Calends November and Thoughts About the Masonic Model

So, here it is, the last day of November and just a few weeks before the solstice holidays. My eye is healing up nicely, although it will take me some time to get both of my eyes functioning as a unit. Hopefully, that process will quicken once I get a new pair of glasses. I am still quite busy with my day job, although all of the work that I am doing at this stage is helping to get other parts of the project to completed. I have just another week or so of work and then my long period of paid winter vacation begins. For most of the year I was unable to take much in the way of vacation time, so I have to take as much of it as I can at the end of the year, or lose it as the next year begins. I will, therefore, be taking nearly a month off, and I will be able to focus on lots of other things that I couldn't engage in because of my work schedule.

My girlfriend is also quite busy completing her last semester of class work and exams for her master’s degree, and she will also get a much needed respite from the arduous schedule imposed by a graduate degree and its scholastic regimen. We will be able to function as a normal couple instead of sneaking in moments together between work and study. Although the winter up here in the tundra precludes one from doing very much outside except winter sports (especially since there is now snow on the ground and the temperatures at night are quite frigid), there are plenty of things to see, people to meet, places to go and food to eat, and generally much to engage in for our entertainment.

I am planning to focus on some social events, going out with my girlfriend to some movies, plays, feasting on exotic foods and just having time to ourselves by the fire place. I am also planning on doing more magick since I will not only have the time but also the overall energy to do some special workings. Another area that has been neglected somewhat is my many writing projects, and in fact, I might be able to get some of that completed over the holidays. I am really looking forward to this long period of rest and relaxation and personal enjoyment. I have earned it, and it will be wonderful to actually get to have my cake and eat it, too.

That being said, I did want to write up a few paragraphs clarifying my last article on the merits of self-direction and self-initiation. I was a bit put out by what Nick Farrell wrote in his blog article about “Playing At Magic” and I felt that it was kind of insulting to all of those individuals who just didn’t have the opportunity or the desire to gain their knowledge and experience of ritual and ceremonial magick through the guidance and direction of a magical lodge. I feel that the attitude of “I got my initiatory pedigree and the hell with you” attitude that some individuals espouse is pretty toxic. Some may have taken my opinions in that article to mean that I don’t like traditional occult lodges or mainstream occult organizations, and this is untrue. I just don’t tolerate elitists of any kind, and I consider it an archaic and doomed mind-set amongst those traditional occultists who espouse it.

Masonic Model for Occult Lodges

One of the problems for anyone who is self-taught, self-directed and self-initiated as I am is that very few organizations take prior experience and knowledge into consideration. If you have been studying and experimenting for the last decade or two, why would you want to join an organization where you would be relegated to the most rudimentary studies and practices? Also, if you happen to have developed your own way of achieving a certain goal through ritual or ceremonial magick, why would you want to throw all of that away just because the organization that you are thinking of joining does something differently?

If someone has been spinning their wheels for a few years and making no progress with their studies and work, then it might make sense to adopt the techniques and methodologies of a competent and tested magical discipline offered by a legitimate occult organization. However, if you are already an advanced student with your own tested system of magic, then such an option is less appealing and would normally preclude someone from either seeking or gaining admission to a traditional organization, at least in most cases.

One of the problems that I have with many western occult organizations that promote ritual or ceremonial magick is that they are based on the Masonic model. Now, I have nothing against the Masons, and in fact my family has been steeped for generations in Masonry. A pure blue lodge based Masonic model is completely democratic, where all of the members are given the same power and collective authority (regardless of social class), and the roles in the lodge hierarchy are regularly rotated. However, the basic assumption is that despite any candidate’s previous experience, they all enter into the lodge at the same level of Entered Apprentice and then go through the degree structure just as all the previous members have done. These expectations and regulations are acceptable for a purely social or fraternal organization, but when occultism and magic are thrown into the mix, then it becomes much more complex. A candidate with prior experience and already developed capabilities should be selectively examined, and then given a degree or grade commensurate with his or her experience.

However, occult lodges have yet an additional hierarchical structure of a chief adept, and typically this individual or individuals are not elected and rule the group without the typical checks and balances, or for that matter, accountability to the other members. Where the pure Masonic model was democratic, the occult lodge model can become autocratic and suffer the same problems and issues associated with any human being who acquires absolute power over the others within a group. While this might be mitigated if there was a grand chapter or body of higher adepts to whom the lodge chief must answer, these individuals have been (in the case of the Golden Dawn) completely veiled in secrecy.

It becomes something of a problem for any individual under the authority of the chief adept to have recourse to the higher adepts to resolve any issue or alleged injustice, particularly if the chief adept is the only one who is the contact and spokesperson for those higher adepts. Therefore, this model of the occult lodge with its chief adept will cause groups that adopt it to rise or fall based on the singular capability or failings of the chief adept, and not the group as a whole. We need only to be reminded of Robert Zink and the fate of his organization, the EOGD, to realize the precariousness and pitfalls of this model.

It seems plain, at least to me, that there are some good points and bad points when considering the Masonic model for an occult lodge led by a chief adept. These good points can be summarized quite easily in the following four bullets.

• Mostly democratic, although the chief adept can over-rule the consensus of the lodge.

• Structured and organized - ritual and official roles are determined and responsibilities are assigned based on those roles. In many cases these roles (with the exception of the chief adept) are rotated. Typically, such an organization also has an extensive library of rituals and documents as well as training documents. In some cases the lore can be completely outside of the known and publically available occult knowledge.

• Levels of ability are organized into degrees, and training is broken up into grades, making for  a step by step forward progress through the massive and confusing array of overall available occult lore. In some cases the organizing and structuring of grades is so complete and thorough that it resembles a graduate level college curriculum. This is probably one of the greatest legacies that such an organization has given to occult seekers, particularly when it has been inadvertently made public like the Golden Dawn material.

• Peer group and occult sodality - this is where the candidate is taught and judged by more experienced members of the lodge. Peer group review is very important as a means to judge a candidate’s worthiness for higher degree. There is also the possibility of temporary bonds of mentoring and apprenticeship being formed between a junior and senior member.

As you can see there is much to be admired and celebrated regarding the structure and sodality of an occult lodge. However, there are also problems that can defeat even the best ideals and intentions of such an organization. These can be summarized as:

• Chief adept becomes an autocrat and establishes a cult of personality,

• Organization succumbs to bureaucracy and resists any kind of transformative change (this is also known as the tenacious bubble creating mind-set of “group-think”),

• Incapable of being flexible in regards to rules and procedures so that all new candidates are treated as inexperienced beginners and that lower level initiates are given little consideration or respect,

• Cliques form within the lodge organization and power struggles ensue between them,

• Elitism - higher level adepts rule over lower level initiates, therefore stifling the influx of new members and new ideas,

• Static hierarchies - roles become frozen and individuals in roles of authority vest themselves with a permanent group power.

It would seem that the possible pitfalls of an occult lodge led by chief adepts are too numerous to make such an organization either desirable or even relevant to the self-taught, since they are characterized by the personality and ability of just one or a few individuals. If the chief adept is a truly gifted occultist and a gracious leader, then the organization will flourish as long as that leader guides the lodge in a just and honorable manner. Since human nature is anything but perfect, even a gifted leader has the possibility of succumbing to hubris, abuse of authority and the illusion of personal power.

Other types of organizations can take the good attributes of an occult lodge and avoid the bad by vesting the authority of the group within the membership of the group, making consensus the only governing principle. Such a group has divested any one individual or role of any actual power, and instead loads it with responsibility and full accountability to the collective group. I have described this kind of organization previously, and I have called it a Star Group. Still other kinds of organizations would be a college of adepts, a sorcerer’s guild or a loose sodality or fellowship, or even a kind of magical apostolic succession (of the wandering autocephalous bishop type). The important factor here is personal autonomy, responsibility and self-direction.

Anything that abrogates these very important attributes represents a possible blockade or barrier to higher achievement that the seeker will have to overcome at some point. While it is necessary for a body of practitioners to act as a peer group to mitigate the excesses of the solitary practitioner, they can also suggest a possible pathway or curriculum for personal occult or magical achievement. Experienced individuals can function as temporary mentors or guides to those who are starting out or those who wish to acquire a greater expertise. However, the will and necessary freedom of the individual is sacrosanct and should not be abrogated under any condition. The individual seeker is ultimately responsible for his or her own successes and failures, and sometimes it is necessary for a seeker to fail utterly in order to ultimately realize their path to success.

If I have painted the traditional occult lodge as an organizational structure that is archaic or unnecessary, I would like to make certain that I am understood as perceiving these organizations as important but only in the present time. I also see them as a transitional social mechanism which will ultimately be replaced by other more loosely structured organizations. The emphasis of such an organization will therefore be on the individual seeker rather than the organization or the leaders, and everyone will be accorded the same respect and consideration regardless of their history or their accomplishments. We are in a transitional time in regards to occult social organizations, and those groups that are able to change will become part of the future wave, and those that can’t or don’t will likely pass away in a few decades hence.

Frater Barrabbas

King of the Cats

“Cats remind me of a true story,” he said to the mesmerized boys, speaking as if he were merely yarning, as if nothing but entertainment were on his mind. “It’s an old story, but the truest stories are very often the oldest ones. This was told by Sir Walter Scott to Washington Irving, and by Monk Lewis to the poet Shelly – and to me by a friend of mine who actually saw it happen.

“A traveler, in other words, my friend, was journeying on foot to the house of a companion – not me – where he was going to spend the night. He had been walking all day, and even though it was already late and night was coming on, he was tired enough to rest his feet when he came to a ruined abbey. He sat down, took off his boots, leaned against an iron fence, and began to rub his feet. An odd series of noise made him turn around and peer through the bars of the fence.

“Down below him, on the grassy floor of the old abbey, he saw a procession of cats. They were formed into two long equal lines, and were marching forward very slowly. Now, of course he had never seen anything like that before, and bent forward to look more closely. It was then that he saw that the cats at the head of the procession were carrying a little coffin on their backs, and were making for, were slowly approaching, a small open grave. When my friend had seen the grave, he looked horrified back at the coffin borne by the lead cats, and noticed that on it sat a crown. As he watched, the lead cats began to lower the coffin into the grave.

“After that he was so frightened that he could not stay in that place a moment longer, and he thrust his feet into his boots and rushed on to the house of his friend. During dinner, he found that he could not keep from telling his friend what he had witnessed.

“He had scarcely finished when his friend’s cat, which had been dozing in front of the fire, leaped up and cried, ‘Then I am the King of the Cats!’ and disappeared in a flash up the chimney. It happened, my friend – yes, it happened, my charming little birds.”

Shadowland - by Peter Straub (p. 8 - 9)

***

One of my favorite fictional stories is the novel Shadowland, written by Peter Straub. It’s a story about magick, magicians, youthful regret, the loss of innocence, and the battle of good against evil. Except for the description of the supposed magickal abilities involved, which regrettably are based on the levels of magic as found in DND, the rest of the book is quite a fascinating read, especially for someone who is really seeking to master ritual magick. The most fascinating story in the whole book, oddly, is one about the King of the Cats, which I have purloined above for your enjoyment and discernment.

Mr. Straub has admitted that his main source of inspiration for his novel is the book written by John Fowles (1966), called “The Magus,” and I did notice, when I first read Shadowland, the ghost of that other story lurking behind the scenes. Both stories are highly recommended fictional reading, in my humble opinion. If you haven’t read them, then I would advise you to do so sometime in the future. I believe firmly that the student of magick and the occult should read both non-fiction and fiction in order to get a complete picture of the mythic reality of the domain of Spirit, and its intersection with ritual or ceremonial magick. Often, fiction reflects the content of what is popularly believed in a culture or sub-culture, and this is excellent fodder for occult creativity and speculation.

So you might be asking yourself why I have quoted a short passage from Mr. Straub’s book, and what does the art of ritual magick have to do with the King of the Cats? That’s a good question, and one that I intend on answering in this article. It would seem that the story presents an obvious morality play, where an aging amoral antagonist fights against a young idealist protagonist. The fight is where an older adult, who is the master of his domain, fights a losing battle against a boy who has just emerged into manhood. The battle is infused with illusion, deception, delusion and the hubris of old age; but the prize that they fight for is the domain of sorcery itself, which Mr. Straub calls Shadowland. He who is the master of Shadowland is the rightful heir to the jeweled Owl Throne, and receives the title of King of the Cats. For this story, the greatest master of magick is the reputed king of all other sorcerers, and he must rule with a certain cruelty in order to keep his high station.

The antagonist in this story is a man named Coleman Collins, a retired stage magician and master occultist, who through remorseless aggrandizement and the corrupt use of his godlike powers has acquired for himself a beautiful secluded country estate on a private lake in Vermont, and vanquished all of his enemies. Unwittingly matched against this rather powerful and evil magician is the innocent youth named Tom Flannigan, who discovers his own godlike powers as he tries to defend himself against the older man. Tom is the friend of Coleman’s nephew, Del, and is enticed to visit the secluded estate of Del’s uncle because in meeting and befriending him at the private school they both attend, Tom feels the instinctual need to protect and be a true friend to him.

Of course, nothing is at it seems, and there are many layers to the unfolding adventure. This is also not a children’s tale, since it involves the dark forces that lie at the very depth of human depravity and debasement. I could easily see Anthony Hopkins playing the part of Coleman Collins, since he has that innate ability to play the dual character of the menacing and evil sorcerer disguised by the charming elderly retired stage magician.

Coleman has murdered his way to the vaunted Owl Throne, and now as an old man, he seeks to keep his place despite the fact that his time is passed and a new powerful sorcerer has come to take his place. Only death can resolve this competition, and so the stakes are very high indeed. When Tom wins this contest by default, he becomes himself the King of the Cats. Yet Shadowland is irreparably changed, and Tom enters into the world as a man scarred by terrible circumstances, and he lives a life that is desultory and low key as a hapless stage magician playing shabby clubs. Yet as I said, not everything is as it seems, and even the under achieving magician hides a deep and terrible secret, about powers and domains that few can either see or understand.

So once again, what does all of this have to do with magicians and sorcerers in the real world? Why is this tale so compelling to me (and I might add, to many others)? Magicians are mostly dull characters scratching a living like everyone else, but also having to feed their ever hungering monomania for mysteries and hidden or occult knowledge. They may jostle each other from time to time, and perhaps even annoy the shit out of their fellow magicians, but it is all unglamorous and perhaps even a bit petty - so unlike the story.

We are all like the cats in the real world, each taking its turn at being the alpha cat, but always being turned out by some other cat with a more frightening meow or a more menacing and hissing puff-ball facade. I have to say that as the owner (if such I could be called) of four cats, I have gotten quite a bit of exposure to how cats work out their boundaries and establish supremacy amongst each other. When I read this story I had imagined that there was a kind of hierarchy amongst magicians, and that perhaps one of them was the King, or King of the Cats. I had thought that if I became good enough at my studies and adept at my magickal work that I would be brought into this hierarchy, but alas, all I have found after these many years is a kind of chaotic one upmanship where anyone can claim supremacy, but it is never taken seriously by anyone else. We are more like a bunch of overly fed house cats in a very large mansion - everyone gets to pretend that they are dominant without having to really prove it.

Morgan Drake Eckstein calls his house cats the Secret Chiefs, but that would represent a more democratic kind of polity, which would be a meritocracy that no cat would ever tolerate. In observing and even talking to my own cats, I have found that they are much more inclined to royalty and feudal fiefdoms, ruling by guile and fanged fiat as long as they can, which usually isn’t very long. You can always find another cat who will claim to be dominate and challenge the status quo, which is always changing and in flux. Perhaps magicians and sorcerers are more like real cats, seeking dominance, but always finding themselves ultimately in an inferior place due to the cleverness or craftiness of some other feline practitioner.

As I think about this trope, I feel a brief tinge of sadness and bitter remorse. How wonderful it would have been to eventually be able to sit on the jeweled Owl Throne and tell the world: “Now I am the King of Cats!”

Frater Barrabbas