Man develops his image of himself by imagining how Divinity (first, in the form of his Mother) wishes him to be so that he may return (and be desired by the Mother). In this first act of man’s creation, three concepts must be in his nature, that is, of Divine nature; Imagination – construction of ideas through ideas, Symbolism/Language – the formulation of ideas themselves, and Self/Consciousness – the awareness of these processes (which leads him to attribute these processes to his own being).
He seeks IT/Divinity/Mother because he realizes that there is something outside of him that he needs, that can not be freely taken; the metaphor often given is that of the mother’s breast. If man was complete in all that he needed, he would be Conscious/United Divinity. Instead, he is conscious only of his humanity, and must Work to be conscious of his Divinity. This is the same Fall within Creation itself, happening as each man becomes conscious of his consciousness; every man being a “split subject” due to the gap in his mind between his consciousness and the unconscious. His drive to unite with his Mother/Divinity itself is synonymous with seeking to be conscious of his unconscious. This essential drive is the same with all man, manifested through forms that are more or less obvious, depending upon the amount of transitions (and the success/failures thereof) that each individual has had to make (due to environmental circumstances).
The psychological metaphor continues with the child, witnessing his father receiving the love he seeks from the Mother, aiming to become his father – but can never get close enough due to two things: Castration fear, which occurs when there is a threat to man’s self-concept of himself (in this case, being too similar to his father, or recognizing that he will never succeed), and the father’s Law, which bans incest with the mother and provides the child with his first ethical code of “good” and “evil.” The Mother, whom is fulfilled as Mother once she bears a child, does not “need” him anymore; she may desire him, but this is an excess of need in which there is no satisfaction. Only in parting with the child may she find joy.
Usually, the child grows to incorporate society’s laws and ethics into his Law and seeks more or less obvious replacements of affection from his Mother. This continues throughout adulthood, but the pattern remains the same. The individual adapts his self-concept (which includes both the influence from his Law and his drive for acknowledgment/affection) accordingly as situations change.
Notice how the father’s Law has created such a strong repulsion in our society to the idea of incest, even with people that don’t concern us, and even if their relations are consensual. We are perceiving ourselves in their situations through the eyes of our own biased ethical codes.
It is an instinctual disgust reaction for every individual to think sexually of their own parents for physical, evolutionary reasons – but this is NOT to be confused with the psychological “incestuous” drive to replace our parents with our partners (and ourselves) which is absolutely natural and should not bring shame. Anyone who believes otherwise will be sorely disappointed once they realize that life is centered around these concepts and that they can only keep replacing the language with which these concepts are described. Sexuality in the New Aeon should be accepting of consensual roleplay regarding parental figures and children; the acknowledgement of the origin of this taboo and the exploration of it is progress to understanding ourselves and of Divinity.
The separation in man’s consciousness bringing forth his self-concept/ego, is the key to uniting with Divinity. Both the process of it coming into being, and the being itself is the cycle of Creation; man’s ego is as man is to God. The man who rids of his ego for any period of time is not “knowing God” but becomes God’s Knowing. God Knowing Himself; “God is God only insofar as he knows himself; but in addition his self-knowledge is the self-knowledge that he has as man; and the knowledge that he has of himself as God.” It is in these moments (gnosis) in between Creating a new self-concept/ego and having a previously constructed one “die” that God is God – with every change we make to our self-concept, we are God. “The eye with which God sees me is the eye with which I see Him; my eye and His eye are one and the same. In righteousness I am weighed in God and He in me. If God did not exist nor would I; if I did not exist, nor would He.” This means, in a man without a self-concept/ego, there exists neither ego (obviously) nor “man” – for the concept of this man as a man is included in his ego.
The Great Work is creating a space for the individual (God) to Know Himself, so that the individual may then align his self-concept to his unconscious, attaining joy. Joy is not a fixed destination, but the result of continually acting upon drives which leads us to break our consciousness/self-concept. The drives of man are only Qliphotic in nature when they are not balanced, which lead to desire. Desires are drives that have been bound in forms/ideas, further removed from the unconscious and more elaborate due to the mind’s use of language in communicating them to oneself. Both drives and desires arise from an excess of need/demand; that which we “need” is merely that which can be satisfied. By expressing our need in language, it becomes a demand. The greatest desire of every individual is for another to acknowledge their desire; the Mother to imagine what she could be/do to make her son happy. What the magician is doing when he re-creates his self-concept, is acknowledging his own desires, ridding of the excess (therefore “eliminating” desire/transforming it into need), and fixing his Law in order to fulfill his needs.
True Will, therefore, is a drive within our unconscious minds with many forms, the form which surfaces depending upon each individual, and receives a ranking of necessity based on past experiences (and neuroses). Once achieved, one’s True Will “changes” to a form more directly related to the drive in the unconscious.
In conclusion, the True Will of every man is ultimately to unite his consciousness with his own unconscious mind; the Great Work itself that is eternal – and every man having the burden/blessing of a divided consciousness knowingly or unknowingly seeks to fill this gap, for God’s own existence.
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