Deep within every one of us, buried in the confines of the Unconscious, lays an Inner Master. Ever present, ever watching, our personal spiritual guide waits for us to notice the presence, to hear the voice or to see the signs. It is not trying to be seen. It is content with forever teaching us from the hidden depth of the Unconscious. But should the encounter happen, the seeker will never need another teacher.

Insight Meditation reveals that reality is an illusion that no self is watching. Concentration Meditation brings the explosive, albeit temporary, GNOSIS. It is now time to fully discover why we are here in this illusion, so we can make the most of our life.

Despite their ability to bring GNOSIS, meditation methods surprisingly miss a key benefit of the practice, namely finding our Inner Master. He or she is within every one of us, this spiritual guide and teacher of the most profound aspects of our existence. The true nature of that master is unknown. The encounter and subsequent conversations are deeply intimate. No two initiations into the mystery are the same. The lack of consistency might encourage disbelief. However, too many reports of such an encounter appear throughout history to discard the idea. It has many names. Carl Jung called it the True Self. The Greek philosophers, from Empedocles to Socrates, called it Daimon, the personal spirit. Thelema calls it the Holy Guardian Angel. Christians call it Angel, God’s messenger. Hindus call it Ishvara, the personal god. It will be referred here as the Inner Master. Inner because it speaks from within and Master because it is the role model of the incomplete self. It shouldn’t be viewed as strictly internal. Some view it as an entity separate from themselves and it’s totally fine. Some have even reported seeing that entity as a person in the room with whom they have actual conversations. We must take them at their word. Whether it is inside or outside doesn’t matter. What matters is the usefulness of the information received from that source of wisdom. It can speak in many ways, but regardless, it will have a tremendous impact on our life.

The coveted encounter can come in many forms and through many methods. Some achieve it through ceremonial magick with a ritual such as the Operation of Abramelin. Some achieve it through Insight Meditation by reaching Stream Entry. To others, it comes as a spontaneous event. Profoundly intimate in nature, the method of Attainment must be found within. The method that works is the one that resonates with us. It would be unwise to follow an intricate method if we aren’t inclined towards it. Whatever the chosen way, the practitioner spends a lifetime perfecting the relationship. The previous Work prepared us for this. With patience and an open mind, the relationship blooms. We refine it more and more until the conversations are clear enough to discern Wisdom. Aiming at perfection is aiming at becoming the Inner Master, in a perfect communion.
For the practitioner inclined towards rituals, Aleister Crowley dedicated his life to teaching a ritualistic method to attain what he called the Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel. He explained it in Liber Samekh and in The Vision and the Voice in the chapter of the 8th Aethyr. The book “The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage” is the first to introduce the concept of the Holy Guardian Angel. It is from that book that Aleister Crowley took inspiration for the name and the method. The ritual itself is inspired by an exorcism found in the Greek Magical Papyri commonly called the Headless One Ritual. Jake Stratton-Kent provides a detailed analysis of that original ritual in his book “The Headless One”. These references should help the practitioner inclined towards rituals.

The ego often tries to get in the way. Until one has experienced the true death of the ego and reconstruction of a new one, the ego remains a self-important petulant child, craving for attention. This entire operation is a threat to it. In a desperate attempt to remain relevant, the ego wants to divert us from the truth. It can go so far as impersonating the Master, one that fits the traits of the illusory personality we created for ourselves. The ego can contradict the essence of who we really are. The only way to pierce through the lies is to take a hard and honest look at our existence. In that moment, if we can silence the ego, the Inner Master ‘speaks’ and our truth is revealed. It takes faith, confidence. If we fail, we must confront it and try again. Eventually, we discover our truth. There is no other way.

Communication between human beings is what constitutes society. We are accustomed to the process. We are also somewhat accustomed to communicating with ourselves. Sometimes, we ask ourselves a question in an attempt to clarify the problem at hand, so that the answers come freely. This is a process of communication between the conscious Mind and itself. Communication with the Inner Master on another hand takes place between the conscious Mind and the Unconscious Mind. The conscious asks the question and the Unconscious answers. Most of us are not used to that process. The development of a highly personal mode of communication is required. It’s a daunting process that can lead us to believe things that aren’t true. But we are equipped now. When doubt grips us, we can ground ourselves with Insight Meditation and look at the issue with the clear Mind of Concentration Meditation. Every message from the Inner Master is a GNOSIS and doubt is the guard rail keeping the demon of self-delusion at bay.
The mode of communication will range from intuition, non-verbal thought, verbal thoughts, symbolic visions, auditory hallucinations and more. The practitioners are left on their own to figure out the best method. The Inner Master is there to guide us. It is the Inner master who will decide which method is best for a clear and reliable communication to take place. The protocol should only be adjusted consciously if no information of value is gathered from the conversations. Our aim is not to dream a better life in our imagination. Our aim is to navigate through the real world. If the method permits, asking for the Name of the Inner Master might be a good idea to strengthen the bond. Obviously, that is mostly only possible through verbal means, but thankfully, a name is not at all required. Being rooted in the Unconscious, the Inner Master speaks the language of symbols fluently. Studying symbolism is therefor a worthwhile endeavour. Cark Jung used a method he called active imagination (similar to shamanic journey, a practice that dates back to prehistory) which was a form of day-dreaming where the patient would be encourage to let their Unconscious Mind weave a tapestry of symbolic images. He would then help the patient in their attempt to interpret the visions and extract meaning that was useful for personal growth. This is exactly what a conversation with the Inner Master is, albeit exclusively concerned with spiritual matters. And there is no better way to learn a language than immersion in the world in which it is spoken.
Silencing the ego and establishing a path of communication with the Unconscious is no trifle. At first glance, magickal systems such as Hermeticism, the Pantheons of Antiquity, the Tarot, Thelema, the Golden Dawn, Enochian Magick, the Qabbalah, the Chaldean or the Egyptian Magick of Antiquity all seem crazy to the scientific mind. When properly examined, however, they appear as a carefully crafted collective system of communication with the Unconscious. They are wrapped in symbolism, the very language of the Unconscious. They are maps of the part of us that lies hidden. For example, the goddesses of love across pantheons, the Tarot Trump of the Lovers and the planet Venus are all symbols of love in our Unconscious. They reflect how we treat love and how we treat our romantic partner. There is nothing unreasonable about those spiritual traditions. On the contrary, they reveal themselves as an extremely valuable set of tools for personal growth. Our aim is not to believe in God or a full pantheon. Our aim is to believe in the divine in us, believing enough to seek it and commune with it. Once the encounter occurred, GNOSIS, justified by doubt, makes faith obsolete. We don’t believe anymore; we know. It is the only way to discover ourselves. We don’t have to use any of those systems if we don’t like them, but we have to find a protocol, rich in symbols, to explore the Unconscious. It is the only way to communicate with our Inner Master. Only through a clear Conversation can the Inner Master reveal to us our True Will.