Jeff and the Archetypal Occult Order

This never made it into When a Tree Falls.  It did not really work with the plot... 


According to Plato's School:

In the time of the dreaming the One God, who was known as Jeff (for Nigel would be stupid name for a major deity), had an idea. According to Plato, normally Jeff's Ideas were to create tables, the duck-billed platypus, caves, or Belgium, but this time it was more important.

I created the universe as a perfect mirror of who I am, so that I can understand myself better, he reasoned. Therefore I shall create, within humanity, a method so people can be like me. The more people are like me, then the more they will understand and the more I shall understand.

And so it was, in the dreaming, that the path of Magic was born. And humans picked up this idea and became Mighty. But a small human with magic was a terrible thing. The Magic would take the small human inside and make it think it was a God and say “look, here are the powers to prove it”.

Jeff was perplexed for he had cocked up and he had not really learnt much at all.

This magical stuff is good, but it is not for everyone and it needs order so the right people are trained. And so Jeff created the Idea of an Order which was based on himself as the Chief and Adam and Eve. They had got so good at this Magic stuff that Adam had become adept at the active principle of the universe and Eve and adept of the passive. So it was that the Order began and ended with the Chief of all Adepts and then there were the second and third adepts.

And together they created rules and divisions so that humanity learnt magic in stages. There was the magic of hearthfire, where people learnt to control their own personalities. And these people became adepts of Matter. Masters of their bodies, homes and in some cases whole empires.

But those who succeeded were offered the chance to became magicians where they learnt to use magic. And finally there were those who after testing became the Magic and took up their place alongside Adam and Eve.

In each age of humanity, the Order flourished in different forms and on different levels. On earth these formed Mystery Schools, which rose and fell, and sometimes small magical groups meeting in secret.

They might not have always met the Idea and mirrored the True and Invisible Order completely, but the needs of each age were met.

But the world started to change. People began to forget the power of the Story and replaced ideas with scientific method. In the 17^th century,  Johann Valentin Andreae realised that this was happening and wrote what he knew about the Order in the form of a story, so that the information may not be lost.

And the scientists of the age saw the story of the Rosicrucians as a call to science, others a new religion, still others hoped to make money off it.

But the story survived and those who understood it started to make contact with the real Order and they created groups even within others.

And over hundreds of years it came to be that out of a hundred groups, one would be chosen to connect to the real Order. The closest a human group came to reflecting Jeff's idea the more likely they were to be accepted. On earth they could appear alike, but on the deeper levels they would reveal their True connections.

The hands of the three chiefs gave lineage both to individuals and groups, but the lineage was to the Idea rather than the form. The hands of Jeff could be on one small lodge meeting in an upper room as part of a huge group.

Yet there were those who considered the form of the story and did not think that the Idea created a deeper reality. So they looked for the Order on Earth when it was in heaven. In absence of lineage they created their own idols out of paper signed by dead humans. But the hand of Jeff did not live in paper but in the work. And those who looked at the Idea literally were lost. They looked for human masters to serve and when they could not find worthy candidates they dreamed that they were talking to Secret Chiefs.

But still the True Order continued training, testing and making its connections. Those who heard its voice knew that they were not speaking to invisible creatures, but a hidden reality.

Sometimes they even told stories of these voices, so that their followers could understand the idea. And some of their students got it, and others took them literally.

Humanity really is a funny thing, thought Jeff.

Bill of Rights for esoteric groups

Nick Farrell's ideas for the melting pot

1. A teacher is also a student, and the teacher and the student are members of an Order.

2. The Bill of Rights applies to all those who have signed it and also indicates their attitude to individuals, Orders and Groups who have not.

For the Student:

1. has the right and duty to ask questions and receive an answer which they can understand.
2. has the right to be respected.
3. is allowed to develop their individuality and not have that dictated to them by the Order or the teacher.
4. should not be exploited for any spiritual or material gain.
5. should not be prejudiced against on the basis of the sex, religion, race, sexual preference or political views.
6. should not be engaged in attacking, defaming, slandering another member of another spiritual group. Debates about teaching are acceptable but these must not become personal.
7. No student should be forced to do anything that is against their own moral code or the laws of the land.
8. A student will do all they can to support the order.
9. A student will always act in a fraternal way and assist their brothers and sisters to develop on the path of return.
10. No student will attempt to control another or use magic to harm another.
11. A student the right to leave a group if they wish without having to receive pressure to stay.
12. A student will work the system they have been given under instruction.

A teacher has

1. The right to be respected.
2. The right to refuse membership or grades to those who do not meet the order's requirements.
3. The right to have their version of the system followed.
4. The right to call for assistance and not have to do everything themselves.
5. The right to say that they do not know an answer to a question, but will find out.
6. The right to be mortal.
7. to follow their spiritual path and not stop for the sake of the Order

An order

1. Recognises the right of another Order to exist even if its views are the antithesis of its own.
2. Does attempt to get another Order to do its bidding or claim “seniority” over it.
3. Does not take legal action against another.
4. Does not recognise the grades of another or attempt to steal members from another group. (People may leave to join another, but they must not be actively head-hunted recognising grades is a way to make it easier to jump ship).
5. Does not market or advertise itself as being superior to another Order.
6. Does not publicly defame or humiliate another group or an individual knowing them to be a member of that group.
7. Is not a business designed to gain any economic power but is a spiritual organisation designed for the improvement of its members.
8. Does not attempt magical attacks on another group or individual.
9. Attempt to keep channels of communication open with other Orders.
10. Do not attempt to interfere with the internal workings of other Orders or create schisms in other groups.
11. If disputes arise between members of groups then this must be dealt with between group leaders perhaps under the assistance of a neutral third party.

10 Signs that an occult leader has lost the plot

Leaders of esoteric groups are in a difficult position trying to balance their own spiritual path with helping others. Sometimes it all proves too much and they go off the rails. However there are 10 basic signs that things are about to go pear shaped which followers should react to.

Mathers never went off the rails.  No way!

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1. They start thinking that they, and their group are actually important. Perhaps the most famous esoteric order in the world – the Golden Dawn – had a fewer than 130 members in its history. Whare Ra had much more than that, but significantly not much more. One of the largest Golden Dawn groups in the World is run by Chic Cicero. It has some 20 temples with, on average, 15 members each. All this adds up to being absolutely tiny in the scale of things. Even Wicca (which is huge) has group leaders which can only really claim control of about 24 people at most. In the scale of world such leaders claiming they, or their orders, are important, are worth listening to are fairly pathetic.
2. They start claiming that they are the re-incarnation of a famous occultist. This means psychologically they know that their personality is not up to scratch and they have to borrow someone else's. What is interesting is that often by nicking the personality of another they end up exhibiting some of that person's faults and life story.  A similar problem to this one is that they start claiming grades which put them above the riff-raff still further.  Often this is done under the authority of secret chiefs (who are never around to sign a certificate or answer questions from other people).  However it is harder to argue against a person who claims that they are a 10=1 because their Secret Chief gave them the grade in honour of their magical ability.
3. They take a lot of drugs or start drinking. This is a common problem it means that the person is seeking to escape the real world and live in one where they are seen as important.
4. They decide to pack in their day job and live off their students or their Order. This indicates that they are losing touch with material reality.
5. They start claiming authority from Secret Chiefs or Invisible beings. The only authority comes from God. All else is advice. Secret Chiefs, or contacts, do not tell people what to do. They provide information and guidance in terms of spiritual principles. Some chiefs claim that difficult or unpopular decisions come at the demand of Secret Chiefs or contact. They can say “It is not me that is refusing you this grade it is “Anubis””. The answer to that is “if Anubis told you to jump off the great pyramid would you do it?” The point here is that Secret Chiefs and Contacts are supposed to help you individualise and that sort of relationship is one of dependence.
6. They ask you to give you all their money or want to shag you or your partner to assist your spiritual path. Sometimes they will even change their order structure to make sure they get a shag. One OTO group had a habit of promoting young attractive women faster so that they could be used for sex magic by the chiefs sooner.
7. They start to become incredibly paranoid. This is a symptom of number one. As they start to inflate their importance they start to think that everyone is out to get them. Paranoia is a sign of a weak personality which is often over inflated. One person once accused me of doing black magic against them... this surprised me as I had never actually thought about them. In my universe they were not that important to be bothered with let alone do magic about. One thing that they will do is scan essays, articles and Internet posts desperate for proof that others are talking about them. They will see attacks that are not there and misquote and bend sentences so that they constitute an attack.
8. They feel the need to attack other orders, personalities and systems. It is a sign that they have nothing, that they will label and attack other groups. In occultism, those who can, do. Those who can't, attack others that can. Such types will not just attack those who are better magicians, but they will attack any group which they see as a threat. If they are dependent on the money from their Order, or the status it provides for their broken personalities, then they will often attack groups that are more commercially successful.
9. They lose any sense of humour.
10. They believe their own bullshit. Lots of occult leaders create stories about themselves or their orders. Paul Foster Case and Anne Davies were great at this. Davies once said that Master R manifested a statue of the Madonna on her bookshelf to cheer her up!  However such stories were always presented for the incredulous and it is unlikely that anyone ever believed them. However it is a sign that a leader really has lost the plot when they start to believe such stories, even in the face of evidence (such as they were in the wrong town when the story is alleged to have taken place).

If your esoteric group leader starts manifesting any of these symptoms you have to take them to one side and find out what is wrong. Most likely they will throw you out, but if they fail to listen you should leave. Trust in the universe that you will find new teachers. It is not that they are bad, it is just that they are going through some shit and need to sort it out. If they are not going to sort it out, you need to leave before things turn very ugly. Remember that they are only manifesting these problems because they are a bit broken. The reason they react badly is because they know you are right.