The following is an excerpt from an interview with Isreal Regardie shortly before he passed away in 1985.
Hyatt:You recommended psycho-theropy for those people seeking to embark on the great way. It seems that most people don’t pay any attention to your advice.
Regardie:Absoltely, But never mind wethor they want to pay attention, I’d still insist on it. You see it is the only valid requirement for a sane occultists.
I will bring up more in this writing but this is of course something that I don’t see on a regular basis. I feel almost required to study basic psychology and philosophy along with the traditional occult studies. To be honest I feel that they are required. A sane occultists might seem like an oxy moron to Baptist minister to us there is a difference between a sane occultists, and every other occultists.
I have said before that when we practice any form of Great Work with the intent of gnosis that we are essentially rewiring portions of our minds to except these new idea’s and new thoughts. However there is very little that can be done to any mind that fails. A trip to any serious loony bin will prove just how many people fall off the beaten path.
In my time as a ceremonial magician I have seen a woman get completely bent on crack, a man so completely cracked on acid that he left bloody handprints through his home forcing his former friends to vacate the premises, and even watched people get absolutely obsessed over some compulsion or concept and that they couldn’t stick their heads through it and realize what they are doing to themselves.
Hyatt now asks Regardie what school of theropy and regardie joking mentions that even Jungian would suffice.
Regardie:Even that, once their exposed to even a bit of it it’s like a virus, like herpes, it takes root.
Hyatt: I don’t feel that theropy doesn’t get deep enough.
Regardie: I agree with you, but it makes a beginning , that’s all I’m concerned with. As long as some entry can be made As long as some entry can be made into their armour somewhere along the road, then it’s all the good. The rest will happen by happenstance, karma, accident, call it whatever you will.
A perception of the normal every day to day reality is necessary for any practicing witch/pagan/magician or whatever you choose to call yourself. I think ((And I stress I think)) that any sort of imbalances that are carried over from prior to the beginning of the great work will continue on through until they reach an unmanageable size ((resulting in mental disorders, phobias, etc)) or they are dealt with as part of the process of growth.
People lie on a daily basis to themselves, I have found that I am no longer capable of this and that when I do have some form of truth shoved at me I accept and see it as it is not as I wish to be which is a vital difference. Selfish intentions hidden through altruistic veneers come readily to mind and are probably the most obvious of all occult tendancies. I mean most of us did start on this path for personal reasons and not that which some of us have ended up in.
It’s hard for a person to be their own shrink which is why that I must agree with the above idea in that anyone who is serious about studying the occult should drop the baggage with the doctor for no other reason than their self sanity. Eventually when you adopt the spiritual path without dealing with these pieces of baggage you have to carry them with you every where you go.
A very good example of this concept is one that jung highlighted in his book “psychological types” in his notes on psychopathology. How often do we preach the concept of do as we say not as we do. What I mean is that we see an action that someone else does that we find abhorrent wethor for personal or social reasons ((Badly Singing Vrs Crossing Dressing)). Now we turn around and we find that we do these actions as well but they are perfectly allright ((well at least they were for me, I find it impossible to lie to myself anymore but I do remember doing this so I can assume that it is part of the internal process)). This is a rather minor case but a more impressive case would be incestual sex stories ((the most read on sex sites)) and the recent spat in the last decade of molestation charges against various priests. I am pretty sure you can at least find one example of a person who honestly did not believe they were doing any wrong in reading or molesting even though they had rallied and raged against others doing it.
While yes this is a very extreme example we have to go various extremes in order to see differences of thought more closely.
I have some more I would like to say but I want to get some feedback first to see if i should continue with this one ((i will for my own notes but not sure if I will get enough of a feedback to warrant more of my thoughts