Orders, Occult/Mystery Schools, Magicians and Adepts
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Today,
due to the availability of the world's entire corpus of esoteric knowledge,
there are several syncretic schools of magic and metaphysics. The alchemist
and physician, the magus and priestess, wizard and sorceress are alive and
well and walking throughout society. The so-called “New Age”
movement is an extension of the occult schools. This began at the turn of
the 20th century, and the immense interest in Eastern philosophy as a system
of esoteric knowledge all its own became widely studied. All previous lexicons
from Egypt to Western Africa, Jerusalem to London, are used by the modern
shamanic adept. With the awareness of science and theories such as relativity,
evolution, and quantum dynamic theory, there has opened a deeper understanding
of magick.
Tibetan Buddhism's stance of developing humanity toward a higher evolution,
has pervaded the occult and esoteric traditions of the modern era. With
this more anthropological and scientific view of religion and mythic history,
the theory that the higher beings spoken of by the Mayans or Gnostic Christians,
or as mentioned in Genesis in the Bible which “created” or developed
us as humans from simians, were literal beings visiting from other planes
or other planets. The ancients also held similar beliefs and the esoteric
tradition of the modern age is very much a reconnection with the view of
the ancient Nazarite Hebrews, Egyptians, and Africans of old. In many languages
such as in Hopi dialect or in the speech of the Dogon of Africa, gods, respectively
“kachinas” and “nromo” mean “those from the
sky.” There is a saying my teacher told me which goes, "the perfect
advancement of technology—exactly the same results as highest magick."
By researching the many overlapping traditions we find a pattern that the
gods visit us every Annus Magnus or Great Sidereal Year, a complete rotation
of the entire zodiacal wheel every 26,000 years. (These periods are called
“yugas” in Eastern Indian philosophies). Called Elohim in Hebrew
or Taut'ait, Urusha, or simply Neteru in Egyptian, these light beings could
change into various forms and appear human, although composed of light.
They are called “star people,” “hidden chiefs,”
and gods throughout the literature of Egypt, as in the Pyramid Texts and
the Books of Hru. One of the teachings of the Egyptian mystery schools that
have survived is that the gods visit us from their abodes in the stars in
a very literal way, engendering partially divine traits in hundreds of genetic
lines as well as depositing the esoteric information needed to awaken such
potential in ourselves each time they visit. Those who have remained behind
choosing flesh and a long, but not immortal, life have been given many names
in various traditions as well, such as Kabiri, Annunaki, and Nefilim, the
“fallen angels.”
Those who do not choose flesh, but return to their light habitation, remaining
as gods, plant a communal evolutionary imperative in the minds of mankind,
suitable to that cosmic cycle, until their return. This visiting earth for
a few thousand years, then returning to the stars, is the Equinox of the
Gods, when the old ruler-ship of powers overseeing our part of the universe
are replaced or augmented by the new divine leaders amongst the gods. This
occurs on a literal level and on an on-going astral and quantum level; as
with the enlightened bodies of an omniscient Buddha, an example of man raised
to a god. The Elohim exist simultaneously on a physical emanative plane;
an astral visionary plane; a quantum plane of absolute truth, within the
plane of Universal Mind's communal consciousness, which all beings share
and perceive to varying degree. Finally, as a supreme individual deity that
gathers other like consciousnesses to itself, merging in congrex as a unified
nebula or cluster of deified mind, the mandala or divine eschatonic ship
is created and maintained. With Each and every cycle of their returning,
those who have ascended have given us all the tools we need to become gods
ourselves. The information for transfiguration is right there in all traditions
of the globe, encoded within us.
Here we will mention the grades and empowerments of the Golden Dawn and
what an adept at each level should know as a suggestion of the development
of the modern adept from the normal plane of human perception to that of
a Magus, with the knowledge and vision of a god. This section contains some
of the modern views of the old gods as well as new movements which have
enriched the meaning of wizard and adept. Actual wizards through history
are also to be found in this lexicon, those who have contributed to the
Great Work over the ages up until this very day. Some people think that
perhaps the Great White Brotherhood is a leftover of the Illuminati, (www.greylodge.org)
who supposedly were (or are) so masterful over time and space on the Earth
plane that they control humans more than anyone knows through magic that
they were privy to in very private circles. This is pure speculation, however,
and has not been proven or evidenced in any way.
The Golden Dawn, Order of Rosicrucians and Astrum Argentum provide a comprehensive
model to the ranks and attainments of Adepts, which can be used as a developmental
map of progress as one develops Adept-ship while progressing upon the spiritual
path. The A:.A:. (Astrum Argentum) is an operating mystical society with
a large world wide membership; it is often seen as the pinnacle of the western
occult path and the Order of Melchizedek. There is rigorous testing at each
level and grades by a student’s personal teacher, always a mentor
that is at least in the next highest grade. The entire hierarchical system
remaining the same as in ancient Egypt, those in the highest grades were
considered divine, transcendent beings among gods and humans who have attained
the supreme realizations.
The Order was "re-begun" in its modern dispensation in the early
20th century by Master Therion, aka Aleister Crowley, after receiving Liber
vel al Legis in Cairo, 1903. This was Crowley's version of the Golden Dawn,
extending their teachings into ranks and grades of spiritual realization
inaccessible in the G:.D: (Golden Dawn). as it was conceived in those days.
The arrangement of schools of the Great Brotherhood of Melchizedek, A:.A:.,
thus became the Order of the G.D. as the outer school, the Order of the
R.C. (Rosicrucians) as the middle school, and the Order of the S.S.(Silver
Star) as the highest and innermost school. All the grades and ranks of the
Adept, relational to the level of consciousness awareness of the Adept,
are arranged very neatly upon the Tree of Life: each 10 Sephiroth and attendant
angelic beings and realizations are attained for each of the 10 Grades.
Upon the Tree of Life, the grades of the Magus are shown in the following
way:
The G.D. contains the ranks of Student, Probationer 0 = 0, Neophyte 1 =
10, Zelator 2 = 9, Practicus 3 = 8, Philosophous 4 = 7, and Adeptus Minor
5 = 6. What is expected to be learned for each of the grades is relational
to the student's ability and consciousness. After the rank of Probationer
0 = 0, which isn't even yet initiated to perceive the Tree of Life and the
most basic of the outer mystical teachings, the work is about rising through
the grades, surpassing logical or intellectual work as personal and spiritual
transfiguration is stressed. The R.C. contains the ranks of the Adeptus
Minor 5 = 6, Adeptus Major 6 =5, and Adeptus Exemptus 7 = 4; and the S.S.
contains the ranks of Magister Templi 8 = 3, Magus 9 =2, and Ipsissimus
10 = 1. This is the order of the paths and stages of the A:.A:.