Traditions of Enlightenment and Social Reform
Alongside its political and technological history, mankind has a spiritual history. Of course this is separate from the history of religions because religions are organized institutions that often contain the basics for the initiate to travel the path of enlightenment. Also, I avoid lesser names of the various traditions because my wish is to explore more on how the process functions rather than the people who claim to have finished that process.
Like all other types of history this history is as equally important because of how intertwined personal spiritual beliefs are to any great discovery or invention. Many of the great works of art and science have been directly involved with spiritual experiences. From the founding of great empire to building of irrigation channels, we can find a spiritual impulse driving the creators. A sense of duty to an invisible divine self within the persons. This sense also formed the great amalgamation of beliefs that have shaped how society functioned and the rules they maintained to remain coexistent and united. With these, every society developed a system of merit, where people who gave extraordinary effort for their tribes or nations were awarded privileges. These privileges were an exchange for their effort to extinguish collective mental trauma or stress. This stress develops from the logical inconsistencies faced by every individual throughout their lives. Whether it be moral or otherwise, trauma exists in the habit of populations due to how they survive. Survival creates a conflict between idealism and the methods of survival employed. Take the modern meat-vegan debate for example. Where methods of survival are at odds with ideals. This area of mental conflict is what we later called conscience. Spiritual systems arise when a person starts to deal with the conscientious conflicts of their times. People who successfully find a working answer become avatars or apostles, varying with each culture.
Therefore a proper attempt at understanding the evolution of Human Thought is incomplete without understanding how the ball started rolling to begin with. What, other than the creation of man or original sin, allowed our ancestors to start seeking? What element of nature, other than curiosity, drives the thought of man? If we focus into the history of the traditions, we find Indian Schools and Semitic Schools and two other academically sidelined traditions such as the Magian-Druidic and the Shamanic which I feel could be called the 4 great traditions collectively. Every other school could be derived from the basic philosophies of these schools. And further we can focus onto the great individuals who formed and reformed the thoughts in these schools which will give us good insight into how humanity became what it is. We choose to focus more on the fundamental beliefs rather than how adherents view themselves by taking a more objective perspective.
The Indian schools have three key figures, Patanjali, Mahavir and the Buddha. Even though many other rishis exist, the key practices have been devised by these three. Patanjali devised Yog, method of union with the universe. Mahavir preached ascetic renunciation as a method of liberation from the entropy of rebirth. And the Buddha taught reaching a state of complete presence and inner silence. These three formed the essential practice that evolved into many dharmic religions. They almost always involve fasting, meditation and retaining posture till a person reaches balance in these matured states of their consciousness. Physical practices in these schools have to do with their philosophy of Karma and Rebirth. Which is something like this, as long as man has Karma that ties him to the Earthly realm, he will have to come back to resolve it. Mahavir holds the view that Karma is related to all that is physical and the more a mind is interested in material objects, the more Karma it develops and thus it becomes inseparable from sadness. This same view is held by all three schools regardless since all use the Vedic cosmology to define the universe. Thus we see a prevalent form of monism that all actions affect the physical universe and will always manifest into the world regardless of the conditions due to the existence of Karma, regardless of its nature.
Enlightenment according to the Indian Schools is to become free from the chains of Karma. Patanjali believes the freedom from karma is a process of physical and mental purification that will prepare the student for the experience of enlightenment. The school of Patanjali gives developed four systems to increase a person in good karma. Whereas the other two schools view all karma as negative. The Four systems: Hath Yog, Bhakti Yog, Karma Yog and Raj Yog, respectively delivers a man into enlightenment, however a fifth Gyan Yog is also added which is now more or less part of the existing four. The first two are the basic forms of religion, Hath and Bhakti, meaning physical and devotional. In Hath Yog, a person practices everything from limbic flexibility, to breathing practices that allow them to enhance their focus on various parts of their body. This focus allows them to discover abnormalities in their bodily functions easily and increases their overall endurance to the toils of the harder practices towards samadhi or engravement into the universal hierarchy. Samadhi is a much larger topic for another discourse. Bhakti is devotion towards the poor and helpless or other people on the path to enlightenment or an enlightened master. People must practice Bhakti and Hath simultaneously in order to free themselves of heavy Karma and only then they can move forward to practicing Karma Yog. Karma Yog is understanding the flow of the universe, the chains of karma through knowledge and sensitivity. In Karma Yog, a person learns to understand the social and individual psychological dynamics in order to connect how people create Karma and to free himself from such psychological impulses. Gyan Yog thus effectively becomes a part of this practice where a person learns and meditates upon what he has heard or read.
The School of Patanjali believes that a group of immortal masters oversee the evolution of mankind and enlightenment includes becoming a part of their system and methods. Such a person is known as a Rishi or MahaSiddha; who has connected himself to the universal intelligence and the masters who have done so before him.
Due to their differences, Buddhists take a sort of a middle path unlike the Hindus and Jain. The Middle Path is belief that Enlightenment is a form of Initiation into a Brotherhood of better people who live in a better realm. Their experience of the universe has become so separate from their Karma that they have adapted in experiencing the world differently. From this moment one can choose Pratikya or Mahajana. Those who choose to live MahaJana, they are hence called Bodhisattva, people who choose to return the siddhis in order to reform society and teach the Dharma as a normal human being. Mahajan thus meaning Greater Vessel, like a large boat that carries many people to shore rather than a one man canoe.
This would conclude the discussion on Indian Schools. Here we can see a the Hegelian Synthesis in action over the Millenia, where after two sets of extreme philosophies, a new philosophy arises and becomes attractive to those in power. This is because people of knowledge and thought understood that good and bad Karma was not just a matter of people’s actions. Karma is a result of intention and intention to do good is already doomed to build an attachment to good rather than freedom. The Buddhist Synthesis was to formulate a new method of virtue without intention but nature. However, this too was to change as the Buddha himself predicted that his Dharma wouldo nly last 500 years. Buddhism is the most successful Indian Schools because it provides everything that people look for in religious self-discovery. And in a way, Zen is the final result of thousands of years of Patanjali’s Yoga. And the defining ecstatic experience in Zen has been to attain Satori, which is a state of relief felt from abandoning all concerns and beliefs for a brief moment. This state acts as a refreshing of the mind in order for the practitioner to reorganize themselves and continue on with their lives. We often call this catharsis. Thus a state of inner peace even in moments of turmoil is the bedrock achievement of the Indian Schools. And those who master this technique often become the religious leaders of Indian Schools.
Now we can move on to Africa and the Middle Earth, where the Stories of the great Abrahamic Faiths take place. And the Magis of Zoroaster develop their systems of divination in order to cure people from their anxieties. Even though the dynamics of all the thousands of school in the 3 major Abrahamic faiths would require millions of pages to write, we will rely on reductionism and work with the results rather than the stories of their development.
When one studies the Abrahamic Texts we see that it is the theme of Adam and his lineage through Abraham that becomes the part of God’s covenant. This covenant promises the people that they are born from a pact made by Noah with God that his lineage will serve the wish of the One True God who created the Heavens and the Earth. The wishes of God were henceforth brought to Earth by a group of creatures called the Elohim or Malaikah, who are simply translated Angels. These Angels have a headquarters which is known as the Throne of God and from where they bring the commandments upon the people of the covenant. The Covenant begins with God testing certain people to establish his laws upon the Earth. To do this, God must get rid of competitors and thus hires preachers in exchange for a fruitful afterlife. The Abrahamic Covenant is simply this, live the way God wants you to live and avoid hedonism in exchange for a hedonistic afterlife. Therefore, people who pursued the trials in the Abrahamic way, often found themselves periodically isolating from the World for usually a number of 40 days. Somewhere away in the wilderness, atop a mountain, fasting and praying. And often, they would receive divine inspiration, hear a voice or meet an angel. People who undertook such a feat and happened to meet Angels were known as Prophets. Who often received some form of proof of their Covenant with God and went to the people preaching about the one true God.
The experiences of a Prophet would also require him to have a regular physical characteristics. In the Abrahamic system, a Prophet is always male, strong in body and in Willpower and has no physical defects. Because the people of the Middle East often had disabled persons who were capable of such experiences but they were interpreted as a symptom of their personal misery. Hallucinations caused by grief. The lineage of every Abrahamic Prophet must also go back to Noah through his son Sham, which is where we derive the term Semitic. The entire objective of Abrahamic Prophethood seems to be political activism and the attainment of Temporal Power. A manner of statecraft which holds scripture over Ideals. We could conclude the world today is dominated by this precept. Primarily, due to Mankind understanding the importance of recording certain supernatural experiences in the light of their eventual political influence and significance. From the Ark of Noah to the story of Exodus to the Conquest of Jerusalem, we find the theme of a Dynasty slowly obtaining power over Land through fasting and praying in isolation and receiving Divine Revelations. We observe that these activities that are seemingly worthless and meaningless attract the attention of humanity and unite them under the person who does these actions.
It becomes an arbitrary system of choosing a leader without simply relying on hearsay but on meritocracy where people have the opportunity to choose their leader without relying on personal opinion. It is in a way delegation of responsibility. And this delegation of responsibility to a higher father figure is the basis of all Semitic spiritual traditions. Whereas in Shamanic cultures, shamans use psychoactive plants to attain visions. Semites use fasting and isolation. We can see the same practice adopted in Tibet after the destruction of the shamanic Bon Peoples by the Buddhists. Universally, the Semitic technique supersedes the shamanic technique when civilization evolves forward. The connection with the divine maintains itself without the reliance upon divination. Needless to say, even the ancient Hebrews relied upon divination, meaning we can see into Islam or Christianity the slight remnants of their shamanic past.
With time, the Semitic system became more specific and defined as it introduced the matter of Canon. The Qanun is simply the Persian word for Law which later came to mean more in English. It is a systematic guide by which a person defines the signs they observe in the natural world and in their visions. It is a guideline of the histories of past visions of people called Prophets. It organizes a way for the genetic memory of the Semite to manifest in a reliable form. In essence the Semitic Canon usually begins with ritual bathing, anointment and leads to a journey to Heaven and a meeting with Angels and their leader. Implying a divine Monarchy in the Universe. This Canon took the form of the various books of the Old and New Testament, the Apocrypha and the Quran and many lesser known books. The history of these visions begins with the 7th Patriarch from Adam, Enoch who was accompanied by Angels to Heaven. The same experience repeats for Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad with little to no variation. The Canon later developed into various schools of theology or kalam which eventually lead to the Western Enlightenment and ideas of the Philosophers. These ideas later developed into many economic, sociological and legal precepts for the building of systemic Nations. In a way, the Semitic system of enlightenment won over other methods of because of its requirement to rely upon record keeping. Giving the people an ability to test an individual by using the knowledge of the Books, this is where enlightenment became interlinked with the meaning knowledgeable. Although through vast criticism from within, the Canon remained the topic of discussion and intellectual fascination where it allowed the mind of Man to face the vast Universe.
Another aspect of Semitic systems, albeit some sectarian ideas may differ, is its Apocalypticism. Other than the insistence upon monotheism, books and angels, Apocalypticism played a role in how Semitic people viewed the Universe. The Universe being unstable and extremely violent is their natural perception. Thus the reality of the volatile cosmos or even death did not frighten the average Semitic prophet. In fact the Semitic message has always been that that there is always someone tending the light at the end of the tunnel for the good people. The apocalyptic vision becomes central to Semitic thought because it leads the Prophets to pursue enlightenment. Whereas the Indian Schools use the idea of Escape from the Cycle of Rebirth, Semites use the idea of the eventual destruction of the world and the judging of Souls to motivate their psyche towards enlightenment.
The Druidic-Magian tradition are geographically isolated but connected through ancient Greece in their precepts and philosophical discussions. From Plato to Pythagoras to Paracelsus, there seems to be an idea of a Monad within the Universe. This implies that at some point the people of Medes and other Iranian philosophical centers moved west and north as far as Ireland. This migration of a likely Zoroastrian cult travelling to the north west as some form of Convent Mission is the history of monotheistic spirituality reaching Europe.
Nietzsche’s famous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra, refers to Nietzsche’s own thought with that of Zartosh, implying the fascination for a primordial European Monotheism other than Judaism. Meaning the earliest druidic literary circles had as a part of their mysteries, their knowledge of origin. Just as Freemasons find their root in Tubal Cain, Druids understand their roots to be with the ancient Magi. Albeit the three wise hermits are still part of the Biblical Story of the Star of Bethelhem and the story of Nativity.
Before moving to the main part, I must warn the reader that a person might draw parallels with druids to the Hermetic Tradition due to modern interpretations. However, anyone versed in the Hermetic Corpus knows that Hermes was more Abrahamic than Zoroastrian. The visions of Pymander, Hermes finds in his meditations are not like the teachings of Magis and Druids. Even though books like the Kybalion like to attribute the teachings to Hermes, by the time the book was compiled most of Hermetic ideas had been polluted through Druidic Lenses. Thus the historical Egyptian teachings are much different from the Kybalion which is essentially a Druidic Book. And parallels between spiritual traditions are found abundantly. Hermeticism is more related to Shamanism than Druidism. So, in essence Hermeticism as we know now is a mixture of all known traditions and contains elements of each. It is a syncretic school rather than an original one.
The Magian tradition of enlightenment originally began with an old Avestan cult that centered its understanding around Triads. Much of this understanding can be found in the works of Rudolf Steiner. The primordial triad is similar to that found in the Kabbalistic Zohar, and other Sufi Cultures that states Kether-CHokhmah-Binah as the triad. The druid defines it like this, 1) The primordial Truth.
2) Its relation to the individual mind.
3) Its effect in the collective Mind.
Essentially, God-self-other. Whereas the monotheism of Abraham requires domination of territory and public activities by political and legal means, the Druidic system is more eclectic and relies on group isolation. The practice of Monasticism found in the ancient Magians. Just as Patanjali is the founder of all Indian Schools, Magians consider Zurvan to be the first Magi.
The Monastic Cult of Zurvan founded the a school of theology. But the Gnostic ideas of a Lesser God and a Higher God could be academically traced back to Zurvan who proposed a God higher than Ahura Mazda and his rival Angra Manyu. A third that transcends both good and evil. Thus the Magian enlightenment became a tradition of transcending the ideas of Good and Evil and freedom from the circles of judgement. The Magi defines the freedom to do what is necessary at any given moment to be the defining characteristic of Enlightenment. The Magi must be free from judgement and guilt in order to be proficient. This same idea is reflected in the Tao Te Ching, which could imply that the Cult of Zurvan also went East during the Zhou Dynasty period. Because Lao Tze is essentially a Monastic Hermit is an era where anti-idolatry of Buddhism did not exist.
Thus the Magi and Druids reject the idea of objective morals. Morality to them is completely situational albeit some basic mannerisms are entitled as the Common Virtues. The Magi thus is essentially Taoist and this is why Taoism must remain separate from the schools of Buddhism which still employs the Indian theological beliefs and implications. And in essence, the culture of China is a cosmopolitan amalgamation of folklore, Druidism mixed with Buddhist practices and beliefs. The Taoist and the Magi both affirm that one must remain separate from the effects of the Collective Mind, from the Binah. The collective mind, though is a large hoard of worldly knowledge, becomes a impedance to the progress of human life. As long as the individual is not filled with Chokhmah, or complete mastery of the Individual mind, he will become distracted by the Binah and fall into an abyss of useless thoughts and emotions that will only destroy his mental ability to solve problems. Thus we see that both the Taoist and Druid affirm the ability to solve problems as the sign of enlightenment.
Thus the ancient Cult of Zurvan was a theological group that defined religion as a way of figuring out solutions to problems of the collective mind. Rooted in the idea that problems are the effects of collective trauma. Whenever a new idea is imposed on the Binah, it reacts violently because it is separate from the CHokhmah and the Kabbalist must take a detour through the other pathways. Here we can connect Sufis, Kabbalists, Taoists straight back to the Cult of Zurvan albeit not all of them but mainly esoteric ones.
Thus we see the Magi’s inclination to words, numbers and symbols. The Druids unlike other Abrahamics are open to almanac harvest rituals, spirit summoning, praising and chanting of entities other than the one true God, using methods of divination. The God of Zurvan does not demand anything but frees the Magi to partake in the World knowing his existence and thus frees the person to try out any ritual or practice that might spiritually benefit the person. The druid Eliphas Levi asserted that since antiquity sages have used methods of divination like the tarot to communicate with God. Implying that if God is real, God answers the calls to prayer. But since God’s nature is transcendent, the only way we can perceive this answer is to use a method that God can manipulate. Since Zurvan’s God is a god of time and events, whatever comes up in the roll of dice or the cards of tarot is God’s answer emanating into creation as he thought the answer to the prayer in his imagination.
The Druids thus consider the entire universe as a tool of divination, as a form of constant communication with the ancient divine Truth. Thus the druidic tradition of enlightenment is free from ecstasy but still filled with wonder and surprise but not so much that a person must overwhelm themselves at any given moment. In fact, Druids avoid overwhelming themselves and plan to progress slowly and carefully yet with complete confidence. Learning to read the Binah to understand the Kether is the Druidic path. Learning to see the signs that God is constantly giving to man in the form of events makes an Enlightened Druid whose task is to solve the problems that arise before him. That was the purpose of the Cult of Zurvan and its triadic divination.
Now, I must mention that this cult may have originated elsewhere but a highly liberal and gnostic group of monks is a rare phenomenon in the religious sphere. Because most religions rely on ascetic practices to attain enlightenment, a group that is completely unconcerned can only be found in some schools of Zen. Yet, these groups too follow strict rules whereas Druids do not emphasize on rules but depth. Religious groups that focus on self-improvement are usually linked with the NewAge and Hermeticism, yet true monastic orders of this kind was founded by Zurvan. Whereas other monks dealt with karma of the soul, Zurvan focused on finding methods to influence humans and solve the impedances in their way to realizing his Gnostic Truth.
Whereas almost all religious schools consider the universe to be alive, Shamanism is the only religious schools that sees communication as the primary goal of life. Whatever is alive must have a language through which it communicates with other beings and with God. Existence thus is defined by the manner of communication. Shamanism exists to some extent in all religious experience, because it usually involves communication from the other side or from within ones’ own mind.
Shamanism therefore relies heavily on symbolism and introspection. And the birth of Astrology, almanacs-calendars, story-telling, chemistry, pharmacology and numerology could be traced back to Shamanism.
A Shaman is a person who goes out into the study of nature and the effects of ingesting or inhaling various unpleasant substances. Shamans were usually older members of a tribal organization who put their lives on the line in order to test various other living beings regarding their edibility. And often when they encountered poisonous plants and thought they would die, would have a mystical experience where they would communicate with unknown beings which were later termed as spirits. Shamans thus invented spiritism, where they believe in a dualistic existence for all things, one, where the object has a physical side and another where it has a mental side. The mind of anything is known as its spirit and the physical existence is known as self. The Shaman tries to communicate with the spirit of things and learn how to use the knowledge gained from that communication in order to solve problems of the community. In a way. the Shaman is a sacrificial lamb who takes the good of the community upon his own shoulders and tries to perfect it. To do this, a Shaman has to learn to fight their own spirit first. Because for a person functioning in a society the identity is very important, but for a person communicating with objects without the ability to express their identity. The Shaman must give that spirit a separate identity and allow it to possess his self because otherwise, a mountain or a rock has no way to express emotions. This possession allows the information to come forward. This is an ecstatic state that forms the folklore and moral standpoints of Shamanic Tribes.
Then there are vision quests where a person learns to communicate with other living beings capable of expressing themselves both in self and spirit. This is why Native Americans often identify with animals because they find similarities in their personal spirit and the spirit of the animal. This is because all members of Native American tribes take part in psychedelic rituals where they drink psychedelic brew made from available plants. The brew causes a person to enter a dreamlike state where they are separate from their self and lives completely within their spirit. This is known as a trip. The Shaman however has to learn to trip away even farther than the common tribe member in order to act as a Hierophant.
The third form of communication involves communicating with pure spirit beings like gods, demons and ancestral ghosts. These are usually done by Shamans who have received some form of initiation into the realm of these pure spirit beings. After completing their role as a career shaman, they begin their own schools which divulge the mysteries likewise.
This is where we relate to Hermetic concepts. The basis of Hermeticism lies in visions of initiation and using that knowledge in a scientific manner. Meaning Hermeticism is a method of interpreting visions. Just like the I Ching or the Tarot methods of divination, Hermeticism relies on visual correspondences to interpret dreams and visions. And likewise is a syncretic form of spirituality that covers wide arrays of techniques. Which is why it is more likely to be Egyptian in origin because Ancient Egypt had both strands of Israelite Monotheism and the Mixture of African Shamanism. Another aspect that links modern Hermeticism to Shamanism is alchemy, the brewing of various potions and using of minerals and metals to catalyze them.
Shamanism is a natural phenomenon rather than human intervention like the Abrahamic or Indian schools. Those who deal with the matters of Death, and come close to it many many times, will find a way too wrap their minds around the matters of worldly life easier than those who take their worldly life to be purposeful. Shamans by tasting poison and surviving the adverse effects learn to navigate around the relation between taste, smell, appearance and dosage. Giving rise to the basics of alchemy and pharmacology. Even to this day, the boiling flask is the universal symbol for anything related to science, most importantly a research test lab. Shamans were in essence the first scientists who connected phenomenon with other phenomenon and drew maps of patterns and relations. The modern periodic table when viewed from the knowledge of groups and periods will appear to be such a work of art that allowed the Shamans to learn about the world and further manipulate it without having to rely on brute strength. This meant Shamans knew how to communicate with the spirit of objects and without having to bend them by force, politely asked them for the result the Shaman wished for. This allowed the Shaman to have a long term connection with seemingly inanimate objects. Practices such as talisman making and gemstone charging slowly became parts of Shamanism and with time practices such as Orgies, Human Sacrifice, Idol Worship and Cannibalism. This is where we get the modern Priestly culture. Something the Roman Church inherited from their European past. Shamans who skip the near death experience part, the part where you practice alchemy and learn the scientific method and jump straight to the extremes.
Thus we can see Shamanism is too natural and too volatile as a method of enlightenment to point towards any particular effort. Whereas we can see the philosophy of the East and their practices of longevity and the Abrahamic practice of building legal schools and promoting fairness, we seldom find an established Shamanic culture. Even though, Northern Imperialism is blameworthy for destroying these peaceful peoples, we must learn that spirituality can never flourish without a worldly goal and thus Shamanic Cultures were overtaken and destroyed.
With the main ideas of the work established, I can move on to viewing the history of the world with the lens of the individual psyche. Because most people formed their cultural concept of virtue from the geographically established schools of spirituality. With the Imperial Age the vast territories allowed men of each school to come together to debate their theology, teleology and ethics. Such an amalgamation happened after the Buddhist period in Alexandria where every ancient school came together to consult their ideas. In fact, during the Alexandrian era, the Abrahamic Schools were the lack luster ones. This revealed an opening for some Imperialist politicians to understand that the more ambiguous and unorthodox a religious school is, the easier it is to manipulate for political purposes. Likewise, after showing their resilience to the Romans, the Israelites became favorite of the Romans because of their faith. And thus faith became the greatest weapon in the Roman Arsenal and they ended up destroying Alexandria because as long as that exists, Abrahamic ideals of Christianity will seek to return to its origins. So, Romans had to destroy it before they could establish a Jew from Nazareth as their Savior and conquer the world both in Self and Spirit.
If we look at history the events played out perfectly, and within years of destruction of Alexandria, Romans became Christians. A false religion crafted out of the ignorance that resulted from destroying scriptural records. This reform changed the course of the Abrahamic faiths and their truth until the appearance of an Ishmaelite in Makkah. And soon his faith restored to Abraham the glory and honor of his God and Religion. Thus, the Romans failed utterly to control the power of the enlightened man to serve them to their benefit. This is my conclusion that enlightenment must coalesce into a force more powerful than any Caesar or Khan can muster. This is why the Chinese Emperor came to meet Bodhisattva in Tibet and not the other way around. The Son of Heaven is simply a commoner in front of a Buddha. The man who receives revelations from Angels surpasses those born of women because of his devotion to the unseen reality. Thus enlightenment begins with the extreme courage to walk a very lonely path to a very isolated place and yet ends up changing the course of Human History eternally. Had not Muhammad seen the man gamble away all his possessions, had not buddha seen the old woman suffer her last breath, had not Jesus been baptized by John, and had not Moses punched the Egyptian to death, Human History would be a mundane tale of birth, sex and death.