Well, it looks as if this is yet another tedious "Mysticism=Good, Magic=Bad" mastubatory exercise. It's a real shame that Mr. Dolgorukii feels the need to be so condescending about people who walk a different path, because aside from his "My Way is the One Right True & Only Way" attitude, some of his commentary is right on the money.
"Wicca" or "Witchcraft" is believed to be the "knowledge" and practices of the ancient "wise people" who were healers and advisors of primitive people. But all that can be said about modern Wicca is that it was invented by Gerald Gardner who was a Theosophist, and a Rosicrucian, and a member of "The Golden Dawn" who put together a pastiche of his own ideas and some historical research into the traditions of the English country folk.
Bitchiness aside, he is absolutely correct in that Witchcraft/Wicca is a mid-twentieth century concept. In regards to Blavatsky:
What were her actual goals? Well, they were very complex. In the first place she wanted to combat the excessive materialism that was so prevalent in her age. Secondly she wanted to reinstate the connection between metaphysical speculation and scientific research that had been lost with the conquest of reason by Christianity. Thirdly, she wanted to de-stabilize the religious paradigm of the west and the society that religious paradigm served to support. Lastly she wanted to introduce to the western nations the fact that other people were their intellectual equals.
Admittedly Theosophy isn't my strong point, but good friends of mine who have studied Blavatsky's work extensively have come to very similar conclusions.
...It (Occultism) is harmful because of the megalomania it induces in its adherents. Nowhere is this more clearly evidenced than in the life of Aleister Crowley, a really brilliant man whose Occultism and substance abuse destroyed him.
Crowley was *definitely* a megalomaniac, *definitely* brilliant, and *definitely* a substance abuser. A very plausible argument could be made that his Magickal success directly contributed to his megalomania, but honestly I'm not sure arguing that particular point right now is what I care to do...
Today "Magic" in the form of "Popular Occultism" is still the province of charlatanry and superstition and it still preys on the gullible and ignorant.
While as a blanket statement it doesn't work, it is indeed a painful truth in Magickal circles that a sizable proportion of people that get involved with Magick do it in order to take advantage of other people. Another sizable proportion of people are all too happy to let themselves be taken advantage of in the name of Magick.
But what does "Popular Occultism" do with this? Well it claims that there is a certain body of facts and techniques which are "secret" or "hidden" and that this knowledge, when discovered, confers certain "powers" on the discoverer thereof. "Magic" is the use of these "powers" to do all sorts of things to the benefit of the "Magician."
I thought it was really funny that, after he mentioned this, he began to discuss his beloved "Mystery Tradition":
The knowledge and understanding they possessed were not then, and are not now, attainable by the ordinary person. In reaction to that fact, the "Mystery Temples" dispensed their knowledge in carefully "graded" doses, and the entire content of their data-base was kept rigidly secret from all but the highest level of their Priest-Initiates. Why? Well because knowledge of things one is incapable of comprehending is dangerous and more so to the person who gains that which is utterly beyond them than to anyone else. "A Little knowledge is a dangerous thing". And so the content of their instructions was held rigidly secret by those who received it. That is the only reason why they were called the "Mysteries", because they were hidden or secret.
So Magick is a way for people to feel "special and elite", while the "Mystery Tradition" is (or should be) reserved for those who feel "special and elite." 
His hierarchy of "the existential questing of the Humanity of the West" STINKS of racism, going from the Norther European Caucasian Celts to the Mediterranean Greeks & Romans to the African Egyptians and the Semitic Persians. How nice of him to even deign to give nonwhite people props for knowledge...Would it burst his bubble to suggest that nobody gave a shit about the Celts until the 1890's Irish Renaissance, one of its foremost proponents being WB Yeats, who was a member of (wait for it!) "Popular Occultism" nasties the Golden Dawn???
Same old same old...wake me when it's over. |
