THE MYSTIC AND THE OCCULTIST

When you talk of an emotionally polarised person and a mentally polarised person you are definitely talking about the mystic and the occultist. The lack of mind in the mystic you will find in the occultist and the lack of emotions in the occultist you will find in the mystic. If you combine the two you will get the perfect combination necessary for integration. If you keep this in mind we can have a look at the two paths that will eventually become the one path to enlightenment.

In “Letters on Occult Meditation” we read the following:

The mystic is not necessarily an occultist, but the occultist embraces the mystic. Mysticism is but one step on the path of occultism. In this solar system-the system of love in activity- the path of least resistance for the majority is that of the mystic, or the path of love and devotion. The next solar system will be the path of the occultist. Wherein lays the difference between these two types?

The mystic will start with some beloved individual, and from that individual, will rise through the various other individuals to the Master.

The occultist will start with meditation on the virtue most desired, add virtue to virtue in the building of the thoughtform of the ideal self until all the virtues have been attempted and the Ego or Soul is suddenly contacted.

The mystic deals with the evolving life; the occultist with god in outer manifestation. The mystic works from the centre to the periphery; the occultist reverses the process. The mystic mounts by aspiration and in tensest devotion to the God within or to the Master Whom he recognises; the occultist attains by the recognition of the law in operation and by the wielding of the law which binds matter and conforms it to the needs of the indwelling life. In this manner the occultist arrives at those Intelligences Who work with the Law, till he attains the fundamental Intelligence Himself.

The mystic works through the Rays of love, Harmony and Devotion, or by the path of the second, the fourth and the sixth rays. [2, 4, 6.] The occultist works through the Rays of Power, Activity, and Ceremonial Law, or the first, the third and the seventh. [1, 3, 7.] Both meet and blend through the development of mind, or through the fifth ray of Concrete Knowledge [a fragment of cosmic intelligence], and on this fifth ray the mystic is resolved into the occultist and works then with all the rays.

By finding the kingdom of God within himself and by the study of the laws of his own being, the mystic becomes proficient in the laws which govern the universe of which he is a part. The occultist recognises the kingdom of God in nature or the system and regards himself as a small part of that greater whole, and therefore governed by the same laws.

The mystic works as a general rule under the department of the World Teacher, or the Christ, and the occultist more frequently under that of the Manu, or Ruler, but when both types have passed through the four minor rays in the department of the Lord of Civilisation, then a completion of their development may be seen, and the mystic becomes the occultist and the occultist includes the characteristics of the mystic. To make it simpler, for general comprehension:-after initiation the mystic is merged in the occultist for he has become a student of occult law; he has to work with matter, with its manipulation and uses. And he has to master and control all lower forms of manifestation, and learn the rules whereby the building devas work. Before initiation the mystic path might be expressed by the term, Probationary Path. Before the occultist can manipulate wisely the matter of the solar system he must have mastered the laws that govern the microcosm, and even though he is naturally on the occult path yet will still have to find the God within his own being before he can safely venture on the path of occult law.

Thus the mystic seeks to work from the emotional to the intuitional, and thence to the Monad, or Spirit. The occultist works from the physical to the mental, and thence to the atma or Spirit. One works along the path of love; the other along the path of will. The mystic fails in the purpose of his being-that of love demonstrated in activity-unless he co-ordinates the whole through the use of intelligent will. Therefor he has to become the occultist.

The occultist similarly fails and becomes only a selfish exponent of power working through intelligence, unless he finds a purpose for that will and knowledge by an animating love which will give him sufficient motive for all that he attempts. 

Thus the mystic is too apt to feel that the occultist over-estimates the way of knowledge and repeats glibly or casually that the mind is the slayer of the real and that the intellect can give him nothing. The occultist is equally apt to despise the mystical way and to regard the mystical method as ‘lying far behind him”. But both must learn to tread the way of wisdom. The mystic must and will inevitably become the occultist and this whether he likes the process or not. He cannot escape it in the long run, but the occultist is not a true one until he recovers the mystical experience and translates it into terms of synthesis.

It is the materialising of the vision in astral matter, its development through the power of emotion [masquerading as devotion] and the failure of the mystic either to enter into the realm of mental perception or to bring his idealistic dream down into physical expression which lies at the root of the trouble. The man becomes deluded by the best that is in him; he is the victim of an hallucination which embodies the highest he knows; he is overcome by the glamour of the spiritual life; he fails to distinguish between the vision and the Plan, between the manufactured unreal of the ages of mystical activity and the Real which stands ever in the background of the life of the integrated human being.

So, to say that the mystic is not using his mind and that the occultist is not using his emotions is only true whist they are on the early stages of development or the left hand path as in the case of the occultist that works without a hart. 

Based on the works of AAB and DK.

Plates from MAN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE-BY C.W. LEADBEATER.