Samael: Doubt and Disbelief on the Left Hand Path
Alberto Brandi (Lodge Sothis - Italy)
Based on a lecture given during the Magical Week 2006
FOREWORD
This article deals with the process of doubting, questioning and disbelieving, a process that is at the same time a powerful and terrible tool in the hands of initiated magicians who walk the left hand path. These aspects of the dark side of the intellect are, in the course of this article, especially analyzed from a Samaelian initiatory perspective. We are asking ourselves some important questions in relation to this sphere.
The conclusions hereby presented, even though personal, may be of interest for all those practitioners of the vama marg who, in the lifelong quest for the Diamond, will find themselves stuck into the perilous yet fascinating web of doubt and disbelief.
Why the initiate meets Samael, the Poison of God, the Qliphah which questions God and its creation, at such a relatively early stage? If the poison is what destroys the old structures and erases the limits of moralistic boundaries, why isn't it a final goal, but rather a gate? What lies hidden deep beneath the dark elixir of doubt and venom that is inside the cup of Samael?
Sincere thanks go to all the people who participated during the lecture and provided deep insights about this matter that contributed to the further development of the subject.
What is doubt? How can we define the nature of the act of doubting? Seemingly, doubt cannot subsist by itself and cannot feed on its essence. To exist, doubt must rely on an object, just like the beholder cannot exist without what is observed.
This is why doubting and questioning has always been one of the main tools of the left hand path. Satan is the adversary, Set is the opponent rival of Horus, Loki is the trickster: none of these forces follow and obey the existing structures, but rather they seek to destroy and change them, turn the static into dynamic.
As such, the dark magical adept can use disbelief and doubt to erase the existing structures that he has absorbed and been fed with since birth; magic brings with itself the need of making every action conscious, therefore leading the adept to question everything around him. Doubt can in this way help to overcome the values and the superstitions of religion and of today's materialistic and soulless society, giving to the individual an alternate way of thinking and acting, far away from both materialism and monotheistic/dogmatic spirituality. Its essence lies at the core dept of the teachings of the vama marg , the left, inverted, "wrong" way that lies outside the ordered path of light, far away from the frame of the ordinary mundane and spiritual structures.
Obviously - on the other hand - doubt alone cannot be the foundation of the magical path, it's only an useful magical accessory. Because there lies the main difference between magic and religion: faith is the acceptance of knowledge bestowed by a dogma, while magic is the knowledge that breeds from experience and personal, active exploration of the mysteries.
It is here that the two-edged sword of disbelief can strike with its strongest blow. This especially can happen when the adept has successfully erased and de-constructed the old structures. The moment when the magician crosses the gates of Lilith is a very delicate one; one has stepped beyond the threshold of the mundane, rejecting the old to embrace the darkness, and the debris of the old certainties are forming the basis for new conceptions bred from magical practice and speculation about the dark mysteries. It's at this point that doubt can act, working as an acid: once the heavy burden of stale spirituality and morality has been consumed, the new 'truths' and structures are attacked and corroded. The magician may face a deep and strong questioning of one's abilities, of the "reality" of magic - especially during dark periods and the normal, periodical lack of results -, of one's focus on the long journey and dedication demanded by the Path.
What happens now? This is the fundamental turning point for all dark magic.
Many individuals and organizations just get stuck here. Doubt and disbelief may become the main focus, the core of one's view of existence and the cosmos; and when doubt has become the dominant belief system, it turns into metaphysical pessimism.
Many 'dark' or antagonist magical organizations, predominantly in the satanic area, have fallen into this kind of nihilist-doubtful thinking, where the tool has turned into a goal, where everything is questioned at the bottom core, eventually turning the direction of the organization itself toward an hardcore materialism, very close to what is provided by the "mundane society". At this level there is not a real quest for spiritual alchemy, but just an inversion of material values that becomes the central focus of the activities and belief systems of such groups.
We can try to provide an explanation of this deranged interpretation of an otherwise healthy antinomist attitude both on a spiritual and on a philosophical level. Who writes has noticed, in the course of the years, a peculiar attitude common to many individuals and organizations that advocate this sort of "left hand-materialism" or solipsism; that is, they seem to never have actually abandoned those structures they claim to fight (Christianity, slave morality, etc.): we often hear of "destroying the creation of God" or "revolting against God and the Hosts of Heaven, because what has God done for us?". This is a common element in satanic thinking: if God has forsaken us, why should we follow or praise him? Better revolt, indulge in everything He denies: pleasure, sex, etc.
This sounds more like the painful cry of an abandoned and troubled child rather than the proud war-hymn of a satanic revolutionary; furthermore, it shows that this alleged "adverse thinking" is nothing but " inverse thinking", just a view of common morality turned upside down, but not really overcome, burnt flat, trespassed. Magically, the poison has not paved the way for the new, it has just intoxicated the old.
If we see Maya, Lila, the mundane light structures as a jail from where we need to break free, we can consider the above mentioned, pessimistic attitude toward doubt as an escape route that is already pre-existing, maybe even made by our jailers. It is easier, we find it ready, but it leads where the maker of the route intend us to go.
The genuine left-hand path adept - instead - breaks free digging the tunnel with his own hands, helped by others who are breaking free with him and those who have done it in the past. It is an harder way, more painful, a long and difficult process, but it leads where the adept wants to go, and it is permanent, because one get acquainted with the process of escaping and creating at the same time. The poison of doubt is therefore one of the pivotal initiatory tools of the Draconian path. Not a limit, quite the opposite: a door opening on metaphysical freedom. Lilith is the gate to new worlds of darkness and beauty, Gamaliel the chalice that holds the poison and Samael when the poison is drunk in its totality.
And this poison serves not only to wipe out what is left of the old outside the magician, but especially to wipe out the structures inside of him: this is the real test. When the adept has become empty of what he believed his truths and certainties were, his real core is exposed. At this step, the individual, through a persevering magical practice and speculation, can find the conceptions and values that will really matter for him. If perseverance and deep focus are not properly exercised, high is the risk of the above mentioned fall into the pit of nihilism and materialism that such wandering in the black sea of philosophical uncertainty can cause.
Once cleansed and emptied by the rotting remnants of old belief systems, the adept doesn't need to invert or pervert old values: he has to re-create himself, and in this process he may even find again all the beliefs and values he previously had. This time they will be his values, recreated through the draconian forge. These are now independent from dogmas or imposed factors, thus they are stronger and "true" in a deeper, initiatory meaning of the term. Ethics has been erased to let the magician free to build his own flexible world view, knowing that it could change further in the course of the dynamic magical evolution.
Samael is the furnace that tests the magical integrity of the individual: it is the preparation to the complete and utter annihilation of the boundaries of consciousness, process that continues in depth in A'arab Zaraq - where the Ravens of Dispersion pick the bones of the magician clean - and finds the deepest level of this phase in Thagirion and the complete experience of the Daîmon.
The teachings of Samael show the adept that doubt and laughter are great weapons and at the same time show him that they are harmless: he teaches that the ultimate frontier is doubting the doubt itself. The only thing that counts on the draconian path is action - the rest is chatter that gets dispersed in the winds of nothingness. The word "power" has its etymological root in the Latin verb "possum", that not only points at the strength of doing something, but the possibility, the potentiality to achieve it. This is the secret of magical action and of the sharpening of the diamond, so that the Work of magic may defeat the Talk of the conscious mind.
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Alberto Brandi (Lodge Sothis - Italy)
Based on a lecture given during the Magical Week 2006
FOREWORD
This article deals with the process of doubting, questioning and disbelieving, a process that is at the same time a powerful and terrible tool in the hands of initiated magicians who walk the left hand path. These aspects of the dark side of the intellect are, in the course of this article, especially analyzed from a Samaelian initiatory perspective. We are asking ourselves some important questions in relation to this sphere.
The conclusions hereby presented, even though personal, may be of interest for all those practitioners of the vama marg who, in the lifelong quest for the Diamond, will find themselves stuck into the perilous yet fascinating web of doubt and disbelief.
Why the initiate meets Samael, the Poison of God, the Qliphah which questions God and its creation, at such a relatively early stage? If the poison is what destroys the old structures and erases the limits of moralistic boundaries, why isn't it a final goal, but rather a gate? What lies hidden deep beneath the dark elixir of doubt and venom that is inside the cup of Samael?
Sincere thanks go to all the people who participated during the lecture and provided deep insights about this matter that contributed to the further development of the subject.
~ ~ ~ |
This is why doubting and questioning has always been one of the main tools of the left hand path. Satan is the adversary, Set is the opponent rival of Horus, Loki is the trickster: none of these forces follow and obey the existing structures, but rather they seek to destroy and change them, turn the static into dynamic.
As such, the dark magical adept can use disbelief and doubt to erase the existing structures that he has absorbed and been fed with since birth; magic brings with itself the need of making every action conscious, therefore leading the adept to question everything around him. Doubt can in this way help to overcome the values and the superstitions of religion and of today's materialistic and soulless society, giving to the individual an alternate way of thinking and acting, far away from both materialism and monotheistic/dogmatic spirituality. Its essence lies at the core dept of the teachings of the vama marg , the left, inverted, "wrong" way that lies outside the ordered path of light, far away from the frame of the ordinary mundane and spiritual structures.
Obviously - on the other hand - doubt alone cannot be the foundation of the magical path, it's only an useful magical accessory. Because there lies the main difference between magic and religion: faith is the acceptance of knowledge bestowed by a dogma, while magic is the knowledge that breeds from experience and personal, active exploration of the mysteries.
It is here that the two-edged sword of disbelief can strike with its strongest blow. This especially can happen when the adept has successfully erased and de-constructed the old structures. The moment when the magician crosses the gates of Lilith is a very delicate one; one has stepped beyond the threshold of the mundane, rejecting the old to embrace the darkness, and the debris of the old certainties are forming the basis for new conceptions bred from magical practice and speculation about the dark mysteries. It's at this point that doubt can act, working as an acid: once the heavy burden of stale spirituality and morality has been consumed, the new 'truths' and structures are attacked and corroded. The magician may face a deep and strong questioning of one's abilities, of the "reality" of magic - especially during dark periods and the normal, periodical lack of results -, of one's focus on the long journey and dedication demanded by the Path.
What happens now? This is the fundamental turning point for all dark magic.
Many individuals and organizations just get stuck here. Doubt and disbelief may become the main focus, the core of one's view of existence and the cosmos; and when doubt has become the dominant belief system, it turns into metaphysical pessimism.
Many 'dark' or antagonist magical organizations, predominantly in the satanic area, have fallen into this kind of nihilist-doubtful thinking, where the tool has turned into a goal, where everything is questioned at the bottom core, eventually turning the direction of the organization itself toward an hardcore materialism, very close to what is provided by the "mundane society". At this level there is not a real quest for spiritual alchemy, but just an inversion of material values that becomes the central focus of the activities and belief systems of such groups.
We can try to provide an explanation of this deranged interpretation of an otherwise healthy antinomist attitude both on a spiritual and on a philosophical level. Who writes has noticed, in the course of the years, a peculiar attitude common to many individuals and organizations that advocate this sort of "left hand-materialism" or solipsism; that is, they seem to never have actually abandoned those structures they claim to fight (Christianity, slave morality, etc.): we often hear of "destroying the creation of God" or "revolting against God and the Hosts of Heaven, because what has God done for us?". This is a common element in satanic thinking: if God has forsaken us, why should we follow or praise him? Better revolt, indulge in everything He denies: pleasure, sex, etc.
This sounds more like the painful cry of an abandoned and troubled child rather than the proud war-hymn of a satanic revolutionary; furthermore, it shows that this alleged "adverse thinking" is nothing but " inverse thinking", just a view of common morality turned upside down, but not really overcome, burnt flat, trespassed. Magically, the poison has not paved the way for the new, it has just intoxicated the old.
If we see Maya, Lila, the mundane light structures as a jail from where we need to break free, we can consider the above mentioned, pessimistic attitude toward doubt as an escape route that is already pre-existing, maybe even made by our jailers. It is easier, we find it ready, but it leads where the maker of the route intend us to go.
The genuine left-hand path adept - instead - breaks free digging the tunnel with his own hands, helped by others who are breaking free with him and those who have done it in the past. It is an harder way, more painful, a long and difficult process, but it leads where the adept wants to go, and it is permanent, because one get acquainted with the process of escaping and creating at the same time. The poison of doubt is therefore one of the pivotal initiatory tools of the Draconian path. Not a limit, quite the opposite: a door opening on metaphysical freedom. Lilith is the gate to new worlds of darkness and beauty, Gamaliel the chalice that holds the poison and Samael when the poison is drunk in its totality.
And this poison serves not only to wipe out what is left of the old outside the magician, but especially to wipe out the structures inside of him: this is the real test. When the adept has become empty of what he believed his truths and certainties were, his real core is exposed. At this step, the individual, through a persevering magical practice and speculation, can find the conceptions and values that will really matter for him. If perseverance and deep focus are not properly exercised, high is the risk of the above mentioned fall into the pit of nihilism and materialism that such wandering in the black sea of philosophical uncertainty can cause.
Once cleansed and emptied by the rotting remnants of old belief systems, the adept doesn't need to invert or pervert old values: he has to re-create himself, and in this process he may even find again all the beliefs and values he previously had. This time they will be his values, recreated through the draconian forge. These are now independent from dogmas or imposed factors, thus they are stronger and "true" in a deeper, initiatory meaning of the term. Ethics has been erased to let the magician free to build his own flexible world view, knowing that it could change further in the course of the dynamic magical evolution.
Samael is the furnace that tests the magical integrity of the individual: it is the preparation to the complete and utter annihilation of the boundaries of consciousness, process that continues in depth in A'arab Zaraq - where the Ravens of Dispersion pick the bones of the magician clean - and finds the deepest level of this phase in Thagirion and the complete experience of the Daîmon.
The teachings of Samael show the adept that doubt and laughter are great weapons and at the same time show him that they are harmless: he teaches that the ultimate frontier is doubting the doubt itself. The only thing that counts on the draconian path is action - the rest is chatter that gets dispersed in the winds of nothingness. The word "power" has its etymological root in the Latin verb "possum", that not only points at the strength of doing something, but the possibility, the potentiality to achieve it. This is the secret of magical action and of the sharpening of the diamond, so that the Work of magic may defeat the Talk of the conscious mind.
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