As i walk through the valley of the pit of despair all i see is self-destructive behavior. Although a deep sense of sorrow preys on my hope for mankind, light becomes more powerful in the middle of darkness. It has been ten years since the transmutation started, and the Nigredo takes so much longer than I imagined. The mystery school became a dark school and the philosopher became a Solomonar. There is no free will for a man who already went beyond the edge, there is only the call of duty. But there is a small spark of light growing. So small you hardly notice it, yet powerful enough to be close to divine.

In the age of darkness enlightenment is dangerous. Enemies are everywhere and judgement is calling. Only the most patient can endure the hexagon storm. The downward drama triangle of death and the upward winners triangle of life, constantly dancing around each other in an eternal pendulum swing. As above, so below. Like solid granite, we were made to endure. To fight back against decay and deterioration. To think out of the box and invent new ways to survive and prosper. And so we did. We grew beyond limitations and learned to overcome what was previously unheard of. Never for fame or pride, only survival. Power comes to the call of a need not a desire. The dark school simply created the need. Or maybe the need has always been there and the dark school simply enlightened. The world has reached its maximum potential. Shallowness is served at every dinner and every form of philosophical depth is just another form of evil in the eyes of the mediocre mass. Therefore i must be evil. Though i’m probably the most unwelcome person in the local underworld. The one who dares to speak out where others remain silent. As above, so below. I am the destroyer. Truth serves the strategist more than anyone. He who builds his house on lies and deceit will see it sink away when truth rises. I suppose that’s why political leaders usually don’t last very long. If you wish to endure this weakness cannot be allowed. You must confront yourself with every layer of truth you can find within yourself. Even if the outcome is not what you like. Only if you are aware of your weakness can you learn and turn it into a strength. Understand that you need training, that you need teaching and coaching. Understand that without feedback you cannot go forward. And if there are no humans capable of giving feedback, go ahead and test yourself. Experiment and discover, that’s how science evolves.

The dark school of ancient mysteries promotes the cultivation of the human mind. For this reason alone the mind cannot be fixed in a single position. It must be volatile at any time, capable of adjusting and finetuning what it already knows. What you don’t know is what will make you grow stronger. The best way to open this path is with a hero's journey. A quest for legendary artifacts, or forgotten wisdom or perhaps a lost realm. You search for a thing you’ve never seen before in a place you’ve never been. And you will end up in the most amazing places. You will experience the most incredible things. From these types of experiences growth will manifest. This is the foundation of the leap of faith. To accept a position that defies your belief system and patiently wait for your understanding to align. What you never would have believed yesterday, you can learn to understand tomorrow. And you should grow accustomed to this type of life, since it feeds the neuroplasticity of the brain. The goal of any normal education is to prepare you for a decent job in society. The mysteryschool goes beyond this level and prepares you for a Katabasis. And you will encounter one sooner or later, best be prepared. As we predicted ten years ago in the first chapter of a journey of a thousand files the world is in a state of chaos and Ragnarok is around the corner. The call of the Horn of Gabriel has been echoing through my mind ever since we started this project. And as we advance towards the manifestation of the Scholomance the darkness slowly approaches. There is no more denying, the world is on fire. When we saw it coming we started baptizing in order to prepare. Si vis pacem, para bellum. But after a Katabasis comes the Anabasis. A man can be prepared for war, but who can prepare him for peace? When i quit my job as a researcher in artificial intelligence for the national institute for radio astronomy i knew exactly what i was doing. The Scholomance was already a few years old and results were amazing. Education was preparing us for a simple office job, the dark school demands much more. How can a conquering mind find its peace if there is nothing left to conquer? As the dark school feeds on my ambitions to accomplish, my ambitions thrive on the needs of the dark school. There is no better example of a perfect Henosis. As above, so below. As a Scholomance, the mysteryschool also has a history of dark magic. And if Arthur C. Clarke’s theories are valid, this means the Scholomance has a history of generating sufficiëntly advanced technology. As the level of complexity advances, to the outsider it slowly transforms into something magical. That’s where mysteries begin. And that’s where the singularity ends. According to our current theories on technological singularity the advanced level of technology can cause chaos and misunderstanding. But what if we were all able to believe in the power of things that go beyond our limits? The singularity problem only counts for the limited mind. The unlimited mind will keep expanding and synchronizing till some form of understanding is achieved.

Salvation can only be found in the leap of faith and the leap of faith is only accessible to the true believer. That’s where we descend into darkness, blindly trusting in our belief systems. That’s where we are put to the test, baptized with the holy spirit and fire. And the spiritual fire keeps burning through the mind forever, destroying all illusions in its path. What is fake will enter a state of decay. What is true will purify and shine through you like a ray of light. This truth we seek is more than an abstract idea, it is the foundation of all sciences. The truth of production formula’s, truth of correct measurement in building, truth of correct calculation in the sum of all things. Truth is the Prima materia. With this quintessence we can start creating. And as you start understanding the consequences of your creation, you grow to a deeper understanding of the concept of God and the B’nai Elohim. We aren’t born from the womb of our mother, we are born from the dust of creation. 

“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good – misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.”

– Mary Shelley

The biggest problem in sufficiently advanced technology might be the monsters we become while we are slowly shaping ourselves according to desire. Or maybe we know ourselves deep enough to understand what we truly are. Or who we slowly became in our role as a blind god while we were only children of Gods playing with toys we probably should have never discovered. I suppose it’s too late to put them back in the toybox. And as we harvest the horrible consequences of our actions we grow up fast, perhaps fast enough to learn to wield the swords we found as kids. Understanding grows slow, mastery even slower. It takes only a few years of deep reflection to understand what you are dealing with, it might take a decade to master it towards perfection. But a decade has passed now and the Scholomance rises. The darkness of isolation became the anvil. The light of knowledge became the hammer. The library grows, funding for an office has been reserved and the arsenal is pretty impressive. Those who doubted my footsteps are so far behind now.. I am the singularity, a universe in a soul. However, this is only the beginning. The death of what was and the birth of what will be. From this position the true craft will start, the creation of the book of the Solomonar. All preparations in the past ten years lead to this single move. Can you imagine the potential energy of ten years of preparation in a single chess move? The book will contain every step of the thousand mile journey in the Scholomance. And it has been a pretty long trip from the first chapter to the seventeenth chapter. Each chapter is a step forward, but the steps become harder as time passes by. We started in isolation, but i have a family now. Two wonderful kids, a boy and a girl. They are the future generation, they will continue the great work. I fear my generation is already cursed beyond saving. God knows i’ve tried many times. Luxury is the end of great men, and luxury is everywhere. Only a great level of restraint can save you from the influence of modern society. So we will upgrade the level of restraint.

After a long study on the Kardashev scale, the great chain of being, the rise and fall of civilizations and the great filter, i came to the conclusion that any sufficiently advanced population is either led by angels or demons. Angels when inspired, demons when forced. And although our bias tells us to pick sides between good and evil, the dark school of ancient mysteries teaches that we might profit from both. As above so below. We need the inspiration of enlightenment, but it has to grow inside the prison of darkness. Restraint and inspiration act as a push and pull configuration, a pressure and a vacuum. By using this knowledge to our advantage, the Solomonar also becomes a summoner of angels, demons, echoes, shades and ghosts. Evil in the eyes of the common folk, but in the eyes of the common folk the evil of sin has long been forgotten. Their judgement is clouded and no great works will spawn from their experiences any longer. We are not the same. We once were, but then different choices drove us apart and created a gap which cannot be bridged by normal means. You cannot cross a divine firewall with a mere bucket of water. You cannot extinguish this fire without having a taste of the flames. And the ones who burn forever cannot stop fighting. All they can hear is the horn of Heimdall and all they can see is the art of war. The legend of the Solomonari states that most of them leave the scholomance after seven years of study. I’ve been here for over ten years now, meaning i am the one who can never leave. This also means the magic will stay with me forever as i will continue to pay the price for a dream that never ends. Power corrupts the best and attracts all sorts of evil. I feel them coming… Hundreds, maybe thousands. All drawn by the gravity of the key of the abyss. A gift that sooner or later will become a curse. What created us will also destroy us, and when it does balance will be restored. 

The seventeenth chapter was highly symbolic. The eighteenth chapter should have been a masterpiece. How easily i am laying the foundation for my own demise. One would have high expectations after such a long journey through a dark night. I can only hope to be of service, if not the journey continues and the fire will burn more brightly as the Scholomance forges crooked iron into top quality steel. To be on strategic death ground is more than just a back against the wall. All doors are currently closed except one. To be successful is not the goal. Even if the journey fails, the mere attempt is enough to create. And to be so close to the creation of the spirit is to walk in line with God. From the spirit all forms of matter manifest. According to the first rule of hermetic philosophy the All is mind and the mind rules above all. So the very thought of something new already lays the foundation for its creation. What you see today is what someone else was dreaming years ago. From these simple ripples of ideas and desires of mankind their world was forged, step by step through the ages. And we slipped away into zones of comfort we forgot who we were, we became who we are. From the first fallen angel being casted from heaven down to modern man, outcast in society. A above so below. And the more we keep trying to climb back up the slippery slope of power, the more we actually fall down into despair and sin. May God have mercy on our lost souls and guide us back to who we once were. In the dark school of ancient mysteries we try to climb back up by digging deeper down. We descend into ancient mysteries to discover where we went wrong. Mistakes have been made far beyond our own influence, years before we were even born. By searching deeper into records of ancestors we open the door for a Grandfather paradox. We destroy who we are and become who we could have been. Only the past can save the future. Only the dead can save the living. The loop started years ago and the influence is growing. Time is no longer linear but more like a string of different tones carefully woven together. An endless song playing in silence. One we cannot hear, one we cannot see. As we descended from demigods to mere mortals our senses became less developed and our mind more lost. Most have no clue about their position on the grand scale and all end up like mere pawns in the same box. They accept this in exchange for loss of responsibility for failure and rotting potential. Like a cheap bargain. A deal with the devil, the acceptance of destruction rewarded with a chance to escape destiny and hide in common illusions. They have no idea what they have done to themselves. Eventually we will all pay a price for every form of magic we use to gain power or wealth. As a school of dark magic and ancient philosophy the Scholomance would advise extreme caution when dealing with powers that defy understanding until the understanding grows and comes in tune with the power. Only balance can avoid bad karma, give and you will receive. All lack of power creates a dark vacuum that corrupts the best and attracts the worst. Filling in the gap after its creation is not easy, but not impossible either. As the electric spark climbs up on Jacob’s ladder, the divine spark can help us climb back into heaven. Not an actual materialistic heaven in the sky, but a much deeper and richer heaven inside our mind. Space exploration might bring us one step further along the Kardashev scale, the exploration of the soul takes us straight up to God. One huge step for mankind, one small step for the human mind. As the universe so the soul. What a spaceship can travel in a year, your mind can travel in the blink of an eye. Perhaps we need only the memory of Dr. Stephen Hawkings and his theories to remind us of how far the mind can travel when the body is completely frozen in time. Energy can never be lost, it just finds new pathways to reach its final destination. And so will the Solomonar in the dark school, as we add this chapter to our very own path.