Throughout different writings in the past, I’ve talked about my mission with the Victorian Society of Metaphysics & Magic. The drive, for me, is about a need within myself to try to integrate two seemingly different worlds in which I stand, while at the same time inviting others on their own spiritual and metaphysical paths to experience that journey and possibly find solutions to the dichotomies in their own lives. The passion is fueled by a need deep within me to attempt to span or transcend a chasm that can sometimes seem impossibly wide; a dividing line between an alternative spiritual life and the “real” world we all must live in. Although more mainstream these days, many of the practices associated with metaphysical work, neopaganism, new age thought, or whatever you choose to call it, make quite a few people uncomfortable, especially those deeply rooted in confining and dogmatic religious institutions. Add in a word like occult, and the idea that we meet in person and not in the anonymity of virtual time and space, and you have the makings for many misconceptions and judgements by those ignorant to the real meanings and practices of groups such as ours.
As much as one might like, one can’t go to their children’s school carrying around a besom (broom for those who are curious) and casting spells to better the outcome of the band’s bake sale, regardless of how good a cause it is. Even though modern spiritual practitioners tend to use the same mainstream visualization and meditation techniques as top executives and athletes, we’d still run afoul of those who would discredit us simply by misguided notions of appearance alone. If you are blessed enough to have the corner office in some high-rise corporate building then the pressures of the work that got you there might be well balanced by scattering leaves, acorns, and stones about your workspace; homage to the grounding energy of the ancient Druid faiths and the trees they sought power from. Nonetheless, the pure physical needs of keeping a job and providing for your family, bring a cognition of those that you interact with and a recognition that ancient wisdom, although very necessary in your life, might be better expressed a different way. All of which leads me back to the point I started to make, we must find ways to incorporate our deepest spiritual needs and those energies that connect with us on the most profound levels with life in a society that often provides for our material wellbeing but is ignorant of the body, mind, and spirit connection.
The unfortunate part is that no matter how hard one tries it’s almost inevitable one will eventually run across those who are hopelessly attached to a view of the world that leaves no room for any other belief system but their own. It’s sometimes hard to fathom how judgements can become so toxic from those without any knowledge of the person being judged or the beliefs they truly hold. Such people judge not on reality but on preconceived and distorted mental images that they project on whomever doesn’t fit their very narrow vision. At the very least one might get called, “weird”. Unfortunately, those who fear what they do not understand will often not quit with such a benign statement and may attack with more cutting words or accusations like mistakenly charging Satanism (a Christian construct), or being brain washed by a cult. It is rare that we ever get to offer a rebuttal in our defense since the attacker is usually too afraid of having their words challenged and seeing the truth in the mirror, but when we do have the opportunity, we are sometimes left speechless in the face of such hate. Sometimes it’s hard not to tap into an anger that feels like the only recourse even though it usually just fuels the other person’s negative image. An unfortunate final possibility is that we have no defense to offer. We know we aren’t Satan worshippers or cult members or even just someone looking for attention. Regardless of our good intentions at finding a spiritual path for ourselves; however, the journey isn’t without its stumbling blocks and self-doubt. It’s at these times we feel the most vulnerable to such attacks.
In future articles, I will write more about the problems faced with outside perception and our way of counteracting it. It really has less to do with finding the perfect words to fight back with and more finding the perfect trust within our own beliefs that center us when others are flailing at an unseen foe for which they ignorantly believe we embody. In this article I’d like to talk about cults, however.
The fear of cults is very real for most people including those with alternative spiritual practices. The fear is that many cults have controlled the very mind that was meant to be liberated and turned it against the person who wanted, maybe needed, to believe. Many cults have then gone on to very high-profile tragic endings that grasp the collective hearts of those helpless to intervene. There is no doubt that a group that controls and instigates the motion of their members to catastrophic ends is a force to be rightly feared. That said, however, it is easy to misplace the fear of true cults on sincere groups that claim a path that is less understood to the “normal” religious establishment in our society. The question becomes, what is sincere seeking and what is controlled disintegration? How do we defend and protect against not only our meditation groups or prayer circles being the focus of verbal or physical attacks, but also against the very degradation of sincerity into cult mentality on our own parts?
I think the majority of people, regardless of religious belief or spiritual path, embrace some fairly clear boundaries for what is right and what is wrong. Charles Manson, and Jim Jones can really have no gray areas when it comes to the condemnation of their actions. But there are other times when the lines become more blurred and the concreteness of answers less tangible. These are the cases that truly need to be studied in order to give differentiation to those on a legitimate spiritual path, and those lost to an energy that is anything but freeing.
Last I started watching a new documentary series on Netflix called, Wild Wild Country. Although I’ve only made it through the first episode; as I tried to fall sleep last night, I felt my mind swimming in a sort of murk regarding questions about spirituality and the self.
The docuseries chronicles the teachings and movements of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers, especially during the period when they moved to a little town in Oregon. I would have been in grade school when this was happening, and so my personal historical context of the events comes strictly from the filmmakers. Nevertheless, as we were watching the first hour and the interviews that are obviously leading to what I imagine to be a darker theme, I was struck by a certain uneasiness. Past and present followers of the “cult” were discussing their personal loss of spirituality and their connection with the Bhagwan and his teachings. In talking about daily life and the “discourses” that would be given by the Bhagwan, they would talk about consciousness and meditation. They were talking about dynamic movement and a new view of sexuality. They spoke of raising energy in group settings and finding inner peace. They named places in their Utopian vision of a community after Buddha and Hindu deities. They were talking about practices, energies, and archetypes that I talk about and relate to on a daily basis! My heart sunk as I wondered if I am destined to become a cult leader if I continue to promote such things!
As I retired to bed, the physical silence of the room was hardly comfort for the chorus of voices in my head. I kept replaying the interviews in my mind and felt more and more like I was missing something. Many of us who have looked outside of Western organized religion have sought guidance in the religious teachings of other faiths like Buddhism and Hinduism. Whereas much of Christian focus is placed on the adoration of a single patriarchal figure, Eastern traditions bring the focus back to the divine within. Whereas Christianity is predicated on those in power teaching and interpreting the word of a displaced God that is outside our personal reach, many other faiths, both in the Eastern philosophies as well as the nature-based systems, offer direct connection to the love of the Creating Power through things like mindfulness and meditation. Even the talk about the expansion of sexual boundaries seemed to resonate with some truth since we are ever more reminded of the oppressive sexual culture we are in, that either ignores or exploits the sexuality of our young or seeks to serve one gender with the submission of another as a common way of success mongering in our world. The premises were all very familiar and made a lot of sense. What was missing? What went wrong with the so called, “experiment”?
Through many sleepless hours, and a heart open to receive whatever truth I should hear within, I started to see a kind of clarity in the questions. The answer came to me as a twofold problem. First, in listening to many of the interviews it was at first inspiring to hear people talk about finding this great missing thing in their lives. They spoke with passion about feeling as if, at that place, and at that time, they had found something of such profound significance in their lives that nothing else mattered. When you listen to the entirety of the message they were proclaiming, however, you realize that what they found was a one-dimensional solution to a spiritual void that required much more. They became fixated on the elevated level of consciousness that helped transcend the everyday boredom or pain but disregarded the lower levels of grounding necessary in any true spiritual enlightenment. Using the example of the chakras; if we send all our energy to our crown, we most surely starve and negate the lower chakras that ground us as physical beings and anchor the ego and our own self individuation, preventing us from losing sight of who we are at the most fundamental levels.
The second problem I see is just a renaming of a God figure and subsequent veneration of that figure to the detriment of a balanced relationship with the universal creative spirit in harmony with the personal divine found in us all. It seems strange to me that we seek to cast off a vengeful father figure in organized religion to only blindly follow another, slightly more benevolent, one. The packaging of the “holy one” and the message spread may have been different, but the underlying energy was that of following and being subjugated, versus the energy of being in concert with the true Universal Conscience without intermediary. Whether Bhagwan had meant for it to be this way, or he simply lost grounding in his own life and allowed power to become the higher master he served, the eventual outcome became people who were no longer seeking a spiritual path of self-discovery, but followers seeking the approval and love of a master figure. When we no longer ground to the self, we are vulnerable to deception of the mind, and manipulation of the soul. We become puppets of an “almighty” parent without the strength and mightiness within to challenge and create on our own terms.
When we willingly open the door to manipulation and control, there IS reason to fear. When we are confident in who we are at the most fundamental of levels; then, regardless of how we practice and where we seek our own spiritual path, we can be certain that the path we walk is one that is laid out by the only people who can truly direct our personal souls…ourselves.
It is important to remember that in any spiritual journey, the voices from the outside can, indeed, help guide and comfort at times, but the voice that brings enlightenment and truth is the voice from within. You might very well find yourself blessed to be on a path with other like-minded individuals, but the steps you take are yours and yours alone. Without a doubt, energy can be taken to new levels with the collective consciousness of a group. We can learn and grow while we interweave our story with others. We can celebrate life and comfort loss with the love of trusted people in our circles. However, we can never be whole and grounded in the Goddess or God energy we seek unless we are grounded in her/his most pure creative endeavor…the spirit that is uniquely us.
©2018, 2021 Marcus Everett & The Victorian Society of Metaphysics & Magic