Hard To Remain A Skeptic

Hard To Remain A Skeptic
December 17, 2003
5:53am

The coffee maker sputters and splooshes, its magic elixer tea this morning. The roar of the welcome heater send warmth into the air. Both are comforting, the hot tea and the heated house. And I am once again here with me and me and you and you to see what we will find.

Sad, last night's process of discovery, and some of the chill from that is still in my bones. But if I look at fallen heroes, or fallen anti-heroes, without an eye of compassion, then any resultant lack of understanding is mine.

I pass this way but once, I think, and nod to the quarters. Humble, I feel, upon the passing. How is it I can feel 'humble', yet still embrace my ego so completely? This could bear some intuitional analysis but I'm not sure if this is where I'll end up on this morning's mental journey.

LeVey came to deny the Power and the Mystery. When I look at Laura's most fiercely skeptical pieces, she never did that.

Now she did make some claims I can't agree with. In her Rational Perspective on Life, she makes the statement:

Our website is not a mystical site!

She then gives the dictionary definition of mysticism:

Mysticism - 1, The belief that "knowledge of divine truth" or the soul's union with the divine is attainable through spiritual insight or ecstatic contemplation or intuition. 2. Any theory advancing intense meditation and intuitive methods of acquiring knowledge of the universe. 3. Vague or obscure speculation involving fanciful or confused thinking.

Anyone who has done the least amount of poking around in the Illuminaria pages, knows 'ecstatic contemplation' or 'intuitive methods of acquiring knowledge of the universe' is indeed what's going on here. Well it may be then, that I have a separate domain for these items.

But as I read Laura's words, it becomes apparent what she REALLY opposes, ''The meaning to their lives is vested in being a child of god, as if being an individual forging your own meaning to life is totally abhorrent.''

However, BEING AN INDIVIDUAL FORGING OUR OWN MEANING TO LIFE is precisely what Left Hand Path is all about. It is possible to have the ''mystical method of transcendence'' without being ''in servitude to imaginary deities.''

It is clear from the following powerful paragraph what Laura was all about:

What glory in having lived if we live only at the whim and sufferance of some incredible being which we can never ourselves become? What joy in life if we can only look on in awe at something so large, so incredibly inconceivable that we can scarcely imagine it, let alone evolve to stand shoulder to shoulder, as equals? Far more satisfying to let the things of our childhood pass away and, standing naked before the universe, proclaim the meaning of our life is ours to control, ours to choose. We are the makers and shapers of our individual destinies, not chance and certainly not gods.

She further explains:

What is different about this path, is that you choose every step you take, you choose where you walk, where you intend to arrive, and how much effort you want to devote to it, or how little.

There is a vast difference between skepticism and cynicism, as she illustrates:

Insulated from the games that insecure and immature people play, a skeptical mind is free to think, to create, to imagine, in ways simply not available to those steeped in superstition. Unfettered, your thoughts can soar, never blocked or slowed by signs reading, "No Passage Here! Not Permitted! Eat Not of This Tree."

It seems Laura means something different for the word 'skeptical' than merely 'dubious' or 'doubtful'. She's decrying those who give up their judgment to an external source. It is clear that it wasn't really 'intuitive methods of acquiring knowledge' that Laura opposed.

In Real Magick she declares:

First, let me introduce you all to the Greatest Book of All! The Mysterious, All Powerful, Book of Enlightenment! This book will introduce you to the source of all power in your life ... it will answer all questions, provide all the answers you will ever need .. and you already have a copy and are not aware of it.
In most cases, to find the Book of Enlightenment, walk into your bathroom, stand in front of your sink, and look straight ahead ... there is the Book of Enlightenment, the Book of All Knowledge in your life. There is the answer to all questions, the solution, when there are solutions, to every problem. There it is; you looking back at you.

It is not possible to get any more Left Hand Path than that. Laura didn't deny the appeal of magical callings, she just wanted people to use their OWN MINDS:

However, if you really want the biggest bang for your magical buck ... make your own, do what appeals most to you, satisfies your nature, thrills your heart ... for then, if there is a Mystery, and it keeps putting so much magic in my life that it is hard to remain a skeptic, it takes delight in experiencing the joy you bring to your life and things will happen, good and bad.

''Hard to remain a skeptic,'' Laura did not deny the mystery.

She did deny the claims of those who attempt to profit on other's fears by claiming power and authority in their lives to declare what is true and false. It may be the desire for material profit that is the corrupting thing. There are so many ways this can be done. So TV preachers bilk old ladies out of their trust funds, Sai Baba has a fleet of fancy cars and LeVey sold degrees for money. Always after the buck, the cynic loses the real 'gold' and may lose more than that.