When the spirit is gone – the rise and fall of spiritual traditions

Recently I have made some research about a secret society. I knew already that this society is in a bad condition but during my research I had to face the worst misery. It is comparable when you think of a living person who is ill but when you meet the person you discover only a decaying corpse, – a truly disgusting, shocking experience.

Regarding spiritual traditions and secret societies, it is not always obvious if they are alive, in good health or if they are already dead and just a shell without any spirit. For this reason I want to speak a little bit about the rise and fall of spiritual traditions and secret societies.

In the normal case a spiritual tradition or secret society is launched by a true initiate, someone with higher knowledge in theory and practice, who feels the necessity or has the mission to start something new. The initiate embodies the divine spirit, is enlightened, a refined soul and has great inspiring, uplifting effects on his followers. So indeed a great amount of spiritual energy is given to get the movement started and everyone is enthusiastic about it. More and more followers are gathered and the first students are educated to become spiritual leaders by themselves. As long as the initiator of the movement is alive, the movement feeds itself from his charisma, his divine power and guidance. After his death, one or more of his educated priests will become his successors. Now all depends on them, on their personalities, on their degree of initiation and power.

In best case, when the tradition or society is based on the true, universal teachings, then it will flourish and live long, gathering more and more followers and blessing the people with a balanced and peaceful life. (Think here as an example of Buddhism and the positive Buddhist attitude of the people and its effects on life, society and business in general.) So the more holistic and universal the teachings are, the more and longer the spiritual tradition or secret society will flourish. The more one-dimensional and imbalanced a tradition is in its teachings, the earlier it will decrease, getting ill and then die.

Now let’s imagine the bad case. The tradition/society is still alive. The glorious start phase was somewhere in the far past and no one is able to really remember what happened in this time. There are some legends, many speculations, opinions, etc. but all is more or less a matter of interpretation. In the start phase everything was fine as there were true initiates who organized the teachings, the education, the rituals, etc. But one day the number of true initiates decreased step by step and the new leaders were not able to get into the same level of knowledge, enlightenment and power. They were lacking of everything, more and more as time passed by. They still called themselves initiates and masters but they weren´t. With the loss of true initiation, also the knowledge about the true meaning of the rituals got lost and with this the rituals lost their powers. All the ceremonies became something like a hollow stage play, like a bad copy of the original, meaningless, useless, senseless.

With this tragic loss many things have changed. In former days it was all about spirituality but now human desires and the material world have come into the focus. Selfish desires, longing for power and influence, personality cult, money issues, networking, trivial parties, etc., all these things have replaced the high ideals of former times. The spirit has gone and only a hollow shell is left. But this is not all. As the present leaders or master have no true understanding of their ceremonies and teachings they start to change them, to adapt them to their needs and wishes which means nothing else than adulteration and in parts also perversion. Light is turned into grey and darkness. What was once noble, true and good, is now misunderstood, wrong and evil. Slight changes are already enough to cause such perversions. When the spirit is gone, the shell is open to receive the darkness like a dead astral corpse invites evil ghosts to make use of it. So the whole spiritual movement turns to the dark side and spreads darkness and evil instead of light and wisdom. Left is only a big lie but as people feed their desires from this lie, the lie is kept alive as long as possible until all energies are wasted and the shells collapse.

Those with open eyes can see such things happening worldwide, the laughing evil in the cloths of the former priests, those who proclaim to bring the light while they deliver destruction and darkness.

Every movement has its birth, its rise, its time of flourishing and its time of dying. It all depends how long the true spirit is alive in the movement, the tradition or secret society. Unfortunately only few were able to keep the spirit and to maintain universal teachings. The rest is poisoning the world.

I can only suggest to make a comprehensive research before you enter any kind of tradition or secret society. The traps are endless and dangers are everywhere. If you find no unconditional love, no real wisdom and no true care in a movement, then it is better to stay on distance. And if you find these things only in the teachings but not expressed and lived by the members then there is also something wrong.

Sometimes I think that the world is more like a big compost pile where decay and putrefaction are the main processes instead of wonderful growing, flourishing and sunshine. The great times are gone, the spirit has left and now we have to undergo a rebirth from the ashes like the phoenix. Better times are ahead.