This post contains my thoughts and reactions to King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, a text in the broadly Jungian tradition that argues for a generative and empowering form of masculinity to replace the toxic archetypes that are currently dominant in Western society.
The original notes were written contemporaneously with my reading of the book - they are something of a gloss on the text, and should be interpreted in that light. These are neither my current, nor final thoughts on the matter.
Indented text indicates the extracts from my journals, non-indented text is used for explanatory notes.
Traditional societies have defined boy/man (or child/adult) psychologies, bounded by processes of initiation. Since the Reformation, these have been eroded in the Western world, the ritual reduced to mere ceremony. What is left is pseudo-initiation, that fails to adequately transform the child to the adult; thus a failure to integrate. This leads to cyclical patterns of abuse and victimhood, severity and weakness, rather than the Middle Pillar. In a way, the process of moving into the New Aeon could thus be seen as redressing the harm done by the Reformation - necessary as that harm doubtless was at the time. All things in oscillation towards the centre.
The Patriarchy does not represent a mature masculinity, but rather is boyhood psychology writ large. It attacks both "true femininity" (in favour of submission) and "true masculinity" (in favour of conformity) - "Patriarchy is based on fear - the boy's fear, the immature masculine fear - of women... but also fear of men"
Contrast the "traditional" initiation into warrior culture as seen in various indigenous societies with Western "pseudo-initiations" such as gang culture and military service... both ultimately fail due to various factors, producing an unbalanced masculinity, often one of wanton violence, hostility, and dominance.
Our pseudo-initiations do not successfully slay the ego - rather, they amplify it, especially those worst parts of it. Second, the ritual space is not contained properly, neither spatially, nor by the presence of a hierophant-psychopomp to act as the initiating priest and guide to the aspirant. This final point is the most salient - without a hierophant who is themselves successfully initiated, there is a great danger that the aspirant will not be truly initiated, but, rather, fall into the traps of the ego.
The indwelling nature of the primordial archetypes provides a possibility for rectifying the above situation in the absence of proper hierophants - c.f. "the abyss too shall bloom" - all humanity have the inherent ability to reach the highest forms of initiation, regardless of external initiators or not, but it is just a lot easier with a proper hierophant (HGA, VVVVV, etc.). Note, of course, that if we consider the Dead and Risen God, LVX formula, to be that of initiation to {sol}, which is to say humanity in its perfected form, then the crossing of the Abyss that follows is not the same process at all. NOX follows, and presupposes, LVX.
NOX and LVX refer to specific magical formulae of initiation - they are perhaps best explained in J. Daniel Gunther's rather excellent text Initiation into the Aeon of the Child
Is the becoming of {sol} the becoming of adulthood? We might equate, or at least conceptually link the HGA with [the authors'] "fountains of innate masculine energy", to which one must submit in order to be truly initiated. C.f. Islam as submission to God.
The polarised form [of an archetype] is referred to by [the authors] as the "shadow" of the archetype in its fullness. I suspect that this is not exactly equivalent to the usual Jungian conception of the Shadow; to borrow Ramsey Dukes' theories - the polarised archetype is daemonic.
It is interesting to note [the authors'] use of the image of two pyramids to describe the archetypal structures; the pyramid of boyhood extends to cover a greater conceptual space in adulthood, if integrated properly. The archetypes of the child are still present within the adult self, but are expanded by experience, to cover a greater range of possibilities. The pyramid thus again becomes the archetypal image of Self (and note, πυραμίς = φαλλός, thus reinforcing the generative self's function in self-conception)
By certain systems of numerology, the Greek words πυραμίς (pyramid) and φαλλός (phallus) are equivalent, which is assumed to be symbolically important.
The Divine Child, the Jesus-Moses-Dionysus Osirian myth of a babe both divine and helpless, created or preserved as an emanation of the Divine by miraculous means... the Shadow of the Divine Child can be seen in the Paranoid-Schizoid position of Klein, which experiences completely polarised omnipotence and paradoxical weakness and fear of annihilation in turn... as with all polar relationships, enantiodromia is a factor at play... the weakling child suddenly erupting in furious tantrums when insufficiently coddled.
The Precocious Child, who thrives on the joy of discovery and understanding. He is the eternal seeker... the child prodigy... often introverted, but always willing to share knowledge.
[as shadow] the "Know-it-All Trickster"... which in the adult manifests as smugness and a domineering attitude "turning discussions into lectures, and arguments into diatribes"... in a more beneficent aspect, he is the Jester, who lets the inflated egos of others deflate. Consider Satan as the morally ambiguous trickster in this light - the troublemaker for the sake of Truth. C.f. The Book of Job, where, in one interpretation, Satan exposes the hypocrisy of both Job and God by daring them to break the compact of superficial faith born of a life of good fortune. One might say that Satan is the only one who really comes off positively in that one. Likewise, the Serpent of Eden, exposing the Shadow side of the "All-Good"Creator, could be seen as an integral part of the macrocosmic plan for reconciliation and development.
The Oedipal Child - his is the passion of connectedness with the Mother, whose infinite nurturing love he yearns for. His is affection, and the birth of spirituality. This Mother is the archetypal Isis; Mother Nature, Soul of All, and is beyond all considerations of his mortal mother
[the active shadow aspect] comes the closest to the Freudian understanding of the Oedipus complex. He wishes to destroy his father and marry his mother... unsatisfied by mortal women who faith to live up to his yearning for the Divine Goddess, he chases the poignant love of a hundred forms... [he] seeks not to be merely a mortal man with a mortal sexuality, but to be identified with the Phallus of God, and unite in congress with every woman that is the manifestation of the Goddess.
[In relation to the Oedipal Child] the Thelemic project can be seen as an attempt to unite the poles [of the Shadow Oedipal Child], in seeking the excess of each rather than the negation of either, in the hope of a kind of enantiodromic flip occuring to catapult the Self into archetypal synthesis.
The Hero is tied to the Mother, but rather than yearn to join her, he yearns to overcome her. He wishes to conquer her to assert his masculinity - thus emerge certain toxic archetypes of male "heroic" sexuality... note, however, the purpose of the Hero archetype - ultimately to found a beachhead against the unconscious, and to allow the seperation of the indivdual from the collective. This is, in point of fact, the archetypal conflict, and one which is essential to the freeing of the Psyche from the Chains of the Child, the tethers placed upon him by Mother and Father.
It is the triumph of the Hero which leads inevitably to his death - his sacrifice is an inescapable part of his journey. In death, he finds transcendence - the Boy dies, and the Man is born... one must, it is clear, first become the Boy-Hero; then the Boy must within his hour of triumph die. Only then can he rise again, as Osiris, and become the Man. LVX is fulfilled in his death; what Thelema adds is several methods of this achievement, and the demand then to move beyond to NOX. The high aspirations of the Aeon of Osiris are still too much for many - but the door is open, and the door beyond that, across the Desert, is at last conceivable, even if it is not yet crossed. LVX, the NOX. Become the Hero, then kill him.
The four archetypes categorically do enrich each other, and are not mutually exclusive. The Perfect King is also the Perfect Magician, Warrior and Lover - the apex of the Pyramid. To some extent, this describes the state of the Exempt Adept
The process of masculinity was once institutional and collective, [but] humanity now exists - at least in the West - in a much more individual state. C.f. Aeonic theory - our salvation is no longer in the hands of a God or Church, but is our own path to tread.
The Good King is as selfless as the Divine Child is self-involved. He is the Primal Man, Adam Qadmon, Imago Dei. Note that Kingship is an office that supercedes and is archetypal greater than any who fill it - cf. the Beast and Scarlet Lady; also the Pope-as-Hierophant, etc. Note also the ritual tradition of the death of a king - often sacrificial - being followed by the rise of a new vessel to take on his archetypal power - c.f. the Osirian Formula.
The King brings order - Dhama, Ma'at, etc - to the macrocosmic world, but only in so much as he can exemplify that order within... else he becomes as the Fisher King, and his wounds do wound the land with him (c.f. also the blight of Thebes that resulted from Oedipus' impiety)
"Those who would cut off masculine aggressiveness at its root, in their zeal, themselves fall under the power of [the Warrior]"... if turned against aggression, [it] becomes unconsciously repressed and manifests in other ways. Consider it as the psychological correlate to "New Labour Syndrome" - attempts to enforce peace becoming more destructive than war.
One might here draw inference from Alice Miller's ideas of poisonous pedagogy - the codified, harmful patterns of child-raising that use coercion, manipulation, and outright violence of one form or another to "tame" the child, forcing them into a conforming social role, and, on a psychological level, as a rationalisation of parental patterns of sadism, which is sanitised and euphamised as it passes from generation to generation - the "it never did me any harm" approach. These same patterns can be seen in other "pseudoparental" hierarchies - military conscription, medical training, or the institutional abuses of the Catholic Church, for example.
[In his properly integrated form] the Warrior has his own Dharma... The primary force here is one that drives forward, not merely holding ground - it is the energy to face life head on. This is produced by the proper application of "aggression" (force, perhaps?), which is to say, in a mindful and discerning manner. The Warrior knows what he wants, and knows how to get it; intent and action are in perfect alignment. Herein lies the difference between Hero and Warrior - the Hero, not knowing his limitations, cannot adapt. He must throw himself at the foe again and again. He becomes the Warrior when he recognises the need to attack the flanks of life, when he acknowledges his weaknesses and limitations, and changes his strategy.
The Warrior is something of a state of emotional disconnection. "I am afraid" becomes "there is a person who is afraid"... Alone, the Warrior is a destroyer; admixed [with the Lover and other archetypes], he emerges the warrior-poet, who is balanced between detachment and attachment, approaching the Apex... The Adept at {sol} is capable of balancing the archetypal forces; it is only when he becomes a Magister, and has reconciled the archetypes not only with each other, but with their ultimate negation - which is the negation of the psyche in totality that we refer to as the Abyss - that he reaches the true Apex of the Pyramid.
An interlude: some reflections on the Abyss
I wander in the desert, in the land-that-has-no-maps, of some petty abyss. That I know not the way matters not; I must press on and advance. Step by step, inch by inch, yard by yard. Ever closer toward something. The only incorrect move here is to lie down and die, to stop and let the sand of the desert consume me. Or, else, to build here the fortress of my delusion and join the the Black Brotherhood who dwell here. Can you not see their basalt towers, empty and ruined, devoid of all life, that they think to be their kingdoms? They have drunk Hypnos' brew, and refuse to awaken; sealed themselves within the bubbles of the cosmic foam, never to rejoin the Source of All, never to pass through. Beware.
And returning to the gloss of KWML
The Magician is, ultimately, the creator of civilisation... the ambiguous, chaotic but civilising force of the Trickster. He thus has the power to bring down the mighty King when his pride turns to hubris; he is Nathan to David, Merlin to Arthur... the mirror of kings, who shows things as the truly are... by correspondence - the Devil is the psychotherapist of God.
At his best, the Magician brings fullness and wholeness from within, and gives it to all beings - the desert shall flower with the water of his life, freely poured into the Cup of Babalon.Again, the specific meaning of the Cup of Babalon is a rather complex one, and is discussed relatively clearly in Gunther's Initiation
[the Shadow Magician] can be seen in a failure, or refusal to initiate... he witholds the initiatory knowledge for his own self-aggrandisement... The paternalistic doctor, witholding information from a patient; the dubious therapist, promising flawed initiations at great cost; the lawyer and the accountant, manipulating secret symbols and words of power as much as for their own gain as for any others; the advertising executive; the cruel classroom tyrant; the data-slaver. All these are facets of this Shadow.
"This is the man who thinks too much, who stands back from his life and never lives it. He is caught in a web of pros and cons... lost in a labyrinth of reflexive meanings... in the fear of making the wrong decision, he makes none" ... By cutting off from relating with others, one cuts off from one's own soul; by withholding from others, one withholds from oneself. Isolation begets isolation. This is black magic indeed - and probably the closest that [the authors] get to describing the Black Brotherhood, who are very much this manner of Shadow.The Black Brotherhood is a term employed in various Thelemic writings to different ends - one might consider them synonymous with "regressive, static forces", rather than as a specific organisation.
The lover is the mystic sensate, capable of perceiving the holographic universe - "the world in a grain of sand"... his sight is, too, the Eye of Shiva, cleansing the Doors of Perception and revealing - and reveling in - the Infinite that is equally singular...
The Lover, in feeling the Joy of the World, must also take responsibility for bearing the Pain of the World... [the Lover] is in some way opposed to all forms of restriction. As Joseph Campbell puts it, he enacts the tension between Amor and Roma, passion and order, Love and Law
The Dionysian nature of the Lover points to clues in its suppression by the Christian Churches. Both the sensual understanding of the material world as union, and the quest for self-made meaning are condemned with ferocity. It is easy to see the Lover's marks in the "greatest heresy" of Epicurus, the ultimate blasphemy against the ascetic's denial of the Lover. Yet, Dionysus is devoured and rises again, from within the conquering culture; the suppression of the Lover only sows the seeds for his return, stronger and more potent. The slaying of Osiris leads, inevitably, to the birth of Horus
[The Shadow Lover as Addict] is also the Idolator - he has fallen in love with the Fatal Image of Nature, forsaking the One for the Many... note the pornographic addict's idolatrous worship of breasts, legs, feet, cunts, etc. rather than the full experience of the Anima... the Addict ultimately seeks release from Maya, but finds himself seeking solutions that are ever outside himself, drawing him further and further into the web... he is the Lotus-Eater, who has tempted the Hero away from his quest.
Patriarchy is Puerarchy, Lord of the Flies written large. We now live in a world where many of the toxic shadows have been sundered - but we are now left with a void, an antisymbol where there are no initiaic structures of any value.
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