Three Forms of Conscience

Despite the careless use of the word in common speech, there is more than one type of “conscience”.

True Conscience is a matter of direct perception of the Design of Life. The development of this is the goal of the esoteric alchemystical arts.

Spurious conscience is a matter of derived doctrine. Exoteric religious doctrine fosters the development of this, which often manifests as a hope of heaven and/or the fear of hell. The person of spurious conscience most often shows a genuine desire to do good and not to do wrong. In common language, when people speak of “conscience” this is often what they mean, but it is important to realise that this is far from the highest form of conscience.

False conscience is also a matter of fear and hope. But here the hope is of earthly reward and the fear that of earthly deprivation. In other words, the person of false conscience fears pain or loss (subtle or gross) and/or hopes for pleasure or reward (subtle or gross). This type of person will have a desire to do good if something can be gained from it, but is most often satisfied with not getting caught doing wrong.

With True Conscience the psyche of the individual has begun the switching process toward inner sensitization and motivation. It is not a matter of hope of gain, nor fear of loss. True Conscience manifests as immediate and pro-active inner guidance involving creative response to a given event-horizon.

In both spurious and false conscience the psyche of the individual remains subject to outer sensitization and motivation, and manifests as a mediated or after-the-fact guilt-response regarding intentions, words, or actions that are already manifest.

We can perhaps see that the person of False Conscience cannot be left alone and expected to do good or refrain from evil. The person of Spurious Conscience can be trusted to try to do good and/or try to refrain from evil to the degree that they are able to Will what they Desire, to the degree that they Desire to act according to their derived doctrine, and to the extent that such doctrine is sound.

In terms of the vertical-horizontal axis (discussed in a comment dated March 17, 2015, under “Context and Guidance“): True Conscience is related to Freedom from Choice and is a vertical element.

Spurious Conscience is related to Freedom of Choice and is a horizontal element moving toward the center and away from the circumference.

False Conscience is related to the Illusion of Choice and is a horizontal element moving toward the circumference and away from the center. The person of False Conscience is ‘corrected’ through contact with the exoteric religious law.

The person of Spurious Conscience is corrected through contact with the Tariqa (esoteric spiritual practice).

Every human being has each of these three forms of conscience within him/her. Can you recall the experiential feel of each of these forms of conscience so that you may be able to distinguish what form is active at any given moment?

Knowing and Being

Alchemy is not a science that is learned by piling fact upon fact until one is compelled by reason to accept some conceptual proposition. It is not dependent upon belief or knowledge (at least not as contemporary pedagogy conceives of knowledge). The difference between the traditional alchemist and most contemporary students of alchemy is that the alchemist has mended the wound caused by the severing of epistemology and ontology, knowing and being. Information accumulation may change your mind (or pattern of ideation) but it will not transform your desire, imagination or will and so cannot prevent or even ameliorate or mitigate against the development of faulty belief systems, cognitive dissonance, depression, obsession, prejudice, selfishness, magical thinking, fear or despair. In short, such ‘knowledge’ will not transform you alchemystically.

Alchemy is not to be believed and alchemists have no desire to teach. For the most part, contemporary students want to learn or to be taught alchemy when, in fact, it can only be imbibed or caught. Alchemy is a ‘gradual’ method of transformation in the sense that it uses expedient means to prepare (or shorten) the way to true self-knowledge. But, though alchemystical transformation does not happen without effort (or rather, perseverance), all such effort is preparatory rather than causative. The nigredo merely prepares one to be able to respond to the transformative moment during the final stages of the albedo when knowledge of one’s self transforms into knowledge of one’s Lord. Alchemy is a ‘sudden’ method of transformation in the sense that it recognizes that the actual transformation is wholly a matter of grace/baraka. One cannot know truth without being truth. One cannot know alchemy without being an alchemist. One cannot know god, without knowing self; for to know one’s self is to know limitation, emptiness and dependence. To acknowledge limitation, emptiness and dependence is the necessary prerequisite for restoring the unity of knowing and being, removing the veil between one’s self and one’s Lord. It is only selfless love and complete devotion that removes the final veil and permits the whole and the part to become intimately reacquainted.

…[alchemists] want to force those who seek this wisdom to feel their dependence upon God (in whose hand are all things), to obtain it through instant prayer, and when it has been revealed to them, to give all the glory to Him. – Sophic Hydrolith