New Dawn – World's Most Unusual Magazine

Author: Robert Black

  • The View From the Other Side of the Chessboard

    The View From the Other Side of the Chessboard

    From New Dawn 216 (May-June 2026)

    The ongoing conflict between the US and Iran makes “The Grand Chessboard Endgame” essential reading for anyone willing to understand the strategic design behind the shifting headlines. Exclusive to New Dawn #216, this investigation traces the struggle back to Mackinder and Brzezinski, revealing why Iran’s position at the heart of Eurasian trade, energy and emerging multipolar alliances matters far beyond the official explanations.

    For a gripping preview, read “From the Other Side of the Chessboard” (full text below), where Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin argues that the assault on Iran marks the final, dangerous struggle of a fading unipolar order. Readers who already have #216 have seen through the Establishment narrative and understand the larger agenda. The latest developments come as no surprise to them.

    Share the following or pass your copy of New Dawn #216 to anyone who dares to question the official approved version. If you haven’t already done so, you can still order New Dawn #216 here and discover what the nightly news leaves out.

    In 2005, Alexander Dugin sat across a chessboard from Zbigniew Brzezinski in Washington. The Russian philosopher asked the American strategist whether chess was a game for two players. Brzezinski’s answer was immediate. “No, it’s a game for one.”

    The author of The Grand Chessboard saw a single player at the table of world geopolitics. Two decades later, as American bombs fall on Iran, the man on the other side of the board has a different reading of the game.

    Dugin, the most prominent theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism, has been sanctioned by the European Union and the United States. His daughter Darya was killed by a car bomb in Moscow in 2022, an act widely attributed to Ukrainian intelligence. None of this has slowed him down. 

    On the 6 April 2026 Russian Sputnik programme ‘Escalation’, Prof. Dugin delivered what amounts to his most comprehensive analysis of the war on Iran and its place in the global contest between unipolarity and multipolarity.

    In Dugin’s analysis, the American-led global order established after the Cold War is expiring. The assault on Iran, Trump’s expletive-laden threats, the shifting deadlines, the bombing of cultural sites, all of it registers as the desperate flailing of a system that can feel the ground giving way beneath it.

    His central concept is the “agony of the unipolar world.” He means the word in its classical sense, the final struggle before death. Trump, in Dugin’s analysis, has been chosen by the Western ruling elite as the instrument of that agony. There is no longer time for liberal illusions, for humanitarian rhetoric, for talk of human rights. 

    Dugin reads Trump as the unwitting agent of this collapse. Where previous American presidents wrapped imperial policy in the language of human rights and international law, Trump has stripped that language away. The liberal mask is off. What remains is raw force, openly declared. 

    Dugin identifies a four-stage strategy behind what looks like chaos. First, reassert control over Latin America through pressure on Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico and Colombia, a renewed Monroe Doctrine. Second, destroy the main pole of sovereignty in the Islamic world through Israel, with Iran as the primary target and Turkey next in line. Third, pressure Russia into vassalage, using European NATO as leverage, interpreting Moscow’s willingness to negotiate as weakness. Fourth, full-scale strategic war with China before the end of Trump’s term.

    Each target, Dugin argues, is told the next stage “does not concern you.” Iran is stage two. The war is already underway. Each stage is designed to clear the path for the final confrontation with Beijing.

    “Trump does not need negotiations,” Dugin says. “His ultimatum to Iran is a clear warning to China and to us: ‘this is what will happen to you if you dare to resist’.”

    Dugin frames Iranian resistance as civilisational, drawing on the Shia tradition of accepting earthly defeat for spiritual victory. When Trump attacks Iranian society with open cruelty, Dugin argues, he receives in return the opposite of what he expects. 

    “The heroic Iranian people today stand united against pure, unalloyed evil coming from the West.” The human chains around power plants in April 2026 and the millions of Iranians who registered to sacrifice their lives are, in Dugin’s reading, expressions of a civilisational depth that brute force cannot reach.

    The American president is attempting to complete this programme before the 2026 midterm elections, ignoring all obstacles, burning through allies and generals alike. Dugin points to Trump’s dismissal of loyal figures, combat generals removed mid-campaign, his own attorney general thrown out, as evidence of a leader operating under extreme time pressure in a system that knows its window is closing.

    Two years before the war, Tucker Carlson warned Dugin during a private conversation that “Trump will not accept multipolarity.” Carlson, who helped bring Trump to power, is now in open opposition. “He believed in him, shared his ideas,” Dugin says, “but Trump betrayed the MAGA movement and his supporters.”

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    Dugin closes with a formulation that leaves no room for ambiguity. “Many of us believed that Western dominance was already in the past and that multipolarity was an accomplished fact. But it seems we were just as premature as Francis Fukuyama was with his ‘end of history’. The multipolar world has not yet arrived. The struggle for it is happening now.”

    Brzezinski told Dugin in 2005 that chess was a game for one player. The board in 2026 tells a different story. Iran has refused to be swept from the squares. Russia and China stand behind their own pieces. The “single player” Brzezinski imagined is running out of moves.

    [alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]This article was published in New Dawn 216.[/alert]

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  • Ascended Masters, Mahatmas and Political Agitation

    Ascended Masters, Mahatmas and Political Agitation

    From New Dawn 74 (Sept-Oct 2002)

    There is more to this movement that you have yet had an inkling of, and the work of the T.S. [Theosophical Society] is linked with similar work that is secretly going on in all parts of the world… know you anything of the whole brotherhood and its ramifications? The old woman [Madame Blavatsky] is accused of untruthfulness and inaccuracy in her statements. “Ask no questions and you will receive no lies”. She is forbidden to say what she knows. You may cut her to pieces and she will not tell. Nay – she is ordered in cases of need to mislead people…
    – Mahatma Morya1

    One of the more bizarre facets of the New Age movement is the belief in Ascended Masters. While this doctrine seems modern in its diverse applications, its origins are in the earliest machinations of Theosophical history.

    The original advent of the Mahatmas was within the framework of the system developed by Madame Blavatsky. Later this system was modified, transformed and many would say distorted by various factional movements that developed within Theosophy. Certainly the Theosophy of Charles Leadbeater and Annie Besant seems at odds with the esotericism found in the Secret Doctrine (Blavatsky’s major theosophical treatise). The problem was that the “Ascended Masters” mythos which began with Blavatsky took on a life of its own; when confronted with the egalitarian democracy of the USA, the Masters became democratic. And so, the Masters began to speak to everyone.

    With the early “I AM” movements the Masters changed from “high and mighty” Hindu Supermen to homely religious figures, even including Jesus and Buddha. They also partook of American commercialism and the value of good marketing. Consumer culture and middle-class values became coupled with a lollie-pop version of the perennial wisdom. This reached its “nth” extent in such modern sects as the Church Universal and Triumphant of Elizabeth Claire Prophet. In some sense these Masters are also found in the more anarchistic experience of channelling, spiritualism and UFO cults. The Masters of the Aetherius Society, where Jesus comes from a sector on Mars, is a further extension of this weltanschauung.

    What is the origin of this “Ascended Master” mythos? The traditional way of appraising this myth is to either accept it at face (faith) value or reject it totally as a construct of a mad Russian psychic who has seen just one too many spirits.

    A painting of Madame Blavatsky and her masters Koot Hoomi, Morya and Prince Ragoczy.

    However, the work of K. Paul Johnson (as found in such titles as The Masters Revealed and Initiates of the Theosophical Masters, State University of New York Press), offers an appealing alternative. By deconstructing Blavatsky’s life and work, Johnson has been able to decode her Master mythos as referring not to ethereal spectres but to living religious, political and esoteric figures.

    He proves from her work that these figures (many of them at least) were involved in political agitation of various forms (including the liberation of India from the British), thus the cloaking of their identities was necessary. Blavatsky commandeered the earlier Freemasonic concept of Unknown Superiors or Secret Chiefs and used it as a gloss to cover the identities of her “comrades” in revolution.

    While Blavatsky certainly understood the use of the Masters as metaphor, her followers did not. In a letter to Franz Hartmann, Blavatsky says:

    …where you speak of the “army” of the deluded – and the “imaginary” Mahatmas of Olcott – you are absolutely and sadly right. Have I not seen the thing for nearly eight years? Have I not struggled and fought against Olcott’s ardent and gushing imagination and tried to stop him every day of my life.2

    Throughout her works there are hints to the observant that the Mahatmas she had “created” were myths and figureheads to hide real figures. If we were to trace the development of the Master mythos within her work, we can clearly see it changing from “spirit” guides that appeared in her earlier spiritualistic period, to figures which are ambivalent, withdrawn and seem to be “more than human”.

    Mahatma Koot Hoomi

    These figures were coupled with obvious slight of hand tricks (in Adyar), which the more critical might see as “camp” additions to a sideshow, a sideshow that was in some way meant to be seen through by those who possessed the perception. Blavatsky couldn’t tell you that the Masters were metaphors, but her behaviour, erratic descriptions and illusionist tricks would have done the job. These figures should not be seen as spiritual alone. Blavatsky’s view of “manipulating reality” was not that of an outside observer.

    Mahatma Morya

    Today, Theosophy may wish to paint her as a “saint”, however the available records show that she smoked (tobacco and hashish), swore and had a hell of a temper. Her political views were untempered and many of the “so-called” Mahatmas would not have been offended if we labelled them as terrorists. Many of the secret societies she worked with battled using every possible means to destroy what they saw as the “imperialist and capitalist” monster. They were revolutionaries or terrorists.

    Accordingly, as time progressed real revolutionary spiritual figures were replaced with ethereal nonsense. The sad fact is that from this nonsense a whole “Ascended Master” movement developed, melding itself with spiritualism, channelling and other superficial spiritual forms. It has resulted in the counter-initiatory tradition of this time. When we see the original meaning behind the Master metaphor we start to appreciate the shallow vision of modern spirituality.

    While there is truth in the original “Secret Chief” or “Unknown Superiors” teaching, this is very different from the egalitarian American package of “McDonald” Masters and apple pie wisdom.

    Madame Blavatsky

    The sources of light were seen as transmitting wisdom through a traditional hierarchical structure to those prepared to receive truth in both an experiential and cognitive form. It had little in common with political foment, eastern guruism or spiritualistic practice.

    In a world where hierarchy is a dirty word and intellectual prowess is confused with elitism, it becomes difficult to expound the real ethos of Unknown Superiors in juxtaposition to the easy going, yet facile and vacuous messages of Ascended Masters, Extra Terrestrials and age-old spirits.

    The most dangerous aspect of these new Masters is that they are not all benign; they do not all give “spiritualist” candy and meaningless cliches from the other side. Many of these UFO, Masters and Spirit guides are offering messages and encouragement which seem aligned to the development of a New World Order and collective forms of mind control.

    We may accept that the Mahatmas of Blavatsky were metaphors alone, but it is a terrifying possibility that “principalities and dominions” may be using the Ascended Master mythos as a means of mass mind control. If leaders of modern spiritual movements are more than willing to open their minds and souls to any being who calls itself “Jesus”, or any spirit than seems benign, or any extraterrestrial who says it comes in peace, then the minds of their followers are surely in jeopardy.

    In recent years various UFO cults have come to untimely ends and many others seem to be moving towards fascistic forms of social structure. It is possible that as the Kali Yuga accelerates the Ascended Master mythos will become more and more a mechanism of control.

    The New Age is perhaps a little different than we thought. The age of Aquarius is dawning, however, Aquarius is ruled by Uranus (or Saturn in more ancient astrological forms). These planets are not those of enlightenment, but forces of dispersion, destruction and crisis. Saturn itself being the glyph on which the legends of Satan and Set were grafted.

    The above article originally appeared on the (now defunct) Living Traditions website. 

    [alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]This article was published in New Dawn 74 (Sept-Oct 2002.[/alert]

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    Footnotes

    1. The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, p. 271-2
    2. Blavatsky’s Collected Writings, Volume 3

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  • Esoteric Symbolism & Memes: Strategies of Control

    Esoteric Symbolism & Memes: Strategies of Control

    From New Dawn Special Issue Vol 12 No 3 (June 2018)

    The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.
    – Benjamin Disraeli

    We like to believe we are rational, in control of our lives and making our own decisions. We pride ourselves on our independence and take offence if someone suggests we are being irrational or that our decisions are somehow influenced by someone else. Sadly, free will is not as credible an idea as it first seems. Years of psychological research reveals the immense influence of genetics, culture and the environment on how we behave. While we may justify our decisions by supposedly rational reasoning, these are usually always the result of our emotions responding to unconscious factors.

    Meme Theory

    The best way to understand this mechanism of control is via meme theory. A meme, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is an “idea, behaviour, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” The concept was first proposed by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. While we may disagree with Dawkins’ extreme materialism and reductionist Darwinism, his understanding of memes is a great model to explain how symbols, ideas and images can be used to manipulate behaviour. 

    Just as the mechanism of physical evolution works via the gene desiring to reproduce at all costs, within the world of the unconscious the meme reproduces by moving from mind to mind. While genes reproduce by the paroxysm of pleasure, the meme uses whatever primal emotional hook it can latch onto – more often than not this is lust, aggression, violence or fear. 

    There are ‘positive’ memes, but sadly the baser human emotions work better to pass on a given idea or system of ideas (a memeplex). Nightmares, urban legends and tales of ghosts, ghouls and murderers pass from generation to generation with ease. In recent times it is easy to locate memes within urban legends about escaped killers, murderers or supernatural monsters of the night. For example, the ‘Tall Man’ or ‘Slender Man’ began as an Internet meme created by Eric Knudson in 2009. It triggered a flood of Internet fiction and YouTube movies about a strange character with a blank and featureless face wearing a black suit who hunts children. Unfortunately, this meme became all too real when in Wisconsin in 2014 two twelve-year-old girls lured another to a secluded place and stabbed her 19 times to impress the ‘Slender Man’.

    Semiotics and Meme Theory

    Semiotics is the study of how symbols and signs are used to create meaning. When combined with meme theory we can come to an understanding of how symbols, signs, images, pieces of music and related factors can be used to anchor complex ideas and manipulate individuals, groups and even whole populations on an unconscious level.

    In National Socialist Germany, soldiers carry banners with their borrowed symbol of power: the Swastika.

    Let’s examine some examples. The most obvious is the Swastika. Originally an Indo-European symbol for luck – the whirling spirals of the sun have a long and veritable history as perhaps the most sacred of esoteric symbols – it was taken by the National Socialists and transformed into a symbol of German ascendancy. While it is still found today throughout India, Tibet and many other countries, it triggers a shiver down the spine of most Westerners. The use of it by Nazism was deliberate. They attempted to harness the whole ‘memetic’ heritage of the image and bring it under the command of a new vision of Aryanism as promoted by Germany. The use of the symbol was highly successful as it evoked, on an unconscious level, a wide range of associations from race theory to total obedience to the state, without any forethought. Emotions were swayed, and the German population reacted unconsciously to the Swastika, backed up with complex ritualised parades and rallies, iconography and uniforms. The Germans felt they were rationally choosing a leader who would take them out of the post-First World War depression era when there was nothing rational about it at all.

    Winston Churchill makes the V for Victory sign. 

    Another example is Winston Churchill’s use of the V for Victory sign. There is evidence the occultist and spy Aleister Crowley took what was a Greco-Roman sign for victory and, during his work for Britain’s MI5, recommended the sign to Churchill as a foil against the use of the Swastika by Hitler. It was also remarkably successful, even expressed in music using a form of Morse code as a call to arms throughout the war. Once again, the symbol triggered a whole population to react unconsciously and rally to fight.

    There are many other examples such as the symbol of the cross which has transformed from the sacred tree to the Ankh of Egypt to the crucifix of Christianity. Each culture adapted and used the image in its own way. Sadly, with Christianity, it came to be used as a symbol of the forced conversion of other cultures. As Emperor Constantine said, “in hoc signo vinces” – in this sign you will conquer. Of course, the debate continues regarding the Sixties peace sign. While it was composed of the letters N and D for nuclear disarmament, others claim it is a broken crucifix. The history of the cross would take a whole book to explore as would the Swastika. Both are complex symbols with long histories and innumerable variations.

    Cinematic Motifs

    Cinema uses symbols, signs and images to create unconscious reactions. Early German Expressionist cinema, for example ‘Nosferatu’ made in 1922, uses strange angles, manipulation of shadows and occult symbols, to evoke a sense of fear. Albion Grau designed the sets for this film at Prana Studios (Prana is the Hindu term for life force) and was also a leading member of Fraternatis Saturni, a significant occult order of the period. We see the same trend in the psychedelic films of the Sixties where images, symbols and signs are used to unconsciously transmit a message. In 1973, ‘The Holy Mountain’ by Alejandro Jodorowsky took Cannes by storm with its surreal journey through the planets based on the esotericism of Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff.

    While esoteric themes can be used to create a good ghost, horror or surreal film, they can just as easily be used to manipulate the viewer’s opinion. There are works which are clear propaganda. Such works are far less dangerous than the more subtle forms of cultural manipulation because they are so obvious the filter of the conscious mind tends to ignore their message. A range of motifs in modern cinema appear on a regular basis. Now if these are considered as ‘signs’ representing a deeper meaning, which those behind the movie studios wish to imprint on the collective unconscious, then we can begin to decode how the power elite is manipulating the populace at large.

    The development of the zombie film began with the ‘White Zombie’ in 1932 and was followed by a trickle of films until the literal explosion of these films and TV shows today. The motif of the small threatened population trying to fight off an infected menace (read foreign) as the world self-destructs and falls into mayhem. Unconsciously, the call is for law and order and more government to avoid such a catastrophe. As the films become more violent, brutal and confronting they bring in fears of unknown plagues and uncontrollable viruses that can only be contained by tighter controls on immigration and bigger government. Wherever you stand on the immigration debate, this unconscious manipulation of the fears of the populace is obvious.

    Reality TV – Life as a Simulation

    The craze that’s taken over most programming on television is so-called Reality TV. This ranges from the tawdry ‘Big Brother’ to music and cooking shows and even couples fighting to be the best designers of a home in ‘The Block’. In such programs we live our lives vicariously through the characters on screen – they do the things we would never think of doing and we therefore transfer our emotions onto them. They cook, make music and design so much better than us. We seek to be a little like them through imitation. We can watch ‘MasterChef’, get the recipes online, become better consumers at home and bring a little bit of glamour to the tea table. Such programs as ‘Big Brother’ offers the right combination of nudity, sex, emotional cruelty and interpersonal friction to keep viewers hooked. 

    Through such shows we forget our own lives and our own journeys. Instead of facing ourselves, and what is happening in the world, we are reduced to passive consumers. Retail companies pay for their products to be placed in the shows, for us to buy and possess to mimic the characters. Of course, we cannot be like them – they are artificial simulations created by TV producers – but we continue to watch, consume and mould ourselves into role models that are nothing but shadows and marketing ploys.

    The Cult of Celebrity

    Celebrity is another example of the simulacrum, the image or representation of someone or something. These individuals are made to seem real but are actually artificially moulded by the media and publicity companies. They are memes in the flesh and cannot be seen as real but as representing that what is behind them. When we experience a celebrity we are experiencing a simulacrum, a walking simulation or holographic meme created to trigger certain responses from those they interact with. In many ways celebrities are caricatures – they are not people but carefully engineered memeplexes created by publicity companies to manipulate and trigger specific reactions on an unconscious level. This may seem harsh but unless we see them this way we cannot see through them and begin to appreciate just how conditioned we are and the way in which symbols and signs are used to mould and create what we perceive to be reality.

    Diversionary Memetics 

    A second level technique known as ‘Diversionary Memetics’ captures those who do start to ask the important questions, but it leads them to dead ends. 

    Many thinking people spend large amounts of time running around investigating ‘micro conspiracies’, government corruption, information spread on the Internet, etc. The original source of many diversionary memes are often obscure. They are engineered to spread like wildfire, the Internet being a particularly effective way to quickly proliferate a meme designed to get us angry and wanting to do ‘something’. Of course most people simply spread the meme to other people, and ultimately feel quite disempowered when they realise nothing really changes. The memes (political, economic & social problems) keep coming at us in a never-ending stream.

    Studying and exposing all the small conspiracies is certainly an important service but unless we look behind the scenes to decode the overall system of control, then real change becomes impossible. We never see the big picture.

    What we need to appreciate is that the world is controlled by memes. The media and the entertainment industry reinforce the values that those at the top want us to hold. We are passive consumers who, on the whole, do not question – we believe what we are told. 

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    Conclusion

    For practical purposes, too, it is very important to recognise the instruments of the occult war, namely the means employed by the secret forces of global subversion to conceal their action, prevent their opponents’ action, and continue to exercise their influence.
    – Julius Evola

    There is no doubt symbols and signs are used to create systems of control. Our reality is manipulated by encoded images with the help of celebrities who are more representational than real. Political Correctness defines our thinking by manipulating how we speak because the language of a people reflects their soul. When we are more concerned with the language of technology and social networking than personal communication, we have a real problem. When we cannot speak our mind because someone, somewhere may be offended, then self-censorship limits our ability to think beyond certain predefined boundaries.

    Chaos and upheavals are changing the world at a rapid pace, but we are dancing, singing and partying. Unless we come to see our chains we cannot set ourselves free. The first step in this process is decoding the layers of symbolism, programming, memes and brainwashing that are conditioning us every minute of every day. We believe we are free agents and can think for ourselves. But look at the media, television, films, entertainment (not to mention computer games), and you can begin to appreciate how our beliefs about ourselves, who we are and our role in the world, are totally artificial, totally conditioned, and represent what the power elite want us to think. It is time to take the Red Pill.

    [alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]This article was published in New Dawn Special Issue Vol 12 No 3.[/alert]

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  • DNA, Apes & the Demiurge: Did Something Interfere With Our Genetic Structure?

    DNA, Apes & the Demiurge: Did Something Interfere With Our Genetic Structure?

    New Dawn Special Issue Vol 8 No 4

    An amazing transformation has occurred in modern science. It has been slow in coming and is one that many scientists avoid discussing: there is a point where science and religion coincide. The frightening truth about this agreement is that it isn’t about new age physics, the nature of God or the transcendent union of science and religion – it concerns the nature of man, or rather, the problem of man.

    For many years, under the influence of liberalism and humanism, science tended to favour the logic of the ‘Noble Savage’. Violence and evil were human problems, probably caused by the conflict between our intellect and natural instincts. Nature was great, instincts were marvellous and sex was fun. This logic was buttressed with romantic notions about the innocence of animals, the moral purity of instinct, and the marketable icon of the harmless, playful, innocent ape. However, as science progressed, these notions fell like a house of cards.

    During the 1970s science began to refine its interpretation of Darwin’s theory of evolution. This refinement became known as sociobiology – the inclusive fitness theory – or in journalistic terms, ‘the selfish gene’. It was popularised by Richard Dawkins’s book The Selfish Gene. This discovery, which is now conventional scientific wisdom, holds that the ultimate driving force for evolution is the genes, the molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. The maximisation of genetic successes to assure the passing on of certain genes to subsequent generations. This principle, however terrifying in its ramifications, is the state of present evolutionary theory. 

    When this is combined with our new understanding of the nature of animal behaviour, a darker and more reflective scientific paradigm arises, one that has more in common with Gnosticism, a stream of thought that extends from the early followers of Christ.

    A Man & a Chimp

    Our relationship to apes has always been a matter of conjecture. We need to abandon the theories and debates about origins and consider the state of humanity at present. There are many ways to consider evolution: Whether we accept Darwinian evolution or a modification thereof, or that evolution was manipulated by ETs, God(s), or even if we consider we are part of a stage of a larger evolutionary cycle (Theosophy, Anthroposophy etc.), the fact remains that our present genetic inheritance indicates something about our present condition. 

    Science places modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the centre of the ape kingdom. It says humans are part of the same lineage as orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. The standard view of this great-ape ‘family tree’ is that humans and chimps are more similar to each other than either is to the gorilla – because chimps and humans diverged more recently. But with the publication of the sequence of the full gorilla genome in 2012, this theory has been overthrown. Scientists realised that much of the human genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the chimpanzee genome.

    While they may seem affectionate and lovable at first appearance, extensive study in the wild has shown a far darker side to ape behaviour. Apes murder, rape and torture. They will defend their territory and intrude on any surrounding territories using guerrilla warfare, literally! In various studies of ape behaviour, it is estimated that at least forty per cent of all cases of copulation involves elements of violence, which would be interpreted as rape. Apes have short-term memories when it comes to companions. If an ape leaves one pack to join another, he becomes an instant enemy. Raids on other packs are frequent, bloody and brutal and involve ambush, torture and death. Apes behave differently from many other animal species and their aggressiveness seems very similar to human behaviour. It’s frighteningly clear that our genetic heritage is directly related to the ape kingdom. This invokes some fascinating questions and quandaries.

    Why Intellect?

    Apes and related kin are excellent reproducers. They create many offspring and continually reinforce their genetic heritage by territorialism and brute force. Researchers in this field raise the question: why would the ‘genetic program’ create what we understand as the conscious mind?

    Many argue that intelligence developed as the result of enhanced hand-eye coordination by using tools. However, many other species use tools, including apes. Apes are quick learners, and use whatever they can find to open that nut, get that fruit, or crush that skull. But apes did not develop a high level of intelligence – only the offshoot of Homo sapiens sapiens. This argument sheds light on a fascinating possibility – was human nature tweaked? Did genetic engineering take place that modified available genetic substances to create modern humans? Such writers as Zecharia Sitchin and Erich von Daniken use this sort of reasoning extensively.

    The darker side of this theory is why would an alien life form modify genetic substance without adequately balancing the social effects of the inherent flaws within the original substance? If an alien species, a deity or whatever was capable of manipulating genetic materials, then surely it would be aware of the destructive power within the primate form it was transforming. If we consider there was some manipulation of our genetic structure, then was this accomplished by a somewhat primitive and ignorant entity (which is unlikely considering the required technology)? An entity or force that was malefic and unsympathetic to the resulting human condition?

    This may seem too much to grasp at first, yet if we consider the myths and legends that abound within humanity’s history, they all seem to include such tales of genetic interference.

    The Gnostics believed that a false creator (Demiurge) formed Matter (the physical world), and humans were moulded out of fallen substance in an effort to trap particles of Light (preexistent Souls). Sitchin argued that an alien race (the Anunnaki) genetically engineered humanity as a slave species, but the early humans rebelled and developed consciousness. Numerous myths, stories and legends suggest someone or something interfered with the ape to create man, and all tend to see this creation as negative. While most religions insist that Matter is good and ‘God’ is the creator, other more esoteric approaches from the Vedas to the Gnostic suggest that Matter is at best dangerous, at worst malefic, and our creation was the result of either a miscalculation or error – or a deliberate destructive act.

    This view posits that apes were engineered as a mechanism to trap Souls which existed in the ‘first estate’ (the spiritual worlds). Many Gnostic sects believed that the fallen creator, in his attempt to wrest control of the universe, first created Matter to encapsulate and control the Light. He then evolved the physical form of mankind to capture the preexistent Light forms and turn them into automations under his control. While we may debate details, it is certainly true there is a dichotomy between our genetic programming and mind (which is the gate for one’s true spiritual self). Even if we have trouble accepting the more flamboyant aspects of this theory, the split within humanity and the violent traits of our innate genetic programming cannot be ignored.

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    The Role of the Mind

    The role of the mind in human development has been ambivalent to say the least. From one perspective it is our saving grace, from another it keeps us enslaved. According to Sitchin, the mind was genetically engineered through modifications to the brain so that a slave race could be created. Apes were difficult to command, so a brain/mind complex (however originally limited) was created. Through the dichotomy between the brain/mind and the instincts, mind control was achieved. Continuing from this argument, early religions and social structures would have worked as ‘control mechanisms’ to keep the slaves in their preordained roles. As time went on, however, the mechanism of control became the tool of liberation. Even the most limited mind/brain complex began to develop thoughts outside the ‘control spectrum’, and one thought led to another and ultimately rebellion. Whether we accept this paradigm or not, we can see that intellect has a contradictory role: it exists as an affront to what science understands as the normal evolutionary process and can work to enslave or liberate.

    In this extraterrestrial cosmology, we deduce there are diverse alien species – some wish to help humans, while many desire to keep us enslaved. Accordingly, some early cultures worked to liberate humanity’s intellect, while some cultures, if not the same ones over time, regressed their culture back into slavery by the same means.

    It is interesting to note that many early Gnostic groups had a similar view of human nature. In one Mandean account, we read of demons copulating together and their progeny being man’s body and mind. Man’s physical and mental forms are in direct opposition to his spiritual essence. In other Gnostic traditions, our mind is a mixture of light and darkness which offers the opportunity to ascend beyond limitation through its redemption.

    Sigmund Freud argues that civilisation exists only in as much as it suppresses instinct, and in many ways we are now returning to his understanding. While pleasure may be the veneer that we accept as justification for our behaviour, not far under the surface is a pit of uncontrolled violence. The major contradiction in our culture is the desire for individualism – the more we demand freedom, the more restraints removed, the more we return to the unfettered ape-like creature we once were. As moral codes are loosened and as we gain more supposed freedom, crime, rape, murder and social disorder arises. As culture fails, the apes return.

    Light Emissaries

    If we contemplate the adversarial view of prehistory with evil alien forms controlling humanity for their own purposes, we can perceive it in different ways. Gnostics and some Christians may interpret this on a more spiritual level, with dominions and principalities, demos and demi-gods replacing the ‘little green men’. For the scientifically-minded researcher, we could replace aliens and demons with complexes and unconscious social control mechanisms (memes).Ultimately the symbol system is irrelevant. This model could be extended to explain the role of such figures as Zoroaster, Krishna, Jesus, Gautama (Buddha) and so on.

    As humanity’s consciousness began to expand, it rejected the ‘social control religions’ and tried to make it on its own. However, humanity was unaware that the forces which created these paradigms of control also started the human mind on a journey of development. An immense conflict evolved. When man rejects tyranny, his instincts take over and a new tyranny, one of ape violence, comes into effect. He is caught in a vicious cycle.

    The forces of Light, which exist beyond the contamination of Matter, decided to intervene. Over many millions of years, they sent emissaries to explain to man his real constitution and the conflicting nature of his being. Each avatar taught that man is a hybrid, a mixture of fallen Matter and Light ‘stuff’. Man is a split being – Animal, Intellect and Spirit – each with its own agenda and programming. The physical organism is made of fallen Matter and its programming is that of an ape ruled by the ‘selfish gene’. It is innately violent and destructive. In some sense it has its own consciousness, we could perhaps call it the ‘GE’ (genetic entity).

    The mind is another problem. It was created as a modification to the brain but evolved into something more. It has facets (such as the brain stem) which hark back to its original nature, and yet has advanced nodes that offer interface to the spirit. It is a collection of false I’s, sub-identities and personas. It craves domination and works best under control, whether by a cult or ism or by TV and computer games. Its liberation is painful, yet necessary. The emissaries of Light have been giving man ‘wake-up’ calls for thousands of years, yet man does not listen. As soon as the emissaries die, sometimes even before, their messages are distorted and become part of the ‘social control mechanism’.

    Aliens, DNA & Beyond

    Ultimately it does not matter how we perceive our masters, whether we believe the extraterrestrial theory of our origins or see them in more religious, psychological or scientific terms. The point of reference for all these paradigms is spiritual: if the aliens created slaves, it was under the influence and control of greater and more malefic spiritual powers and dominions. The Gnostics said that Matter is fallen, nature is a trap, and man’s real self is locked in an eternal game. 

    As we move further and further into the Kali Yuga, the age of blood and iron, the game becomes more and more vicious. The ‘selfish gene’ is far more malleable than we care to realise, since it is an intrusion from a spiritual reality: it can transform and change according to new challenges. In the distant past the ‘selfish gene’ program realised man could not be controlled by the genetic entity alone, so it evolved new gene-like structures to control the mind like Memes. A Meme is a virus of the mind.

    Meme: (pron. ‘meem’) A contagious idea that replicates like a virus, passed on from mind to mind. Memes function the same way genes and viruses do, propagating through communication networks and face-to-face contact between people.
    – David S. Bennahum

    Memes mould consciousness to fulfil the directive of the original DNA program. Memes transform meaningful social movements into bureaucracies, and take ideals and turn them into commodities. They take transformational technologies and turn them into mechanisms of control. TV, computer games and sport are means to stop us using our mind to any spiritual end by keeping it absorbed and controlled. Our entire culture is based on this premise: all thought must be controlled, albeit covertly, so that freedom is impossible. Democracy is simply the choice between different paradigms of control. Isms, cults and ologies offer further mechanisms of control. Many appear to be outside of the structure, but are really part of it.

    Where Science Meets Religion

    We have arrived in the new millennium, and science meets religion at last, yet in a way neither would have expected. By understanding the ‘selfish gene’, and the split nature of humanity, we have uncovered the reasons behind the constant tension and violent behaviour of modern man. Illusions are washed away when we truly comprehend the hybrid composition of human nature. 

    [alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]This article was published in New Dawn Special Issue Vol 8 No 4.[/alert]

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  • Aleister Crowley & The Book of the Law: A Magical Encounter in Egypt

    Aleister Crowley & The Book of the Law: A Magical Encounter in Egypt

    Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) is remembered as a libertine, philosopher, mountaineer, magician, and supposedly the “wickedness man in the world.” He wrote bad poetry, pornographic books, novels and a vast array of literature.

    He is best known as being an infamous occultist and the scribe of The Book of the Law, which introduced ‘Thelema’ to the world. Crowley was an influential member of several occult organisations, including the Golden Dawn, the A.’.A.’., and Ordo Templi Orientis.

    One of the most enigmatic aspects of Crowley’s life was his receipt of what he believed to be a document dictated by a ‘praetor human intelligence’ known as Aiwazz.

    Crowley studied ceremonial magic for many years, but he felt he had not found the success he was searching for. He and his wife Rose travelled to Egypt where they spent a night in the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid. Rose became clairaudient and began to repeat the phrase “They are waiting for you.” Crowley was bemused as Rose was not known for her interest in magic or occultism, and hitherto had shown no signs of psychic ability. But she was insistent, and perhaps more to humour his young wife Crowley invoked the god Thoth and asked a number of test questions.

    Surprisingly, the answers were way beyond his wife’s understanding and showed a level of sophistication that piqued Crowley’s interest, to say the least. The final test involved an image of Horus at a local museum. He asked the communicating being to identify it. Rose very quickly identified various images of Horus, but it was the stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu that she was most drawn to, an artefact known as inventory number 666 (Crowley’s personal number as ‘The Master Therion’). The being not only identified Horus on the stele but caused Rose to explain that the ‘intelligence’ attempting to communicate was not Horus himself but his representative Aiwazz.

    On 8 April 1904, between noon and early in the morning, Crowley experienced a dark and overwhelming presence behind him. It communicated through him a bit like automatic writing and dictated over three days what became known as Liber AL vel Legis or The Book of the Law. The Book of the Law offers a new revelation and the revival of the Egyptian cult of Nuit, Hadit and Horus, of which each of its three chapters are dedicated. It is a sophisticated work with many hidden meanings, numerical codes, and deep insights. Even today it is studied with diligence, and commentaries have been written on it since its first appearance. The Book of the Law heralds a New Aeon beginning in 1904, the ‘Aeon of Horus’; preceding this had been the Aeon of the dying God (Osiris) and that of the mother (Isis). The Aeon following Horus is that of Maat, or truth, and will mark the completion of one great cycle of cosmic time.

    The term Aeon is a little different from the terms ‘age’ or ‘cycle’. Originating within Gnosticism, Aeons were seen as emanations of the divine that mediate between man and the spiritual hierarchy. Using that understanding, we can appreciate that each Aeon is not simply a period of time but a time period under the governance of a certain spiritual force (the current under Horus) and comes with a specific spiritual formula and practice, and its own prophet. In this case, Crowley saw himself as the prophet of the New Aeon of which the religion was Thelema.

    At first, Crowley was unsure how to evaluate the document he had received and left it locked away for quite a period of time. He vacillated between seeing Aiwazz as his personal unconscious or some aspect of his own higher self. Over time Crowley became convinced of the significance of its message and wrote various commentaries as well as ‘receiving’ other ‘Class A’ documents, a term he used for documents received from ‘praetor human intelligences’.

    The Book of the Law calls for the abandonment of all previous religious philosophies, especially taking aim at the three monotheistic religions. It is brutal when it comes to Judeo-Christianity in that it rejects the formula of the dying god with its emphasis on pain, suffering, sexual suppression and guilt. This is replaced with the formula of the divine child Horus whose innocence brings with it sensuality and openness. At the same time Horus is related to the Greek god Mars, the god of war, hence Crowley believed there would be a great period of violence after the start of the New Aeon which would continue until the declaration of the final ‘Aeon of Maat’ at a future date. In Egyptian mythology, Horus also has a dark brother called Set (or Seth) and he represents the soul of the Aeon of Horus: brooding, unpredictable, cold and volatile.

    On a political level, The Book of the Law proposes a form of anarchy with total freedom for the individual but this is matched with total responsibility. When The Book of the Law states “Do What Thou Wilt Shalt be the Whole of the Law” (Liber AL 1:40), it is not exclaiming do whatever pleases you or do what you want, it is saying to follow your true destiny. This destiny comes from finding who you really are; this true self is known as the Will or the Star and the relationship between stars is known as “love,” hence “Love is the Law, Love under Will” (Liber AL 1:57).

    The concepts of Thelema (Will) and Agape (Love) are central to The Book of the Law and both via gematria add to the number 93, hence the significance of this number within the teachings. (The Hebrew spelling of Aiwazz also adds to 93).

    In Ancient Egypt the night sky was considered to be the afterlife, and when someone died they became ‘a star’; each star had its own unique place in the cosmos, its own orbit and its own destiny. These ideals are central to the politics of Thelema where “Every Man and Every Woman is a Star” (Liber AL 1:3).

    It has been claimed the philosophy of The Book of the Law is in many ways elitist. It is based around the concept of ‘Arete’, or excellence, which could be interpreted as meritocracy. While the individual has the potential for total freedom, he must exercise it in the pursuit of finding himself, or as Liber AL (1:42) states “thou hast no right but to do thy will.”

    Kenneth Grant (1924–2011) was one of the most influential and controversial representatives of Thelema during the last century. His publications were prodigious including a series of nine volumes expounding his deep and insightful view of Thelema. Grant came to realise that the rather indulgent hippy view of Thelema so popular in the Sixties and Seventies (Crowley was pictured as one of the people on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album cover) sold the vision of Thelema short. He took seriously the non-terrestrial origin of The Book of the Law and began to investigate its antecedents in earlier cultures. He found that the teachings regarding sexuality in Liber AL were not simply calls to ‘have a good time’ but were part of an age old Tantric or yogic tradition demanding great discipline and perseverance. While the general teachings of Liber AL may offer some level of guidance for the average man and women, its inner teachings could be aligned to the esotericism of the Tantras, India and Sumer. Such a teaching continued unseen in the inner chambers of alchemists, magicians, sorcerers and Docteurs of Voudoun.

    This new understanding saw Thelema as a re-instatement of the ancient Typhonian cult of Egypt, and brings us to its significance in any consideration of Egyptian spirituality. Thelema is, in any ways, a unique form of Egyptian polytheism with a highly developed social, political and spiritual philosophy. At its core was a revelation for the New Aeon through a communication with a non-terrestrial representative Aiwazz (among others). This teaching includes both a general and esoteric form, the esoteric showing a clear continuity from the earliest known forms of Tantra (Shaivism) and into Sumer, Egypt and beyond.

    Whatever we are to make of Crowley’s private life – and to be honest even the most sympathetic biographer would suggest his treatment of others left a lot to be desired – The Book of the Law and Thelema represents a fascinating glimpse into the adaptation of an ancient Egyptian ‘religion’ for the modern period.
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