The Myth of Guilt

If you look over to the side bar (on the blogpot page only, not on LJ) you will see that several other of my Blog-buddies have the same subject line as I do today. My Gal suggested it as a topic, and I agreed to write about it today along with the other. Thing is, until I looked over at the side bar I completely forgot about it.

But I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about it.

This blog at the moment is really here for me to make quickie posts when I get blocked on writing my book after all; thus the poorly edited, typo-riddled, half-understandable posts that have become the normal fare here. Most of my posts take less than 15 minutes to write. So its no big deal than just to crank out an off-the-top-of-my-head rant on the idea of a myth of guilt.

Last year at around this time I gave an interview to a Princeton Local TV Station where I spoke about magick, both practical and esoteric. When I talked about enlightenment, transcendence, self-actualization and such, the interviewer responded: that is what religion is supposed to be for. I surprised her when I said it wasn’t at all what religion was for. At least not mainly.

Religion really serves two purposes: Translation and Transcendence. Most people are ONLY concerned with translation, thus the bulk of religious practice and service is devoted to it. Religion translates the mysteries of the universe into easily understood axioms and directives. What happens when I die? Why am I here? Why is there evil? How can I be a good person?

The translation settles the essential questions enough that you can go to your job, shag the wife, pop out some kids, and keep society rolling without causing much of a fuss.

Transcendence is almost the polar opposite of this. Rather than explaining the world, transcendent spirituality or mysticism questions it constantly. Rather than relying on faith in an answer provided by text or tradition, the mystic relies upon knowledge that is gleamed from his questioning. The first role of religion re-enforces the norms, the second questions them. The direct perception of the deeper layers of reality reveal a lot of what society considers valid to be nothing more than myth. No wonder that the mystics of any faith, often come into conflict with the priesthood.

Religion is there to translate the world just enough so that people can get on with their day. Guilt is a part of that translation. When you break the rules of what is “good” they tell you to feel guilty. It’s a control mechanism. People that have traveled in Asia have often commented about the difference between the “guilt culture” of the west and the “shame culture” of the east, but that’s perhaps a bit too much for this post. Either way, the myth of guilt and shame is a method of societal control.

Many modern occultists are concerned with fighting the myth of guilt and see it as an inherently bad thing to be undone in every man, woman, and child. I however am HAPPY about the myth of guilt.

Many mystics and magicians, achieving even the slightest Gnosis, begin preaching on the evils of faith and the freedom of transcendence. Sayings like “Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted” get bandied about and documents like Liber Oz get posted detailing the rights of a man freed from the myth of Guilt and Sin. But here’s the rub: not everyone wants to do the great work. Not everyone wants to blow their mind. Not everyone wants to cut through their habitual patterns. Not everyone wants transcendence. When you start shoving gnosis and transcendence and freedom down peoples throats, your just another Jehovah’s Witness telling people what to do.

Most people on this earth are worried about feeding their family, keeping their kids safe, eeking out a comfortable existence, and maybe finding time to engage a hobby or two. They are not worried about bursting the bubble of false reality. They are not worried about enlightenment or transcendence. They have every right not to be.

I personally accept "every event as a direct dealing of God with my Soul”. I personally have found a state of awareness that I can rest in from time to time that is beyond attachment and clinging. I personally have no use for guilt in my life; its just blame aimed at the self and I have never had a use for blame. Will under Love is my Law. I personally feel the need to explore and attain. I personally know the joys of transcendent freedom; but to tell the truth to someone not ready to hear it is to tell a lie.

I can’t tell most people “Do what thou Wilt is the whole of the law", or that they should reject the myth of sin and guilt. Most people don’t even have basic politeness or civility down pat, I am certainly not going to repeal all the myths and laws that help keep them in line!

Psychopaths after all are just regular people with no sense of guilt.