A Fourth Key to Magic - or the Order of Unlearning

In a recent series of posts I shared 3 Keys to Magic which I consider both help- and powerful in creating a living magic approach: Intention, Technique and Awareness.

You won't believe what happened since then! Some strange events made me the owner of the collected manuscripts of a secret occult order. It seems so arcane that not even Wikipedia knows it. I studied their documents and came to the conclusion that I had forgotten an essential point in my recent posts, a fourth Key to Magic. So for the first time in history let me openly share the secrets of this unknown order with you - and unveil a fourth Key to Magic...

Let me start by saying that the Order seems to have ceased to exist by now. I could not find any more recent documents since 1970. Before then, however, its members seem to have worked as a community of magicians living siltently among us, unrecognized, unspoken of, truly bringing the fundamental principles of magic to life: to know, to want, to dare, to be silent. The name of the Order changed multiple times over the decades, yet 'The Order of Unlearning' appears most often written by hand on top of the manuscripts. From all the pages I revisited here are the few key facts I could extract: Access to the Order was granted on personal recommendation of several members only and its structure followed the Scottish rite of 33 masonic degrees. What seems strange, though, is that every new member joined as 33° Inspector General straight away?

Even more astonishing was the discovery that the Order of Unlearning didn't had any teachings... Rather than requiring members to learn new things, it required them to forget. I know this sounds rather suspicious. So let me quote directly from their manifesto:

"(...) All the disinformation we were exposed to during childhood, teenage years, college and work life make each one of us a 33° Inspector General of bullshit. What we need is not more knowledge, but less. The map we need is not the treasure map to secret libraries, but the road sign to the next waste dump. All our ideas about science, objectivity, economy, growth and consumption - we take the oath to forget it all. We will leave it to the crows of the trash dump and leave the places of knowledge light as a feather.

Sister, Brother, your mind is a Palimpsest, a vellum that has been used over and over again. Layers of text over layers of text, all on one skin... That is what your mind is. You will never be truly free of all the things that were written upon you. But you can make each letter fade, one by one, until the ink becomes to light to be read. This is the process of Unlearning, the goal of Unknowing. (...)" 

So, on joining the Order members started all the way at the top - and the entire work within the Order was about climbing down the stairs of the huge pyramid they found
themselves thrown on top. The first grades (33° - 29°) seem to have been the most sensitive ones. Many new joiners - once they realized the true height of the pyramid they were on top - immediately retreated again into a deep state of bullshitting. Others just threw themselves down from the tip of the pyramid and died. These difficulties seemed to have helped to keep the number of members small over the decades - and the Order itself arcane... 

Even though the Order of Unlearning didn't had any teachings, it seems they did conduct initiations. Each initiation was planned to make life a little more simple, carve away another layer of thought and theory and ideas. From all the documents I deciphered this rite of an early initiation seems best to illustrate this principle:

During a normal work day a woman enters your open plan office. She steps out of the elevator and looks completely normal, average dress, average hair, a little plain-Jane yet with a nice teint. She walks through the office and seems to be looking for something. Then she comes over to your cube, coffee cup in her hands. As you get up she approaches you, puts down her coffee on your desk, takes your head in her hands and starts to kiss you. As her lips touch yours, as her tongue touches yours, you realize this is the moment you have been waiting for all your lifetime - being caught in the present moment unintentionally, not holding on to anything, not requesting anything, but finding a space that opens once you forget... The woman tastes like coffee, her fingers touch your neck, your hair, her lips stroke yours. For a moment things around you vanish into void and disappear. For a short moment you cease to exist and give way to something new that takes your place instead: It's the intense feeling on your lips, it's is the strange taste in your mouth... For a moment you have lost your mind and come to your senses.

Then the woman lets go abruptly. She puts down an envelope on your desk and picks up her coffee cup. As you grab the envelope the woman already disappears into the elevator at the other side of the room... Inside you find an invoice over 666$ on your name. On the back of it you see a scribbled note:  "You could have had this cheaper, stupid. Any day of your life."

Essentially the Order of Unlearning teaches one thing only, the fourth Key to Magic. This is what it says: "All wise men forget." 

Here is the complete diagram of the Four Keys to Magic:

In case you want to practice your magic in the spirit of the Order today you got to dig deep. There is a lot of bullshit out there. But maybe you'll find the currents and follow the stream that already fed the teachings of Rah Omir Quintscher and Franz Bardon:

"If you set out to learn how to learn, then first and foremost learn how to forget. Of the twelve tasks of Hercules the first was to clean the stables of king Augias which he achieved by redirecting a river and allowing it to wash through the stable. Your consciousness, disciplie, is very similar to Augias' stable - full of falsities, prejudices and illusions - into which you need to direct a river or stream - Lethe, the stream of forgetfulness - to sweep away all of them. But do believe me: achieving this will be a true Herculean task as much more difficult than learning is forgetting."

Dr.Mussallam, Der Adept, p.85