READERS’ QUESTIONS

The Adept replies…

1. Referring to a question you discussed in DL2: the type of person who would try to save others in a disaster – you used the example of a ship sinking, and you said that a natural winner in life would try to save others. Would you say that an Adept is a natural winner? If so, doesn’t the act of trying to save others – at the risk of his own life – conflict with the fact that an Adept is not concerned with other people?

Whether he lives or dies is totally immaterial to an Adept. In such circumstances as you describe, he might or might not take action to rescue people; it would depend on how he felt at the time. If he did not attempt to save other lives, it would not be because he was afraid of losing his own. If you rely on physical life, you are not an Adept. When you have seen the beginning and the ending of the Universe, what is death to you?

2. When you say that one becomes detached from the world, how far should that detachment go? For instance, if you saw someone collapse in the street, would you step over him or give First-Aid? When I was particularly impressed by a charity advertisement in the newspaper the other day and sent them ten pounds, was that wrong?

If someone chooses not to give first-aid either because giving help would cost him something, such as time and effort, or because the person in the gutter is inferior, that is proof (if needed) that he is not an Adept. To an Adept, no act ever costs anything, and a person just is.

You should analyse your own reaction to the appeal. Responding or not responding is neither right nor wrong, but you need to know why you did it.

3. Are there any spells which really work? I know you said one shouldn’t use Occult means to solve a non-Occult problem, but this person is my enemy because I am an Occultist, so surely I am justified in trying to protect myself by Occult means.

An enemy is a person who wishes to gain advantage over you. People who are merely petty or vindictive are not your enemies.

If you ask me how to solve a problem which you have concerning another person, I might say ‘shoot that person’. You would reply ‘but I don’t want to shoot him’. Why not? Because you feel that the problem is not important enough to justify murder. So how important is it? That is the assessment which you have to make.

If all problems of the world were put into a pile and people walked past, they would pick their own problems out again.

Other people do not have it easier than you, though it might seem to you that they do.

It is not the spells which do not work, it is the people.

4. I can’t understand why Satanists claim that they don’t believe in Satan. Are you saying that there is no power other than that controlled by human beings?

The first part of this question is answered in every DL, but the concept that you are your only god is very difficult to come to terms with, especially when you have been involved in ”traditional” Occultism and are accustomed to assuming an external deity. Comprehension comes gradually and it is a good indication of progress when you can face that reality without fear. The second part of the question needs further definition; as it stands, it is meaningless. “Power” exists everywhere, but it is insentient until controlled and directed by a being who has the ability to do so.

Taken from the Dark Lily Journal No 8, Society of Dark Lily (London 1989).