On the modern esoteric market dominates adisturbance about the offered multitude of magic and spiritual pathes.
Very gross seen exist five big directions on the basis of the realized forces :

1. The divine path of complete self-abjuration
2. The spiritual path of self-release(Samtan-Path)
3. The path of white magic(individual ego - Ahamkara)
4. The higher black path with the goal of Maya
5. The occult path of black magic

The white pathes

The one direction which is requested by the divine hierarchies gives up the higher EGO and is bound to a tradition like White Brothership or the planetary Logos or a godess like Krishna. These masters are overshadowed by a divine master or divine goddess and can therefore only work for the DIVINE and are often only a prolonged arm of a very high divine master. This can go so far that the master can only watch what is happening with him.
It is anyway necessary to give up the higher EGO for step 21 and 22 of the UNIVERSAL PATH because otherwise the master is not let into the Agama-plane(if at all) or hindered to reach these higher planes.
The late master Sri Aurobindo said: "In my first time i worked for mankind. Now i act only for the divine" and he said "I cant be your guru !". The divine masters dont work and are not allowed to work for the individuals in the lower planes which are forces of Maya (=the divine anger) or of Samsara. It is a problem of the divine plan (Dharma) and of the divine providence which does not allow to alter the plan.

The other spiritual path, the SAMTAN-Path of spiritual selfrealization(atma-jnana), leads to enlightenment and mastership(spep 20) but ends then. These masters keep their higher spiritual EGO. They work for mankind as long as they are on earth and as much as they are allowed to, but they are rare. The divine hierarchies do not love them because of their EGO and their individual help and supress them - life is our KARMA that the DIVINE once has caused and still controls.

The spiritual pathes have three main directions with relationship to the three rays, and therefore we find the Karma-Yoga, the Bhakti-Yoga und the Jnana-Yoga:
1.st ray : The path of the will or of activity (the small ego becomes a tool, a selfless worker)
2.nd ray : The path of the heart or of love(the spiritual man is borne and develops to a holy person)
3.rd ray : The path of the intellect (the thinking becomes the thinking of the spiritual wise man)

The parallel realization of all three pathes leads to the light and to the spiritual self and to higher perfection.
But there has still to come an additional highest spiritual transformation to the spiritual transformation of the soul. This transformation is later followed up by a divine spiritual phase, which transforms the fundamentals of the nature of inner ignorance.

BUDDHA GAUTAMA - who was a teacher and not a guru - warned " ALL THE BIG GODS AND GURUS ONLY WANT TO USE YOU ! " , and thats why many masters dont love him. Lord Buddha new about the higher divine gods he but saw them as highly developed egoistic entities.

The traditional masters are angry that buddhism does not accept the Ishvara or Narayana as the lord but has its own tradition and heavens.
Traditional buddhism ends on step 19 with the enlightenment(Tatagatha; Ishvara-Tattwa) und goes sometimes upt to Pranivana(U.P. step 20). First budhism as taught by Mrs. Blavatski showed higher steps in buddhism (until step 22 of the UNIVERSAL PATH; Mahaparanirvana,Parasamvit). Traditional buddhism acknowledges only the unpersonal "Spirit" als the basis of creation. It stops at the "big emptiness" and does not reach the DIVINE(Agama,20). Step 21 and 22 are only possible with support and allowence of a higher master(because the divine is so different from the atmic planes and the spiritual soul cannot reach this sphere alone).

Sri Aurobindo saw Buddha as an unnecessary rising up of the EGO(standpoint of the divine hierarchies). But only few masters of the hirarchies are allowed to reach the steps 21 und 22.

Taoism says similar : "Heaven and earth use man as straw-dogs (sacrifice-animals)".

Finally there is the path of occult white magic as described in the books of the late czech adept Franz Bardon and few others. But any training of magic should be under the control of ethics or introspection as desribed there (as a servant of the divine). Otherwise will the adept easily become a blackmagic ! To this section belong all methods which use the mental plane and the etheric forces, like occult magic, shamaism und etheric healing. Most of these scools do not go very far because the magic knowledge was kept secret in the past. All magic directions belong to the four worlds of Maya or time(Kala).

The goal of these adepts is the akasha-principle. It includes a kind of MOKSHA (liberation from the 3 lower worlds) and a kind of cosmic consciousness, but it is not unification with PARAMATMA as in true enlightenment. In the CHEOPS-Pyramid the small hall in the middle(14) symbolizes the goal of this path.

In the well known gnostic book " Pistis Sophia" these forces are named "Äonic forces" which try to hinder the progress of the "Pistis Sophia" but without success. At the very end she unites with Jesus.

The path of pure WHITE MAGIC ends on step 14 of the UNIVERSAL PATH. Even though the highest goal of the adepts of the spheres is Brahman (AUM) with additional methods they are not quite masters as long as they have not gone through the transformation of the synthetic force of the origin of the SEPHIROTH, the divine lightning. Fr. Bardon shows Vajrasattwa as a possible next goal after the goal of white magic.

2. The black pathes

The one side of the black path leads into the Akashas of MAYA - which is the origin of all negative forces. This is the broad path of personal fulfilment without any etics . There is a big difference between somebody who only uses the knowledge for personal success and a disciple who surrenders to the higher laws(sadhana, introspection).

The black masters have a long experience with mankind and know exactly how they can lure people with attractive promises on their higher black path "Live better - draw the most out of everything - quick development of higher forces and siddhis for personal use" - are a lure for many people.
" The black masters cannot subdue their self ... The black masters are powerful entities too...Even the black master are seeking for purity ...There is always an evil aim behind the activities of the black masters... Until the fourth initiation a disciple can still fall back to the black path . On the fourth initiation the white path and the black path split." (A.A.Bailey : Letters on occult meditation)

The black path uses the buddhic Pranava too, the holy "OM", the holy cow of the indish vedas. On the buddhic plane Pranava is just a vibration(Kala) of Maya which is the hidden substance of this plane. But the black master cannot stops step 19 because the divine solves him up. Many black masters have reached their development with the help of higher negative force.
Some evil Bön-Lamas showed in the 50s of the last century (before most tibetan monasterys were destroyed by the chinese - Tibetan Bön was at that time divided into two parties) to television-teams how they were overshadowed by negative ghosts.
Hinduism knows SHIVA, the divine god of destruction, and RUDRA, the darker and etheric god of destruction (Ru means "Light").

" The black path develops the PERSONALITY - the spiritual path develops the soul", A.A.Bailey

It is very difficult to see whether a guru is a black master (Chi Ru, master of the KAL, the "masters with the black face"), because he may be spiritual developed and stand in the power and light of the lower NADA-BRAHMAN, the shabda on the buddhic plane, and of the purusha.
The misunderstood angry Buddhas are often a Yidam and are used for the mastery of these forces. An indish example is the black Kali in contrary to the light blue Kali.
A few modern sects which make personal promises of fulfilment to people must be seen in this context : They make many people finally disappointed of spirituality and those disappointed people spread this disappointment in society. They try to lead people on the path of personal fulfilment with the goal of the personal spiritual crown, and later this selfish aspiration becomes the hindrance.
Some of these masters spread a mixture of positive and NEGATIVE MANTRAMS .
Sri Aurobindo spoke of dangerous forces of the Intermediate Zone ('On Yoga' ;I-II) between matter and spirit. He said that about 20 % of the seekers have problems with these forces.

The other involutionary direction of the black path is the black lodge which works with the forces of the lower negative worlds and with astral forces. Most spiritual masters do not want to speak about that.
Such people can be found in Voodoo, in the old tibetan Bön-Religion, in black Tantra and in small secret groups allover the world.
A.A. Bailey speaks in this contexts about an old cosmic evil (as a manifestation of big dark entities in the higher planes or of "forces of time") which has settled in our solar system.
She says that in the Sirius-system no black lodge exists - but the ONE is the secret reason for our negative planet.
The forces of Ahriman (-> R. Steiner ), the Pisatchas of hinduism, the 12 devils of Islam etc. must be counted to this lodge too.
This can sometimes become quite a dangerous theme, and the masters avoid to speak about that.

Further study : A.A.Bailey : Letters on occult meditation , page 131 , page 133 and page 192.

Deep thoughts... for philosophers ?