Can magickal ritual lead to enlightenment?
One of the pitfalls of occult technology is the failure to separate the wheat from the chaff. All too often ideals of the novice have circulated in pseudo-occult groups that pose as ancient wisdom. One subject that is often misunderstood is what place does magical ritual have in the lives of spiritualists seeking enlightenment. In order to answer this question, we must first understand what enlightenment is?
While the term enlightenment often brings up topics relating to a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition, our discussion will center on the use of the term in topics relating to spirituality. Interestingly, we find a particular history of the term enlightenment covered in a 2011 Huffington Post article entitled A Cultural History of the Word Enlightenment by Lewis Richmond. The article draws many parallels to the Art of Ninzuwu as seen by the following excerpts from Richmond’s observation:
“Though 19th century translators of Buddhist texts sometimes used the word “enlightenment” to refer to Gautama’s moment of spiritual awakening on seeing the morning star, the first time a large number of general English readers saw the word used as a spiritual term was with the publication Essays on Zen Buddhism First Series by D.T. Suzuki in the 1930s. Before that time the word referred to the 18th century rationalist movement in Europe that strove to understand the world using logic and reason.
D.T. Suzuki used the word “enlightenment” to translate the Japanese term satori¸ and his recounting of the enlightenment stories from the Zen koan literature made quite a splash among intellectual elites at the time. …
“Satori” is the Japanese reading of the Chinese character “wu,” which is in turn a Chinese translation of the Sanskrit “bodhi,” which does indeed mean spiritual insight or awakening.”
Nowhere in the history of the term enlightenment do we find it a requirement that one engages in a magical ritual. Often times, if the spiritualist is not careful such things can become a distraction. Magic is a technology involving the use of the hidden laws of nature. In order for one to engage in such magical practices, self-cultivation is not necessarily a requirement. Anyone who has access to particular ritual formulas can employ this science regardless of character. Some associate magic with enlightenment because occultists are thought to be a step closer than the mundane layman, often known as the “profane ones” in the inner regions of the Greater Mysteries.
Initiation is a perfect platform to find balance in between magical ritual and the arts relating to self-cultivation. This message is made very clear in the Simon Necronomicon, where we read:
“Yet, he must remember that the occult powers that accompany magickal attainment are ornamental only, indications of obstacles overcome on the Path to Perfection, and are not to be sought after in themselves, for therein lies the truth Death.”
In occult technology, enlightenment denotes awareness and an emerging with the mind that is one with all. Ultimately, the is the end result of human creation. The human race must pass through several initiations, similar to a child growing into an adult before they become a mature race of beings. How long this will take is well beyond several thousand years. However, all scenarios of human existence must occur so that all known possibilities are known by the human race. It is within this same process that we connect to the one min. This is the mind that is responsible for our growth from an infant to an adult. The mind of life governs life’s principles, of which we are apart. Carry on!
