's articles: "Cosmic Cooperation" and "Cosmic Worldview". In these articles, Rudnikova elaborates on her ideas of the necessity of consciously participating in the Solar system's life.

Rudnikova says that an overinflated sense of self-importance is one of the main reasons for destruction and destitution. To create a better life for everyone, one must realize oneself as a part of the whole and understand their place in the universe. This would involve a change in one's mental image of the world.

Conscious cosmic cooperation represents the next phase in human evolution. Since its inception, Earth's humanity has played an active role in the world's creative endeavors. However, the outcomes of unconscious activities fall short in power, brilliance, and logic compared to those of conscious actions.

Disharmony, inconsistency, and disproportion stem from unconsciousness. Unconsciousness leads to irresponsibility, substandard quality, and a weakened impact of actions.

To be conscious means understanding the connection between the general and the particular, the whole and its parts, and ultimately, the relationship between the Subject and the Object.

Conscious cosmic cooperation necessitates understanding the following: a) humanity's role and objectives in cosmic creation, b) aligning one's efforts with these goals, and c) ensuring one's aspirations are in harmony with the universal plan of historical development.

Conscious cosmic cooperation relies on a strong sense of responsibility for oneself and the collective to which one belongs. Feeling responsible for one's actions, emotions, and thoughts, as well as their impact on humanity and the Cosmos, signifies awareness of one's manifestations. Finding joy in responsibility means being a creative contributor rather than a mere worker.

Conscious cosmic cooperation is founded on serving the Universal Good within humanity and the entire planet and planetary system, as communication between worlds should promote collaboration, not conflict. Introducing strife into the Cosmos will lead to self-destruction.

Conscious cosmic cooperation involves an expanded synthetic consciousness that transforms an egocentric earthly personality into a creative, proactive individuality.

Conscious cosmic cooperation requires the harmonious development and integration of the Heart, Mind, and Will to safeguard against dangerous disruptions of consciousness.

Conscious cosmic cooperation emphasizes the importance of the Heart, particularly its core qualities: all-embracing and all-affirming synthesis, empathy, and patience, transforming suffering into the joy of creating spiritual values and shifting focus from rigid forms to dynamic energies.

Conscious cosmic cooperation necessitates reevaluating ownership, even in its subtlest forms. Everything belongs to everyone, and the ease of giving ensures the ease of receiving.

Conscious cosmic cooperation acknowledges the boundlessness of evolutionary possibilities and the eagerness to creatively embrace them without limitations or fatigue, finding joy in discovering new opportunities rather than in rest.

Conscious cosmic cooperation involves recognizing the One indivisible Life, consistent across all cosmic transformations. Cooperation is unattainable without acknowledging Unity within Diversity.

Conscious cosmic cooperation entails joining the Hierarchy of coworkers, the Cosmic White Brotherhood. One must unconditionally establish oneself within it, as its members are conduits of the Spirit and maintain the balance between the Above and the Below, the Spirit and its manifestations.

Every individual who values their personal destiny and the future of humanity is now called upon to participate in this significant transformation of consciousness. Humanity is being summoned to undergo this change for the sake of a bright, joyful, and noble future that awaits the collective mind.

The loss of knowledge about true cosmic relationships is at the root of modern spiritual and cultural decline. The absurd disproportionality, overvaluation of oneself as a vital factor, an exaggerated sense of self-worth, and limited range of personal interests are all consequences of human consciousness becoming disconnected from the cosmic chain.

This disconnection has led to a loss of understanding of our true role and significance in universal cooperation. This spiritual collapse is particularly tragic now as humanity is moving beyond the dogmatic boundaries of religious symbolism, which previously held intuitive knowledge of cosmic relationships and shaped human Life in various aspects. However, humanity has not yet reached genuine scientific knowledge and a comprehensive worldview.

Our current scientific knowledge is limited and insufficient to deeply explore and transform Life's complexities. Historical development cannot be reversed or delayed, and we must understand that there is no going back to the opaque religious worldview of the past.

The only option is to progress rapidly towards expanding our scientific understanding and developing a scientific-cosmic worldview that can guide our emotions, thoughts, and actions in a new way, integrating our consciousness into the realm of genuine cosmic cooperation. This does not mean we should abandon religion and dismiss its millennia-long influence on humanity.

Instead, religious syntheses need scientific validation, natural phenomena foundations, and logically coherent formulations. A new culture and stage in human consciousness development will be based on conscious cosmic cooperation and a cosmic worldview. This will start with a synthesis of religion and science, both aiming to discover and realize truth.

It is not the church dogma, which even the most devoted church leaders have lost the key to, but rather a scientifically grounded worldview that will provide humanity with a new key to cosmic correspondences. This will lead us to the One True Religion, which restores the connections between diverse cosmic consciousnesses and draws them toward the Central Source of conscious Life – God.

True knowledge is distinct from theoretical accumulation because it penetrates and transforms consciousness, creating corresponding mental representations and becoming a self-evident worldview. People often crave more scientific information but neglect to digest and apply what they already possess. Consequently, they have plenty of unapplied, easily forgotten information but little genuine knowledge.

Old ideas still strongly influence minds; they hinder the maturation of new concepts, which align with the most advanced knowledge. Modern humans' worldviews and ideas have not significantly progressed from those of their medieval ancestors. They still perceive the Sun as "rising" in the morning and "setting" in the evening and the Earth as the flat center of the universe with stars that "light up" at night.

Not grasping the fundamental principles of the world, people continue to view themselves as masters and the center of the universe. Geocentrism and homocentrism, inherited from deteriorated religious dogma, remain ingrained in the human mind. This mindset fuels an epidemic of self-importance, which stifles humanity's creative Spirit. People's knowledge is limited, and their understanding is inadequately applied in practice.

A cosmic worldview is the key to cosmic citizenship and represents the first step towards conscious cosmic cooperation.

The first step in implementing a cosmic worldview is converting accumulated knowledge into a mental framework, forming and maintaining accurate ideas and images. One recommendation is to focus on the Earth's rotation throughout the day by observing the Sun's apparent position.

Imagine visualizing a portion of the Earth's surface, including the observer, emerging from the darkness and turning towards the Sun as the Sun's rays illuminate it. Now, picture the observer's journey across the Earth's surface in front of the Sun, following its actual daily path from west to east. You can also create similar representations to understand the changes in seasons.

On a clear, moonless night, synchronize your body's rhythm using the fourfold breath and observe your journey from east to west on the Earth's surface as it passes by celestial bodies. Notice the Earth's movement relative to them, their paths in outer space, and focus on the light rays the Earth receives from the cosmos. Try to visualize the vast depths of space and the great distances between celestial objects.

Gradually, your background perception of Life and actions will shift from feeling like you are on a stable, motionless "center of the Universe" to a more accurate understanding of reality: you are on planet Earth, which moves and combines various circular motions within the Cosmos. Learn to work, breathe, and live on the celestial body called Earth as it carries you through infinite space. This shift in perspective will restore the proper balance between humans and the Cosmos, enabling you to perceive the influence of cosmic energies on our planet.

Establish a psychic rhythm using the fourfold breath and focus on a planet within our solar system, allowing its radiations to enter your psychic centers. The light rays carry vibrations of psychic and mental energies. Unusual images, thoughts, sensations, and energy flashes that arise in your mind will indicate the reality of this reception.

Concentrate your thoughts, feelings, and will on a beneficial abstract idea and send it with Earth's rays to the chosen planet. Become accustomed to playing the role of a sender. This will help you understand your responsibility for the quality of your thoughts and feelings, which radiate into space and affect the surrounding vibrations.

What kind of "heaven" are people seeking? They already live on a celestial body — Earth — situated deep within the vastness of space, surrounded by other planets and consciousnesses. Earth is infused with cosmic radiation and interweaves its own luminosity with the Cosmos. The images and forms constituting Earth's nature are infinitely beautiful, crafted by cosmic weavers. The Kingdom of God is truly around us; we only need to discover it within ourselves to see it everywhere.

Only earthly humanity has lost awareness of its role and purpose in the solar system, leading to unconscious self-destruction and damage to the surrounding nature instead of consciously constructing universal good. The new culture will be founded on human cosmic cooperation. A reimagined and revitalized science must underpin a cosmic worldview with a foundation of scientific experience. Atop this foundation, religion, philosophy, ethics, and the future of society will develop.

Russians must internalize the principles of a correct worldview, as Russia is destined to be the cradle of a new era. To best serve our Motherland now, we should abandon all unnecessary disputes over petty objectives and insignificant thoughts and instead support one another in acquiring a new, accurate understanding of cosmic relationships.

Today, I would like to present a centerpiece of Nina Rudnikova's work, an article titled The Solar Way from the Occultism & Yoga journal.

In this article, Rudnikova lays out the core concept of her worldview, which can be summarized as follows: Humanity is unknowingly part of a bigger world populated by numerous spiritual beings far more significant than humans in every regard. Our ultimate objective in life is to acknowledge the fact that we are part of a larger cosmos and work towards developing ourselves to actively participate in its life. This is the fundamental message that all religions have been trying to convey in their own way from ancient times to the present day.

Of course, she does not provide the details of the training required to achieve such a state of consciousness, but she does give hints. Rudnikova writes, "Non-identification with manifestations grants the keys to creative power and direct knowledge of the Sun" and "Such attainment is only possible when one's consciousness is rooted in the unchanging center, the Sun, which encompasses all periphery stages and the entire energy cycle of Life's manifestation in the system." Instead of identifying with manifested things, such as our bodies, Nina Rudnikova proposes identifying with our essence, which is the same as the essence of the Sun.

Rudnikova continues, "Merging one's consciousness with the Sun's... unlocks the key to dominion and signifies the second stage of the Solar Way." It stands to reason that such unity can be achieved through contemplation and meditation on the Sun. After all, as occultists often say, "What you contemplate, you imitate," or, as Hermeticists put it, "Think of a place, and you're there; think of a thing, and you are it."

Before you read my translation, I want to draw your attention to specific terms. In Rudnikova's works, the term "synthetic" refers to a unifying or integrative quality rather than an artificially created substance or object, as the word is commonly understood today. Additionally, the word "creativity" in her works refers to the process of creation rather than just the quality of being inventive.

"The ways of God are as numerous as the breaths of the sons of men."

The paths of God, the routes to ascend from the shackles of the material world to the liberation of the spirit, are innumerable and deeply personal. There are as many paths as there are unique psychic entities known as personalities. Each path represents a way to approach the grand esoteric journey of subjectively merging with the Essence of the Universe and engaging in cosmic creativity. Ultimately, personality is a bridge between matter and spirit, formed from an amalgamation of diverse vibrations or tones of psychic energy from the environment, which cluster around the nuclei of consciousness.

Despite the infinite permutations of psychic tones, our system contains as many foundational tones as there are resonators that transform the synthetic Solar Energy, that is, as many as there are planetary orbits (plus the Moon for the Earth). In their quests and individual paths to spiritual manifestation, people always group themselves into these sectors; this is the rationale and objective for the existence of various initiatory schools, systems, and cults.

Among these paths, there has always been a synthetic, sector-integrating way of directly utilizing the magnificent Solar Energy in its pure, unaltered form: the Central, Fiery, Swift, and Grand Solar Way. During moments of danger and times of spiritual crises, all that is positive and benevolent has consistently rallied around this path, seeking support and sustenance from it. This is true whether it be the mysteries of Ra in Egypt, Krishna in India, the Delphic temple of Apollo in Greece, or the Pelican of the Rosicrucian brotherhood.

Only the Solar Way, which merges and transmits the direct spiritual influx of the Sun, is truly synthetic. It alone can maintain the planet's psychic equilibrium. It alone reconciles and coordinates all other paths, shielding them from futile differentiation. Only the Solar Way possesses the secret of distributing the solar influx according to its aspects. Only it holds the key to centripetal and centrifugal orientation within our system. Only it directly transmits the divine Love and Wisdom that flows through the prism of the Solar synthetic consciousness.

"Discovering cosmic secrets and correspondences requires effort, exploration, and striving across numerous incarnations. Grasping the synthetic essence of the world at its three stages of manifestation synthesizes and supplants them all." A soul may traverse numerous incarnations from one sector to another, seeking enrichment and establishing balance until it uncovers its singular, universal, fundamental essence. The Solar Way embodies the direct revelation of the nucleus of all formal combinations and tonalities. Its stages correspond to the three steps of the Grand Arcanum of the Universe and the three phases of manifestation of the synthetic Essence of the world. This path is directed by Nature itself, which has set its milestones through the natural symbolism of cosmic phenomena. Its light emanates from the great Sun, the gateway to the realm of divine Life, Wisdom, and Love. It is ever-present with us; we and everything around us are imbued with it; its descending and ascending steps are marked by the signs of the planetary orbits.

All true Teachers of humanity, incarnations of the spiritual current of the luminous Center, spoke of the synthetic Solar Way. This is the Middle Way of the blessed Buddha, the path of Vedanta Advaita that negates all forms while affirming the essence; Moses, proclaiming the Divinity of the eternal Subject (“I am the Lord thy God”) and rejecting objective forms (“do not make for yourself an idol”); and the words of Christ: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all else shall be added unto you.” They declared the resplendent Solar Way of non-identification with manifestations and of creative supremacy, which transcends all other paths.

Yet, people have misinterpreted the meaning of their message. They transformed the regally simple Middle Way into a church filled with absurd superstitions; the spiritual creativity of the Mosaic system degenerated into the wild fanaticism of a materialized religion. Christian churches no longer seek the Kingdom of God but yearn for all else that is added. Master M. spoke of the solar synthesis of religions and systems through H. P. Blavatsky, but the Theosophical Society became a narrow occult sect. Such is the fate of the truths brought to people, akin to the fate of valuable mechanisms falling into children's hands.

The magnificent Sun, the wellspring of consciousness and life, shines brightly in the vastness of space, infusing its love and creative energy into the orbits of the planets. The Solar Way, though natural, straightforward, and clear, often eludes human awareness. It is the path where consciousness dominates forms both within oneself and in the external world. In the fiery crucible of elevated solar consciousness ablaze with creative energy, the great Quarternary Law of differentiation operates, shaping the life of the solar system into what can be termed as the Solar Cross of the Elements. These four elements form the basis of all solar creativity, with their potential combinations being limitless. At their most basic level, they represent the four states of matter, giving rise to diverse physical forms. In the realm of the psyche, these elements manifest as four qualities shaping personality evolution: the courage to seek, the thirst for knowledge, the ability to focus and process, and the fervent pursuit of goals. The balance among these qualities determines an individual's worth and character.

The four mutually polar solar emanations permeate everything, weaving the objective world with their countless combinations. They envelop the subjective psychic cross of the personality from all sides and sweep it along in a stream of constant changes, binding it to the wheel of life with the great power of identifying consciousness with its manifestations. By non-identification of consciousness with these manifestations, one gains control over the four primary aspects. Non-identification of consciousness is attained by anchoring one's spiritual core, the ever self-identical I, the subject of changes, through direct knowledge of one's unchanging and indelible essence and origin in the Spiritual Essence of the Cosmos, the Cosmic Subject, or God. Self-aware consciousness synthesizes the four elements of the psychic cross, thus becoming its master. Self-aware consciousness combines them purposefully, according to its goal, and wrests them from the power of external influences that turn personality into a plaything of causality. This ultimately leads to the liberation of the personality.

"Conquer yourself, and you'll conquer the whole world," goes the saying, because a purposefully directed personality, consciously harmonized in its elements, acts as a powerful magnet of influence on its environment. Its initiative center dominates and controls the four elements of objective reality. Mastery over the elements of the world is a stronghold of knowledge, for this domination transforms knowledge into direct understanding, clear insight into things, their internal and external patterns, and their infallible evaluation. The painstaking detours of a speculative mind become unnecessary. Instead, non-identification with manifestations grants the keys to creative power and direct knowledge of the Sun.

Dominion encompasses control over two contrasting processes of solar creativity, which permeate all forms and consciousness. It grants the power to shape these forms and the responsibility for their transformed outcomes. Picture Amon-Ra, soaring amidst boundless space, propelled by the dual energies of two world forces that ignite his creativity. These forces, termed the centrifugal and centripetal forces of Eternal Life, work in harmony to uphold equilibrium. They coil within their potential as agents of creation, differentiating spiritual syntheses to manifest in myriad forms. Ultimately, they converge through the spiritual self-realization of consciousness, culminating in a radiant synthesis of the center.

Imagine two ladders of consciousness, each leading towards opposite directions. One ladder narrows progressively from the center to the periphery, enveloped in layers of form that differentiate and become coarser. Conversely, the other ladder widens from the periphery to the center, refining forms and fostering unity through creativity and the pursuit of deep spiritual harmony.

At the heart of evolution, involution, spiritualization, and materialization lies the solar creativity of the Universal Good. This creativity finds expression within the sphere of influence of its initiative, namely the planetary system. Here, the cooperation of two intersecting triangles of planets materializes and spiritualizes life within our solar world. The six Solar planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn — serve as stages in the transmutation of the creativity of the great Solar synthetic consciousness.

Having dominion over the two streams of Life and their seven-fold manifestation, including the radiant center of the system, requires control and the ability to replenish and adjust them with corresponding energy vibrations from the solar environment. This is achieved by maintaining a stance independent of identification with either the centrifugal flow governed by causality or the centripetal flow governed by purpose. Such attainment is only possible when one's consciousness is rooted in the unchanging center, the Sun, which encompasses all periphery stages and the entire energy cycle of Life's manifestation in the system.

Merging one's consciousness with the Sun's synthetic consciousness unlocks the key to dominion and signifies the second stage of the Solar Way. This journey consistently navigates through the centers of planes of consciousness along the ever-present yet elusive World Axis. Gaining dominion over these intersecting paths is facilitated by detachment from the outcomes of one's creativity and actions. Attachment to results, which are subject to the laws of either direction, can draw consciousness into one of the streams, rendering it susceptible to the reverberating impact of consequences on their causes, or the law of Karma.

The negative repercussions are rendered ineffective by embracing non-attachment to outcomes. Consequently, the individual gains mastery over Karma, both within themselves and in the world around them. Their actions shape the environment's Karma, transcending the force of reverse consequences. True creative dominion is reserved for those who embody self-control and self-creation, where the principle of "giving without expecting anything in return" becomes a natural driving force. Such individuals fearlessly radiate with the Sun's light and are untroubled by darkness. In this heightened state of consciousness, evil is perceived as superstition, and enemies cease to exist. Within the expansive framework of the grand creative Solar Way, all possibilities are considered, and all paths are evaluated.

In the realm of Divine Love and the expansive flow of Life that drives cosmic creativity, there's no space for self-centeredness and egotism. Such notions are swiftly consumed, rendered insignificant like moths drawn to the altar flame. The potent currents of Divine Love and Life give rise to centers of consciousness and creativity within the heart of the Universe's Sun. Divine Love fosters an enduring sense of unity among them, while Divine Life imbues them with the dynamic essence of perpetual change in their manifestations.

The elevated consciousnesses, firmly rooted in Divine Unity, harmonize their actions with the ceaseless stream of Mother Life. These Great Solar consciousnesses serve as a magnetic focal point in their surroundings, akin to the Divine Magnet of the universal consciousness at the center of all. They are entrusted with the task of manifesting Love and Life within the sphere of the solar system. Operating as creative prisms, these consciousnesses refract the brilliance of Divine Love and the currents of Cosmic Life in accordance with their individual potentials. The Great Solar consciousnesses harness the flames of divine Love and Life, fashioning them into a diverse array of creative combinations. This process gives birth to a spectrum of forms spanning the planetary orbits, each expression reflecting the unique potential of these elevated consciousnesses residing within the fiery energies of our Center.

The consciousnesses inhabiting the three planets beyond Saturn are collaborators and representatives of this spiritual creation. Each embodies one of the three principles of the spiritual realm: All-Being as its essence, Bliss as the outcome of liberation from reliance on forms, and Creative Omniscience as the foundation for its manifestation. Illuminated Solar Souls communicate with the consciousnesses of their cosmic brethren, exchanging energies and possibilities. They adeptly manage and transmute myriad cosmic radiations and emanations, imprinting their essence onto the forms of our solar-planetary world. Furthermore, they transmit their system's emanations to distant realms in space.

The Solar Way doesn't advocate blindly idolizing these elevated consciousnesses. Instead, it emphasizes respect for ideals as a vital aspect and indicator of expanding consciousness. Its goal is to steer individuals towards achieving a similar unity with the power of the Cosmic Spirit, all while preserving their unique creative potential. Selflessness is key here, enabling individuals to serve as conduits for cosmic energy and transformers of the divine flow of Love and Life. Only through this can one become a great creative Solar spirit, a genuine peer to the Great Teachers who have graced Earth with their wisdom. The synthetic essence of the Solar Way rejects exclusivity. Those who tread this path embrace all cosmic solar workers and creators of Universal Good with equal love and reverence—be they from the past, present, or future, whether known or unknown. They stand before them all, recognizing that one day, they, too, will join their esteemed ranks. Beyond time, the Solar Way unites its followers into a cohesive brotherhood. It transcends space, affirming an unbreakable connection with the radiant Center of consciousness accessible from any point on the periphery.

The Solar Way transcends form, transforming the Universe into the divine flow of the One Life, like foam on the surface of the Spirit's radiant ocean. In its ultimate stage, it releases consciousness from all objective phenomena, immersing it in the depths of the Subjective Spirit, where forms, names, and changes cease to exist. This path requires no specific institution; life itself becomes the school for its adherents, offering natural symbolism. Occult schools represent just one facet of Life's teachings. Like bees, those on the Solar Way gather wisdom from diverse sources, recognizing the value of each encounter.

Eschewing artificial symbols, the Solar Way finds significance in the eternal symbolism of Nature, crafted by the divine. Through the method of analogies, it unveils the hidden secrets of the world. Guided solely by one's inner divine Spirit, the Solar Way acknowledges no external authority. The principle of mutual assistance enriches its followers, ensuring everyone receives visible and invisible support from their surroundings. The Solar Way transcends the confines of organizations and societies, existing beyond all forms and conventions. It is gauged solely by individual consciousness, invisibly binding together all who embrace it into a genuine Brotherhood. Realizing the Solar Way doesn't demand extraordinary conditions; rather, it encompasses all aspects of life, with inner subjective transformation serving as the method of the journey.

This path doesn't mandate altering external circumstances; instead, it catalyzes their transformation. However, it does require continuous inner effort, heightened awareness, reshaping of consciousness, and unwavering self-discipline of both spirit and body. Though followers of the Solar Way may seem solitary outwardly, they are deeply connected to the Source and their spiritual siblings within their hearts, where all distinctions dissolve. This path holds paramount significance for the sisters and brothers of the Solar Way dispersed across space. Isn't it heartening to exchange greetings through this journal, which fosters the Solar synthesis of paths, guided by the editors' synthetic consciousness?