“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order.” Sherlock Holmes to Watson “A Study In Scarlet”
Holmes and Watson were not real people, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself was interested in Spiritualism and esotericism. It is even claimed that he was a member of the Golden Dawn, though evidence of his actual participation has yet to surface. The above advice, in my opinion, is spot on for those who are interested in personal development of all kinds, and more specifically in scientific illuminism.
It is far too easy to get bogged down in the immediate demands of work and personal relationships or be distracted by the seemingly infinite distractions of entertainment and social media. I struggle with these things too. In order to accomplish anything of consequence we must first have the discipline to dedicate our attention to a singular field of study at a time. This is the best way of accumulating the “tools which may help him in doing his work”.
The Scholomance podcast is no different. The subject of our first documentary series will be british occult superstar Aleister Crowley. Crowley’s work marks an important turning point in the study of esotericism, with the wide publication of many things previously taught only to initiates, and the foundation of systems mostly pursued by the aspirant alone. We will take his adventurous and varied life in small pieces and try to tell his story in a manner that avoids the sensationalism that this subject often attracts.
Stay tuned!
