The Law of Unconditional Love
The final, perhaps most important and most challenging of the eight Laws of the Octagon Society, Order of Spiritual Alchemy
[note to readers: This is the twelfth installment of a twelve part series on the training of the Octagon Society, Order of Spiritual Alchemy. Previously we have discussed the three preliminary laws, blame, shame and guilt, to get at and excise the detritus of trauma etc in preparation for the primary laws, thus far discussed, Acceptance, Happiness, Joy, Peace, Forgiveness, Strength and Teaching, to get about the work of intentionally building the life you want, of strengthening the self and opening up and expanding consciousness. Links to the previous installments can be found at the end. I have also decided to add one final installment, a kind of synopsis of this series.]
The heart of all that lives is singing the Law. We hear it in the trees, in the ripple of water. It rises as a chant in the confused sounds of the marketplace, it floats in the silence above the desert and mountain…there are wars, hates and crimes; there is self-consciousness, greed, avarice and ambition. But if realization takes us deeper into life, further into the heart of things, we find within all that lives and within all that loves, that the rhythmic beat of the song is there - Manly P. Hall
One of the curious things I have found, writing about the work of Spiritual Alchemy here on substack, this training of the Octagon Society, is how the Laws seemed to track for the message I needed at the time. I first worked through these processes during the height of Covid madness, in 2021. It was very valuable for me then. It has been very valuable to me, the last several months, the madness no less lately than during covid.
Part of the teaching of this work is, the work of spiritual alchemy never ends, it is a life long process, to be a member of the Octagon Society is to revisit this training whenever necessary.
Working through it this second time, here in these pages, the Law of Teaching came while I was in a process of introspection about this Substack, and my work IRL. The Law of Strength came after we on Substack withstood an onslaught of anti-nazis acting like nazis trying to put Substack under the boot of State. The Law of Forgiveness came just as I finished the discussion of a new revolution, the Law of Peace just as I wrapped up the three Rules of Revolution, the Law of Joy after my one year guitar recital and beginning the process of imagining a new revolution, the Law of Happiness as the war in Gaza was ramping up, the Law of Acceptance as fall was turning to winter and WWIII seemed on everybody’s lips.
What is it about the present, that we come to the end of this process, with the Law of Unconditional Love?
Hate seems the watchword lately. I’ve never felt such a divide as exists now, between “left and right” in America. I was scheduled to give a talk at my local VFW, about revolution and civil war, in early March, based on my work here. But several conversations I’ve had recently with liberal men left me feeling like there is no room for such a public discussion on this topic. One of those friends, while I critiqued systems, Institutions, political parties, he critiqued me, mocked me, made fun of me, called me names, condescended, called me a misogynist with fascist predilections, a threat to democracy. If my friend is willing to say such to me, what would strangers say about me if I gave a public speech about the sort of things I write about here?
Like I said to my friend
atI am too partisan - which is to say, I am not on the side of eugenicists, depopulationists, DIE racists, Censors, Law Weaponizers, Trans authoritarians, Barbarian coddlers and cluster B sociopaths. It might have gone batshit, who knows what I would have "triggered" and upset the elders with their BINGO in the main bar.
Mark is a Christian. He fervently believes, as many do, much of the behavior I listed above is the influence of Satan and demons. I agree, in the sense that there is a lot of the above that can only be described as demonic, which is to say, anti-human, anti-life, purely destructive. I did not add in that list, as I had in the presentation I put together, the incessant bipartisan push toward WWIII, or the hollowing out of the American economy the last fifty years, species extinction or systemic pollution. I am not the only one who has described the left of late as a death cult, but I have also in the past described capitalism and much of the materialist right in such terms.
Christians often see reality, this material plane, as fundamentally evil, as fallen. It is not hard to see why, there being so much that is evil in this world, certainly not least in America. Everywhere, in every nation, people are oppressed, beaten down, surveilled, censored, abused, chained, brutalized and murdered. Systemic toxicity and species extinction is a global thing, not the province of any one nation, people or system.
Nor would Christians generally argue for a thing called Unconditional Love for all things, not even of God necessarily, as salvation requires faith and works, God’s love is conditional in that sense. Other Christians would argue, God’s love is unconditional, He loves you whether you are headed for heaven or hell.
Unconditional Love in the Octagon Society and Esotere
In the Octagon Society, we are unequivocal about it.
The Divine loves all things in the universe unconditionally. One essential goal of spiritual alchemy, and of the broader spiritual path in which it has a central role, is to become like the Divine, to the extent of being able to love everyone and everything unconditionally.
God is love unconditional, the spiritual journey is to become love unconditional.
Unconditional love is exactly what it sounds like: love without conditions. So often we hedge about our love with conditions, or even convince ourselves that we can only love because of this or that thing that someone else thinks, says, or does. In reality, love is a choice. We choose to love, or not to love. We choose to place conditions on our love, or not to do so. We choose to fill our lives and the world around us with love—or we choose not to. It’s up to us. This is the Law of Unconditional Love: Love is the ultimate expression of our freedom as spiritual beings. When we choose to love unconditionally, rather than making our love depend on condition and circumstances, we become free of all the burdens of our past, and we become free to embrace whatever future we choose.
Manly P Hall said in his book Self-Unfoldment by Disciplines of Realization: Practical Instruction in the Philosophy of Disciplined Thinking and Feeling:1
the world, it’s laws, and the universe that sustains it, are good. To reason from such an assumption - for even a fact must remain an assumption until it be experienced - may prove satisfying to the consciousness and result in mental and emotional well-being.
When he is talking about laws, he is refering to eternal truths. Reason is insufficient in understanding such truth, it is imposing a belief upon the world. By contrast:
True Realization differs not only in the method of approach, but in the technique of application over a long period of time in a wide variety of experiences. Realization does not imply an affirmation as to the goodness of the world. Rather, as the student grows in realization the consciousness discovers the goodness of the world as inner experience. The fact emerges from a contemplation of life; it is not imposed on life….Realization is a recognition both of the good in the world, and the world in the good. Furthermore, it is the sustained desire to be like the good, to serve good, and to become the good.
The universal Law is unconditional love, this is like a song imbued and of all things, one must have the eyes to see and ears to hear. This is innate to us as very young children, it is lost in contact with the evil of the world, there are powers in this world that do not want us to see or hear, who smother the good, who hide it from us, deny it, denigrate it - but they cannot destroy it. It is eternal.
To love unconditionally is not to deny evil, or to pretend it does not exist, or to fail to see in others that which is less than lovable. It is not to forget the awful things people have done, or to deny the awful things they are doing. Instead, to love unconditionally is to recognize, that is my choice, to see the eternal good that does exist in all things, in everyone, in even the most evil. It is recognizing that no amount of evil can change this, nothing anyone does can alter my knowledge of this universal truth.
Of course this is not easy to accept, even if in some sense it is the easiest thing. It seems much easier to focus on evil. Evil seems overwhelming and all powerful sometimes, it is a spectacle, it can feel all-encompassing. That is much the point of evil, to draw your eye, ear and soul from the truth.
But if you have been following along with this work of spiritual alchemy, this training of the Octagon Society, you have faced your blame, shame and guilt, you have accepted yourself and others as we are, you have learned to turn sadness into happiness, fear into joy, anger into peace, you have learned to forgive, you have considered how strong in fact you are, and that you have much to teach. If you have done all or any of this, unconditional love is not such a stretch.
The Training
As per all the previous installments, the training of the Law of Unconditional Love starts with Dad,
We proceed toward the summit of our spiritual path to the extent we’re able to accomplish this goal. We progress along this path in eight separate and distinct steps:
• Love your father unconditionally
• Love your mother unconditionally
• Love your children, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins unconditionally
• Love your aunts, uncles, grandparents, great uncles, great aunts, and all your ancestors unconditionally
• Love your spouse, lovers, friends, fellow students and fellow employees unconditionally
• Love your enemies and antagonists unconditionally
• Love all other persons, places, and things unconditionally
• Love yourself unconditionally
1. Your first task is to love your father unconditionally. Review the work you have done with your memories and experiences of your father in passing through the previous ranks of the Octagon Society, reading what you wrote in the first task of each step you’ve taken. You have accepted your father; you have reviewed the feelings of sadness, fear, and anger you feel toward him, or because of him; you have forgiven him; you have started to make positive changes in your life; and you have reviewed all the good things you learned from him, or because of him. With all this in mind, practice the Breath of Unconditional Love until you feel that you can love him unconditionally. You may also find it useful to do the Letter of Love exercise. Both of these are explained at the end of this section.
2. Your second task is to love your mother unconditionally. Follow the same strategy for your mother as you did for your father [and so on.]
As part of this training there is also the Letter of Love. Sit down with your notebook and write a letter to someone specific, tell them why it is so hard to love them, in as much detail as you can, what you have forgiven them for, and tell them you love them unconditionally. No one ever has to see the letter, you can burn it if you like. Write as many letters to as many people as seems necessary.
There is also a breathing exercise, as there was for Acceptance and Forgiveness. We will not discuss it here, if you would like to know more, see the full explanation of the Law of Unconditional Love on the Octagon Society website.
In conclusion
So, all this is well and good, yet I still feel something needs to be said. Lately I have found myself furious, this invasion of military aged men, millions of them, every day some new example of them organizing into gangs, fighting with police, beating, stabbing, raping, killing Americans, primarily preying on women and children. Every day I see the media and liberals, making excuses for these migrants, this top-down utilitarian sickness, it’s ok if we break a few eggs, for what we have decided for you, what is the greater good.
Who am I to say to the victims of this, believe in unconditional love? What is that unconditional love, when faced with the spectre of a violent attacker?
As we learned with Forgiveness, forgiveness absolves nothing, absolution is for the Creator. Forgiveness does not prevent you from acting. Jesus could forgive, and feel unconditional love, even driving the moneychangers out of the temple with a scourge. Unconditional love does not require you to accept evil. One can be full with unconditional love for creation, and like the vengeance of God.
Unconditional love does not either, absolve you from acting on behalf of the good. In fact, I can assure you if you do the work of the Octagon Society, if you embrace the universal Law of Unconditional love, it can and will make you a more effective warrior for God, a warrior for the good.
Preliminary Lessons:
Primary Laws:
Manly P. Hall, Self-Unfoldment by Disciplines of Realization: Practical Instruction in the Philosophy of Disciplined Thinking and Feeling, pg 172-173 The book is exactly like the title suggests, the work of a Western intellectual, student of world religions, believer in the esoteric, spirtual seeker.
I love the way you engage with the elemental paradoxes of this 3D world by accessing 4D (spiritual) consciousness.
I think it would be quite something to know you in real life. (Lector to Agent Starling)
Beautiful!! ❤️