Becoming a god word

If there’s a single greatest ambition that a human being can possess it’s to become a god or a goddess.

Alchemists looked far and wide for the Philosopher’s Stone that would provide them with godlike immortality. Presumably, they failed. The Templars searched for the Holy Grail with the same intention and much the same result.

Both the Hindu and the Taoist tradition boast legends of the Seven Immortals. Chiranjivi are seven immortal living beings in Hinduism who are to remain alive on Earth until the end of the current Kali Yuga. Okay, not exactly gods, but pretty powerful nonetheless.

In the LHP (Left Hand Path/Luciferian) esoteric tradition, the final objective is to become a living god. A magician or an initiate becomes divine through gradual transformation. The psyche is strengthened to the point where it’s able to survive without the physical body and is also strong enough to influence reality.

So it is justified to make a comparison between this man-turned-god and the Demiurge of the Gnostics. Demiurge is considered to be an imperfect Creator, like Yahweh, one step below the perfect, omnipotent God of pure love. The Jewish-Babylonian esoteric system of Kabbalah provides another example.

In Kabbalah there exist two paths to godhood – the Tree of Life and The Tree of Death. The first path is an ascent towards the perfect God of pure love and becoming re-united with this consciousness. When that ontological change happens, the physically-determined individuality vanishes. One becomes aware of the illusory nature of the current Self.

The second path is that of a Luciferian descent, one doesn’t merge with the supposedly perfect God and lose individuality. Instead, the exact opposite happens – one becomes an entirely new God, a Demiurge! This is the Luciferian (and Promethian) ambition that according to the Book of Genesis humanity was ushered in to varying degrees by the serpentine temptation in the Garden of Eden. It is the potential to become godlike that is provided by the Tree of Knowledge.

We can also acknowledge the similarity between the serpent’s role in this story and the kundalini serpent in yoga which when activated leads to enlightenment.

On a more basic, metaphorical level, becoming a god or a goddess has more to do with the perception we create in the minds of others. Many oriental monarchs such as the Persian emperors and the Egyptian pharaos were considered descendents of sky gods, and by extension mortal gods. In the Roman Empire it was common for emperors to be divinized post-mortem for their accomplishments.

This tradition started with the divinization of Gaius Julius Caesar by his nephew and successor Augustus. The mad emperor Caligula proclaimed himself god while he was alive, but this was frawned upon by the Romans who weren’t entirely happy with despotic customs of the Eastern royal courts.

But still you proclaim, this doesn’t answer my question! Astennu, you didn’t provide me with a direct answer on how to become a god or goddess! Well, I’m just demonstrating the vast historical and dare I say interesting account of this ambition that you happen to share with kings, emperors, holy warriors and mystics. In addition to my step-by-step tutorial on how to become a god, you might also find it rewarding to research these magical and mystical systems and traditions and see if they lead you closer to the fulfillment of your destiny.

To provide you with a headstart, I will share with you a step-by-step path to godhood in this blog post. Before I do this however, I want to answer a question that will surely arise in some readers’ heads: “Astennu, how can you give advice on becoming a god if you’re not one yourself? Or are you a god? Or perhaps you’re a madman for believing that you are..”

Just to be clear, I do not consider myself to be god, though in some situations I am godlike. For example, when summoning a spirit during ritual a magician is indeed a godlike figure, creating a new entity. However, in the sense that we conceive a god in our culture, I am not one.

However, this isn’t due to a lack of knowledge or opportunity to find it. Knowledge is available to us all. The more difficult task is the work itself. Meditating for hours every day, performing various rituals, living in chastity, disciplining the mind and the flesh through fasting and strenuous exercise, behaving in a godlike manner in everyday circumstances.. these are all difficult hurdles for any human to overcome. So it’s no wonder we hear our neighbors bragging about their new Toyota Prius or losing a few pounds, rather than the progress they’ve made towards divine self-actualization.

1. Choose the Right or Left Hand Path

In order to become a living god or goddess it’s necessary to find a step-by-step initiatory system or a mystical tradition. The first step towards finding that system begins here.

There are two general paths of esoteric spirituality, the Right and the Left Hand Path. As mentioned previously on the example of the Kabbalah, there is the right-hand path of the Tree of Life and the left hand path of the Tree of Death (or Knowledge).

In every esoteric tradition where the RHP and LHP is available, the RHP is about returning to God, becoming One with the Absolute Being. On the other hand, the LHP is about becoming a godlike spiritual force separate from this Absolute Being. Lucifer is the most memorable mythological being who encapsulates the LHP since he had that same ambition. So often the LHP is considered Luciferian.

Before you embark on the journey to godhood, first decide what is your ultimate goal. Keep in mind that the LHP is far more dangerous and sinister, it is the path of dark alchemical transformation and not for the faint hearted. The RHP is more safe but it has its own temptations and negative downsides. First of all, the LHP is all about exploring the egoistic Self and building it up to greater heights. It is a path of selfish power and the rewards are constant, but so are the dangers.

The RHP is about the exact opposite, letting go of the egoistic Self and becoming selfless, charitable, pure love. In doing so, the RHP practitioner has to be strictly disciplined with his passions, but he is also safer from the external world due to this constraint. The LHP is much more expressive and outward, opening the practitioner to greater dangers from within and without.

In any case, there’s no point in choosing a path that you don’t feel attracted to. Think about your primary motivations, whether you want to become a peaceful monk, undisturbed by any turmoils or a spiritual warlord that can force his Will upon the terrestrial and spiritual plane. At the same time, take into consideration that all paths require discipline and often similar methods of development, especially at the beginner and intermediate level. For example, most spiritual paths encourage meditation as a way to get more control over the mind in relation to external stimuli.

2. Explore esoteric systems that lead to enlightenment

The core motivation of all esotericism/occultism is obtaining greater power and knowledge. The final goal of that pursuit is to become a god. Believe it or not, all great Traditions have an exoteric and esoteric component including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism.

However, in Christianity itself there is no acknowledged LHP, only RHP and even that RHP is not initiatory but rather mystical. This means that it relies more on spiritual intuition and prayer than it does on any “scientific approach” to producing inner or ontological changes in the practitioner. Think of Christian monks or Desert Fathers such as St Anthony as an example. Think of St Augustine or St Paul, both receiving instant revelation from God.

However, the situation with Christianity is very peculiar. While this religion doesn’t have a LHP initatory path ingrained in it, the occult, historically prosecuted undeground centered around Satan and Lucifer is the offspring of Christianity.

Therefore, the rebellious Satanists and Luciferians, the magicians such as Aleister Crowley or Gilles de Rais are indeed legitimate initiates of the LHP within the Christian tradition. Their prosecution by the RHP zealots is in fact quite revealing of their relations.

Hinduism is systematically most developed in this regard so I will explore it as the primary example. In Hinduism both the RHP and LHP are practiced by yogis and considered to be legitimate. Both are centered around the chakras or the seven primary energy points within the body, but there are different approaches to activating them.

The method for reaching divinity is to open all the chakras, starting with the root chakra at the base of the spine and ending with the crown chakra on top of the head. Once the chakras are open, an energetic force ascends from the base of the spine through each of the seven chakras, including the Third Eye and finally activating the crown chakra. At this point the practitioner is enlightened and has become godlike.

There are many different types of yoga (yoga means union and knowledge) that one can practice: karma, bhakti, jnana and raja. Each of these subsets provides a different approach to enlightenment:

Karma yoga is about performing one’s duties and letting go of selfish desires. Bhakti is the path of love in which the focus is placed on worshipping a deity, jnana is the path of knowledge in which one is contantly reminded of the illusory nature of reality with intellectual argumentation, raja yoga or royal yoga is the path of meditation and chastity practiced most notably by the great yoga master Swami Vivekananda.

More of a LHP approach is provided by Tantrism and Shaktism. These yoga paths provide a more direct and forceful apprpoach to activating these dormant energies. Exploring these paths would derail our intention of providing a general overview, so I recommend Julius Evola’s book The Yoga of Power for an in-depth exploration.

Taoism doesn’t have a strict division between RHP and LHP because the difference is already present between Confucianism and Taoism. Taoism itself is very esoteric and initiatory and the counterpart to the more socially-oriented Confucianism. The emphasis is placed on non-duality through the understanding and internalization of the perfect unity of yin-yang, black and white, water and fire. The practical path in Taoism for becoming god is Qi Gong and Taoist Alchemy. Qi Gong translates as “Qi = energy, Gong = work (working with energy)”.

The goal is to increase and balance one’s Qi. When the Qi is exceptionally strong and the mind focused it can create a golden essence of a purely spiritual nature. This is the Taoist equivalent to the Philosopher’s Stone of Western alchemy, a transformation of base metal to gold in metaphorical sense.

Taoists believe that after death some people reincarnate immediately into physical form, others linger on as ghouls in the spiritual plane while others can exist for much longer, even forever as released spirits. It all depends on how strong and well-developed one’s soul is. The point of Taoism practiced on this esoteric level is to strengthen the soul to a point where it is completely free from physical reincarnation and can wander freely as a divine spirit with all the godly powers you can imagine.

The point of this small overview of a few notable esoteric traditions is to open your mind to the vast possibilities that surround us. There are many other esoteric paths, such as Hermeticism (for example as practiced by The Golden Dawn in 19th century), Gnosticism, chaos magic, Goetic magic, Kabbalah etc.

Explore as many paths to godhood as you can. This will provide you with a greater understanding as you find similarities between them and are able to look beyond the surface of their symbolisms. For example, Yoga has the system of chakras, but Qi Gong also acknowledges various energy points similar to chakras. What the yogis call the Third Eye, the Taoists call Upper Dan Tien. It’s basically the same thing. Both systems are about activating various energy points within the body to reach enlightenment.

Even more surprisingly the ancient Egyptian priests knew about these energetic points as well. In The Temple in Man, renowned esotericist Schwaller de Lubicz discovers that the architecture of the temple of Luxor provides an anatomical depiction of the human body with striking similarities to other esoteric traditions and possibly an initiatory path of ancient Egyptian origins. So there is truly a life-long opportunity of learning available if you are passionate about becoming a god/goddess with many profound and interesting traditions worth exploring.

3. Dedicate yourself to one spiritual system

After you’ve explored the esoteric traditions that interest you, it’s time to select one and stick to it until you’ve reached your goal. It’s important to choose a system and stick to it because all of them are paths that lead to the same goal – becoming a god/goddess. But if you switch between them all the time you will get confused and won’t progress as quickly, or not at all.

It’s like having a workout program for building muscle. Every good workout program uses some type of progression (lifting more weight, doing more reps, reducing rest between exercises..) so that the muscle has to adapt by getting stronger and bigger. But it’s hard to keep track of the progress if you’re constantly changing the plan.

So back to our mission here: it doesn’t matter whether you choose to be a taoist, sufi, alchemist or something else, as long as you stick to the initiatory path of that tradition from start to finish without wavering or giving up. That’s why I encourage you to learn about as many systems as you can first, so that you choose the path that you feel most attracted to. When you finally make that choice, be extra vigilant in learning and practical application of those teachings.

4. Find an enlightened Master

To find a teacher for becoming a god seems a bit strange.. that teacher must be a god himself and gods are not easy to come by, right? Well, that’s sort of true. An enlightened master has reached a point at which his godhood is actualized and finding one is very difficult.

All initiatory systems require a teacher-student relationship because the task requires a lot of practical insight. So it’s very helpful to have someone who’s been there, done that to help the student as a guide through this perilous journey. If you can find a worthy master, whether it’s on the Himalayas or a South American jungle, it’s definitely worth it if you’re serious about this quest. A good teacher can speed up your progress by decades.

Unfortunately many of the esoteric paths mentioned earlier are very ancient and good masters are hard to find, if they even exist in the modern world. Schools of initiation are particularly hard to find and mostly extinct. In the end, most of us have to rely on what was written by ancient masters and experiment by ourselves, progressing through trial-and-error.

5. Practice your divinity every day

After you’ve learned about the theory and dabbled in the practices for a while all that is left is to take the bull by its horns and not let go until you’ve exhausted it entirely. That is to say, until you’ve become a god. Aside from the practices that are unique to spiritual systems, there is a lot you can do in terms of behavior to become more godlike. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus has a few words of advice on this manner:

“Remember that you must behave as at a banquet. Is anything brought round to you? Put out your hand, and take a moderate share. Does it pass you? Do not stop it. Is it not come yet? Do not yearn in desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. So with regard to children , wife, office, riches; and you will some time or other be worthy to feast with the gods. And if you do not so much as take the things which are set before you, but are able even to forego them, then you will not only be worthy to feast with the gods, but to rule with them also. For, by thus doing, Diogenes and Heraclitus, and others like them, deservedly became divine, and were so recognized.”

Ancient philosophers such as Epictetus, Epicurus and Socrates were very much interested in how to live a noble life. Exploring their thoughts and ideas is worthwhile. Because, if we cannot live a noble life as humans, perhaps our ambition to become gods is a bit of a stretch?

The noble life in the ancient world didn’t have as much to do with the Christian morality of charitable love that we often equate it with today. It was based on virtues such as mental fortitude, noble conduct, strength, courage etc. By practicing these virtues on a consistent basis a person builds character and this has direct implications on spiritual progress as well.

6. Be ready for hardship

If you thought that studying for a degree or getting six pack abs was difficult, how difficult do you think it will be to become a god? You will literally have to strip yourself of your humanity. I don’t mean that in any moralistic sense, but rather that you will have to entirely change your perception of reality.

Naturally, this type of transformation is painful and requires immense mental fortitude and ironclad discipline. I’m sure even David Goggins would not be entirely motivated to do this. In my opinion, this is perfectly okay. We don’t want gods with weak character roaming around, now do we? The bar is set high because the reward is the greatest imaginable.

If you want to become an all-knowing, omnipotent deity, you WILL have to work hard for it. This typically includes a lot of meditation, self-analysis, contemplation, overcoming challenges in the external world, building up character etc. Furthermore, you will have to give up many of the things you love and hold sacred, and that is the most painful requirement of all.

Final Word: How to Become a God/Goddess

Your desire to become divine is as old as humanity itself, if not older. It is found in stories of the Fallen Angels, the Garden of Eden, Prometheus and many others.

While the Judeo-Christian and Muslim tradition has a very RHP orientation, with the final goal being to live eternally in submission to God, the Eastern traditions are more sympathetic with the LHP of becoming a god through one’s own efforts.

So decide on the spiritual system you are most drawn to and do the necessary work. If you are interested in the occult tradition of the West (very LHP), you will probably enjoy my other articles as well. See you on the other side!