The Light Invisible

"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."

Category: Personal Reflections

Updates: Liberation, Social Justice, and Esotericism

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On December 16, 2018

In Personal Reflections, Universal Reformation

A couple of updates! First, if you enjoy this blog you should check out this great conversation I had with the folks over at Talk Gnosis about Western esotericism, liberation theology, and social justice, and, if you like what you hear, consider getting a copy of my book, which host Jonathan Stewart calls “probably the most important book on esotericism at least in this decade.”

Thanks to Jonathan and Tony Silvia for having me as a guest, and to Jonathan for the exceptional blurb! Watch below:

Second, for those of you who are especially interested in how occultism might intersect with building a popular movement for social justice in the United States, I’ve started a new Substack newsletter on occultism, esotericism, and alternative religions in the American mental terrain, and what they might mean for movement-building: The Baphometic Left. This newsletter features semi-regular, informal updates on occultism and politics in American culture, reflections on the meaning of the occult revival from the perspective of working daily in contemporary movements for social change, and liberative interpretations of weird religious beliefs and American occulture.

The newsletter differs from this blog in a few respects. Primarily, the newsletter will concentrate entirely on what the meaning and significance of the present-day occult revival might be for building social justice movements in the contemporary United States. This means it engages a lot more with popular culture and popular occultism (in other words, it’s already a lot witchier than this blog). It has to, because the point is to understand what we need to know about these religious and spiritual movements if we want to organize a broad social movement for justice in this country.

This blog will remain the place where I’ll put longer-form writing that doesn’t appear anywhere else, on variously obscure occult topics that don’t necessarily intersect with politics and social justice movements. If the posts on here are increasingly obscure and bizarre, don’t blame me. Subscribe to the newsletter for my clearer and more topical writing.

New Book: The Inner Church is the Hope of the World

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On August 23, 2018

In Personal Reflections, Theology, Universal Reformation

Nicholas Laccetti, The Inner Church is the Hope of the WorldSome readers of The Light Invisible know that I’ve been working on a book project — I’m happy to report that The Inner Church is the Hope of the World: Western Esotericism as a Theology of Liberation has now been released! The book has encompassed most of my thinking about esotericism and theology since I graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 2015, and I managed to keep working on it even while the Poor People’s Campaign took up most of my time (and that made its mark on the book, too). Click here for more info!

You can purchase the book from Amazon here, or directly from the publisher here. If you’ve been interested in my writing and blogging before, or just want to support my work, consider buying a copy!

John Ball William Morris

When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?

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On August 16, 2017

In History, Personal Reflections, Universal Reformation

As you might have noticed, there has been a lack of recent updates here on The Light Invisible — I’ve been very busy with a number of other projects. Readers of this blog might be happy to know that most of my esoteric work at the moment has been directed toward writing a book manuscript on Western Esotericism as a Theology of Liberation, which will hopefully see publication next year.

But the primary reason I’ve been unable to write for the blog has been my day job in communications and organizing. Through my work with the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, I’ve been engaged in communications work for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, the effort to reignite Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign for today. I outline the approach of the new PPC — specifically, the necessity of the unity and leadership of the poor for any attempt at national moral revival — in a recent piece for Religion Dispatches.

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Urth Liberation Front: On the Dangers of Thinking Esoterically

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On June 15, 2017

In Occultism, Personal Reflections

Despite the massive abundance we have created on this planet, there are a few with unimaginable wealth and a lot who are not even getting their basic needs met. All of these powerful tools we have developed are neutral in the hands of men. They can be used to empower us or enslave us, for us or against us. As a human being alive at this time, you get the unique opportunity to play a role in choosing and forging the direction of civilization in arguably its most crucial moment. We are at the precipice of change. You can choose to embrace the Spiritual Revolution that is upon us and unite globally for the highest good of all. We can choose to evolve our outdated systems and co-create economic and social systems that serve us all. Urth is the collective utopian future vision of a transcendent civilization sharing love and abundance. The Church of Urth is a non filed association of churches which functions as a global vessel to manifest that vision of Urth. This universal platform gives people the opportunity to make a stand as one that the fate of our species is more important than being right. When we are able to stop trying to dominate people and start collaborating, stop trying to enslave people and start trying to love and empower them, then anything becomes possible. That is Urth to me.

Sounds pretty good, right? Some of it is even reminiscent of language you might find on this very blog. We do live in a society with rising inequality and poverty in the midst of massive abundance. The tools and technology we have created are in fact neutral, and can be used to support either oppression or liberation. Uniting globally in a Spiritual Revolution that creates economic and social systems that might serve us all is a laudable goal. It would be great to live in a “transcendent civilization sharing love and abundance.” All fine sentiments.

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The Threefold Path in the First Triad of the Tree of Life

Mapping the Great Circle – My Threefold Way of Western Esotericism

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On February 22, 2017

In Cabala, Occultism, Personal Reflections

In the work of Dion Fortune (and her excellent commentator and fellow Christian esotericist, Gareth Knight), one encounters a meta-structure for the Western Mystery Tradition, which classifies the three major strands of the tradition according to the three paths of the Tree of Life that depart from Malkuth, using the color symbolism of the Sephiroth in the Queen Scale of colors: “the Green of Netzach at the base of the Pillar of Energy, the Orange of Hod at the base of the Pillar of Form, and the Purple of Yesod on the Middle Pillar of Aspiration.”

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Fin de siecle London at night.

“Follow the custom of the country…”: Reflections of a Nightwalking Occultist

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On February 16, 2017

In Occultism, Personal Reflections, Rosicrucianism

The first time I left my Golden Dawn temple to take the train back to New York City, I had just been initiated into the Neophyte Grade of the Order. It was a powerful spiritual experience. Though the details of the ceremony are easily available in this day and age, only a few Google searches away, the thought of writing openly about what happened still fills me with trepidation. I think this speaks highly of the physical effect of the ceremony – not to mention what occurred on planes much more subtle than the physical.

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Gustave Doré's illustration of the Rosa Celeste for Dante's Paradiso.

The Light Invisible – Towards a Manifesto of the Church Magical

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On February 3, 2017

In History, Manifestos, Occultism, Personal Reflections, Theology

The Light Invisible is a blog that will touch on diverse traditions of Christian Esotericism — traditional Rosicrucianism, Christian mysticism, Christian Hermeticism and Cabala, European alchemy, Renaissance magic, the Golden Dawn tradition, the legends of the Holy Grail, and folk magical traditions. The lens through which I will reflect on these esoteric traditions is primarily orthodox — in other words, I affirm the traditional theology of orthodox Christianity, specifically the creedal, liturgical, apostolic Christianity of the Roman Catholic Church, Anglo-Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy (I myself am a practicing Catholic who spent a long time in the Anglican church before confirmation as a Roman Catholic, my family’s tradition).

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