Egohood
Everywhere you turn these days you can find people who
suggest that in solving our most perplexing and disabling problems that the
answer is to let go of ego and become one with all. Further that we should deny
ourselves and work toward the good of a whole and become one with it. Many
spiritual paths suggest that the ego is essentially bad, that is our enemy and
needs to be brought under control by denying it.
However, in reading the “Arcane Formulas” by William Walker
Atkinson one finds a different view of the ego. The Arcane Formulas is a small
written work by Atkinson that gives practical steps and exercises to enable one
to do mental alchemy and spiritual feats. First among the steps is the developing
of what he calls egohood. For Atkinson, egohood is a goal to be reached and not
everyone reaches it. One is not born with egohood. Rather it develops or is
developed by awakening. For many esoteric teachings initiates are awakened to
an egoless state, but for Atkinson, initiates are awakened to egohood.
With Atkinson, egohood is synonymous with the awareness of
the I-AM within the individual. This is differentiated from the me or self.
Here is an excerpt from the Arcane Formulas that explains that concept. “Just
as one is bound by the illusion of the corporeal nature of the “I,” so is it
further bound—and even more closely bound—by the illusion of the personal
nature of the Ego. The Ego is not only more, and greater, than the physical
body it uses—but it is also more, and greater, than that part of the mind,
consisting of a series of inherited or acquired impressions which constitutes
the “Me.” There is a great difference between the “Me and the I.” The “Me” is
the individual as he thinks he is—a bundle of prejudices, tastes, ties, etc.
The “I” is the Individual as he is in reality—free from mental ties of all
Lesson IV. Establishing the Ego III. 21 kinds. The “Me” is the character being
played by the Ego—the “John Smith” part of him. The “I” is the real player of
the part. It is often very difficult for one to disentangle and free himself
from the overwhelming force of Personality, so completely is the average person
self-hypnotized and race-hypnotized with the “John Smith” idea. The Arcane
Teachers have several Formulas for unloosening the bonds of Personality. Let us
consider them” ~ The Arcane Formulas, William Walker Atkinson, Timeless
Wisdom Collection, 2016, page 14
In this quote, found in the third chapter of this booklet entitled
Egohood III, Atkinson points out the difference between the I (I-AM) and the
me. He sees the me as a part in a play that the I-AM is acting in. The I-AM or
egohood is directly tied to the Will. And as one moves on in the Arcane Formulas
it is evident that the Will is the I-AM within the cosmic I-AM, or the cosmic
will. This is the source of being able to manipulate and manifest from the
infinite potentiality.
Atkinson claims, and I am not certain that I agree or that
it resonates with me, but nevertheless, the claim is that no all people have
the potential to develop egohood, the I-AM, the will within the cosmic will.
That does not resonate with me like the concept of egohood and the I-AM does. I
think it is because I see each of us as individual conscious agents on a
journey of incarnations that has us at different stages in the growth spiral,
and while I have no problem with accepting that some people within a specific
incarnation may not be able to achieve egohood, I think that eventually they
will. I see our spiritual journey as an upward spiral that may from time to
time take downward movement but is ultimately on an upward trajectory. Do not despair
about being locked into a cycle of karma. While there is not time to discuss
this in this particular article, I believe that we are each in control and
there can be rest from the cycle when necessary, and a return when rest has
refreshed our spirit.
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