In the late 19th century, Helena Patrovna Blavatsky was in her kitchen, cooking up some fantastic soup, following a recipe inherited and modified throughout the ages.
She took a teaspoon of the Mesopotamian mysteries, a dollop of the Egyptian, a pinch of Stoicism, Shamanism, the Greek mysteries, Sufism, Gnosticism, and others. Then, she chopped up the Eastern mysteries into nice, tangible little cubes, and mixed everything in the broth of Kabbalah (Jewish occult).
After turning off the heat, she let it cool, and with the help of her fellow cooks, ladled it out to the world as “the spiritual awakening of humanity.” To materialize the long-awaited New Age1; the synthesis of a messianic cult with a politico-economic system for a new social structure and global order.
Blavatsky’s first publication, Isis Unveiled, was a lengthy discussion about how the common understanding of Satan is but a “myth,” shrouded in religious bias. Followed by The Secret Doctrine—the Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy—she linked the Egyptian, Eastern and Jewish occult directly to the development of modern civilization. Saying, “… But Satan will now be shown, in the teaching of the Secret Doctrine, allegorized as good, and sacrifice, a god of wisdom under different names.”2
Everyone who was anyone within Masonic and occult circles jumped on board. Philanthropists, authors, media, publishers, politicians, royalty, and religious leaders; people in the sciences, the military, education, and economics. Its teachings were filtered into every area of society, then used as the springboard of modern spirituality.
Later, it popped up on radio, then in the motion pictures. By the time the internet had arrived, the deception was already on autopilot. Not because everyone writing about it (now in the hundreds of thousands) is involved in some kind of plot, but because society at large is, has, and will always act like a raging river moving in whatever direction it’s guided to by the constraints imposed upon it.
Most people will simply never ask if what makes them feel good is actually true or not. “I feel good; therefore it’s true.” And the same with the spiritual sciences, or what’s now simply labelled—“spirituality.”
The dream-space
A place where, if it comes from the East3, it’s automatically true, even if it comes from the West but has an Eastern flair. Here, nothing can be learned from religious texts… except if they’re from the East. Because, well, they’re from the East. But we won’t bother reading any of it because there are thousands of pages, you know, so we’ll go with the fragments we’re told about. But the Bible… now that’s definitely enslavement of the spirit stuff. And the Qur’an? Uff! The cherry on top! So we won’t bother looking at these, either, to protect ourselves from heir vile tricks and brainwashing. While Judaism… well… we’re not allowed to talk about that, so we don’t. Although they say it’s all good, so it must be.
Yippee! We’re free!
A free spirit dancing in a universe that revolves around my feelings; feelings that change according to the next best thing. Where the truth is whatever I decide it is and changes according to how I feel.
Here, all I have to do is think positively, talk of unconditional love and universal energies—whatever that means—rub stones and crystals, and all is well. Happy-happy, as I close my eyes to the negative stuff and bad vibes that make up 98% of the world’s affairs so they don’t darken my aura.
Here, the subtle matters regarding our intrinsic natures can be accessed on weekend get-away courses. Or gained, depending how much money I spend on a nice library, filled with stuff from all those famous people I’ve never met. And I’ll just ignore their shaking of hands and hanging-out with the worst people in the world. I’ll also ignore their dodgy occult connections and philosophies they mention all over the pages, YouTube videos, and smart looking documentaries with great visuals and calming, hypnotic music. But if this is too much effort, then simple lip service, I have found, does just fine.
Where quotes and memes about the inner journey are nice ones to tell everyone else about and paste all over social media. But when confronted with the magnitude of its true meaning, and the effort required in doing it, we’ll slander, threaten and pelt it with stones, while reminding all-and-sundry how open-minded and tolerant our hearts are.
Like pebbles in a raging river, bounced along form one bestseller to the next, and from one workshop into another, while neither the origin nor the destination are questioned because, to do so, opens a can of worms. So it’s easier to go along with the flow, even while watching the utter failure of this decision unfold all around us, and even experience it personally.
The failure of modern spirituality, or rather its intended deception, becomes clear when circumstance brings us out of the comfy brackets of society it was designed for. It’s why things like meditation and certain principles of Buddhism are promoted because these fit in nicely with the modern individualistic understanding of being in this world.
Here, there’s no Creator to believe in because none exists. There’s no deeper meaning to your existence apart from “finding yourself.” Why bother contemplating on the origin of the universe, and yourself, when science has done that for you, to better understand your (animal) self, in a dream-world for the ego? A place where those who don’t like the idea of being part of a greater design – which none us can escape anyway – but still want to claim knowledge and purity regarding it. A kind-of spirituality for materialists.
Me, me, me….
If you think I’m talking nonsense, so be it. Because the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
I used to say and believe the same things. Now, I don’t. I continued walking instead of remaining in the feely-good stuff. I did the research, years of research, into the origin of modern spirituality, while everyone else doesn’t bother. I’ve been on both sides of the fence and I know which side is better, while everyone else is just guessing.
Not enough?
Okay. Then, pick any place in the world where people are struggling.
Not struggling because the petrol just went up, and now, they have to eat out less, or go to the movies less, or can’t buy the latest model mobile phone this year, but struggling to have a single meal each day, or simply exist. Go there, and as the bombs fall around them (and now you), as the water is usurped by the corporations that feed you (and me), as they’re removed from their lands by armed gangs for mineral rights needed by ‘green tech,’ as their kids starve… tell them to think positively, to meditate, to do their charka-alignment techniques, to turn away from all the horrible stuff and think of trees, flowers, mountains, beaches, and beautiful sunsets… so they can watch all their problems flutter away like little birds.
If something doesn’t work for all, and under all conditions, then it’s fake, and also unfair. Because are only those in comfort allowed to attain a level of spirituality? And if something only works in the spaces of relative comfort, but abandons you when you need it most, then it’s as though it never existed in the first place.
To see reality requires, obviously, an open mind, but also moments of solitude4. Where it could be said that the true journey of self, like the false one, is intrinsically selfish.
The “we” of me
But let me scratch in the drawer of notes and whip out an example. One from a little-known side of history, but reveals something interesting:
In the mid-7th century, Ali bin Abu Talib was Caliph of the Muslim world. He appointed Malik al-Ashtar as governor of Egypt, then sent him on his way with a letter. Where one of the simplest yet most profound things ever written about interaction with people is found:
“They are either your brothers in religion or your brothers in humanity.”5
Moving away from mainstream thought is useless if we’re simply moving onto another level of the same; moving into the places on slightly higher than materialistic, designed by the same machinery as the place we’ve just come from. And solitude is necessary if we desire reconnecting with that intrinsic creative part of ourselves; that part which connects us to creation, and reconnects us with the Creator the machinery of spirituality has told us doesn’t exist.
Of course, today, solitude is something rare. But even moments of it are enough. Because while there, something else happens…
Over there. A door
opens to a shining truth
sheds light; on I
am but’one within
the collective of humanity.
Although the true journey6 is about the self, the work cannot be complete unless we have everybody else in mind. Or, as the Buddhist says: “Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them all.” Noble indeed, although maybe a bit optimistic? Because some people are just down-right evil, and will never be anything else; many are not interested; while others believe they’re already there and won’t look any further.
Leaving only a small group willing to test their beliefs, and, if truth demands it, change along the steep path to the true awakening of human consciousness.
Because I’m only responsible for the space I occupy7, not for the things (or people) I have no power over, except by force. Yet, this space changes everywhere I go, as do the characters who pass through it. An unfathomable series of causes and effects. And a greater shift occurs, a realization that aides us towards the fountain of wisdom. That instead of attempting the impossible, and try to change the course of a raging river, we play about in the little pools that gather along its journey, where some water mingles for a while, then moves on. And, technically speaking, the river is changed.
1 A term from Kabbalistic teachings (called the Zohar), dating back to the mid-13th century (or 1st century, depending on which version of history you go with), but stems from the Talmud regarding the arrival of a Jewish messiah, the formation of a Jewish only state, construction of the third temple in Jerusalem, and then ruling the world.
2 The Secret Doctrine, Volume Two, pg. 237.
3 The watered-down versions of complex philosophical and religious systems packaged for the more materialistic Western mindset. Linked to the people and tribes, dynasties, language and dialects, land and environment, heritage, mythology, folklore, agriculture, climate, cosmology, and cosmogony, spanning over four thousand years. Far removed from anything European/Western, while creating a cult of earth and self worship. The opposite of the spiritual sciences.
4 Coupled with research, introspection, trial and error, improving health, etc.
5 Letter no. 53, from Naghjul Balagha (The Peak of Eloquence), compiled by Sayyid Sharif Ar-Razi in +/-1040AD, translated by Sayyid Ali Reza.
6 Or what we, at Fedup Sheep, call the science of the soul.
7 Including the reach of voice, which in our time, is multiplied exponentially without even leaving home, because of the internet.
