Real vs. Psychology
As mentioned in my earlier entry today I am planning on doing some elemental Earth/planetary Jupiter magick to assist Vanilla with her job hunt. I have set aside Liber ABA for a few weeks so I could finish Mather's translation of The Key Of Solomon The King and Sacred Word and Sacred Text, but I brought out the Big Blue Brick to help with the research. Finding Crowley much more useful for theory rather than practical magick I have also with me on the couch Regardie's Garden of Pomegranates and Golden Dawn the the tried and true Ritual Magic Manual by David J Griffin.
One of the recurring themes I see with many of the occult authors since Crowley is an attempt to rationalize the "Gods" as well as denizens of the Enochian and Goetian planes as parts of the human conscious (former) and unconscious (latter). I appreciate the importance of the study of psychology, and I also appreciate the contributions of authors who write from this perspective, I have many works by DuQuette and Regardie, but this conclusion seems oversimplified. It is pure hubris to accept that a soft science as new as psychology can explain away the experiences of occultists and mystics however they are documented. I am a complete neophyte, former skeptic and materialistic objectivist and I would never accept this psychological explanation for some of the physical manifestation I have been present for.
If I am to accept that I am a godlike being, then can I not also accept that other godlike beings exist in manifestations that are beyond easy explanation? If I am limited in my ability to extend my influence by my own ignorance could that not also be said of other entities on other planes? Freud and Jung had some great ideas but I will not extend all the powers of godhead merely to the dark corners of my unconscious. My own limited practice seems to indicate to me that authors who write strictly from this point of view miss a large component of the tradition. Going so far as to state that the early Qabalists were possessed of the "secret knowledge of psychology" (oh boy!) is as ostentatious as stating you part of an unbroken lineage of adepts stretching back before the Golden Dawn. I don't buy it and I don't know why so many people do.
One of the recurring themes I see with many of the occult authors since Crowley is an attempt to rationalize the "Gods" as well as denizens of the Enochian and Goetian planes as parts of the human conscious (former) and unconscious (latter). I appreciate the importance of the study of psychology, and I also appreciate the contributions of authors who write from this perspective, I have many works by DuQuette and Regardie, but this conclusion seems oversimplified. It is pure hubris to accept that a soft science as new as psychology can explain away the experiences of occultists and mystics however they are documented. I am a complete neophyte, former skeptic and materialistic objectivist and I would never accept this psychological explanation for some of the physical manifestation I have been present for.
If I am to accept that I am a godlike being, then can I not also accept that other godlike beings exist in manifestations that are beyond easy explanation? If I am limited in my ability to extend my influence by my own ignorance could that not also be said of other entities on other planes? Freud and Jung had some great ideas but I will not extend all the powers of godhead merely to the dark corners of my unconscious. My own limited practice seems to indicate to me that authors who write strictly from this point of view miss a large component of the tradition. Going so far as to state that the early Qabalists were possessed of the "secret knowledge of psychology" (oh boy!) is as ostentatious as stating you part of an unbroken lineage of adepts stretching back before the Golden Dawn. I don't buy it and I don't know why so many people do.