Tag Archives: Golden Dawn

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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August 17, 2010 · 11:43 am

Golden Dawn Tattva Cards – Free Download

You may download a free set of Tattva cards, for use in Golden Dawn style clairvoyance experiments, by going to the Articles page of this website. I recommend printing them out on A4 card and laminating them. Enjoy!

Sample: Earth of Water

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August 13, 2010 · 9:42 am

El Adivinación 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.

“Adivinación” en sí es un concepto antiguo – y sólo 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 más importantes era un antiguo adepto conocido como Jámblico, que vivía en el cuarto y siglos III dC, y que escribió un influyente trabajo enormemente conocido como “Teúrgia, o en los Misterios de Los Egipcios.” Era un neo- platónico: él también admitió haber sido influenciado por la Hermética, y sus escritos han influido en toda la tradición occidental Misterio, incluyendo la Aurora Dorada.

Esto es lo que Jámblico tenía que decir sobre el tema:

En primer lugar, entonces, te preguntas por que se le explicará a ti con todo detalle qué 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 así 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 mutación natural cumple determinadas, ni algún producto ingenioso que se ha inventado para fines útiles en la vida cotidiana – ni, en definitiva, es un logro humano en absoluto, sino divina , y más allá del reino de la naturaleza, y de haber sido enviado desde el cielo, ingénito y eterno, es natural que ocupa el primer lugar.

“Divino, y más allá del reino de la naturaleza” – que de hecho es por eso que lo llaman “adivinación” – porque lo que realmente estamos tratando de hacer no es sólo descubrir el futuro, sino para descubrir lo que es la Voluntad de lo Divino en cualquier dada la situación.

En otras palabras: cuando se elabore una carta astrológica – su primer pensamiento no debe ser que usted está buscando en una disposición arbitraria de las estrellas y los planetas – usted está 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 está buscando a un pedazo de cartón con unas fotos bonitas, pero en una comunicación de que el universo mismo. Y lo mas importante – cuando experimenta la chispa de la intuición que abre el significado interno de una tirada de Tarot o carta astral o figura geomántica, no es sólo un proceso psicológico que implica la interacción de su mente consciente e inconsciente, de hecho es lo Divino Voluntad misma hablando con usted.

Es cierto adivinación, por lo tanto, es lo que hace magia en Teurgia. Por ejemplo: supongamos que tiene una idea de lanzar un conjuro o un talismán para consagrar algún propósito. Lo que usted debe hacer es realizar siempre una adivinación de antemano, preguntando: “¿Es esto una buena idea?” Y a menudo es el caso de que una adivinación dirán “No, no es una buena idea”, o “Traerá imprevistas consecuencias sobre “, o incluso:” Va a llevar a consecuencias que probablemente podría haber previsto si fueron brutalmente honesto consigo mismo. “Y así, sobre la base de que usted modificar su intención original a la luz de la adivinación, 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 práctica mágica alinearse con la Voluntad Divina a través de la adivinación, que están entrando en una relación armónica con el universo. Sin embargo, si usted no hace caso y Adivinación sólo seguir adelante sin tener en cuenta, que usted está haciendo nada mejor que la brujería, y, probablemente, atrayendo a un montón de desagradables efectos kármicos a ti mismo.

Así que: siempre lo hacen adivinación con la intención de tratar de descubrir la voluntad de lo divino – la fortuna no sólo diciendo. Trátelo 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 adivinación, lo trata con el respeto que se merece y no lo ignore.

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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 1, 2010 · 3:46 pm

Golden Dawn Manuscripts and Where to Find Them

This blog post was first published in August 2010. Recently it has been brought to my attention that some of its contents need updating! See below for details.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is of course probably the most influential occult society of all time. Recently [i.e. July 2010] a book has appeared on Amazon entitled The Golden Dawn: Unpublished Lectures of the Hermetic Order of the AO. This has sparked some controversy on message boards across the interwebby thing along the lines of “It’s a fake,” “Oh no it’s not,” “Oh yes it is,” etc ect tec.

This got me thinking: where can a scholar go to find the original Golden Dawn manuscripts him- (or her-) self? So for example one does not have to rely on books of dodgy provenance? For this reason I present the following. Note that I do not claim that accessing any of the following is easy – this is probably why the original manuscripts of the GD remain not so widely known.

The Warburg Institute, London

Contains: The Yorke Collection

This archive is famous for containing Aleister Crowley’s papers, most of which have now found their way into print – either with or without the OTO’s approval. For a Thelemic magician this would be interesting enough. However two points should be noted: amongst Crowley’s own papers are documents which he himself got from the Golden Dawn, and from Allen Bennet, when he was a member.

Secondly, the Yorke Collection also contains Golden Dawn material that would never have come into Crowley’s possession. This includes material from the AO on the Tarot, and most interestingly a number of rituals of the “Cromlech Temple” (otherwise known as the Holy Order of the Sun) which to my knowledge have not seen the light of day, proverbially speaking.

The rest of the Golden Dawn material seems to be a complete set of documents of just about everything that was published by Regardie, as well as the Flying Rolls which were later published by Francis King.

Entrance to the Warburg Institute is free so long as you are a student or member of staff of a recognised University and are engaged in a relevant course of study – documentary evidence of this will be required. So hoi polloi cannot just turn up and discover the Sun Order’s Ritual of Initiation of Fire for instance by claiming to be a “student of the mysteries,” I think they might be wise to that one.

[2018 update: Since I first wrote this, the Warburg Institute has completely redesigned its website, so that it is now quite atrocious for trying to look up what is and what isn’t in the Yorke Collection. If they have not been alienating property from the collection, they are certainly doing so to researchers! Grrr.]

Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.

Contains: The Carr P Collins Collection

Carr P Collins Jr (born 1918) was highly interested in druidism, wicca and magick and was allegedly the source of the documents which Regardie used for The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. Maddeningly however his collection is not fully inventorised – at least not on the web.

The Bridwell Library may be used by students and staff of Southern Methodist University: otherwise it is necessary to become an associate member which costs $50 per annum. As far as I am aware you have to be in situ to make use of the facilities, so if anyone is in Dallas kindly let me know what goodies are there!

The National Library of Ireland

Contains: Occult Papers of W B Yeats

Of all the members of the Golden Dawn, Nobel laureate W B Yeats achieved the most in public life, so it was kind of inevitable that the Republic of Ireland would want to preserve his papers for the world. Fortunately for the Golden Dawn scholar, Yeats was an Adeptus Exemptus of the Stella Matutina – so his archives in the National Library of Ireland contain  manuscripts from the original order of the GD, the “Morgan Rothe” which was the London faction’s name when the order split in 1900, and the latter Stella Matutina all the way up to 7=4. It also contains Yeats’ GD notes and a lot more besides.

Two documents from the higher grades of the Stella Matutina are particularly interesting. One is a detailed analysis of the Adeptus Major 6=5 ceremony, which describes the inner astral workings of the ritual: this has been published by George Mills Harper in Yeats’ Golden Dawn. The other is the 7=4 ritual itself, whose full title is “The Mystical Grade of 7º = 4 Being the Grade of the ROD Which Blossoms. ” NB A version of the 7=4 ritual was published by Pat Zalewski in which it was called the “rose which blossoms.” However, assuming the Yeats version is the correct one, this would imply that the 7=4 is themed about the story of Aaron’s Rod, which when it blossomed confimed Aaron’s authority as High Priest.

Sometime last year photos were made available on Flickr of a small sample of the kind of things which are in the Yeats collection. A goodly sample is can also be viewed online in the Virtual Yeats Exhibition.

Yeats’ handwritten / drawn notes on the Minutum Mundum

Most excitingly the Library indicates that it may make copies of items in the collection which are in good condition, also the price of actually doing so is enough to dissuade most indigent occultists.

Miscellaneous

I personally know of the location of several other original GD documents although scholarly access to them is limited for one reason or another. For example, the Library and Museum of Freemasonry at Great Queen Street has a cache of material belonging to Wynn Westcott: unfortunately it is still in the process of being catalogued so it won’t be available for public inspection until sometime in the (hopefully near) future.

[2018 update: however, a lot more work has been done since 2010 – see: The Library & Museum of Freemasonry > Explore > Search The Collections.]

There are also organisations to which members of the GD also belonged, which have material from the GD locked in their cupboards for safekeeping: however just how much is hidden away I cannot say. I was privileged enough to have a brief glimpse inside one such archive and found a single ritual dating from 1916, and nothing else from the GD (the ritual itself is one that has already been published).

Doubtless there are other archives about the place, not to mention the collections of private individuals (e.g. Bob Gilbert), so I shall probably post a follow up to this post once I have tracked them down.

[2018 update: the preceding comment should be re-read in the light of my subsequent blog-post, Golden Dawn Exhibition, 19th December 2013]

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July 27, 2010 · 7:15 pm

The Ultimate Sigil

This is a re-post of something which I did last year which appeared on my Facebook page but not on my website.

The Ultimate Sigil

So there I was,  tinkering around with sigils, and I thought to myself: “Hang on! Creating a new one for every new magic spell is a bit of a rigmarole? Why not just create one all-purpose sigil?”

The Ultimate Sigil with elemental colours.

After some experimentation, I came up with this design (see left). Given that there are 26 letters in the English language, it follows that one sigil which contains all of them therefore represents all possible sigils that can ever be expressed in English. The Ultimate Sigil, in which all 26 can be found, thus represents Omneity, in which all things exist in potentiality like an acorn which contains a full grown Oak.

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July 21, 2010 · 5:48 pm

Of (Were)Wolf And Man

Werewolves would seem to be the next sensible topic after having already dealt with Vampires. Lycanthropy, the real-life condition of believing one has transformed into a were-wolf, has been reported as still existing, at least in a study conducted in the twentieth century, although it is described as a psychosis.

Much of what we think we know about werewolves has – surprise surprise – been invented in modern times by Hollywood and by certain bestselling horror and fantasy authors. Take for example this whole business about Lycanthropy being an infection that can be passed on through biting: a modern invention! The fact of the matter is that before Hollywood came along, traditional folklore was consistent in saying that the way to become a werewolf was through Magickal rituals – either voluntarily or involuntarily.

So for example you could be made subject to a curse, either by a black magician* or by falling foul of some superstition. However it is remarkable that many ways of becoming a werewolf are through voluntarily conducted rituals – “Self Initiation In The Werewolf Tradition,” as it were: e.g. drinking water from a wolf’s paw print, sleeping outside on the night of the full moon, etc.

We are therefore faced with the fact that a great many lycanthropes were in fact people who deliberately wanted to become wolves: and moreover, there are and have been occultists in the modern era wanting to do just that. Why should they want to? Why indeed did people of old want to? Simply – in order to derive benefit from taking on the characteristics of the Wolf – or other animal as appropriate.

The classic example is that of the Berserker, who by magic ritual purported to take on the strength and stamina of a bear or wolf when going into battle. The Berserker did not physically transform, but there is plenty of evidence to say that they did take on the characteristics – such as ferocity – of the animal in question.

Amongst modern occultists who advocate animal transformation – commonly referred to as “shapeshifting” – include shamans. One has to remember that in shamanism a “power animal” has an importance equivalent to “the Holy Guardian Angel” in ceremonial magick, so that a shaman in attempting shapeshifting by becoming possessed by his or her power animal is attempting to contact the higher self. Does a physical transformation take place? Despite the fantastical nature of the idea, when one takes clairvoyance into account it is at least reasonable that it appears to happen, especially if the onlookers are all caught up in the energy of the transformation ritual.

Another occultist who practiced this kind of magick was Austen Osman Spare – who called it “Atavistic resurgence.” His idea was that we all contain within ourselves the karmas from all previous stages of evolution, including animal stages. It was thus possible to magickally draw on this in order to take on the characteristics from a previous animal stage. Interestingly although Spare never claimed that he himself transformed in appearance, he did claim that his magickal use of atavism did on at least one occasion result in the apparition of bizarre thought-forms in the air around him.

Finally, it may be noted that one magical order did provide a full framework for creating Transformation rituals – the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It is theoretically possible for an Adept to work a transformation ritual by creating an astral form and then taking it on for a while, then banishing it.

So all in all, perhaps the real psychosis of Lycanthropy is that there are some unfortunates who tried to take part in magical transformation or shapeshifting rites, but were not spiritually prepared for it – and then suffered the consequences.

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July 6, 2010 · 1:50 pm

Vampires – the Truth

As the world’s greatest expert on the occult, I often hallucinate that people are asking me whether there is any truth to this vampire mullarkey. Well, gentle reader, the answer is Yes … though not in the way depicted by certain books and films.

The modern vampire as a literary concept (“modern” here being the operative word) – of which Dracula is the definitive example, and the Twilight movies the latest continuance – derives from Eastern European folklore of the seventeenth century onwards. However the more general concept of bloodsucking monsters or demons (in humanoid form) dates right back to ancient times and spans the globe – to such an extent that one is tempted to speculate that each culture, no matter how remote, has evolved its own version of a Vampire or vampire-like monster.

It is here that the occultist ought to be on guard. If different cultures do independently come up with Vampire myths, this would suggest either or both of two possibilities. Firstly – the Vampire-idea is an archetype of the collective unconscious. Secondly – all these separate Vampire-like beings are actually based on something from real-life.

Now we may scoff at the second possibility easily enough by saying “where’s the evidence?” The first though is somewhat more serious, because it tends to suggest that in a certain way “there is a vampire in all of us” – lurking in the dark and mysterious depths of the psyche.

There have been various attempts made – in real-life – to release this “inner vampire” with varying degrees of success. On the one-hand witness the Vampire subculture which is a part of the Goth or S&M scene – which in extreme cases apparently involves actual blood-drinking. Bizarre though this lifestyle choice appears, there are however occultists who allegedly use black-magick  to transform themselves into actual vampires. There was a method published by the occultist Dion Fortune, who described it in her novel The Demon Lover (and less explicitly in her previous book The Secrets of Doctor Taverner) and also wrote about it in her non-fiction work, Psychic Self-Defence.

The method apparently is this: it requires great control of one’s astral body. Whilst astrally projecting, the putative-Vampire attempts to absorb the life-force of a victim. In this way the putative Vampire can (it is alleged) live on independently of the physical body. The Vampire in question in Doctor Taverner and described more fully in Psychic Self-Defence attached itself to a living host (i.e. not its original self) who was its regular source of “nourishment.” As you can imagine, this left the host feeling tired and run-down all the time, however it also led to a more serious side-effect: the host started having blood-cravings himself, in order to restore his own vitality.

The literature of the Golden Dawn also suggests that “astral vampires” can be created accidentally, by creating an astral form and allowing an evil spirit (or possibly just a socially-maladjusted one) to take possession of it. This is said to be one of the things that can go wrong if the order’s rituals for Invisibility or Transformation are performed badly. Such an astral vampire would then attach itself to a human host – causing the same sort of unpleasant effects as that described by Dion Fortune.

So, how does one actually get rid of Vampires? Well, one could theorise that if the Vampire-idea is archetypal, then so too are traditional Vampire-defences. However, if the theory that Vampirism is caused by unpleasant astral entities is valid, then a more scientific method is to exorcise the alleged fiend. The Golden Dawn suggests that the Supreme Banishing Hexagram of Binah Ritual should be powerful enough to get rid of even the toughest bloodsuckers: although Dion Fortune states that the method used by Doctor Taverner’s real-life counterpart involved absorbing the astral being into his own aura and then digesting it – a method so strenuous that he was left unconscious for three days after attempting it.

(This gives me an idea of how to establish its validity by experiential proof. Kidnap a Goth from off the streets of Camden and perform the Banishing Hexagram of Binah Ritual at him. If he loses all his taste in clothes and music and turns into a Chav, it obviously worked!)

More seriously though, if the Vampire-idea is indeed an archetype, a far more constructive approach would be delve into the unconscious and confront the inner-Vampire, in a sort of active imagination cum quasi-shamanistic type venture. Perhaps that is indeed the real-truth behind Vampire stories – the quest to tackle the Vampire in its lair is actually a metaphor for finding the Darkness within oneself.

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May 27, 2010 · 9:36 am

Vestigia Through The Looking Glass

To London yesterday for an evening at Treadwell’s dedicated to Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum, aka Moina Mathers. Twenty seven people were crammed into the downstairs meeting room to hear three speakers give their take on this very important figure in the history of the Golden Dawn.

Moina (née Mina Bergson, 28 February 1865 – 25 July 1928) was an artist by training, joining the Slade School in 1880. She always expressed an interest in getting back to her artistic career, but her involvement with magic, her husband S L Macgregor Mathers and poverty (arising therefrom) meant she never quite made it. As a magician, she is noted for the facts that she was a very talented clairvoyant, and helped channel a lot of the Golden Dawn’s inner order material. Moreover, however, she was instrumental in creating (with her husband) the “Rites Of Isis” – and therefore became one of the first modern Isian Priestess.

Christine, one of the speakers, had managed to translate two accounts written by contemporary French journalists of the Mathers’ “Rites of Isis” – and they appeared to be very impressive ceremonies. One journalist, André Gauché, seemed to be happy embroider his account with a certain amount of lurid fiction, although it did correspond in large parts with another account of a public ceremony staged at the Great Paris Exhibition of 1890. Mathers’ husband claimed that he and his wife were genuine Isis worshippers and also pantheists.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Golden Dawn was pioneering in insisting on admitting men and women on terms of perfect equality, because history of the time was written by men, there was a lot of focus on the Order’s male founders and not so much on its female members, such as Moina. Consequently there is not so much actually written about her comparatively speaking. Regarding details of her later life, she became ill in 1927, and passed on in 1928. What personal effects she had she left to her younger brother Paul Bergson. However her most important legacy – what she contributed to the Golden Dawn and subsequent Alpha Et Omega, suffered in 1939 when the then head of the AO burned the Order’s possessions, including a lot of furniture and papers which were painted or created by Moina.

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