A Sense of Duty
At a cosmic level the oppressive nature of Collectivism can be understood simply as attempts to suppress the Black Flame – that cosmic Supersubstantial source of life and consciousness that fuels man’s independence and individuality. This again is the overriding theme of The Erbeth Transmissions, and publication of that book might be considered an example of a small effort to do something to leverage the situation in the direction of self-conscious evolution. “Central Authority” in that book is simply an analogy for the Church…or the State…take your pick for there is little difference. Both systems display the same centralized structure, the same outwardly emanating desire for total controls, and both display no tolerance for any alternative systems and can allow no completion to or questioning of their absolute authority.
In the Spiral Dynamics system of Beck and Cowan both Church and State fall into the realm of the Blue Meme for functionally they are virtually indistinguishable. The SD system claims that it is a natural state of evolution that all cultures go through – a natural and necessary authritarian stage that helps a culture define itself and makes certain advances from a more primal warrior society – the Red Meme. Emerging from the blue, SD envisions an Orange Meme of independence. Most consider the emergence of the Orange in the West to correspond generally with the Enlightenment, following roughly 2000 or more years of Blue authoritarian domination.
Looking at the big picture, If we consider most of our contemporary LLHPs (Crowley, LaVey, Aquino, et al) to have emerged during this most recent Orange, we next realize that most of our historical LLHPs (Yeshu, Zoroaster, Lao Tzu) come from before the last Blue Period. In other words 2000 years of dominance by Central Auhority resulted in a near vanishing of the Black Flame from the Earth. Next you have to reflect on the current geo-political environment of massive government, huge central banks, erosion of privacy and property rights and near constant warfare; and ask yourself if it doesn’t look like we are slipping back into the Blue; if it doesn’t feel like we are on the verge of sliding back into another dark age. There are more people than never exploring alternative and Satanic religious groups, but in most of them no Black Fire burns.
Another great 20th century thinker who perceive the functional homogeneity of Church and State is Dr. Wilhelm Reich. The idea that Church and State exhibit similar authoritarian patterns in their systematic attempt at suppressing the energy of the individual is a central theme in his work The Mass Psychology of Fascism. This is carried out initially through ceremonial suppression of sexuality. As he states:
Suppression of the natural sexuality in the child, particularly of its genital sexuality, makes the child apprehensive, shy, obedient, afraid of authority, good and adjusted in the authoritarian sense; it paralyzes the rebellious forces because any rebellion is laden with anxiety; it produces, by inhibiting sexual curiosity and sexual thinking in the child, a general inhibition of thinking and of critical faculties. In brief, the goal of sexual suppression is that of producing an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation. At first the child has to submit to the structure of the authoritarian miniature state, the family; this makes it capable of later subordination to the general authoritarian system. The formation of the authoritarian structure takes place through the anchoring of sexual inhibition and anxiety.
The idea of Church/State authoritarianism becomes axiomatic in James Demeo’s Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World. It is easy enough to see the deleterious effects the Church had on technology and human advancement, and if you look a little closer you see the State is almost as bad. What’s ironic is that Central Authority, due to it’s inherently bureaucratic and ineffectual nature, is always playing catch-up with the latest technology. How far had e-commerce grown before they realized they needed to start forcing collection of sales tax in a new way? Look at how far Uber spread before local governments started trying accuse them of ‘piracy’? Look at the technology of smart phones – if government had decided in 1995 that everyone has a ‘right’ to a cell phone we’d all still be using cell phones the size of lunch-boxes. These are simply a few contemporary examples but one could easily write a book about them all, as did Jeffery Tucker in his book A Beautiful Anarchy: How to Create Your Own Civilization in the Digital Age. We shouldn’t have to spend as much time arguing how the church held back the advancement of technology for centuries with flat-earth theories, auto de fay, burning of witches and scientists and so forth. What is important here is simply to see the common pattern of authoritarianism inhibiting progress in the name of the bogeyman of individuality.
If Central Authority stays out of it, new technology typically gets out to everyone who needs/wants it pretty fast. But Central Authority can always just catch up later, requisition it, put their stamp on it and start re-writing history to make it look like they invented it, which is precisely what they are doing right now with the institution of Healthcare. Propaganda slogans like “You didn’t build that!” can have the effect of simultaneously affirming their authority and ridiculing the belief in individuality. This is also essentially what the Church did and still tries to do with the phenomenon of human life – “we built that, so you need to follow our requirements for using it.” When you start to see this you realize that ‘separation of church and state’ was really just a transfer of authority from church to state. But in seeing these little successes and advancements we are reminded that there is hope, and that in exercising our own individuality – even a little – it stirs up that sacred fire that can spread, help cleanse the air, and maybe even help someone else ‘wake up.’
Everything that is encapsulated in P.D. Ouspensky’s ideas about ‘Negative Emotions’ are things that are propagated, perpetuated, and enforced through the various institutions that comprise Central Authority. The sooner one realizes that such institutions are fundamentally immoral, the sooner one can divest their time, effort and attention in them. These institutions do nothing but work against Self-Deification and Individuality, and even if they really wanted to, they couldn’t help you anyhow. You must take responsibility yourself.
This is where the sense of duty kicks in. When you start taking responsibility for yourself. “Responsibility to the Responsible!” as Anton LaVey worded it. When you can finally see most of society is engineered to remove the sense of responsibility, you begin to realize how dire the situation is. It is so corrupt and mechanical that none of the Politicians or Priests could do anything to change it even if they wanted to, for to become a part of it is to be absorbed and absolved of responsibility. It is quite literal the case, for despite all their blatant crimes and corruptions no one who is part of this system every emerges as responsible. The secret is that responsibility cannot be given, only taken!
This is the great challenge given to us by the Magi – to become a responsible being. This is the greatest hope for humanity – that YOU awaken and take responsibility.
Coming Soon Part 7