The Law of Attraction and Its Roots in Black Magic
The Secret is a best-selling 2006 self-help book by Rhonda Byrne, based on the earlier film of the same name. It is based on the belief of the law of attraction, which claims that thoughts can change a person's life directly. The book is influenced by Wallace Wattles' 1910 book The Science of Getting Rich, which Byrne received from her daughter during a time of personal trauma in 2004.
US TV host Oprah Winfrey is a proponent of the book. On The Larry King Show she said that the message of The Secret is the message she's been trying to share with the world on her show for the past 21 years. Rhonda Byrne was later invited to her show along with people who vow by The Secret. It you look at the Watkins’ spiritual 100 list for 2019 (a list of the 100 most spiritually influential living people – spiritual teachers, activists, authors and thinkers that change the world) - you will discover that Oprah Winfrey in 2019 is listed as number 2 after the pope, Eckhart Tolle is number 4 after Dalai Lama, and Rhonda Byrne is number 6 after Desmond Tutu. If you take Watkins criteria for making this list (the person is frequently googled, appears in Nielsen Data, has a Wikipedia page, and is actively talked about throughout the Internet), I believe you have a very reliable source. This doesn´t have to mean something positive though. Rhonda Byrne, for example, re-introduces a notion originally popularized by persons such as Madame Blavatsky and Norman Vincent Peale (whose teachings also Donald Trump practices – see links below) that thinking about certain things will make them appear in one's life. Byrne provides examples of historical persons who have allegedly achieved this. Byrne cites a three-step process: ask, believe, and receive. The central concept in The Secret is “The Law of Attraction;” that is, if you think in compliance with this law, then you can attract a successful life fit for you. This is because, as the book says, your thoughts directly create the world, including the physical world. This means that she (probably without knowing it herself) bases her beliefs on the controversial philosophical theory called subjective idealism. Everything that happens to you, whether negative or positive, is, in other words, due to your own negative or positive thoughts. You, therefore, have to exchange these negative thoughts with more positive thoughts. Here, the book, apparently, in compliance with the wisdom traditions, mentions a concept such as love. But it is important to understand what precisely it is the book understands by love. It namely urges readers to rid themselves of illness through “harmonious thoughts,” to attract love by loving themselves. Love is about loving yourself. This is a typical American idea, and, in fact, rooted in a psychological theory only meant to be used in certain clinical situations. As with many other psychological theories, this has become extrapolated to a philosophical worldview, with all the catastrophic consequences such a reductionism involves. The "Me" generation in the United States is a term referring to the baby boomers generation and the self-involved qualities that some people associate with it. The 1970s were dubbed the "Me decade" by writer Tom Wolfe. Christopher Lasch was another writer who commented on the rise of a culture of narcissism among the younger generation of that era. The phrase caught on with the general public, at a time when "self-realization" and "self-fulfillment" were becoming cultural aspirations to which young people supposedly ascribed higher importance than social responsibility. The 1970s have been described as a transitional era when the self-help of the 1960s became self-gratification, and eventually devolved into the selfishness of the 1980s. Health and exercise fads, New Age spirituality such as Scientology and hot tub parties, self-help programs such as EST (Erhard Seminars Training), and the growth of the self-help book industry became identified with the baby boomers during 1970s. Human potential, emotional honesty, "finding yourself', and new therapies became hallmarks of the culture. The marketing of lifestyle products, eagerly consumed by baby boomers with disposable income during the 1970s, became an inescapable part of the culture. Revlon's marketing staff did research into young women's cultural values during the 1970s, and the research revealed that young women were striving to compete with men in the workplace and to express themselves as independent individuals. And central in this environment is the concept of self-love. Self-love is defined as "love of self" or "regard for one's own happiness or advantage", and it has both been conceptualized as a basic human necessity and as a moral flaw, akin to vanity and selfishness, synonymous with amour propre, conceit, conceitedness, egotism, et al. However, throughout the centuries self-love has adopted a more positive connotation through pride parades, Self Respect Movement, self-love protests, the Hippie era, the new age feminist movement as well as the increase in mental health awareness that promotes self-love as intrinsic to self-help and support groups working to prevent substance abuse and suicide. It was studied by the psychologist Erich Fromm, who studied emotional human behaviour, such as self-esteem and self-worth. In 1956 Fromm proposed that loving oneself is different from being arrogant, conceited or egocentric, meaning that instead caring about oneself and taking responsibility for oneself. Fromm proposed a re-evaluation of self-love in more positive sense, arguing that in order to be able to truly love another person, a person first needs to love oneself in the way of respecting oneself and knowing oneself (e.g. being realistic and honest about one's strengths and weaknesses). Erik H. Erikson similarly wrote of a post-narcissistic appreciation of the value of the ego, while Carl Rogers saw one result of successful therapy as the regaining of a quiet sense of pleasure in being one's own self. Lack of self-love increases risk of suicide according to the American Association of Suicidology. The association conducted a study in 2008 which researched the impact of low self-esteem and lack of self-love and its relation to suicidal tendencies and attempts. They defined self-love as being "beliefs about oneself (self-based self-esteem) and beliefs about how other people regard oneself (other-based self-esteem)". It concluded that "depression, hopelessness, and low self-esteem are implications of vulnerability factors for suicide ideation" and that "these findings suggest that even in the context of depression and hopelessness, low self-esteem may add to the risk for suicide ideation". Such psychological reductionisms (self-love extrapolated to a philosophy of life) are a central part of the collective ego-inflation we are witnessing right now. This doesn´t mean that I´m against using the word self-esteem in concrete clinical situations. So, positive thinking is about adding love to your own needs, feelings, wishes, yes, even to your dark sides; that is, see everything in yourself not as something negative but as something positive. It has nothing to do with the spiritual concept of love, where you feel compassion for other people and through this compassion receive the good. The spiritual concept of love is turned upside down: you receive the “good” by loving yourself, by seeing everything in yourself as something positive and therefore good. I have referred to this demonical turn as the 666-aspect of the Matrix Conspiracy. The idea behind the Law of Attraction is the most obvious example of the use of black magic (satanism) within the Matrix Conspiracy. Let me explain. Modern occult knowledge has its origin in Western Esotericism. With The Age of Enlightenment we witnessed a process of increasing secularisation of European governments and an embrace of modern science and rationality within intellectual circles. In turn, a "modernist occult" movement emerged that reflected varied ways in which esoteric thinkers came to terms with these developments. This has especially resulted in the embracement of psychology as the explanation of everything. Emergent occult and esoteric systems found increasing popularity in the early 20th century, especially in Western Europe. Occult lodges and secret societies flowered among European intellectuals of this era who had largely abandoned traditional forms of Christianity. The spreading of secret teachings and magic practices found enthusiastic adherents in the chaos of Germany during the interwar years. Notable writers such as Guido von List spread neo-pagan, nationalist ideas, based on Wotanism and the Kabbalah. Many influential and wealthy Germans were drawn to secret societies such as the Thule Society. Thule Society activist Karl Harrer was one of the founders of the German Workers' Party, which later became the Nazi Party; some Nazi Party members like Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Hess were listed as "guests" of the Thule Society, as was Adolf Hitler's mentor Dietrich Eckart. It is clear that these tendencies have their influence on the obvious fascistic element in the Matrix Conspiracy (see my article The Matrix Conspiracy Fascism). All this forms a central background for Jung´s psychology. Jung simply reduces Plato´s objective idealism (the objective world of archetypes) to subjective idealism (the subjective world of archetypes). The whole metaphysical world is now planted within the human psyche, a move which opens the path into ego-inflations of solipsistic dimensions (the problem of the external world is now immense – also note that traditional spiritual practice moves the other way). Jung does this through some intermediary sources, as for example the metaphysical Lebensphilosophia from the romantic era (irrationalism), neo-paganism, theosophy, social Darwinism, occultism, Richard Wagner worship, and Nietzsche´s theory about the superhuman, who shall replace God. It is no surprise that inflation is such a central theme in Jung. We can see this in the English scholar, Peter Kingsley´s work about Jung called Catafalque - Carl Jung and the End of Humanity. (see my article, Peter Kingsley – Another Story Waiting to Pierce You (a critique)). Jung´s, and therefore Kingsley´s, view, is that psychology has to replace religion. Read about this on page 277-279. On these pages it is also stated that wisdom, and therefore philosophy, needs to be replaced by psychology. Herewith we have the explanation of why New Age today reduces everything to psychology. It is clear that with reductionisms such as psychologism and historicism, universal truth is reduced to subjectivism and relativism. Therewith the foundation for the perennial philosophy is removed. In other words: we have to go to Germany in order to find the roots of the counterculture movement in USA, and therefore for New Age. It is known as Lebensreform. In the 1960s and 1970s, esotericism came to be increasingly associated with the growing counter-culture in the West, whose adherents understood themselves in participating in a spiritual revolution that would mark the Age of Aquarius. By the 1980s, these currents of millenarian currents had come to be widely known as the New Age movement, and it became increasingly commercialized as business entrepreneurs exploited a growth in the spiritual market. Other trends which emerged in western occultism in the later 20th century were satanism as exposed by groups such as the Church of Satan and Temple of Set, as well as chaos magic through the Illuminates of Thanateros group. Here we see the direct demonic influence in the rise of psychologism (and more broadly: scientism). Falcon Press is a publisher who publishes a lot of stuff related to chaos magic. In the book, Rebels and Devils – The Psychology of Liberation (edited by Christopher S. Hyatt), you can find a series of articles which give a good overview of Chaos Magic. The backcover text says: Rebels & Devils brings together some of the most talented, controversial and rebellious people of our time. Many, such as Timothy Leary, William S. Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, Osho and Aleister Crowley are world-famous. Other contributors, such as S. Jason Black, Joseph Matheny and Peter J. Carroll, though highly accomplished in their own fields, are not as well-known. Still others are lesser-known--for now. But, every contributor, in every article, in every aspect of their lives, has had but one focus: to bring freedom to their world. In all of human history, the essence of the independent mind has been the need to think and act according to standards from within, not without: To follow one's own path, not that of the crowd. Inevitably, it follows that anyone with an independent mind must become "one who resists or opposes an authority or established convention": a rebel. Usually rebellion is done so quietly that no one notices. But, when others--especially others with power--recognize an individual's 'disobedience,' the rebel becomes the REBEL. And, if enough people come to agree with--and follow--the REBEL, then he becomes a DEVIL. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, there is...GREATNESS. This is typical rhetoric of a group of people repeating the same doctrines. It reminds about the well-known scene from Monty Python´s Life of Brian; in an attempt to dissuade a horde of would-be disciples, Brian argues: Look…you´ve got it all wrong. You don´t need to follow me. You don´t need to follow anybody. You´ve got to think for yourselves. You´re all individuals. You could say that the Pythons are revolving around one central thought distortion, namely Truth by Authority. Truth by Authority is about taking statements to be true simply because an alleged authority (experts, teachers, states of enlightenment, divine sources, paranormal abilities, etc.) on the matter has said/justified that they are true. Rebels & Devils is a celebration of such acclaimed “authorities”, and the lesser-known disciples are constantly repeating them. It is contradicting its own premise in almost every sentence. A level of critical thinking is always appropriate, because the statement may be based on different kinds of other thought distortions. The dangers of blind obedience to authority (remember: the book is claiming, “until still more agree”) are illustrated in the scene when Brian unintentionally gains a collection of followers. He tries to convince them that he is not the Messiah, but they do not listen. “Only the true Messiah denies his divinity,” a woman explains, typifying the way that the crowd reinterprets everything he says to support the conclusion they want to hear. This response reaches its peak when, in frustration, Brian says, “All right, I am the Messiah.” The crowd is relieved. “Now fuck off!” says Brian. The crowd is quiet. Finally, one man asks, “How shall we fuck off, O Lord?” Their desperate desire to have rules to follow prevents them from critically accessing the commands they receive. Later Brian highlights this point in the above-mentioned scene where his followers have grown tremendously in numbers. After accidentally exposing himself (in one of the best uses of male full-frontal nudity in film history), Brian tells the crowd: “You´ve got to think for yourselves! You´re all individuals!” The crowd replies, reverently, “Yes, we´re all individuals!” They simply don´t get it. This is reduced even further to absurdity when a man in the crowd says: “I´m not…” And the crowd answers: “Shhh!” So, people don´t understand the idea of thinking for yourself neither. And nor do chaos magicians. The editor himself, Christopher Hyatt, is very conscious about that his name always should be followed by the title Ph.D. A great number of the participators in the book are psychologists, and they all support psychotherapy as a spiritual practice. They all constantly refer to science (especially psychology) and support all kinds of pseudoscientific nonsense. They claim that it is rebellious stuff, but the fact is that it is a repetition of what everybody else today also claims. It is a repetition of the postmodern teachings on universities, and New Age/coaching in popular culture. It is a repetition of the swarms of neoliberal management theorists. It just doesn´t hide it´s roots in, if not satanism, then in what you could call: The Black Arts. We shall see below that it is a central part of the one of the world´s most popular spiritual practice: the law of attraction (which is based in the New Thought movement). In the article, Undoing Yourself with Chaos Magic, Robert F. Williams, Jr., advices us to look at things from a divergent point of view, and explains the concept of “self-directed change.” He writes: “Belief is a technique” is one of the basic tenants of Chaos Magic and we can use any belief system that appeals to us. The point is that this new-found belief has to be established as (a temporary) reality and it has to be believed in as fully as possible while it is being used. Basically we pretend that something is true until it works. Belief can be used to trick the Subconscious or Unconscious [note that he is writing Subconscious and Unconscious with capital letters] into accepting that something is real, then the Subconscious, which has almost unlimited power, goes about bringing this condition into reality. While we are using a belief it is important to do everything possible to trick the Unconscious and convince it that your belief is a reality. One of the ways this can be done is to act the part, dress the part, talk and live the part of the belief that is being used. Basically “act as if” until the belief becomes a reality. It is far easier to act your way into changed thinking than it is to think your way into changed action. If you dress someone up as a soldier, make them march around like a soldier, have them carry a rifle and bark martial orders at them, they will soon believe that they are a soldier and thus become a soldier. Military leaders have known this for centuries (page 194). "Fake it till you make it" is an English aphorism which suggests that by imitating confidence, competence, and an optimistic mindset, a person can realize those qualities in their real life. It echoes the underlying principles of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a means to enable a change in one's behavior. Or in other words: faith in one's self helps one's self improve. In the 1920s, Alfred Adler developed a therapeutic technique that he called "acting as if" (So, Chaos Magicians have read Alfred Adler. What´s the rebellious in that?) This strategy gave his clients an opportunity to practice alternatives to dysfunctional behaviors. Adler's method is still used today and is often described as "role play". Once again, we have a psychological theory, that is being extrapolated to a philosophy of life. This is a reductionism, a perversion of human nature. In the Law of Attraction movement, "act as if you already have it", or simply "act as if", is a central concept. Law of Attraction and chaos magic (black magic) is therefore two sides of the same coin. In her book, The Secret, Rhonda Byrne writes (notice the similarities with the above-mentioned description of chaos magic): How do you get yourself to a point of believing? Start make-believing. Be like a child, and make-believe. Act as if you have it already. As you make-believe, you will begin to believe you have received. Another New Thought worshipper, Marianne Williamson, is also supporting the Fake It Till You Make It mantra. In The Gift of Change, she writes: We vastly underestimate the ability of our subconscious mind to support us in creating change. “Fake it till you make it” is often a good advice. When little girls play “house” or little boys play Spiderman, they are following a subconscious strategy of personality development, using their imaginations to prepare for new realms of being. And we need never stop doing this, unless we choose to (page 39). The similarities with chaos magic are so striking, that there can be no doubt that both Rhonda Byrne, and Marianne Williamson, are inspired by the modern, dark occultism. In The Gift of Change, Williamson writes (in a section called Angels and Demons): During the wee hours of the morning, both angels and demons take shape…In those hours that I´ve lain so inconveniently awake, I think I´ve begun to know what awakened means. Noting the witching hour – 4:15 – at which I awake more often than not, stealing outside to look at the stars and marvel at the moon. I return again to my ancient self. In those hours, I am not a menopausal nutcase, I´m a magical witch, and I can feel it in my bones (page 243-244). The demonical influence in the New Thought movement is best seen in the New Thought testament A Course in Miracles (which Williamson is lecturing in). I will briefly explain it here, and thereby also explain why it is black magic. In a spiritual practice, it is important to know the difference between the selfish use of energy and unselfish use of energy. You can also term this: “demonical use of energy” and “spiritual use of energy” or, “black and white magic”. These two ways of using spiritual energy is a central concept throughout my whole work. I have called the demonical use of energy: The Faust Syndrome (see my newest article on this concept: The Faust Syndrome and the End of the Time of Enlightened Masters). The ego-religion and ego-exercises are the ego´s incessant confirmation or denial of itself: “I am useless!” or “Wonderful me!” Both the denial and the confirmation of the ego maintain the ego-process, ego-identity, and ego-centralization. The ego´s religion and exercises are the ego´s needs, longings, and will: “I want, I think, I believe, I feel, I wish, I hope, I think, I believe, I feel, I wish,” or, in its most common core: “I, I, I...Me, Me, Me...” It should now be easy to see that the “positive psychology” of the New Thought movement and the Law of Attraction are based on the ego-religion and the ego-exercises, which are about moving the focus away from the denial of the ego (the negative, evil) and encouraging the confirmation of the ego, which is considered to be positive and in compliance with the divine universal laws. In the Danish New Age magazine Nyt Aspekt (New Aspect, January-March 2012), there is an article called “Super Thoughts” by the Health Coach Anni Simonsen. After having stated that “New research has shown...” that “everything is subjective” and “Fantasy = reality,” she claims that you can think yourself healthy by standing in front of a mirror and repeating: “You are so beautiful!”, “I love you!” She states that it is about giving yourself positive confirmations to acknowledge, praise, and love yourself as unconditionally as possible. Thereafter, she states that critical thinking belongs to the denial side of the ego, wherefore you, of course, should avoid such kind of negative thinking. The Law of Attraction cannot admit doubt or skepticism. If one begins to doubt the power or even to harbor critical (= negative) thoughts about it, one is assuredly on the road to ruin. Simonsen concludes that giving yourself positive confirmations is synonymous with healthy thoughts and that such thoughts are good thoughts, light thoughts, super thoughts. I don´t know which research shows this. Maybe the movie The Secret? The Secret says that “It has been proven scientifically now that an affirmative thought is hundreds of times more powerful than a negative thought.” But again: Proven by which scientists? And written up where? Because I couldn´t find it. These are extraordinary claims that surely require extraordinary evidence, which The Secreteers do by using the word “science” over and over as if merely saying the word is the same as doing it – as if feeling good about science will attract more science into your life. Anyway, if you find it difficult, Anni Simonsen continues, you must copy other people and their works. Apparently, this New Age trend with copy and pasting other people´s work, was started with Helena Blavatsky. Various authors have questioned the authenticity of her writings, citing evidence that they are heavily plagiarized from older esoteric sources, pronouncing her claim of the existence of masters of wisdom to be utterly false, and accusing her of being a charlatan, a false medium, and a falsifier of letters (read more here). In NLP, the imitation of other people´s behavior and work, is directly made into an exercise. With Anni Simonsen´s advice of imitating other people, we can see that she is also a NLP coach and that New Thought is the source of inspiration for both the Law of Attraction and NLP. Interesting enough: another article in the above-mentioned book, Rebels & Devils, called, How to Graduate From Rebel to Devil (by Jack Wilde), is simply a course in NLP, just with some other concepts. A whole chapter in the book is called, Reprogramming the Self. And an article by Robert Anton Wilson is called: How Brain Software Programs Brain Hardware. Another article is by Timothy Leary. It is called: Twenty-Two Alternatives to Involuntary Death. This article is basically about transhumanism. So, also the world-spreading transhumanism, with Yuval Noah Harari as the new pet ideologist, is based on chaos magic (= black magic). In fact, you will meet black magic everywhere today: in schools, on further education, and on working-places (see links below in order to follow my frightening documentation). Anni Simonsen continues her exercise: “Let yourself be inspired by a person, whom you would want to be like, and use this model to create your own self-image. When this self-image is ready, it is time to add sound. Listen to your own voice. Find the sound that tells you that you speak to the world with confidence and trust. It is a voice people will listen to! Listen to how the whole world will answer with acknowledgement, respect, and love.” I am afraid I don´t agree that the whole world will love Anni Simonsen because she stands in front of a mirror, repeating to herself: “You are so beautiful!”, “I love you!” I think it sounds like the evil queen from the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I would, at any time, prefer Show White who loves others in a state of complete self-forgetfulness. Simonsen ends the article with a preconceived response to critique. “If you think that the image is not true but is only a fantasy, then remember that everything is subjective.” And now to my claim that such thoughts are an expression of black magic, a way of turning spirituality upside down. First of all: Subjectivism means that truth is only something you create yourself – there is no absolute or objective truth. This, of course, raises the Socratic question: from where does Anni Simonsen (and other New Thought thinkers) know that everything is subjective? She can´t know this if reality is only a fantasy you create yourself. Subjectivism is self-refuting. The self-refuting aspect is that subjectivism makes an exception of its own position. The very assertion of subjectivism is itself non-subjectivist. Besides this self-contradiction, the assertion of subjectivism is in opposition to spirituality, which, in its worship of a divine reality, of course, believes that truth is absolute and objective. The opposition is due to that religion, and therefore spirituality, being reduced to psychology, which leads to a reduction and distortion of the human being. Secondly: We have seen that the ordinary ego-consciousness functions by being identified with the physical world, with the instincts, sexuality, emotions, and collective ideals. The true spiritual practice works through these aspects by means of, for example, the core which exists in the basic monastic vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. These promises work by restructuring the ego´s ownership to things, food, and power; and they restructure one’s sexuality and emotions. Then the mystical process can begin and one’s so-called progressive karma (good karma) starts working. Again, now it should be easy to see how positive psychology and New Thought are doing the exact opposite. The ego is a demonical structure and it attracts demonical powers and energies which have also been created by the ego phenomenon. The same energy-process and function which realized spiritual teachers use can, therefore, be used for other purposes than spiritual. When the energy-processes of the astral plane´s collective history are used spiritually, the ego, in its egoistic isolating and self-affirmative function, steps aside and the energy is funneled into the now, and, therefore, towards the source and the spiritual dimension. The people around a spiritual teacher constitute an energy-mandala and are, in this way, made transparent to a higher common human spirituality. A less-realized person could be able to contact and manipulate such collective forms of astral energy, using them for other than spiritual purposes – creative, ego-affirming, political, demonical, and so on. The same powers which can be put by realized spiritual teachers at other’s disposal for healing, energy transmission, and spiritual information exchange, can be internalized by the ego-structures, and thus directed into the past and future, resulting in fragmentation (conflict). In this way, there can be opened creative channels or created super egos (super thoughts), political leaders and popular seducers. These phenomena are well known from history and literature. In the story of the temptation in the desert, we can see these possible ways of using the energy, presented in an anticipated form. Here, you see the possibility of using the freedom and power in order to elevate the ego and the ensuing power and material glory. But Jesus abstains from this deification of the ego. This phenomenon is also known from the Faust myth, as described by Goethe and Thomas Mann, for example. When you use the powers from the collective history of the astral plane in a selfish way, and with which demonical astral beings will help you (because the ego phenomenon is their magnet of attraction), you can create personal power and material glory. This is the essence of Black Magic and the background for the creation of the concept of the Law of Attraction (although the worshippers probably don´t realize this – I think they have perfectly good intentions. A lot of the many New Thought channelers are frauds or just disillusioned because they are completely controlled by subjective feelings, emotions, and intuitions. But some of them are caught up in the ego-inflation side of a spiritual crisis and are actually channeling entities from the collective time. The problem is that they don´t know who it is they are channeling. Demons can be very charming and manipulative. They will tell you what you want to hear; they will give you experiences and help you to gain prosperity and success. But you will eventually meet the compensatory karma, or Nemesis. In short, you cannot use these energies as you want to, that is, through thinking and, therefore, not through will, choices or feelings. The eternal circling around your own dreams, desires, success, etc., will, in other words, be counter-balanced through the opposite categories. As soon as your thoughts spread to an extreme, the energy-system compensates by seeking to bring itself back to the balance of the middle. The system does this by seeking the opposite extreme (for instance, from perfectionism to failure), that is, through counterbalancing, compensating. The energy works as a pendulum. The more energy is invested in an extreme of a pair of opposites, the larger the swing in the opposite direction will become. I will end this article with a concrete example on how the law of attraction is combined with black magic. The chaos magician, Christopher Hyatt, has written a frightening book called Pacts with the Devil. This is direct manual in the “Left-hand Path”, which is malicious black magic and black shamanism. The book describes the practice of so-called grimoires, instructions in how to invoke, or summon, demons. The book is illustrated with so-called sigils. A sigil is a type of symbol used in magic. The term has usually referred to a type of pictorial signature of an angel or demon. In modern usage, especially in the context of chaos magic, sigil refers to a symbolic representation of the magician's desired outcome. In medieval ceremonial magic, the term sigil was commonly used to refer to occult signs which represented various angels and demons which the magician might summon. The magical training books called grimoires often listed pages of such sigils. A particularly well-known list is in The Lesser Key of Solomon, in which the sigils of the 72 princes of the hierarchy of hell are given for the magician's use. The Sigils of the 72 Princes of Hell
Such sigils were considered to be the equivalent of the true name of the spirit and thus granted the magician a measure of control over the beings. The seals and demons were paired with those of the 72 angels of the Shem HaMephorash, which were intended to protect the conjurer and to control the demons he summoned (why summon them at all?).
A pact with the devil is most famously depicted in the Faust-myth. Hyatt obviously finds it amusing to play with especially demons, since he, in his psychologism, doesn´t believe in the objective existence of demons. He believes they are all mechanism in the psyche. But the ancient practices, he introduces, were created in the believe of the objective existence of demons. Any person practicing this, will therefore practice the ancient art, and manifest the consequences. In my concept of Lucifer Morningstar, I have, with inspiration from Karen Blixen, provocatively, talked about philosophy as The Left Hand of Darkness, versus New Thought´s Right Hand of Darkness. These depictions haven´t anything to do with the above-mentioned left-hand and right-hand paths. I did this in order to illustrate Lucifer´s paradoxically game. Shortly said: you must acknowledge his existence, and the need for knowing which hand to play when playing his game. Because we all play the game of Lucifer. The crucial message is that what we often consider as light (take New Thought´s focus on positive thinking), might often turn out to be the play of darkness. Take for example the blog, Manifesting Reality, where there is a post called: Sigil Magic and the Law of Attraction. At least in this post, there isn´t much explanation of sigils. The post just say that they are tools of magic, and that they should be seen as tools to program your unconscious (so, there we have it again: the unconscious as the new God). Below you can see the sigils shown in the post. The blogger would probably be all about that the sigils are tools for summoning angels, good spirits and light. But at the same time the blog is all about attracting money and success, and wasn´t that precisely what the devil tempted Jesus with in the desert? The Faust Syndrome in a nutshell. Well, I´ll leave it to the reader to find out what entities the below signs would summon. Before you begin your summoning (what 99 % of all people will), I will just pray that you are able to discriminate between good and evil. No name given
The Seal of Solomon
Related articles:
A Critique of the New Thought Movement and the Law of Attraction Donald Trump: A Master Practitioner of the New Trend in Psychology: Positive Thinking A Course in Miracles (ACIM) – a Critique The Devastating New Age Turn Within Psychotherapy The Conspiracy of the Third Eye The Four Philosophical Hindrances and Openings Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), and Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT) The Faust Syndrome and the End of the Time of Enlightened Masters Articles on Chaos Magic: Timothy Leary – a Psychedelic Shaman Playing a Fascistic Game Final Secret of the Illuminati (article on Robert Anton Wilson) A Critique of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) The Psychopath's Bible (a critical book review) (article on Christopher Hyatt´s chaos magic) A Critique of Coaching (I list this article under Hyatt´s book, simply because coaching is a directly off-spring of the same kind of American chaos magic. In an article in the book Selvrealisering (Self-realization - page 89ff) - the Danish psychologist, Nina Østby Sæther, claims that the ideal about the human being, which we see characterized in the self-help industry, in a remarkable way reminds about the actual behaviour of a psychopath. In this article on coaching, I let the resemblance step forward by comparing the characteristic psychopathic traits with the typical attitude to life, which is introduced by the management theorists and the coaching industry. Related Ebook: The Dark League Behind then 2020 Presidential Candidacy of Marianne Williamson Updates:
Fake it till you make it…One comes to think of the film The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tom Ripley is a young man struggling to make a living in 1950s New York City with his "talents": telling lies, forging signatures and impersonating people. He ends up as a psychopathic mass murderer. |
PDF version:
|