“The most basic spiritual truth is the simple fact that everything in the entire universe is created from God’s substance, God’s energy … God is beyond the good and evil defined by the dualistic mind.” ~ Kim Michaels

Evolution vs. Involution

They came from all walks of life … those strange European practitioners, who said theirs was an acquired and forbidden knowledge learned in a school presumed to be in Spain. No one knew exactly where the school was but speculation placed it at Toledo or Salamanca. The term of course was five to seven years during which time no one ever saw the students until they re-emerged haggard and grim faced. The headmaster was unseen and unheard; yet, all knew who he was – the only stipulation for entry – a “certain agreement.”

The school could only be reached through a cavern accessed by winding staircases, by which they were led far into the Earth – sealed away from sunlight, sealed away from the outside world by heavy and impenetrable iron doors. Except for their own murmurings, they schooled in silence.  Sustenance appeared by an unseen hand that catered sparsely to their bodily needs. No monetary fee was ever charged. They saw no schoolmaster or instructor. They heard no responses to their queries. The answers they sought and asked for each night in their evening contemplations appeared at dawn as letters that seemed illuminated on faded parchment pages or upon the cavern walls. No servants attended them.

Insidious

“God created spirits endowed with freewill, to become insidious is a choice of that freewill.” - Anonymous

Once “graduated” and re-entered into the world, they appeared to have no conscience or any need to show responsibility for their actions. Easily taking all the credit when things went well, they just as easily cast blame on others when it did not. Self justification was their first and only response to criticism.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, organized magical lodges serving the powers of evil were formed. Known as the Brothers of the Shadow or Black Lodges, these organizations were said to be in opposition to the forces of spiritual evolution and to the Masters and the Great White Lodge. In the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and traditions descending from it, the Black Lodges were associated with the Mysterious Dark Satellite and its sinister hierarch and source of power Ob. The Dark Satellite was said to be the place where souls that failed to make contact with their higher selves and so gain immortality, sink gradually into oblivion. It lies by location in the shadow of the Earth in space. There has been much earnest and studious thought given to the Dark Satellite. Some believe it to be tied to the Egyptian conception of spiritual fall and some believe it to be the Lost Orb of the Grecian mysteries while others insist it is the Moon in its connotation of the 8^th sphere of death and dissolution. Yet there is another explanation.  During the Golden and Silver Ages of the Earth’s evolution, the Dark Satellite was in the aphelion of its orbit. Its influence was scarcely felt but was minutely recognized as “animal force” and underdeveloped good. During the Copper and Iron Ages the orb gradually approached Earth and its dark shadows started to become perceptible yet remained bewildering. Around 1881 it passed its perihelion point and began to recede yet its dark clouds were not completely lifted from mankind’s mental horizon, as it remains today - a disturbing factor of our planet’s mental equilibrium.

The orb is said to possess a complete organization of its own. It is governed by defined laws the nature of which is exhibited in the lower animal nature manifested in mankind. The sphere is inhabited by numerous races of spiritual beings neither elemental or elementary possessing high intellect and cunning. Originating from a dark center in the Astral Realm, “the dark council” of magical hierophants creates the Grand Delusion. They are the producers of human suffering and misery and the procurers of lies, deceit, fraud and religious and spiritual imposture. All these things are constantly reformulated to suit the temper of human times. Its influence is subtle psychological poison projected into the dimensional mental matrix of the human race; the occult current penetrating the inner recesses of the mind and accosting the Soul until finally in the heart of man is found an evil sliver of self interest. The matter of energy distribution is inversive and used to distort and corrupt every arcane truth into theological dogma always with just enough “error” and doubt to make it acceptable to the logic of the human mind. The favored targeted prey is always those who are half informed of nature’s mysteries. The old proverb … “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” aptly applies here.

The greatest accomplishment of the Dark Satellite while it was at its perihelion was distortion of theology and metaphysics throughout the world at large through the doctrines of reincarnation and karma and the afterlife. Not all of this was successful because there are certain natural absolutes that cannot be corrupted by the dark magic. Man alone possesses the elements of both life and death. The laws of life have been fully elucidated and the Soul obeys them.

The H.B.of L.

The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor was founded in England sometime before 1884 by Max Theon and operated by his student Peter Davidson and his associate Thomas Burgoyne who had been imprisoned a year earlier for mail fraud. The H.B.L. can be considered one of the first examples of an occult correspondence school as its debut was in an advertisement in an English translation of the Corpus Hermeticum. Candidates for its membership, who responded to the advertising or were recommended by a member would be requested to supply a photograph and an astrological birth chart. Upon acceptance, the new member would be placed in contact with a mentor who would send out a series of manuscripts covering the teachings and practical work of the brotherhood. A modest membership fee and annual dues was also required.

In exchange for these things and a pledge of secrecy, the member would receive details of the system of occultism – mainly how to make and use an magic mirror in order to develop clairvoyance and clairaudience. They were also instructed in a method of sexual magic derived from the writings of American occultist P.B. Randolph. In addition they received documents outlining an idiosyncratic system of historical and cosmic cycles based mainly on the theory of polar shifts propounded by British shoemaker/scholar Samson Mackey.

Foes and Feuds

The H.B.L of L. had a running feud with the Theosophical Society which was a major player on contemporary occult circles. Theosophical writings of that time claim that the ideology of the Black Lodges glorified the infinite assertion of separate individuality, as opposed to the teachings of the Great White Lodge which sought to lead all souls into Divine Unity. It must be noted that actual evidence for the existence of Black Lodges along these lines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries appears to be entirely absent although there were a number of Satanist organizations at the time and other lodges of dubious character with teachings identical to those the Theosophists attributed to the Black Lodges.

Unfortunately, Burgoyne’s position as Private Secretary to the Council of the H. B. of L. and one of its two prominent members and his past imprisonment did not gel well. In 1886, when word of this broke it resulted in scandal which brought about the downfall of the H.B. of L. It continued a branch in France and attracted occultists the caliber of Papus but by the first decade of the twentieth century it was all but extinct … or was it?

In Germany and the United States, the brotherhood attained and kept  a certain degree of longevity but under new names and in different forms. In Germany, the Ordo Templi Orientis was founded by ex H. B. of L. members Theodore Reuss and Carl Kellner. They incorporated the H. B. of L.’s sexual magic as the secret teachings of its highest degrees.

In America, where both Davidson and Burgoyne moved in the aftermath of the scandal, the H.B. of L. set down deeper roots. New students were recruited and the brotherhood’s lore continued to be taught. Burgoyne wrote and published The Light Of Egypt which became a popular work in American occult circles.

From Dark to Light

Eventually, Burgone ended up in the center of a new organization called the Brotherhood of Light based in Denver, Colorado which had its own publishing arm. In 1909, Elbert Benjamine, known widely by his pen name C.C. Zain, became head of the Brotherhood of Light and started a transformation that led to the Church of Light founded in Los Angeles, CA in 1932. The Church of Light remains active today. It is dedicated to the “Religion of the Stars” and takes a spiritual approach to life based on astrology and occult philosophy. It’s members are called Stellarians.

The Law of Free Will is very clear. All self-aware beings have the right to create any experience for themselves that they want for as long as they want (within the framework of the law). This means that YOU have a right to do whatever you want—as long as you do not seek to interfere with other people’s free will. Do you see that there is a subtle distinction here? You can do whatever you want, even if it affects other people. However, you do not have a right – according to God’s law – to try to interfere with the choices other people make. For example, striking a person on one cheek obviously affects him, but it does not violate the law, for he is still free to choose whether he will strike you back or turn the other cheek. Yet seeking to deceive or manipulate someone into making certain choices is indeed a violation of the Law of Free Will.
~ Kim Michaels

Resources:

The Encyclopedia of Forbidden Knowledge (Zolar)

The New Encyclopedia of the Occult (John Michael Greer)

 http://www.ascendedmasteranswers.com/spiritual-topics/black-magic/285-prayers-of-mal-intent