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My Review of Peter Kingsley's Work
Apr. 12th, 2024 10:19 amI had a student, not long ago, discuss the work of Peter Kingsley with me. We even examined and discussed a horary chart on the subject, and I was unsurprised to see the involvement of Uranus in the chart -- the ever-disruptive Oneness. I decided to investigate what was going on. I read Kingsley's books. I purchased and downloaded lectures from his website. This morning, I had finally had my fill. This is my review of his work:
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Join Mr. Kingsley as he takes a magnificent, liberating, and foundational esoteric tradition and delivers it a fatal blow while purporting to attempt to bring it back into modern consciousness.
I have read his books, I have purchased and listened to numerous lectures from his website. He has turned this tradition of Parmenides and Empedocles into the consummate Via Negativa: life is short and horrible, you know nothing and have not even attained consciousness, you are wasting your potential, nothing you have ever sensed or experienced has any meaning, life is suffering, you are moving ever deeper into the thicket of death and, moreover, you are trapped in this quagmire of despair, with no hope of ever escaping it.
And so on (not kidding).
As all esoteric teachers know, the Via Negativa has a place in the Mysteries, but it is a small place, just as the deadly poisons, in minuscule doses, can be a useful adjunct to the regaining of robust health, or just as a malefic planet can be skillfully placed in a beautiful and ultimately successful electional chart.
But Mr. Kinglsey's presentation of this tradition is 99% negative. He does not tell you, affirmatively, what to do, not even what to do to find out what you need to do. He tells you---almost without cessation--only how stupid and unrealized and wasteful you are, and all of humanity is. That is a necessary starting point, of course. But he never moves off of it. And so, you are left with a heavy sense of having been condemned and oppressed. I cannot help but think that, far from bringing people back to the tradition, he is driving interested and qualified people away from it.
Do not estimate yourself any less of a spiritual aspirant if you decide to pass up this Poison Chalice. Do not let unqualified teachers---even those who have clearly mastered their subjects---invoke your alleged unreadiness against you, or tell you that certain things cannot be explained or expressed in language, or set the bar of entrance into the tradition so high in the heavens that you could never, ever possibly pole-vault over it.
They have all seen your spire in the clouds, Mr. Kinglsey.
Now show them the entrance, or hold your peace.
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Mr. Kingsley's discourse is so negative that I have never seen its like. And *that* is saying something. I'm a triple Scorpio: I can both swallow, as well as sling, a lot of bitterness, constitutionally speaking.
It got me to thinking . . . who trained him? I could not find any information on-line, so I suppose I may have to slog through his autobiography to get some answers.
But, right now, this is the nephesh I have in my nostrils: Self-training in the Mysteries is always dangerous. The first requirement of the Mysteries is purification of the physical body. If this is skipped, what you end up doing is circulating poisons throughout your body. And then, the only thing you can possibly teach others carries with it the stench of poison.
Mercury is the beginning of our work: it is in Gemini, air, the lungs, and breathing; it is in Virgo, earth, the intestines, and digestion. Oxygen is the Sword that bars the Gate of the Mysteries. You think about *that*!
Whenever I hear someone say, "I initiated myself," "I learned on my own," or "the spirits taught me," what I hear is: "I have been poisoned."
Blessed, blessed, blessed are you if you have the prudence and humility to be guided by a teacher.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Join Mr. Kingsley as he takes a magnificent, liberating, and foundational esoteric tradition and delivers it a fatal blow while purporting to attempt to bring it back into modern consciousness.
I have read his books, I have purchased and listened to numerous lectures from his website. He has turned this tradition of Parmenides and Empedocles into the consummate Via Negativa: life is short and horrible, you know nothing and have not even attained consciousness, you are wasting your potential, nothing you have ever sensed or experienced has any meaning, life is suffering, you are moving ever deeper into the thicket of death and, moreover, you are trapped in this quagmire of despair, with no hope of ever escaping it.
And so on (not kidding).
As all esoteric teachers know, the Via Negativa has a place in the Mysteries, but it is a small place, just as the deadly poisons, in minuscule doses, can be a useful adjunct to the regaining of robust health, or just as a malefic planet can be skillfully placed in a beautiful and ultimately successful electional chart.
But Mr. Kinglsey's presentation of this tradition is 99% negative. He does not tell you, affirmatively, what to do, not even what to do to find out what you need to do. He tells you---almost without cessation--only how stupid and unrealized and wasteful you are, and all of humanity is. That is a necessary starting point, of course. But he never moves off of it. And so, you are left with a heavy sense of having been condemned and oppressed. I cannot help but think that, far from bringing people back to the tradition, he is driving interested and qualified people away from it.
Do not estimate yourself any less of a spiritual aspirant if you decide to pass up this Poison Chalice. Do not let unqualified teachers---even those who have clearly mastered their subjects---invoke your alleged unreadiness against you, or tell you that certain things cannot be explained or expressed in language, or set the bar of entrance into the tradition so high in the heavens that you could never, ever possibly pole-vault over it.
They have all seen your spire in the clouds, Mr. Kinglsey.
Now show them the entrance, or hold your peace.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Kingsley's discourse is so negative that I have never seen its like. And *that* is saying something. I'm a triple Scorpio: I can both swallow, as well as sling, a lot of bitterness, constitutionally speaking.
It got me to thinking . . . who trained him? I could not find any information on-line, so I suppose I may have to slog through his autobiography to get some answers.
But, right now, this is the nephesh I have in my nostrils: Self-training in the Mysteries is always dangerous. The first requirement of the Mysteries is purification of the physical body. If this is skipped, what you end up doing is circulating poisons throughout your body. And then, the only thing you can possibly teach others carries with it the stench of poison.
Mercury is the beginning of our work: it is in Gemini, air, the lungs, and breathing; it is in Virgo, earth, the intestines, and digestion. Oxygen is the Sword that bars the Gate of the Mysteries. You think about *that*!
Whenever I hear someone say, "I initiated myself," "I learned on my own," or "the spirits taught me," what I hear is: "I have been poisoned."
Blessed, blessed, blessed are you if you have the prudence and humility to be guided by a teacher.
