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ecosophia
As mentioned in a post last week, I've decided to make the teachings of the Octagon Society, the first of three levels of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, freely available here. If you didn't read last week's post, please do so -- it explains what the OSA was and is, summarizes its history, and explains what the teachings are meant to accomplish. Back when this course of training was available online, there were three preliminary lessons which were readily available to anyone and everyone. Prospective members of the OSA were expected to complete those lessons before going on to the first of the eight ranks of the Octagon Society. It was a good approach and we'll be retaining it here.
The tools you'll need for this work, as explained in last week's post, are a notebook and a pen, along with patience and privacy. One piece of advice: read the whole lesson from start to finish at least twice before you begin the work. It was quite common for people back in the day to read only part of the lesson, misunderstand it, and either get the instructions scrambled or fly off the handle completely. We are dealing with emotionally difficult issues here, and it's worth taking the time to be sure you understand the instructions.
*****
Preliminary Lesson One—The Law of Blame
When we blame others for the things that happen to us, we are mistaken. Most of us don't believe that for a minute. But it is the truth.
Things happen. Some of them are accidents. Some of them are designed by the Divine to help us learn something about ourselves and others. Some of the are actually designed by us to help us learn something we want to learn. Some are caused by people in the grip of pain, wild emotions, drugs, mental problems or psychological disorders. Some are random acts of cruelty and evil.
What's important to our spiritual health is not what happens to us but how we react to what happens. The event that happened did hurt us. Our reactions to that event continue to hurt us every day of our lives. This is the Law of Blame: Carrying the weight of blame causes more harm than the things for which we blame others ever did.
We can't change what happened. We can change our reactions to what happened. We begin to do that through the simple process of understanding why we blame somebody or something else for our pain. We write down a list of what happened and then write down our current understanding of why we blame somebody or something for what happened. We can learn to understand the evil deed they did was not "them" and the evil deed we did was not "us."
The Law of Blame has eight separate and distinct steps, which are part of the work that needs to be done in order to qualify for membership in the Octagon Society. We do not need to master these steps in a perfect manner to become a member. What we need to do is work through these eight steps to the best of our ability at this time. Healing always follows such an effort. Those steps are:
1. List and understand what you blame your father for doing to you.
2. List and understand what you blame your mother for doing to you.
3. List and understand what you blame your child or children, brother or brothers, sister or sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins for doing to you.
4. List and understand what you blame your aunts, uncles, grandparents, great uncles, great aunts, and all your ancestors for doing to you.
5. List and understand what you blame your spouse, lovers, friends, fellow students and fellow employees for doing to you.
6. List and understand what you blame your enemies and antagonists for doing to you.
7. List and understand what you blame all other persons whatsoever for doing to you.
8. List and understand what you blame yourself, your mind, body, attitudes, beliefs, intentions, health and actions for doing to you.
1. List and understand what you blame your father for doing to you.
For our purposes the term “father” refers to the male person who contributed most to your childhood. This may be your biological father, a stepfather or other male figure. It may include other men or be a combination of several men. If this is the case, you may want to do this task for each of them.
Your father, whether he is currently dead or alive, is a human being complete with the strengths and weaknesses that human beings have. He is a product of his environment and his heredity, of the family and society in which he grew up, and of his own good and bad choices and experiences. He was and still is imperfect and he made and may still be making many mistakes.
Your father may or may not have loved you. He may or may not have done his best for you. He may or may not have meant well. He was and is a human soul in the midst of the give and take of existence, and the way he behaved toward you was part of his own journey through life. His choices and his mistakes were all products of who he was at the time.
Your task is to sit quietly, become comfortable, take a few deep breaths and write down in your notebook everything you remember you blame your father for. List the things he said and did that make you feel that he was or is to blame.
Make certain your list is as complete as it can be for now. This may take you several days. Keep writing as long as thoughts and ideas arise and as long as you're comfortable. Take a break when you need to take a break. The intent of this part of the task is to recall as many details as you can comfortably recall about the things for which you blame your father. Write them all down together with a description of your feelings at the time.
When you’re done, try to understand what mental, emotional, psychological or spiritual forces caused him to act in this way. At this stage you’re not called upon to forgive or even to accept what happened, just to make an effort to understand it. You don’t even have to let go of the blame. Be aware of it, and try to understand what caused the events for which you blame your father. When you have gotten as far with this as you can, go to step two.
2. List and understand what you blame your mother for doing to you.
For our purposes the term "mother" refers to the woman who contributed most to your childhood. This may be your biological mother, a stepmother or other female figure. It may include other women or be a combination of several women. If this is the case, you may want to do this task for each of them.
Your mother, whether she is currently dead or alive, is a human being complete with strengths and weaknesses. She is a product of her environment and her heredity, of the family and society in which she grew up, and of her own good and bad choices and experiences. She was and still is imperfect and she made and may still be making many mistakes.
Your mother may or may not have loved you. She may or may not have done her best for you. She may or may not have meant well. She was and is a human soul in the midst of the give and take of existence, and the way she behaved toward you was part of her own journey through life. Her choices and her mistakes were all products of who she was at the time.
Your task is to sit quietly, become comfortable, take a few deep breaths, and write down in your notebook everything you remember you blame your mother for. List the things she said and did that make you feel that she was or is to blame.
Make certain your list is as complete as it can be for now. This may take you several days. Keep writing as long as thoughts and ideas arise and as long as you're comfortable. Take a break when you need to take a break. The intent of this part of the task is to recall as many details as you can comfortably recall about the things for which you blame your mother. Write them all down together with a description of your feelings at the time.
When you’re done, try to understand what mental, emotional, psychological or spiritual forces caused her to act in this way. At this stage you’re not called upon to forgive or even to accept what happened, just to make an effort to understand it. You don’t even have to let go of the blame. Be aware of it, and try to understand what caused the events for which you blame your mother. When you have gotten as far with this as you can, go to step three.
3. List and understand what you blame your children, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins for doing to you.
Use the same technique you used for your mother and father and consider as many of these people as possible. Write down everything for which you blame them, in as much detail as seems helpful, and then try to understand what caused those things. When finished, go to step four.
4. List and understand what you blame your aunts, uncles, grandparents, great uncles, great aunts, and all your other ancestors for doing to you.
Use the same technique you used for your mother and father and consider as many of these people as possible. Write down everything for which you blame them, in as much detail as seems helpful, and then try to understand what caused those things. When finished, go to step five.
5. List and understand what you blame your spouse, lovers, friends, fellow students and fellow employees for doing to you.
Use the same technique you used for your mother and father and consider as many of these people as possible. Write down everything for which you blame them, in as much detail as seems helpful, and then try to understand what caused those things. When finished, go to step six.
6: List and understand what you blame your enemies and antagonists for doing to you.
Use the same technique you used for your mother and father and consider as many of these people as possible. Write down everything for which you blame them, in as much detail as seems helpful, and then try to understand what caused those things. When finished, go to step seven.
7. List and understand what you blame all other persons whatsoever for doing to you.
Use the same technique you used for your mother and father and consider as many of these people as possible. Write down everything for which you blame them, in as much detail as seems helpful, and then try to understand what caused those things. When finished, go to step eight.
8. List and understand what you blame yourself, your mind, body, attitudes, beliefs, intentions, health and actions for doing to you.
We’ve intentionally saved the most difficult task for last. By the time you reach this stage you know what to do. Do it, and work through all the reasons you blame yourself.
You are, after all, a human being complete with strengths and weaknesses. You are a product of your environment and your heredity, of the family and society in which you grew up, and of your own good and bad choices and experiences. You were and still are imperfect and you have made and may still be making many mistakes.
In the events you are recalling, you may or may not have acted out of love. You may or may not have done your best. You may or may not have meant well. You were and are a human soul in the midst of the give and take of existence, and the way you behaved was part of your journey through life. Your choices and your mistakes were all products of who you were at the time.
When you’re done, try to understand what mental, emotional, psychological or spiritual forces caused you to act in this way. At this stage you’re not called upon to forgive or even to accept what happened, just to make an effort to understand it. You don’t even have to let go of the blame. Be aware of it, and try to understand what caused the events for which you blame yourself. When you have gotten as far with this as you can, you have finished the work of this preliminary lesson.
Having gone through this process for others makes it easier for us to go through it for ourselves. “Easier” is not the same thing as easy! But go through it we must if we really intend to become the person we want to become. Go through it we must if we wish to advance spiritually in this lifetime. Go through it we must to continue our advancement in the Octagon Society. Take at least eight sessions to finish this work, and add as many more as you find helpful. For most people, between one and two weeks is a good amount of time to spend on this stage of the work. There are no prizes for hurrying. Take it a little at a time, step by step, and you’ll accomplish the work that will begin transmuting your life.
*****
That's the first of the three preliminary lessons. Next week we'll go on to the second.
*****
That's the first of the three preliminary lessons. Next week we'll go on to the second.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 01:00 am (UTC)My initial divination on whether I should to the course produced a rather harrowing reading so I dropped looking into it right there. Then I realised that I was asking for the results of finishing the whole thing - all stages in one go. I feel drawn to it a great deal and I guess that my intention behind the question was to power through it.
Today I did a divination on finishing just the first public part of the course and the results are quite a bit better - impressive in some areas and troublesome but workable in others.
So I have two questions:
1. From the perspective of the course itself, is it OK finishing just one part of it and stopping there, for a while or for good?
2. Just reading the first step, I think doing it thoroughly by itself would take more than 2 weeks of daily 15 minute writing slots. I am nearly professional at building up and holding grudges! Is it fine taking time with each step, maybe even pausing for a little while if something particularly juicy floats up? I envisage taking good time to digest some of the individual bits if I want to come out in one piece on the other side. Some of the troublesome areas of divination were highlighting relationships with other people so I also see the need to let changes settle with them too, at least with the ones I want to keep my relationships further.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Thanks!
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2021-08-06 03:54 pm (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 01:07 am (UTC)Does "at the time" mean when the incident occurred or does it mean my feelings while recalling and writing about it?
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 01:09 am (UTC)A couple of years ago I came across Jocko Willick's Extreme Ownership book, which treads similar ground in a non-occult way. It sounds silly, but the main message of the book is literally just, hey, you're responsible for everything in your life. It probably doesn't say much about me (self-blame) that this came as a radical notion at the time, but it's been immensely helpful both in a practical sense and a spiritual sense. Anyway, this feels very similar, but more actionable as they say. This is getting to personal responsibility by way of getting rid of any other possible responsibility.
Anyway, thanks again. Looking forward to this rest.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 01:19 am (UTC)But meditating on it, I think it’s more personal than is immediately apparent - first, I am inclined to dwell on just what I’m doing, if anything, to ameliorate the situation, even in my own little way. Everyone has potential spiritual power, which I believe in the long run is more telling than temporal power. Little blessings that I can bestow here and there can have a vast ripple effect. I can’t really cast blame on others without first questioning myself in this way.
Second, I have to consider that in a previous life I may have been one of the ones holding the reins of power and was corrupted by it. I suppose it’s a live-and-learn passage that many, maybe all of us must pass through. Understood this way, I think it’s ultimately possible to forgive others for their transgressions on whatever the scale they were committed.
(no subject)
From:Conditions for Reflection
Date: 2021-08-06 02:13 am (UTC)Re: Conditions for Reflection
From:Printability?
Date: 2021-08-06 07:13 am (UTC)would you consider talking to your tech-person and create a PDF-file from the lessons and maybe link that from your FAQ-site for the ones like me that first want to print it? It might help with getting the pictures (better/ at all).
Thank you for your work!
Emily07
Re: Printability?
From:Re: Printability?
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2021-08-06 09:46 pm (UTC) - ExpandRe: Printability?
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2021-08-07 12:14 am (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 09:06 am (UTC)Also during this troubled times it can be of real help. I live in France and as you may know, our civil rights are being attacked day by day because of the Covid situation. But instead of getting angry and depressed about this, and blaming people for so and so, I’m trying to focus on more positive things, what I can do, spiritually and materially, even if it’s not easy. So these lessons come at the right time for me.
Anyway, just wanted to say thank you :)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 09:11 am (UTC)My anxious brain immediately started coming up with a million reasons to not do any of this as soon as I started reading the post. There's obviously some very important stuff I need to confront here. I'm going to stick to the minimum 15 minutes a day for awhile so I don't get overwhelmed though.
Thanks you for making this work available for all of us.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
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From:Better understanding of factors
From:Quick Question
Date: 2021-08-06 09:42 am (UTC)Re: Quick Question
From:Hawthorn
Date: 2021-08-06 02:00 pm (UTC)( https://druidgarden.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/sacred-tree-profile-hawthorn-lore-medicine-magic-and-mystery/ )
Your mileage may very of course.
My wife and I are going camping with my dad and step-mom this weekend, so I'll start the work in earnest when we get back next week. While we have a good relationship, there is still a lot to unpack from the past and some blames I've held onto and I don't want that to spoil our time together this weekend by focusing on it.
I expect going through all this will take at least two weeks.
Thanks again for bringing this out.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 02:55 pm (UTC)To make a long story short, since starting a magical practice a few years ago, I've changed. Also as I wrestle with the influence of that archetype since becoming aware of it.
Somewhere among the literature I've read, there was something to the effect of "as you start to change, those who you are close to can react badly to the changes, because they have certain habits with how they treat you that are based on your own habits". To my great surprise, my parents both told me last night that they noticed the change, and they missed the child-like side of me.
Which tells me that something is happening caused by my practices, but I hope I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater, and losing some valuable side of myself.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2021-08-06 06:41 pm (UTC) - ExpandMaybe a hubristic question
Date: 2021-08-06 04:34 pm (UTC)I think that I will spend quite a bit more time on #8 than the others.
Is it OK if I just do a review of my past three years for numbers one through seven and then continue my current battle against Catholic/Jewish guilt? (it isn't easy being a hybrid of those two legacies).
Re: Maybe a hubristic question
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 04:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:Why lovers/friends go along with classmates/coworkers?
Date: 2021-08-06 06:52 pm (UTC)Spouses/lovers are probably the closest people in the world who are not direct kin. Some select best friends may come not too far behind. Putting those people in the same category with fast friends and acquaintances is a necessary stretch.
However, in this world of job insecurity you can count on having, by the time you make it to your middle age, a few hundred people you have worked with. Depending on how long you stayed in school, and how often you switched schools, you may have quite a number of classmates as well. As a teacher, these people feel more like former students: they came, we met for a year or two, parted ways to never meet most of them again.
Aside from the select few who will be filed into my Hit^H^H^H^H Antagonists list, would it be OK to let most coworkers/classmates fall into the "Other people" list?
Re: Why lovers/friends go along with classmates/coworkers?
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 07:56 pm (UTC)I have A LOT of work to do. Thank you for making this available.
(no subject)
From:Counseling?
Date: 2021-08-06 08:29 pm (UTC)Re: Counseling?
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 09:33 pm (UTC)*ahem* "Keep writing as long as thoughts and ideas arise and as long as you're comfortable. Take a break when you need to take a break. The intent of this part of the task is to recall as many details as you can comfortably recall."
Right. Read through it at least twice...
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-06 10:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-07 02:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:Emotional Clearing and garlic
Date: 2021-08-07 02:58 am (UTC)But last summer I wasn't feeling a lot of emotions (not interacting with many people, and I gave up pot, which in hindsight, emotional flatness may have been a recovery side effect) so I didn't have much to work with and I now just work on it when I'm anxious about something, but most of what I read I've probably forgotten. Anyway, I like the structured approach of the OSA, that will help me keep going. I'll get started on it.
I have this annoying memory of a boyfriend when I was 19 trying to make me cut garlic the way he wanted and now every time I cut garlic I remember that and feel mildly angry. Maybe I can let that one go soon so I can fully enjoy my garlic :)
-Radha
Re: Emotional Clearing and garlic
From:(no subject)
Date: 2021-08-07 05:46 pm (UTC)This excercises seem just what i need right now.
Many thanks
(no subject)
From:Why aren't questions like this part of routine psychoanalysis?
Date: 2021-08-07 06:03 pm (UTC)Is it really all about the drug companies making $$$ or is it that my psychiatrist and people in her field are so dumbed down that they refuse to see their patients as humans and not a means to a fat paycheck?
I never once sensed my psychiatrist cared about me as a human being, and other therapists I've had seem the same way. Numb. So I guess I do blame her for being such a mindless, spineless cog in the greed-driven grist mill at a time I desperately needed competent help.
Re: Why aren't questions like this part of routine psychoanalysis?
From:Re: Why aren't questions like this part of routine psychoanalysis?
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2021-08-08 12:06 am (UTC) - ExpandRe: Why aren't questions like this part of routine psychoanalysis?
From:Keeping a copy, with a twist...
Date: 2021-08-07 06:43 pm (UTC)JP
PS. The Well of Galabes in Spanish has four more posts to go. School got in the way and I haven't found the time to get at those, but I will ASAP. Those interested can find it over in galabesp.blogspot.com
Re: Keeping a copy, with a twist...
From:Step 1
Date: 2021-08-07 10:38 pm (UTC)I'm having a hard time with step 1. I don't feel like my actions are anyone else's responsibility. The word blame is hard for me. I would never put my actions and emotions on someone else. Does anyone else have this reaction?
Re: Step 1
From:Re: Step 1
From:Sensations
Date: 2021-08-07 11:30 pm (UTC)Parked myself on my patio for a total of a couple hours (with breaks) to address my stuff with mom and dad.
Feel “lighter” and even a little bit tingly.
The sensation of old emotional stuff heading for the compost pile, perhaps? Sure hope so.
Thanks for making this available,
OtterGirl
Re: Sensations
From: