The secrets of the Ouroboros

Damien Echols spent 20 years on death row for a crime he didn´t commit. In prison, he took up a variety of spiritual practices, and today seems to have established himself as a spiritual teacher of sorts. His system sounds like a combination of the Golden Dawn tradition and Buddhism. One goal is enlightenment, which forms part of a much larger project known as "The Great Work". The methods used include ritual magic, during which the practitioner invokes angels and archangels in order to master the planetary energies, representing layers of reality higher than the physical. The magician will establish rapport with the "HGA" or Holy Guardian Angel, from which much secret knowledge can be learnt. During this process, the adept will develop a "solar body", which is perhaps similar to the "rainbow body" of Tibetan Buddhism. 

In the clip above, Damien discusses the Ouroboros, a mysterious (and mysteriously universal) symbol showing a snake or a dragon biting its own tail. Damien believes that Ouroboros is connected to the Biblical monster Leviathan. It symbolizes "the Abyss" on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and is connected to the Archons of Gnostic mythology. The Ouroboros is the never-ending process of reincarnation, from which the human soul must extricate itself in order to reach enlightenment or liberation. The Ouroboros isn´t something "out there", it´s a "program" in your own soul, which constantly tricks you into reincarnating. Damien doesn´t claim to know where it comes from. Is it "natural", somehow? Or was it inplanted in us by evil demonic overlords? 

Good karma, while not bad or wrong in itself, can´t transcend the Ouroboros. Good karma leads to a better rebirth, but not to liberation from the cycles of rebirth. Karma, both good and bad, must therefore be transcended. 

One interesting but also scary thought is the idea that the Ouroboros *tricks* human souls into reincarnating. The light that shines forth after the soul has transcended the sphere of Saturnine energies is *not* divine, but the glamour of the Ouroboros. *If your soul enters the light, it will be captured by the Ouroboros and recycled*. People who believe Near Death Experiences are wholly benign might find this idea objectionable...

What happens to those who manage to transcend their karma and break free from Leviathan? Free from "the system", they can now create their own systems if they so wish, in effect become a kind of gods (!). Or they can re-enter "our" system in whatever way they wish. (Compare Buddhist teachings about siddhas and bodhisattvas). They also realize that every individual consciousness is really part of a divine "One Consciousness", observing itself through the eyes of the myriad individual consciousnesses. 

The clip also contain a discussion on the Book of Revelation, which Damien feel is both metaphorical and true, but its truths are incomprehensible if you interpret it absolutely literally. It´s a metaphor for the struggles within our own souls and our personal "apocalypse", but non-metaphorically it´s about the rise of the centralized modern state and its surveillence apparatus. 

Will probably look at more of this man´s content in the near future!