Category Archives: Supernatural

Including references to the Supernatural, Praeternatural, Paranormal, Occult, and magick generally.

September 14, 2010 · 12:13 pm

The View From Halfway Up Mount Abiegnus

Imagine that you are in a room in a building, looking at an (opaque) ceiling. You are asked: “What does the roof look like?” What do you do? The obvious (at least to me) answer is that you find some way to get up to the roof, or otherwise take steps to see it from outside. What you do not do is reason like this: the room I am in is such-and-such, therefore the roof of the building must look like a logical continuation hereof.

It is a logical fallacy, of course, something like the gambler’s fallacy – thinking that something unknown will be like what you have experienced already, when in fact there is no reason at all why this should be so. The reason I bring this up now is that I look around the Golden Dawn community and this fallacious thinking when people try to speculate what the contents of the higher grades might be, or ought to be.

Consider this: the structure of the grades of the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn tend to follow a certain pattern: opening; being initiated into the paths leading to a sephirah; being initiated into the Sephirah; closing. (This is of course a generalisation, only three grades of the Outer Order are based on this model). If one were to believe that this represented a trend, a Philosophus, assuming he hadn’t read ahead, might be tempted to think that the next grade he was to experience would be structured like the Philosophus ceremony, but with the associations updated to Tiphereth as opposed to Netzach.

In fact, the Portal and the Adeptus Minor ceremony are nothing like that at all. If one did not know what the Adeptus Minor ceremony was, it would be impossible to guess at its nature purely based on what one has experienced up to that point. More to the point – it would also be impossible to guess (without being informed in advance) that the Adeptus Minor grade of the Golden Dawn has anything to do with practical magic. It could – for all that someone in the outer order knows – just be about more knowledge.

However, once one has experienced the new grade, and learnt its contents, one can convince oneself (rightly or wrongly) that it all makes perfect sense – using the benefit of hindsight. Speaking personally I can well appreciate the value of deliberately confounding someone’s expectations with each successive grade, because one can argue that a new level of consciousness deserves a new set of symbols.

For this reason it is useless to speculate what the contents of the higher grades ought to be, based on what one knows now (another logical fallacy: arguing from is to ought). For example, one could say that the higher grades are meant to examine the lower grades of the order, because that is what has been happening so far … or one could argue that they are meant to achieve something entirely different. After all there has already been at least one example of confounding expectations, so it might happen again, or then again it might not, it might instead be more of the same mutatis mutandur. There is no way, philosophically speaking, of telling.

For example, I have heard one example of arguing from the known to the unknown, that the grade of Adeptus Major is all about examining the Portal ceremony; the Adeptus Exemptus the 5=6; Magister Templi the 6=5; and Magus the 7=4.

HOWEVER, I could argue that the ultimate secret of the Golden Dawn is the existence of extraterrestrial life-forms, and hence the higher grades progressively introduce the initiate into contact and working with alien beings. Why not? There has already been one instance of one’s expectations being confounded so there is no logical reason to say it is or it isn’t likely.

Or again: I could argue that the founders of the Golden Dawn intended to introduce completely new material in the higher grades, e.g. stuff based on the more abstruse teachings of Theosophy – stuff which is not covered anywhere in the preceding grades. It might be possible, or it might not: we have no way of knowing. The problem lies in the fact that Mathers, Westcott etc went about founding the Golden Dawn in the wrong way. What they should have done was “invoked the highest first” and started with the Third Order, thus establishing the overall egregore, before finishing with the lower grades.

So my advice is: if anyone offers any speculation on the higher grades of the Golden Dawn whatsoever, be alert to whether they are trying to work out the appearance of the roof from looking at the underside of the ceiling – which is a polite way of saying to assume they are all talking bollocks.

PS: I have physically seen Westcott’s notebooks in which he was working out the higher teachings of Theosophy. 😉

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September 14, 2010 · 11:20 am

Re: Equinox Ceremony (Golden Dawn Group)

Lurking on Pat Zalewski’s Yahoo Forum, I have come to the conclusion: there are no innovations or new developments in the Golden Dawn!

I say this because the same subjects keep getting debated month after month: only the titles of the threads change. Heck, with only so many shopping days to go til Christmas, we will be probably going on about solstices soon enough!

Anyway: here is a prime example – a debate whether in the Golden Dawn it is a good idea to open the temple in the 0=0, then raise it to a higher grade, then lower it back down again afterwards. It was gone over last month, but in the context of opening and closing by sceptre.

— In golden-dawn-group@yahoogroups.com, “Martin Thibeault” <reaux.croix@…> wrote:

Aside from schedule conflicts, I am interested to hear how you would deal with the 0=0 Godforms invoked on the floor for the Opening and then invoking the ones for the Elemental Ceremony to follow. Would you invoke the 0=0 ones, leave them there then have Officers briefly leave Temple while the Hierophant invokes the Elemental ones? Would you `release’ the 0=0 ones prior to invoking the Elemental ones? If so would you re-invoke them for the closing at the end?

Given that Macgregor Mathers thought that the god-forms of the 0=0 were basically the same as those of the Outer Order generally but with  a few variations, this would be entirely reasonable: what’s more there would be no re-invocation because they are already there.

Of course – if on the other hand you subscribe to the rather sophisticated method of attributions set out in Rituals & Commentaries this would not be feasible.

It all boils down to what you consider authentic GD practice: the kind outlined in Mathers’ paper on the 1=10 ceremony, or what was done at Whare Ra.

See what I did there? I included a plug for two different Pat Zalewski books, so he’s in a win-win situation whatever the outcome of the debate! 🙂

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September 6, 2010 · 2:07 pm

Z’ev Ben Shimon Halevi

The “Great Tree.”

To London on Saturday to attend a talk on the Qabalah by Z’ev Ben Shimon Halevi (which is the Hebrew name of an English gentleman named Warren Kenton). Interestingly enough it was being held at Dion Fortune’s place in Chalk Farm, London. We were even privileged to use Dion Fortune’s own temple room, though I understand this was only because it was a special occasion – the Society of the Inner Light’s Director of Studies told me they don’t usually let hoi polloi in there as it is “consecrated ground.”Anyway: Z’ev, who has mixed Sephardic and Ashkenazic ancestry, teaches what he calls the “Toledano tradition” of the Kabbalah, which is a particular form of the Sephardic school which derives from mediaeval Toledo in Spain. Z’ev said that he was first moved to study the Kabbalah after having lived in Toledo in a past-life. From what I can make out, the Toledano tradition is fairly similar to the conventional Kabbalah though with a few peculiarities such as their focus on the “Great Tree,” which appears to be a concatenation of the regular Tree of Life in the four worlds of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah (see picture).

I picked up the following tid-bits from Z’ev’s presentation:

  • Despite the Kabbalah being the mystical tradition of the Hebrews, its inner meaning is a Perennial tradition which has been known to different cultures at different times, even those unconnected with one another: e.g. China, Tibet, Babylon, etc. This is even shown in iconography from these regions which all purport to show variants of the Tree of Life.
  • The story of Noah’s Ark is metaphorical: the real Ark was in fact knowledge of the Kabbalah itself, whilst the various animals that were saved were particular aspects of that knowledge, which Noah managed to preserve for posterity. In that respect the Great Tree (left) was the blue-print for the Ark described in Genesis. (Alex thinks: Hmm, I wonder if the Royal Ark Mariners have ever considered this?)
  • Z’ev takes a curiously wary view of Angels. He used the metaphor of a corporation: God is the boss of the company; Man is the boss’ son; whilst the Angels are the boss’ employees. Thus whilst it is entirely possible that if one were to approach God directly, He would instruct one of His Angels to help: but an Angel would not necessarily be helpful if it were approached directly. In fact, according to Z’ev, an Angel might be downright troublesome. Z’ev took the view that if one asked an Angel to help, one might end up “paying with one’s soul.” At first this makes it seem that Angels are hardly any different from Goetic spirits: although by viewing angels this way it might explain why e.g. Enochian angels are often reported to be troublesome when invoked.
  • Z’ev believes in the existence of spirit guides – Maggidim – but avers that they are they are human spirits, rather than “Holy Guardian Angels” (this is probably connected with the dim view that he takes on Angels generally – see above). Z’ev himself claims that he is guided by the spirit of a Kabbalist who lived in the 11th century. He also believes that everyone has within their psyche an “Inner-Teacher” which is equivalent to Daath. From the way he described it, the Inner Teacher seemed to be equivalent to Freud’s notion of the Super-Ego.
  • Apparently, in every age at any one time there is an “Alpha-Qabalist” (Aleph-Qabalist?) living, who is like a Secret Chief, world teacher or Qabalistic version of the Messiah. The identity of this Alpha-Qabalist is always secret: he or she always keeps him-or-her-self to him-or-her-self. Z’ev was far too modest to hint in anything other than the mildest terms that it was himself! 😉

After lunch, Z’ev led those assembled on a Qabalistic pathworking exercise. From the ease with which he interpreted peoples vision-experiences I very much suspected that he had done this kind of thing many times in the past, and consequently knew every type of symbolism that commonly cropped up!

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August 28, 2010 · 12:41 pm

Oaths of Secrecy

OK, I am going to wade into a controversial topic here. Firstly let me state my own position clearly: if ever I swore an oath of secrecy, I would never break it ever. However: I see no reason at all why I should keep secret something which is demonstrably public knowledge – it would be an absurdity. So for example if I was chatting about some ritual of an order of which I may or may not be a member with someone, I would be quite happy to discourse at length upon what may be gleaned from published books etc, but it would never occur to me to say something like “Last sunday the Order of XXXX met at such&such Hotel in London to perform YYYY Ritual and there were present His Royal High Prince —-, the famous chef and director of Norwich City FC —–, and —- straight from the premiere of her new movie Salt.” This would quite clearly be going too far. 😉

That being said, here are my most recent ruminations.

Imagine for one moment, that you are an Evil magician, an initiate of the left-hand path, someone who can’t be trusted, etc. In short – a character from one of my novels. Imagine further that you want to form your own magical order, of which you are the head (naturally), in which you intend to engage in all manner of vile and evil practices – the kind of thing that will get you in trouble with the police if they find out. How do you go about recruiting new members, and running such an order?

Clearly, anyone you do recruit, being an evil person like yourself, cannot be trusted. Hence, what you would have to do is to limit the amount of knowledge that a recruit is first given on joining, only admitting them to further portions of knowledge after they have proved reliable and trustworthy. Furthermore, you would swear them to secrecy on first joining, pointing out that the penalties for breaking their oath of secrecy are terrible and severe. Finally, in order to protect the identities of those already in the order including yourself, you might insist on everyone only being known by a pseudonym.

You see what I am getting at? The structure of a strictly hierarchical magical society, with terrible oaths of secrecy and what-not,  is geared not towards white magicians but black magicians. They are the mechanisms which would be used to run a successful black-magical order, not a white-magical one.

In a white-magical order, the teachings of the various grades are not anything to be ashamed of, therefore there would not be such a necessity to keep things strictly secret. One would expect Privacy yes, because otherwise the order would not have any integrity. Also, the fact that the attendees go through very personal experiences when participating in magic.

So: an oath of secrecy which aims at respecting the sensitivity of the members is good. An oath of secrecy which aims at enforcing slavish cult-like obedience is bad. And an oath of secrecy which binds someone to keeping secret that which is palpably public knowledge is a load of complete and utter bollocks.

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August 23, 2010 · 12:22 pm

How to Be an Ascended Master

Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the temple praising God.

Luke 24: 50 – 51.

Looking at the Sophistry the MBW crowd come up with about “Ascension” (nb: MBW = Mind Body Wallet). Apparently this Ascension-lark involves bowing down and worshipping a list of so-called “Ascended Masters.” Yes, such a patriarchal term is still used even though some of them are female: the term “Ascended Mistress” has yet to gain currency I suppose because of the double-entendre.

Anyway: there was me thinking – “What a jolly wheeze it would be if, instead of worshipping an Ascended Master, it was possible to become one instead! Can such a thing be done?” At least according to some schools of Occult thought, the answer is Yes. So, for the benefit of poor benighted humankind, and to the consternation of New Age money-makers everywhere, I present Alex’ Guide to Becoming an Ascended Master.

Qabalah

The Bible itself says very little about Ascension, save for the fact that it is alleged to have happened on three occasions: Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus. Enoch’s ascension is dealt with in one verse of Genesis:

Enoch walked with God. Then he vanished because God took him.

Genesis 5:24.

Jesus’ own experience is recorded in three places: the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles.

The most revealing account though is what happened to the prophet Elijah.

Now as they walked on, talking as they went, a chariot of fire appeared and horses of fire, coming between the two of them; and Elijah went up to heaven in the whirlwind.

2 Kings 2:11 (emphasis added).

Now the word “Chariot” (Hebrew: Merkavah) is the clue to what is really going on here: this word was later adopted by proto-Qabalists to denote a species of Mystical ritual. What we now know as Merkavah Mysticism was formulated in the first centuries of the Common Era, although the Hebrew Mystics who did so were aspiring to rediscover the ancient mysteries primarily which enabled the prophet Ezekiel to obtain his visions. I contend that the association with “works of the Chariot” may be extended to Elijah as well.

Hence: Elijah ended his days on Earth whilst engaged in mystical ritual. It should be noted that in the Yoga Tradition it is claimed that great Yogis do much the same thing, where it is called Mahasamadhi, that is – to consciously leave the body whilst in a state of perfected meditation. However, if this is what happened to Elijah though then clearly his heavenly-translation is actually only a metaphor: although his soul would have left his body in a state of perfect meditation, his body itself would be left behind – his Ascension would be akin to an actual death, though no less remarkable in its own way.

Gnosticism

The Gnostics also perceived that Ascension is a matter of undertaking certain mystical rituals, and therefore contrived to speculate what form these rituals might take. One of the finest pieces of Gnostic literature deals directly with this: the Pistis Sophia. In essence this is an account of secret teachings that Jesus gave to the Apostles after the resurrection. The post-resurrection period is stated as lasting some eleven years, not the forty days as is commonly believed in the exoteric Church.

At the end of Jesus’ post resurrection ministry, he Ascended into Heaven … then returned a short-while later to teach the Apostles how He did it.

In order to understand the basic method, one should first be aware of the Gnostic conception of the cosmos. The world of matter is supposedly removed from the Supreme ultimate Divinity: in between are the realms of lesser spiritual beings (“Archons”) who act as barriers or obstacles to Man becoming truly spiritually free, keeping him imprisoned in the physical world. These Archons range from being deliberately evil to morally-neutral, depending on which school of Gnosticism one subscribes to, although one gets the feeling that Gnostic writers tended to gild the lily somewhat when describing how terrible the Archons are in order to emphasise their importance.

According to the Pistis Sophia, Ascension is the method whereby Jesus was able to transcend the world of matter, rise up past and through the barriers administered by the Archons, and commune with the supreme ultimate divinity (referred to in the text as “the First Mystery”) in “Heaven.” NB: in communing with the First Mystery, Jesus becomes One therewith, so that at times he talks of the works of First Mystery in the First Person. The whole implication of the Pistis Sophia being that Gnostic initiates following in Jesus’ footsteps would be able to accomplish the same.

The actual method of the Pistis Sophia is centred on acquiring an ascension-vehicle known as the “Vesture of Light” which, when the initiate is wrapped therein, causes all who see it to perceive only Light itself, not the initiate. The Vesture of Light is imagined as a cloak on which are written the Words of Power which are the key to compelling the Archons to let the initiate pass upwards: ZAMA ZAMA OZZA RACHAMA OZAI.

How is the “Vesture of Light” acquired? The Pistis Sophia is open to interpretation on this point. Jesus acquired His “Vesture of Light” from the First Mystery Itself, although this is a rather circular conception when one considers that in Ascending, Jesus identifies as the First Mystery. In the opinion of G R S Mead, the Pistis Sophia was not meant to be a publicly circulated document, but reserved for initiates. If so, we can infer that there may have been further oral teaching given to Gnostic initiates which was never written down. As to what this oral teaching might be, several modern commentators have reached their own conclusions, as will be noted below.

“Mithraism”

Mead, a keen scholar of Gnosticism and related subjects, was also the first English writer to translate a key ritual of Mithraism which again deals with Ascension – which he describes as the “innermost rite of the carefully guarded secrets of the Mithriaca.”

NB: it is called a Mithraic Liturgy, but this may be misleading. There is no internal evidence in the text to suggest it has to do with Mithras at all! All that is known for certain is that the papyrus in which it is contained dates from the fourth century AD, was written in Greek and derives from Egypt (the timing makes it contemporaneous with the decline of the cult of Mithras).

The ritual itself consists of a certain number of invocations and utterations to be made whilst astrally-projecting into the Higher Realms. The basic idea of memorising a long and complex ritual to be performed in the astral is not too dissimilar to the practice of Merkavah, although the rituals differ in the details. Of modern magicians Julius Evola published a version of this ritual, implying that it may have been practised by his “Ur Group.”

Alchemy

Being the world’s greatest Ipsissimus, it has come to my attention that there is a group doing the rounds claiming to have made contact with the secret chiefs of the so-called third-order. On investigating, it quickly became obvious (i.e. obvious to someone who has the total consciousness of the universe, in other words, not obvious at all) to what they are referring.

The said Group appear to be practising a form of Gnostic ascension à la Pistis Sophia (see above). However they have come up with a radical method of attaining the “Vesture of Light,” by a means of a certain method of what may quaintly be termed “internal alchemy” – or less quaintly – Sex Magick.

I have reason to believe that the group of so-called “secret chiefs” is in fact a genuine organisation (i.e. in the sense that it exists), however: certain public details about it have been deliberately obscured. It is not, for instance, as one rumour goes around the interwebby-thing, the third-order of the Golden Dawn at all, but a highly elite and exclusive group that draw their members from high-degree Memphis-Misraim initiates.

The time, date and place of their meetings, as well as who attends them, are obviously strictly confidential, though the “secrets” are not particularly so: there is nothing there that cannot be gained from cribbing from the works of Kenneth Grant, for example.

I shall say no more on this matter, as I do not wish criticisms against me to “snowball.” 😉

Conclusion

So as you can appreciate, for the practising Occultist, “Ascension” is a goal which may be attained (allegedly) through advanced mystical and theurgic practices. Needless to say, the Qabalistic, Gnostic and (pseudo)-Mithraic methods stop short of the full deal, as in each case the initiate returns to Earth afterwards – at least in the examples that we know about. It is thus a form of shamanic journeying, albeit to the higher as opposed to lower worlds.

It is important to bear in mind at this stage a distinction between the Right and Left Hand Paths when it comes to the matter of Ascension. The aspiration of the Right-hand path practitioner is to undergo an Ascension experience in order to attain the Beatific Vision whilst living, not necessarily to permanently translate to the higher realms. After all, there is a far simpler way to do that, and that is by simply dying.

The practitioner of the Left-Hand Path is in a different position. Whereas one on the RHP automatically assumes that his or her soul is immortal and will survive death anyway, the LHP practitioner has no such guarantee. Thus, the LHP practitioner can be recognised by an obsession with Ascension not to gain the mystical benefits to derive therefrom, but as a means to cheat Death itself.

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August 15, 2010 · 2:03 pm

Tarot Deck Question

Izabael Da Jinn on her blog writes:

I have pictures of some tarot cards from a japanese game that teaches how to use and read. i believe i have 25 of them not full deck, so my question is this can i use these cards for only my prediction or do i need the whole deck? i do plan on turning these pictures into cards i have some playing cards that isnt a full deck anymore.

The whole deck. The full 78 represent all that is and could possibly be, good and bad, lucky and unlucky, etc. Hence by only working with 25 one is stuck with one or both of two possibilities: the reading made from such a deck will be limited in its outlook compared to a 78 card deck – or the reading will unrepresentative compared to a 78 card deck.

Of these two the second reason is less compelling an argument than the first, because during the history of the tarot, there have been examples of spreads published in which only the twenty two major arcana are used: the minor arcana are excluded from the shuffle. Conversely, “Fortune Telling by Playing Cards” is really little different from using only the Minor Arcana without the Major Arcana (except there would be three court cards in each suit instead of four). What can be drawn from all this is that there is some historical precedent for not working with a full 78 card deck all the time, but there is always a consistent reason for only including some cards and not others, so that the cards which are used do present a representative sample of the Universe in snapshot. (It is not something I would generally do myself).

What I do object to, and what really gets my Goat, is the practice that some Tarot readers allegedly indulge in, that of removing all the nasty cards from the Tarot deck, so that they don’t ever come up with a reading which is in anyway untoward. This is the sort of Fluffiness that makes a laughing stock of serious Tarot reading. Do these people think, for example, that by removing the 10 of Swords, the card of ruin and catastrophe, they will save their querent from it? Ruin and catastrophe happen in real life, hence the 10 of Swords (and every other seemingly nasty card) needs to stay in the deck for that reason. In any case, the whole point of a tarot reading is that they are symbols of what may happen in the future, so if a nasty card does turn up, that is a warning sign to change ones ways in order to avoid that particular outcome.

I think these pseudo-tarot readers must be doing it because they fear losing money if they give a reading people do not like, rather than the integrity of the art of tarot.

So to summarise: only work with a deck which is representative – I personally would use a full 78 card deck all the time.

Izabael also writes:

(off-topic) Any ideas how get the picture to fit the cards perfectly before printing?

Make a Wizard appear to do it for you – by selecting all the image files and (in Windows Vista and 7) right-clicking & selecting print. A similar Wizard can be used in XP by selecting the image files, right-clicking, selecting “Preview” and printing from there.

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August 13, 2010 · 9:42 am

El AdivinaciĂłn en el Aurora Dorada

A translation of Divination in the Golden Dawn for Spanish speaking readers. May need proofing.

En el Aurora Dorada uno piense sobre todo de la adivinación como geomancia, astrología y el tarot.

“AdivinaciĂłn” en sĂ­ es un concepto antiguo – y sĂłlo por volver a ver lo que las fuentes antiguas sobre el tema, dijo que uno llega a darse cuenta de lo importante que es en realidad. Una de las autoridades mĂĄs importantes era un antiguo adepto conocido como JĂĄmblico, que vivĂ­a en el cuarto y siglos III dC, y que escribiĂł un influyente trabajo enormemente conocido como “TeĂşrgia, o en los Misterios de Los Egipcios.” Era un neo- platĂłnico: ĂŠl tambiĂŠn admitiĂł haber sido influenciado por la HermĂŠtica, y sus escritos han influido en toda la tradiciĂłn occidental Misterio, incluyendo la Aurora Dorada.

Esto es lo que JĂĄmblico tenĂ­a que decir sobre el tema:

En primer lugar, entonces, te preguntas por que se le explicarĂĄ a ti con todo detalle quĂŠ es lo que tiene lugar en el pronosticar el futuro. No es posible exponer a la vez lo que se te tratando de aprender. Pues de acuerdo con la esencia de la pregunta, te imaginas algo asĂ­ en el arte de pronosticar: como que se genera, y algo que existe en el reino de la naturaleza. Pero no es una de las cosas que se generan, ni lo que es una mutaciĂłn natural cumple determinadas, ni algĂşn producto ingenioso que se ha inventado para fines Ăştiles en la vida cotidiana – ni, en definitiva, es un logro humano en absoluto, sino divina , y mĂĄs allĂĄ del reino de la naturaleza, y de haber sido enviado desde el cielo, ingĂŠnito y eterno, es natural que ocupa el primer lugar.

“Divino, y mĂĄs allĂĄ del reino de la naturaleza” – que de hecho es por eso que lo llaman “adivinaciĂłn” – porque lo que realmente estamos tratando de hacer no es sĂłlo descubrir el futuro, sino para descubrir lo que es la Voluntad de lo Divino en cualquier dada la situaciĂłn.

En otras palabras: cuando se elabore una carta astrolĂłgica – su primer pensamiento no debe ser que usted estĂĄ buscando en una disposiciĂłn arbitraria de las estrellas y los planetas – usted estĂĄ en el hecho, la lectura de un mensaje enviado a usted desde el Creador del cosmos. Cuando se roba una carta del tarot, usted no estĂĄ buscando a un pedazo de cartĂłn con unas fotos bonitas, pero en una comunicaciĂłn de que el universo mismo. Y lo mas importante – cuando experimenta la chispa de la intuiciĂłn que abre el significado interno de una tirada de Tarot o carta astral o figura geomĂĄntica, no es sĂłlo un proceso psicolĂłgico que implica la interacciĂłn de su mente consciente e inconsciente, de hecho es lo Divino Voluntad misma hablando con usted.

Es cierto adivinaciĂłn, por lo tanto, es lo que hace magia en Teurgia. Por ejemplo: supongamos que tiene una idea de lanzar un conjuro o un talismĂĄn para consagrar algĂşn propĂłsito. Lo que usted debe hacer es realizar siempre una adivinaciĂłn de antemano, preguntando: “ÂżEs esto una buena idea?” Y a menudo es el caso de que una adivinaciĂłn dirĂĄn “No, no es una buena idea”, o “TraerĂĄ imprevistas consecuencias sobre “, o incluso:” Va a llevar a consecuencias que probablemente podrĂ­a haber previsto si fueron brutalmente honesto consigo mismo. “Y asĂ­, sobre la base de que usted modificar su intenciĂłn original a la luz de la adivinaciĂłn, o incluso lo abandonan por completo. Se puede ir en contra de tu ego, y ser una molestia, pero tiene que hacer. Cuando haga su prĂĄctica mĂĄgica alinearse con la Voluntad Divina a travĂŠs de la adivinaciĂłn, que estĂĄn entrando en una relaciĂłn armĂłnica con el universo. Sin embargo, si usted no hace caso y AdivinaciĂłn sĂłlo seguir adelante sin tener en cuenta, que usted estĂĄ haciendo nada mejor que la brujerĂ­a, y, probablemente, atrayendo a un montĂłn de desagradables efectos kĂĄrmicos a ti mismo.

AsĂ­ que: siempre lo hacen adivinaciĂłn con la intenciĂłn de tratar de descubrir la voluntad de lo divino – la fortuna no sĂłlo diciendo. TrĂĄtelo como una ciencia divina – Considerando sus cartas del tarot y las cartas que elaborar como objetos sagrados, si le ayuda a reforzar estos conceptos. Y cuando a discernir un mensaje que llega a usted de sus esfuerzos en la adivinaciĂłn, lo trata con el respeto que se merece y no lo ignore.

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August 12, 2010 · 8:55 am

World Cup Astrology – Yet Another Post Mortem

The German soccer team resorted to superstitious practices to beat England in the World Cup – they consulted PhD students who identified a number of fundamental mistakes that the team was repeatedly making. Pah! What an amateur approach! They should have used Astrology like I did! Far more reliable and a lot less effort. Never mind about Stevie G wandering in-field instead of staying on the wing, and all that malarchy. The fact that Fabio Capello’s native Sun squared both the transiting Saturn and Jupiter (+Uranus) told me straight away that he was not going to come out of the World Cup covered in glory.

Not that I’m saying that I would have helped Joachim Low instead of those PhD Students – I do have some sense of patriotism.

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August 9, 2010 · 8:47 am

The Middle Pillar

The Middle Pillar is the subject of a paper I recently delivered at a Golden Dawn themed open day.

This talk is aimed at everyone including complete beginner to the Qabalah. In a little while we will be doing the Middle Pillar Ritual itself.

But first, some background.

The Middle Pillar Ritual seems to have been an original creation of Israel Regardie, which he synthesised from Golden Dawn teachings. The Golden Dawn before Regardie did not really use it per se, although they did contemplate the Tree of Life as a whole in ones aura.

The Middle Pillar corresponds to the Sushumna of Yoga – the channel down the centre of the body where are located the Chakras. The Middle Pillar Ritual is thus a technique for rousing the energies of the chakras, but with two key differences:

  1. In the Qabalah we work with 4 or 5 (I’ll explain later) chakras, not the full 7;
  2. In the Golden Dawn we always invoke the highest first – always. Therefore we always start from the top (Crown) and go down.

Many schools of Yoga do the opposite – they open the chakras from the bottom upwards. However: Sri Aurobindo, the founder of Integral Yoga, said that the correct Yogic method should be to open the chakras from the top down – like we do in the Golden Dawn. The reason – he says – is that by opening the chakras from the top down one prevents a sudden uncontrolled explosion of Kundalini, because the superior chakras will have already been stabilised and dedicated to God before the Kundalini (which resides in the base chakra) is awakened.

NB: Kundalini rising in a controlled manner is good; exploding uncontrollably is bad, because despite feeling good it leads to bad side-effects.

The “chakras” (actually “Sephiroth”) with which we work are: Kether, the Crown chakra; Daath, the throat; Tiphereth, the heart; Yesod, the sacral or genital region; and Malkuth, the base chakra.

NB: The Sephiroth do not correspond exactly to those of Yoga, so it is best not tot try and keep looking for correspondences where none exist. The Middle Pillar Ritual does not necessarily fulfil the same function as raising Kundalini – it is an invocation of the Divine from above, as opposed to raising energy from below. References to chakras etc are but a convenient peg on which to hang my metaphor, for those not familiar with the Golden Dawn.

Kether – the crown – does correspond fairly well to the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus. Both represent ones connection to the Universe. In the Golden Dawn the Kether point of one Qabalistic world is the connection to the Malkuth of a superior world: so we may imagine that energy spirals down into our crown chakra from a higher plane of existence.

Daath – the throat – is slightly problematic. It is not actually a Sephirah – technically, it is a place where a Sephirah should be but tellingly, is not. Daath should be considered as a marriage of Chokmah and Binah. Daath does not have any attributions of itself: however, in the Hexagram ritual which we use in the second order, the point corresponding to Daath is associated with the supernals generally and Saturn specifically. For that reason, when we perform the Middle Pillar Ritual we use the divine name of the sphere of Saturn, i.e. Binah.

In any event, Daath does not correspond perfectly with the throat chakra of Yoga. The “Vishuddi” chakra is associated with the element of Akasha, which in the Golden Dawn is more associated with Tiphereth.

The next Sephirah is Tiphereth itself. As it happens both Tiphereth and its corresponding Chakra, Anahata, are associated with the element of Air, in spite of the Tiphereth’s other associations with Akasha or Spirit. Tiphereth itself is associated with the Sun.

Below that is Yesod. This is in the same place as the Svadisthana chakra, however: Yesod is associated with Air, and Svadisthana is associated with Water. All of the Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar are associated with Air, in fact, apart from Malkuth, which is associated with Earth. Yesod itself is also associated with the Moon.

Finally we have Malkuth, which like the Muladhara chakra the lowest chakra, represents the Earth – ones connection with the Earth. There is a fairly major difference, however: because the Yogi does his meditation sitting down, his connection with the Earth is the base of his spine – the perineum. However, because we do our Middle Pillar Ritual standing up, our connection i.e. our Malkuth centre is in our feet. Both the Muladhara chakra and Malkuth are (as said previously) associated with Earth.

Incidentally, Dion Fortune worked out a method of working with all the chakras, albeit using Qabalistic associations with all of them. What she did was to work with the four (or five) Sephiroth which I have already mentioned: however in addition, she imagined the brow chakra (Ajna) as jointly-representing Chokmah and Binah; whilst the solar plexus chakra (Manipuraka) as jointly representing both Hod and Netzach. Daath becomes the Luna plexus, whilst the Vishuddi chakra is imagined as jointly representing Chesed and Geburah. She also formulated an exercise in which after these eight were opened one imagined them being ruled over by Egyptian God-forms. She also specified a method for partner-working – i.e. one partner invokes the chakras for the other and then vice versa.

That digression aside, I will now speak about the Middle Pillar Ritual itself, and what it is used for. It is primarily a method for invoking spiritual blessings for ourselves. Israel Regardie however said that it could also be used for healing, and even as a simple method of practical magic. Regardie’s theory was this. One performs the Middle Pillar ritual – after which one is imagining and feeling oneself filled with light and energy. Then, to perform healing, whilst still contemplating that light and energy, one concentrates on the part which needs to be healed, imagining that light is flowing into that part. It is in effect a Qabalistic form of Reiki. This can be done on oneself, or with a patient who is present, or it can be used as a form of distant healing.

As to practical magic, Regardie said that the Middle Pillar ritual could be used in a way that is similar to what people who work with the aura know as colour breathing. So for example, to attract a specific influence into your life, one would perform the Middle Pillar ritual, and then still contemplating the light circulating in your aura, visualise that your aura is being filled with the colour representing that influence – whilst vibrating the diving names associated therewith.

Regardie also said this could be extended to consecrating talismans. Having created a talisman for a particular purpose, one performs the Middle Pillar ritual, one contemplates the particular influence and its colour, and then one imagines that that light is flowing into the Talisman.

In short, I recommend reading “The Art of True Healing” (which is included in “Foundations of Practical Magic”), “How to Make and Use Talismans” and “The Middle Pillar” itself – all by Israel Regardie. In actual fact the material added to the current edition of “The Middle Pillar” by Chic and Tabatha Cicero almost makes it worth reading by itself.

After the introductory talk, I then led those present in the Middle Pillar Ritual, rather as it is outlined in Regardie’s book, though with a certain amount of adaptation:

By way of setting the scene, I asked all present to imagine themselves in their astral body, which had grown so large that they were the size of the Earth itself. Around them were the stars, whilst directly above their heads a mighty Dragon – the constellation Draco – was flying around and around in a circle, creating a Tourbillon of power (i.e. a vortex or whirlpool) drawing down energy from above.

NB: this is essentially a simplified version of the visualisation that an Adept does when contemplating the Tree of Life projected in a sphere.

A point of light appears in the centre of the circle traced by the path of the Dragon. The vortex draws this light down from above, so that it touches the crown of the participant. As is touches the crown it lights up the Kether centre – visualised as a sphere of white light directly above and touching the top of the head. The light is swirling around inside this sphere, following the perturbations of the vortex.

At this point I asked everyone to vibrate the divine name of Kether – EHEIEH – six times, imagining that the vibrations were occurring in the sphere of Kether itself.

Then I asked everyone to imagine that light from Kether was spiralling down the Middle Pillar like a corkscrew to the throat, lighting up Daath. Again the light was imagined as swirling around inside Daath. The name YOD HEH VAV HEH ELOHIM was vibrated six times, again imagining the vibrations were taking place in that sephirah.

In a similar manner, Tiphereth was invoked with YOD HEH VAV HEH ELOAH VE-DAATH.

Likewise: Yesod with SHADDAI EL CHAI.

Likewise: Malkuth with ADONAI HA-ARETZ. The light was imagined as cork-screwing down even into the Earth.

Then I got the participants to imagine light going down their left-side and up their right-side, enclosing them in a Vesica Piscis, the symbol of transmutation to a higher spiritual level.

Then I got them to visualise the light going down the front of their body and up the back.

Then I got them to imagine light coming up the Middle Pillar from Malkuth to Kether, where it fountained-out and poured down on all sides.

Then I asked them to imagine that light was spiralling back up their bodies, literally wrapping them up.

Given that I had previously been talking about using the Middle Pillar Ritual for healing, I told them that if anyone felt in need of it, they should spend a moment contemplating the person or part being filled with white light. Thereafter – as the flooding in Pakistan was current in the news at the time – I encouraged those present to send healing energy to that country and its people – and also the middle East generally.

Finally, we closed by bringing our attention back to our heart-centres, and vibrating once the mystical names of Jesus – YEHESHUAH, YEHOVASHAH. I personally felt that the ritual was very powerful performed this way, especially with all the chanting.

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August 5, 2010 · 10:04 am

Ritual of the Apocalypse

In honour of the Grand Cross occurring tomorrow (Friday 8th August 2010) I present the following Planetary working. Its aim is to enable the magician to transcend the planetary influences at work – which is the goal of every true Hermetic Adept – instead of being a victim to them, which is how people who think of astrology as something fatalistic tend to react.

The time of the working is dawn. The magician should determine due East – this will be referred to throughout this ritual as “12 o’clock” (as in a clock-face).

Begin by proclaiming: Hekas! Hekas este bebeloi!

Perform the Lesser Banishing Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram.

Purify and consecrate the temple with Water and Fire. Circumambulate and adore the Lord of the Universe.

Perform the Bornless Ritual.

Now perform what I term the

Special Invoking Hexagrams of the Apocalypse Ritual.

This is similar in structure to the Supreme Invoking Hexagram Ritual, but adapted as follows:

Start with the Qabalistic Cross

The Rite of Luna

Turn first to “one o’clock” and trace the Invoking Hexagram of Luna, i.e. the first triangle is traced clockwise from the lowest point; the second triangle from the top-most. Vibrate Ararita and Shaddai El Chai, Gabriel, Malkah Be-Tarshishim ve-od Ruachoth Shechalim, Shad Barshemoth Ha-Shartathan and Levanah.

Recite the Invocation of Luna.

The Rite of Jupiter

Turn next to “four o’clock” and trace the Invoking Hexagram of Jupiter (first from Jupiter point, then from Mercury point). Vibrate Ararita and El, Tzadqiel, Hismael, Iohphiel and Tzedeq.

Recite the Invocation of Jupiter.

The Rite of Uranus

Still facing “four o’clock” trace the Special Apocalyptic Hexagram of Uranus. This is the same as the Hexagram of Mercury (because Uranus is similar to Mercury but on a higher arc), but with the sigil of Uranus in the centre. Vibrate Ararita only.

Recite the following Invocation of Uranus (taken from the Orphic Hymns):

GREAT Heav’n, whose mighty frame no respite knows,
Father of all, from whom the world arose:
Hear, bounteous parent, source and end of all,
Forever whirling round this earthly ball;
Abode of Gods, whose guardian pow’r surrounds
Th’ eternal World with ever during bounds;
Whose ample bosom and encircling folds
The dire necessity of nature holds.
Ætherial, earthly, whose all-various frame
Azure and full of forms, no power can tame.
All-seeing Heav’n, progenitor of Time
Forever blessed, deity sublime,
Propitious on a novel mystic shine,
And crown his wishes with a life divine.

The Rite of Pluto

Turn next to “seven o’clock” and trace the Special Apocalyptic Hexagram of Pluto (same as that of Mars, but with Pluto sigil). Vibrate Ararita only.

Recite the following Invocation of Pluto (also taken from the Orphic Hymns).

PLUTO, magnanimous, whose realms profound
Are fix’d beneath the firm and solid ground,
In the Tartarian plains remote from fight,
And wrapt forever in the depths of night;
Terrestrial Jove, thy sacred ear incline,
And, pleas’d, accept thy mystic’s hymn divine.
Earth’s keys to thee, illustrious king belong,
Its secret gates unlocking, deep and strong.
‘Tis thine, abundant annual fruits to bear,
For needy mortals are thy constant care.
To thee, great king, Avernus is assign’d,
The seat of Gods, and basis of mankind.
Thy throne is fix’d in Hade’s dismal plains,
Distant, unknown to rest, where darkness reigns;
Where, destitute of breath, pale spectres dwell,
In endless, dire, inexorable hell;
And in dread Acheron, whose depths obscure,
Earth’s stable roots eternally secure.
O mighty dĂŚmon, whose decision dread,
The future fate determines of the dead,
With captive Proserpine, thro’ grassy plains,
Drawn in a four-yok’d car with loosen’d reins,
Rapt o’er the deep, impell’d by love, you flew
‘Till Eleusina’s city rose to view;
There, in a wond’rous cave obscure and deep,
The sacred maid secure from search you keep,
The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display
An entrance to the kingdoms void of day.
Of unapparent works, thou art alone
The dispensator, visible and known.
O pow’r all-ruling, holy, honor’d light,
Thee sacred poets and their hymns delight:
Propitious to thy mystic’s works incline,
Rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.

The Rite of Saturn

Turn next to “ten o’clock,” trace the Invoking Hexagram of Saturn (first from Saturn point, then from Luna point). Vibrate Ararita and YHVH Elohim, Tzaphqiel, Agiel, Zazel and Shabbathai.

Recite the Invocation of Saturn.

The Rite of Mars

Still facing “ten o’clock,” trace the Invoking Hexagram of Mars (first from Mars point, then from Luna point). Vibrate Ararita and Elohim Gebor, Chamael, Graphiel, Bartzabel and Madim.

Recite the Invocation of Mars.

Turn to “12 o’clock.” Analyse the Keyword (INRI)

Purify and consecrate the temple again.

Perform the reverse circumambulation, and adoration to the Lord of the Universe.

Announce: “In the name of Yeheshuah I now release any spirits that have been entrapped by this ceremony.”

Close with the Lesser Banishing Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram again.

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