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QOTD
Lou Reed
“There are problems in these times,
But – wooh! – none of them are mine!”Lou Reed, Beginning To See The Light.
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The Brotherhood of the Essenes
Zooming down the motorway at a hundred miles per hour – swerving suddenly off and down a country lane – tyres throwing up cascades of water as we rocketed through the huge puddles caused by the near flooding conditions. A few more twists and turns in the Moon-less darkness which storm and cloud had further conspired to obscure, then coming to a SCREECHING HALT… outside Glastonbury Town Hall.
I got out and checked the time on my iPhone – 10.30pm. We had made the mad dash from London to the Vale of Avalon in three and a half hours, although negotiating the rush-hour traffic out of the centre of the capital had devoured one hour of that. Our purpose: to attend the annual solstice Convocation of “The Brotherhood of the Essenes.”
Now you may be wondering why we attempted such a precisely timed excursion across fair Albion instead of taking a more leisurely pace. Indeed, this is what a lot of our friends did and made good use of the time saved at the pub across the road from the Town Hall. No – what actually happened is that we actually had a lodge meeting earlier in the day in London which we could not easily get out of. Therefore, instead of knocking the G-Town trip on the head, yours truly had the crazy idea that if we jumped in our cars immediately the meeting in London ended, we could get to the Convocation just in time. As it happened we succeeded: we got there with half an hour to spare.
“But what,” I hallucinate that I hear you ask, “is ‘The Brotherhood of the Essenes,’ and why are they so important?”
The Essenes are an esoteric organisation that has been going since 1920 – at least in their present incarnation. They usually meet only privately except once a year – on June 21st, when they hold their annual convocation which is open to the public. For this they hire Glastonbury town hall. They have a number of strange doctrines, some of which are recognisable as coming from the Qabalah, Astrology, and Solomonic Magick, but some are downright bizarre (even for someone like me). Usually the Essenes are a secretive bunch, but we had managed to prize a lot of their secret teachings out of one of their members by the time-honoured method of taking him down the pub and getting him drunk.*
When I went in the venue a decent sized crowd (at least a hundred or so) had already taken their places. Amongst the more soberly dressed attendees I saw a fair few strangely arrayed in bright colours – not members of the Essenes, you understand, but Glastonbury residents! In the main body of the hall chairs were set out as for a public meeting. On the stage, there were half a dozen chairs (for the senior officers of the Brotherhood) as well as a throne, with two pet-cushions to either side of it. Above the throne was a crucifix, whilst on either side of the crucifix were – strangely enough, was the portrait of a dog.
I later got the inside info on the dogs – apparently they belonged to Jesus! Or more accurately, they were His companions, so I suppose that in addition to the 12 human apostles, the Dogs were two Apostles to the Animal Kingdom which were not mentioned in the Bible. During the ceremony, whenever an Essene got up to speak, he would first bow to the throne + pet cushions, so I presume that the former was the place of the God-form of Jesus, whilst the cushions were those of the two canines. “Dog-forms,” if you will!
On the stroke of 11pm, a black robed gentleman struck a large gong (which I want for my wizard’s tower) to mark the beginning of the meeting. The whole company of the Brotherhood of the Essenes themselves processed in, in their impressive regalia. From what I gathered, they arranged the convocation in three parts. The first part consisted of some prayers and hymns, but mainly of a series of talks about the nature of the Order, its current work, its history, and the structure of the second part of the meeting. This turned out to be a powerful rite of Angel Magick. The third part essentially consisted of taking refreshments and winding down, although this itself had an important spiritual role, according to them.
Here then are my impressions of the first half of the ceremony.
1. The Essenes are at heart a Christian organisation. They incorporate many Christian prayers and hymns into their ceremonies, most notably the Lord’s Prayer and the “Nunc Dimittis.” They also believe that the Second Coming will take place in this the Age of Aquarius.
2. They are also a thorougly Anglo-centric organisation. They believe that Jesus Himself came to Glastonbury two thousand years ago, in addition to Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail. Hence why the current meeting was being held there.
3. Consequently they like singing William Blake’s “Jerusalem.” A LOT.
4. The Essenes seem to place a lot of importance on certain teachings which have been received clairvoyantly or mediumistically, and hence on influential teachers who have appeared within their ranks.
5. Most significantly, however, and this was the theme most especially emphasised throughout the first half of the convocation, they are into the Spirituality of the Animal Kingdom IN A BIG WAY. This obviously links in with their fascination with the Godly-Dogs.
Their attitude may be briefly summed up in this way: the idea that man is somehow superior to animals is a purely anthropocentric conceit, but it is not how God sees things. Instead, God has a Plan for the Universe: and He has ordained that Animals have a role to play in that Plan. Hence it is highly important for man to respect the spiritual nature of the animal kingdom, to teach humility if nothing else.
What this means in practice is that the Essenes are all Vegetarians, and actively support charities concerned with animal welfare, and ending animal cruelty. Moreover one of the speakers urged those present to get involved politically trying to get the ways of both the UK and countries abroad (e.g. China) changed for the better.
The second part of the ceremony started at precisely 1am British Summmer Time, or Midnight GMT. All of the attendees formed a ring around the circumference of the hall – although we were told not to actually touch one another – while the principle officers placed themselves in the centre aisle. The Supreme Magus then led an actual magical ceremony which consisted of invoking the names of a series of Angels. From memory I recognised some of these from various Solomonic grimoires. I must admit that as an observer I subjectively felt this long invocation to be very powerful. It had been previously explained to me that the object of this particular ceremony was to thank the Angels for their work for the previous year and to welcome the ones who would aid humanity in the coming one.
At the climax of the invocation, the Supreme Magus announced “Now is the time,” whereupon, in the three minutes of silence which followed, as we had been coached to do so beforehand each attendee mentally made their own petition to the Angels for what they wanted to achieve, in the following form:
Prospering power almighty,
Prosper all my ways.
Fill my life with health and peace,
Lighten all my days.In the name of the Holy Holy Holy
TET – RA – GRAM – MA – TON
I petition and beseech that …
I ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
YOD – HEH – VAV – HEH
World without end,
Amen!
This was explained to me that all those petitioning would, as a result of the Invocation, receive Angelic helpers that would attach themselves to the individuals throughout the year. As was ominously emphasised: “If you ask for iron bars, you will get iron bars.”
So in conclusion, therefore, what we have is an organisation which holds some very strange beliefs. Personally I thought them no more implausible than most of what occultists are regularly asked to believe as part of their training, although it did freak out a lot of others I was with that night who were completely unable to shift their paradigms, even for one second. On the other hand, the Essenes have been able to make a successful magical order with their unusual beliefs – one which has lasted longer than any Golden Dawn organisation, for example! Moreover, the Ceremony of the Angelic Names and its purported effects are an excellent way to test whether the Essenes are actually onto something.
* NB: NO ESSENES WERE ACTUALLY INTOXICATED OR OTHERWISE UNDULY PRESSED INTO REVEALING ANYTHING IN THE MAKING OF THIS BLOG POST!
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In Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Consecration of the Vault of the Adepti
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Chalice Well
Chalice Well, Glastonbury
Part one of my the account of my recent Solstice adventures consists of some photos I took on a visit to Chalice Well, in Glastonbury. It had been blowing an absolute hurricane on the Tor itself, so the light breezes at ground level made the gardens even more of a calming experience than usual.
Please see my profile on Facebook for the entire album (and why not add me as a friend whilst you’re at it!)
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Cosmic Ordering Cheque!
Design © Alex Sumner 2012
Free blank cheque! Download, print out and write it out to yourself!
Please note that amounts are paid out in Pounds Sterling. To convert to your own currency, click here.
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Happy Birthday, Rest In Peace
A couple of years ago, an astrologer I know gave a talk in which he demonstrated the natal chart and death chart of the same person. Lo and behold the planets in the latter made a whole load of transits (mainly conjunctions) with those in the former! Curiously though these conjunctions were not to my mind associated with death in particular – it was just, so this astrologer claimed, the fact that there were a lot of them.
I scoffed. “If there were anything to this,” I said, trying to do a reductio ad absurdum, “that would mean that there is an increased likelihood of dying on your birthday, because that is the one transit with your natal chart – the Solar Return – which happens to everyone every year!” How I laughed…
… Until today when I read this morning’s Daily Telegraph, in which there was an article entitled We are more likely to die on our birthday than any other day.
According to the article,
Researchers who studied more than two million people over 40 years found a rise in deaths from heart attacks, strokes, falls and suicides.
…
There was a 34.9 per cent rise in suicides, 28.5 per cent rise in accidental deaths not related to cars, and a 44 per cent rise in deaths from falls on birthdays.
However the article also adds, rather disingenously,
…[R]isk of birthday death rose as people got older.
Well no shit Sherlock! That couldn’t be anything to do with old age, could it? Even so, it is nice to see science actually backing up astrology for a change.
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The Secret of ‘The Magus’ Revealed!
“Secret Chiefs” is a vexatious topic in the Occult. On the one hand some people claim that they – and only they – are in contact with them. For these people a Secret Chief becomes a badge of exclusivity, a members-only sign to provide a filip to their fragile egos. On the other hand there are people who deny that Secret Chiefs exist, precisely because they do not want people to feel excluded. Then again there are people who say: “Someone is only a Secret Chief if they conform to the rigid definition which I set.” Hence, when any given person fails to live up to their arbitrary criteria, they say: “That person cannot then be a Secret Chief.”
As has been pointed out elsewhere, there is good evidence that Macgregor Mathers believed the Archangel Raphael was the Secret Chief of the Golden Dawn. To my mind this is entirely plausible: after all, what would you expect with a name like “Golden Dawn?” Also, the idea that Mathers received his teachings as a result of a series of clairvoyant operations involving the Archangel of Tiphereth would be congruent with the views of those who believe that Secret Chiefs are not living adepts.
So basically, the whole argument boils down to those who assert the existence of the Secret Chiefs out of sheer hubris, and those who deny them because they do not want to admit that any other person knows more about the occult than they do. Which itself is another kind of hubris. What I see very little of, unfortunately, is people willing to accept the possibility of Secret Chiefs out of a genuinely humble attitude of actually wanting to learn something.
But I digress.
The Magus, by Alex Sumner © 2009
I first met R in 2009, although I had heard of him by reputation in certain English esoteric circles for several years before that. R was a kindly old gentleman in his eighties. He had been a Freemason for around sixty years, and had in his time joined a number of esoteric organisations both related and unrelated to Masonry and had achieved the equivalent of “grand rank” in all of them. However his true spiritual home was a rather obscure and exclusive order organised on generally esoteric Christian lines, based inGlastonbury, of which he eventually became the head. This order works a sophisticated system of Qabalistic Theurgy: moreover, as the head of the order, R had an important role to play as the intermediary between the Human and Angelic realms.
I say “spiritual home” because he used the teachings he had learnt here to colour how he interacted with all the other organisations of which he was a member.
R once told me a little of his background. It was obvious that he was an expert on Astrology and the Qabalah. In fact, as he explained, his studies had been such that he had been looking forward to the coming Age of Aquarius long before such a term ever became fashionable.
When it came to Freemasonry, he had been initially frustrated on first joining: his enquiries as to the deeper meaning of the symbolism of the Craft were usually met with responses like “Because it is written!” or “Because it’s always been done like that!” or even “Don’t worry yourself about that.” Bear in mind that this was around sixty years ago: from my own observations of Freemasonry almost all lodges are still like that today! R had more luck however when he joined the Masonic Study Circle, and he started coming into contact with those more esoterically minded.
By the time I came to knew him, he firmly believed that when Masonic ritual is delivered without any sense of meaning or importance – which unfortunately is how 99% of Freemasons do deliver it – it is useless. However, when it is delivered with decorum, and an appreciation of the principles involved, then that by itself serves to attract the positive influence of higher spiritual beings. Or in other words, if only Freemasonry were treated like a spiritual practice, it would become one!
So anyway: whilst outwardly a kindly old man, R was in fact the equivalent of a senior adept in just about everything. Everyone who knew him and to whom I spoke generally agreed that if any human being could be a Secret Chief, R certainly qualified.
But then, however, I uncovered the proof!
The last time I met R was several months ago, when he came to visit my own lodge. I knew that he was closely acquainted, via this same esoteric Christian organisation, with a couple of the people there, so I naively assumed that he had just turned up to wish them well. “Ah, no,” one of them said, in a mysterious tone, “it was a bit more than that…”
He said no more until a few weeks later, when we were at a lodge of instruction, that the details of why R had visited us were revealed. The crafty old so-and-so had been checking us out on the astral plane as we performed our ritual! He later took his trusted acquaintance aside and said something along the lines of “My boy, that was generally good, however I have some suggestions for you to make sure that ‘them upstairs,'” (which was how he referred to Angelic presences) “don’t get accidentally put off in the future.” His contact then relayed the various pieces of advice to us. I had to admit that the teaching was of the very highest quality.
But then – the realisation struck me. R had, all along, been using his position as head of this Glastonbury-based order to establish a network of contacts, getting them into positions of influence in a whole load of other esoteric orders. He then used this network to promote the values of this esoteric Christian order within those other orders!
I would have been outraged – were it not for the fact that I actually enjoyed the snippets of secret teaching that he was disseminating in this clandestine manner. Far from using his influence to aggrandise himself, R was deliberately attempting to promote what he honestly believed were true spiritual values.
Excited by my discovery, I went to see another of my esoteric acquaintances, who also knew R well. “Funnily enough,” he said after I had explained my theory, “many years ago I once suggested that R might be a Secret Chief as well. But I was told: ‘He can’t be a Secret Chief – he’s not dead!’”
The idea that being deceased was a necessary qualification for being a Secret Chief struck me as quite bizarre. Unfortunately, however, that final barrier was recently removed when R temporarily paused all his spiritual activities for which a physical body was necessary.
I firmly believe that great Adepts do not simply “die” at the end of their physical existence, but move to a region of the astral plane from which they can continue to influence their followers still on Earth. Hence, although R is no longer with us, he will almost certainly continue to exert his influence – which let’s face it, means on most of English esotericism – for a long time to come.
Filed under Supernatural, The Magus
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
Who Knows Where The Time Goes?
Time is running out. Everything’s coming to an end. I am not just talking about the end of life on earth in December 2012, I’m talking about the whole Universe!
Before you panic, however, you should bear in mind two things. Firstly I am referring to events which will take place billions of years after this planet has ceased to exist. Secondly this is all to do with a science story reported in the Daily Telegraph, so it is probably a load of bollocks anyway. No, apparently, an alternate theory of why the universe is expanding at an increasing rate has been put forward. “Dark matter” may not exist after all! Instead, the dimension of Time itself will apparently come to a stop.
This may not be so bad as it sounds. If the Secret Chief of the Golden Dawn can come through for us and grant us the power of time travel, we may yet be able to enjoy a Billy-Pilgrim
-like existence within the time we have, but applicable to the whole Universe as opposed to the life of just one individual.
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Tagged as daily telegraph, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny