Posted on by Kyle Roques

Intrinsic Morality

In his book “How the Mind Works”, Steven Pinker uses the computational theory of mind to explain how the mind works, which states that the mind operates like a computer. This coupled with Darwinian thought explains how we developed an intrinsic morality. It appears that Jung also agrees morality is intrinsic to us humans, not requiring some religous doctrine for morality.

It should never be forgotten that morality was not brought down on tablets of stone from Sinai and imposed upon the people, but is a function of the human soul, as old as humanity itself. Morality is not imposed from the outside; we have it in ourselves from the start – not the law, but our moral nature without which the collective life of human society would be impossible. This is why morality is found at all levels of society. It is the instinctive regulator of action which also governs the collective life of the herd.

Carl Jung
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Two Essays on Analytical Psychology

Using the Tarot is a way of communicating with the unconscious. The more one learns about the psyche and unconscious, the better tuned his/her intuition will be, and will have a more complete understanding / interpretation of the Tarot.

The main reason I am reading this book is for the second essay “The Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious”. This essay is about the danger of what Jung calls ego inflation. This at times is a consequence after someone has a revelatory experience. “Ego inflation” is to erase the relationship / the boundary between the specific consciousness of the ego and the more generalized consciousness as such, which is a dangerous thing to do, something I feel I currently need help with. So this is a document that tells you how to avoid that if one is playing in these realms.

Posted on by Kyle Roques

Social Degradation

Written in 1951 but is painfully more relevant now. Paragraph 2 perfectly describes social media. Goes to show no matter what tools we have available to us, we humans constantly make the same mistakes.

With conflict the dominant keynote in modern human relationships, the peacemaker is given slight consideration. He may be branded politically as a pacifist or accused of cowardice. We have long held that it is proper to maintain belligerently and aggressively both our principles and our opinions. Failure to do so is diagnosed as a deficiency of character. In spite of this, however, the long memory of the world still honors the men of peace and those kindly sages who courageously lived and died in defense of the right to be kind.

Living as we do in a social system becoming more intense and confused everyday, we are constantly tempted to become involved in the conflicts of those around us. We are expected to take sides, to defend and offend, to argue and debate, and most of all to appear appropriately disturbed. It is a social error to be composed when others are exhausting their resources in pointless agitation. To such contestants, the peacemaker is not blessed, for he reveals a measure of self-control, which is itself disquieting to the uncontrolled.

Peacemaking is not a profession; it is an instinct, and only succeeds when it is sustained by other gentle and kindly traits of character. When calmness pervades the atmosphere, radiating from a relaxed, well poised person, it is a force to be reckoned with, but when it is demanded or required by some moralizer who knows not whereof he speaks, it has no calming influence.

Manly P. Hall
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Indivisible Truth

The miracle is not accomplished by the direct search for health, but by the experience of the inflow of the presence of God. We ask not that our aches and pain shall be taken from us, but that in our hearts we shall know that faith by which all perfect works are possible. There are many weaknesses, but only one strength. There are countless infirmities, but the fact of health is indivisible from the fact of Truth. We cannot accomplish the lesser except through the greater. If we nurtured the root of the tree, we will have many flowers and fruits, but if we attempt to perfect one of the fruits the tree may perish. The cause of health is identical with the cause of peace and security and one cannot be obtained without the other.

Manly P. Hall
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Immaculate Conception

The mystic instinctively recognizes that two mysteries are mingled together in the Christian story. The process of interpretation have confused the patterns, but internally we have certain faculties of discrimination which refuse to accept the confusion. Our spiritual need requires the two fold realization, and this need cannot be denied. There is Jesus, the son of man, and Christ the son of God. We accept the fact that Jesus was Christened, but not that Jesus was Christ. As the folk hero, Jesus is humanity, considered individually or collectively. Christ is the redemptive power of God, the Supreme Being manifesting through and upon the human creation. Christ is the son of heaven, and Jesus the son of earth.

The life of Jesus, like the Mystery rituals of the ancient temples, describes “the perilous journey.” Jesus personifies the eternal neophyte seeking admission at the gates of the spiritual universe.

…the Christian mystic meditates upon Jesus as the mystical personification of his own higher nature. In this sense, Jesus was immaculately conceived. He was born of the virgin – the power of the soul – and he came as the fulfilment of the divine promise.

Manly P. Hall

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Mystic Illumination

Mysticism escapes from the illusion of history. It frees the mind from its most natural inclination, which is to approach events from the outside. The mind seeks to possess facts by accumulating them and storing them away for future reference. Having arranged them chronologically in the filing system of memory, it considers itself to be well-informed. The heart has no time for such classification. It bridges intervals of time and quality by an instinctive appraisal of values. Mysticism in this way accepts history only as a dated record recording eternal verities. The records of nations are long accounts of hates, fears, hopes, dreams, and intense allegiances. All the manifestations of human instincts may be divided and arranged chronologically, the instincts themselves are not susceptible to such organization. Scriptural writings are important because they re state ever-present emergencies. The heart accepts the lesson, but rejects the historical framework. It gathers all doctrines into an eternal now and experiences them as an immediate impact. In this way the old becomes immanent and can be experienced and thereby known in the spirit rather than in the letter

Manly P. Hall
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The Mystical Christ

I have been yearning to read a Manly P. Hall book, this is one I have on my shelf that I have yet to read. 

Mysticism is not a sect or a creed; it is a conviction, deriving its authority from the natural instincts of the human heart. The desire to know intensifies the rational faculties of the mind and the intuitive powers of the soul.

….

Mysticism teaches the immanent availability of the divine power. It transforms, by process of interpretation, all doctrines from codes into qualities of conviction. The religious story is accepted, not historically, but as an eternal fact of consciousness.

….

The Mystic does not renounce knowledge; he does not deny the wonderful accomplishments in all fields of learning. To him, all these achievements become better roads and paths. Because his understanding is deeper, his appreciation is more enlightened. Thus we say that mysticism is not a science or an art, but ensoulment of sciences and art. It ends by a conscious consecration of all things known and all things knowable to the service of the Great Cause, which is the source of the known and the unknown.

Manly P. Hall
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The Occultist Bible

Intended more as a reference book but I’m going to chip away at the majority of it. An almost 1000 pg. book, priceless for a student of the occult. This is essentially the occultist Bible.

Agrippa drew on the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Arabic and Jewish writers who had gone before him. The Occult Philosophy is the most complete repository of Pagan and Neoplatonic magic ever compiled. The countless references to magic in, and exhausted quotations from, classical literature lead the careful reader through the ancient world of the occult and provide the basis for what amounts to a doctoral degree in classical occultism. This book is the source, and represents the crossroads between ancient and modern worlds of magic.

Donald Tyson