I happened upon AMORC Unmasked: The Hidden Mind Control Techniques of the Rosicrucian Order by Pierre S. Freeman in my travels. I read it with zero alarm. Look, every mystic occult group has techniques. Every group has a personality, and every subgroup within a group has a personality as well. I read Freeman’s diatribe with a big fucking yawn, because one of the techniques he went on about was that of self-hypnosis, as if that should raise demonic fear in the reader. Self-hypnosis isn’t always a bad thing. There are lots of useful things you can do with hypnosis, you know this. Anyhow, I read around the net for a while looking for counter-opinions. Even on a blog soliciting opinions on AMORC from two years ago, it’s a good healthy mixed bag of opinions. I’ll quote said blog: https://esoteric-guide.blogspot.com/2019/04/amorc-opinions.html 1)   Cannot criticize the Rosicrucian Order AMORC and the teaching of AMORC and its spiritual leaders (terms use for the officer of AMORC visible and invisible). 2)   Members must not read writing that is critical of AMORC. 3)   Members must voice their opinion against writing that are critical of AMORC. Honestly, if those are actually rules, then they’re asking to be roasted. Further, if a person agrees to those rules, they deserve what they get. Still further, if they agree to those rules and then abide by them, they are opening themselves to ridicule, manipulation, abuse and more. As the blog pointed out, asking someone to voice their opinion on something they aren’t even allowed to read is, well, a silly exercise in authoritarianism. I also looked into AMORC’s origin story. Sounds like most other esoteric societies’ origin stories to me. Seeker travels, receives the light, comes back and turns the light into a beacon, and then into a living. I can’t fault any of these folks for building their little cult empires. We haven’t yet figured out how to do enlightenment for free. In America, anything that’s free is perceived as valueless. We value things often by how much they cost. When choosing between two schools of enlightenment, we might choose the one that’s more expensive because of perceived value — especially if they offer a discount where it’s temporarily (or just for you) cheaper than the normally less expensive option. We’re weird that way. We like to feel like we’re getting a deal.

I state frequently in this archive that I hold no oaths or obligations regarding any information I discover and discuss here. I came across a “Study Curriculum for Entered Apprentice” document, and so far it has led to more questions than answers. First of all, pansophic freemasonry states that it is completely separate from traditional freemasonry, therefore it’s already irregular. It allows women, which is one primary difference. But it also seems to focus much more intently on the esoteric side of things, from what I’ve seen so far. It seems to be affiliated with Lewis Keizer, apparently a Bishop of several lineages, who seems to have his own school of thought relating to the “recovered teachings of Yeshua” and the lineage of Jesus’ brother James. I’m putting this on my radar for further followup, because none of Keizer’s books are available in my usual pool of random freebookery. Meanwhile, here are some links: http://www.hometemple.org/PANSOPHIC.htm https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/temple-holy-grail-thg Here’s a chart of paths to pansophic paths:

When I first started working with rituals, I realized I had a mental block or something preventing me from, or creating difficulties with, visualizing internally. At this point, I think had just spent too much of my life in a “scientific/objective” mindset. There were moments, especially in and around sleep, where I could close my eyes and allow shapes to form in the formless whirls of darkness, but it was very much untrained, undisciplined and frankly, lazy. I got the sense from my reading that I should be able to do better. So I searched in the normal places people search for information, and found a few interesting things: Magickal Visualization Training – Work Shop – Part One to Five, copyright 2000 by The Church of the Hermetic Sciences, Inc. A very short (four pages) tutorial which includes specific exercises to improve focus and stamina for visualization. It’s not a skill that most people use or cultivate as adults, so it needs to be trained and exercised. Additionally, it gave additional references (texts to pair with the exercises) which I was also able to find in my travels: Initiation into Hermetics, Franz Bardon Magical Ritual Methods, William G. Gray Fundamentals of Yoga, Rammurti Mishra Raja Yoga, Ramacharaka Self Hypnotism: Its Technique & Use in Daily Living, Le Cron. This is quite a respected book on the topic, but quite a bit dated at over 50 years old, and contains some truly outlandish and easily disproven claims — that asthma, for example, is the result of a suppressed childhood cry, and that further, asthmatics cannot cry. There’s still some valuable info contained within, but it’s difficult to take it seriously as a whole with such claims. The Book of Solomon’s Magick, Carroll “Poke” Runyon Magick and Hypnosis, Carrol “Poke” Runyon: This one was a game-changer for me. As a lifelong skeptic, I struggled for a while with “why am I doing this when it’s clearly made up?” This piece helped me to understand that it’s not supposed to be about believing at face value. I knew this from my Crowley studies, but this took it a step further, explaining that what was lost in the Victorian era, when “objective” experimental study took over, was the trance/hypnosis aspect of the rituals, which is critical to the internal reprogramming which is real core of ritual work. Find it. Read it. Tell me I’m wrong. Creative Visualization for Dummies This information takes time to digest, and the exercises take time to either take effect or not. At some point, I hope to follow up here on what helps (to improve visualization skills) and what doesn’t.

The goal of this site is to simply explore. I am exploring the wealth of information buried in the dark corners of the Internet and beyond. As I learn about things, I’ll share them here. I have sworn no oaths which will be violated here — the advantage of being completely unaffiliated, simply a solitary explorer scavenging across the wires, is that i hold no loyalty or allegiance to any of the entities about which I may write. If there appears to be an esoteric or occult bent to the things I’m exploring, there’s a reason for that — I’m out here in the weeds trying to make sense of it all. I’ll be talking about my impressions of various schools of thought, orders, authors and other personalities in no particular order. Writing about it helps me to process the intake. What happens when a human processes intake? Two things. It nourishes the human, and it creates shit. I will try to balance the two here, as well as I can. Sometimes it’s hard.