All humans suffer and it doesn't matter who you are or what you own, how much money you do or don't have, suffering is something that all humans have to face. Yes, it might seem like some suffer more than others, and they probably do in many ways. But we also have to remember that everyone's experiences are different. Because of how society is set up it creates obsessive wants in people, that never seem to be fulfilled. So whereas a poor person is suffering because they can't get enough food or even decent clothes to wear, and they never seem to have enough to pay their rent at the end of the month... those who do have a lot of money buy massive houses and expensive cars, and expensive clothes and jewellery and they too often end up in major debt because they cannot control their need for more. So it seems that no matter what someone has, it is never enough... Unless of course, you learn the reasons for this behaviour and in turn how to control it.
I am sure you have all heard about the 7 deadly sins. What many don't know is that 7 sins are countered each with a heavenly virtue, and that these 7 things are connected to the chakra system in our bodies which are the endocrine glands. When any of these chakras are out of balance, this leads to problems with the endocrine gland that it governs, they also manifest in several ways in our lives and causes severe disruptions if we don't learn how to balance them.
The Seven Virtues & Their Corresponding Sins, Chakra & Endocrine Gland
|
Virtue |
Sin |
Chakra |
Endocrine Gland |
|
Chastity |
Lust |
Root |
Testes/Ovaries |
|
Temperance |
Gluttony |
Sacral |
Pancreas |
|
Patience |
Wrath |
Solar Plexus |
Adrenal |
|
Kindness |
Envy |
Heart |
Thymus |
|
Diligence |
Sloth |
Throat |
Thyroid |
|
Charity |
Greed |
Third Eye |
Pituitary |
|
Humility |
Pride |
Crown |
Pineal |
You might think all you have to do is not do any of the sins and just do the virtue and you will be happy. But that isn't the case, balance is the key to everything. What we need to do is realise those 7 sins are within us, admit them, own them and then learn how to balance them with the virtues. Only then can we be free of suffering.
So you might ask why is this so hard to do?
Because it is very difficult for someone to admit to these not so pleasant aspects of themselves, we all like to think we are good people and I am sure you are, sometimes, but we all do and think things that are far from virtuous, and if you cannot admit this to yourself you will never eliminate the suffering they cause you. I will give you a few examples for each one as a guide.
Chastity and Lust – in a world where we are increasingly told it is fine to have sex with anyone and everyone this one can be a very hard one to conquer. Finally, you think humanity has shed the need to demonise people who just want to have sex without any feelings involved.
Did you know that every time you have meaningless sex with someone you don't love, you become dumber and less aware? It makes it harder to complete the Great Work, another reason why men find it harder than women.
When Aleister Crowley talked about sacrificing a young boy, he was talking about when he climaxes, he has made a sacrifice.
“For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.”
Using this method to gain magickal powers, is a sacrifice, as you lose out somewhere else later. This is also true when you use masturbation to charge a sigil. Unless you have already reached Kether, and therefore you can use your energy to help others.
Making this sacrifice will make things harder to complete the work. Most people just do what is right for them NOW, and don't care about the consequences later, that is why New Age religions go on and on about living in the now, they never want you to reach your full potential. Of course it is wise to not worry about the past or the future, too much. However, if you don't 'act' now for the sake of your future, nothing ever changes, including your level of spiritual attainment.
When you practise tantra you learn to never climax, and instead to loop the energy back round your system, so that it shoots back up your spine and down again in a cycle, in the figure of 8, the centre of the 8 is at your heart chakra, which is why performing tantra is about love and respect of yourself and your partner. This is one way to have sex without draining away your energy. The ecstasy can then last as long as you like as you loop the energy round. When you end the session, rather than climaxing you send the energy to your Crown, making it a win-win situation.
The best thing to do is never waste your energy, if you must release energy, use it to charge a sigil at the same time. Then at least it is going towards something good. If someone focuses on something negative as they release, like porn or some perversion, then that is what the energy is going towards. If you masturbate thinking about a celebrity, for instance, your energy is going towards them. This is why sexy celebrities become so powerful. But if the energy is negative, then it can affect them badly too. For instance porn stars who are used purely for sex and not respected in any way, even though they have lots of money, end up hooked on drugs and feeling worthless, then die young.
Sending out bad energy to others, hurts you as much as your victim though. Others sending you bad energy does affect your life, people in the public eye risk a lot by being there.... hence, they have sold their soul to the Devil, the Devil here represents the dark side which is inside all of us, we can use our energy for good or bad. Using it for bad harms us, using it for good is a sacrifice, using it within ourselves helps us in the Great Work.
Temperance & Gluttony – This one is about having restraint and control over our need for overindulgence. When there is plenty of food, drink, drugs and all kinds available to us, it can be very tempting to abuse these things, none of which is good for us. At the same time to deny ourselves some pleasure is also not doing us any favours. You could compare it to treating yourself to a special home-cooked meal with fresh organic ingredients or stuffing your face with junk food from the local takeaway. From enjoying a nice drop of whisky in an evening, or a glass of wine with dinner, to binge drinking every weekend or becoming an alcoholic. It can also be related to gambling and other things that can become addictive if we overindulge. This one reminds us that nothing is actually a sin when it is in moderation.
Patience & Wrath – You only have to spend a little time online or looking a YouTube clips to find out how angry people seem to be these days. It is like most of them are waiting for someone to do something they can feel annoyed about or offended by then they can get out all their hate and anger on whoever it was that triggered the explosion. People who get angry and have aggressive outbursts often say they can't control this and that it isn't healthy to bottle it all up inside. However, having outbursts is NOT good for you, and it actually gives the person such an adrenaline rush that they start to get addicted to the feeling and that leads to even more nasty behaviour. Soon they are pushing away their friends, family and partner because they can no longer put up with their outbursts that can become violent.. walls are punched, things are broken and if this behaviour continues it could lead to them and others being seriously hurt, or worse still it can lead to murder.
When something is troubling you, you need to face it right away and ask yourself why it is troubling you, and learn to stop letting your emotions and worries about one thing be taken out on others. By no means I am saying to never let your hurt feelings out, but to talk about them calmly and resolve the issue is much better than letting problems stew inside you until one unfortunate person happens to get in your way and you take it all out on them. To be at peace you have to learn how to control this addiction to the adrenaline you feel when getting angry, because the consequences of your actions are not good.
Kindness & Envy – Humans are not the only animals who struggle with feelings of envy towards others around them, and it can be very self-destructive and lead to unpleasant behaviour. To see everyone around you as competition leads you to feel like you aren't good enough. Your neighbour got a new car, well then you must go out and get an even better one. Envy will actually lead you to have a voice in your head telling you that the only reason your neighbour got a new car was to show off and make you feel inadequate. You never stop to think that maybe the old car they had wasn't so reliable any more and they just wanted something better. YOU never even crossed their mind when they were choosing their new vehicle. Envy is strongly linked to narcissism because the envious soul truly believes people are only being better than them at something to hurt them. It can lead to becoming resentful and nasty to others. Opening your heart to kindness is the only way to overcome this. Being genuinely happy for other people's achievements and not allowing yourself to feel any envy can be difficult to conquer, but when you do and give up the need to have everything that everyone else has it is very freeing. So long as you have what you need, why be envious of anyone else? And even if you don't yet have what you need, being happy for others who already do have things is much more likely to lead you to achieve your own goals than envy ever will. With a clear mind and no need to impress others, you can get your priories straight, not get yourself in debt trying to keep up with others and make a better future for yourself. No one ever got themselves out of a bad situation by worrying about what everyone else is up to, if they focus on their own goals and targets, and be happy for others who have reached theirs, gratitude can lead to happiness.
Diligence & Sloth – If you spend your time doing nothing because you are too lazy to do anything to better your circumstances then you only have yourself to blame. Diligence is about work ethic but it can be as mundane as looking after your personal hygiene, even if you are alone, for your own well being. Giving in to the feeling of laziness is fine if you want few days break, but when you make a habit of doing nothing at all by wasting all your time, don't complain when you find you have become depressed. You should never think you are bored, there are simply too many things to do and experience in life for that. How many books are there to read? You once said you want to write a book, didn't you? How can you say you are bored and have nothing to do when you could be writing a book? You could be doing some art, making something, the possibilities are endless. Sloth is the reason so many who find themselves out of work, have such difficulty getting back into it. Doing nothing is easier than making the effort to achieve something each day. And when sloth becomes a habit, it is very hard to break. Give yourself a break every now and then, but give up on everything and allow yourself to be lazy for too long and it will ruin your life.
Charity & Greed – Have you ever wondered why so many people give to charity? It is usually to stop themselves feeling so guilty about their greed. Humans who have too much of something can't help but feel guilty about that, and for some it can be very small amounts of something. Inside the rich successful person will feel a bit like a fraud because they don't really understand why they have so much when others have nothing. They know it doesn't make sense that some people work so hard in manual labour jobs and get next to nothing, and yet they get to live a life of luxury. And although they might not admit this publicly, they will have thought about it a lot. Everyone, no matter who, has insecurities and self-doubts and giving to others can help heal the insecurities they feel about themselves inside. The voice inside of them is saying: “I can't be a bad person, how can I be when I just gave all this money to charity. Now I can enjoy my luxury life for a while more before the guilt comes back again”. Even the poorest people will feel this guilt about something, because no matter how little you have there will always be someone else who has less.
Humility & Pride – When the ego isn't in check it can lead to arrogant behaviour and the belief that one is better than everyone else. We see this a lot in those who set themselves up as gurus, spiritual teachers and life coaches. How arrogant do you think someone has to be to call themselves a guru to other people? How arrogant are they to believe they can give you advice on how to run your own life? Often with no official education, these pseudo-shrinks really do think they are the bee's knees. They would do well to have some humility and realise that they don't know everything and they can only ever be responsible for their own path, no one else's. They actually believe they are themselves illuminated and yet don't even realise that simple truth. Instead of trying to teach others things they themselves don't even know, they would do well to look inside and deal with their own daemons. Naive enlightenment tricks many and few escape it.
This was just a brief summary of how the 7 virtues and 7 deadly sins can affect our lives. Don't be fooled into thinking it has anything at all to do with religion, it is all about our own inside work and psychology. Looking into these 7 things can help you on your journey, it can help you face the things you are afraid to face about yourself.
Try to be brave, don't be worried about what you will discover when you look at your dark side, you cannot overcome things you are not willing to admit to.
