The
Modern Occultist
Interview #16
Dr. David Shoemaker
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(Orig. publication of Living Thelema: Anima Solis Books, 2013)
Dr. David Shoemaker is a clinical psychologist in private practice,
specializing in Jungian and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. David is the
Chancellor and Prolocutor of the Temple of the
Silver Star. He has been a member of O.T.O. and
a student of A∴A∴ since
1993, and he has more than twenty years of experience supervising students in
these traditions/ He is a Past Master of 418 Lodge, O.T.O. in
Sacramento, having succeeded Soror
Meral (Phyllis Seckler), his friend and teacher. He also serves as a
Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Order. David was the founding
President of the O.T.O. Psychology Guild and a founding member of the Advanced
Initiation Training team, and is a frequent speaker at NOTOCON. A consecrated Bishop of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica,
David led the team that developed the O.T.O. Pastoral Counseling Workshops.
MODERN OCCULTIST
Living Thelema opens with a confession: you grew up caught between an atheist philosophy professor father and a musician-theologian mother, and spent years looking for a path that could offer “wonder and mystery” without requiring you to check your brain at the door.
More than a decade
separates that book from The Way of the Will, and you write in its
introduction that the world has changed enormously while the Great Work itself
hasn't. Looking back at that original dilemma from your twenties, has your own
answer to it shifted at all across these two books, or does the second volume
simply go deeper into a resolution you'd already found by 2013?
DAVID SHOEMAKER
In retrospect, I suppose my upbringing was less like being “caught” in something, and more like being in a crucible created by both worldviews. In any case, working through the consequences of that benign conundrum was one of the central growth-producing challenges of my early adult years. The Way of the Will is very much a continuation and deepening of the same inner journey that led me to Thelema and esoteric work in the first place. It’s a more advanced companion piece to Living Thelema, and includes what I think is my clearest statement so far of the psychospiritual condition of modern humanity, as seen through the lenses of Qabalistic psychology and Thelema. I hadn’t quite been able to get all of it down in words in a satisfactory form until writing the book. I also explore some of the advanced meditative techniques taught by Crowley in the system of A.’.A.’., and lots of other goodies.
Besides all of
that, my personal life changed immensely between the two books, and of course I
hope I grew as a person, a teacher and a writer in the intervening
years.
MO
You're one of the few authors writing in this field with genuine clinical credentials to back it up, and Living Thelema makes a direct, unembarrassed case for psychotherapy as a companion to magical training, tracing Crowley's own qualified admiration for Jung along the way.
In the years since you first made that argument, has the broader Thelemic and occult community's relationship to psychotherapy actually shifted, in your experience? And is there a specific way you've seen “front-loading” spiritual work with real clinical self-knowledge save a student from a predictable pitfall further down the path?
DS
I think the culture as a whole has continued to be increasingly embracing of the value of psychotherapy, and this includes Thelemic and occult communities. As with most things, however, those who have had bad experiences or axes to grind tend to speak the loudest in online communities, so the view can get distorted. The basic fact, in any case, is that balanced and self-aware individuals make the strongest aspirants to magical and mystical work, and psychotherapy is one excellent option to arrive at that state of being.
In terms of the
“front-loading” you describe: Most
centrally, an understanding of the purely psychological ways we can trip
ourselves up, or navigate through life more effectively, allows a magician to
deal with situations “on their own plane”. For example, a psychologically
self-aware person, with more tools on board, will be better able to deal with
depression or anxiety via psychological means, then move on to use magical
tools for magical aims. The pitfalls that often occur tend to arise from an unhelpful
conflating of these things. Consider someone who is personally insecure, and is
seeking validation or empowerment through magical work instead of addressing
the underlying personal issue. They run a real risk of prioritizing a quest for
psychological comfort over the central task of fulfilling their true and basic
nature in their work in the world, which in Thelema we call the True Will. I’m
not arguing that psychological tools shouldn’t be used to enhance our
magick, or vice-versa. We just need to address things on their own plane first.
MO
The Way of the Will closes with something genuinely rare in this literature: a detailed personal memoir of your own attainment of Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel in December 2004, material you describe as so personal and intimate that you hesitated for nearly two decades before committing it to print.
What ultimately
tipped the balance toward sharing it now? And for a student approaching that
same threshold today with almost no firsthand accounts to compare notes
against, what's the single most important thing you'd want them to understand
before they get there, without, of course, front-loading or defining an
experience that has to remain entirely their own?
DS
Good question! The most basic answer is that I needed the time to digest the experience, build a life that honored it, and equilibrate the consequences of all of that on both inner and outer levels. This included my ongoing administrative work with A.’.A.’. and the Temple of the Silver Star, my musical work, my personal life and relationships, my work as a psychotherapist, and my writing career. The eventual result of all of that is that I arrived at a place where my public reflections on the experience of 2004 might carry a little more weight. So the inner work and the outer work dovetailed to arrive at a place where the experience could be given the right voice, and heard by the right ears.
Every student needs
to learn to trust that they have a unique voice in the world, and that the
world needs to hear it to be at its best. This is the fundamental concept of
True Will. We discover who we are at our spiritual core, and offer it to the
world. Find a spiritual home in a training system that works for you (which for
some may mean working outside any organizations.) Follow the system with
diligence and passion. Don’t assume that a flash of insight means anything, but
also don’t assume it means nothing. Take good notes and watch for patterns. Be
ready to completely overturn previous assumptions about yourself and the
universe as you acquire new levels of skill and understanding. When you have
passed the milestones of all the tests and training your system offers, and the
time is right, pursue the formal Knowledge and Conversation working, in
whatever form that takes for you. Although the voice of the Holy Guardian Angel
(HGA) has been whispering in your ear your entire life, the ultimate attainment
is quite a bit like a spiritual orgasm—which is to say, you will know it when
it happens! You will likely discover that everything you have been and
experienced has been utilized as a tool to shape your attainment. You are more
than you ever thought yourself to be, and simultaneously exactly as you always have been. It will take some
time to fully digest and equilibrate the experience—probably many years. In the
meantime, you will have your one, true Teacher to guide your next steps.
MO
Between the two books, you've written both a full chapter dedicated to alchemical symbolism as something to actually work with, and, in The Way of the Will, a chapter confronting the nature of evil and the shadow side of the magician head-on.
You're also
currently working on a new album exploring Thelemic themes musically. Do you
find that creative and artistic work, composing, arranging, performing,
functions as its own kind of alchemical or shadow-integration practice
alongside your formal magical training? Or do you experience music-making as a
genuinely separate current in your life from the ceremonial work?
DS
I have come to believe that when we undertake any creative work with an attitude of reverence for the act, and for our role as the channel (not the source) of the creative force, we open ourselves to the divine. My friend Robert Fripp (King Crimson guitarist and founder of Guitar Craft) might call this the “inexpressible benevolence of the creative impulse.” At this point in my life, musical creation is a form of worship, supplementary to the explicitly devotional ceremonial work I do on a daily basis, but no less important. It is also a deeply meditative act, especially during improvisation. Properly approached in these ways, music has an inherently cleansing and charging effect—for me at least—much like a well-performed banishing or invoking ritual.
My upcoming album,
titled Kairos, is in many ways a musical and magical autobiography. Many
of the pieces were originally conceived around the time in my magical career
where I was actually engaged in the work they describe. For example, one piece
was written around 1993 when I was first setting out on the magical path, and
it describes the ascent through the elemental sephiroth on the Qabalistic Tree
of Life. It had only existed as a rough demo, however, so I’m now giving it its
proper voice. Another piece relates to the union with the HGA, and another is a
dialogue between the Adept and Babalon. I’m quite happy with how it’s all
shaping up. I have some wonderful collaborators working with me on the album.
English visual artist Russell Mills (who has designed album covers for Brian
Eno, David Sylvian, Nine Inch Nails and many others) has contributed and
assisted with the cover art. One piece was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real
World Studios in England last spring, with the assistance of some remarkable
professional musicians and producers, such as Chris Hughes (producer and
co-writer of early Tears for Fears material) and drummer Robert Brian
(currently touring with Loreena McKennitt.) In addition, I am lucky to be
working with some of my best friends as well: Richard Kaczynski contributed
keyboards to one track, and there are lots of special moments from other
collaborators. It’s a bit of a dream team for me, and I’m very excited to share
the work with everyone this winter.
MO
You trained directly under the great Phyllis Seckler, and The Way of the Will closes, movingly, with her own 1991 essay “Sun of Being” folded directly into your book rather than simply cited in a preface.
What is the single
piece of guidance from Soror Meral that you find yourself returning to most
often, whether in your own practice or when you're the one now training the
next generation of students? And is there a piece of her teaching you feel
hasn't yet made it fully into either of your books, one you might be saving for
a third?
DS
That’s an easy one.
Soror Meral, to her core, adopted a devotional approach to the Great Work. Her
relationship to the HGA, and her ongoing work of deepening that
connection, is evident in nearly everything she taught and wrote, and in how
she lived. She taught me that with genuine aspiration and connection to the
HGA, all truly needed things would be provided. This is fundamental to
the doctrine of True Will itself, of course. When we are living a life aligned
with Will, and making our choices with that alignment firmly in mind, things
flow, doors open, resources are provided. Most of the time, we don’t even need
to do any additional ritual work at all – just strengthen our link to the HGA.
This is a path of efficiency as well, since we’re not constantly (and perhaps
desperately) hurling ourselves at rituals we supposedly need to do to get something.
That’s a lot of wasted energy, unless we are very sure that the magical aim of
the working is aligned with True Will.
MO
In your personal
opinion—and to the benefit of new students and initiates—how would you describe
“Occult Philosophy”?
DS
I’ll answer this by
interpreting the word “occult” in its literal, etymological sense of meaning
“hidden”. To me, Occult Philosophy is the science and art of studying the
hidden aspects of life, self, and the created world. These things may be hidden
because they are hard to pin down, unpopular to explore, uncomfortable to
encounter, or simply because they don’t lend themselves easily to investigation
by conventional scientific or psychological means. Crowley’s wonderfully
pragmatic ‘Scientific Illuminism’ is a perfect example of this approach in
practice. That is, try out some exploratory tools, take note of your results,
and make up your own mind about the meaning of it all.
MO
What was your
personal start on your own journey on this path (or chosen profession)?
DS
As we were
discussing earlier, I entered my young adulthood seeking a personal path which
could bring the wonder and mystery of spirituality, balanced with a rational
sensibility and appropriately skeptical approach. I had begun exploring the
work of Carl Jung as early as my high school years, and by the time I landed in
my doctoral program, his approach to psychotherapy was clearly going to be my
home base. His work had space for the mystery I was craving – it explained the
experience of being alive better than anything else I had found. Yet it
didn’t satisfy my desire for a personal spiritual path. In a series of
fortuitous book purchases, I found my way to Israel Regardie’s The Middle
Pillar, which explores the overlap of Qabalistic psychology, Jungian models
of the psyche, and Aleister Crowley’s work. Well, that sealed the deal for me,
and I knew at that point (around 1993) that this would be my life’s
work. From there, I read everything I could find of Crowley in those
pre-internet days, and explored outward from there. I took my first initiations
into several Thelemic and Golden Dawn-patterned traditions later that year, and
the rest of my adult life has been inextricably intertwined with these paths. I
have been honored with the duty of being a custodian of Crowley’s magical order
A.’.A.’., as well as the Temple of the Silver Star--a Thelemic magical order
which also has an unbroken, and continuously active, line of succession from
the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. And of course, my work with
Ordo Templi Orientis has been a consistent part of my path throughout.
MO
To this magazine,
the concept of “modern occultism” can (and should) be equally viewed from both
the academic and practical sides. What would you recommend to a person only now
coming along to these subjects, and is uncertain if an objective academic career,
or a true “practical path” may be right for them?
DS
I think the primary
choice point centers on whether or not the person has a calling to a personal
path of inner work, or is more inclined toward research and academic teaching.
Now, of course, some people might be called to both, but if it’s going to be a
binary choice, that personal calling would be the road sign to point the way.
MO
What is one book,
film, lecture, or teacher that helped shape your journey and personal
philosophies that you would recommend to a new student or occult practitioner
(or historian / academic)?
DS
No fair pinning me down to just one! In addition to The Middle Pillar, and the various writings of Soror Meral, I’d point to Jung’s Man and His Symbols, Joseph Campbell’s and (Jungian analyst) Robert Johnson’s various recorded lectures, and the musical and philosophical legacy of Robert Fripp. (See The Guitar Circle book.)
MO
And finally, what
is one daily activity that you believe is a MUST for all seekers of the occult
philosophies and/or arts?
DS
Consistent, daily
practice of some kind. Consistency requires dedication, and dedication requires
that we are present with ourselves and our choices. This presence allows
us to more fully know ourselves, and to more deeply experience what being alive
is all about. Everything else is elaboration and fine tuning.
(Every day, Modern Occultist News will present "This Day in Occult History" and your "Daily Occult Review" and will dive into the birthdays, rituals, breakthroughs, and crucial moments that shaped today’s many esoteric traditions. From the Hermetic revival to Witchcraft, from Crowley to cyberspace, we’ll bring the best stories and latest trends to today’s own modern occultists everywhere.)
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