This past weekend I decided to visit the birth site of one of my greatest occult influences: author, Paschal Beverly Randolph. As I stood across the street from 70 Canal Street, in what is now China Town in Manhattan taking pictures, I found myself imagining what the neighborhood looked like back in the early 1800s before the nearby Manhattan bridge was constructed. I had been planning on visiting Paschal’s birth site for a few years, but I did not actually do it until Saturday.
Sex Magic—which is arguably the most important element in the practical application of the spiritual sciences—has been exoterically suppressed by the three major Western religions which profess that bland sexual conservatism is the only true path to spiritual growth and eternal salvation. Fortunately, African American writer and occultist Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8th 1825 – July 25th 1875) brought some semblance of sanity to the shores of North America when he taught the science of sex among many other disciplines which he is not as recognized for.
Although born in New York City at a time when most African Americans were still prisoners of war, Randolph had an opportunity to travel to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia to learn more about the arcane sciences. Randolph has been identified by biographers as a friend of Abraham Lincoln and is credited for bringing the Rosicrucian Order to the U.S. I was initially exposed to Randolph and his teachings when I read The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth about Extraterrestrial Life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt, many years ago. Since then, I have found him to be a source of great inspiration.
While his successors Aleister Crowley and Helena P. Blavatsky are FAR more recognized for their so-called teachings on Sex Magic, a basic overview of Randolph’s work would reveal that they culled just about everything they knew on the subject from him. Crowley event went so far as to bite Paschal’s slang by consistently using words like “Aethyr” which was a lousy attempt to mask his use of the Paschal’s use of the word “Aether.”
The reported birth site of Paschal Beverly Randolph as seen on October, 5, 2013
Randolph said in his book After Death: The Disembodiment of Man (1868) that the Judeo-Christian account concerning the origin of the first true man on earth was a pile of bullshit. Instead he taught that the original man “is spiritual, and like God, had no conceivable beginning.” Mind you Randolph said this more than a half a century before another Libran, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, uttered similar sentiments.
Many of us living in the age of technology don’t realize how fortunate we are to have quality information at our fingertips that better men and women who came before us had to struggle and fight for. The easy access and availability has assassinated humility and bread a high level of arrogance (which is really naive confidence) among many students. Some students of the occult tradition today are actually foolish enough to think that just because they know all of the literary sources that a teacher of the life sciences has used to develop their thesis on a particular subject that they now have the privilege of knowing everything that the teacher knows as it pertains to that subject. This is delusional thinking.
I say this because all books pertaining to the life sciences, are at best, EXTERNAL tools that can only be used to their fullest potential by those who already have an INTERNAL frame of reference for the subject matter that they are reading about. Since your internal frame of reference is based on your unique personal experiences—or lack thereof—then it should come as no surprise that no two people can share the same frame of reference because they do not share the same exact personal experiences.
For those of you who cannot personally relate to what I am saying here, there is really no further explanation that I can give you that would suffice. For those who do understand and personally relate to what I’m saying, no further explanation is needed. The truth is familiar to those who have had prior encounters with it.
Bringing diverse pieces of dead information together to bring a REASONABLE and COHERENT idea to life is an art that few have bothered to learn, and even fewer have dared to master, because they don’t have the patience necessary to do it. They would rather be seen and heard in the spotlight, than take their precious time to study, practice, and gain experience in what they’ve learned in the anonymity of the shadows.
You will only recognize and appreciate a teacher of Randolph's caliber with authentic vision, dedication, and intellect once YOU make the transition from being a superficial dabbler in dead facts to being a dedicated student of pure wisdom. The former ONLY parrots what popular intellectual celebrities have already said numerous times, all while pretending that it’s completely new information.
The latter gives credit to pioneers as well as up and coming teachers, who may not even be under their personal tutelage, when credit is due. They are not insecure and afraid that other teachers will steal their audience. This is not because they doubt the other teachers' talent, but because they are confident in the originality and authenticity of THEIR own message. Openly acknowledging the genius of others does not detract from your own greatness. It only confirms it. This inescapable truth will emerge from the burning abyss of self-discovery once we become great ourselves.
It’s painfully ironic how Randolph, a prolific author and gifted spiritual scientist, born in the month of the Scales of Ma’at could have offered so much to the advancement of human understanding, yet such injustice is done to his legacy. Like Bob Marley said in his song “Misty Mourning,” “you give your more to receive your less.” Pay homage to a master who has been forgotten by so many. Long live Paschal Beverly Randolph!
Posts
