The Path to Enlightenment and Physical Immortality
"Horus avenges both his Father and his Mother. This child Horus is a twin, two in one. Horus and Harpocrates are one, and they are also one with Set of Apophis, the destroyer of Osiris. It is by the destruction of the principle of death that they are born. The establishment of this new Aeon, this new fundamental principle, is the great work now to be accomplished in the world." - Aleister Crowley in The Equinox of the Gods (p. 134).
There are 5 essential points along the road to enlightenment:
1) That of the initiate who has undertaken the search.
2) The adept who has through doubt arrived at the vantage point of the certainty of individual existence and grown to doubt all things including his thoughts. This is also the work of the philosopher who has arrived at an existential view of the universe. Anotherwords, he can only be certain that he is, because it is the only thing that he cannot doubt. It is fundamentally the work of thought or magick.
3) The Exempt Adept who has undertaken the work of combining opposites in order to transcend duality.
4) The Master of the Temple has transcended duality by silencing thought (or acquiring the concentration/energy) necessary to make the leap across the abyss (the implied sephira Da'ath). This unity is expressed as a balance between opposites whose sum is zero (+1 + -1 = 0) or 2=0 (duality is equal to zero; everything in the universe whose origin is established by the essential formula of duality came from nothing; or more appropriately duality and nothing have always existed there was never a beginning everything and nothing always was. Anotherwords, that equation has always just 'sat' there it is the IS that is NOT).
5) The primary work of the Magus and Ipsissimus is to see unity in the midst of duality or 0=2. A return from nothing or structuralization, limitation of the formless into form. This is the highest magick because form is structured from the Infinite. Lower forms of magick are based on action/thought based on reaction to one's environment.
So we see there are three primary stages:
1) That of the unenlightened individual who only sees duality.
2) The Master of the Temple who has transcended duality and therefore the individual point of view or ego may view duality as being in conflict with Nothing. Therefore, he wants nothing to do with duality only that No-Thing. He creates a division between the levels and does not recognize that the body, mind and everything in the universe are also That.
3) The Magus or Ipsissimus realizes that everything IS. Although there appears to be change in duality, the individual may arrive at physical immortality by recognizing that duality is capable of cycling elements while preserving essential forms. Anotherwords, the body is composed of different elements at any given time, we have a new skeleton every 7 years, the cells are replaced by new ones but, the structure remains the same (the only problem is entropy). We still look the same physically even though we are composed of different cells years later. Crowley write in Magick in Theory and Practice (p. 181):
These secrets are of supreme practical importance, and are guarded in the Sanctuary with a two-edged sword flaming every way; for this sacrament is the Tree of Life itself, and whoso partaketh of the fruit thereof shall never die.
Unless he so will. Who would not rather work through incarnation; a real renewal of body and brain, than contend himself with a stagnant immortality upon this mote in the Sunlight of the Universe which we call earth? The use of the Elixir of Life is only justifiable in peculiar circumstances. To go counter to the course of natural Change is to approximate perilously to the error of the "Black Brothers".
This does not deny the essential formula of reincarnation for lesser organism but, implies that on a larger level (that of the human being) the capacity to shapeshift will replace the need for reincarnation while preserving the continuity of consciousness for those who get bored of being the same character after a few hundred or thousand years. Of course the old character will be saved for all eternity much like a video game so that one can always assume that role again. The capacity to shapeshift will include the ability to morph more than one's body. One will be able to completely replace one's memory as well (in this case there will be no continuity of consciousness) effectively duplicating the reincarnation process while avoiding the negative aspect of growing old and dying. See my essay Speculation on Future Aeons, keeping in mind that the supernals are immortal, and therefore correspond to the work of physical immortality.
Crowley, Aleister. The Equinox of the Gods. Tempe, Arizona: New Falcon, 1997.
Crowley, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice. Secaucus, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1991.
�2004 by Ian Axir. All rights reserved.