Dragon Rouge & the Shadow Principle The initiatory Draconian path and the power of the Necropolises by Alberto Brandi, Lodgemaster From Dracontias 3/4 - 2004

Dragon Rouge is a Left hand path organization. This means - and implies - a number of things.
To deeply delve in this subject would go much further the very scope of this brief discussion. We will simplify the matter saying that the left hand path is the path of moving against the grain. This has often been misunderstood and misinterpreted by lots of would-be occultists and organizations as a simple antisocial or pseudo philosophical attitude.
Nothing more far from truth. Dragon Rouge stand against the grain works at the same time on a mundane and on a metaphysical plane. We think that all the aspects of cosmos must be embraced and faced in order to achieve a full and complete evolution.

The usual spiritual and magical systems established after the dawning of monotheistic religions had a very restricted and narrowed vision of reality. That was based on the monotheistic dualist of Light and Darkness, signifying Good and Evil. This of course had political undertones, since these male-centric and ruling spiritual ideologies were trying to dominate the body and the souls of men, exploiting their primal fears: the dark and the unknown.

These constitutive elements of reality were banned from human psyche and experience, and made dark and dangerous.
This to mean that without the light of God (or Jahvé or Allah) man would be lost in the darkness. All this was perverting and inverting the ages-long human quest for a complete understanding of the worlds and realities (both mundane and metaphysical). The so-called pagan religions of Europe, Middle-East, Africa, and many other places, didn't differentiate much between the basic poles of existence. Light and Dark were both part of a inextricable whole.

Dragon Rouge works on this on an operative way, taking on the inheritance of the non-dualism of many religions and magical cults and systems of the past. The left hand path works with the hidden, dark and forbidden knowledge, the one related to magical topics often considered impure, unworthy and - overall - so dangerous to bring one's soul to eternal damnation. This includes demonology, the work with the infernal spheres (Qliphoth), and all the wisdom of the dark included in Dragon Rouge's system.

Criticizing dualism and a narrowed view of reality, and then talking of a contraposition between a Right hand path and a Left hand one could seem a contradiction. This is true only in the surface.
As we said, the Left hand path is multi-layered. On a "social" level, it's a path that moves against all the established, dry superstructures of society. That is, monotheism, modernism, materialism. All the empty and useless 'religious' chatter and rituals.
But the Left hand path is mostly connected - and has its true core - on the esoteric plane. And the knowledge of the dark side of existence is really the most dangerous, but also the most rewarding.
That means: man has the greatest part of his consciousness focused on the material plane, and so on an esoteric side his attention is focused on structures of light, that from the material plane (Malkuth) try to ascend to the higher Sephiroth.

The Left hand path is the one and only way that Man has to break through these structures of light that restrict his ultimate spiritual evolution beyond and through matter. Not because the Dark is superior to the Light, but because the Dark can finally integrate the Light.

Still an evolution on the right/light side is a worthy magical experience. But it's limited in its foundation, as it rejects a full part of reality: the dark, the shadow and "evil". The Left hand path is instead an inclusive system, in which the adept enters the Qliphoth right from the start, walking at the same time both Trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death. This because the left hand path magician focuses his consciousness on the dark side of existence while still retaining his "mundane consciousness" on earth and the material level (being he alive in a mundane way).

It's important to stress that Dragon Rouge and the Left hand path do not reject the Right hand path, but move through it and beyond it, striving for a complete understanding and experience of reality. Only including all the experiences and different dimensions can a magician be such in the full meaning of the word. And also, decide its final destiny.

This is also something that truly differentiates the two paths. Most adepts of the light tradition of esotericism strive for a melting and a de-personalization into God or the Infinite. While the adept of the Dark currents strives for a wider understanding of realities, and wants the final goal to be his choice: and this can also transform him into a god, much beyond the common and vulgar concept we have today of this term.

But this is really beyond the scope and understanding of most magicians, and it's impossible to be comprehended intellectually. But still, we've until now made a point about some important differences between these two main spiritual paths.

Therefore, being Dragon Rouge concerned with the darker aspects of magic, we are therefore talking also about the Shadow. This concept is a very complex one and is connected to very advanced Draconian mysteries, as those concerned with the Dragon Noire, an inner Order inside Dragon Rouge. To really understand what does the shadow represent, we can figure it out seeing it as the complete opposite of the daylight and mundane world we know.

We are inclined to think of reality in term of positive polarities: light, life, warmth. The shadow principle is connected to a very metaphysical (in the true meaning of this word) concept. The shadow is the complete reversion of this, and is connected to death, negativity and dissolution. These are perfectly natural processes but have been since long banned inside human worldview, for the above mentioned reasons. The classic esoteric motto "as above so below" has in this case a very special significance. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction (3rd law of Newton), and this is valid when we are talking about the shadow. Every second we live we grow older and (hopefully) wiser, but this also brings us near to our physical end, that is death. As this happens, also every inch of magical advancement we make (awakening of kundalini, strengthening of our body of light) has an immediate and inverse equivalent on our dark self.

Infact, as we have a body of light that transcends the material one, we also have a body of shadow, that forms the roots of our being, and carries in it the seed of our Daemonic inheritance, in the same way the body of light is linked to the divine higher realms of pure light. The body of shadow is closely related to the highly dissolving and destructive energies of death, and has its foundation in the negative and antimatter side of this universe. The initiation in these mysteries is often referred to as the entering in the "Black Dragon", or the utterly putrefaction and negative principle. And in this workings one awakens also the dark side of one's inner energy, or kundalini, that is in this case called black kundalini.

It is for sure very dangerous and difficult to work with such forces, because of their link to the disrupting principles of the universe. But also working with the shadow is a unique experience, because allows one to work with the energies of death and dissolution while 'alive' and so initiating him/her in the most dreaded, difficult and mysterious secret of all. A mastery and an integration of one's shadow is a much more powerful tool that the innate terror that one feels towards it.

To take conscience of one's body of shadow (or Khaibit, as known in the dark alchemical wisdom of ancient Egypt) is to make one's path more strong and focused. To know the shadow is to stop being afraid of it. And it also means taking power over one of the most dreadful terrors of mankind: death. When the magician starts to gain power over this process, he's really on the way to self-deification and towards the ultimate freedom/choice.

I will never insist too much on how careful one must anyway be when dealing with such energies. And this is why we approach such topics only through initiation. Discipline and self control are fundamental tools to control these powerful forces.

The 26th of June Italian, Greek and Swedish members of Dragon Rouge visited an ancient necromantic cult-place in Naples, and on the 27th Lodge Sothis held a meeting inside a Necropolis, or city of the dead, located in Cerveteri (Rome). These places were rich with energies of the dark side and of the shadow, and there we could have a firsthand touch with the black energies just sitting there and performing there our magic.

In the early stages of Draconian initiation one approaches the shadow side with small steps, gradually. The shadow can infact work also as a door to deepest levels of reality. Anubis, guardian of the dead, is also the guardian of the threshold to the other side, to the dark kingdoms. This also points at the borderline-role that death has. And therefore, necropolises and cemeteries are places that host the mortal remains (shells!) of human beings, and work as crossroad between the realms of the mundane world, of the shadow, and of the astral realms beyond normal human consciousness.

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