Review of Paul Case Foster’s “Esoteric Secrets of Meditation and Magic”

This is the second Paul Foster Case book I have read and reviewed (see my two-star Amazon review of “The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages”), and before I begin the actual review, I want to make a statement about the quality of the writing: Paul Foster Case is one of the best nonfiction writers I have read. His prose is exemplary: clear and concise, elegant and inspiring.

Case is also erudite, teeming with occult knowledge – but to my mind, some of his knowledge is faulty, and much of the information he presents is beside the point for those seeking true Wisdom.

As I see it, Case is a “victim” of his times and background. Most of his information (at least in this book, written in 1924) derives from just a few sources – the great occultist Eliphas Levy (1810-1875), the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, old Rosicrucian teachings, and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. I’m familiar with these teachings (I learned astrology through the Rosicrucian Fellowship), and because they are all flawed or limited, so are Case’s teachings.

The book is a collection of lessons Case wrote for associate members of the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), and Case covers a lot of ground in them, discoursing on the Qabalah, tarot, alchemy astrology, numerology (gematria), and Raja Yoga (meaning Patanjali). He focuses on symbolism, providing virtually endless attributions and conections. Case is really into gematria, and if the subject interests you, you might especially appreciate this text.

One particular paragraph in the book stood out for me:

“You remember that we interpret this Key as a symbol of attention. It shows an adept in the act of concentration. The power he uses is being brought down from above. Here is a subtlety, for one result of concentration is the raising of the Mars-force from lower to higher centers of the sympathetic nervous system. This is what the Hindus mean when they say that concentration raises the Kundalini. What they do not say, for no Hindu occultist ever makes a complete statement concerning any phase of practical work, is that the serpent-power rises in response to the descent of the undifferentiated Prana from above. In concentration we do not try to lift up the Kundalini by main force, as if we were trying to raise ourselves by our boot-straps. We simply open ourselves to the descending current of light which flows down from Kether, and that current, when it returns, raises the serpent-fire from chakra to chakra. For it must never be forgotten that the Astral Light is cosmic electricity, and every electrician knows that no matter what the application we make of that force, it must always pass from a higher to a lower potential.”

Because I have written a book on the relation between electricity and spirituality, I found this paragraph particularly interesting. In alignment with Case, my spiritual teachings emphasize receiving Divine Power rather than attempting to raise the Kundalini. Unfortunately, there is nothing more than than this single paragraph in Case’s book with regard to the Kundalini and reception of the Light-current from above.

A statement of Case’s about obedience and spiritual law resonated with me:

“Masters may not see far into the future, may not be prophets among prophets, knowing the outcome of many currents of activity whose end is not perceived by ordinary human beings. What we mean is that they do not make personal plans, that they have no need for plotting out a scheme for future action, because their whole training has made them so exquisitely responsive to the direction of the cosmic superconsciousness that every moment of their lives is a perfect obedience to spiritual law. Obeying perfectly, they achieve perfect results.”

The real spiritual “law” is Ohm’s Law, which Case alludes to in the first paragraph of his I quoted.  I expound upon this in my teachings. And from my perspective, obedience to this Law is what real spiritual life is about. My guess is that if Paul Case were alive now, being the brilliant metaphysician that he was, he’d teach this and direct people to spiritual teachings -- Tibetan Dzogchen, Kashmir Shaivism Divine Means, Adi Da’s Divine Communion, the mystical Christian Eucharist, and Electrical Christianity’s Plugged-in Presence -- that, implicitly or explicitly, emphasize obedience to this Law.