When I first began studying magick, I found Crowley’s stories of the occult war between the Great White Brotherhood and the Black Brothers to be a bit of a leg pull, even if I found the idea of secret organisations zapping the crap out of each other highly entertaining. I mean, who in their right mind would really believe the future of the human race rests in the hands of magicians?

After a bit of experience in working my mojo, I came to the conclusion these brotherhoods, seemingly based on a peculiar Victorian morality, don’t actually exist, and if they ever did they certainly wouldn’t have a place anymore in our postmodern world.

However, a few years ago my Holy Guardian Angel granted me a vision concerning the truth of the matter, and I’m only now beginning to fully understand the situation. What follows are my notes on the Occult War, based on my research and experiences. The following propositions can also be considered an elaboration of those set forth in Let's push things forward, which should be referred to if you are unfamiliar with the concept of the magical planes, or levels of experience.

1). The current state of humanity is one of restricted awareness. The lower three or four levels of experience (physical, emotional, mental, and sometimes astral) are believed to be the totality of reality, and this cultural behaviour is an act of magick that cuts off experience of the higher levels. The confused belief that we are composed solely of the lower levels of experience is the principal cause of fear.

2). As the metaphysical plane transcends but includes all other planes, every expression of an event at a lower plane (such as the physical, emotional, or mental level) has its origin or ‘first principle’ in the metaphysical level. 

3). History is therefore a product of metaphysics, with every event, whether biological, cultural or developmental, being a symptom of a level of experience not usually perceived by the majority of present day humanity. The driving force of humanity is occult, or hidden.

4). The expansion of awareness to include all levels of experience (physical, emotional, mental, astral, etheric, metaphysical, and non-dual) is a metaphysical movement towards the Truth, and the only remedy to humanities current state of confusion and fear.

5). The contraction of awareness to exclude all levels of experience is a metaphysical movement towards ignorance, and the sole cause of suffering.

6). As metaphysical movements, both the expansion and contraction of awareness are expressed at every level of experience, and can therefore manifest as both conscious and unconscious agencies, who may or may not be aware of their nature as part of that expression. In other words, there exist intelligences, whether human or otherwise, who fulfil a necessary function within the expression of each of the metaphysical movements.

7). There are individuals and groups that actively express a movement towards the Truth. As an expression of a metaphysical event, which is above and beyond the lower levels of experience and so not dependent on those levels, it is not necessarily the case that an agent of Truth must be fully enlightened, aware of his or her role, pleasant, friendly, compassionate, well adjusted or intelligent. This also means that the movement towards Truth is known by many names, and can be experienced in many forms, although it is restricted to none, such as the Great White Brotherhood, the A.’.A.’., the Bodhisattvas, the Illuminati, etc.

8). There are individuals and groups that actively express a movement towards Confusion. As an expression of a metaphysical event, which is above and beyond the lower levels of experience and so not dependent on those levels, it is not necessarily the case that an agent of Confusion must be inexperienced with enlightenment, aware of his or her role, unpleasant, hostile, sadistic, insane or stupid. This also means that the movement towards Confusion is known by many names, and can be experienced in many forms, although it is restricted to none, such as the Black Brotherhood, Satanists, Counter-initiation, etc.

9). The sole criterion for identifying an agent is his or her service, whether conscious or otherwise, to a peculiar movement. For instance, do the actions of the agent in question promote or aid the expression of the expansion of awareness, or its contraction? As a result, does the agent perpetuate the products of the movement towards Truth, such as love, compassion and freedom, or the products of the movement towards Confusion, such as hate, fear and suffering?

10). The conflict between the opposing movements of Truth and Confusion is the Occult War. The war is waged every second and at all levels of experience - rather than the narrow view of the war taking place between robed figures actively cursing each other from their respective temples, the battle is predominantly fought in the hearts and minds of every single person on this planet, and is most effectively fought through the teaching of direct, personal experience of the Truth, or alternatively, the promotion of direct, personal experience of Confusion (those fighting for the latter cause of course are fundamentally unaware that what they teach is Confusion, hence the inescapable outcome of the war – sooner or later Truth will win out).

11). The Baptist's Head is a war engine, and we salute our comrades in arms (you know who you are)!