It is my pleasure to serve as your instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts. While a serious topic, we begin with an amusing reference to Harry Potter to emphasize two things. While white and black magic have captivated audiences in our popular media, entertainment, and movies, the reality, despite its cute and intriguing representation, is a crude reality. But more importantly when studying this topic, we should always maintain our humor.
Too many people, when approaching the study of light and darkness, white and black magic, have been filled with intense fear, anxiety, paranoia, or even morbidity, anger, distress. Ironically, people who experience psychic attacks often become very enraged, filled with hate for their persecutors. What such people ignore fundamentally that these are weaknesses, which are exacerbated and utilized by negative forces. We can only be manipulated so long as we have the ego, so long as we have conditions of mind. Therefore, to overcome temptations and attacks, we must conquer our own vulnerabilities, our own psychology. The purpose of this lecture is to identify various types of psychological attacks, but more importantly, what the remedies are. But let us provide some contexts. Within the literature of Samael Aun Weor, who is the founder of the Gnostic Tradition in which we study, countless initiates like him make ample references to what are known as black magicians, black magic, demons, sorcerers, witches, warlocks, etc. In truth, there have always existed and always will exist two lodges, which are constantly in eternal struggle: the white and the black. The White Lodge is constituted by beings who develop and express divinity for the benefit of humanity. The term white does not refer to race, but to the conditions or purity of the psyche, whereas the Black Lodge is a reference specifically to the dullness, the heaviness of desire, conditions, impurity. What is the Black Lodge? In truth, it is both collective, but more importantly, it is individual to us. There exists Black Lodges where people dedicate themselves towards what is known as mystical fornication, which is the expulsion of the sexual energy for the egotistical acquisition of power. We are also a Black Lodge as individuals, as people. This is due to the fact that our own subconsciousness, our own unconsciousness, our own infraconsciousness affects us without us even knowing. So, while we maybe interested in these studies, the truth is that we have the ego. We may not be aware that we carry these tendencies, but that does not mean that they are not there. If you are seriously working with the practices of this tradition, you will start to see how we all carry affliction within, the causes of suffering that many people like to blame others of possessing. As we strive for spiritual edification, ethical advancement, there are many obstacles that present themselves. These are always, in most cases, of a psychological nature. Anyone who studies and practices Gnosis eventually faces hardship. It is inevitable because the neophyte aspires to perfect him- or herself. The law of karma provides ordeals. These are situations that are very difficult, which tests our sincerity, not out of punishment, or out of blind retribution, but to help us discover our defects. Without hardships, you cannot discover your faults, the secret causes of pain. In truth, many scriptures relate this process. They always describe how divinity always tests the disciple. Yet for most people, facing hardship becomes an excuse to leave the teachings, to run away, much like the character Gilderoy Lockhart in the Harry Potter series. People do not like challenges. They do not want to be afraid, to face uncertainty, to be in struggle. People see how their life is falling apart. Maybe they lose their job, or their spouse, family members, friends, and then they blame Gnosis. They say, “This is ruining my life!” However, what people ignore, or what those people ignore, is that the teachings are working. Without challenges, we cannot grow. As Rumi stated: How can you be polished like a mirror if you resist every rub? ―Rumi
This is why we learn spiritual self-defense. It is inevitable that when we awaken positively, our consciousness, as we seek to understand ourselves, we begin to perceive a terrible dichotomy. It is a struggle between two opposing factors: our unconditioned, free consciousness, the Essence, and our own conditions of mind, desire, animal ego, pluralized selves, defects, vices, etc. The manner in which our own negativity, our defects, our egos, obstruct our development is known with the term resistance. I will read for you a quote from Samael Aun Weor in The Revolution of The Dialectic:
Resistance is the opposing force. Resistance is the secret weapon of the ego. Resistance is the psychic force of the ego that is opposed to us becoming conscious of all of our psychological defects. With resistance, the ego tends to leave on a tangent and postulates excuses to silence or hide its error. Due to resistance, dreams become difficult to interpret and the knowledge that one wants to have about oneself becomes clouded. Resistance acts upon a defense mechanism that tries to omit unpleasant psychological errors, so as not to have consciousness of them. In this way, one continues in psychological slavery. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic
Resistance occurs specifically when we practice chastity. As the former lecturer in this course mentioned, the moment you start to save your creative energy and use it for a spiritual purpose, you immediately face the opposing force, which is resistance, opposition. When we starve our animal impulses and desires, they fight. They do not want to die. They want to feed and to stay alive. The mind has many excuses: “We should fornicate, orgasm, masturbate, sleep around, commit adultery, watch pornography, and do every behavior that feeds and fortifies lust.” Even if we know that these behaviors―if we study these teachings for some time―are mistaken, even from a fundamental understanding and experience in our life, we still have the force of contention within our interior, which still pushes and fights to be expressed, to be nourished, to manifest. This is very painful to see in oneself.
In order to face this resistance, we learn different techniques, which is the purpose of this lecture. The ego knows it is going to die through this work. It is threatened. So it does everything it can to dissuade the sincere aspirant. But not only do we mislead ourselves and are filled with internal conflict, but there are entities and people within the physical and the internal worlds who dislike what we are doing. They do not like the audacity of the aspirants in this teaching, because it is a threat to their agenda. We call these entities―who have developed power in conditioned consciousness, the ego or hell realms―demons. They have power and abilities, but through desire. They have strengthened the cage of their mind. They fortify hatred, pride, vanity, lust, greed. They have abilities. They can travel in the astral plane. They can travel in the fourth dimension. They can manipulate elemental souls of nature. They can influence and coerce the minds of others. They have power and abilities, which for the lay person are very attractive, primarily because we are so hypnotized by our own desires. Likewise, we may assume and feel that we want those abilities, but usually it is for selfish reasons. This is something that is capitalized upon by sorcerers. It is very easy to fool us, because we are so asleep. So these entities see that we are working to eliminate desire and develop abilities within divinity. Obviously, that is a threat. It is the opposite of what they do, and so they push very hard to pull the candidates for initiation away from the path of chastity. So, how do we combat these forces? How do we face them when we are being influenced, manipulated, deceived, coerced? We use prayers. We use our consciousness most especially. We must comprehend and eliminate our own defects. But most importantly, we need to develop the art of happiness. As Samael Aun Weor states in Aztec Christic Magic: Do not worry; cultivate the habit of being happy. ―Samael Aun Weor, Aztec Christic Magic
This is advice from a man who, ever since he entered again upon the path of initiation, has been assaulted by legions of demons, black magicians. The founder of this tradition, Samael Aun Weor, his innermost divinity is the archangel of the planetary influence of Mars. He has been known in Greece by the name Aries, or the God of war against corruption and egotism. The bodhisattva or human soul of the Master Samael Aun Weor, the terrestrial person, was working to achieve self-realization again. In his lifetime, he received death threats, imprisonment and even assassination attempts, many times. He would give congresses and teaching publicly, and the Black Lodge would send many of their disciples and adepts to kill him. However, he always maintained his serenity, his happiness, his composure, and most importantly, his compassion. He knew that sorcery is overcome through conscious love, which is evidenced by his success in converting the demon Beelzebub into a master of the White Lodge. You can read The Revolution of Beelzebub for more details.
At these congresses, where black magicians were sent to murder him, Samael Aun Weor would foil their efforts. He would use the power of his compassion and his serenity. He would greet his enemies and his friends by covering his solar plexus with his left hand and extending his right hand in the form of the gnostic pentagram, saying: “Paz inverencial!” or “Inverencial peace!” “Peace unto your innermost Being!” We know from these studies that this is a form of conjuration, to conjure, to invoke divine forces in order to elevate the souls of people around us, towards divinity, towards the Being. He would always do this at the beginning of lectures and congresses, which practically was a means of disabling these entities, these people, and because the force emanating from his inner Being was so strong, like a battleship moving forward and immovable, these assassins were terrified. They refused to touch him.
We, on the other hand, like to think that we are so strong, are really very weak, because our ego constantly reacts towards criticism and persecution. But in reality, the Intimate Christ responds with love. As Samael Aun Weor states in the book Sexology, the Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology: The “I,” the myself, does not exist within Christ. Christ does not react against calumnies, slaps, mockeries, threats, whippings, etc. Christ overwhelms because of his terrific serenity. When crucified Christ said only, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The “I” does not exist inside the Christ; this is why he neither reacts nor judges anybody. Christ is a perfect clairvoyant who knows how to see with comprehension, without judging, without translating, because he does not have the “I.” Christ is the clairvoyant who sees, comprehends, and knows. Christ is the universal spirit of life incarnated inside Jesus of Nazareth. ―Samael Aun Weor, Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology
This is the fundamental skill, the basis of spiritual self-defense. If you have listened to the first lecture or have read the transcription, you see that the lecture mentioned how your state of mind is the most important key, the essence of protecting yourself. If you respond with consciousness, you can transform even the worst situations into wisdom.
White and Black Magic
Black magic is very common today. We like to believe that witches are an exception, or a few who perform some very strange satanic rituals with a complex or obscure liturgy. While true in the internal planes, we experience attacks of black magic all the time. It is so pervasive and prevalent, that we no longer see it, because it is a part of our society and culture, which we are expected at all times to never question, to never confront. To do so is to be ostracized, to be condemned, like on social media or other outlets in which communication is very open.
People think that these studies are irrational, superstitious, insane, or even cultish. But let me give you some examples of what we are talking about. When someone directs their anger at you, when someone attempts to manipulate or confuse you, to control or confound you, presenting words that do not match with their intentions, he or she is performing black magic. Any action of a person that seeks to direct or inspire you towards egotistical behavior is an act of sorcery. By this definition we can see very clearly that all of us, without exception, are black magicians, sorcerers, demons. In synthesis, magic is merely the influence of the mind, the consciousness, the spirit, over matter. It has nothing to do with circus performances, or public stunts, like making people disappear in a cloud of smoke, or cutting a person in half on stage. Magic constitutes some of our most venerated traditions. It comes from the 5000-year-old Indo-European term magh, which means “priest.” This priesthood is about manifesting the power, the energy, of divinity, to help humanity elevate its consciousness. Specifically, white magic calls upon divinity to influence matter, energy and consciousness in harmony with divine law. It is pure. It is simple. It is not mixed with conditions or desires. Examples of such white magicians includes Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, all the angels, all the prophets, the masters, the buddhas, the gods. They have power to influence nature for the benefit of others, not for circus tricks, or to impress people, but because they are manifesting divinity in their actions, which is selfless love, kindness, philanthropy, altruism, patience, aspiration, faith. The Bible speaks abundantly about the innumerable supernatural powers of these masters over nature. You simply have to look at the New Testament of Jesus walking on water, or Moses utilizing white magic to free the Israelites. Black magic, on the other hand, is the opposite. It calls upon egotism, selfishness, desire, to intensify the conditions of matter, the conditions of energy and the conditions of perception. So, this is the question that everyone likes to ask: “Who are examples of black magicians?” The truth is that they are everywhere. They are within politics. They are within business. They dominate our movie industry. They work in advertisement. They run our governments, and our religions especially have been influenced by many of these people. We like to think that black magicians are some perverse figures in robes, capes, tunics, tattoos, piercings, and spiked hair. The reality is that black magicians look like everyday people. They often have very sweet and pleasing appearances. Many of them are very kind and have very amiable personalities. This is why it is very difficult for people to discern who is really on the black path. It has to do with the ignorance of not knowing our own psychology and not being able to understand the psychology of others. This ignorance is of great advantage and utility for such people, because if you do not suspect the existence of these types of influences, then you will not protect yourself. So, how do you recognize that there are black magicians? As Jesus said: “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20). Where do they get their power? Where do they get their influence? Is it from within? Or is it from others? Black magicians always seek to gratify their desires by stealing energy from people, because they do not create with the sexual energy in themselves. They seek to gain power. They seek energy. They seek attention by manipulating, coercing, and deceiving people. In truth, a black magician is very weak, because they only have power and influence if we consent to give it to them, if we acquiesce our energy and will. A white magician respects the law, respects our will, and therefore does nothing to violate the harmony of nature. But the reality is that black magicians do not think their practice is harmful, and this is the scary thing. They are very ignorant. They say that they give people what they want. They say: “We respect the law because it is an exchange. It is equal.” The reality is that this is a false logic. Feeding one's desires is a violation, because when you condition yourself and others, you create a disharmony, an imbalance within the law. So, while listening to this, knowing the difference between white and black magic can be very tricky. Samael Aun Weor fortunately gave us a very simple clue, a very obvious one, but it is effective. If you want to know the key for discrimination, ask these individuals if they practice chastity: the conservation and sublimation of the sexual energy. Anyone who advises the orgasm is a demon. It does not matter how much they speak of morality, of ethics, of God, of love. If they are expelling their sexual energy, then they have no energy by which to express divinity. They are instead manifesting desire, and if you study the Laws of Manu, the oldest scripture on the planet, or one of the oldest scriptures, it states that desire is never eliminated by feeding it. It only grows stronger like butter added into a fire. So, when you feed desire, it gets stronger. It needs more force, more energy, more attention, and therefore it becomes insatiable. This is a demonic quality. These people or entities, because they expel their own sexual energies, they have to steal it from other people. They cannot create. So this is a futile attempt to balance what they lost. It is very simple. People become very confused. How can someone who speaks eloquently of divinity, of yoga, of Catholicism, of Judaism, of gnosticism, of religion and spirituality, be a black magician? In truth, the weapon they use to mislead people is the intellect. They justify behavior that produces suffering. There are many people who call themselves priests of divinity, and yet they are exercising their will upon others. They violate the freedom of their neighbor's mind. They pollute the minds, the hearts, and even the bodies of their followers. This is very common today. If you look at many religions of the world and see the behavior of the priesthood, it is very shameful. This is because all religions have really divorced themselves from this essential practice, not only to conserve the sexual energy, but to transform it, to use it, to direct it. Abstinence is not enough. We have to conserve that energy and use it with the consciousness, otherwise it builds up and it will feed our own repressed desires. It becomes a big problem, a monster, a demon. So we can act with unconditioned consciousness, which always produces harmony and cohesion. If we act with desire, the ego, the conditioned self, we influence others to act in the same way. Have you ever heard of mob mentality? Rioting? Lynching? Did you hear what happened recently in Washington DC? Crowds impelled by violence. Black magic works upon the collective mind. It uses the noblest ideas to justify hell. Some people hear the term conjuration and they think that “So-and-so, a witch, was conjuring me,” as an example, “so I conjured her back.” Some people have a misconception that this has to do with when a black magician uses very elaborate demonic prayers to hypnotize or influence us. As white magicians, we use prayers to protect ourselves in response. This is true especially in the internal worlds. Physically, it can be a little different. Conjurations have more meaning than a set of words, a sequence of mantras, sacred sounds, or prayers. To conjure comes from the Latin conjurare, “to swear together or bind by oath.” This means simply to influence another to resonate at a particular level of being, whether positive or negative, unconditioned or conditioned, superior or inferior. With this definition, I hope that it is much clearer because there are a lot of misconceptions about what black magic is and what the struggle is in the moment. Struggles between white and black magic occur when a person, intentionally or not, attempts to influence your conditions of mind to get you to act a certain way, to react with pride, with anger, with fear, laziness, resentment, and most especially without you even knowing it, especially the defect of lust. That is the one defect that is capitalized and utilized by our media, television shows, and by the Black Lodge.
Pornography is a huge business which had misled millions of people. It is actually the primary weapon that the Black Lodge has used since the inception of the book The Perfect Matrimony by Samael Aun Weor. Samael Aun Weor was told internally that after writing The Perfect Matrimony, the Black Lodge was going to retaliate, so he waited many years, looking at the news and waiting for someone to talk against him. But in truth, the way that the Black Lodge is fighting against chastity is through that industry, pornography.
So, we have to eliminate these temptations from our daily life, if you really want to be serious, to change, because lust is a cause of suffering. It does not bring harmony and peace with oneself. So, with conjurations especially, there does not to be some sophisticated exchange, or a battle with mystical mantras and words, which is often caricatured in modern media and films like if you’ve seen the Harry Potter series, like Dumbledore versus Voldemort―something fantastic. There is that reality in the internal planes. But more practically for us, this has to do instead with whether or not we respond to egotistical impressions with cognizance, intelligence, and wisdom. “Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” says the Bible (Matthew 10:16). Conjurations do not need to be a specific formula, although the best protection that we do have is the Conjuration of Four, the Conjuration of the Seven, the Invocation of Solomon, and Fons Alpha. In order for these conjurations and prayers to work, we have to be awake. We should memorize these prayers, these formulas, because they have a lot of power. They are an emergency distress call to divinity. They grant you access, like a smart phone, to an unlimited access of all sorts of wisdom, of protection, of knowledge. They have a lot of utility. But for any of them to work, you have to be alert and trained in their use. Anyone can pick up a knife, a sword, or a gun. But the question is, are you trained to use them effectively in combat? The same is true with conjurations and prayers. Just because you repeat these prayers, does not mean they will work. In truth, their success lies exclusively in the quality, the precision, the clarity of their application. Specifically, chastity is the power of prayer. If you have no sexual energy cultivated, you simply cannot empower your consciousness. It is like trying to drive a car without fuel. Or you are driving a vehicle and you are asleep at the wheel, and you are not attentive in what you are doing. You simply cannot do it without getting hurt. In truth, your consciousness is the best weapon against any negative influence. In synthesis, conjurations occur when two or more entities encounter each other. They form a type of matrix, a combination or influence of psychological atmospheres, emotional atmospheres, mind, mental influences, whereby a choice is made, whether to follow the conditioned psyche, or unconditioned perception. It is a pact that is made between two people. A psychic battle then, or struggle occurs, when these two different entities meet, one who seeks to manifest the unconditioned consciousness while the other seeks to evoke the conditioned consciousness. So they seek to influence the other person to swear an oath, to make the other person resonate at a particular level of being. Ever been in an argument? What is it like when you assert your will, your beliefs, on someone else? Or what is it like to be attacked in a debate, even if but verbally? You ever had a verbal struggle with someone? I know we like to think that we live in a psychological bubble where we can think and feel whatever we want, seemingly without consequences, because no one else can know our thoughts and desires. This is an illusion, and it serves the agenda of many witches and sorcerers, because their crimes cannot be registered according to materialistic skepticism and the penal code. How can the law condemn something it does not accept, whose existence it rejects? So, based on material criteria, the law ignores how a vast majority of crimes are committed beneath the radar, because there are psychological and energetic methods to which a person can be influenced, extorted, manipulated, harmed. Judges, especially in western countries, are very skeptical, and black magicians know it, so they use their ignorance to advantage. If you do not believe me that we are interconnected on a psychological level, I will pose you some questions. Have you ever felt someone looking at you, even if your physical eyes have not seen them? If you are a woman, have you ever felt the lustful stares of men, without physically seeing them? Or when someone is angry at you, but says nothing? You know their intentions, even if there is no apparent evidence. These are psychological senses, which for most people in us tend to be very blunted. They are dull and atrophied. The ability to sense another person’s mental and emotional psychology is known as telepathy, which for most of us is unconscious. It tends to be mechanical. It can happen spontaneously, sometimes against our voluntary will. It is not conscious or intentional, mastered, developed. We tend to go on life on auto pilot. We sense people’s feelings and know their instincts, maybe their desires, but we do not have much clarity or depth. We do not really comprehend other people because we barely even understand our own thoughts, our own feelings, our own impulses, because our psychology is muddled. We do not really perceive external danger when there is, when it is prevalent. However, when you practice self-observation and self-remembrance, you begin to notice the ways in which people, consciously or not, intentionally or not, exert influence upon our own psychological states, for good or for ill. This is why martial arts like Aikido―it is a Japanese form of self-defense―the best technique is to be relaxed and to be aware. If you are tense, if you are agitated, if you are afraid, you can make a mistake. Likewise, you can get injured if you are not aware of your surroundings, if you are not paying attention to yourself, if you are not conscious of the technique, and if you are not aware of your opponent. Let us give some examples in how this relates to our psychology. Perhaps as a man, a beautiful woman approaches you, gives you a compliment. If you are not vigilant, you may not be aware of how your own lust, your own pride, your own vanity emerges in reaction to this impression. It is only when your self-observation is unfiltered that you are going to perceive an interchange of egotistical desires, an exchange of forces, the influence of attention, an influence of energy. However, self-awareness is really not definitive. You can be completely aware of committing a murder. A lot of people like to deify awareness as if it is a new thing, as if it is the end-all-be-all of spirituality. In reality, you can do many mistakes with awareness, commit them with profound attention and concentration. Obviously, this does not make it right. The problem with many new age sophisms is that they think that simply being mindful, being aware of your surroundings and yourself, that you are advancing. It is not true. It is not enough. Be aware. Be attentive. Be vigilant. But more importantly, be very deliberate in how you respond to life. You need superior action in these circumstances, so that we do not complicate our karma and create problems. This is why Samael Aun Weor states in Fundamentals of Gnostic Education: Wherever we direct attention, we expend creative energy. ―Samael Aun Weor, Fundamentals of Gnostic Education
So the question is, where is our attention moving? Where is our energy flowing? A lot of people become fascinated with energy. They identify with it. They glorify it, not understanding that it is merely the cosmic currency, the energy, the vital values, that can be used for consciousness or ego. Having a lot of fuel in your car does not make your car better. It simply gives it the capacity to drive. How you drive is what matters. So, are we using our energy for our consciousness, to stay on the road, to obey the rules of the road? Or are we drunk with desire, and therefore we get someone killed and get ourselves hurt? This is our spiritual situation, because when we act upon our own defects, we create a lot of suffering for ourselves and for others. People who intentionally commit black magic, or even unconsciously do so, create a lot of suffering. So we have to be mindful of this.
In the case of the example I gave you, the man who receives the compliment will most commonly saturate and feed his desires, will not question his lust, will not discriminate or analyze it, but simply get indulge in it, mechanically, because it feels good. People give in to desire because it is strong in us, but more importantly it is difficult to separate. Sensations are very convincing for people. But we have to get beyond sensations, whether physically or psychologically. Through self-observation and remembrance of divinity, we recognize the qualities of pure consciousness from the desires of lust, animal satisfaction. If you are really observant, you will see a transaction like a bank exchange. You see multiple egos that want to react to the situation. They all want to satisfy their desires, to expend creative energy, to feed lust. So, this is conditioned perception, and it goes contrary to unconditioned perception, which is the Essence. When you identify with desire, when you feed it, when you go along with it, you give it strength and energy. You condition yourself, and this is the problem. This is what must change if you really want to protect yourself and really begin learning how to transform your situation. We have to make a choice. I know a lot of people like to think that we do not have agency. The truth is that while we have a lot of conditions of mind, we still have the opportunity. We have 3% free consciousness that can work. 97% of it is conditioned, according to Samael Aun Weor. If you give power and space to your free consciousness to act without desire, then there is an internal transformation. A transformation of impressions occurs. So, instead of acting with vanity and lust, the man in that example would maintain his chastity, with purifying the energies, not reacting out of desire, but acting with purity and kindness, equanimity and dispassion. In fact, by acting in this way, by restraining the mind, we conserve and liberate energy. We create a reservoir for our consciousness. So, in most cases for most of us, this is very difficult to do. We tend to ignore our heart, our intuition, our conscience that knows right from wrong, and this is what we have to follow in all circumstances. If you sense a situation is wrong, is problematic, you should probably really reflect on that and act according to your intuition. The intellect will debate, argue, theorize, label, and chatter in accordance with associative thinking, not really looking or having an answer. Do not use the intellect. Rely on your heart, about how you must behave in life, on how you must work, how you must change, how you must behave. Our Being can influence our experiences for the benefit of everyone. But also our ego can assert its cravings and desires upon others to get what it wants. This usually happens when we do not listen to our conscience. This always occurs at the cost and expense of others’ wellbeing. Therefore, demons attempt to control others for the fulfillment of desires. That is basically it. They think that their desires are helping people, but they are not. They seek to control through conditioned perceptions the will of others. Here is a very clear demarcation between white and black magic. It is very subtle, but it is very beautiful. White magic is persuasion. We offer solutions, valuable options to problems, while respecting the will and freedom of other people. A black magician uses coercion. They always seek to gratify their desires, no matter what the cost. They violate the will of others and do not respect other people’s will. So examine your mind. How do you behave in certain situations? Do you act with altruism? Do you give to others without wanting for yourself? Are you patient when you are humiliated? When people deride you? Are you humble when you did not get that job promotion, when your neighbor did? Do you feel compassion for the person who crucifies you? Are you being selfless? Or do you try to get what you want in any way you can, even if in the mind? Even if under the banner of friendship, of neutrality, and even friendly advice? Selfishness, desire and ego have very distinct qualities. The “me,” “myself,” or “I” is characterized by a density, a heaviness. It is a state of suffering. It is hell. The ego is hell. The more selfless your actions, the more unconditioned and pure they are, the more compassionate, the more loving and philanthropic, the more kind, the lighter your states. You experience more freedom, more happiness, more contentment. You feel inspired when others succeed in life. You do not wish for their downfall, even in your mind and even if you tell yourself when you do not. You can access greater serenity, peace and equanimity, even if the world is falling apart around you, as we see today. So you cannot learn to defend yourself spiritually from negative forces when your level of being does not change. If you are unaware of how your own defects, your own egos, your own desires produce suffering for yourself and others, then there is no basis by which you can defend yourself, because you are going to be an aggressor. Unfortunately, we are going to be black magicians in this case, a demon, not a defendant. So demons will not bother you when you are acting on your desires, and especially when you are not practicing chastity. Such entities only try to obstruct you when you are making fundamental changes in your psychology, in your behavior. If you are not changing your level of being, or if you are not practicing chastity, then they are going to see you as one of them. So you are a perpetrator, not a victim in their eyes. 
Attacks During Dreams
Let us talk about some particular ways that black magicians attack us in the gnostic path, and also the remedies. In most cases, when people are assaulted psychically, it is in the internal worlds. So physically you go to sleep, your consciousness leaves the body and enters the world of dreams, known as the fifth dimension or הוד Hod within the Kabbalah, the Tree of Life. It is the astral plane, or better said, the lunar astral plane, because there is a superior astral plane and an inferior astral plane.
I know we like to think that we are spiritual, but in reality, because of our ego, we gravitate towards those places in nature that resonate with our level of being. So, there is a superior astral world for those angels, and buddhas and gods, which we can access when we free our consciousness, when we eliminate the ego. Those are very elevated and pure states. But for most of us, we tend to enter what is known as Limbo. Limbo is the inferior astral world, which is where we tend to gravitate at night. It is the first sphere of hell within Dante's Divine Comedy. It is the lunar sphere within the inverted Tree of Life, the Kabbalistic diagram. Because we are filled with desire, we tend to go toward these inferior levels of nature, because of our conditioning, and because of this, as we are beginning to awake our consciousness, we start to perceive ourselves in these realms. We wake up where we are at. We start where we are at. We do not begin in heaven, because that is the goal. Instead, we have to learn to walk on our two feet in our current situation, our current psychology. So a lot of attacks occur at night when the body is asleep and when your soul, or consciousness is within the internal worlds. These are mostly achieved through erotic means. There are Black Lodges who exists in the astral world where they have tenebrous members that are sent to make gnostic students fall sexually. This is the cause of many wet dreams of disciples. You are starting to practice transmutation, conservation of the sexual energy, you learn the value of the sexual energy and seek to work with it. But these entities know that if you lose your sexual force, you become weak, and therefore that is their primary target by which they seek to pull people, to mislead them or to discourage them. They know that when a student loses the sexual energy, they become disempowered, and when they have the kundalini risen to a degree, in accordance with alchemical work, that serpentine fire descends down the spine in accordance with the magnitude of the fault. 
The Mantra Belilin
So there are many remedies that we use to protect ourselves in dreams and even before we go to bed at night. The first one we will talk about in defending your home, whether before you go to sleep or when you are in the astral plane, is the mantric prayer Belilin. We have an image of an angel, representative of Aroch, who Samael Aun Weor states was the master who delivered this conjuration and prayer. Angel Aroch is an angel of power, and בלילין Belilin is a beautiful word which has Hebrew and even Aramaic roots. Bel refers to the light of divinity. Belilin invokes the forces of the region of Barbelo, within the gnostic esoteric cosmology.
We know from esotericism that the angels create from the power of the verb. Therefore, when we speak with intentionality and with focus on sacred sounds, we create a conduit or channel by which divinity can act within us, in accordance with the level of our psychological purity, or sexual purity. We remember that the angels sing at the creation of every cosmos. They did so with profound love and emotion, remembrance of the truth, empowered by the force of chastity and the Holy Spirit. So likewise, when we perform these prayers, these sacred sounds, this song of Belilin which you have to sing, you have to do it with superior emotion, with longing, with concentration, with faith, with an understanding of how this mantra works. It is sung. It is a song, and like with the other conjurations, I will recite them for you, for your understanding. You sing it like this: Belilin... Belilin... Belilin...
If you are awake in the astral plane and pronounce these mantras―you can do them three times, in sequence―you will see a spiritual wind appear, that will, like a hurricane, sweep away all negativity and negative forces from you. It is the force from the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur, the Limitless Light above the Tree of Life. So in synthesis, we can pronounce these prayers before we sleep, especially when we prepare for bed, or even before alchemy.
So sexual magic trains our body, heart, and mind never to fornicate, and therefore, if we are diligent with using these prayers, nocturnal pollutions will cease. Belilin can protect oneself from these negative, materialistic forces. The amphora has to do with our soul, which receives salvation, or the positive spiritual influence of the solar energy, the “Bel” from Barbelo, Bar, the fire, and Bel, the light of Christ. 
The Conjuration of Jupiter
There is another very powerful prayer we use, a conjuration, known as the conjuration of Jupiter. Jupiter is the father of the gods, יהוה in Hebrew, Christ, the solar power that wields the power of the Holy Spirit, the lightning or vajra of the great heroes, the divine energy, which can really reject any inferior influence.
Jupiter reminds us of IO-Pater, the stone of IO. IO is the Divine Mother, and Patar, Pater, the Father, is the masculine, projective force. This lightning energy is the ray of divinity. It is the ray of justice, according to Samael Aun Weor. It is the power used by Zeus and Indra to punish and reject demons. 
So, when you perform this prayer, you cover your solar plexus with your left hand, and you extend your right hand in the form of the pentagram, which means your pinky and ring finger close to your palm, the middle finger, index finger and thumb extended. So you see often the picture of Jesus who raises his hand in the form of the gnostic pentagram, which is the symbol of the human being in the image of God perfected. You say:
In the Name of Jupiter, Father of all the Gods, I conjure thee! Te Vigos Coslim! ―Conjuration of Jupiter
These words Te Vigos Coslim constitute an internal language, a superior language of divinity, and when you concentrate your will, your consciousness, your attention in this prayer, you are sending out a ray of light or energy from your fingertips. So you extend your hand that is the form of a pentagram towards an entity which is trying to harm you, or whom you question.
I remember once, many years ago in the astral plane, I was being pursued by a black magician who was trying to disguise herself as a sibling or family member of mine. I used this prayer, saying this conjuration, and I remember a beam of light shooting out from my fingertips and it struck her, immediately transforming her appearance and unveiling her true identity, because, when you work with the power of Jupiter, Zeus, יהוה Iod-Havah, you are conjuring, or making this entity resonate with superior forces, so that their identity is revealed. But also, this conjuration can disable and disarm the energy of a black magician. I used it once even on a witch who was trying to tempt me, and many other times you can disable these entities from trying to retaliate and to pursue you further. So it is like being hit with a stun gun almost. It really disorients the entities you trying to protect yourself from. 
The Magic Circle
We also have the magic circle. Before you go to sleep at night, before you meditate or perform any ritual, such as alchemy, you can concentrate on your heart, invoke your Divine Father and your Divine Mother, ask your Being to command your Elemental Advocate, who is a part of your Being, responsible for performing elemental magic or what we are going to rely on today as well. This figure is like an angel with a sword of fire. You imagine this entity, or your inner Being, tracing a circle of fire around you home. You can do it clockwise if you want. There is really no specific direction you can do it, but I always do mine left to right, circling around either my bedroom or my home. So, you trace this circle with your imagination and your willpower, pronouncing the mantras:
העליון מעליון יהוה
This mantra invokes the light of Helios, the cosmic Christ, and Tetragrammaton, to descend in order to trace an energetic field, a barrier, that will not allow for any negative entity to enter your space. So this is particularly good if you want to go deep in your practice and you feel that you are being attacked. More importantly, if you live in an―really―anywhere nowadays, you lock your door at night when you go to sleep, especially in the city. For those of you who live in the country areas where it is safer, you may not lock your doors, but internally, we should lock our home every day, every night, before we go to sleep.
So you should trace this circle with your imagination and willpower, so that no entity can trespass. If you wake in the astral plane, you can see, especially when you trace this circle with a lot of faith, a circle of light, or fire encompassing the area that you have protected. Any entity that will try to get in, will not be able to unless you allow it. The magic circle will break if you physically walk outside the area that you traced, so be mindful that, if you, for example, trace a circle around your bedroom and physically you get up to use the restroom, you break the circle if you leave the area. It is good to remember to retrace it when you go back. Personally I like to trace the magic circle around my entire home, so that when I need to move around to any room or area, I do not break the circle―some practical suggestions. 
The Elemental of the Aloe
You can also work with the aloe plant. Elemental magic is tremendously powerful, because the souls of nature, the souls of plants, are still in Eden. Now, we study what is known as the cosmic transmigration of souls, in which consciousness develops from a very virginal state within the mineral kingdom, graduates through many of millions of years of evolution, in order to enter the plant kingdom. After many millions of years of experience in different plant bodies, the souls of those beings enter into the animal kingdom, graduating into different degrees of hierarchies of existence, in accordance with the complexity and development of elemental perception. Until finally, after many millions of years of existing in animal bodies, the soul graduates to become a humanoid, which is us.
Now, I know a lot of new-age groups like to work with stones, the souls of minerals. But unfortunately, the great majority of those exercises are black magic. Primarily because, if you read the writings of Samael Aun Weor, he says explicitly how the hell realms are the infernal or inferior mineral kingdom. So when souls enter into the black path, when they develop powers in ego, they descend into the internal planes into greater stages of density and suffering, within the inner layers of the earth. This is symbolized within The Divine Comedy of Dante. Minerals, mineral elemental souls, are not really developed. They do not really have as much force or hierarchy in comparison with plants. This is why we emphasize plant magic so much within our studies. When you click on this link for the Aloe plant, you can read a chapter from Igneous Rose, which is a powerful book that teaches how to work with the elementals of nature, the souls of plants, of creation. So the plant of the Aloe is related with reincarnation, according to Samael Aun Weor. If you want to remember your past lives, you can meditate on the soul of this plant. Concentrate and visualize it in your imagination and then fall asleep asking to converse with the elemental of this plant, the soul, so that you can remember your past existences, your past states. Now, specifically for protection, the Aloe is very effective. You can hang a piece of silver or crucifix. Samael mentions you can hang the pot or hang this plant on a wall. It has tremendous solar properties. The beauty of the Aloe plant is that it is very resilient. It can often survive and subsist in homes in which is not much light, because it absorbs the solar light within the atmosphere and within the internal planes as well. So, he also states that the aloe plant is very powerful for rejecting negative influences. You can use the Aloe for many rituals. For healing, for protection, for remembrance of past lives. It is really a very eclectic plant, and we should always have an Aloe in our home, because it purifies our environment, attracts good luck and solar force, the forces of Barbelo, the light. There is a prayer we use when we concentrate on the plant, asking our Elemental Advocate, our inner Being, to command the soul of the plant to work for us. These prayers have to be done daily, consistently. The prayer goes like this: Cross, thou art holy and divine. Sorcerers and witches withdraw from this home. Such persons who intend to arrive here, let it be known that I am with God.
Remember that the Elemental Advocate is a part of our innermost Being, who developed and acquired knowledge when we were evolving through the elemental kingdoms, especially through the plant kingdom. Our inner Being, our Elemental Advocate, or part of our divinity, has a very profound knowledge of how the souls of nature work. Plants are basically like a conduit that can channel certain forces. They have a certain purpose and medicinal purpose, or application. For our purposes, we use for what is known as elementotherapy. We command the souls of these elemental forces in accordance with the will of divinity and in harmony with karma, with the divine law. We do not command the Aloe plant or other souls of nature with selfishness, but in accordance with the balance of divinity.
Attacks During the Vigil State
So there are other ways in which we can be attacked. Many times in the vigil state, or the so-called vigil state, when we are physically in our bodies, we can often be tempted by the opposite sex, sent by the Black Lodge in order to pull us from the path. Now, like in this image, if we have a clouded mind, if we are not paying attention to our own psychology, if we are not aware of our own intrinsic egotistical urges, how they feed, how they manifest, how they interact with the world, we will not recognize the danger and we can fall into lust.
We can use the mantric song Belilin, in order to establish an atmosphere of purity, devotion, chastity, serenity, and faith, to rely on our Being. So if you want to clear your mind of obscurities and negative influences, you can use the mantra Belilin, and the prayer, like a whirlwind, it will sweep up the dust of our psychological and even physical environment―better said―the energies in our home. 
Works of Black Magic
There are other ways in which black magicians can influence us. Very famously within the Caribbean there are examples of voodoo, such as with dolls, in which adepts of the Black Lodge utilize dolls and pins, needles to inflict pain on their victims. They concentrate and imagine with their ego, their desires, and concentrate their hatred towards these people and utilize the pins in order to pass psychic harm upon them.
There are also other ways in which we can be influenced, negatively. There are often, according to Samael Aun Weor, inexplainable black spots which can appear on one’s skin. “Maculae,” he calls them, in which we experience types of sicknesses that we can not explain, even with the best medical treatments. There are also other substances that are used, such as funerary substances according to the master, which are transmitted consciously or unconsciously. This is astral and etheric larvae, which people can pick up from graveyards, or cemeteries. We do not recommend visiting these places, unless you really have to, because they are environments that are filled with pestilences on a psychic level. They are Black Lodges essentially, because black magicians use these polluted and decaying substances within the internal worlds in order to direct them at their victims. So, black magicians can utilize them in order to make us sick, to infect us. 
Organic Illnesses
There are many sicknesses that start in the internal worlds and then they manifest physically. Since our astral and mental vehicles, our vital body, possesses its own energy, its own materiality, its own ultra-physiology, with organs and health, etc. There are many unexplainable sicknesses that occur for people, such as delirium or psychosis, even madness, paranoia. Many students write to us on our website, about having mental illnesses when they start this teaching, and they face many types of perceptions that are very terrifying for them, which traditional medicine would denominate as delusions. Of course there is a certain subjective reality to these perceptions. They are real in the sense that they exist, and that they have a type of experiential dimension, but they are particular and subjective to the conditions of the person’s psyche [see Spiritual and Mental Health to learn how to complement professional treatment with spiritual techniques].
So, many people can get sick. They can become mentally ill, diseased. They have certain obsessions or problems that they cannot resolve. They are afflicted mentally, and even going to the best doctors they cannot be healed. They cannot explain why they are suffering so much. There is a story of one instructor from Glorian who mentioned in his lecture on Compassion and Lust, the first in that series, how he became very sick and investigating internally after the doctors could not help him. After about a week he had the experience of a student of his, or a student he knew, who in the internal worlds was a black magician, one of his egos. He [the student] was unconsciously practicing black magic and therefore was making him [the instructor] sick. So he confronted the issue with a lot of compassion and understanding and eventually resulted, became healed again. 
Exorcisms and Healing
So, there are other ways in which we can heal these types of illnesses if we do not necessarily have enough consciousness to investigate internally. There are different methods that we can use, specifically exorcisms and healing methods. Now the definition of exorcisms is, “to call up or to conjure spirits, or to claim an isolated spirit.” We need to take control of negative influences and also to bring forward positive influences.
Exorcisms are commonly utilized to purify our environment. Our psychology is often filled or made up by four elements: earth (the physical body), air (the mind), fire (the emotions), and water (our creative sexual energy). It is good to utilize exorcisms for the elements in order to heal ourselves, to purify the elements we take in so that we have a better atmosphere in which to work. There are four exorcisms that we will cover in a future lecture, for the earth, air, fire and water. You can access them at the end of this lecture in our resources [see also The Secret Doctrine of Anahuac: “The Elementals”]. Now specifically, it is important that when you recite these exorcisms, we do them in Latin, not English, because Latin is the language that is most in tune with the forces of nature―any of its derivatives, according to the Gnostic Prayer Book. 
Exorcism of Salt
So specifically, one exorcism that we use is for salt when we want to perform healing. So when you have an illness that you want to treat, there is a powerful prayer and method that you can use, that does not have side effects, unlike many other treatments today. Now, if a person is suffering under the works of black magic, like voodoo dolls, funerary substances, organic illnesses, you can work with the exorcism of salt and perform this particular ritual that I am going to explain.
It is important to remember that salt is inherent to life. Salt alchemically represents the brute semen or the entity of sperm and ovum. As Jesus stated in the book of Matthew, chapter 5, verse 13: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” ―Matthew 5:13
Now, what is this salt of the earth that if it is has lost its savor, it will no longer be good for anything? It has to do with our sexual energy. Now, it is important that we purify our body, our mind, our heart. That is why we practice transmutation. But if you work with the elements of the salt, through a particular exorcism, you can bless salt and use it to purify your home and environment, but also to invoke healing.
So, particularly for the ritual I am going to explain, you will need a table, with a glass of pure water, either for yourself or for any sick patient you want to heal. So, this is where the Master of Medicine will place healing substance within the internal worlds, during and after the ritual you are going to perform. A white cloth should decorate the altar where the water is placed. It is important to have a crucifix and a white candle as well. So, the theurgist or the magician, the exorcist or healer can sit, but personally I like to stand up when performing this, with the prayers and invocations, mostly because it is more assertive, gives more power. Other concerned people you may be related to or whomever you are trying to heal can be present, so long as they possess some level of faith and are not going to mentally effect the patient. You are going to place a metal skillet or heavy pan with rubbing alcohol on the floor. You want to put this away from other objects to maintain safety, because you are going to light a fire. You will need to exorcise salt. It does not matter what kind―really―the purer, the better, obviously, and then you are going to place it within the alcohol. Now, let me recite for you this exorcism of salt. Place your left hand over your solar plexus, your right hand in the form of the pentagram over the salt and perform the Latin prayer: In isto sale sit sapientia, et ab omni corruptione servet mentes nostras et corpora nostra, per Chokmahel et in virtute Ruach-Chokmahel, recedant ab isto fantasmata hylae ut sit sal coelestis, sal terrae et terris salis, ut nutrietur bos triturans et addat spei nostrae cornua tauri volantis. Amen. ―Exorcism of Salt
Basically in Latin, translated, it has to do with purifying the wisdom, the sapience of the salt, so that it is not corrupted, to not serve merely our corporal or bodily needs, but through the spirit, if Chokmah, the Christ, the virtue in spirit of Ruach Chokmael, so that it can purify this element, for the benefit of our body, heart and mind.
Place the salt in the alcohol, and when you are ready, light a match. Drop it into the pan, and then you are going to stand back as the fire ignites and lights up into the air. Now, obviously you want to be careful with how much alcohol you put in it. You do not want to put too much, but enough so that with time and practice you will be able to better gauge it for being able to sustain the fire long enough, so that you can finish the conjurations and prayers that we are going to relate to you now. Basically the power of the salt, that has been blessed, and the fire from the alcohol opens up a conduit. It opens up the atmosphere in the astral plane, so that the Master of Medicine can descend within our home, the masters of healing, and then they can help the sick patient. Now, if you have multiple people that you are trying to heal with this ritual, you want to have a cup for each person. Designate via more than one person you are trying to work with, you should have a cup designated for each individual with clear water, pure water. You should basically have each people concentrate on their glass and on their imagination, to see the Master of Medicine descend from Barbelo, down to deposit the particular healing within the water. Invocation of Solomon
When you are performing this ritual, when the fire is ignited, immediately you have to recite the Invocation of Solomon. So imagine the clouds parting. Personally when I worked with this ritual or even having awakened in the astral plane, I have been able to see that certain prayers like this, you will see in the astral atmosphere the clouds part and the angels, and the אין סוף אור Ain Soph Aur, the Limitless Light, looking down. So this is a very practical and very real thing. Imagine these entities healing the patient, healing yourself. Recite the following prayers from the Invocation of Solomon:
Powers of the kingdom, be ye under my left foot and in my right hand!
We study the link in this PDF, you will see the video recited by another instructor, as well as graphic representations of which verse is related to which sephirah on the Tree of Life. Each of the spheres or sephiroth represent different qualities of being, or different classes of angels. So if you work with the Invocation of Solomon, you are calling upon the angels of those different dimensions, of those spheres, to descend down, within the entirety of the Tree of Life. So I recommend you study the link to this prayer. We are going to give entire lecture on this prayer itself, but I want to sum it up for you in synthesis.
Prayer to the Solar Logos
Also, when you finish the Invocation of Solomon, when you are performing the ritual with salt and alcohol, you can perform a prayer to the Solar Logos for healing. This Prayer to the Gnostic Church is also very powerful for when you are doing the runes, as you can see in this image of a woman in the form of the Rune Man, with arms upraised receiving the effluvia or solar energy of divinity. This prayer is also very powerful for healing. I recommend you use it when you work with this ritual. It is recited like this:
Oh Thou, Solar Logos, igneous emanation, substance and consciousness of Christ, powerful life whereby everything advances, come unto me and penetrate me, enlighten me, bathe me, go through me and awaken within my Being all of those ineffable substances that are as much a part of Thee as a part of me.
The Solar Logos is Christ, and that igneous fire, or emanation, that substance and consciousness will descend down in order to enter the water of the glasses which you are asking for medicine, for the Masters of Healing.
Also, for those who are sick and attacked by larvae, you can also, as a medic, or priest, as a Gnostic doctor, perform magnetic passes over a patient's aura. Remember that our psychological atmosphere resonates with our aura, our energy, our expression, and that we often carry within our psychological and psychic environment different elemental substances which tend to be very negative, because our mind attracts these forces. So, if you purify your home with these conjurations and prayers, you can also cleanse your aura by imagining, as you pass your hands over the aura of yourself or a person, that you are grabbing these negative forces, and then you take them and throw them into a lit brazier. You have to have some kind of fire going, like some hot coals or a hibachi grill even, in which you imagine taking these negative auric substances and then throw them into the fire, because the fire, physically, is the vehicle of Christ. It purifies our environment, our home. The Conjuration of the Seven
In order to finish with the Invocation of Solomon as well as the prayer for the salt and alcohol, you can recite the Conjuration of the Seven as well. So, utilize the Invocation of Solomon, Prayer for the Solar Logos, and Conjuration of the Seven when you want to perform the ritual for the salt and alcohol. Now, when we work with the Conjuration of the Seven, this is especially useful for eliminating toxic substances and also purifying our environment. This prayer invokes the seven mighty archangels, who govern the seven spiritual planetary rays: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, otherwise known as Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Michael, Samael, as well as Zachariel, and Oriphiel. So, let me recite this for you, in synthesis:
In the name of Michael, may Jehovah command thee and drive thee hence, Chavajoth!
Recite this conjuration when you are cleaning your aura as well. It helps to reject the seven primary archdemons of the Black Lodge, because they are entities that are so big and malignant and powerful, that the Conjuration of the Four is not useful for that, which I elaborate a little bit later on here. The Conjuration of the Seven is especially necessary when defending yourself, especially when the entity is beyond your capacity. I personally have had many unfortunate encounters with one of these archdemons mentioned in the Conjuration of the Seven. In one instance, this entity appeared much in the form and size of like a Balrog from The Lord of the Rings―huge horns, a big demon. So, there is some relevance to these cultural icons that we find in fantasy films. Pretty interesting and disturbing actually.
The Magic of the Roses
Let us continue with some more prayers. It is important to utilize practices that heal our heart. The elementals of the rose are exceptional for spiritual and emotional healing, to heal psychological and emotional traumas. This prayer invokes a master by the name of Llanos. Samael Aun Weor mentions that we should pray to this master related to the spiritual influence of the planet Venus. You pronounce his name:
Llanos... Llanos... Llanos...
These prayers and mantras invoke this master of the ray of Venus in order to help heal our heart. Specifically with these prayers and practice, you place three glasses of pure water on a white table, or a clothed altar. Place a rose in each glass. Trim each so that the flower blossoms upon the water line. You bless and you consume each glass before drinking. Before breakfast you drink the glass facing east, before lunch the glass facing north, before dinner the glass facing west. So this follows, this sequence, the trajectory of the sun, the Solar Logos, which astrologically relates with Venus within the kabbalistic sphere of Tiphereth.
When you do this, you have to pray for emotional healing, whatever pain you are feeling. It is important that, when you are performing the magic of the roses, that you really ask for help. Now often times we protect ourselves against negative influences, we have to make sure the quality of our heart is pure as well. So, the magic of the roses is especially great for fortifying superior conscious, superlative emotions, compassion, conscious love. 
Trapping Witches
There is another technique we can use. We can trap witches and stop them from harming us within the physical and also the internal planes.
We know from the writings of Samael Aun Weor that witches, or female sorceresses, often travel through hyperspace, known as the fourth dimension. They place their body within the inverted, inferior vital world, the fourth dimension, in order to travel across the world or globe to affect students, like vampires. They steal the energy of their victims. There is a lot of literature throughout the world that relates this reality. Especially, you can read the book The Mystery of the Golden Flower by Samael Aun Weor. He explains this. Now, these witches often come and attach themselves, and even copulate with their victims, to extract their energy by hypnotizing and manipulating them. These are the images of hags, or old women, who rejuvenate their health and youth through vampirism, as I said earlier. All these beings cannot create on their own, so they steal force from others. 
We can defend ourselves from them by placing black mustard seeds and steel scissors open as a cross. So, we have to remember that the seed is the sexual energy. Black mustard seed has very powerful potencies for trapping witches when you combine them with steel scissors, especially in the form of a cross, like you see in this image. This works to cut and severe their abilities to travel in the fourth dimension. So, usually we keep scissors underneath our beds. You can do it in a box and fill it with seeds, black mustard. You can also place small vials of black mustard seeds and place them in the corners of your home, like the four corners of your bedroom, or throughout the perimeter of your house, your home. It is very effective. It will neutralize their ability to affect you.
Psychic Obsessions
There are other ways in which we can be affected. We can become obsessed with fixed ideas. People are often filled with mania and lust, and oftentimes, people who attend séances filled with mediums tend to be infected with astral larvae, which make people obsessed over ideas or actions and behaviors. Most notably, one of them is lust, especially pornography and fornication. So, while a person can remove these temptations from their physical life, they may have the impulse and desires for that state internally, and this can be influenced by witches and sorcerers.
The Conjuration of the Four
The best way to defend oneself from breaking these obsessions, purifying one's aura especially, is the Conjuration of the Four. Now, the Conjuration of the Four, unlike the seven, works with the four elements: earth, air, fire, water―mind, heart, body and sex, and specifically as the Conjuration of the Seven rejects the seven primary archdemons of the Black Lodge, the Conjuration of the Four rejects their legions.
We can use smudges of sage and rue while reciting the Conjuration of the Four. So, remember that if you feel obsessive over something, a behavior or a idea, or you feel like you are being influenced negatively, if you are heavy of mind, you can calm down by using this conjuration and smoking yourself with sage and rue. I will recite this conjuration briefly. Most of it is in Latin and the translation you can access via the PDF. Caput mortum, imperet tibi dominus per vivum et devotum serpentem!
* At this point you can do the sign of the cross, left hand on your solar plexus, right hand in the sign of the pentagram. Trace the cross by gesticulating by your head, your heart, and then down towards your sexual organs, then raising your hand up to your left shoulder and crossing over to your right shoulder. So this sign is the sign of the cross, for protecting ourselves. When you perform the Conjuration of the Four, you are working with the cross, the four elements, to balance your mind, heart, body, and sex.
Writhing serpent, crawl at my feet, or be tortured by the sacred fire and give way before the perfumes that I burn in it! 
The Gnostic Pentagram
It is also important to have pentagrams in our home. You can place them before entrance ways, especially if you feel like being attacked. You place the bottom, two legs towards the entrance of the door, so that when you are coming into a room, the point of the head is facing inwards towards the home or towards the area that you want to protect. So the pentagram should be upright.
The Gnostic Pentagram is the human figure with four limbs, and one unique apex which is the head. The sign of the Pentagram is also called the sign of the Microcosm. It represents what the Kabbalist Rabbis of the book Zohar call the Microprosopos. When the superior point of the Pentagram is aiming upwards towards the sky, it represents the Savior of the world. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Gnostic Bible: The Pistis Sophia Unveiled
And it rejects the legions of demons where you are protecting yourself from. So, utilize the pentagram in your home diligently. Protect the entrance of your home, as well as your bedroom.
The Microcosmic Star
You can perform the microcosmic star as well, in which, if you watch this video, you see exactly how to perform it. After rituals you seal your energy, or after alchemy you can do the same, because the pentagram, when you perform it with your body in combination with imagination, visualization and prayer, you seal your psychic forces. It is good to do it after runes and especially alchemy.
Enmities
Now black magicians also influence us through enmities. They try to make us the enemies of others, and if we do not master self-control, overcoming and restraining our own mind, we can leave the path easily by getting into a conflict or argument, a really negative situation. The solution is to relax and meditate. You can concentrate on the heart of your enemy, or someone who is giving you particular struggles and imagine that their heart is a treasure trove of love. You want to see the area between the enemy’s eyebrows and place your image there, filled with compassion, conscious love. You have to really feel love for them, otherwise this will not work.
Elemental Magic of the Maguey (Agave Americana)
But if the conflict still persists, you can work with the Agave Americana, the maguey plant. This plant is exceptionally powerful for disintegrating negative thoughts and psychic ties to people. So, with this plant―you can get it in a greenhouse or garden shop, although it is more common in Latin America especially―you trace a circle from right to left about eight hand-spans radius. You can use a branch or a sword for rituals.
You want to pray, cut the leaf or needle of the plant, by blessing it. Then you keep the needles of the stems in your hands, in your palms, that you want to carry with you in some kind of bag or pouch, in order to invoke the elemental in order to protect you whenever you need it. Imagine this elemental disintegrating the evil thoughts of the person who is harming you. You want to perform the mantras: Libib Lenoninas Lenonon
Recite it and sing it.
A Prayer for Protection
In combination with the maguey you can work with the mantras Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gopijanavallabhaja Swaha. The mantra Klim attracts solar force and invokes Christ into the body of our earth. Krishnaya reminds of Krishna, the Christ, relating to our sexual waters. Govindaya is “he who is famous on the earth and in the Vedas, and amongst the seraphic cows.” So Christ tends to the sacred cow, or the divine feminine and this mantra relates to the fires of our heart. Gopijanavallabhaja literally means “he who entrances the Gopis.” It is the feminine divine, the spirit of love in Christ, and this is accomplished through the air, the domination of our mind. Swaha seals the energies of Tiphereth, the divine truth. This pentagram, or this mantra performs, or creates the solar pentagram in the astral planes, which rejects negative forces. You can listen to the audio of this by clicking the link.
Vices
There are many ways in which we can be tempted, whether through drugs, alcohol, fornication, smoking, even movie theaters and very poor art, degenerated art. As I said, fornication and pornography really sway people easily. The foundation of Gnosis is to abandon lustful activities. Without this, there is no understanding.
Smoking also pollutes the body. So, in our teachings we want to be pure, in our sexual energy especially. Smoking essentially corrupts our capacity to assimilate prana, the force of life. We also know, very commonly, that alcohol is a poison. It is also unnecessary for self-realization. Yet even one drop can make us leave the path, can lead to many things. Samael Aun Weor mentions in the book Logos, Mantra, Theurgy how there are certain initiates who are very strong, who know how to, at a party or social gathering, have a little bit of alcohol, and he is very specific here and I will recite the verse for you. But to drink more than a certain amount is to break the law, to create an imbalance in us. Regarding social gatherings: those initiates who have strong will, sometimes politely allow themselves to sip or to taste up to three small quantities of liquor or up to three small quantities of beer. They never go beyond three; if they do, they violate the law. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Divine Science: Logos, Mantra, Theurgy
They never go beyond three, because if they do, they violate the law. Alcohol can resuscitate dead egos. It is a poison for the body, the mind and the heart. It is also responsible for 50% of murders. So, there is nothing really good about it, but our society and culture glorifies it. Yet, we should avoid it.
Movies are, as I said, are in control by the Black Lodge especially. Now there are a lot of lustful images in films especially, and also in movie theaters which infect the mind. Now, people who go to lustful films, or watch pornography as I said, the lustful images enter the psyche and then they become mental formations in our own mind, in which the student will copulate with within the mental world when the physical body is asleep. This is how nocturnal pollutions occur. So, also the astral environment of theaters and cinemas have a lot of larvae. They are very dense and heavy. So we should abstain from these two. He also mentions that nightclubs are a big problem. These are environments that are very lustful and heavy, perverse specifically. So, if we want to purify our psychological environment, it is important to be mindful where we spend our time. 
The Prayer of the Lord
We can also work with the Prayer of the Lord, the Our Father. If you are really tempted, whether by desire to drink, smoke, look at pornography or lustful things, to do things you know you should not do, you can pray the Pater Noster.
The Pater Noster is especially very powerful in Latin. I will not recite this prayer for you, you can basically access it via the link, which is a lecture from Glorian Publishing about this topic.
Culture
There are also many other means of culture which can influence people. We state in these studies that intellectualism is one of the biggest ways in which people are pulled from the spiritual path, because people have reasons and justifications for the behaviors that are wrong, especially lust, why chastity or transmutation are repressive, or not expressing our true being, our true potential, but the reality is that such people do not discriminate between their desires and their soul.
We have to follow our conscience. In reality, we have to analyze if these behaviors really bring us joy, or do they just bring pleasure. So, we have to meditate and reflect on the voice of our own heart, our conscience, to find our soul, and our intuition, not the mind, because the mind is mechanical, and only operates in according to prescribed dualistic mechanisms, theses and antitheses, good and bad, yes and no. It is a machine. It does not have real intelligence or autonomy, like the consciousness. We have to learn to use the intellect, but not with desire. But unfortunately, our culture and society today is very much saturated with imagery and impressions that feed the intellect, and feed desire. It is important to learn how to discriminate what we perceive in life, the impressions in the world, and also our own psychology. 
False Prophets
Another great means that people are lead away from the path is false prophets. We will be very brief with this, in that anyone who advises or justifies the orgasm is a demon. As Jesus stated: by their fruits you shall know them. Such people may have a lot of power and abilities, can control people and influence others, but if they are not following the law of ethics, of transmutation and chastity, it means that their powers are within desire. Therefore, we should really consider avoiding or not associating with such people. They can really manipulate and influence us towards negative behaviors.
Elementaries
So, the last way of self-defense in this lecture is elementaries.
Elementals in nature are not good or bad. They are not evil or positive. They are really neutral. They are innocent. They do not know morality or ethics, or good and bad. They simply are innocent creatures that obey the forces of divinity, or even the influences of black magicians. So, there are many types of elementals that black magicians use. Even the black cat has a terrible reputation, especially today, primarily because of medieval witchcraft and the Inquisition and all sorts of persecutions that occurred against people who utilized the black cat, which is an innocent elemental, a beautiful soul, with a lot of magical properties. That is why white and black magicians can utilize them. The obey whoever commands them, but we have to learn how to command those souls with love, and with respect for others, with respect for the law. Otherwise we create harm for ourselves. There are elementals that are sent to harm others, like the elementaries or energetic larvae as well. Elementaries can relate to different types of psychic larvae as well, like bats, incubi, succubi, dragons. You can read the book The Elementals by Franz Hartmann for more information. Now, we have to remember that masturbation engenders incubi and succubi. These are what push one to fornicate. They drain our vitality. So our environment has to be purified with asafetida smudges especially. You can put sulfur powder in your shoes, to cleanse your psychic aura and we can burn sulfur in our homes as well, but you have to be mindful that you do not have plants or living things present in the areas that you are cleansing. The perfumes are toxic. So if you burn sulfur there is a danger of toxicity, but if you put it in your shoes there is not. So, if you do not want to burn sulfur, you can trace powder in your room or in your home that you want to cleanse. The perfumes in the astral plane will rise up and purify it. I remember once I was in an environment where I was not allowed or able to burn sulfur, because of neighbors and people, so I took sulfur powder and spread it across certain rooms, and I remember seeing in the astral plane the wind blowing on the ground, and out of the dark, I could see the carcasses of dead insects, which were the dead larvae that were killed by the sulfur fumes that emanated from the dried sulfur powder. Obviously, when you burn sulfur, it is going to be much more powerful, because the fire renews nature incessantly, according to Samael Aun Weor. So if you want to learn more about elementaries and elementals you van study the book The Elementals by Franz Hartmann. 
Elemental Magic of the Lemon Tree
The best practice you can use to defend yourself and really cut your ties with the Black Lodge is the elemental of the lemon tree. It is used in the book The Major Mysteries, at the end. I will read for you how to work with this plant.
Now specifically, the elemental of the lemon tree is exceptionally powerful. It is very wonderful, and you should use it as a last resort if all other options are not working for you. If you are still being attacked consistently and heavily and severely, this is the best way to really cut your ties. So I read for you the directions from the book The Major Mysteries. This chapter is called Invocations. On the ground, trace a circle around a lemon tree. Near the tree, dig a small hole and firmly insert nine small wooden sticks (distributed into three groups of three) inside the hole, and thereafter fill it with water, making a small puddle. You must also light a fire (in a portable grill, such as an hibachi). You will then beg the elemental of the lemon tree to serve you (each lemon tree has its soul which has a remarkable power). Using the following procedure, you must throw nine lemons into the fire, one by one: look fixedly at a lemon, then pick it, and repeat until you have three in hand; throw them one by one into the fire; gather three more and repeat, until you have thrown nine lemons in the fire. If a lemon explodes (producing an explosion), it is because the black magicians are performing sorcery on you. So, command the elemental of that lemon tree to defend you. When fallen into the fire, each one of the nine lemons will explode in the astral plane like a bomb, destroying the works of sorcery from the black magicians. Thereafter, the elemental will come out of the lemon tree and, shapeshifting itself into the form of a dog, will go and attack the tenebrous ones. ―Samael Aun Weor, The Major Mysteries, “Invocations”
I used the lemon tree in different occasions and had exceptional results.
I will relate to you one story to conclude here, how there is one instructor I know at one of our retreats who was being consistently attacked by a group of black magicians, who came and were affecting people negatively. He decided to do the ritual of the lemon tree and stated that the next day, after performing this practice, one of the members of those black magicians in that group, had all sorts of bite marks on his body―visibly, like visible bite marks all over his skin, and obviously that coincides with what Samael Aun Weor mentioned about the elemental of the lemon tree, which is like a canine, like a dog, that will attack the tenebrous ones and bite them to reject their negative influences. It literally manifested in this person’s skin. So, very real and very effective. 
Resources
In conclusion we have a book called The Divine Science, I have quoted it in part, especially certain chapters in order to give this lecture. This is the best manual you will find on self-defense against the dark arts. It is a manual literally written from the God of War, Samael Aun Weor, who is the bodhisattva of the archangel of Mars, who is the God of strength and severity and justice.
So, I open up the floor to questions. Question and Answers
Question: Doesn't one have to be cognizant in the astral plane to be able to defend against black magic in that plane? How does one develop that technique? Instructor: Yes. If you want to neutralize a threat, you have to be conscious. So, if you are in the astral plane and you are unconscious and asleep, eight hours go by and then you wake up in the morning, it means that we do not know what is going on, and that is the scary thing. We have to be very attentive and conscious and awake. Now, we have different resources on our website. We are going be giving a course about Dream Yoga and Astral Travel especially, but Glorian also has a course, for free, about astral projection and dream yoga, which you can study. There is a book which is called Dream Yoga, which is a compilation of writings of Samael Aun Weor, where he explains how to astral project consciously and to be awake in that dimension. So, if you want to use these techniques we explained today in the astral plane, of course, you have to be awake in order to use them. So you develop that perception yourself, by learning to awaken your consciousness. Study the book Dream Yoga. That will tell you how to learn to develop awareness in that dimension. 
Question: How is the sign of the pentagram performed with the right hand?
Instructor: So, you want to have your pinky and your ring finger folded into your palm―your middle finger, your index finger and your thumb extended out. So if you look at your right hand, you want your thumb, index finger and middle finger extended up. So those are three points. Those are the head and the two arms of the pentagram, and the lower two feet are the pinky and the ring finger that fold into the palm. That is how you perform the symbol of the pentagram with your right hand.
Question: You have discussed the fifth dimension and also on another occasion the inverted fifth dimension. What are they, and more specifically, what is the inverted fifth dimension?
Instructor: So, the fifth dimension is divided into a superior and inferior aspect, which has to to with the qualities of our perception. Now, the superior fifth dimension is known as הוד Hod on the Tree of Life. If you look at the Tree of Life, it is the first sephirah on the left pillar, referring to Splendor, the astral plane, the superior astral dimension. That is where solar initiates go, where they are projected to. It is a conscious plane which is very positive, that has superior symbolism, and which is part of the lighter densities of the Tree of Life. When you ascend, you go towards more heavenly states. When you descend down into the infernal worlds, the inverted sephiroth, or Klipoth, you enter into the hell realms.
The inverted fifth dimension is the lunar sphere. It is beneath the Tree of Life. The inferior astral plane is the surface of the earth. Most people wander there when they go to sleep and when they die physically. It is called Limbo. Dante defines it as Limbo in The Divine Comedy, specifically. Now, we tend to go towards the inverted fifth dimension, the lunar sphere, the lunar astral world, which is the sphere of demons and asleep souls, because we have ego. But if you learn to awaken your consciousness, especially, and eliminate your defects, you can learn to vibrate with the superior astral world, and learn to have positive, conscious, unconditioned and mystical experiences in those states. So, you learn the differences by tasting them in meditation and also when you project there. Question: How to protect specifically against nocturnal pollution? Instructor: Utilize the prayers and conjurations, like Belilin, Conjuration of the Four, Conjuration of the Seven, Invocation of Solomon, before you go to sleep every night. Seal you home with the magical circle for protection. Now, these are preventative measures, and very helpful, but the sickness of nocturnal pollutions is caused by lust. If you are not comprehending your own lustful desires that produce those pollutions themselves, then you cannot be healed. So, the solution is to observe and comprehend those defects, and to eliminate them in meditation, deeply. Also, if you are working with alchemy, that can help to redirect the sexual energy so that you do not spill when you have a lustful dream. With enough training in alchemy, you retrain your body to transmute the sexual energy, so that it flows from outward to inward, and not the opposite―from inward to out. In that way, even if you have a lustful dream, you will have more control and you not necessarily make a mistake, but it is still possible. So, the best solution is to comprehend your lust. Meditate and annihilate the egos of nocturnal pollutions. Avoid filling your mind with media and images that are lustful. This also provoke pollutions as well. Question: There are angels that work with the pentagram? Could you explain their part? Instructor: Yes. Samael Aun Weor refers to the angels of the pentagram as the first five archangels of the seven spiritual rays―Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, and Mars. He refers to them in the Gnostic Bible as the five helpers: Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Michael and Samael. When we bless the pentagram or necklaces, we work with those five angels especially, because they represent the five points. Now, the archangels are in charge of many legions of initiates and beings, which are summoned when you work with the pentagram. So, when you work with the upright pentagram, you are developing those superior energies in yourself, because you are asking to channel, or basically become a conduit for Christ in yourself. The pentagram is especially useful as a medallion of the seven metals especially, because those metals represent the energetic life force of the seven planetary rays, the spiritual archangels. I mentioned that we often do not use minerals in our rituals and practices because those tend to be black magic, but in the case that we do use metals in our practices and rituals has to do with having the pentagram with the seven metals especially, which are silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin and lead, relating to those archangels. The metals are the nervous systems of these given planets. We can invoke those angels, the five helpers, the pentagram, when we fashion medallions or purchase one and bless and consecrate them. Question: Is the magical circle traced counterclockwise when doing the maguey plant? Instructor: Now, when you do a circle of protection around yourself, it does not really matter which direction you point. I know a lot of students presented this question to Samael Aun Weor and he said it does not matter, basically, if you do it from left to right or right to the left. Now for the Agave Americana, he does get specific and say: “trace the circle from right to left about eight hand-spans-width, or radius.” So, the important thing is your concentration, your prayer, visualization and remembrance of your inner divinity. So, be mindful of that. That is the important thing when you seal your home. When he is specific in terms of his direction for a particular practice with the plants or rituals, I suggest you follow them, because they are very mathematical and precise. Rituals have a lot of power. They are dynamic. They are explosive and they are very volatile. You have to learn how to control them with perfect serenity, concentration and imagination. Therefore it is important to adhere to any directions or stipulations that he gave, so that we have the best results. Question: What is the number one reason that someone who has had many conscious travels in the astral and leaving the body, could revert back to unconsciousness? I have not had a real conscious experience in about a year. Is there a lesson here? Instructor: Yes! This has to do with the fact that awakening and spiritual development does not occur in an evolutionary arc. It happens as a result of individual efforts here and now, and there are periods of ebbs and flow, in terms of spiritual experiences. Study the Sufi Principles of Meditation. We gave a lecture on Contraction and Expansion, different principles of meditation, as well of Absence and Presence, which really talk about a lot of these details in a synthetic way, in terms of our meditation practice. Now, while consciousness fluctuates in terms of unconditioned and conditioned states, because obviously we have periods when we have a lot of light, and periods when we have a lot of darkness. But the important thing is that we remain consistent during our spiritual nights, in which we do not have that vision ready. We feel that we are alone and wandering spiritually in the dark. That happens to everybody. It happens even to the greatest masters, especially, because they have to face temptations and trials in order to develop themselves. So, oftentimes we revert to unconsciousness because we are not trained. We are weak. But fortunately we have techniques and tools that we can use, and the important thing is to practice regardless of whether or not we see the end goal in sight. So, be patient. Remember your experiences. Have faith in them. Do not lose sight of them, but also do not be attached. If you are craving those experiences, we are attached as a result of desire, because we have a condition of our ego that is creating our suffering. But having that longing is a normal thing. It is a natural sentiment of the soul. But do not strain yourself. Work hard. Train yourself in meditation, and eventually the light will come back. If we received all the light from our Being immediately, without enough development and a gradual process of training, we would be annihilated, because the light of divinity is so powerful. That is why we have gradual awakenings and experiences here and there when we need them, not when we want them. Question: When the home is sealed, do you have to reseal every time you go out and return? Instructor: Yes. So, you seal your home physically, with your imagination and visualization, and perhaps you leave the area that you sealed. If you go out of your home, or perhaps you seal your bedroom and leave, in the middle of the night, you should reseal it when you get back. Now, personally I like to imagine my entire home, when I visualize and seal, because I do not want to have to keep resealing when I am getting up, sometimes at four in the morning if I have to use the restroom or something. Practically speaking, you do not want to keep having to do that, so just seal your home, I recommend a head of time, so that you do not have to move about later. When you need to leave your home, you can . You do break the seal when you leave, so you do need to reseal it if you want to protect yourself again. Comment: I noticed, the more you work with your own inner God, you have more protection, even with not doing so much in this way of protection, as long as I am doing the inner work and being sincere. The only time I have noticed being able to be attacked is when my Being allowed it to happen, either due to karma, or specifically as a learning experience, for me to learn my weaknesses, or to learn who, why and what is attacking me, to make me aware. Instructor: Yes, that is a really good point. Now, one thing I will mention is that our nightlife―not going to clubs or bars―but when you physically go to sleep, and perhaps eight hours go by and we do not remember anything, that is a barometer of our psychological state in the day. That means that we are very asleep. Now, we may feel that we are, to a degree, safe and protected, which we do receive that as a result of sincerely working on ourselves. The reality is that we do face those conflicts in accordance with karma and the will of divinity, as even stated in the Qur’an that all good and bad comes from الله Allah. Now, most people who are interested in Gnosis have some degree of ego developed in black magic. It is inevitable. The reality is that if we are interested in these types of studies, it is because we probably delved in witchcraft in a previous life. Some of us may have done it to a greater degree, some of us less, and so we receive those types of experiences as a result of karma, meaning, we have to face certain situations and learn from them. That is a very good, valid point that you made. Now one thing I will mention is that just because we do not sense anything does not mean that it is not there. So that is the scary thing we have to be mindful of―not to be paranoid or really afraid―but it is important that we are cautious and that we take precautions against certain effects or influences in a preventative way. That is the best approach to have. So I mean, if you feel like you are not being attacked, it is good that you do take measures to energetically seal your home and psyche because when the moment does come, when you do have that experience, you will be much more prepared. Question: My question was basically: how do I go about talking to somebody who may have a demon possession or something or another, in that fashion, without them getting provoked and angry and lashing out in the simple act of talking about it? Instructor: I would say that the best way you can help someone is to be conscious and to have love for them, compassion. You know, sometimes, unfortunately, a lot of our motivations tend to be driven by selfishness, even if it is in in spiritual matters, especially. Whether you are teaching Gnosis or some other spiritual path, or having studied something like this for some time, we do have defects of mystical vanity and pride, which we have to be cautious against. But the real solution to help such people is to approach them with love and understanding. If they are suffering a lot, we can offer solutions like the ones I’ve been mentioning. You know, they have to be open to it! That is the difficult thing. If someone is really suffering a lot and is possessed by these negative entities, they may feel like there is no solution or that they cannot be help, or what we offer them may not be of benefit. Now we have to respect the will of others, especially, but it doesn’t mean we do not make the effort to offer them help. But also, we have to be patient regarding the response because sometimes people can react and think, “Oh, this is just a bunch of crazy stuff! This is a bunch of cultish behavior, or superstition, or whatever!” We have to respect people’s viewpoints. Now if they really want help, we have to reach them by giving them our compassion, especially. That is a psychological attitude that you can only develop when you are really meditating on your own defects and are eliminating, especially, pride and anger. When we are really genuine, when speaking from our heart, people can sense it and it has a remarkable influence on others. Question: What does it mean that I do not remember my dreams at all for years, but my brother can remember every dream, and astral and lucid dream, but can actually dream about what I am doing in my waking hours? Does there seem to be a way to the path of sevens (or the seven spiritual influences)? Instructor: Some people in the past or in past lives have developed psychic abilities. I know a lot of times we like to think that certain people are gifted, that they received some kind of boon from the gods, but the truth is that, usually, people who have a lot of dream recall and memory and astral experiences is because they once worked with certain spiritual teachings that developed that. Now if we cannot remember our dreams or we struggle to remember what we are doing in our waking hours, it is because we are very conditioned by our own psyche. We have, in many cases, obscured our own potential. But those are rectifiable. We can change that. We can develop our own abilities again or recapitulate our past development by working again with these methods. It is important not to be jealous of people who have those types of abilities, and I am not saying that this is necessarily your case, but often times we may get frustrated with our own selves because we feel like “Other people are doing it, but I am not.” The reality is that we are all at our own level of being and we all have our own karma to pay. Some people may have the right to have those experiences, but we may have to work and earn and even maybe suffer a bit in order to have it. But we should be patient with our circumstances and learn to work effectively with where we are at. That is the best way in order to really ascend the spiritual path and work with the seven primary virtues, because remember that the law of seven, according to the Tarot, relates to seven archangels, but also the seven demons, as I said, but also the seven capital sins, but also the seven virtues. So it is important to remember those virtues, but also to eliminate the seven primary sins or defects so that we can give birth to genuine love, virtue, chastity, compassion, altruism, philanthropy, humility, faith in ourselves. Continuing with the former question… Question: Thank you! I also want to know: how can I remove demons from other people because the simple act of talking about demonology brings these people to rage and anger, and they lash out? Instructor: Yes, obviously people have their own presuppositions and beliefs, and we have to respect them. If people are open to learning, we can offer these teachings. Obviously, we can not necessarily remove a person’s demons that are afflicting them. Now, it is a subtle teaching in relation to exorcisms and conjurations. I know there is the conventional belief that a person who is possessed is influenced by external demons, which can be true, but the only reason that a victim can be hurt is because they have their own egos that allow for that. That is the weakness that black magicians capitalize upon in order to inflict harm. So while we can protect their environment and cleanse their aura through certain prayers and conjurations, through exorcisms, through cleansings, that is basically like giving them a shower after they have been dirty for a while. That is a very external thing, but while it might seem superficial, obviously hygiene is important for many things. We feel better, even physically with taking regular showers ― you know, hopefully! ― people taking care of themselves, and brushing their teeth, doing what they need to do, because these are ways that we respect other people in society, through cleanliness, but it also has to do with keeping a positive state of mind. Now you can do all these things, whether even physically through routines and health and hygiene, and even through psychological or psychic and spiritual hygiene by doing prayers and conjurations, but that is not going to remove the fundamental problem of a person’s psychological afflictions. We cannot remove the ego of another person. We can purify their environment and help them not be influenced by other entities, but so long as that person has pride and anger and envy and hatred and lust, they are going to hate whatever we may have to say, especially, whether it is about demonology or other things. So we have to respect other people and approach them with conscious love, with compassion, and offer solutions when they are open to it, not by forcing our own way of thinking on others. I know we are eager to really help people by teaching these types of things because it really changes who we are in a positive way. But the best way we can help others is by example, not by being, according to the Biblical narrative of the Pharisees of the temple who become very proud, and I know we may have good intentions, but our ego we have to be very careful with, because our good intentions can be the impetus and the mask by which we harm other people. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated that “Crime often hides itself within the perfume of prayer.” We have to be very critical of our own desires, and when we are more selfless, we can help people more effectively. Question: How do we define lying? If I am honest, that is just my opinions. I do not know the real truth, and I would just insult people, probably. If I go about telling everyone my intentions, I could get manipulated by more selfish people. Is there a line between untruths and lies? Instructor: Lying has to do with, in esoteric terms, not representing reality. Obviously, there is some gray area in terms of what we determine is real, primarily because we have 97% subjective reasoning or ego. The ego or self only sees reality in accordance with its desires. Therefore, in a truly disturbing statistic, we can say that 97% of the time, we are invested with lies, and this is the terrible reality that we have to be facing in ourselves and to confront. Now, we lie when we, in truth, don’t perceive the truth. The force of the Father in the intellectual brain―we can say in Gnostic psychology―relates to the Father, the Truth. When we understand reality as it is to whatever degree possible, and when we do not represent that accurately, we lie. We distort our honest perceptions and our experiences of life, no matter how flawed or unconditioned they may be. Now when you lie, whether saying something that is not accurate in representation to a certain phenomenon or event, we are in truth distorting the energies the Father within our intellectual brain. People who lie a lot, who do not really have any honesty or integrity with themselves, end up having lots of problems, whether socially, maritally, emotionally, psychologically, especially. The word integrity means “to integrate,” to be one, to be unitary. The consciousness is unitary. The Being is unitary, but our multiplicity of defects are not. So our multiple selves and egos, aggregates, desires, lust, pride, vanity, anger, hatred, morbidity, shame, selfishness, etc., that constitutes a multiplicity of identities. There is no integration there. It is not a unified whole, but a multiple, imperfect unity, the multiple expression of many defects, a legion of demons, we can say. We have many legions in our psychology, and so any time we act on an ego, we are, in a sense, lying, in the ultimate, objective meaning of the term. But we have to begin this path where we are at. We cannot begin like saints. The liar becomes a saint by being honest with him or herself, confronting what is real and objective and perceptive, unconditioned, and what is just conjecture, what is opinion, what is a half-truth that the mind tells us, and this is how people become easily manipulated. It is because they do not discriminate their own psychology, what is subjective to their own reality or perception, and what is objectively real, spiritual, we can say. I know sometimes we may feel hesitant to tell our intentions to people, and obviously we have to be careful of not expressing our ego, so that we do not get manipulated. So we can say that an untruth or a lie―there really is no demarcation between. They are the same thing. You learn how to follow truthful action by following your conscience, your heart, your intuition. Any other final questions? Question: Yes. I just wanted to say thank you. It was very―there is so much in this lecture, just lots of nuances of feeling and experience. So it was very helpful. I just want to ask one small question. I have some elder friends in their 80’s, one of them who watches my dog in the day, and cuddles with them for an hour, and her husband is really sick. I was wondering when you are praying for those who are struggling with their health and stuff like that, do they have to know? I do not think they would really be so into like a lot of the things I just experienced tonight with you with some of the prayers. I think they would think it was witchcraft and crazy even though they are Christians and everything. So when you are praying for others, do they always have to participate and know, or is it being, like, not having respect for their will if they do not know that you have that intention for them and willingness to accept it? How does that work? Instructor: Great question! You can perform those rituals and practices without them knowing. Now, whenever I perform any type of ritual for healing or protection for myself or others, I always pray to my inner divinity to help the person in accordance with the law, in accordance with His will, not mine, primarily because our will cannot be trusted. But if you perform the practice for healing, you have to do it in the remembrance that this person has their own process in accordance with karma and that they are going to face whatever they have to face, regardless. But if our own compassionate understanding and love for them, our conscious love, can be of benefit, obviously our prayers are going to be effective. Now we can pray for their wellbeing and perform the ritual for them in secret, and they do not have to know anything about it physically. Personally, I do not tell people when I do certain practices when I want to help certain relationships. You know, I just do it in silence, in secret because those things may be judged. They may be labeled as witchcraft or whatever, you know, due to people not being educated or experienced, but “by their fruits you will know them.” Look at the results. We have to give our consci0us efforts and works for humanity but without expecting any particular results but allowing divinity to take care of it. Hopefully we can become a better vehicle for that facilitation and that healing. Comment: Thank you! Instructor: You’re welcome! Any other questions? Comment: I found reading the story of the Buddha was really helpful as there are lots of living examples of concepts that have been a great help, comprehending how we lie to ourselves and all the ways we do it, why we do it, and what we think it gives us, versus what we were hoping it would do, enables us to begin understanding what lying is and how not the do it, etc. This helps us to see how others lie and to understand as well and have more compassion for ourselves and others. The more inner work we do in comprehending the ways we do lie to ourselves gives us experience of truth. We slowly gain comprehension of the wisdom we are yearning to comprehend. Instructor: I agree with you. The more ethics and development we have in working on our own defects and egos, the more understanding of others we can have in ourselves. Yes! Question: Hi again! I have another question. I really loved hearing the singing because I know I have heard in lots of classes about that some things should be sung, but I really do not know how to sing it, and so sometimes I just do it on my own, but it is always kind of experimental and awkward and takes away from my focus. Maybe that’s ok that it should be just experimental in my own ways, or maybe it should be a certain melody that is particular to the prayer? I was just wondering, I tried to sing along with you and take voice memos of some of the things I was able to do, but not others, but is this recorded somewhere so that we can listen to it again, or is there somewhere where like the Belilin prayer is sung somewhere that we can listen to again? Instructor: Sure! This is going to be in the course Spiritual Self-Defense. You can also access on our website, there is a section for practices that we have recordings of certain mantras and prayers, at length, so you can access all of that online. I will include a link for that in the chat box. Comment: Ok. Thank you! Instructor: You’re welcome. Any final comments or questions? So I thank you all for coming! Appreciate the attendance. I know we ran over a lot, and I am really appreciative of the questions you put forth because they help us go deeper into these subjects.
3 Comments
C.
2/7/2021 01:43:30 am
Hello, 2/8/2021 06:56:07 am
Hello,
Adam Gill
8/15/2021 12:37:20 pm
It hurts to have someone ostracize us when we do not conform to the black magic around us, as this lecturer mentioned. Luckily “ostracize” is an indicative and humorous word. Definition of ostrich: “[from the belief that the ostrich when pursued hides its head in the sand and believes itself to be unseen] : one who attempts to avoid danger or difficulty by refusing to face it.” - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ostrich It makes sense in the context of the lecture. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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