The Faith of the Wise - by Robert Cochrane.pdf - MAGIA, WICCA, CZAROSTWO - DIANALUNA

THE FAITH OF THE WISE

Robert Cochrane

Pentagram (4) August 1965

It is said by various "authorities" that the Faith of the Wise, when they do

believe in its existence, is a simple matter: a pre-Christian religion based

upon whatever Gods and Goddesses are the current vogue--full of simple, hearty

peasants doing simple, hearty peasant-like things ... things that in some cases

complex, nervous sophisticates also enjoy doing in urban parlours. Consequently

we have an interesting phenomenon: civilised sophisticates running round

behaving like simple peasants--and simple peasants who have never heard of such

things! It is also maintained by the same "authorities" that we follow a belief

which, as one dear old fellow put it, is headed by a deity "Who is the sweetest

woman, everyone loves her." To quote someone else who is just a student of the

Craft, "Witchcraft is about rituals," which I suppose to be true, if one cares

to accept the definition as witchcraft.

All this worries me somewhat--since I am not a peasant and neither am I

particularly interested in being led by a sweet woman, and ritual to me is

merely a means to an end. So what is the Faith all about? Admittedly I can only

speak for myself, and what I write here are my own opinions, but here goes.

Unfortunately for authorities, students and "mere seekers after truth," the

Faith is not about anything that has been written above. The Faith is finally

concerned with Truth, total Truth. It is one of the oldest of religions, and

also one of the most potent, bringing as it does, Man into contact with Gods,

and Man into contact with Self. As such the Faith is a way of life different and

distinct from any theory promulgated by the authorities or historians. Within

the disciplines of the Faith, man may offer devotion to the Gods, and receive

certain knowledge of Their existence by participation in something of the

perfected Nature of Godhead, recalling that both within and without which is

most true. The Faith is a belief concerned with the inner nature of devotion,

and finally with the nature of mysticism and mystical experience. It has, in

common with all great religions, an inner experience that is greater than the

exterior world. It is a discipline that creates from the world an enriched

inward vision. It can and does embrace the totality of human experience from

birth to death, then beyond. It creates within the human spirit a light that

brightens all darkness, and which can never again be extinguished. It is never

fully forgotten and never fully remembered. The True Faith is the life of the

follower, without it he is nothing, with it he has contained something of all

creation.

Force requires form at this level of being, therefore ritual exists to contain

that force. Godhead demands worship, therefore ritual exists to give and

formulate that worship. Man needs help, therefore ritual is designed to give

that help. It is possible to comprehend Godhead or Force without ritual, since

the First Principle of Godhead is present at all levels and in all things at all

times--but total perception is not present in humanity all the time. Therefore

ritual basically becomes a matter of increasing perception until something of

Godhead '.s finally revealed, and that which is within and without is partially

understood: comprehended in the physical person of the participant until it-

becomes one with his total being. The forces comprehended are part of the living

person, incorporated into everyday life as part of a spiritual, mental and

physical discipline that returns the devotee again and again to the original

Source.

Devotion requires proof. Therefore that proof exists within the disciplines of

the Faith. The nature of proof cannot be explained, since force can only be

shown by inference and by participation, not by intellectual reasoning. The

nature of the proof falls into many forms, but amongst the most common are

these:

(a) POETIC VISION, in which the participant has inward access to dream images

and symbols. This is the result of the unconscious being stimulated by various

means. Images are taught as part of a tradition, and also exist.(as Jung

speculated) upon their own levels. They are, when interpreted properly, means by

which a lesser part of truth may be understood.

(b) THE VISION OF MEMORY, in which the devotee not only remembers past existence

but also, at times, a past perfection.

Triad of service, and therefore contacts certain levels.*

(d) RELIGIOUS VISION, in which the worshipper is allowed admission to the True

Godhead for a short time. This is a part of true initiation, and the results of

devotion towards a mystical aim.

(e) MYSTICAL VISION, in which the servant enters into divine union with the

Godhead. This state has no form, being a point where force alone is present.

These are proofs, since having enjoined with such forces, there cannot

afterwards be any doubts as to the nature of the experience. Man suffers from

doubt at all times, but to the participant in such experience, the doubt centres

around the reality of the external world, not the inner. The reality of such

experience illuminates the whole life.

Therefore it can be shown that the Faith is a complex philosophy, dealing

finally with the nature of Truth, Experience and Devotion. It requires

discipline and work; plus utter and complete devotion to the common aim.

It can only be fulfilled by service, some labours taking many years to complete.

The Faith tolerates no nonsense, and those who would come to it, must come

empty-handed saying "I know nothing, I seek everything," since within the

structure of the Faith, all things may be contained and are contained. It has

survived, in secrecy and silence, the attacks of persecution, indifference and

misrepresentation. It is secret because those only who are best suited may enter

the awful silences of the Places of the Gods. It is silent because in silence

there is strength, protection and a future. It is also silent today, because as

the Greeks said "Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad." It is

nearly impossible to enter unless the supplicant shows unmistakable signs of

past memory and a genuine mystical drive, and is willing to undertake tests that

will force him finally to disclose that matter which is most secret to himself.

The Faith has no secrets in the sense that there are formulas which can be

readily understood and taught. It is finally and utterly the True Faith.,

standing immovable beyond space, time and all human matters.

--------------

* Being requested by the Editor to clarify this statement I ask the interested

reader to examine the Hebrew letters IHV as they would be in their original and

matriarchal form, which will explain something of the basic nature of magical

rite and ritual. It should be as clear as the Roebuck in the Thicket now.

The Faith of the Wise - by Robert Cochrane.pdf

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