Greg Moffitt has posted the third part of our discussion about the life and work of Colin Wilson, based on my book Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson, on his popular Legalize Freedom site. Like myself, Greg is a dedicated Wilson reader, something that comes through in his comments and questions. Wilson’s antipathy to the ‘socially conscious’ - read left wing - sensibilities of many of his early contemporaries starts us off, which seems apt for our own time, when practically everything has taken on an unfortunate political character. Personal growth and development versus political ideologies and utopias: that seems a significant contrast today, and much of what Wilson had to say is applicable to our own situation. And if you’ll allow me the plug, I touch on some of this in Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, which will be coming out this summer.
In other news, I’ve been asked by the Swedenborg Society to contribute to a series of short works, exploring the many areas of the eighteenth century Swedish savant’s work. I’ll be writing a long essay on the notion of ‘correspondences’, which is central to Swedenborg’s vision of a earthly, physical realm informed by links to the higher spheres. I’ve talked about this in other books - Swedenborg: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas and A Dark Muse (aka: The Dedalus Book of the Occult: A Dark Muse) - and of course the idea of correspondences is a central theme in the western esoteric tradition. I will place Swedenborg within this tradition and look at how his ideas influenced people like the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who took them and, with some borrowing from Edgar Allan Poe and the the German fantasist E.T.A. Hoffmann, invented Symbolism.
Gary Lachman 
We the Animals!
Freedom has been systematically suppressed by those who profess to be its champions but really are its arch enemies. If freedom is based on man-made (artificial) laws instead of Natural Law, it can never be more than an incomplete, pseudo and therefore false liberty. Those brave souls that have fought and died for the ideal of true freedom are heroes of Liberty, but unfortunately they did not realize the limitations of their vision and could not foresee the ultimate corruption yet to come.
The perversion of occult knowledge by egocentric narcissists has created a dark cloud of ignorance and apathy which has descended upon and enshrouded humanity. This has resulted in a very effective division and enslavement of human consciousness. To be sure, this is a conspiracy of global proportions, but it is not the one I wish to focus on now. It is a hideous expression of a deeper problem. This is the crux of the theme I am exploring in my Breathing Together series.
We as a species have acquired in some way intellectual abilities which set us apart from the other planetary inhabitants. This human intellect has enabled us to survive and dominate this planet, but our spiritual weakness is leading to a destruction of our home world which will inevitably lead to our destruction. The many problems which exist in our world cannot be, and will never be, solved from without. The only solutions which exist are within ourselves, but we are continually led to believe that the answers (the Truth) is out there.
“Out there” is where we are divided, lead, herded and corralled like the animals were are. What we need to understand and embrace is that, although we indeed are animals, we have been gifted with Divine potential. This gift of free will offers the choice of thinking for ourselves (individuality) or thinking like everyone else (hive mentality). Unfortunately the vast majority of us choose the latter for its convenience and relative (but false) safety. We forgo the pursuit of Truth for a dream which involves acquisition of material wealth and the loss of spiritual health.
For those brave souls who choose individuality, the path of Truth leads deep within themselves. This is the abyss into which they must jump and out of which they must learn to fly if they are to emerge victorious as the Phoenix from the ashes of their animalistic selves. Upon emergence from the abyssal depths of their former selves, they will rise as eagles, soaring upon the thermals provided by Sol, expression of the Limitless Light which provides us with exhaustless riches!
What we, the animals, need is a declaration of independence from the tyranny and oppression brought about by deliberate division and systematic occulting (and perversion) of the knowledge which can set us free or enslave us. We the animals are free to choose, and that freedom has never been greater nor more endangered than it is now. With the availability of so much knowledge at our finger tips we have the greatest opportunity to learn, grow, love and be free, no matter what our worldly circumstances are.
We are at the event horizon of a great darkness looming ahead. Will we find the inner strength to let go of our fear and pride and jump into the abyss of ourselves or will we forever struggle to escape the Truth within an succumb to and be consumed by the many attractions “out there.” The choice has always been, and always will be ours!
Shalom, namaste and pranam!
Do you have any qualms about appearing in a magazine (New Dawn) that freely includes writings by neo-nazis (Kerry Bolton)?
I don’t write about neo-Nazis myself, and my book, Dark Star Rising, which is coming out in May, is a very critical of the alt-right etc. Other writers I know who work in the same milieu have published in New Dawn. If you look at my articles I’ve give you a free book if you can find any examples of my condoning, supporting, or in any way encouraging neo-Nazism or any form of far-right politics. So far for New Dawn I have written about the Morning of the Magicians, Near Death Experiences, an occulture event I appeared at in Spain, and a short piece that serves as a teaser for the above mentioned book. But if you want to suggest that because I write for a magazine that publishes material from someone you are critical of I am therefore guilty by association, I guess I can’t stop you, but I would say that you are barking up the wrong tree. People used to say something similar because I published a few articles in Andrew Cohen’s magazine EnlighteNext - and by the way I take a look at Andrew’s guruship in the book. The logic runs that because I, a working writer, who has to support himself and his two teenage sons on what he earns from his work, have published a few pieces in ____’s magazine (you can fill in the blank), I must of course wholeheartedly embrace everything else published in the magazine. If so, I wonder what I must be guilty of for being published in the Times, Guardian, Independent, Fortean Times, and the dozen or so other journals I’ve written for in my career. Is this what you’re curious about?
I think New Dawn owes Dave a free magazine in return for the free publicity.
I’ll mention it to them. Cheers!
BTW, I’m nine tenths of the way through Wilson’s The Occult, having been introduced by Beyond the Robot. Wish I had read it a couple of decades ago, but better late than never.
That’s what we like to hear.