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You have already been taught two symbolic schemes for allotting the metals to the Sephiroth — each is capable of defence — for pointing out certain alliances and the alchemical relations of these Metals. I add here a scheme, of my own, for allotting to the Decad ten non-metallic lighter elements recognised by modern chemistry.
The analogies are very curious, and can be greatly extended. It may be possible also to rank the true metals along with the Sephiroth in the Chemical Order of their actual purity and as they the more nearly approach pure Basic Hyle, or the ‘one matter’, in addition to the G.D. Forms. The Sephiroth are progressive Emanations, each less exalted than the former, and they pass down plane after plane, and may be looked upon each as more material than the last. And in Assiah there may be scales alike of Metals, Metalloids, and other substances, in similar ratios. If such were the case, the Alchemical theory of successive steps of purification would in natural course transmute each metal into the one above. The Lead into Copper, the Copper into Silver, the Silver into Gold, the Gold into the Elixir Vitae, the gold of Vegetable and Animal life. Alchemy taught that all metals consisted of the Mercury of the Philosophers and of a Sulphur, which fixed it — made it solid. The Merc. Phil. was not the Quicksilver of commerce, not the Hydrogen of the modern Chemist — the one fluid metal. Our Mercury they called Hydrardgyram, — Water of silver — fluid, silver-coloured. They thought it to be Silver in a state of ‘low temperature fusion’ — They also called it ‘Proteus’ = of diverse forms. The Alchemists found Gold to be extremely heavy, so they experimented chiefly with those other metals which were most heavy; — lead, quicksilver and copper, believing they must be nearest to Gold in order of steps of change, or that each heavy metal needed fewer processes for conversion, or less purification. They argued — for example — Lead nearly resembles Gold in weight, therefore Lead consists almost entirely of Mercury Philosophorum and Gold. If a body be found, which will so work on the Lead, as to burn out of it all that is not Mercury Phios, and then we fix that Mercury by a Sulphur, we should obtain Gold as the result. Relative weights of equal bulks are about:
Many of the ‘Elements’ so called from 1750 to 1800 have been since broken up, by analysis; notably Potash and Soda, which were shown to be compounds in 1807 — by Davey. The Alchemist recognised three principal ways of making Gold. First, by Separation; for many minerals contain some Gold. Second, by Maturation, by processes designed to subtilise, purify, and digest Mercury; which convert it into a heavier body, and at last into Gold itself. They looked on Mercury as an Alloy of Gold and Something: by processes of Fire, and by adding suitable material for combustion; the impurity was to be burned off and pure Gold to remain. Thirdly, by fusing with base metals, some of that peculiar compound, the Stone of the Philosophers, a perfect transmutation was to occur, the faeces would be burned off, and the Metallic Root appear as Gold. For example of Alchemical argument, I have read ‘if we take 19 ounces of Lead and fuse it with a proper Agent, and so dissipate 8 ounces we shall have 11 ounces remaining, and this can be nothing but pure Gold, because Gold and Lead are as 19 to 11. Otherwise if the process be gradation, and we reduce 19 to 14 first, the result will be Mercury, but then the process may be continued and the further reduction to 11 will equally be Gold, as without the middle step’. From another point of view, they said ‘the Stone of the Philosopher’s is a most subtle, fixed and concentrated fiery body which when it is added to a molten metal does, as if by a magnetic virtue, unite itself to the Mercurial body of the metal, vitalises and cleans off, all that is impure, and so there remains a molten mass of pure Sol.’ But as aforesaid, — I believe it is useless for any one to waste time on purely chemical experiments. To perform Alchemical processes, requires a simultaneous operation on the Astral plane with that on the physical. Unless you are Adept enough to act by Will power, as well as by heat and moisture; by life force, as well as by electricity, there will be no adequate result. So far as I know, — I do not speak by order — power of transmutation may arise, side by side with other magical attainments — Labor omnia vincit. It is not conferred by any Grade — it is occasionally rediscovered by the private student: it is never actually taught in so many words. It may dawn on any one of you, — or the magic event may occur when least expected! Footnotes: [1] Le Dictionaire Mytho-Hermetique, states ‘The Fountain found within the Garden’, is the ‘Mercury of the Wise’, which comes from divers sources because it is the ‘Principle’ of the seven metals, and is formed by the influence of the seven planets, although the Sun alone is properly speaking the Father, and Luna, the Mother. The Dragon who three times drinks, is the putrefaction which overcomes the matter, and is so called from its black colour, and this Dragon loses his scales, or skin, when the Grey colour succeeds the Black. You will only succeed if Sol and Luna aid thee; by means of the regimen of Fire you must bleach the Grey colour to the Whiteness of the Moon (and then obtain the redness of Sol as the last stage). By the ‘Fishes’, is meant bubbles in the heated crucible. ‘Lake’ often means vase, retort, flask, alembic’. [ « back to TOC ] Flying Roll No. VIII.
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Just as the man looks at you, so does the Moon look at you and so you say that the Moon in her increase is on the side of Mercy, the right hand pillar of the Sephiroth; and in her decrease, the crescent is on the left hand Pillar of Severity. A Diagram, then, is a picture of a Man or the Moon facing you. The Temple Pillars are similar:
That is, the white Mercy or Jachin Pillar is on your right hand as you approach the Altar from the West and from the Hiereus. (See Chronicles II. iii, 17.) “And call the Name on the right hand (of him who enters) Jachin, and the Name of that on the left, Boaz.” Now Boaz = Strength, Severity, Binah, Black Pillar, and Jachin = White Pillar of Mercy. |
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So in making the Qabalistic Cross on your breast it is correct to touch the Forehead and say Ateh-Thou art; the Heart-Malkuth; right Shoulder, ve-Geburah; left Shoulder ve-Gedulah, and with the fingers clasped on the Breast say, Le olahm, Amen!
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CONCERNING THE SYMBOLISM OF SELF-SACRIFICE AND CRUCIFIXION CONTAINED IN THE 5°=6° GRADE
By G. H. Frater D.D.C.F. (S.L. MacGregor Mathers)
This lecture was delivered on Good Friday, March 31st, 1893, to the Adepti in College Assembled.
Dealing first of all with the diagrams in the First Order and proceeding upwards, it will be noticed that in the lowest Grade in the Outer (0°=0°) there are no diagrams properly so called, but that on the two Pillars is depicted the symbolism of the passage of the Soul from the Egyptian Ritual of the Dead: this being as it were a synthetical aspect to be developed and explained with the advance of the candidate through the various stages.
After the first Grade comes the 1°=10°, where we find the first form of the Sephiroth in the Tree of Life; — this is the representation of the Flaming Sword descending, but it is not until the 2°=9° comes that we begin to find the actual symbolism of self sacrifice.
The 2°=9° Altar Diagram, then, represents the Serpent of Wisdom twined through the Paths. In the 4°=7° Grade, however, you are shown the same Serpent, its representation being that of the Serpent Nechushtan. This was the Serpent of Brass that Moses made in the Wilderness, and which was turned around the central Pillar of Mildness, — having three cross bars upon it, — representing a species of triple cross.
Dealing now with the Altar Diagram of the 3°=8° Grade, it will be seen that Adam is the Tiphereth part: wherein he is extended. That is to say that the form of the man is projected from there.
The figure of Eve stands in Malkuth in the form of the Supporter.
The first ideal form of the Man is in Adam Kadmon — behind the Kether form and, as it were, the prototype of the Tiphereth form. This Tiphereth answers to the letter Vau of the Holy Name, as representing the Prince. The letter Vau also represents the number Six and Adam was created on the Sixth Day, for Tiphereth is the symbol of the Creation. Furthermore, the Hexagram consists of the two forms Fire and Water; — i.e. the ideal Fire and the ideal Water; the Spirit and the Water of Creation, — the spiritual Ether and the Ethereal Fire (the Fire of the Holy Spirit). Thus, in the Creation the Man is extended from Tiphereth i.e. the moment Adam is created, that is the beginning of the reflection of the lower Triad, and, finally, of Malkuth. Eve is the synthesis of Creation and represents the Mother of Life, as the name ChaVaH is. The 3°=8° diagram thus represents the establishment of life, i.e., created life, and the Good and Evil is represented in Malkuth, and it is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because it is the balance point between Good and Evil: for in the material body we are placed to give the victory to which we will. Hence the significance of the words of the Serpent, ‘Ye shall be as Gods, knowing Good and Evil’. But the knowledge of Evil brought with it the descent into the Qlipoth, and although Malkuth is directly involved in the ‘fall’, the Sephiroth immediately above cannot be said to have actually entered into the knowledge of Evil. Therefore in the allegorical account of the Creation in Genesis, it is said that Man is checked from putting forth his hand to take of the Tree of Life, so as not to involve the higher Sephiroth in the ‘Fall’, which, (he being unbalanced in himself) would only have precipitated disaster.
In the 4°=7° Diagram we find represented the Fall and the consequent rise of the Dragon, which in the 3°=8° Diagram is represented coiled beneath Malkuth in the Kingdom of the Shells; but it only raises its heads to the Sephiroth by right of the Crowns of the Kings of Edom.
These latter represent the Worlds of unbalanced force before the Creation is established. They furthermore symbolize the places of the Sephiroth which are hollowed and before the light fills the cavities.[1] ‘Before all things were the Waters, and the Darkness, and the Gates of the Land of Night.’ Note also the War of the Titans who rise and fight against Jupiter.
The Edomite Kings, therefore, are not altogether evil, but they are partly connected with Evil. They are the Forces of Restriction.
The result, therefore, on a higher plane, in the Tree, is that the Great Serpent rises to Daath, and if the Four Worlds be placed upon the Tree itself, it will be observed that the cutting off by the Serpent is between Yetzirah and Briah. Thus Evil cannot arise into the World of Briah, or indeed transcend the limits of Yetzirah. But if we seek for the correspondence of Evil in the Worlds of Briah and Atziluth, it will be found to consist in a lesser form of Good — a limiting, restricting, and binding Force without which you cannot have Form on the higher planes. It is only in the Worlds of Yetzirah and Assiah that the analogue of this principle becomes absolutely Evil.
This idea was expressed by the Gnostics when they said that the Achamoth[2] attempted to comprehend the Pleroma, and could not understand it, and from the grief of her were formed the demons and the evil spirits.
If therefore we seek to institute an analogy between the Microcosm it will be seen that the Nephesch refers to Malkuth and Assiah. Ruach will refer to Yetzirah, which is the World of Formation; therefore the formative principle operating in Ruach gives form to all ideas, and is that which weighs, balances, and works in things. Ruach can also have an evil side.
Neschamah equals the higher aspirations of the Soul, which aspire to the ideal. There can be no positively evil side to Neschamah: — there will only be a higher or lower aspiration.
If the Ruach overpowers the Neschamah; if the Neschamah seeks the lower good, both will be ruined. The following of a false idea cannot be said to be exactly evil, but is a lower Good than it should be.
Neschamah will answer to the World of Briah: — so also will Chiah, which is allotted to Chokmah; but you cannot touch the Yechidah part of you with your Ruach, — you must use the consciousness of the Neschamah. This Yechidah will, together with Chiah, be the ‘Higher Genius’, though this again will not be the Highest Self. For in and behind Kether will reside a part of the being, which it is impossible to understand, and which one can only aim at; this is the Highest Soul, and answering to the highest part of Yechidah, cannot be touched by Neschamah. There must be a mode of transferring the synthesis of the consciousness making up the Man to this upper Sephirah. The Fall, which cut away the higher from the lower Sephiroth in Daath, was also our descent into this life, as it were, from that Upper and Higher Soul. Therefore our object is to get into contact with that again, which is only to be done through the Neschamah, which is the Divine Mother of the Soul, — our Aima.
When the Candidate enters the Vault and kneels down at the second point, he does so at the centre of the Altar above the symbolic form of the Adept, who is the synthesis of the sides of the Vault, whence he has come forth and occupies a central position between Kether and the World of the Shades, — being there protected by the rising glory of the Golden Cross and the Rose. Then this Prayer is said: ‘Unto Thee, Sole Wise, Sole Mighty, and Sole Eternal One, be Praise and Glory for Ever’. Now it must be the Macroprosopus, the Amen, who is addressed here, — the Lord of Kether who has permitted the Aspirant who now kneeleth before Him to penetrate thus far into the Sanctuary of His Mysteries (which is in the Centre of the Universe). Not unto us, but unto His Name be the Glory (which is the Name YHVH with the addition of the letter Shin). ‘Let the influence of Thy Divine Ones descend upon his head,’ (These Divine Ones are Angelic Forces, and the Higher Self is in the nature of the Angelic Forces, as the Highest Self is in that of the Divine One.), ‘and teach him the value of Self sacrifice, so that he shrink not in the hour of trial, but that thus his name may be written on high’ (that is, that the Divine NAME formulated in him may be brought up, as it were, to the heights) ‘and may stand in the Presences of the Holy One’ (which Genius will be a mighty Angelic Power, and in form far different from the petty personages we are here) ‘in that hour when the Son of Man is invoked before the Lord of Spirits and his Name in the Presence of the Ancient of Days’.
This will be the synthetical form of the Son of Man, the BEN ADAM, who is the synthesis of the Ruach of the Universe; in other words, the allusion is to the Great God of the World of Yetzirah, or the Microprosopus, the Son of the first Adam when he is invoked before the Lord of Spirits, which can be but in Kether; and his Name in the Presence of the Ancient of Days. ‘He Who is ancient before the Gods, ancient before time, ancient before the formation of the Worlds, He the ETERNAL AMON — or even He Who is before AMON, and Whom the plumes of Amon’s headdress only touch’.
Now the foregoing partly represents the mode in which the Initiate becomes the Adept: — the Ruach directed in accordance with the promptings of the Neschamah keeps the Nephesch from being the ground of the Evil Forces, and the Neschamah brings it (the Ruach) into contact with the Chiah, i.e., the Genius which stands in the Presence of the Holy One (=the Yechidah=the Divine Self), which stands, as it were, before the synthetical God of All Things. That is the only real way to become the Greatest Adept, and is directly dependent on your life and your actions in life.
And upon the lid of the Pastos this process is symbolically resumed: there we see the suffering Man, pitiful and just, before whose justice and purity the heads of the Dragon fall back, but on the upper half there is depicted a tremendous and a flaming God, the fully initiated Man,—the Adept who has attained his Supreme Initiation.
It will be noticed that in the 4°=7° Diagram the heads of the Dragon have seized the Sephiroth but, as before remarked, on the lid of the Pastos they are falling back from the figure on the Cross — they are dispossessed only by the sacrifice of the Lower Self.
Recall to your mind that passage in one of the Eddas: ‘I hung on the Tree three days and three nights, wounded with a spear, myself a sacrifice offered to my (Highest) Self, — Odin unto Odin.’ It will furthermore be noticed that this way of looking at the matter at once makes a reconciliation between the account in the Gospel of the Christ as a calm, peaceful, and pitiable Man, and the representation in the Apocalypse of a tremendous and flaming God. A glance at the top half of the Pastos shows the descent as a Flaming Sword which casts out the evil, — the whole surrounding being white with brilliance. ‘And He had in His right hand Seven Stars… and the Seven Stars represent the (Arch)angels of the Seven Churches’, or Abodes in Assiah, at His feet…
The life of Nations is like the life of men; — they are born, become intellectual, direct that intellect to black ends, — and perish. But every now and then, at the end of certain periods, there are greater crises in the World’s history than at other periods, and at such times it becomes necessary that Sons of God should be incarnated to lead on the new era of the Universe. I do not affirm that Christ was necessarily a man who obtained Adeptship in that incarnation, but rather one who had obtained Adeptship and come down to be incarnated again to lead up the new era. It was, however, necessary in the crucifixion of so great a Soul, — so that the form might actually suffer, — that everything except the Nephesch should be withdrawn, which would be the reason for the cry of the Nephesch, ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ For the Nephesch which was temporarily abandoned in this case was the cloak of that incarnation. In other words, the only mortal part about the Man, or the God, and then only after incurring that physical death, as it were, could the other divine parts suddenly come down and make it the resurrected or glorified body, which, according to the description, had after the Resurrection the apparent solidity of the ordinary body and the faculties of the Spirit body. Because if you can once get the great Force of the Highest to send its Ray clear down through the Neschamah into the mind, and thence, into your physical body, the Nephesch would be so transformed as to make you almost like a God walking on this Earth.
The Ruach, then, has to undergo a certain check and suffering in order to attain its Apotheosis — which is the Work of our Adept.
In the fully Initiated Adept, the Nephesch is so withdrawn into the Ruach that even the lowest parts of these two principles cease to become allied to the body and are drawn into the first six Sephiroth. This is again brought out in the Obligation, where you say, ‘I pledge myself to hereby give myself to the great Work, which is so to exalt my lower nature that I may at length become more than human, and thus gradually raise and unite myself to my Higher and Divine Genius.’ If it is a very great thing to unite yourself to the Genius, how much more so must it be to unite yourself to the God that is behind it!
Looking at the Pastos, it will be seen that it represents a kind of triple cube, the whole of which is placed between Light and Darkness. The lid is half Light and half Darkness (the upper end is the symbol of Light, and the lower the symbol of Darkness), while the sides have the Colours placed between the Light and the Darkness. At the head is placed a Golden Greek Cross, representing the Spirit and the Elements, and a Red Rose of seven times seven Petals, and there are four Rays which go out from it. But at the foot, — that on which the feet rest as if they were exalted by it, — is the Cross exalted on a Pedestal of Three Steps, viz. the Obligation Cross. This latter is also to an extent represented on the top in the crucified form, and symbolises the voluntary sacrifice of the Lower Will, which is incidental to allying the intellect with the higher aspirations and to the establishment of your consciousness therein: — thus if the ordinary consciousness were centred in the Ruach, you could touch the Neschamah, while if it were in the latter, you could touch the Genius.
Now this transference of consciousness from Ruach to Neschamah is one object of the ceremonial of the 5°=6° Ritual: — it is a thing which will be more readily understood when the Grade of Adept Adeptus Minor is reached. It is especially intended to effect the change of consciousness into the Neschamah, and there are three places where it can take place. The first is when the Aspirant is on the Cross, because he is so exactly fulfilling the Symbol of the Abnegation of the Lower Self and the Union with the Higher Self: — and also there is the Invocation of the Angel H.V.A.
The second place is when he touches the Rose on the representative of C.R. in the Vault, when he has taken on himself the symbols of suffering and self-sacrifice, and says that his victory is in the Cross of the Rose.
The third place is when he enters the Vault in the Third point and kneels down and the Chief Adept says: — ’I am the Reconciler with the Ineffable. I am the Dweller of the Invisible. Let the White Brilliance of the Divine Spirit descend.’
In these three cases a possible exchange of the consciousness from the Ruach into the Neschamah is initiated, so that whether he understands it or not, the Aspirant actually approaches his own Genius.[3]
The most complete part of the actual contact is in the Third point, where the Chief Adept says: — ’I am the Resurrection and the Life! He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die.’ I.e., if you can live at will in the Neschamah and touch the Genius, you will have made a great step towards the divine Elixir, for you will be worthy to sit with the Gods, and that which you drink of is the real Elixir, the Elixir of the Spirit of Life.
Then the Second Adept says: — ’Behold the Image of the Justified One, crucified on the Cross of the Infernal Rivers of Daath,’ and the Third Adept shows deific antithesis, — the Exaltation into the Divine. Then the Chief Adept says again: — ’I am the First and the Last’ — the Aleph and the Tau and the Yod and Heh Final of the Sacred Name, — ’I am He that liveth but was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen’, that is using the name of the Egyptian Deity AMON, or Amen, who represents the Ideal God Force, — ’and I hold the Keys of Death and of Hell’ (because if you stand on Malkuth and keep your touch with the Gods, you hold the Keys of that which is below).
But the Lower Self all this time has an existence, for it certainly is not quite eliminated:—it is cast forth from the Nephesch, yet preserving a link with it, it goes down into the Qlipoth, and in this connection, it is well to observe that what may be really Evil on this Earth Plane, may be even as a God among the Demons.
The words ‘He descended into Hell’ have such a significance.
This Third point then represents the Attainment of the Divine: — and the Second Adept proceeds to say — ’He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the Assemblies’, (i.e., in Malkuth) and if the Voice of the Divine is found in Malkuth, it must find its echo in the Realms beneath.
Then follows the Exaltation into Neschamah of the Consciousness of the Chief Adept, whose Voice seems as if he were symbolically standing with his head in Atziluth, whence his Voice reverberates through the Worlds, sinking down below Malkuth unto the Dominion of the Shells, and he says: — ’For I know that my Redeemer liveth’ (the Redeemer is He that brings again) ‘and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me etc.’ This whole passage of the Chief Adept is formed of a collection of utterances which are, as it were, the speeches of the Great Gods, which he can only hear when he is still further exalted into Kether. ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life’ is the Reflected Triad. ‘No Man cometh unto the Father but by Me.’ Then the Neschamah speaks; down to ‘I have entered into the Invisible.’ Then it is as if the Consciousness went into the Genius, which says ‘I am the Sun in His rising; I have passed through the hour of Cloud and of Night.’
Then follows: — I am Amon, the Concealed One, the Opener of the Day’, — like the Great God in Atziluth — ’I am Osiris Onnophris, the Justified One’, who is perfected in the Balance and risen above all considerations that come from Maya, or illusion, and Who seeks only the eternal life from above, and then, as if in a supreme moment ‘I am the Lord of Life, triumphant over Death. There is no part of Me that is not of the Gods.’ (That is the Voice of Kether). This again is followed by a synthetical culmination, as if all the Divine Ones united in the utterance: I am the Preparer of the Pathway, the Rescuer unto the Light! Out of the Darkness, let the Light arise!’
Then the Aspirant is prompted to say: — ’Before I was blind, but now I see’, — representing again the blindness to the Neschamah Consciousness and the passage into this.
Whereupon the Chief Adept says: — ’I am the Reconciler with the Ineffable! I am the Dweller of the Invisible! Let the White Brilliance of the Divine Spirit descend!’
The Aspirant is now told to rise an Adeptus Minor of the Rose of Ruby and the Cross of Gold, in the Sign of Osiris Slain, — and then ‘We receive thee as an Adeptus Minor in that Sign of Rectitude and Self Sacrifice.’
The affirmation of the three parts is then proceeded with — The Chief Adept says:
‘Be thy Mind open to the Higher.’ Second: ‘Be thy Heart a Centre of Light’, and Third: ‘Be thy Body the Temple of the Rosy Cross.’
The Pass Word is then announced, which is formed from the Mystic Number of the Grade, 21, — this Pass Word, however, is the Divine Name of Kether, Eheieh, — and it is used as the Pass Word of this Grade of Tiphereth in order to affirm the connection between the two.
Then the Chief Adept says that the Keyword is I.N.R.I. The three Adepts themselves represent Chesed, Geburah and Tiphereth. The Creator, the Destroyer and the Sacrificed One, ISIS, APOPHIS and OSIRIS = the name IAO. The Symbol of Osiris Slain is the Cross; L is the Sign of the Mourning of Isis; V the Sign of Typhon and Apophis; X the Sign of Osiris Risen; = LVX, the Light of the Cross, or that which symbolises the Way into the Divine through Sacrifice. So that the symbolism in its entirety represents the Exaltation of the Initiate into the Adept.
[Read the: RITUAL OF THE 5°=6¤ GRADE OF ADEPTUS MINOR]
Footnotes:
[1] The Light which comes down and fills the cavities is to be found allegorically set forth in the story of the usurpation of the younger brother in the story of Esau and Jacob.
[2] The Gnostics called this Achamoth, but probably this was a corruption of Chokmutha.
[3] There are some cases where the Genius may have attained a height and fallen; that is when, having touched the Ruach in one incarnation, it has been so wrought upon by the sufferings of the lower part that it has for the moment consented to slacken the tension of their Union. Now if the Genius part, instead of identifying itself with the God part, identifies itself too much with the Neschamah, a Fall of the Genius takes place, which is not altogether evil, but may entail a certain evil effect.
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OF CLAIRVOYANCE
By G.H. Fra. D.D.C.F. (S.L. MacGregor Mathers)
In order to obtain a clear idea of the relation of Man to the Universe, and to the spiritual planes, it is necessary to understand and perceive that the scheme of the Ten Sephiroth, and their symbolic representation as the Tree of Life is to be applied both to the Macrocosm and to the Microcosm; to the Celestial Heavens to Stars, Planets, the World, and to Man. One aspect of this assertion that has been recently pointed out to you, and has been demonstrated to you on the globe, is in reference to the scheme of Divination; you must further extend this idea when considering the rationale of Clairvoyance and must recognise a Sephirotic arrangement in the constitution of every Star, and of every atom, of Man and his principles.
We look above us into heaven, and see the Stars, and it is commonly supposed that we see the material globes, their Malkuth, but they are complex in constitution and we see but their luminous aura or atmospheres, containing the rest of the Sephiroth, etc., or a reflection of them.
Then as to ourselves, we must never forget our own complex Sephirotic symbolism, and that our bodies that we feed and clothe are but our Malkuth on its lowest plane, and that the higher nine Sephiroth hover around us in our auras, or atmosphere.
We pass through life affecting others, and being affected by others through these akashic envelopes that closely surround us — so that when we close the eyes of the body and senses upon the material world, we first apprehend by interior vision the essences of our own and contiguous natures. This perception of our own environment is a source of error to the beginner in Clairvoyance; for he believes himself to have gone away and to see elsewhere, and may be but among the confused images of his own aura.
An old name of Clairvoyance, in our ancient MSS was ‘Skrying in the Spirit Vision’; becoming a ‘Skryer’ was not simply becoming a Seer, but one who descries what he seeks, not only the impassive receiver of visions beyond control or definition.
When one stands in common life in the kingdom of Malkuth, there is but little confusion of sight, but when one voluntarily leaves the dead level of materialism and passes up the Path of Tau towards Yesod, then there is a confusion of lights; one comes within the scope of the crossing, and reflected, and coloured, rays of the Qesheth, the Rainbow of colours spread over the earth, and here then we require instruction and guidance to avoid confusion and folly. And yet this stage must be passed through — to go higher.
Beyond Yesod you enter the path of Samekh, the strait and narrow path which leads to truly spiritual regions of perception, this is attained by the process called Rising in the Planes.
Our subject falls most conveniently into three heads, which are however, closely related, and the three forms or stages pass one into the other.
Clairvoyance. Descrying in the Spirit Vision.
Astral projection. Travelling in the Spirit Vision.
Rinsing in the Planes.
Begin with simple Clairvoyance, and then pass to the other states.
It is well to commence this form of practical occultism by means of a Symbol, such as a drawing, or coloured diagram, related in design, form and colour to the subject chosen for study. The simple and compound Tattva emblems are suitable for this process. It is better for them not to be in the complementary ‘flashing’ colours for this purpose as though more powerful, they are also more exhausting to the student. The Symbol should be of convenient size, for the eye to take it in at a glance, and large enough no to require too close an application of sight to realise the details.
There are several scales of colour, but for our present purpose we need only note two. Firstly, the scale of the King, that of the G.D.; and that of the Adept Minor. Scarlet is Fire, Yellow is Air, Blue is Water, Four dull colours are Earth and White is Spirit. Secondly, the Tattva scheme, which is nearly the same as our scale of the Queen, which is applied also to the Sephirotic colours in the Minutum Mundum Diagram. Red is Fire, greyish White is Water, Golden Yellow is Earth, Blue (greenish) is Air, Violet Black is Akasha or Spirit.
Tablets and Telesmas are described as being made in Flashing Colours, when in one tablet, a certain colour and its direct complementary are shown in opposition and shine by contrast. In such tablets do the elemental forces manifest most readily, and most students can perceive their flashes of radiance, which are, however, partly subjective and partly objective. They attract and reflect the rays of light from the akashic plane enveloping them.
These tablets when formed by an Adept of high spiritual attainments receive from him a charge of akashic force of a magnetic character; as line by line and colour by colour is added, the Telesma grows in virtue as well as progresses to completion. But the beginner fails, thus, to impregnate his work with his vital astral force and his finished Telesma needs a ceremony of consecration, after which the figure should remain sacred to his touch alone. All Telesma, however, are better consecrated ceremonially, for they then hold more firmly the ‘charge’ of force, and if carefully preserved, apart from contamination, and from influence by other Telesma, will retain force for an indefinite period. All powerful Occult work, such as this, exhausts the Vital force, especially from beginners, and you will feel at first distinct exhaustion from loss of akasha, which however is not lost but transferred to the symbol and there preserved, fading away from thence, only slowly into the ocean of energies.
To use the Symbol for Clairvoyance, place it before you, as on a table, place the hands beside it, or hold it up with both hands, then, with the utmost concentration, gaze at it, comprehend it, formulate its meaning and relations. When the mind is steady upon it: close the eyes and continue the meditation, and let the conception still remain before you, keep up the design, form, and colour in the akashic aura, as clearly as they appeared in material form to the outward seeing. Transfer the Vital effort from the optic nerve to the mental perception, or thought seeing as distinct from seeing with the eye; let one form of apprehension glide on with the other — produce the reality of the dream vision, by positive will in the waking state. All this will be only possible if the mind is steady, clear and undisturbed and the will powerful. It cannot lead to success if you are in an unsuitable state of anxiety, fear, indignation, trouble or anticipation. You must produce peace, solitude and leisure and you must banish all disturbing influences.
But, above all, never attempt these Magic Arts if there be any resentment in the mind, anger , or any evil passion; for if you do, the more you succeed, the greater will be the evil that will follow — for yourself.
With the condition favourable, the process may be continued, and this, by means of introducing into the Consciousness and by formulating into sound, the highest Divine Names connected therewith; this invocation produces and harmonises currents of spiritual force in sympathy with your object. Then follow with the sacred names of Archangelic and Angelic import, producing them mentally, visually and by voice.
Then, maintaining your abstraction from your surroundings, and still concentrating upon the symbol and its correlated ideas, you are to seek a perception of a scene, panorama, or view of a place. This may also be brought on by a sense of tearing open, as a curtain is drawn aside and seeing the ‘within’ of the symbol before you. As the scene dawns upon you, particularise the details, and seek around for objects, and then for beings, entities and persons — attract their attention, call mentally to them by suitable titles and courtesies, and by proper and appropriate signs and symbols, such as the signs of the Grades, Pentagrams, etc. Test them by divine and angelic names, observing their attitude and responses thereto. Thus losing sight of the symbol, you see its inwardness, perceive things as in a mirror by Reflection. In this form of Descrying, note, that you see objects reversed, as to right and left, for which suitable allowance must be made. You project, in this process, part of your own nerve and spirit force upon the symbol, and by this you attract and attach to it more akashic force from the environment, hence the results obtained. If, instead of this Simple Spirit Vision, a ray of yourself is sent and actually goes to a place (astral projection) there is not necessarily the sense of reversal of objects.
In using Symbols it is necessary to avoid Self hypnotisation, for this occurrence would dispose you to mediumship, and to be the playground of forces you must control, and not permit to control you. For this reason, partly, it is well not to have the Symbol too small. It is of advantage to pursue these researches with the aid of the presence before you of the four Magical Implements, and even to hold the one suitable to the investigation. If you enter upon the Spirit Vision without a Symbol you proceed by a mental symbol, imagined in the Astral Light: this is not a wise proceeding for learners because it opens the door to other Astral effects; you create a vortex, into which other astral influences are drawn and hence confusion and mischief may result.
The process of working by a small symbol placed upon the forehead, or elsewhere, is not wholly good; it is more liable to derange the Brain circulation and cause mental illusion and disturbance, headache, and nervous exhaustion than the first method.
In using symbols, placed before you — it is a useful addition to provide a large circular (or square) tablet, around which are placed Divine Names etc. related to the Elements, and to the cardinal points; then after arranging this duly, with respect to the compass, place your symbol upon and within this frame.
Astral Projection, although from one point of thought a development of Clairvoyance, yet is from another distinct: in Astral Projection, the Adept emits from his Ego a perceptible ray of his identity, and by cultured and instructed Will, sends it to travel to the place desired, focuses it there, sees there — directly and not by reflection — perceives its bodily home, and re-enters it.
In this Travelling of the Spirit the process may be caused to start also by the Symbol, as before, or by Will alone; but anyway the Divine names should be used and relied upon. If the ray be emitted, and you succeed in this travelling to the place — you perceive a different result to that of the clairvoyant, mirror-like vision-scenes and things instead of being like a picture, have the third dimension, solidity, they stand out first like bas relief, then you see as from a Balloon, as it is said, by a bird’s eye view. You feel free to go to the place, to descend upon it, to step out upon the scene, and to be an actor there.
Having attained success in projection you should practice the method when opportunity offers, and having passed to any place, should make efforts — and if you Will — success will follow — to pass through all elements, Water and Earth as well as through Air — practise will enable you to fly through air either quickly or slowly as willed, and to swim through water, or pass through earth and through fire fearlessly with the aid of the Divine Names, in this Astral Projection.
Seek then the forms and persons of the place or of the Plane you reach to, seek converse with them, by voice, word, letter and symbol and claim admission etc. by signs, and by invocation. Every figure is to be tried and tested, whether he be as he appears or whether a delusive and deluding embodied power. It may be, too, that your travel is not real, and that you are wandering in your own environment, and are misled by memory etc.; hence you might be self-deceiving by your own reminiscences.
Try all beings, and if offered favours or initiation by any, try and test them by Divine names and forces; and ever remember your own Adept Obligation and your allegiance to it, to your own Higher Self, and to the Great Angel HVA, before whom you stood fastened to the Cross of Suffering, and to whom you pledged your obedience.
This old Proverb enshrines a great truth, as many of them do: ‘Believe thyself there and thou art there.’
Rising in the Planes is a spiritual process after spiritual conceptions, and higher aims; by concentration and contemplation of the Divine, you formulate a Tree of Life passing from you the spiritual realms above and beyond you. Picture to yourself that you stand in Malkuth — then by the use of the Divine Names and aspirations you strive upward by the Path of Tau toward Yesod, neglecting the crossing rays which attract you as you pass up. Look upwards to the Divine Light shining down from Kether upon you. From Yesod leads up the Path of Temperance, Samekh, the arrow cleaving upward leads the way to Tiphereth, the Great central Sun of Sacred Power.
Invoke the Great Angel HUA, and conceive of yourself as standing fastened to the Cross of Suffering, carefully vibrating the Holy Names allied to your position, and so may the mental vision attain unto Higher Planes.
There are three special tendencies to error and illusion which assail the Adept in these studies. They are, Memory, Imagination and actual Sight. These elements of doubt are to be avoided, by the Vibration of Divine Names, and by the Letters and Titles of the ‘Lords Who Wander’ — the Planetary Forces, represented by the Seven double letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
If the Memory entice thee astray, apply for help to Saturn whose Tarot Title is the ‘Great One of the Night of Time’.
Formulate the Hebrew letter Tau in Whiteness.
If the vision change or disappear, your memory has falsified your efforts. If Imagination cheat thee, use the Hebrew letter Kaph for the Forces of Jupiter, named ‘Lord of the Forces of Life’. If the Deception be of Lying — intellectual untruth, appeal to the Force of Mercury by the Hebrew letter Beth. If the trouble be of Wavering of Mind, us the Hebrew letter Gimel for the Moon. If the enticement of pleasure be the error, then use the Hebrew letter Daleth as an aid.[1]
Never attempt any of these Divine processes when at al influence by Passion or Anger of Fear — leave off if desire of sleep approach, never force a mind disinclined. Balance the Mem and the Shin of your nature and mind, so as to leave Aleph like a gentle flame rising softly between them.
You must do all these things by yourself alone. No one can make you nor take you. Do not try to make, or take others. You may only point out the Path, and guide but must not help others.
A strong person can galvanise a weak one, but its effect is only a temporary folly, doing good neither to the strong nor to the weak. Only offer guidance to those who are making necessary efforts of themselves; don’t assist a negligent pupil, nor encourage one whose desire is not in the work.
This rule is open to some alteration when, passing from our Mystic studies, you refer to the worldly guidance of childhood — a parent is in a special position, and has a natural duty incumbent upon him or her to train, guide, and protect a child.
Still, even here, do protect and lead, but don’t ‘obsess’ a child, don’t override by your peculiar personal predilections all the personal aims of the offspring. A man’s ideal of true propriety is often himself, and his idea of doing good to a child is to make it like himself. Now, although this father may be a good man, his form of goodness is not to be made a universal type, and there are many other forms equally existing, and equally fit to exist, and any attempt to dictate too closely a child’s ‘though life’ may, while failing of success, yet warp aside from the truth what would otherwise pass into a Good Path, through its own peculiar avenue.
It is well to make all symbols for Clairvoyant use yourself, otherwise, to obtain a purely individual result, you have to banish the influence of him who made them.
It is best to do high Clairvoyance alone, or only with others of the utmost purity, and in whom you have the utmost confidence.
If more than one is attempting in concert the same process, there is the source of error that there becomes formed in the Astral Light a complex symbol, and a struggle ensues as to who shall lead the direction of the currents. When two sit together, as in the Vault, they should be balanced: and so with three. For two; one each side of Pastos or one at each end; for three assume the position of the angles of a triangle, say one at head of Pastos, one at the Right and at the Left hand of the form of Christian Rosycross.
Example:
The V.H. Soror V.N.R. 6°=5º, sat at a table, robed, and took a Tattva card coloured symbol (Tejas-akasha) — an erect red triangle, upon which is a dark violet black egg shaped centre. She placed her hands beside her side, or held it in turns before the eyes (held the Magic Fire Wand). Gazed and contemplated and considered as the Symbol grew before her, so enlarged and filled the place, that she seemed to pass into it, or into a vast triangle of flame. She realises that she is in the presence of a desert of sand, harsh, dry and hot.
Thinks of and vibrates — Elohim. Action seems set up, increase of heat and light. Passing through the symbol and scene: seems to arrive and descend there, feels the hot dry sand — perceives a small pyramid in the distance — Wills to rise up and fly through air to it, descends beside it, passes around, sees a small square door on each side. Vibrates — ’Elohim-Michael-Erel-Seraph, Darom. Ash.’
Stamps five times — figure appears at an entrance, stamps again five times and vibrates Seraphiel. A Warrior figure leads out a procession of Guards, she asks for his Seal — he shows a complex Symbol of four triangles around a central emblem — ? deceptive. Draw Beth before him — he appears terrified. Withdraw Symbol — he is courteous — ask him about pyramid; he says they conduct ceremonies there — she seeks admission — gives sign of 0°=0º — there is a sense of opposition — gives sign 1°=10º, this appears to suffice — But he gives signs of Adeptship — Guards kneel before her and she passes in — dazzling light, as in a Temple. An Altar in the midst — kneeling figures surround it, there is a dais beyond, and many figures upon it — they seem to be Elementals of Fiery nature — she sees a Pentagram, puts a Leo into it, thanks the figure who conducts her — Wills to pass through the pyramid, finds herself out amid the sand. Wills her return — returns — perceiving her body in Robes seated in the Second Order Hall.
Footnotes:
[1] Use the Hebrew letter Peh for mars to coerce sense of anger and violence. Use the Hebrew letter Resh for the Sun to coerce sense of haughtiness, vanity.
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TELESMATIC IMAGES AND ADONAI
By G.H. FRATER D.D.C.F. (S.L. Macgregor-Mathers)
Now there is also a mode whereby, combining the letters, the colours, the attributions and their Synthesis, thou mayest build up a telesmatic Image of a Force. The Sigil shall then serve thee for the tracing of a Current which shall call into action a certain Elemental Force. And know thou that this is not to be done lightly for thine amusement or experiment, seeing that the Forces of Nature were not created to be thy plaything or toy. Unless thou doest thy practical magical works with solemnity, ceremony and reverence, thou shalt be like an infant playing with fire, and thou shalt bring destruction upon thyself.
See well also that thou makest the Image as pure and beautiful as possible, for the more impure or common the figure, the more dangerous is it unto thee. Write upon the breast its Sigil, upon the girdle its Name, and place clouds below the feet. And when thou hast done this with due solemnity and rigid correctness of symbolism, shunning as thou wouldst shun death any suggestion of coarseness or vulgarity in an Angelic symbol, then hear what it shall say unto thee.
Seraphim will give thee an Angelic Figure like a Warrioress with Flame playing about her, and a countenance glorious like the Sun, and beneath her feet the stormy Sea and thunder clouds, and lightning about her, and a glow as of Flame. She has a triangular helmet or headdress of Flame like the symbol of Fire.
Graphiel will give thee a Great Angel like a Female Warrior with a most glorious countenance, crowned with the Crescent and flashing with Ught, and surrounded by Flame and Lightning and with Four Wings.
The termination EL always gives to Angelic Forms the Wings and Symbols of Justice. The ending YAH will make the Figures like enthroned Kings or Queens, and with flaming glory at their feet.
In vibrating the Divine Names, the Operator should first of all rise as high as possible towards the idea of the Divine White Brilliance in KETHER — keeping the mind raised to the plane of loffiest aspiration. Unless this is done, it is dangerous to vibrate only with the astral forces, because the vibra-tion attracts a certain force to the operator, and the nature of the force attracted rests largely on the condition of mind in which the operator is.
The ordinary mode of vibrating is as follows: Take a deep and full inspiration and concentrate your consciousness in your heart, which answers to Tiphareth. (Having first, as already said, ascended to your Kether, you should endeavour to bring down the white Brilliance into your heart, prior to centering your consciousness there.)
Then formulate the letters of the Name required in your heart, in white, and feel them written there. Be sure to formulate the letters in brilliant white light, not merely in dull whiteness as the colour of the Apas Tattwa. Then, emitting the breath, slowly pronounce the Letters so that the sound vibrates within you, and imagine that the breath, while quitting the body, swells you so as to fill up space. Pronounce the Name as if you were vibrating it through the whole Universe, and as if it did not stop until it reached the further limits.
All practical occult work which is of any use, tires the operator or withdraws some magnetism, and therefore, if you wish to do anything that is at all important, you must be in perfect magnetic and nervous condition, or else you will do evil instead of good.
When you are using a Name and drawing a Sigil from the Rose, you must remember that the Sephirah to which the Rose and Cross are referred, is Tiphareth, whose position answers to the position of the heart, as if the Rose were therein. It is not always necessary to formulate before you in space the telesmatic angelic figure of the Name. As a general rule, pronounce the Name as many times as there are letters in it.
TELESMATIC ATTRIBUTIONS OF THE LETTERS OF THE HEBREW ALPHABET
| א | ALEPH | Spiritual. Wings generally, epicene, rather male than female, rather thin type. |
| ב | BETH | Active and slight. Male. |
| ג | GIMEL | Grey, beautiful yet changeful. Feminine, rather full face and body. |
| ד | DALETH | Very beautiful and attractive. Feminine. Rather full face and body. |
| ה | HEH | Fierce, strong, rather fiery; feminine. |
| ו | VAU | Steady and strong. Rather heavy and clumsy, masculine. |
| ז | ZAYIN | Thin, intelligent, masculine. |
| ח | CHETH | Full face, not much expression, feminine. |
| ט | TETH | Rather strong and fiery. Feminine. |
| י | YOD | Very white and rather delicate. Feminine. |
| כ, ך | CAPH | Big and strong, masculine. |
| ל | LAMED | Well-proportioned; feminine |
| מ, ם | MEM. | Reflective, dream-like, epicene, but female rather than male. |
| נ, ן | NUN | Square determined face, masculine, rather dark. |
| ס | SAMEKH | Thin rather expressive face; masculine. |
| ע | AYIN | Rather mechanical, masculine. |
| פ, ף | PEH | Fierce, strong, resolute, feminine. |
| צ, ץ | TZADDI | Thoughtful, intellectual, feminine. |
| ק | QOPH | Rather full face, masculine. |
| ר | RESH | Proud and dominant, masculine. |
| ש | SHIN | Fierce, active, epicene, rather male than female. |
| ת | TAU | Dark, grey, epicene; male rather than female. |
(These genders are only given as a convenient guide.)
There is another method of assigning gender based upon whether or not the sound of the HEBREW Letter is arrested or prolonged. If the former it is masculine, if the latter it is feminine — as follows:
SOUND PROLONGED (MASCULINE)
| Aleph | broad A | Beth | B-Bh |
| Vau | U,V, 00 | Zayin | Z |
| Caph | K, Kh | Nun | N |
| Samekh | S | Ayin | O, Ngh, Au |
| Qoph | Q, Qh | Resh | R |
| Shin | Sh, S |
SOUND ARRESTED (FEMININE)
| Gimel | G, Gh | Daleth | D, Dh |
| Heh | H | Cheth | Ch (gutteral) |
| Teth | T | Yod | I, J, Y. |
| Lamed | L | Mem | M |
| Peh | P, Ph | Tzaddi | Tz |
| Tau | T, Tb. |
SUMMARY
In the vibration of Names concentrate first upon the highest aspirations and upon the whiteness of Kether. Astral vibrations and material alone are dangerous. Concentrate then upon your Tiphareth, the centre about the heart, and draw down into it the White Rays from above. Formulate the letters in White Light in your heart. Inspire deeply, and then pronounce the letters of the Name, vibrating each through your whole system — as if setting into vibration the Air before you, and as if that vibration spread out into space.
The Whiteness should be brilliant.
The Sigils are drawn from the lettering of the Rose upon the Cross, and these are in Tiphareth, which corresponds to the heart. Draw themas if the Rose were in your heart.
In vibrating any Name, pronounce it as many times as it has letters. This is the Invoking Whirl.
Example: The Vibration of ADONAI HA-ARETZ.
Perform the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram in the four quarters of your room, preceded by the Qabalistic Cross. Then in each quarter give the Signs of the Adeptus Minor, saying IAO and LVX, making the symbol of the Rose-Cross as taught in the paper describing the Rose-Cross Ritual.
Pass to the centre of the Room, and face East. Then formulate before you in brilliant white flashings the Letters of the Name in the form of a Cross — i.e. both perpendicular and horizontal, as seen in the diagram below:
Formulate the perception of Kether above you, and draw down the White Light about this cross. Then, taking a deep inspiration, pronounce and vibrate the Letters of the Name. Flashing brilliant White Light should hover round them. This is the Expanding Whirl in the Aura.
Having gained the whiteness, then form the Telesmatic Image, not in your heart but before you, extending it and encouraging the ideal figure to expand and fill the Universe. Then immerse yourself in its rays and absorbing, also be absorbed by, the brightness of that Light, until your Aura radiates with its brightness.
These, then, are two processes: The INVOKING WHIRL related to the Heart. The EXPANDING WHIRL related to the Aura.
ADNI makes the figure from head to waist; HA-ARTZ from waist to feet. The whole Name is related to Malkuth, Matter, and Zelatorship.
ALEPH. Winged, white, brilliant, radiant Crown.
DALETH. Head and neck of a woman, beautiful but firm, hair long, dark and waving.
NUN. Arms bare, strong, extended as a cross. In the right hand are ears of corn, and in the left a golden Cup. Large dark spreading Wings.
YOD. Deep yellow-green robe covering a strong chest on which is a square lamen of gold with a scarlet Greek Cross — in the angles four smaller red crosses.
In addition a broad gold belt on which ADONAI HA – ARETZ is written in Enochian or Hebrew characters.
The feet are shown in flesh colour with golden sandals. Long yellow green drapery rayed with olive reaches to the feet. Beneath are black lurid clouds with patches of colour. Around the figure are lightning flashes, red. The crown radiates White Light. A Sword is girt at the side of the figure.
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SECRECY AND HERMETIC LOVE
By V.H. Sor. S.S.D.D. (Florence Farr)
We have all no doubt heard of the terrible physical tests applied in Egyptian Initiations and are aware that violence amounting to torture was used in the Ancient Mysteries before the Neophyte was considered fit to take the first steps in his Ascent of the Mountain of God.
Though the methods of our Order are different the Spirit is the same, and unless we have learned indifference to physical suffering, and have become conscious of a Strong Will, a will which fears nothing fate can do to us, we can never receive a Real Initiation.
These ceremonies in the lower grades of Our Order are principally active in disciplining our minds; they lead us to analyse and understand ourselves. They deal with the Four states of Matter, the Four Elements of the Ancients which with their synthesis answer to the five Senses. Our Senses are the paths through which our Consciousness approaches the central power which for want of a more accurate word I will call the Will.
It is the object of our lives as initiates to bring this Will to such a state of perfection, strength, and wisdom, that instead of being the plaything of fate and finding our calculations entirely upset by trivial material circumstances, we build within ourselves a fortress of strength to which we can retire in time of need.
The natural Man is a chaotic mass of contradictory forces. In the higher grades of the First Order, (by presenting a perfectly balanced series of symbols to the senses) we endeavour to impress upon the imagination of the initiates, the forms under which they can obtain perfection and work in harmony with the world force.
In the 0=0 Ceremony the principles most insisted on are Secrecy and Brotherly Love. Apart entirely from the practical necessity for secrecy in our Order, it is the fact that Silence is in itself a tremendous aid in the search for Occult powers. In darkness and stillness the Archetypal forms are conceived and the forces of nature germinated. If we study the effects of calm concentration we shall find that in silence, thoughts which are above human consciousness clothe themselves with symbolism and present things to our imagination, which cannot be told in words.
The more thought and concentration of purpose that precedes an action, the more effective and effectual it will be. Again in talking on subjects such as these, there is always a terrible danger of personal influence or obsession coming into action. The Eagle does not learn to fly from the domestic fowl "nor does the Lion use his strength like the horse, and although knowledge is to be gained from every available source, the Opinion of others should receive the very smallest attention from the true student of Life.
Free yourselves from your environments. Believe nothing without weighing and considering it for yourselves; what is true for one of us, may be utterly false for another. The God who will judge you at the day of reckoning is the God who is within you now; the man or woman who would lead you this way or that, will not be there then to take the responsibility off your shoulders.
"The old beauty is no longer beautiful; the new truth is no longer true, is the eternal cry of a developing and really vitalised life. Our civilisation has passed through the First Empire of pagan sensualism; and the Second Empire of mistaken sacrifice, of giving up our own consciousness, our own power of judging, our own independence, our own courage. And the Third Empire is awaiting those of us who can see that not only in Olympus, not only nailed to the Cross, but in ourselves is God. For such of us, the bridge between flesh and spirit is built; for such among us hold the Keys of life and death.
In this connection I may mention that the 0=0 of the Grade of Neophyte has a deep significance as a symbol; a 0 means nothing to the world to the initiate in the form of a circle it means all, and the aspiration of the Neophyte should be "In myself I am nothing, in Thee I am all; Oh bring me to that self, which is in Thee."
Having so far considered some of the thoughts that the practice of silence may bring you let us proceed to the subject of brotherly love.
We must of course take the word, as we take all higher teaching, as a symbol, and translate it for ourselves into a higher plane. Let me begin by saying that any love for a person as an individual is by no means a Hermetic virtue; it simply means that the personalities are harmonious; we are born under certain influences, and with certain attractions and repulsions, and, just like the notes in the musical scale some of us agree, some disagree. We cannot overcome these likes and dislikes; even if we could, it would not be advisable to do so. If in Nature, a plant were to persist in growing in soil unsuited to it, neither the plant nor the soil would be benefited. The plant would dwindle, and probably die, the soil would be impoverished to no good end.
Therefore brotherly love does not imply seeking, or remaining in the society of those to whom we have an involuntary natural repulsion. But it does mean this, that we should learn to look at peoples actions from their point of view, that we should sympathise with and make allowances for their temptations. I would then define Hermetic or Brotherly Love as the capacity of understanding anothers motives and sympathising with his weaknesses, and remember that it is generally the unhappy who sin.
A crime, a falsehood, a meanness often springs from a vague terror of our fellows. We distrust them and ourselves.
It is the down-trodden and the weak whom we have to fear; and it is by offering them sympathy and doing what we can to give them courage, that we can overcome evil.
But in practising Hermetic Love, above all things conquer that terrible sting of love jealousy. The jealousy of the benefactor, the jealousy of the lover, or the friend, are alike hateful and degrading passions. Jealousy is deeply rooted in human nature nourished by custom, even elevated to a virtue under the pretence of fidelity.
To see human nature at its very worst you have only to listen to the ravings and threats of a person who considers his monopoly of some other persons affection is infringed. This kind of maniacal passion is the outcome of the egotism · deux, which has been so fostered by romance.
But it is natural to wish to help and be necessary to those we love, and when we find others just as necessary or helpful, to feel bitterly that our "occupation is gone; but these regrets will be impossible to us when we can live in the world realising from day to day more fully that the highest and best principle within us is the Divine Light which surrounds us, and which, in a more or less manifested condition, is also in others. The vehicle may be disagreeable to us, the personality of another may be antipathetic, but latent light is there all the same, and it is that which makes us all brothers. Each individual must arrive at the consciousness of Light in his own way; and all we can do for each other is to point out that the straight and narrow path is within each of us. No man flies too high with his own wings; but if we try to force another to attempt more than his strength warrants, his inevitable fall will lie at our door.
This is our duty towards our neighbours; our duty towards God, is our duty towards ourselves; for God is identical with our highest genius and is manifested in a strong, wise, will freed from the rule of blind instinct.
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TALISMANS AND FLASHING TABLETS
By Frater Sapere Aude (W. Wynn Westcott)
A TALISMAN is a magical figure charged with the torce which it is intended to represent. In the construction ota Talisman, care should be taken to make it, as far as is possible, so to represent the Universal Forces that it should be in exact harmony with those you wish to attract, and the more exact the symbolism, the more easy it is to attract the force — other things coinciding, such as consecration at the right time, etc.
A SYMBOL should also be correct in its symbolism, but it is not necessarily the same as a Talisman.
A FLASHING TABLET is one made in the complementary colours. A flashing colour, then, is the complementary colour which, if joined to the original, enables it to attract, to a certain extent, the Akasic current from the atmosphere, and to a certain extent from yourself, thus forming a vortex which can attract its flashing light from the atmosphere. Therefore, to make anything of this description which shall be really operative, so does it proportionately tire you.
The complementary colours are:
| White | complementary to Black and Grey |
| Red | complementary to Green |
| Blue | complementary to Orange |
| Yellow | complementary to Violet |
| Blue Green | complementary to Red-Orange |
| Violet | complementary to Citrine |
| Olive | complementary to Violet |
| Reddish Orange | complementary to Green Blue |
| Deep Amber | complementary to Indigo |
| Lemon Yellow | complementary to Red Violet |
| Yellow Green | complementary to Crimson |
The other complementaries of other mixed colours can easily be found from this scale.
Coming now to the nature and method of formation of the Talisman, the first thing to be remembered is that it is not always a just and right thing to form a Talisman with the idea of completely changing the current of another person’s Karma. In any case you could only do this in a certain sense. It will be remembered that the words of the CHRIST which preceded His cures were “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” which meant that the Karmic action was exhausted. Only an Adept who is of the nature of a God can have the power, even if he have the right, to take upon himself the Karma of another. That is to say, that if you endeavour to change completely, (I am not now speaking of adapting and making the best of a person’s Karma), the life current, you must be of so great a force that you can take this Karma from them by right of the Divine Power to which you have attained — in which case you will only do it in so far as it does not hinder their spiritual development.
If, however, this is attempted on a lower plane, it will usually be found that what you are endeavouring to bring about is in direct opposition to the Karma of the person concerned. It will not work the required effect and will probably bring a current of exhaustion and trouble on yourself. Without doing much good you will have attracted his own Karma into your own atmosphere and, in fact, brought it on yourself.
These remarks only apply to an attempted radical change in the Karma of another, which is a thing you have no right to do until you have attained the highest adeptship.
The formation or adaptation of Talismans in ordinary matters should be employed with great discernment. What may assist in material things is often
a hindrance spiritually, seeing that for a force to work, it must attract elemental forces of the proper description, which may thus, to an extent, endanger your spiritual nature.
Also, in making Talismans for a person, you must endeavour to isolate yourself entirely from him. You must banish from your mind any feeling of love or hate, irritation, etc., for all these feelings operate against your power.
It is but rarely that a Talisman for the love of a person is a right and justifiable thing to construct. Purelove links us to the nature of the Gods. There is a perfect love between the Angels and the gods because there is perfect harmony among them, but that is not the lower and earthly love. Thus a Talisman made for terrestrial love would be sealed with the impress of your own weakness, and even if successful, would react on you in other ways. The only way in which real power can be gained, is by transcending the material plane and trying to link yourself to your Divine and Higher Soul. That is why trouble is so great an initiator, because trouble brings you nearer spiritual things when material things faiL
Therefore, a Talisman as a rule is better made for one in whom you have no interest. In the work of actual consecration, it is always a good thing to purify the room and use the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. All these are aids which the Adept, when sufficiently advanced, will know when to use and when not to do so. It is better, if possible, to finish a Talisman at one sitting, because it is begun under certain conditions and it may be difficult to put yourself in the same frame of mind at another time.
Another point that beginners are apt to run away with, is that Talismans can be made wholesale. Suppose a dozen Talismans were made to do good to as many different people, a ray from yourself must charge each Talisman. You have sent out a sort of spiral from your aura which goes on to the Talisman and attracts a like force from the atmosphere — that is, if you have
learned to excite the like force in yourself at the moment of consecration. So that, in the case supposed, you would have a dozen links connecting with you, like so many wires in a telegraph office, and whenever the force which any of these Talismans was designed to combat becomes too strong for the force centred therein, there is an instantaneous communication with you — so that the loss of force to which you would be continually liable might be such as to deplete you of vitality and cause you to faint.
In cases where Talismans and symbols have done their work, they should be carefully decharged, and then destroyed. If this is not done, and you take a symbol, say of water, still charged and throw it into the fire to get rid of it, you are inflicting intense torment on the Elemental you have attracted, and it will react on you sooner or later. Also, if you throw away a still charged Talisman, thus desecrating it, it will become the property of other things, which, through it, will be enabled to get at you. It is for these reasons that the Talisman should be decharged with the Pentagram and Hexagram according as it partakes of the planetary or zodiacal nature — and these remarks apply equally to Flashing Tablets.
If a Talisman is given to a person who goes away, and does not return it, you can render it inoperative by invoking it astrally and then decharging it with great care and force.
A FLASHING TABLET should be carefully made charged, and consecrated, and then each morning the Adeptus should sit before it and practise clairvoyance, endeavouring to go through it to the plane it represents, and then to invoke the power and ask for strength to accomplish the matter desired, which will be granted if it be a lawful and laudable operation.
Any Flashing Tablet of two colours should be as nearly balanced in proportion of the extent of colour as possible — the ground one colour, and the
charge another. There is also a mode in which three colours can be used in a planetary talisman. This is done by placing the seven colours on the Heptagram, and drawing two lines to the points exactly opposite, which will thus yield two flashing colours. This properly drawn, will give the effect of a flashing light playing on the symbol, partly visible physically and partly clairvoyantly, i.e., if properly charged. An advanced Adept should be able to charge his Tablet to a certain extent as he constructs it.
The radical colour of the Planet is symbolical. But a Talisman for harmony of idea say, could be well represented by the TIPHARETH of VENUS—a beautiful yellow-green, and so on.
The Lion Kerub of VENUS would represent spiritual fire and thus symbolises the inspiration of the poet — the colour being a soft and beautiful pearl grey, and the charges should be white. The Watery part of Venus would represent the reflective faculty and answer to spiritual beauty, colour a bluish-green. The Vault contains a perfect scale of Talismans of every description of Planet, and shows how a planetary man will look at everything according to the colour of his aura, due to the planet under which he is born. The real Adept comes forth from the sides to the centre. He is no longer under the dominion of the Stars.
Having made a Magical Talisman, you should use some form of charging and consecrating it, which is suitable to the operation. There are certain words and Letters which are to be invoked in the charging of a Tablet, the Letters governing the Sign under which the operation falls, together with the Planet associated therewith (if a planetary Talisman). Thus in Elemental operations, you take the Letters of the appropriate zodiacal triplicity, adding AL thereto, thus forming an Angelic Name which is the expression of the force. Hebrew Names as a rule, represent the operation of certain general forces, while the names on the Enochian or Angelical Tablets represent a species of more particular ideas. Both classes of Names should be used in these operations.
After preparing the room in the way laid down for the consecration of lesser magical implements, supposing this to be an Elemental Talisman, first formulate towards the Four Quarters the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram as taught. Then invoke the Divine Names, turning towards the quarter of the Element.
Let the Adeptus then, being seated or standing before the Tablet, and looking in the requisite direction of the force which he wishes to invoke, take several deep inspirations, close the eyes, and holding the breath, mentally pronounce the letters of the Forces invoked. Let this be done several times, as if you breathed upon the Tablet pronouncing them in the vibratory manner. Then, rising, make the sign of the Rose and Cross over the Tablet, and repeating the requisite formula, first describe round the Talisman, a circle, with the appropriate magical implement, and then make the invoking Pentagrams five times over it, as if the Pentagrams stood upright upon it, repeating the letters of the Triplicity involved with AL[1] added. Then solemnly read any invocation required, making the proper sigils from the Rose as you pronounce the Names.
The first operation is to initiate a whorl from yourself. The second, to attract the force in the atmosphere into the vortex you have formed.
Then read the Elemental Prayer as in the Rituals, and close with the Signs of the circle and the cross (that is the Rose-Cross) after performing the necessary Banishing.
Be careful, however, not to banish over the newly consecrated Talisman, as that would simply decharge it again and render it useless. Before Banishing, you should wrap the charged Talisman in clean white silk or linen.
Footnotes:
[1] For Fire put Shin first, then three Fiery Signs, then AL. So far for elemtary ones. For Planetary ones you may add AL to the Planets letter or to the Planet and its Houses, the letters of them,and the planet and triplicity, use the hexagram made six times. For Zodiacal ones add AL to the letters of the sign and use pentagram five times. When you use the three letters of three Signs of a triplicity for elemental working you should put as the initial letter that of the Sign principally invoked as most useful to you.
[January 15, 1893.]
Appendix
By G.H. Frater D.D.C.F. (S.M. Macgregor-Mathers)
The Talismanic symbols — or Telesmatic Emblems as they are sometimes called — are formed from the Geomantic Figures by drawing various lines from point to point of each.
These characters are then attributed to their ruling Planets and Ideas. For example, the most simple forms will be:
Here follows a complete table of all the Talismanic Figures classed under the Planets and Signs.
The characters of Saturn and Zazel taken from Carcer equals Capricorn.
The characters of Saturn and Zazel taken from Tristitia equals Aquarius.
The characters of Jupiter and Hismael taken from Acquisitio equals Sagittarius.
The characters of Jupiter and Hismael taken from Laetitia equals Pisces.
The characters of Mars and Bartzabel taken from Rubeus equals Scorpio.
The characters of Mars and Bartzabel taken from Puer equal Aries.
The characters of Sol and Sorath taken from Fortuna Major equals Leo.
The characters of Sol and Sorath taken from Fortuna Minor equals Leo.
The characters of Venus and Kedemel taken from Amissio equals Taurus.
The characters of Venus and Kedemel taken from Puella equals Libra.
The characters of Mercury and Taphthartharath taken from Albus equals Gemini
The characters of Mercury and Taphthartharath taken from Conjunctio equals Virgo.
The characters of Luna and Chasmodai taken from Populus equals Cancer.
The characters of Luna and Chasmodai taken from Via equals Cancer.
The characters of Caput Draconis are:
The characters of Cauda Draconis are:
MODE OF FORMATION OF TALISMANS AND PANTACLES
The mode of using these Talismanic Characters drawn from the Talismanic Figures in the construction of a Talisman or Pantacle, is to take those formed by the figures under the Planet required, and to place them either at the opposite ends of a wheel of eight radii as shown, or to place them in the compartments of a Square. A versicle suitable to the matter is then to be written within the double line.
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MAN AND GOD
By G.H. Fra. N.O.M. (Dr. W.W. Westcott)
The circle of Members of the Adeptus Grade of the Order R.R. et A.C. is a fraternity of students of the Hermetic Sciences and of the Hermetic Art.
The chain which unites us is in the acceptance of the doctrines and wisdom contained in the Rituals of our Order. The same assertion is true of the Order of the G.D., that preliminary course of instruction through which all must have passed. The common ground of Brotherhood is the sincere acceptance of the Hermetic ancient philosophy, as expressed in the Ritual, and Pictorial and Symbolic representations which have been tendered to us at each stage of our progress.
The G.D. teaching has reference mainly to Religion and to Philosophy; but it is of course obvious that our Rituals are but outlines and landmarks in the world of thought.
The vacant spaces each member fills for himself or leaves blank.
A little consideration will assure us that these vacant spaces are filled by individual members in very different manners. Every shade of unorthodoxy is represented among us; and some of us are almost orthodox, yet we are all sensible of a mighty tie which binds us together: this is our Ritual Wisdom.
Whence these rituals come, through whom they come, and even who are our present Temple Chiefs are all matters of secondary interest. The personal element of rule is but a question of the arrangements of time, place and finance, and there is no claim of authority by any beyond the accepted Ritual. You who are here today to listen to this lecture (or you who read it hereafter), have come to this Hall only to seek from my words further suggestions of thought on Occult teachings, you are well aware that I represent myself alone, in what I say, and that you are each perfectly free to take what seemeth good unto you and to reject the refuse. In my honour to the Order in which I bear a part, I have always made the clearest distinction between the Ancient Ritual and our modern comments, and this distinction you must always bear in mind, for it must not be considered that the doctrines of any single elder or ruler are necessarily all true to the Hermetic faith. All individuals go astray even if some go farther than others. The Order here then has no Pope nor Popess and our Bible at every stage is imperfect; we are fellow students, still crying for the Light; and every lecture given here is but the expression of personal opinion, from someone who has far longer than most trod the path of Hermetic progress, and the proportion of doctrine or fact which you accept must be estimated by yourselves, for yourselves — it is a duty you owe to yourselves to work out your own transmutation — to change the powers of physical sensuous life into the refined spiritual faculties of Adeptship, in truth as well as in name. As senior Adept among you, just now, my duties are to keep you to the doctrines of our Rituals, as far as they go, — to leave you quite free where they do not lead, but to stimulate your efforts in the search for the Philosophic Gold by occasional short essays of my own, which although quite without authority, will suggest subjects and lines of thought which those who have gone before you have found fruitful of high ideals.
I am about to take, today, a leaf from the clerics and say something on two texts, from the Hebrew Bible; and so you are all free to think as you please about the subject.
My opinion is that a part is historical, and a part of the history is allegorical and that while it was intended as a text book for the populace, yet there are in it many references to an esoteric creed held by the priests of the Nation.
It seems to me that the Divine Names of the Hebrew Volume especially hide and yet reveal a glimpse of the secrets of Divine power, majesty and governance. Occult Science has in every age seen mighty mysteries in the name Jehovah. Now the two texts I am about to refer to, alike, allude to the great name Elohim.
The first text is found in Exodus XXXII, Verse I, and was as I will remember, used as a text by my G. H. Fra. D.D.C.F. in a lecture he gave ten years ago to the Hermetic Society of my dear Friend Anna Kingsford — it is the words of the Israelites to Aaron, when Moses had gone up to seek God.
Make us Elohim which shall go before us, or, let us make Gods to help us, to form our ideals. The other text is in Genesis I, 26, Veamar Elohim Nosher Adam Be Azelinunu Re demuthun. And the Elohim said let us make man-in our image and after our likeness. Note the contrast, and alternation of expression. The men cried let us make gods. The Gods said let us make men. We are here seeking gods, or divine ideals, and we are making men; for men make themselves and they make their own gods.The Poet sings:
The Ethiop gods have Ethiop eyes
Thick lips, and woolly hair;
The gods of Greece were like the Greeks
As keen, as cold, as Fair
A modern philosopher has written “The Gods may have made man, but men have made their own Gods, and a pretty mess they have made of it”. Let us be careful what gods we make for ourselves, and on what pedestals we place them.
The great Jehovah may have made man in the Garden of Eden, it matters not to me; but I know I make myself, and I know you are hourly making yourselves — the child is father to the man indeed, quite as surely as that the man is father of the child — a mighty mystery. Now Moses had gone up into the holy mountain to seek divine help: this Sinai was the Mountain of God — the Mountain of the Caverns, the Mountain of Abiegnus, the mystic Mountain of Initiation — that is of divine instruction. Even so do we seek inspiration in the mystic Mountain, passing through the wilderness of Horeb, that period life which is at first a desert to us, as we cast aside worldly joys, and seek to pass through the Caverns — our Vault, to union with the spiritual powers above us, which send a ray of light to illiumine our minds and to fire our hearts, the spiritual centre, with an enthusiasm for the higher life of greater self sacrifice, more self-control — by which means alone can man reach up to the Divine and become one with the All self — the great OneAll.
Our V.H. Sor. S.S.D.D. has in an earlier Roll pointed out this passing through the desert, and that volume of beautiful thoughts, the Voice of the Silence alludes to the same period of trial, which must precede success in the attainment of the Higher Life — Light on the Path too, well portrays the period of transition, when by the energy of enthusiasm the inspired pupil casts aside wordly ambition and the joys of life, the pride of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and stands seeking the foothold of the first step of the mystical ladder, whose ascent can fill the heart with such sublime aspirations that the way is no longer steep, nor the path dreary, and when the dawning Sun of Tiphareth, shedding a ray of splendour upon the Path, encourages the toiler to the consummation devoutly to be desired. I have said that we make our own gods, and this is a great secret truth. Moses made his God, and impressed his ideal upon the people he led — Mohomet formulated his own idea of God, and of post mortem union with God, and of a Heaven where men are visitors to a vast Supernal Harem. Jesus taught his idea of his Father, and his suggestions have tinctured the God ideal of millions; but the mere adherence of the millions to any doctrine is but slender evidence of its truth, for as Carlyle has said, the majority of men are fools — Man does not alone formulate a Deity, but designs also a contrast to our notion of Supernal greatness, knowledge and power. So does Genesis, for there we find Jehovah thwarted by the Serpent; we find in the book of Job that the Supreme One was lead into folly or ingratitude or worse, by Satan who came before him among the Sons of God and by dint of applying to Job every earthly suffering, sought to degrade him before his Master. We find the Evangelists describing a Satan only second to Jesus, who had power to promise, and, we must suppose, to confer upon Jesus, either Lordship of the World or a divine supremacy over matter, — if he would but tender a nominal submission.
We find the mediaeval European priest formulating the grotesque horned and tailed human demon, and lastly we are instructed concerning the Qabalistic enumeration of the Evil and Averse Sephiroth. Are not these all human ideals, and if we were but philosophic at heart, should we not confess that these notions are but futile attempts to express the unknown and unknowable? No man can go beyond his own powers, and if we do but formulate as divine our own highest ideal not much harm may be done, so long as we grant equal powers of formulation to our brothers.
But in respect to Evil Beings, let us forbear, and beware of speculating or designing forces contrasted to our high ideals; for the mind has a creative force we but little know of, or understand, and in our ignorance we may create in our own auras evil personalities in spaces that might have remained vacant.
Never risk the creation of Evil forces, let us avoid and repel all the evil promptings that attack us with firmness, courage and decision — but avoid arrogance and impertinence, for even the so-called evil forces, the contrasted powers have functions to perform, and even the evil forces may help forward the good, as is so beautifully alluded to in our Adeptus Ritual. Suffice it to say, that every man has a dual nature, or every man has dual forces — Yetza ha Ra-Yetzer ha Job — attendant upon him; or as the Theosophist prefers to put the matter, man has a higher and a lower manas, and the destiny of any individual is within limits under his own control.
The general result of this present life may be upward or downward, for Man has Free Will, within limits, and very expansible limits too. God, or the Divine Powers, did indeed design and constitute the plan of Mans constitution, origin and destiny, and it is but of slight moment, whether in philosophy we view Man as a Ternary, a Septenary or as a Decad, but it is of vital importance to remember that with Free Will comes personal responsibility, and that every thought and act; that we are daily and hourly making the future history of ourselves, and piling up destiny whose realisation cannot be baulked by divine interposition nor changed by a maudlin sentimental repentance, nor by the surreptitious substituted sufferings of others. The type of man may indeed be viewed as emanating from the Elohim of Life, from the High Septenary of Powers, and his constitution may be in elementary form allotted to the Sun as the Giver of Vital Fire, — to the Moon for the Astral Mould of Form, to the Earth for the Material body: the Planets and Stars may influence mans form, stature and tendencies, but the destiny of the Thinker will depend upon the Thoughts. This is all true of man as a type of Creation, — Man as an Individual hourly makes himself — One life makes another. There may be a final Heaven, a final rest, a re-absorption into Deity, but this is not yet. The ladder of progression from earth to heaven must be climbed, before the foot can attain the summit. Some egos may go up rapidly, some may pass slowly, self exertion is the measure of success.
Let us then make Man-make the Divine Man out of the Human Man. Let us create the Hermetic ideal man from the material sensual man. It is our bounden duty to rend the Veil Paroketh and to let our human intellect attain to the perception of the Holy of Holies which shines within us from above. For now we see us in a Glass darkly, but with the Veil rended, we shall see God face to face.
How have the Alchemists of old, when passing from the physical, drawn the picture of the Souls transmutation or translation to eternity from time, — how have they also figured this Soul Growth and Development.
They wrote in beautiful allegory:
The Heart of man is as the Sun, the reception organ for the Divine Ray of spiritual intuition descending unto Man. The Brain of Man is as the Moon, — the source of human intellect. The Body of Man is the Earthy vehicle.
Let the sun impregnate the Moon, or let Spiritual Fire prompt the human intellect — and let the result fructify in the womb of a purified Body, and you will develop the Son of the Sun, the Quintessence, the Stone of the Wise, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
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THE HISTORY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER
By G.H. Fra. N.O.M. (Dr. W.W. Westcott)
The opening words of that part of the 5°=6° Ritual which deals with the History of the Order of R.C. are as follows:
Know then 0 Aspirant, that the Order of the Rose and Cross hath existed from time immemorial and that its mystic rites were practised and its hidden knowledge communicated in the initiations of the various races of Antiquity, Egypt, Eleusis, Samothrace, Persia, Chaldea and India alike cherished these mysteries, and thus handed down to posterity the Secret Wisdom of the Ancient Ages.
This statement is one which comes home to every member of the 5°=6° Grade, for although, in a sense, one in that position, is but on the threshold of really serious Occult study and development it is still easy enough to trace the masterful manner in which our mystic knowledges has been consolidated; and the essential unity of the system speaks eloquently of the Wisdom which formulated it.
Albeit the manner of its introduction into mediaeval Europe is chiefly interesting to us, C.R. is the great figure-head around which has clustered the most romantic traditions of mediaeval Occultism. History has not passed down the real name of this unique character: for C.R. is obviously a fictitious or assumed name chosen for mystic purposes.
Born in 1378 and dying in 1484, a life of 106 years was apparently the term of his physical manifestation: and to his exertions and efforts, it is that we may ascribe the great reformation of Occultism in the West. Fired by a noble purpose and ensouled by divine energies, his was the beau ideal of a life of Occult usefulness: it recks little if the world knew nought of that obscure personality, but it was a matter of supreme importance to the progress of Western Occultism and the full significance of this observation will probably be only appreciated by you in proportion as you may advance hereafter. The first years of his eventful life were spent in study, both intellectual and occult, to be eventually followed by a series of initiations at several places (out of Europe) Where there existed Temples of our Order. Thus were laid foundations whereon to erect a more extended superstructure of practical application and, having chosen three other Fratres to share with him the heat and burthen of the day, the establishment of the Order was effected in Europe. With the principal features of their subsequent activity you are already familiar and it suffices to say that when our Founder entered into his chamber his work was accomplished, and every member among us thereby placed under a lasting debt of gratitude.
It is to be observed that there are three important epochs in the history of the Rosicrucian Order: the first being the life period of Christian Rosycross, who died before the time of the Protestant Reformationthe second, the 120 years of silence and secrecy, being the period from 1484 to 1604 and, the third, the period subsequent thereto, and subsequent to the Reformation. It was during the latter period that the opening of the Vault formed the historical basis for the subsequent publication of the Frama Fraternitatis or a Discovery of the most laudable Order of the Rosy Cross the publication of which took place at Cassel in 1614, though this tract is dated 1610. This event called forth most intense curiosity and excitement and the enormous effect which it had upon the learned world of that time may be better understood when it is stated that no less than 600 tractates exist at the Museum at Berlin, all criticisingeither favourably or otherwisethe mysterious association revealed by the Fama. In 1614, then, public attention was for the first time directed to the Order and many thousands are said to have responded to the invitation proffered by the Fama: those who were admitted being bound over to keep the matter secret, and that larger proportion who received no response to their overtures believing the whole thing to be an illusion.[1]
It will be obvious upon reflection that the ceremonial and allotment of Rituals and instruction in the Second Order as now existing, cannot be identical with that which obtained prior to the opening of the Vault because the principal symbolism of the 5°=6° Grade chiefly centres around the discovery and opening of the Vault: this being so, it may be noted in passing that the two preceding epochs, already referred to, may be attributed by sequence of comparison to the Grades of 6=5 and 7=4 respectively: the formera degree of death and solmnityreferring to the precedent stage of obscuration, during which silent study and meditation may be considered as the typical conditionthe latterthe Grade of Adeptus Exemptusbeing referred to the higher and more exalted rank and attaimnents of him who founded the Rosicrucian Order, as a new formulation of that Occult philosophy or Wisdom Religion which, we cannot doubt, has never been entirely absent since the manifestation of human intellect with a capacity for the apprehension of things Divine.
On comparing the Esoteric historical account given in the Fama with that contained in our 5°=6° Ritual, several important divergencies and discrepancies become apparent: for the Fama was written for the public and is therefore not absolutely correct. Instances of the blinds introduced into the Fama occur where in the description of the Vault it is stated This is all clear and bright, as also the seventh (the Seven Sides - the 7th was not different) side and the two heptagons … And again later onEvery Side or Wall is parted into ten squares every one with their several figures and sentences … Every Side or Wall is moreover represented as having a door for a chest wherein many things and books lay - including the vocabularium of Paracelsus who lived from 1493 to 1541 - Or during the 120 years of closure before referred to. This was an obvious inconsistencyand was in fact an intentional blind inserted for the purpose of disappointing the critics of that day: (the critic is rarely or never an Occultist: the Society, to ensure the exclusion of such men, did cunningly when it authorised the publication of a tract, with a blot which would condemn it straight off in their eyesand so kept such men from clamouring for admission). For, be it remembered, the Fama was an official manifesto, the publication of which was authorised by the Fratres then empowered. Subsequently, on account of the great stir roused by its publication, and especially on the assertion of some that the principles of the Order were subversive of the simple orthodox faith of Christianity, its publication by Valentine Andreas was authorised (in 1615) with a Supplement under the Title Confessio Fraternitatis R.C. ad Erudotos Europa. This was prefaced by an advertisement to the effect that the gentle reader should find incorporated in our Confession thirty-seven reasons of our purpose and intention, the which according to they pleasure thou mayest seek out and compare together, considering within thyself if they be sufficient to allure thee. The point of this, however, is that examination of the contents does not reveal the thirty-seven reasons, nor do the Hebrew Letters representing that number form any Word which might seem to be the secret meaning, but by Temurah, two pregnant words are shown forth, thus LHB =30+5+2 = Flame, Lux. Light. Illumination and LGD =30+3+4 = For the Society, or army.
There is another reference to Paracelsus in the Eatna which has a curious interest: it runs although he was none of our fraternity, yet, nevertheless hath he diligently read over the Book M., whereby his sharp ingenium was exalted. Now Paracelsus was taught by Johann Trithemius of Spanheim, Abbot of Wurtzburg, and Solomon Trismosin: he also travelled in the East, and being taken captive in Tartary (Compare with H.P.B's initiation in Tibet. Paracelsus was not a Rosicrucian yet after initiation taught very similar tenetshe found another allied Temple in the East) was initiated there; he is moreover said to have received the Stone in Constantinople from one Sigismund Fugger.
Although the Fama is in some cases deficient in its historical account, it contains here and there redundant description, which affords food for reflection: thus, it is said In another chest were looking-glasses of divers virtues, as also in other places were little bells, burning lamps, and chiefly wonderful artificial songs…The latter are of course, the Mantrams of the Easterns, Carmina or incantations,instructions on the vibratory mode of pronouncing divine names.
The only other important Rosicrucian publication was a very curious work entitled the Hermetic Romance, or the Chymical Wedding, which likewise excited much controversy: it is full of perplexities (for the casual reader) though the meaning is entirely allegorical and only to be seized by violence. Of this class of study, all that can be said is Sometimes a light surprises the student on his way. The date of publication was 1616, the year following the appearance of the Confessio Fraternitatis.
I should mention that an English translation of the Fama was done in London by Eugenius Philalthes. (Thomas Vaughan) in 1652; he was at that time Supreme Magus in Anglia, or Chief Adept in charge in our phraseology.
In conclusion it only remains for me to point out that while the historical element has a unique interest for every member of the 5°=6° Grade of the Second Order; this in itself is a minor consideration as compared with the mystic symbolism involved therein. The 120 years has other references, as the 5°=6° Ritual itself testifies. This was the number of Princes, which Darius set over his Kingdom, and Daniel was a Magus among the Chaldees; while another hint as to its meaning lies in the suggestion as to how that number was arrived at.
In the 5°=6° Grade the symbolism of the Rainbow Colours is especially exemplifled, a range of Colour which may be said to be the most apparent and obvious: while the 6°=5° Grade is of interest to many of us, especially because the colouring is different. The 7°=4° refers still further back and possesses an even more arcane symbolism.
Supplementary Notes
It is especially desirable that when our brethren meet, the ancient form of salutation should be preserved: thus on meeting they should salute each other in the following manner Ave Frater. The second shall answer Roseae Rubeae, whereupon the first shall conclude with et Aureae Crucis.
It was also the ancient custom after having thus discovered their position, for one to say to the other Benedictus Dominus Deus noster qui Dedit nobis signum (uncovering Cross or Seal). This latter form should also be observed on all formal occasions and especially when Fratres meet who are little acquainted with each other.
Members are moreover further requested to endeavour upon all occasions when taking leave of each other to use the old formula Vale, adding Sub umbra alarum tuarum, Jehovah![2]
The effect of the foregoing observance is to directly maintain the psychic link which has ever served to bind the Members of this Ancient and Honourable Order one to the other; n this light it is something more than a mere form.
The following beautiful sentences were inscribed upon the Tablet. At the head was written: "Granuin Pectaris IH SH VH insitum". A grainor seed, sown or plantedin the heart of Jehoshua (the worn out physical bodylaid asidefrom whence has escaped the Spiritual entity which shall function in a spiritual body - as Paul said; untilif everit be again required to dothe itself with skin, and come downagain to teach and guide others) in commemoration of Frater C.R.C. our prototype.
Pater dilectissimies = Most loved father!
Frater Suavissimus = Most courteous brother!
Preceptor fidelissimus = Most faithful instructor!
Amicus integerrimus = Strongest friend!
Well indeed shall your life have been spent in helping the world, and teaching others, if you can earn such an Epigraph.
Footnotes:
[1] The sudden publication by a secret Lodge of Students of a Manifesto, and semi-public initiation to Occultismsuch as then occurred has been recently repeated, for similar reasons by the Eastern Schoolwhich in 1875 sent from India the learned woman H.P.B.an initiate to make a semi-public Propagandaand also to admit a few selected persons to Esoteric teaching issued from a lodge of concealed instructorswhose published names are probably substitutes, mottoes, or symbols.
[2] A wand to guide you and protect you in the ascent of the Mountain is the Staff of Hermes, about which the twin Serpents of Egypt twine: above the wings of Binah and Chokmahshrouding the sacred Diamond lying on the Crown of Ketherthe Supernal. Sub umbra alarum tuarum; beneath the rays of spiritual Understanding emanating from Divine Wisdom, you may indeed be safe, trusting to the protection and aid of the High and Holy Powers summed up in the great Name JHVH.
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THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SEVEN SIDES
By G. H. Frater N.O.M.
Among those characteristics which are truly necessary in the pursuit of magical knowledge and power, there is hardly any one more essential than thoroughness. And there is no failing more common in modern life than superficiality.
There are many who, even in this grade which has been gained by serious study, after being charmed and instructed by first view of the Vault of Christian Rosencreutz, have made no attempt to study it as a new theme. There are many who have attended many ceremonial admissions and yet know nothing of the attribution of the seven sides, and nothing of the emblematic arrangement of the forty squares upon each side.
And yet even in the 10°=1° grade you are told you must analyse and comprehend that light or Knowledge, and not only take it on personal authority. Let us then be Adepti in fact, and not only on the surface; let our investigations be more than skin deep. That only which you can demonstrate is really known to you, and that only which is comprehended can fructify and become spiritual progress as distinguished from intellectual gain. Unless you can perceive with the soul as well as see with the eye your progress is but seeming, and you will continue to wander in the wilds of the unhappy.
Let your maxim be Multum non multa — Much, rather than many things. And tremble lest the Master find you wanting in those things you allow it to be supposed that you have become proficient in. Hypocrisy does not become the laity; it is a fatal flaw in the character of the occultist. You know it is not only the teacher in this Flail before whom you may be humiliated, but before your higher and divine Genius who can in no wise be deceived by outward seeming, but judgeth you by the heart, in that your spiritual heart is but the reflection of his brightness and the image of his person, even as Malkuth is the material image of Tiphareth, and Tiphareth the reflection of the crowned Wisdom of Kether, and the concealed One.
There is but a couple of pages in the 5°=6° Ritual which refer to the symbolism of the seven sides of the Vault. Read them over carefully, and then let us study these things together. First, the seven sides as a group, and then the forty squares that are on each side.
The seven sides are all alike in size and shape and subdivision, and the forty squares on each side bear the same symbols. But the colouring is varied
In the extreme, no two sides are alike in tint, and none of the squares are identical in colour excepting the single central upper square of each wall, that square bearing the Wheel of the Spirit. The Seven walls are under the planetary presidency, one side to each planet. The subsidiary squares represent the colouring of the combined forces of the planet; the symbol of each square is represented by the ground colour, while the symbol is in the colour contrasted or complementary to that of the ground.
Now these planetary sides are found to be in a special order, neither astronomical nor astrological. The common order of the succession of the planets is that defined by their relative distances from Earth, putting the Sun, however, in the Earth’s place in the series thus: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. Saturn is farthest from the Earth, and the Earth is between Mars and Venus. Beginning with Saturn in the case of the Walls of the Vault, the order is Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon. Here Mercury and Venus are transposed.
But there is something more than this. For Saturn, the farthest off, is neither the door nor the East, nor anywhere else that is obviously intended. For it is the corner between the South and the South-West sides. Nor is Luna, at the other end of the scale, in any notable position on the old lines.
There is, then, a new key to their order to be found and used, and such as are very intuitive see it at a glance. The planets are in the order of the Rainbow colours, and in colours because this Adeptus Minor grade is the especial exponent of colours. You Adepti are in the Path of the Chamelion — Hodos Chamelionis.
If now you take the planetary colours and affix the planets and arrange them in the order of the solar spectrum and then bend up the series into a ring and make the chain into a Heptagram, and turn the whole about until you get the two ends of the series to meet at the Eastern point, you will have this mysterium:
| Violet - Jupiter | Indigo - Saturn | Blue - Moon | |
| Green - Venus | Yellow - Mercury | Orange - Sun | Red - Mars |
Science teaches, and has rediscovered a great truth, that however valuable the seven colours of the prism maybe, there are rays invisible and so not demonstrated here by space. Beyond the red end of the spectrum begins the violet, and these have a great chemical or Yetsiratic force. These forces, ever present and unseen, are represented by the Chief Adept standing erect at the Eastern angle, the most powerful person in the group, and delegate of the Chiefs of the Second Order, and through them of the mystic Third Order. He it is who has, symbolically, at any rate, passed from death unto life, and holds the Keys of all the creeds. And he it is who may place in our hands the Keys of the locked Palace of the King if we are able to make our knocking heard. Representing the East, coming from the East, he faces the Western world, bringing intuition with him; before him lies the symbolic body of our Master C.R.C., our grand exemplar and founder — or at other times, the empty pastos, from which he has arisen, the Chief Adept.
He has Mars and Geburah at his right hand, and Jupiter and Gedulah at his left hand. He faces Venus in the West, the Evening Star, which represents the entry of the Candidate who has toiled all day until the evening. At even he enters the Western door of the planet Venus, that sole planet unto whose symbol alone all the Sephiroth are conformed. At “evening time there shall be light,” the light of the mixed colours. So the newly admitted Adept comes in contact with totality of the planetary forces for the first time. A great opportunity opens before him; let him see well that he use it worthily. He enters through the green side of the vault. Green is the colour of growth; let him see that he grows.
Upon each side of the vault are forty squares, five vertical series and eight horizontal, the whole being symbolically 5′ x 8′. Now the published and printed Fama Fraternatitas says these forty feet were divided into ten squares. If you are mathematicians you would know that ten similar squares could not alone be placed in such an area and yet fill it. Ten squares alone to ff1 a rectangle could only be placed in an area of the shape 5′ x 6′. Hence in the Fama, ten squares are marked and salient” — they are the Sephiroth.
Besides the Ten Sephiroth, there are the following: There are the Four Kerubim, Three Aichemical Principles, Three Elements, Seven Planets, Twelve Zodiacal Signs, One Wheel of the Spirit — thus 40 in all. The Spirit Wheel is on every side and always in the centre, and is always depicted unchanged in black upon white.
Upon the side there are always the 4 Kerubic emblems — zodiacal, yet different, for the Eagle replaces Scorpio. (Scorpio has three forms, the Scorpion, the Eagle, and the Snake for the evil aspect.)
These Kerubim represent the letters of the name YHVH, and note that they are always arranged in the Hebrew order of the letters. Yod for the Uon, Heh for the Eagle, Vau for the Man, Heh final for the Ox, the Tauric Earth.
Note that these four Zodiacal signs are not in their own colours, but as symbols of the elements have elementary colours. As Zodiacal signs, then, they are found to be compounds of the zodiacal and planet colours; but they are here as Kerubic emblems compounded of the Elemental colour and the Planetary colour of the side.
The Three Principles are composed of the colour of the Principles, and the colour of the Planet of any particular wall. Mercury being fundamentally blue, Sulphur red, and Salt yellow.
The Three Elements have fundamentally the usual three colours, Fire red, Water blue, Air yellow. Note that Earth is missing.
The Seven planets have their colours as are often stated, and note that each of the seven is set beside its appropriate Sephirah, so that there are three Sephiroth which have no Planet: Kether, Chokmah, and Malkuth.
The 12 Zodiacal Signs are the lower portion of the sides of the vertical column. The central one has none of the twelve; they are so allotted between the four remaining columns. Further note that they are only three ranks, the 5th, 7th, and 8th; none are in the 6th rank from above.
This arrangement then shows: Four Triplicities and three Quaternaries.
| 1. Kerubic | Fixed | Shining Rank |
| 2. Cardinal | Fiery | Solar Rank |
| 3. Common (mutable) | Airy | Subtle Rank |
Observe well the arrangement; it is complex but not confused.
From above down, or in columns these are: Earthy Signs. Airy Signs. Watery Signs. Fiery Signs.
Rank 5. The Kerubic line shows the signs in the order of Tetragrammaton read in Hebrew.
Rank 7. The Cardinal line shows the signs from the right in the order of astronomical sequence of the solar course: vernal equinox, summer solstice, autumn equinox, winter solstice.
Rank 8. The common line shows the Signs again in a different position.
Here the earliest in the year is Gemini on the left of Mem, and passing left to Virgo, you then go round to extreme right to Sagittarius, pass centrewards to Pisces close to Malkuth
The colouring of each square is dual — a ground colour, and the colour of the emblem. The ground colour is a compound of the colour of the Planet of the side tinting the colour of the Force to which the Square is allotted.
Each side has the Square of its own planet in its own unmixed colour, and with this exception all the coloured grounds are compound. The em-blem colour is always complementary to the ground colour.
The ritual of the Adeptus Minor gives the definite colours of each planet and sign which are to be used in this system. There are other allotments of colour to each of these symbols and forces, but these are retained as mysteries yet to be evolved and revealed when you have become familiar with the present simple and elementary system.
[August 17, 1893.]
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PROGRESS IN THE ORDER
By V.H. Sor. F.e.R. (Annie Horniman)
A few words on the natural wish to make progress in our Order may interest some of those who have just joined us and also whose efforts seem to lead to little or no result.
Of course the experience of each one is unique, and must be so; no one could have been led into the path of serious occult study without a certain determination of character, and in most cases the necessity of overcoming opposition at the outset, is a test in itself, which shows individuality and fixity of purpose. Naturally, when first asked to join and told that he is considered suitable, the Candidate feels strongly that he must be rather a remarkable person to be so chosen. That was the first stage with me, and it lasted until I was actually admitted into the Order nearly two years later. Of course some spiritual gifts are necessary to make true progress, but it is very hard to judge which person has them or even to tell our own power until time and training have developed the tendencies hidden in our innermost natures. At first it is probable that the Neophyte will exaggerate every little astral incident that happens and the only way to fight against that temptation is to force the mind to serious study so as to gain strength; and by the power which will come gradually to the earnest student, to learn to distinguish the false from the real, the Astral from the Spiritual.
The uncongenial spiritual surroundings in which most of us are obliged to live out our lives have their uses; we learn to concentrate our minds amidst the distractions which are the more dangerous to our progress when they are not in active opposition to it.
For the first few weeks the secrecy enforced on us by our Obligation is a novelty, but when the Knowledge in the first lecture is learned and found to be information easily gained from other sources, a questioning feeling arises as to the need of so much fuss about labels for MSS, mottoes to be used instead of names etc. etc. If we look a little closer, however, it will appear only reasonable; we must be trained to be silent and perfectly discreet, so that secrecy will be no effort to us, when after much labour and many struggles we are gradually entrusted with the hidden knowledge belonging to the higher Grades of our Order.
Some of the obstacles which keep the Fratres and Sorores in the lower Grades are quite trivial in themselves and might be easily overcome by an effort of Will; but they do not realise that the fault lies in themselves and put down the fact of their standstill to many other causes. If our Order be anything deeper and higher than a mere club for the dissemination of archaeological and literary knowledge, the obstacles to be overcome must be more subtle than those which come between us and success in the ordinary aims of life.
Acts which were meaningless trivialities before are serious matters to a Frater or Soror who is truly striving to rise as high as possible during this life. Habits of indecision and caprice in the minor matters of conduct have a great cumulative force and weaken the will and leave us open to astral influences which must be conquered as completely as our present strength allows. A strong feeling of disinclination for study at convenient times, once given way to, grows into indolence, and then when each succeeding lecture if found to be more difficult, the thought that perhaps it is not worthwhile after all, creeps in and gradually the student loses interest and occult study becomes tedious to him. On the contrary, great opposition and difficulty spur us on in this, as in any other, course, and when the opportunities for study have to be made they are seldom neglected. Do not accept the excuses you feel inclined to make to yourselves that you have to live alone amongst people who are only hindrances, that no one takes particular interest in your progress, or that you will have more time bye and bye.
Not one of us has any time to lose; youth and strength do not last us very long, and the present opportunities may never arise again. Work done to please or gain approbation from another is not what we want, but that real enthusiasm which overcomes difficulties and grows the stronger because of them. Naturally, members of higher Grades take a personal interest in those with whom they are connected by social ties, but sometimes that is a source of disappointment. Each must strive upwards by himself, for himself, no help can take away the real difficulties, for they are the tests which must be passed, and by which our spiritual fitness for Higher Things is shown. Uncongenial surroundings are an obstacle, because they seem to waste the strength, but is it truly as difficult to work when unhappy after the performance of burdensome duties, as to overcome the far more insinuating influences that come into play when all seems smooth before us? Sometimes in those painful surroundings there are others also struggling towards the light which we are longing to reach ourselves; we may not as yet be able to help except by sympathy and kindliness; but when the time comes, then we can stretch forth a helping hand with a full understanding of the need for assistance.
To those who have made some little progress the true prosperity of our Order is very dear, and we look back with real gratitude to those who watched us until they thought fit, and then brought us in to what has become a great and important part of our lives. In some cases it was an intimate friend, in others a comparative stranger whose acquaintance at first seemed to be of very little importance.
Of course, we are often disappointed; when beginners ourselves we were most anxious for those dear to us to come in also, but as time goes on we see how rare are the qualities required and we find that we must have great patience and hope in regard to our friends, who as yet do not want to sympathise with our Hermetic aims.
Those who expect worldly or social gain for themselves through this Order will be disappointed, yet none of us who have made sacrifices for it in a right spirit are disappointed with the result.
To some natures ceremonies are repulsive, to others they are most attractive. They are part of the necessary discipline which insists upon us all being treated exactly alike, which seems arbitrary to some minds, yet without it, we could be trained to understand those causes which lie behind the ordinary events of life and form our characters for good or evil.
We must all take courage and look our difficulties full in the face, neither magnifying them nor avoiding them; and we shall find in many cases that a little self-denial, a little exertion of Will, or even a little commonplace prudence will vanquish them completely. Nothing impossible will ever be asked of any of you, but what will be possible to each of you is in the Future, none can say exactly what. With knowledge will come strength, and then experience will follow and the power and the wish to use that Knowledge rightly.
It is a gradual process, and often a painful one to experience, but well worth the sorrows to be borne and the difficulties to be overcome by the earnest student.
[Trondhjeim, June 1893.]
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THE AIMS AND MEANS OF ADEPTSHIP
By G.H. Fra. N.O.M. (Dr. W.W. Westcott)
Among the objects for which you have joined the Second Order some are specially named by the Obligation which you have taken, and others are indicated by the documents which you have received on loan.
Speaking generally however, we may say that the main object is what is called the Higher Magic or the development of the Spiritual sides of our natures in contradistinction to the purely intellectual.
As regards Spiritual Development you promised in the Obligation to use every effort to purify and exalt the Spiritual Nature so that you may be able to unity yourselves with what the Hermetist calls his ‘Higher Genius’.
A second aim we may say is the extension of our powers of perception so that we can perceive entities, events and forces upon the super-sensuous planes.
Thirdly, and in connection with the other two, you are encouraged to practice the system of divination of which there are several but which are only aids to your intuition and methods by which the intuition may be developed and encouraged.
Fourthly, there is what may be called the procuring of the influence of Divine Powers through the peculiar modes taught in our Order and Vibrating of Divine Names.
There are then these four aims Spiritual Development extension of the powers of perception; learning the modes of Divination and becoming familiar with the vibratory mode of pronouncing Divine Names. To these may be added the practical study of the particular influences of colour and thus we are called Lords of the Path of the Chameleon.
Now as regards this Spiritual Development in the first place we mean by it that you perform or endeavour to perform the transmutation of the vital forces of life into higher currents of life or rather their transmutation out of the lower into the higher so that you can use them for the purpose of Theurgia. Transmutation of physical force is what is discussed in many of the old alchemical books. A large proportion of these books which have come down to us refer to purely physical processes. But there was an opposite pole of thought of which the language referred entirely to man and by transmutation was meant the directing of physical life and force into the channels of spiritual perception and the higher magical powers generally.
Secondly, as to the extension of our powers of perception beyond the plane of matter into the super-sensuous world, you must remember that the Theosophical view is the correct one and that our Thinking Personalities are incarnated into these material bodies and are acting therefore under the consequent disadvantages. It is because the mind is immersed in matter that its powers are so limited, and we can readily understand that a mind freed from constraints of the body would enjoy vastly enlarged powers. Thus, although our senses are the means by which we perceive; yet at the same time they necessarily limit the extent of our perception. It is therefore our material bodily organs which circumscribe as well as bestow. All of our five senses are capable of enlargement and development. It is however the sense of sight which we most commonly seek thus to develop. Having intellectually learned the laws which relate to sight and colour we are encouraged to practise Clairvoyance and to seek to see beyond material things into the plane most adjacent to us the Astral, and then we seek to travel in the Spirit Vision through the confusions and the uncertainties of the Astral into the planes beyond.
One of the first of your experiences when practising in the Vault in the dark will be the appreciation of the minuter graduations of light and darkness.
You will find it very difficult to get perfect darkness, but you will often find that there are certain days when you can get the Vault quite dark.
The cultivation of your sight will enable you to perceive the variations of colour and especially to note, observe, and fix in your minds, the contrasts of colour on which our Rituals place so much importance, and the flashing colours. Allied to this is the cultivation of View in the Mirror.
The ears also require to be cultivated until you obtain some success in what is called Clairaudience. This is sometimes easier than Clairvoyance but development in either direction implies great perseverance and must be carried out with energy and enthusiasm.
Among Theosophists the phenomenon which you hear most commonly mentioned in connection with Clairaudience is that known as the Astral Bell. This is almost entirely Eastern: if you find a Hermetist who can hear sounds that others cannot hear, they very rarely take the form of a bell.
Those who get a certain amount of Clairvoyance also often get the power of hearing sounds which the world cannot hear and it is often a definite sound sent for a definite purpose. Touch, also is a sense which should be cultivated. I will mention some examples of the way in which this sense may be trained, and by touch I do not mean simply the touch which comes through the fingers. One of the most elementary methods is the perception of magnetism. You will find that, with closed eyes, you can detect the presence of a magnet held near the skin, and that with continued practise you will be able to appreciate the difference between the North and South Poles of the Magnet.
You will find that the forehead is the best point upon which to experiment. We need not dwell upon the senses of taste and smell, but these can also be developed.
Theosophy tells us that corresponding with all other Septenaries in Nature there are also two more senses. I may say that the sixth can be called that of Astral perception, or the power of perceiving forces and entities on the plane next to the earth; and the seventh, of which, no doubt, some of you will get glimpses in due time is the faculty of receiving Knowledge from spiritual sources. There is no organ corresponding to these senses, so that, where necessary, we must utilise the organs which we already possess. Now by what means do the Adepts suggest that these powers may be obtained? It has been urged against us that, as a society, we do not preach the necessity for such strict purity of life as do the Theosophists. It may be true that we are not always preaching it, and as we do not hold public meetings, the same opportunities for doing so does not exist. If, however, there is one thing more than another which I would impress upon you as a social sin, it is that of hypocrisy. As to asceticism, the Hermetists have always taught that this necessary purity of mind should and can be combined with the absence of all ostentatious morality and of un-natural habits of life.
The Western Teachers have always recognised the fact that for so long human life has been so painful, that to most people these studies would be denied if they were to insist upon asceticism, and they have found by experience that a very considerable amount of success without attendant danger may be obtained by those who are willing to make strenuous efforts, without the aid of positive asceticism. It seems to me that the chief danger of asceticism in a city like this and at the present time is that even if we succeed, the extra advantage which we shall derive from totally abstaining from these things of the sense, will be counterweighted by a distinct and added danger of falling, on the other hand, into the Scylla of hypocrisy which I have mentioned. What is apt to happen is this, that a man is liable to compare himself with his neighbours, and say how much better he is than others. Now self congratulation is second only to open hypocrisy, and we hold that it is just as harmful to spiritual progress. On the other hand if you make strenuous efforts to lead a moral life, if you do this while leading a pure life in the city, if you succeed in doing these things, you may depend upon it that your reward will be grater than his who removes himself from his fellows and shuts himself up in a forest. The reward of a man who can remain pure and yet live in the midst of a crowded city is greater than his who avoids the responsibilities of life by burying himself in a wilderness.
It is possible even there to commit many sins which you would not like to confess!
The next principle which we formulate is the necessity for studying and doing all Hermetic exercises from a positive point of view. We look upon the negative attitude of simple abstinence from sin and exertion and effort, in which are comprised to a great extent the methods of the East, and we think that this is an error of judgement and of practice.
I am sure that any attempt at a negative attitude is a mistake. Many persons are, I am sure, deterred from taking up Theosophical studies more closely by the sense of coldness, and apparent want of human sympathy, which is sometimes exhibited and felt in Theosophical Lodges. Theosophy itself teaches that we should give ourselves up to humanity, and yet their private lodges are often marked by the absence of that enthusiasm for their work which should distinguish them.
The Hermetists have always been noted for their social relations, and this is, I believe, in every way compatible with the strictest purity of life. We believe that a harmonious whole is thereby produced and one likely to lead to success in practical magic.
The next point of importance which is insisted upon in our Obligation and Rituals and put forward with great solemnity in the Vault itself is the extreme necessity for refraining from judging other people. This does not mean that you are not to condemn sin, but it means that you are not to go out of your way in condemning the sinner. It does not imply that you are to condone faults, but it does imply that you are not to endeavour to seek grievances against your fellows, or seek to rule or supervise them, unless you happen to be in authority over them. Very few people are in this position of being rulers. Such have to bear the Karma of occasionally judging their fellow members. It is at any rate a duty which falls upon some of us. You must however, avoid the opportunity of thus judging others until the obligation is thrust upon you.
The opportunity and the act should both be avoided as far as possible. Thus the Ritual says ‘therefore art though inexcusable, whoever thou art, who judgest another’.
Let me now say a word about the risks of negativity. It seems to me that the negative attitude and the negative constitution required to be checked and controlled. Firstly because we do not progress under these conditions, and secondly because they carry with them definite risks to ourselves are those from elemental forces which may attack us.
So long as you lead and ordinary life you are safe from the assaults of influences beyond the material world of your brother men; but as soon as you get outside of that world and put yourself in a position to seek out occult mysteries, you bring yourself under the action of forces of which you know very little or nothing. The only way to avoid being controlled by such forces, to which you have rendered yourself liable, is to preserve what we call the positive attitude, which is the extreme contrast to what is called mediumship. A medium is one who cultivates negativity and such a person is therefore one to be avoided. The condition we want you to cultivate is that of positivity. I could give you a very good example of a person who is negative and who has got into trouble almost entirely through that.
The next thing which we are taught and enabled to practice is Divination. There are at least three distinct systems suggested to you, but they are all of them methods whose routine may be superseded, when you get on far enough. The first of these systems is that of Geomancy and there is also that of Astrology. It will be noticed that the lectures of the First Order give brief outlines of these systems, but there is no direct encouragement to perfect yourself in them.
The third system which is virtually introduced and taught in the Second Order is that of the Tarot.
This goes very much deeper than either of the other two and gives results which are more true because its points of contact with the world, with man, and the influences which surround him, are more numerous. The fact that this is more complicated gives you more of such points of contact than either of the other two systems. With a properly conducted Tarot process and with a cultivated intuition you can obtain almost anything you wish for, but as the process is so complex it is a most difficult system to learn, but having once grasped it you can get results which are most amazing. When you have mastered the first six manuscripts of the Order and are familiar with the Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram, and have made your Implements, the Tarot is then suggested to you as a desirable system to learn. Moreover its study is so enticing that you would be apt to neglect those things which should precede its practice.
By these systems of divination you are really inducing and cultivating the intuitive power. Now in order to get success in Divination it is necessary to cultivate the Will. First you want an intellectual knowledge of the subject. Then a cultivation of the intuitive power is necessary, and finally you must develop the Will. You must have a steady will or else your intuition will be of little avail. Now this cultivation of the Will should be a process which is continually going on. There are fallacies which exist in connection with the Will. A person may say to you, I am extremely interested in all these studies and I am always willing and endeavouring to succeed in them, and he will say to you that he is thinking of the Tree of Life or of some other occult subject while he is doing his accounts or interviewing his wife. Now I am sorry to say that I have to tell such a person that he is on the wrong tack. If you want success you must will only one thing at a time. The habit of doing two or three things at once is fatal to the Occultist. The Will which is necessary is an undivided Will and its cultivation must be continued at all times.
It is therefore necessary to get into the habit of never Willing more than one thing at a time. Never allow your Will to be mixed up with any desire. The Will which is divided is not the Will which can be of any use to you. It is quite impossible to Will strongly to see an elemental, for instance, unless you are able to think only for that moment.
A fixed concentration of mind must be encouraged if you want to have success. We often get strange demonstrations of the strength of the Will. I will give you an example. We continually find that if we turn round in the street to look after someone whom we have just passed, that person is also turning round to look after us. If however, you deliberately try to do this you will probably fail, and the point is that in this latter case your mind is divided between the will to succeed, and the desire to show your power, and the Will is thereby weakened.
The other two principal items are the Vibration of the Divine Names and the properties of colour, but as these ought to be demonstrated in the Vault, I will not go into them today.
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ELEMENTARY VIEW OF MAN
By G.H. Fra. D.D.C.F.
The following diagram will of course be immediately recognised by all of you :
Now supposing a physical man to be here represented, Kether is the Crown and is above the head. The junction of Chokmah and Binah in Daath is in the head itself. Then Chesed and Geburah will correspond to the arms and shoulders, Tiphereth and Yesod to the trunk and body, Netzach and Hod to the hips and legs, and Malkuth to the feet alone.
Now I will put to you the question, where was the mystic body of our Founder, Christian Rosenkreutz discovered? In Tiphereth. And what is Tiphereth? The centre. That is to say it is in the centre of the middle Sphere and when that middle Sphere is projected what does it represent? The Polar Axis. Representing then the Polar Axis it will be in a sense invisible from the outside.
Therefore the outermost form of the whole projection will be spherical. Now that would imply that Tiphereth corresponds to the heart and Tiphereth represents the place where the Chief Adept is found and it is the Polar Axis, and the influence which is surrounding this physical body of the man is a Sphere like that of the Universe. This Sphere then surrounds the body. Thus it will be the Assiah Plane of the Man, the Malkuth containing the reflection of the other Ten Sephiroth. Now this Sphere is what we of the Rosicrucian Order, call the magical mirror of the Universe, or the Sphere of sensation of the Microcosm. It is the Aura of the man. Now you will understand that as the Chief Adept is placed in Tiphereth you may expect to find the most vital portion of the body about the heart. The heart will therefore represent the King of the physical body. All this is, of course, much better explained in the lecture on the Microcosm which you will get later on.
This sphere, answering to the Sphere of the Macrocosm, you will naturally expect that it will have the forces of the Macrocosm reflected in it. Towards which part of the Zodiac then would you expect the man in the centre to face? He will face towards that point in his Sphere of sensation which represents the ascending degree in his horoscope and that ascending degree will therefore be the point which is opposite. His object is the development of the Daath principle which is in the head. This principle is, you will observe, the link between Ruach and Neschamah.
Now thus is the Consciousness attributed. In Chiah is the beginning of the Self of Man. The real Self is in Jechidah, and its presentment in Chiah. Thus Jechidah is called the Divine Consciousness ‘Conscire’ means ‘to know with’ and ‘to be in touch with’ and only your Kether can do this as regards the Divine and your Kether is then the Divine Consciousness. In Ruach is the human Consciousness and the human Will. In Jechidah is the Divine Will; so that the human Will is like the King of the material body. The automatic Consciousness, as it is called, is in Yesod, and has to do with the lower passions and desires. Being automatic, that is moving of itself, it can hardly be said to be Will. Now this is the danger which threatens the man who yields to the temptations of the lower desires. The Human Will which should be seated in Tiphereth, in the heart, is attracted to contemplation of, and union with, the automatic Consciousness so that the human Consciousness abdicates its throne and becomes automatic. You will find in the life history of men that vice brings about a species of automatic condition which compels them always to move in the same grooves, and it is a known fact that it recurs at regular intervals like a disease, and it is indeed a disease.
This automatic Consciousness in its right place refers to Yesod which is the part which attracts the material atoms, and here it is in its proper place. When, however, it usurps the place of the Human Consciousness then it rules instead of being subject to the Human Consciousness, and this destroys the balance of the Sephiroth.
Now in Daath is the Throne of the Spiritual Consciousness and Daath being the result of Chokmah and Binah it is the presentment of the seven following Sephiroth, that is to say that in the head are the seven planets of which the eyes will answer to the two luminaries — the right to the Sun and the left to the Moon.
You will now at once see that spiritual consciousness does not partake of the physical body but is the light which radiates. The way in which thought proceeds is by radiation, that is to say, its rays are thrown vibrating through this sphere of Astral Light. This will explain to you a very fruitful source of mistaken Clairvoyance. The many errors arise therefrom: It is really a selfishness of the thought plane. The Consciousness is content, as it were, to receive the reflections which are in its sphere and which have necessarily been modified by the person himself. Let us take an example of individual modification and we will choose that of the planet Mars. Fire will be red. That is to say, that in all cases of a fiery nature the judgment will be fairly accurate. But the fault will be manifest when you come to a watery nature. It will then be represented by violet instead of by blue as it should be, and he will always want to bring the nature of the Fire into the watery natures. Here then is a fruitful source of error in Clairvoyance, especially arising in natures which are not selfish in the ordinary sense, but which have that more subtle selfishness which arises from too much study of oneself. This is why, in our system of Occultism we are contrary or converse to that taught by the Theosophical Society. The Theosophists apparently advise the student to commence with the study of the Universe; and while I quite agree that he may arrive at his end by that means, there is the danger of that spiritual or thought — selfishness, and this is the reason why we study the Microcosm before the Macrocosm.
This continual dwelling on one’s own nature with the idea of reforming and making oneself better is apt to give you too contracted a view, and you are threatened with the selfishness which you have yourself engendered. This is also the danger of too great asceticism, because it is apt to bring about the feeling that you are better than another person. These are the dangers. If you can escape these dangers you will arrive at the goal. Therefore to the student who is studying Clairvoyance, it is particularly advisable that he should rather repress that form of it which tends in his own direction, for feat of encouraging that spiritual selfishness which is so subtle as to escape his attention until it is too late. If he continues along this path his errors will increase, and he will arrive at a period of depression. From this will arise a series of miserable feeling which might have been checked in the beginning.
You see now that the sin of the Automatic Consciousness is what is commonly called vice. The sin of the Human Consciousness is that of the intellectual man.
The sin of the Spiritual Consciousness is the error of a somewhat psychic nature; you cannot have sin of the Divine Consciousness because you cannot have any error in Kether. Here again, you see, we have the representation of the four Planes in Man, or YHVH.
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KNOW THYSELF
By V. H. Sor. V.N.R. 6°=5° (Moina Mathers)
Perfect knowledge of Self is required in order to attain Knowledge of Divinity, for when you can know the God of yourself it will be possible to obtain a dim vision of the God of All, for the God of the Macrocosm only reflects Himself to Man through the God of Man"s Microcosm.
Therefore, before you would invoke the Shining Ones be certain that you have called upon the Lord of Yourself, that is to say, that the You in Daath (the seat of the Spiritual Consciousness) have allied yourself to the You in Tiphareth (the seat of the Human Consciousness) and to the You in Kether (the seat of the Divine Consciousness), and from thence the Kether sending rays downwards; from it to the Daath, from Daath to Tiphareth and from thence to Yesod, which is the seat of the Automatic Consciousness.
This combination must have taken place with the consent of the Lower Will (in Tiphareth) as being the Human Will.
If you have succeeded in accomplishing this you are commencing the real Initiation, (therefore, should an Adeptus Minor strive to begin the practice of such an operation).
It is said elsewhere that The Beginning of Initiation is the Search for the Shining Light. For if the Man through Pure Knowledge and Aspiration has been able to place himself with his head resting immediately under Kether the Crown, he has come into contact with his First Light.
But his Knowledge must be true, and his aspirations pure. How else is he able to wear his Crown, upon which poureth the Influx from Jechidah?
It is this development of the Man that must have been intended by the Apostle Paul when he said: “Till we all come… to the Knowledge of the Son of God, unto a Perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature, of the fulness of Christ.” That is, that Man must grow sufficiently in his Spiritual growth, that he may attain to that stature where his head will come into contact with his Kether — that is, unto the Knowledge of his Higher Self.
Regarding this, I will also quote another passage from the New Testament in which Christ says: “Whosoever shall confess me before men him shall the Son of Man also confess before the Angels of God,” signifying that he who shall raise himself by linking his Human to his Divine Self, being consequently in touch with the Kether of his Assiah, he will be able to rise still further to the Plane of the Angels, that is to say, that through the Kether of his Assiah he can be admitted to his plane of Yetzirah, his Angelic Self; for he has accepted the Christ within him, his power of Ascent. “But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the Angels of God,” meaning that he who denies the me, the power of the letter Shin, the letter of the Holy Spirit that makes of Jehovah the Name Jeheshua, hath denied that Spirit, that Higher Self, which is his one link with the Truth of Life, and so hath refused the Christ that can be within him, the only part which would enable him to rise to his Divine Self, whence he could receive the descent of the Divine Spirit, which ever comes to him who seeketh for it.
Kether is the Crown, then, which is placed on the head of the complete Initiate; and a great King must he indeed be who is fitted to bear such brilliance, and well must he have worked towards the developing and perfecting of his Kingdom to have made it worthy of that Divine Crown.
Therefore must he whose aim is to become the Initiate, work well at the development of the Forces of the Being; seeking to purify and to exalt them.
He, the man, standing in his Sephiroth, can well be compared to a King in his Kingdom which if he wishes to govern well, he must first learn to know and understand, for only after having a complete knowledge of the constitution, character and inhabitants of his realm, will it be possible for a just Ruler to bring about such reforms as he may deem necessary; — hence the great assistance given to us in the teachings of our Order which insist on a careful study of the Kingdoms of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm side by side with our Spiritual Development, one study helping the other; in fact the two are almost inseparable.
Now the Kingdom of the Microcosm, the man, with which this lecture is chiefly occupied, has distinctly its character, its constitution, its inhabitants etc. — The King is placed in his sphere, that is the boundary, the frontier of his realm.
The constitution consists of his Sephiroth, upon which the principal scheme of the Kingdom is modelled.
Its character would be the general aim and tendency of the Kingdom. (This would depend on the inclination of the pole of its sphere as regards the Macrocosm.)
The King"s abode is in Tiphareth where is placed his throne, the seat of the Human Will, whence he wields the reins of government either as a great ruler inspired by his masters above, the Spiritual and Divine Consciousness, or as the Ruler debased (inspired or, more accurately speaking, obsessed) by the voluntary abdication of his rule, through being led astray by the temptation of the Automatic Consciousness to descend therein and make Yesod his chief abode instead of Tiphareth, thereby permitting the usurption of the Higher by the Lower.
This fall, according to the nature of the man, (besides leading to other evils) may bring him to the Phallic School of Symbolism or to the grossest sensuality, for these two things are merely the expression of the same error in different natures.
His people are the many Forces of the Sephiroth of Ruach, working in Malkuth through Nephesch (Nephesch = Malkuth). The Priesthood, or rather the Prophets and Magicians, alone ascending as far as their Daath, they dwelling on the Threshold of their Divine Consciousness.
The Nobles will be with the King himself, about his throne in Tiphareth; as well as all the petty rulers, and professions and trades governed by the Sun.
In Chesed are the various occupations under Jupiter.
In Geburah, Netzach and Hod are all those under Mars, Venus and Mercury.
Yesod, as the seat of the Automatic Consciousness, can hardly be said to be an inhabitant, a conscious being; rather might it be represented by the machinery, works and tools of the nation.
Of course each Sephira will have its own Ten Sephiroth within it, which would give its various types — professions, trades, etc. — for example — Chesed; — in its Kether might be the Priest (this naturally supposes the Priest to be true and upright; the Prophet as the inspired Priest, which we mentioned before, is placed in the Daath of the man.)
A Philanthropist would be in its Chesed; in its Tiphareth — a judge; and probably an artisan working under Jupiter in its Yesod.
Now he who is a just ruler will try to know well these people, his subjects; neither giving undue attention or preference to either one class or another, nor permitting strife in any one of them, — therefore must one of the works of a student for Adeptship be to learn to bring perfect order into the Six Sephiroth of his Ruach, then will the Qlipoth, who may be called the Wild Beasts of the Nation, be forced to retire, they only having been permitted to remain through Disorder.
He will then be able to banish them to their own plane, the land beyond Malkuth; as they, working in their own habitation, therefore in their own element, they will be as the lecture on the Microcosm says "equilibrated therein and the Evil Persona (their synthesis) will become as a strong yet trained animal, whereupon the man rideth, this bringing added material strength unto the man", which is a thing to be desired, if it be completely governed by the Higher.
One school of Occultism insists on the Neophyte retiring from the world, on his leading a thoroughly ascetic life, and in every way trying to exist without thought or desire for anything of that which is Human.
Now to some of us this may appear to be the only method for the attainment of that self-development which we express in the Tiphareth clause of the Adeptus Minor Obligation, when we pledge ourselves to become more than human.
We know that all the works of Nature are gradual in their growth, therefore must a man also be gradual in his growth, and before attaining to that more than human, that is to say, Yetziratic, Briatic and Aziluthic planes he must certainly be the Perfect Man in Assiah.
It must be our object then, to become that Perfect Man, in order to attain ultimately to that Angel, that Archangel, and that Divinity, which are in Yetzirah, in Briah, and in Atziluth.
And the Zelator Adeptus Minor is not actually given any special manner of life to follow; rather is he advised to determine for himself what shall be his relations with his family business, society, etc., seeing that we human beings are so varied in our character as in our surroundings so that the discipline which will be beneficial for one may often be evil for another.
One thing, however, is greatly insisted upon, and that is that we should not retire from the world, for we can succeed in perfecting ourselves in what is required of us without isolation.
In certain cases, it might be advisable for the execution of certain experiments connected with more advanced studies to avoid contact with others for a short time; but this would only be permissible in special cases.
One of the reasons why we are told not to isolate ourselves is that isolation tends to make a man egotistical — it will become a habit to him to study and to pay too much attention to his own Microcosm, whereby he will neglect other Microcosms which together with his form part of the Macrocosm; and this Egotism of the Spirit, (though not so gross a sin as is that of the Animal or the Human Consciousness) will yet be a far greater snare to him, as being more subtle and therefore less easy to be perceived and checked.
For the chief danger of spiritual egotism lies in the self-righteous spirit so easily developed, which while gradually absorbing the true Occult Aspiration flatters its victim with the idea that he is rapidly attaining his proposed Goal.
It will be best, then, for us to live amongst our fellows, and in our contact with them are we advised to avoid preaching and proselytising; which often leads also to a condition of selfrighteousness in the Preacher, and is generally useless to the listener.
Rather would we influence them by our example, and by keeping our thoughts as well as our actions pure.
Our Order teaches that one of our aims should be the Regeneration of the Race of the Planet.
We who are but beginners, and but on the Threshold of the Second Order, can do but little yet in this Great Work, but we are daily approaching this end, if we are fitting ourselves to become the Perfect Man, for he, the Perfect Man, the Adept, whose Human Will is at one with his Divine Will, therefore always in contact with his Genius, or Angelic Self, can attract yet Higher Forces. These Forces sending down Divine Rays till they radiate through him, he, the Adept, is able to give out this Force to the human beings who are ready to receive it, and thus is he helping in their regeneration; an Angel or a God not being so fitted for the contact with ordinary mortals, as is the Adept who, though exalted is still a man, and of Assiah.
Most of you will recall that passage in Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni, (that romance which contains so many valuable hints on Occult study and which is a good lesson to us on the dangers of untrained Occultism) when he says, speaking of Zanoni, that "those with whom he principally associated, the gay, the dissipated, the thoughtless, the Sinners and publicans of the more polished world — all appeared rapidly, insensibly to themselves to awaken to purer thoughts and more regulated lives."
We who are but Neophytes in the Great Initiation, can only at very rare moments be so in touch with our Higher Self, that our head is immediately under our Kether. For those few moments we are standing in the position in which the Adept ever stands — yet must we on no account imagine that during those few seconds we have equal power with the Adept, for unaccustomed as we are to the Divine Vision, it almost blinds us and it can therefore only be partially transmitted to our Spiritual and Human Selves; yet is this partial vision greatly to be desired, for it is a Force unto us, and it also gives us a glimpse of what we may one day attain.
Let us try then to ascend unto our Higher Self, and to stand with our head under the Crown, before deciding on any great and important action in our life, and especially, and this most especially, when we are judging another, or trying to modify the life of another, for that is indeed a grave responsibility; — for we imperfect mortals are ever ready to lean towards the Pillar of Mercy or the Pillar of Severity, and even if we do remain standing in the Middle Pillar, the Pillar of Mildness; how few of us raise our heads to our Kether — only with his head touching his Crown, his Kether, can a man have perfect Knowledge of the things of his Assiah.
He who leans much towards the Pillar of Mercy, will think him the Perfect Judge, cruel when that Judge deems it necessary to extend his arm on the side of Severity.
He who leans to the Pillar of Severity will also have corrupted vision, for judging from thence, the action of the Perfect Judge will appear to him feeble, when that Judge may have found it well to extend his arms on the side of Mercy.
He who stands straight in the Middle Pillar will not be so prejudiced as his brothers who lean towards Severity or Mercy, but unless he is linked with his Kether, he does not take in the whole scheme of his Sephiroth; — is therefore incomplete, and his judgment imperfect. Let us be careful, then, in judging another, we see how easily we may be deceived, and let us insist and force ourselves to aspire to, and be convinced that we are indeed with our Higher Self, before pronouncing such a judgment, seeing how much mischief may be worked through the action of Unbalanced Mercy or Severity, or of the insufficient judgment of the Middle Pillar without the Crown; — as the Hiereus in the 0°=0° Ceremony hath said: — "Unbalanced Severity is but cruelty and oppression; Unbalanced Mercy is but weakness and would permit Evil to exist unchecked, thus making itself an accomplice of the Evil".
Referring again to the Six Sephiroth of the Ruach, and to the necessity of keeping them balanced; it will occur to most of us (who almost without exception are given to some profession or occupation) that we shall be delayed in Spiritual Development by tending, in our daily duties, to throw out more rays from the Spiritual Consciousness to some portions of our Sephiroth at the expense of the others, and thereby becoming unbalanced.
Though far more difficult to live than the life in which we can dispose of our time, more or less, at will, this need not be a delay in our development; these daily duties may indeed be an increased strength to us. But in such a case, must we aim always at the Purest and the Best of that occupation, whatever it may be, and attempt to develop in it those qualities that we may be weak or deficient in, such as courage, resolution, patience, concentration, etc., which can be learned in the performance of any work, however petty.
So that if we are really doing our best, we are bringing increase of strength to the Highest part of the Sephirah in which we may happen to be working; — and to increase the Power of the Kether of anyone of our Sephiroth can but be an added strength to the Self of the Whole; for the Kether of each of our Sephiroth is the reflection of that of our Microcosm, which again is a reflection of its Higher Prototypes, and being Kether (or rather its reflection) in its action, however great its strength, it will not become disorderly and attempt to override another Sephirah, but will be reflected again into the Kether of the man, thereby becoming an increased force to him, for seeing that it is a presentment of the Divine no Kether can be unbalanced.
For we see that even the Kether of the Qlipoth can hardly be said to be unbalanced, being composed of Two Forces, ever contending certainly, for it is that quality of contention that makes them partake of the Qlipoth; yet are they balanced, for were they not of equal strength, how could they ever be at war with one another? Sooner or later one would have to surrender.
Therefore is it evident, — that many are the means to Knowledge, and many are the paths by which we may reach the Goal of the Initiate — wherefore — I would say to each of you; — absurd and ill-judged is it to rule that all shall crowd into one path, because that happens to be the one chosen by one member. There is too much tendency to wish all to follow the Ideal of one, — we are apt to forget that the Ideal of each will lead to the same Truth. We can help each other better, then, by helping each to rise according to his own ideas, rather than, as we often unwisely do, in advising him to rise to what is best in ourselves only.
That error of wishing to make another as ourselves is another and a very hurtful form of most subtle egotism. All we can do is to help him to elevate himself and to study to "Know Himself", in order that by working at that Knowledge, he may cross the Threshold of the Portal, which leads to the Knowledge of the Divine.
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FREE WILL AND THE THEORY OF SEPERATENESS
By V.H. Fra. Q.L. (Oswald Murray)
While Oriental Theosophy postulates the unity of all Life in its basic source, it makes the attainment of conscious union between the lower of intellectual aspect of mind with the Soul or Higher Manas dependent on the effort of the former, or in other words of the striving of the personality.
Again in the Hermetic School, of which Dr Hartmann is an independent interpreter, the freedom of each person to decide whether to climb the Mount of Initiation or to remain on the lower plane of intellectual rational life is strongly insisted on.
The position of these schools would apparently be that Primordial Being differentiates itself into Units or atoms, each of which contains the potentialities of its original. Free Will being attributed to original Being, it follows that each unit or atom possesses Free Will in potentia. Finding himself in incarnate condition, living in the sense-mediated planes of selfconsciousness, it may strive or decide not to strive to attain union with its Higher Principles, or to bring the illumination of these higher aspects of its being, into functioning conjointly with the rational intellectual plane of normal life.
This can only be effected, according to these schools, by the outer or personal degree of life reaching up and striving to come into contact with the inner principles.
This is apparently one of those veils which oriental and ancient systems considered to be necessary until the student dared himself to tear them asunder, but its retention in the sense of the teaching of transcendental philosophy ceases to be reasonable. It is in contradiction also with those portions of Theosophic teaching which condemn “the illusion of personal existance” and the “Heresy of Separateness.” It is also untenable in the face of Mr Maitland’s theosophic teachings with the reference to the centrifugal current in man, which returns from the circumference of Being as centripetal, thus inferring that re-ascent is the sequential effect in continuity of descent, that evolution is self inherent in involution, that unfolding is implicit in involving.
To teach that conjunction with the higher principles of consciousness may be effected by the will of the lower personality, is to attribute a vitality to the personality which Theosophy itself contravenes in its teachings as to the illusion of personal existence, and to lose sight of the fact that man is not the former but the formed, that personality is but the external manifestation of the one self determinating power.
To teach that each atom or unit, differentiated from original Being, possesses Free Will, is to imply that they are separated from Original Being and possess existence in themselves; or to fall into the "heresy of separateness" and to forget the identity of the unit and the Universal of the self-reference which is implicit in experience and demonstrates the permanent relation, ever present, which links the unit with the fountain source. To imply that the lower aspects of mind have separated off from those which are left and dwell in the higher planes, until conjunction or reintegration has been effected by the lower, is to lose sight of the fact that, while aspects of consciousness may distinguished, they cannot be separated without destroying the unity of Being.
To imply that instinctual rational man may develop his own Will power, that he may make his own condition of life, is to arrogate to the external personality the prerogative of disposing of that one self determinating power which manifests through him, of which he is the instrument or media, the expression the unfoldment.
The original plan of the Great Architect cannot be altered by the external manifestation thereof. The successive unfolding of the inner aspects of mans consciousness must be subject to the Law of the One Determiner, which alone knows itself from centre to circumference, a ground and a fulfilment.
The action of the one determinating Power on the plane of nature illustrates its mode or process. It shows results achieved by a continual, gradual, consecutive unfolding from within. The Sun builds up vegetable forms of life from the seed, beginning with the root, stem, bud, blossom, fruit. The uniformity of law manifesting in the correlated modes in different planes is a generally accepted axiom in occultism, so, by analogy, must our internal state be successively unfolded from within by the rays of our Spiritual Sun or Centre of Life. So also must the recognition of the permanent relation with our Ground of Being or Fountain Source return Mans will to its Central Source.
If for effort of the Personality we substitute the desire to have ever present recognition within us of the reception of all power from the central Source of Being, the desire to be able permanently to associate our lives, in thought, as an external manifestation of the One Determinating Power, and thus relate our actions to the original Source of Being, that will probably be more likely to contribute towards unfoldment from within.
THE RIVER OF LIFE
— Some Considerations on the Sepher Yetzirah —
Transcendental Philosophy shows that the unit is permanently related with its Source or Fountain of Being. Experience, when analysed, is found to bear relation or self reference between the permanent element of Being, which is ever present, which wells up in thought and forms the ground of cogitation on the one hand with the actual "I" on the other. Thought is a relation and the subject identity recedes ever behind the regarding mind. Hence events may be said to be in time and knowledge out of time. The phenomenal world is then related in experience by the Thinker to the subjective reality.
It is this “relating” present in thought, the self reference implied in experience, which ever unites the Unit with its ground or source - its permanent element, and this would appear in the Path, on the Tree of Life by the ☽ or reflection which unites the Microprosopus with the Macroprosopus, its source: it would also appear to be symbolized by the River of Life "Nahar" which unflows from the Supernal Eden or Spiritual Being or Microprosopus or Being manifested in Time.
But the permanent relation between the unit or "I" and its subjective ground must probably have an occult natural aspect as well as the metaphysical one I have illustrated. In other words there must be a force behind thought of which what we cognise as thought is the manifestation and it must be that force which constitutes the real relation between the Unit and the Universal. That permanent relation, that Force manifested as thought I believe is the River of Life bearing within it and unfolding the four elements of Being; Spirit, Soul, Mind, Instinct.
That emanation of Life or Spirit, the Sephira, the Sepher Yetzirah says extends through all things. Through God"s power and existence every element has its power and source from a higher Force and all things have their common origin from the Holy Spirit. So God is at once both the matter and the form of the Universe, yet He is not only the form, for nothing can or does exist out of Himself.
The suggestion arises whether we can form any concrete conception of that Emanating Force - the "River of Life" which permanently relates the "I" with its source, as well as the metaphysical relation described and which we cognise as thought. Will not the conception of the centrifugal force in which the centripetal is inherent and inseparable, assist us, carrying as it does that unfolding is implicit in involving, that evolution and development is the sequential effect in continuity of involution?
The circuit of electricity will help us further, issuing as positive until its reaches the negative pole, when it returns on itself to its source. In this indeed we have an illustration of a positive Universal Ground or Brain, as it is well known that electricity is not created de novo by the dynamo. It is generated or emanates from an underlying source of which the Earth is but one reservoir or condenser. Edison’s experiments, the similar research of Greenwich Observatory, show the magnetic storms of Earth which coincide with and are correlated with the Sun spots, thus showing the lives of our coal miners to depend on the state of the Sun. It is well known that magnetism is an effect of electricity. The passing of a current of electricity through a bar of iron converts it into a magnet. The presence of a current in one wire "induces" a current in any wire near it.
The action of the Sun on the Earth above referred to is under the same law. The presence of electricity in our Earth, itself entails its polarity, its positive and negative poles - consequently its attracting and repelling force or its centrifugal and centripetal currents. The Aurora Borealis of our Earth and the Solar Corona or photosphere are probably similar effects with regard to these orbs. So what the magnetic field or radiation is to a magnet, which though not seen visually is illustrated by iron filings spread on a piece of paper and held over a magnet — What these spheres are to a magnet, the Earth and Sun, most probably our aura is to us. This aura Madame Blavatsky described as a magnetic aura, a psychic effluvium partaking both of the mind and of the body. It is Electro-vital and Electro-mental.
Have we not in these examples illustrations of the force pervading the Universe, coexisting in the unit and in the whole, inter relating all into one Unity, manifesting in each in accord with one universal and all-pervading law?
We have here, I think, the illustration of the one determinating force, the River of Life, manifesting Unity and its media, and cognised by these units as thought.
In this connection a further reflection suggests itself for consideration with regard to the Sepher Yetzirah. While the four planes of Being may be viewed a distinguishable, they must be inseparable, as the unity of Being cannot be divided, and, as the Sepher Yetzirah itself says, the Elements of Being each have their source in a higher form and all from the Spirit which is both Form and Substance and in which are all things. In accord with the Law of Uniformity, these Elements must coexist in Unity, as well as in the Universal, in the microcosm as well as in the macrocosm. It is probable therefore that we may consider the Four Worlds as the planes through which the unit descends from its Fountain Source to its present circumferential state and by which descent it obtains a vehicle in each element or relation in each place.
Is not the Wheel of Life in the door of the Vault a key to this question? Showing, as it does, all four elements coexisting in the Unit. But this cannot be considered as an integration of four living creatures, each separate and having to be integrated into Unity, in as much as the Unity of Being could never be divided up and separated without entailing annihilation and chaos. If these four Elements are viewed as Spirit, Soul, Mind, Instinct, it is evident that these do not co-exist in each unit. The problem suggested is or may possibly be to attain conscious functioning of each of the elements of Being in relation with its place or World.
These descending states in the ultimation of the Unit find their parallel in the process of thought. Every thought has an objective aspect, aswell as its subjective aspect, and one may say, like the unit of being, thought emanates from original Being, is produced from the unmanifested in Atziluth, takes shape in Briah, form in Yetzirah and ultimates in Assiah, in which consideration we return to the two aspects of the River of Life, we referred to at the beginning of this paper, viz. the metaphysical and the occult.
What constitutes the difference between that part of the River of Life which takes shape in Briah, and incarnates as volition, and that which emanates through us as thought, remaining disincarnate, and what becomes of that River of Thought which takes disincarnate form and is ultimated through us?
We ourselves must have been produced from the unmanifest in Atziluth, taken soul and shape in Briah, mind and form in Yetzirah, a concrete shell and instinct in Assiah. Yet we remain permanently attached to our own source, by a River of Life or electricity, which conveys to us in reflection and intuition what we cognise as thought from our original source. Is this the continuation of the River of Life which produces us? Does that River still flow through us its selfdeluminated vehicles, and manifest as thought? Then is not our personality an objective representation of the attributes present in that River of Life? Or a reflection in form of the type on the sense mediated plane of that which involved itself by determination and is now unfolding to our consciousness, as the centrifugal current returns on itself as centripetal?
The conception of the Duality of Will, good and evil, must have arisen presumably from the appearance of there being a conflict between the "River of Life" flowing through man and the impediments or obstructions raised on the circumference by the atom cells or lives used in the construction of the outer shell or organism and which were drawn from the animal vegetable and mineral states. But these are only manifestations of the One Universal Life, equally with the Primum Mobile of Man, and the relation or reaction between these lives or states of consciousness and the consciousness of the Entity using them must in reality be a relation of harmony though in appearance there may be conflict, and it must not be forgotten that the Primum Mobile or Entity using these lives on its circumference is in reality the one River of Life, and let me now again suggest the question of what becomes of the Thought thus ultimated? and which we find to be manifested as the River of Life.
The relation between the cells or lives used by the Unit in the integration of its form or its body and the Primum Mobile which has integrated that body, has its parallel in the Greater Universe in the relation of the Unit or outer Manifestation to the Universal, then determination whose body they form. The ultimation of each unit is undoubtedly in accord with the archetypal plan, of which we are parts, manifested objectively, yet there is all appearance of revolt, of conflict between the unity, occupying the schools of Atheism, Materialism, Evolution and their Determination.
The conflict between these units of manifestation and their Determination is probably as real as that between the Wills and Lives, making up the shell or organism and its constructor or controller or Primum Mobile. It is the same River of Life acting in the next or more external plane, that of the shells or matter. Let it be remembered that it is the interaction between the Unit of Life or Primum Mobile in Man and the other units and particularization of the Universe that begets the manifold of experience, which is the function of the unit to relate and unify.
[Issed by N.O.M., 8. October 1893. being Essays by V.H.F. Quaestor Lucis (Oswald Murray) - (No Official G.D. Authority)]
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TATTWA VISIONS
By V. H. Sor. V.N.R. 6°=5° (Moina Mathers)
Here follow two Tattwa visions by Soror Vestigia. These are provided as simple examples of the technique, and the procedure to be followed. The first of them is the fiery sub-element of Earth, Tejas of Prithivi. The second one is a vision of Spirit of Water, Akasa of Apas.
TEJAS OF PRITHIVI (fiery part of Earth)
"After going through the symbols, I find myself in a volcanic district. No fire is to be seen, but the type of land is volcanic. Hill and mountains, hot air, and sunny light.
Using a Pentacle, and calling on the Earth Names, I see before me a species of Angelic King Elemental. On testing him, I find that he gives me the Neophyte Saluting Sign, and the Philosophus Sign. He bows low to the symbols that I give him, and says that he is willing to show me some of the working of the plane. He has a beautiful face, somewhat of the Fire type, yet sweet in expression. He wears a Golden Crown, and a fiery red cloak, opening on to a yellow tunic, over which being a shirt of mail. In his right hand he bears a wand, the lower end or handle being shaped somewhat as the Pentacle implement, and the staff and upper end being as the Fire Wand. In his left hand (but this I do not clearly see) he bears a Fire Wand; I think that the right hand points upwards and the left downwards, and is a symbol to invoke forces.
Little figures of the gnome type come at his call. When commanded some broke the rocky parts of the Mountain with pick-axes which they carry. Others appear to dig in the ground. In breaking off these rocky pieces, there fall away little bits of bright metal or copper. Some of these Gnomes collected the bits of metal and carried them away in little wallets slung by a baidrick from their shoulders. We followed them and came to some mountainous peaks. From these peaks issued some large and fierce, some hardly perceivable, fires. Into cauldrons or bowls placed above these fires, the collected pieces of metal were placed. I was told that this was a lengthy process, but asked that I might see the result of what appeared to be a gradual melting of this metal. I was then shown some bowls containing liquid gold, but not I imagine, very pure metal.
I again followed my guide, the Angelic King Elemental Ruler, who gave me his name as Atapa, and followed by some gnomes bearing the bowl of liquid gold; we came, after passing through many subterranean passages cut in the mountains, to a huge cavern of immense breadth and height. It was like a Palace cut out of the rock. We passed through rudely cut passages, until we reached a large central hall, at the end of which was a Dais on which were seated the King and Queen, the courtier gnomes standing around.
This Hall seemed lighted by torches, and at intervals were roughly cut pillars. The Gnomes who accompanied us presented to the King and Queen their gold. These latter commanded their attendants to remove this to another apartment. I asked the King and Queen for further explanation, and they, appointing substitutes in their absence, retire to an inner chamber which appeared more elevated than the rest. The architecture here seemed to be of a different kind. This small hail had several sides, each with a door, draped by a curtain. In the center of the Hall was a large tripod receiver containing some of the liquid gold such as that we had brought with us.
The King and Queen who before had worn the colours of Earth now donned, he the red, and she the white garments. They then with their Earth-Fire Wands invoked and joined their wands over the Tripod. There appeared in the air above, a figure such as Atapa, he who had brought me here. He, extending his wand, and invoking, caused to appear from each door a figure of a planetary or zodiacal nature. These each in turn held out his wand over the gold, using some sigil which I can but dimly follow. The gold each time appearing to undergo a change. When these last figures have retired again behind the curtains, the King and Queen used a species of ladle and compressed together the gold, making it into solid shapes and placing one of these at each of the curtained doors. Some gold still remained in the bowl. The King and Queen departed, and it seemed to me that I saw a figure again appear from behind each curtain and draw away the pieces of gold."
AKASA OF APAS (Spirit of Water)
"A wide expanse of water with many reflections of bright light, and occasionally glimpses of rainbow colours appearing (perhaps symbolising the beginning of formation in Water). When divine and other names were pronounced, elementals of the mermaid and merman type appear, but few of other elemental forms. These water forms are extremely changeable, one moment appearing as solid mermaids and mermen, the next melting into foam.
Raising myself by means of the highest symbols I have been taught, and vibrating the names of Water, I rose until the Water vanished, and instead I beheld a mighty world or globe, with its dimensions and divisions of Gods, Angels, elementals, demonsóthe whole universe of Water (like the tablet ruled by EMPEH ARSEL GAIOL), I called on this latter name, and the Universe seemed to vivify more and more. I then called on HCOMA, and there appeared standing before me a mighty Archangel (with four wings) robed in glistening white, and crowned. In one hand, the right, he held a species of trident, and in the left a Cup filled to the brim with an essence which appeared to be derived from above. This essence, brimming over, poured down below on either side. From the overflowing or overrunning of this Cup, which derives its essence from Atziluth, apparently the cup being in Briah, the World of Yetzirah obtains its moisture. It is there differentiated into its various operative forces.
These operative forces are represented by Angels, each with their respective office in the world of moisture. These forces working in Yetsirah, when descending and mingling with the Kether of Assiah, are initiating the force of that which we as human beings call Moisture."
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ON HORARY ASTROLOGY
By V. H. Frater Resurgam (Dr. Edmund William Berridge)
Verified Horary Figure by Nemo.
Question: Will querited* die of his present illness? {*the subject of the query}
Hearing by letter that my maternal uncle, an octogenarian was seriously ill from pneumonia, I drew a figure for the moment of intuition to do so, which was while reading the communication. His illness had commenced about February 7th and he was now confined to bed.
The student can easily cast the figure for 11.45 a.m. February 26th 1887 London W. RA of M 22h 25m 6s and 33221’24° in arc. Pisces 0.17 culminating Aries. Cancer 445 ascending; Sol in Pisces 732’47”, Luna in 1623′, Mercury in Pisces 2319, Venus in Pisces 2754; Mars in Pisces 2032. Jupiter in Virgo 548, retrograde, Saturn in Cancer 1554′ retrograde, Uranus in Libra 1146′ retrograde, Neptune in Taurus 2510′. Declination Sol 843′ S. Luna 247’19° N. Mercury 229′ S. Venus 156′ S. Mars 431′ S. Jupiter 129′ S. Saturn 2225′ N. Uranus 359′ S. Neptune 1725′ N. The Moon’s North node was in Leo 27.35, Pars Fortuna was in Leo 1332. The Moon’s motion in longitude was 1149’56° in the 24 hours.
As the querited was the fourth of my maternal uncles and aunts, my mother being the youngest of the family, I took the 10th House of the figure for herself and the 12th (or 3rd from the 10th) for her eldest brother or sister, the 2nd for the 2nd, the 4th for the 3rd and the 6th for the 4th, the querited, and correspondingly the 1st (or 8th from the 6th) for his 8th or House of Death.
There Mars ruled querited’s 1st House and Luna his 8th, the aspect being Luna 25.51. Taurus, separating from the quindecile (24) and applying to his semisextile. The past aspects being good but very weak showed his past state of health, which had been very fair considering his age, but not robustóthe applying aspect being good and stronger than his preceding, Mars moreover being dignified by triplicity, term and decanate and also receiving Luna by House, sure recovery from illness was shown, but at the same time not absolute restoration to health. Had the significant been applying to a Trine or even a Sextile I should have predicted not only complete recovery from his acute attack, but also a continuance of a vigorious old age. Had the case been chronic I should have predicted a partial restoration of health at the time indicated. In this instance however, acute pneumonia being a self limited disease, I predicted a complete recovery from the pulmonary attack itself and an escape from death, but not restoration to vigorous health. Nevertheless the severity and danger of the illness was shown by Cauda in querited’s 4th House, by Saturn, lord of his 4th posited in close Square to Luna, ruler of his 8th posited in his 6th and slow in motion. As Luna, the applying significator, was in a movable sign and a succedent house, each degree signified a week; therefore as wanted 49′ of the complete Semisextile, I judged that querited would be convalescent in 4 weeks and 1 day, or March 27th. On March 29th he walked out in his garden for the first time and fully recovered from the pneumonia.
Observations
(1) This shows the necessity of selecting the exact house corresponding to querited and not generalising. Had I taken his 12th house of the figure as signifying maternal uncles and aunts in general (being his 3rd from the 10th, and the 7th (or 8th from 12th) for querited’s death, the aspects of the Lords thereof would have been Venus 105 Saturn exactly, and applying to Square, showing present fair health and danger to life in 8 weeks, which was not the case (Future 1.106).
(2) It made no difference to the selection of the 6th house of the figure as the querited’s 1st, that two elder brothers (the 1st and 3rd of the family) were deceased. They has to be taken into consideration in the calculation of his appropriate house, just the same as if they had been living.
(3) Had I taken the 8th house of the figure as signifying querited’s death, the aspect would have been Mars 115.22 Saturn, applying to 108, signifying recovery in 7-1/2 weeks which was also not the case (Future1.107).
(4) Luna was in latitude 358′ S and Mars in 050′ S, adding the sum of these to the degrees and minutes required to form the perfect Semisextile, and converting the total amount so obtained into time, would have prolonged the time of the event by 448′ or nearly five weeks; yet recovery occurred only two days after the exact time predicted (Future 1.60).
(5) Luna was 13 distant from the cusp of the house in which he was posited, yet this made no difference whatever in the calculation of time (Future 1.60).
(6) Luna applied to par. decl. Mars being 143’4° distant; yet no danger to life occurred at the corresponding time (Future 1.109).
(7) As the question was concerning the querited only, Scorpio, the sign of his 1st hour described him, a corpulent, strong, able body, somewhat broad and square face, short necked, a squat well-trussed fellow (Lilly p. 63). But the ascendant of the figure does not describe myself, because though the querent, the question was not concerning myself (Future, 1.171).
(8) Uranus is strongly dignified in Scorpio; but the sign is not its diurnal home. Were it so, the aspect would have been Luna 17523′, Uranus separating from Opposition, implying past danger to life and applying to the Quadrasextile (150); signifying some illness in about 25-1/2 weeks, neither of which significations were in accordance with facts (Future 1.29.30).
(9) As Mars ruled both the querited’s 1st and 6th Houses no judgement could be formed from the Lord of the 6th, otherwise it would have entered in the calculation, though in a question of the duration of life, I consider the 8th House coeteri paribus, the most important (Future1.108).
(10) In this figure Mars was in the 10th, subradius and applying to combustion, also Saturn, Lord of the 7th, was in his detriment and retrograde both being therefore ‘unfortunate’. Nevertheless I did not ‘end in the discredit of the artist’ but the reverse, neither was I unable to ‘scarce give a solid judgement’ (Future 1.109-1).
[Delivered in 1982 to the Adepti in College assembled.]
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ESSAY ON CLAIRVOYANCE AND TRAVELLING IN THE SPIRIT VISION
By V. H. Sub Spe 5°=6° (John William Brodie-Innes)
The best theory of the phenomenon of Clairvoyance seems to be founded on the relation between Man as the Microcosm and the Universe as the Macrocosm; regarding the former as a reflection in miniature of the latter, as in a grass field full of dewdrops each drop might present a perfect tiny image of trees and mountains, the sky, clouds, the sun and the stars.
If, then, everything in the Cosmos is somehow reflected or pictured on each man’s own sphere of sensation, or Akashic envelope, it follows that if he could but be conscious of the pictures so reflected or imprinted he would at once be possessed of all actual or potential knowledge of everything in the Cosmos, and further assuming that time itself is merely an illusion, and that the reality of things is, as it were, one vast picture along which we travel seeing point after point in succession and producing the ideas of lapse of time, then it further follows that the full and complete knowledge of all that is reflected in our sphere of sensation includes all knowledge past, present and future.
The reason, then, why we have not such knowledge consciously to ourselves must be from the obtuseness of the Sensorium, the actual physical brain, which cannot perceive the images on the sphere of sensation. If, then, all knowledge lies within each man’s own sphere, it is by looking within, or intuition, that such knowledge is made available.
Know thyself and thou wilt know everything. But seeing that the brain and sensorium are physical, it is necessary at first to use physical means to produce the sensitiveness necessary to consciously perceive the images on the Sphere of Sensation. And the readiest and safest means is the use of a symbol. This is familiar in everyday life, but so much so as to escape notice.
For example — to a depraved and debauched person an obscene word or figure — carelessly drawn and seen by chance, is a symbol word or figure — carelessly drawn and seen by chance, is a symbol calling up a host of unclean images and ideas. To a lover the name of his mistress spoken by chance in his hearing — the sight of a colour she usually wears, or the scent of a familiar perfume will suffice to raise the image of the beloved form almost visibly before him and to produce quickened pulse, heightened colour, etc.
To the soldier the sight of the flag of his country or his regiment, produces visions of martial glory, ideas of devotion, loyalty, patriotism and unflinching courage.
In all these cases ideas and visions are produced in the brain by the symbol, and if the above theory be accepted it follows that the effect of the symbol is to render one portion of the physical brain more sensitive, or it may be more translucent, so that the images lying within the corresponding region of the Sphere of Sensation may be dimly perceived (such sensitiveness of brain may be produced in other ways, such as by Hypnotism or self — induced Trance, by Obsession, Disease, etc. — but the method by symbol seems to remain the surest and the best).
This theory is made use of in the practice of inducing Clairvoyance.
A large number of well known and recognised symbols have a definite relation to certain portions of the Sphere of Sensation and the corresponding regions of the Cosmos, and also to the regions related thereto of the physical brain.
The experimenter should know thoroughly the attributions and meanings of the symbol employed, as this knowledge produces an immediate concentration of thought, of vital energy, of nerve force, and of actual physical blood on the tract of brain related thereto, and thus materially aids the establishment of a special sensitiveness there.
Thus if the Tejas Tattva card be taken, the knowledge that it belongs to fire will at once charge with nerve force and with blood all the centres of the brain relating to fire, and will involuntarily recall the various Divine and Spirit names which the experimenter has learnt connected therewith. The actual speaking of these with the solemnity and impressiveness of the Vibration will increase the effect — gazing fixedly at the symbol and touching the appropriate implement which is also a symbol of the same brain tract, momentarily increases the force — vires acquiret eundo — until every other brain cell is shut down, muted and inhibited; the whole consciousness is concentrated on the perception of fire.
The physical brains thus become sensitive and translucent in this respect and able to perceive dimly in the Sphere of sensation the reflection of the Macrocosmic idea of fire, with all its connotations.
The sensation is as though one stepped out through a window into a new world.
The reality probably is that the new sensitiveness enables the actual physical brain to become conscious of ideas and pictures hitherto unknown.
At first it seems as though everything thus perceived were just the product of one’s own imagination — i.e. that one simply took scraps of memory, scraps of other men’s ideas gleaned from books, pictures, etc. and built them up at will into a composite picture. But a little further experience generally convinces one that the new country one has become conscious of has its inviolable natural laws just as the physical world has. that one cannot make or unmake at will, that the same causes produce the same results, that one is in fact merely a spectator and in no sense a creator. The conviction then dawns on one that one is actually perceiving a new and much extended range of phenomena; that, in fact, which is known as the Astral World or Astral Plane.
Here, then, comes an experimental confirmation of the theory above set forth, which will probably be deepened and intensified with every experiment which is carefully made.
Personal experience confirms the foregoing: On taking any symbol whereof I know the meaning, such as a Tattva — or Tarot card, the abstract idea of the meaning of the symbol comes first — as fire, or water in the abstract — and a pose of mind cognate and sympathetic thereto, a desire for that particular element — not keen but perceptible — gradually the feeling of the physical effects of the element — as of warmth — moisture — etc. — and especially the sound as of the roaring or crackling of fire, the rush — or patter, or ripple of water. Gradually the attention is withdrawn from all surrounding sights and sounds, a grey mist seems to swathe everything, on which, as though thrown from a magic lantern on steam, the form of the symbol is projected.
(This I conceive is due to the withdrawal of blood and nerve force from other centres of the brain and their consequent inhibition.)
The Consciousness then seems to pass through the symbol to realms beyond but, as above — said, I think it more probable that visions and pictures from beyond come on to the hypersensitive brain centres and, as these have been sensitised by the symbol and the first effect has been the vision of the symbol itself on the grey mist, so they seem to take the form of the symbol and to pass through it. At all events the sensation is as if one looked at a series of moving pictures, although there are beings in this new world with whom one can converse, animals that one can dominate, or that attract one, yet to me personally it is all no more solid than the pictures of a Kinetoscope or the sound of a phonograph.
Yet when this sensitiveness of brain and power of perception is once established there seems to grow out of it a power of actually going to the scenes so visionary and seeing them as solid, indeed, of actually doing things and producing effects there.
This is what I imagine is termed Travelling in the Spirit Vision.
Whether it is more than an extension of the power of perceiving the pictures on the Sphere of Sensation or Akashic envelope is very difficult to determine. The sensation, however, to me personally is first to become, as it were, dimly conscious of a figure walking among the scenes of the new country — or the Astral Plane — gradually to become conscious that it is my own figure I am looking at — gradually, as it were, to be able to look through the eyes — and feel with the sensations of this doppelganger. Further to be able consciously to direct its motions, to control it, to inhabit it, and in this body to be able to visit the scenes and persons I had previously only looked at, as it were, through a telescope.
It is as though my Consciousness had extruded from my own body to take possession of a body which I had either created for the purpose, or invoked out of the Astral Sphere as a vehicle for myself.
It seems, however, almost more probable that as the Sphere of Sensation reflects everything that is in the material Universe so it must needs contain a reflection also of the material body of the percipient and if this be so it is not hard to suppose that such reflection can be made to travel about within the Sphere of Sensation and visit all things therein reflected with as much ease (or more) as the will of the man can make his physical body travel to material places on the earth.
The Perception of the Astral plane seems to be peculiarly liable to delusions, arising probably from defects in the sensorium or physical brain — as an object seen through faulty glass is distorted, that is to say the personal element, or what scientists call the ‘personal equation’, becomes so strong as to produce actual error.
As the brain can be rendered sensitive in a particular direction by symbol — so can these errors also be corrected by symbol. The various qualities in each man’s nature are symbolised by the planets — hence when this symbology is well known the planetary symbols may be used to correct errors arising from the particular quality attributed to each. Thus the error could be that the visions are merely compounded from memory.
In this case build up in brilliant white light in front of any image which you suspect to be merely a product or memory the letter Tau, the symbol of the Path of Saturn, ‘The Great One of the Night of Time’ — whose sober and steadying influence will cause a memory picture to disappear. Similarly Beth for Mercury formulated in the same way will cause to vanish any product of lying intellectual delusion — or Daleth for Venus is used for the result of intellectual vanity — Gimel for Luna for a wavering mind — Resh for the Sun for delusions of haughtiness, vanity, etc. and Kaph for the path of Jupiter against imagination, and Peh for the path of mars against revenge, hatred etc.
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PLANETS TO TATTVAS
— A SUPPLEMENT TO XII —
By G. H. Frater D.D.C.F. (S.L. MacGregor Mathers)
In Flying Roll XII there appears Venus (Daleth) as Water of Earth.
The Planets are not Tattvas but have a sympathy with them. The Planets are not Elements but have a great sympathy with them.
Planets represent, for the most part, the compound action of the Elements with the Spirit. For the Spirit enters into their composition from their attributions not only to the Paths, but also to the Sephiroth. Here follows a Table of Attributions and correlations between Planets, Elements and Tattvas. The Elements may be in any proportion, but chiefly and better with the Element first mentioned preponderating in each case. Save in the case of Luna, the Akasha Tattvic symbol is not to be expressed, but Akasha represents the darkening aspect of the Spirit, that is, in a too neutral and negative sense.
| Saturn | Spirit | Air | Earth | Earth of Air |
| Jupiter | Spirit | Fire | Water | Water of Fire |
| Mars | Spirit | Fire | Earth | Earth of Fire |
| Sun | Spirit | Fire | Air | Air of Fire |
| Venus | Spirit | Earth | Water | Water of Earth |
| Mercury | Spirit | Air | Water | Water of Air |
| Luna | Spirit | Water | Earth & Alchemical Mercury | Earth of Water |
The Tattvas however, are not exactly the Aspects of the Spirits with the Four Elements, as we treat them. They almost coincide with these five forces in our Hermetic and Rosicrucian Scale of the Queen-the complete understanding of which comes later. They are powerful as representing the Natural Passive condition of the Forces and are, in a sense, dangerous; because, if ill understood and directed, their operation induces too passive a condition and one too subject to fatality.
Their roots are in the material reflections of the five forces in the Scale of the Queen in the Earth’s atmosphere; and they are more nearly material in their nature than those of the more active Scale of the King. Wherefore their forces are more easily perceivable materially, though less powerful in reality, than ours in the Scale of the King; because there is a certain mode of combination wanting in them which is present in our Scale of the King.
Used with the full knowledge of a Zelator Adeptus Minor, they are perfectly safe, because his knowledge supplies what is wanting in their teaching. Used by the uninitiated, they are dangerous, as quickly leading to a dangerously passive condition.
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THE PRINCIPIA OF THEURGIA OR THE HIGHER MAGIC
By V. H. Frater L.O. (P.W. Bullock)
The obscurity reigning in the public writings of those who have treated of Occult subjects has had the effect of veiling to a very large extent, any clear conceptions, which might have otherwise been apparent, respecting the methods of the sacred Science, and it has occurred to me that it might be of service to such of our members who are entering the Second Order if I put down some ideas which it is well to have in mind upon approaching these studies.
To the merely intellectual eye, much of the more spiritual instruction hereafter given out will, perhaps, appear mere wild fantasy and be difficult to comprehend, and much more so to put into practice, unless, indeed, the real significance of the symbolism and teaching of the Outer Order has been to some degree assimilated.
The system before you is now only to be appreciated by a refinement of faculty, to be engendered through the recognition of certain principia which may be said to underlie all Occult operations, and the practices consequent thereupon.
These principia all logically proceed from one postulate,-viz. the Unity of all things in the Divine Being, - a conception which beautifully harmonises with the most venerable instincts of the Soul: ‘In Him we, live, move and have our being!’
This divine basis of the Universe is omnipresent,-endowing total Nature with consciousness in varying modes: no particle can be said to contain more or less of the Divinity than any other, but the modes of expression differ according to the type. Essential Divinity was called by Plato ‘the same’ and manifested Nature ‘the other’: Divinity is archetypal-Nature is anarchic. As it is said ‘Between the Light and the Darkness the colours vibrate’.
‘The colours’ are due to the mingled proportions of the Elements which engender variety and form. The World of Formation is Yetzirah-the region compounded by the Six Sephiroth of Microprosopus.
Yetzirah is the Astral Light, which is especially the medium wherein operate the Ethers of the Elements under the presidency of the Planets: I use the expression Ether of the Elements in order to convey the significance of the Hermetic conception of the ‘Elements’. The Elements of the ancients (called respectively Fire, Water, Air and Earth) are not at all the physical Elements but the subtle Ethers underlying these,-the presence of which is necessary before the gross Elements can be manifested. Hence the Altar symbolism.
Everything formed by Nature in the Yetziratic and Assiatic Worlds is ensphered and thereby individualised: such intangible and magnetic circuli are forces evolving form, form being static force. Each individual or entity,-whether a stone, a planet or a man, energises according to its nature, i.e. gives expression to the archetype of its sphere, and this is the work of evolution. All entities are vested in the Anima Mundi, directly or indirectly according to vehiculum. In the higher kingdoms increased complexity obtains, culminating in the human being, as it is said ‘Oh Man thou subtle production!’
The Unity of the Divine One-‘circumscribing the Heavens with convex form’-which is considered to underlie all manifestation is a necessary conception to the doctrines of Macrocosm and Microcosm,-the Greater and Lesser World: that which is a part, of necessity partakes of the nature of the Whole, and thus every entity is a Microcosm or Little World-reflecting the Greater World or Macrocosm after a certain formula. Reflection involves reversal and thus it is said ‘Kether is Malkuth after another manner’.
For Occult purposes the crown of manifested life is considered to be the production of spiritually perfect Man. Spiritual perfection is the work of evolution, as physical perfection is that of evolution.
Once the projection into Malkuth is affected (for the second Adam must first descend and be born of her) the re-ascent commences:-with the ‘recession of the torrent’ comes the interior unfoldment, while instincts of assodation, cooperation and community enlarges the interest of beings,-spreads consciousness over a wider area,-and strikes a death-blow at the egotistic life.
Every thought evolved takes form: elementals coalesce with such forms and thus impart thereto, as it were, life of their own. The inherent force of any thought is proportionate to the intensity of the volition which generated it.
Most people are more or less at the mercy of their own creations having thereby gained a definite temperament, or character. Every man is thus the sum total of his creation plus X,-the forever unknown quantity; but as the creations of life increase so the power of X may be said to diminish and for this reason it was said ‘Enlarge not thy destiny!’
At the dissolution the Soul enters the region of its own Yetzirah, and unless during life it has learned to be positive to its own astral nature, the unimpeded fantasy of excarnate life would involve a fruition of good or evil to which its creator would be subject. Such post-mortem experience is therefore considered illusionary, and hence the work of the Occultist is to render himself positive to his own astral nature by living as much as possible on the creative plane,-his Briatic World,-for, be it remembered, the Creator is also the Destroyer, and thus the true dignity of the Soul is maintained when in alliance with its own divine summit,-a condition involving a more or less complete detachment.
It is not necessary to study Occultism in order to become good,-but rather to become wise. The means which you are taught to employ are calculated to equilibrate the spiritual nature and implement spiritual growth.
The effect of spiritual growth is to extend the Consciousness in the direction of divine and superhuman things and correspondingly restrict the ‘Automatic Consciousness’ of animal Appetites and desires.
The methods handed down by the Golden Dawn tradition are those of the divine Theurgy.
Theurgia is the science of communion with planetary Spirits, the powers composing the Hierarchies of Being and ‘Gods of Light’.
Two conditions are necessary for practice. The first is absolute purity and devotion to Truth. The second, the thoroughly trained knowledge of correspondences, the correspondences, that is to say, between the forces of the greater World, or Macrocosm, with those of the lesser World, or Microcosm, and the respective interaction of these.
The normal method of Occult development is a gradual retreat within-first to the Yetziratic World, and, then beyond it. The World of Formation which the student is now called upon to traverse, is the Yetzirah of Assiah,-hence the Elemental and Planetary forces are especially those with which he is brought into contact.
Man as the most completely evolved Microcosm of the Macrocosm synthesises in his own constitution the forces of the greater World of which he is a part; every entity is thus related to him,-and he to them. The World is, as it were, a vast animal, and its parts respond, being moved by mutual sympathies: sympathies obtain through approximation to type, antipathies when the types are imperfect.
Theurgia is operated through the harmonious combination of the forces of Sound, Colour, Number and Form,-the whole attention being powerfully concentrated upon the plane of the force the signature of which is expressed.
The numbers from 1 to 10 constitute a complete progression: these are primal powers and the roots alike of force and form. Occult practice derived from the decimal numeration rests upon a basis of mathematical accuracy,-mathematics being an exact science. The number 3 is the first manifesting power, the number 10 is a return to Unity, or the commencement of a fresh series. For this reason the forms of manifestation are septenary and these are the roots of colours and of sounds.
The Theurgist commands mundane natures by virtue of his own divinity, but until apotheosis be achieved it is necessary in certain higher operations to stimulate the Consciousness by identification with the divinity.
The rule is ‘Appeal to the Divine and Superhuman presences, and conjuration of those which are inferior’. The right to command is extended by subsequent progress.
When in mundane affairs you wish to gain information about a distant country, you do so either from those who have been there, or by yourself proceeding thither,-so with Theurgic operations,-you can either invoke the simulacrum of your subject, or travel by projection.
The intimate connection between forms and elemental forces has to be learnt and appreciated. ‘Think of a place and thou art there already’ says the old Hermetic axiom, and it might have added ‘whether you realise it or not’;-the Adept does!
The endeavour to picture to yourself persons and things seen is an invocation of the simulacra and presently, with practice, much plastic power of formation will be developed and the tinge of personality overcome. Of any place or being to which such thought direction is made the true conformation thereof serves as the ideal and archetype upon which the formative power builds and to which it tends to conform naturally, unless impeded by preconceptions in the sphere of the mind.
In ceremonial, let the drawing of a circle which, as you are told, is the key to all the rest, be the formulation of a true magical vortex,-raising about the sphere of the mind an absolute barrier to all extraneous impression,-thus enabling perfect spontaneity: as you are told the Mystic Circumambulation symbolises the dawning of Light.
It will be seen upon consideration that every thought which is creative and positive (as distinct from a passive and mediumistic reflex) must contain, as it were, within itself the complement and completion thereof,-i.e. Intuition. In just the same way as when along parallel wires an electric current is passed down one only, simultaneously inducing a reverse current up the other,-so the fruition of thought, which is perfect intuition, complements the centrifugal action of intellectual energy. The external mode of mental activity has engendered oblivion of the fact, and so men fail to realise their own possibilities: but that Invocation involves response is the testimony of psychic sensibility.
Thoughts which are expressed in some way, whether by speech or symbol, are by so much the more powerful than those unexpressed. Expression is the consecration of Will. ‘The Paternal Mind sowed symbols in the Soul’,-and regenerate fantasy shall reveal them.
Forces are entities; all entities are expressible by formula or signature. The Sigilla of Occult forces are employed because whatever has but a casual similitude to these forces directly participates therein.
Will is the grand agent of all Occult Work; its rule is all potent over the nervous system. By Will the fleeting vision is fixed upon the treacherous waves of the Astral Light, but, as it is said, you cannot pursue the Path of the Arrow until you understand the forces of the Bow.
The use of bright colours engenders the recognition of subsisting variety and stimulates that perception of the mind which energises through imagination, or the operation of images.
A picture which to the cultured eye beautifully portrays a given subject, nevertheless appears to the savage a confused patchwork of streaks,-so the extended perceptions of a citizen of the Universe are not grasped by those whose thoughts dwell within the sphere of the personal life.
It is selfishness which impedes the radiation of Thought, and attaches to body. This is scientifically true and irrespective of sentiment: the selfishness which reaches beyond the necessities of the body is pure vulgarity.
The road to the Summum Bonum lies therefore through Self-Sacrifice,-the sacrifice of the Lower to the Higher, for behind that Higher Self lies the concealed Form of the Ancient of Days, the synthetical Being of Divine Humanity.
These things are grasped by the Soul: the song of the Soul is alone heard in the Adytum of the God-nourished silence.
The force of association, or community, even in wordly affairs is very great, but far more so when the ties which link together take their rise in the profoundest recesses of Being.
Having entered the Second Order, you come within the radius of a psychic spiritual force, which, generated centuries ago, has acquired a momentum of its own, and silently exerts a protective influence. The isolated student lacks this advantage. The history and existence of this secret organisation is a monument to the energy put forth by our Golden Dawn Ancestors, ‘Those who are of a most excellent genius, cultivated the divine science, while yet upon Earth.’
The legacy which they have bequeathed is perhaps something more than the actual knowledge preserved, great though this be, for, consciously or unconsciously, the forces they have put forward devolve upon us, and the very shades of the mighty dead stimulate to further exertion.
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The so called "Fugitive Flying Roll"
ON THE VALUE OF MAGIC IMPLEMENTS AND INSIGNIA IN METHODS OF DIVINATION
By G.H. Fratres D.D.C.F. (S.L. MacGregor Mathers) & N.O.M. (Dr. W.W. Westcott)
As far as the Adeptus Minor is concerned, the successful practice of Divination, whether Astrology, Geomancy, or Tarot depends upon the training of intuition. The rules of Astrology, the dots of Geomancy and the law of the opening of the Key are the guides which lead the intuition and limit its function to definite aims and ends.
All processes of Divination require a concentration of mind and of the vital and astral forces of the operator upon the subject matter; this being so, it is of vital importance to success that the mind does not wander, the body be at rest and peace. No opposing forces intervene. That the personal and social attitude be cast aside. These things being so, it is of great value to furnish the physical with symbols of protection and power, and the astral form with the astral counterpart of their insignia and implements.
For by such means are the lower Elementals forced to abandon their attacks and they being absent, the opportunity is presented for the access of Superior Powers. For it is the Higher Self which receives prompting from Higher Powers at those times when the Lower Self is set aside, and when the interference of Elementary and Qlipothic forces is provided against.
Do not attempt Divination when angry, when anxious and worried, when ill, when fearful, for under all these circumstances the tendency to obsession is great.
As an Adeptus Minor, Divine when calm, peaceful, healthy and courageous. To supplement your power, use the means provided by your Adeptship: the white robe, emblem of Purity. The yellow sash of 5°=6° rank. The Rose-Cross, that comprehensive symbol, so well able to afford mystic protection and which itself affirms the support of the knowledge and the virtues of the keys of Wisdom you have already attained. Hold, or have at hand, the magic sword of Mars and Geburah to hinder the attacks of opposing forces acting with hostile intent, and of errant forces crossing your path. It will also increase the power of your resolves. The Lotus Wand should be in frequent use, because it gives precision to your working and supplies a ready means of appeal to any special force, zodiacal or planetary, by hour or present position; or elementary by triplicity.
The four Elemental Implements should be all laid on the table before you for immediate use as required: the whole four must be present to preserve a certain Balance and Harmony in the sphere of your aura, and yet it is desirable to take up and hold with concentrated idea any one of them when trying to form an estimate of the strength of the corresponding force in any detail of your work: or you may hold one of them to secure physical or astral power and intensity of that character or again to preserve your own natural equilibrium. For example, in the act of judging an astrologic Figure. Suppose you find the ascendant in Aries and Mars is found in Virgo. To ascertain more accurately their effects in the case, take the Lotus Wand in the right hand and use the left for the Elemental Implements. Hold by the scarlet band of Aries, consider, take up the Fire Wand, consider, then shift the grasp to Virgo and lay down the Fire Wand and take up the Pentacle for that earthy sign.
Again, suppose the end of the matter to be in Cancer and the Sun in Capricorn. Take the Lotus Wand first by one sign band and then by the other, taking up with the left, the Cup and Pentacle in succession. Or if Saturn be in Libra in Quadrant to the Moon hold the Wand by the emerald band and take the Air Dagger in the left hand, if you wish to consider what mischief the square of Saturn does to Moon. The same method will apply to a Geomantic Consideration, and the Lotus Wand is here especially suitable, for Geomantic Working is markedly Zodiacal rather than Planetary.
If a Divination must be done when you are in trouble, use the Sword to give strength in working and fortitude: holding it in the right hand and Wand or Implement in the left hand. In a Tarot judgement the same mode of working conduces to accuracy of result. In Geomancy also you may hold the Sword in the left hand, while making the dot with the right hand. The actual presence of your Mystical Motto, painted upon your Magical Weapon has its special use of ‘identifying the Power of the weapon with your own force’.
You should not imprint your own Motto upon a telesm or flashing Tablet given by you to another member. But you may add it to such a design intended by you, for your own wearing or use. This caution does not apply to a Telesma drawn and energised by you for presentation to the Chiefs for purposes of examination or for tests of your ability: in such case you may preferably write your motto on the reverse side of the Talisman or Design.
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ON LIEUTENANTS
By G. H. Frater D.D.C.F. 7°=4° (S.L. MacGregor Mathers), Chief Adept
On their attainment of the Grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor I appoint the four following members of the Second Order, viz. V.H. Fra. Levavi Oculos [P.W. Bullock], V.H. Soror Sapientia Sapienti Dono Data [Florence Farr], V.H. Fra. Resurgam [Dr. Berridge], V.H. Soror Fortiter et Recte [Annie Horniman], to assist the G.H. Frater Non Omnis Moriar [Dr. W.W. Westcott], Chief Adept in Charge in Britannia Magna cum Hibernia et Coloniis suis, in ruling and management of the Second Order, as his immediate Lieutenants and under his immediate orders.
And upon these Four, as a badge of their office I have conferred the symbols of HORUS, ISIS, AROUERIS and NEPHTHYS as a distinctive mark of the authority of each, a higher ranking superior to all other members of the Second Order until further notice; and to show to which particular one of them appeal is to be made by other members in case of difficulty.
And the decisions of these Four are to be subject to the approval and ratification of the G.H. Fra. Non Omnis Moriar.
To the V.H. Fra. LO. I have given the symbol of HORUS, showing that appeal is to be made in all grave matters coming under the dominion of Horus. . . such as Disagreement. All things pertaining to wrath, misunderstanding and irritation between members. Enforcement of the authority of the Chief of the Order. All frankly suggested plans requiring energy in their carrying out. Also the administration of advice to inferior members of the Second Order on all matters requiring decisive action.
To V.H. Soror S.S.D.D. I have given the symbol of HICE, ISIS, showing that unto her appeal is to be made in all grave matters coming under the dominion of Isis. . . such as the maintenance of peace and harmony between members. Instruction in doubtful application of occult correspondences. Decision in cases of vacillation and doubting of mind of inferior members, and decisions in matters affecting the harmony existing between different methods of occult working.
To V.H. Fra. Resurgam I have given the symbol of AROUERIS, showing that unto him appeal is to be made in all grave matters coming under the Dominion of Aroueris. . . such as all cases of doubt and difficulty in the application of rules for divination. Matters requiring subtlety and tact, and all decisions regarding the formulation of ideas.
To V.H. Soror F. et R. I have given the symbol of NEPHTHYS, showing that unto her appeal is to be made in all grave matters coming under the dominion of Nephthys. . . such as all cases of difficulty in the application of given rules to material correspondences. Difficulties in the ordering of studies of inferior members. All questions regarding difficulty in the selection of Forces to work, under or with, for a fixed end. All cases of doubt or difficulty requiring a right application of rules already given.
These four members aforesaid to be coequal in authority under the super-intendence of the ‘Chief Adept in Charge’ and in all matters of difficulty their decisions being submitted to him for ratification. And if (which is not frequently probable) a case shall fall under more than one of their heads, it is to be submitted equally to the judgement of those two or more Theorici Adepti aforesaid under whose office it is classed. And I trust that members of inferior rank will not abuse the faculty of appeal herein accorded, by constantly harassing the members aforesaid concerning trivial and unimportant subjects.
Signed: Deo Duce, Comite Ferro 7°=4°
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TATTWAS AND SKRYING AND HIEROPHANT’S MAKING 0°=0° SIGNS
By G. H. Frater D.D.C.F. (S.L. MacGregor Mathers)
1. Concerning Tattva Cards and Tattvic Clairvoyance or Skrying
The Cards used should be of a convenient size. The Tattvas thereon should be as uniform as possible, that is the full sized Apas should be as nearly as possible of the same area as the full sized Tejas — that is if it can conveniently be done.
The Tattvas should be placed on the card so that their perpendicular coincides with the cardís length rather than its breadth if the card be oblong, i.e.
This is not of great importance, but the horizontal method is apt to increase the negative side too much.
The Sub-Tattva should occupy about one fifth of the area of the main Tattva — one quarter is rather too large, and makes the Sub-Tattva nearly as important to the eye of the operator as the main Tattva when the former is superimposed upon the latter.
The cards should be clean and the colours correct when first made; not dirty cards whose uncleanliness is covered over to the physical eye by the Tattva pasted thereon. For if the cards are thus made they are apt, without the intention of the maker, to attract evil and delusive Elemental Influences from the fact that their formulae necessarily imply hidden iniquity.
2. Of Tattvic Skrying
The Skryer, using the proper Names, Implements etc. should endeavour to attain the following results for passing the C. Examination in Tattvic Clairvoyance.
He should test everything in the vision, that is to say, everything at all doubtful to him. He should describe carefully and in detail the landscape etc. of the vision, and discover, if possible:
He or she who is operating should avoid carefully any selfhypnotisation by the Tattva, for this will simply lead to foolish and hysteric visions, the offspring of the intoxication of the Operatorís astral sphere by the Tattva.
3. Of the Mode of delivering the Signs of the 0°=0° in a Temple of the Outer Order
The Initiated Hierophant, or any other member of the Second Order present in a Temple of the Outer Order, should give the Signs in the manner laid down in the Z Ritual, and should teach them to be given thus; but he must on no account describe their secret formulae, confining himself to the explanation usually given in the Ritual of the 0°=0° Grade of the First Order. It does not matter so much whether the First Order members give them quite properly, but the Second Order initiated members should always do so.
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CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE ENOCHIAN AND ETHIOPIC ALPHABETS
By V.H. Soror V.N.R. 6°=5° (Moina Mathers)
In the Book of the Concourse of the Forces it is stated that the letters of the Enochian Alphabet are of the nature of sigils and can therefore be better employed for magical purposes than our ordinary Roman characters, and we find proof of their force and correctness as to correspondence in the skrying of the squares of the Enochian Tablets. One or more of these letters being placed on the particular square employed in a vision, instead of the Roman letter will aid the skyring power by compelling the force of concentration on to the one square in question and on no other.
For however great may be the power of Clairvoyance, the student will find himself obtaining erroneous results should he not carry his correspondences to the last detail. Therefore it is wise to use the particular sigil of the square, as well as the general one of the Tablet, and naturally as well the ruling Names (Deity, Angelic and otherwise) with the correct pronunciation and vibration thereof, the colours &c &c.
The descent of the Book of the ‘Concourse of the Forces’ from the Egyptian Wisdom is undoubted, for we find that the very key note of the scheme of these tablets is the esoteric meaning of the Great Egyptian Symbols of the Pyramid and the Sphinx. The probability is then that this Tablet language has its origin in the Egyptian and its close resemblance to the Ethiopic (which is generally supposed to be derived from Egyptian) is very marked as the Table on page 000 will show.
Certainly, certain of these letters have a resemblance only when inverted or transposed, but this is not surprising when we consider the nature of hiero-glyphics, which can be read from right to left or vice versa and downward or in groups, and that a letter may also be turned in several directions.
The Ethiopic is composed (according to Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar of 26 letters all consonantal (as are most Semitic languages) the vowels being expressed by little curves or dashes seven in number, for instance (here the curve or dash is at the right side and further it is half way up. In the second case the curve is at the top.)
In the Tablets, when written in the Roman character the vowels are sometimes omitted. It is for this reason that we have been told to pronouce certain vowels after certain consonants. e.g. If B in an Angel name precedes another consonant, as in SOBHA thou mayest pronounce it SOBAYHAH (Book of the Angelic Calls).
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THE THEBIAN LETTERS
by V.H.Fra. N.O.M. (Dr. W. Wynn Westcott)
In the Flying Roll which explains the Yetziratic formation of an image of Adonai ha-Aretz it will be noted that the name is written upon the girdle in Theban characters. Many members having asked for this alphabet, I now issue this roll to furnish the required knowledge. Here follows a table of Theban letters, as found in Barrett’s "The Magus", on the plate facing p. 64 of Book II,
These letters are recorded by Peter of Abano, also called Petrus di Appone who derived from Honorius the Theban. This Hononus is said by many to have been a Pope. There have been four Popes named Honorius, but neither of them was called Theban Peter of Abano flourished circa A.D. 1300. This Alphabet is found in Cornelius Agrippa’s Works and in Barrett’s Magus.
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VISIONS OF SQUARES UPON THE ENOCHIAN TABLETS
By V.H. Sor. Vigilate & V.H. Sor. F.e.R. & V.H. Fra. A.P.S. & V.H. Sor. Shemeber & V.H. Fra. Resurgam
A Vision of the Square ‘A’ of the Airy Lesser Angle of the Tablet of Water
By V.H. Sor. Vigilate (Helen Mary Rand)
After vibrating the names of Airy Angle of Water and reading the Call, I seemed to be in the Air, ascending in a current of tiny drops of water which darted upward and in every direction, and were of every colour of the rainbow, very minute and light. On looking about for the cause, I saw below a tremendous volume of Water falling to a great depth, and this atmosphere in which I was, was the spray rising from it. I called on Ahephi to appear and gradually got the God form, as before, but standing above a pyramid composed of the living Elements. The Water sides of the Square were like two greenish-blue waves, always rising and falling and on all sides were in continual motion, and gave the idea of intense restlessness. I gave the 5°=6° Signs, tested it, and asked to be shown the Sphynx. This appeared in a greenish yellow mist behind Ahephi in a crouching position, with the human arms stretched out in front. A silver crown on the Lion head set with sapphires. I saluted with the Signs which were returned. I asked for the explanation of the force of the Square, but could not get it clearly. It seemed an ever-moving subtle force, which working imperceptibly brought purffication and cleaning with it.
The elementals I got were something like those of the ‘n’ Square, but smaller and in Rainbow colours, and they moved more quickly. They carried cups in their hands, shaped like lotuses in which they caught drops of water and darted into the Air with them. On the Earth their work seemed to be the purifying of the magnetism. I could not get anything clearer although I tried for a long time.
A vision of the Square ‘x’ in the Watery Lesser Angle of the Fire Tablet
By V.H. Sor. F.e.R. (Annie Horniman)
I rose through the pyramid with the White Light, which streamed down from the Apex, and came into the Sky, where the same colours are repeated like sunrise etc. The colossal pyramid and Amesheth on it, a mummified figure in white, bands of colour like the pyramid and a blue human face (the same blue as I have seen in Egyptian paintings). I made the Signs and called on the Names and begged to be allowed to see the Angel. She appeared with a blue lunar crescent on her head and brown hair which was very long. Her robe was pale blue with a black border, and a pentagram in red on her breast: her wings were blue also, and so was the Cup in her left hand, in her right hand she bore a red torch. Around her was a diamond of red yods. She told me her office was ‘Change and purification through suffering such as spiritualises the material nature’. I told her that her pale face and blue eyes had a sad and tender expression as she spoke. The subs were similar but smaller and not all of them winged. The elementals were like blue maids, bearing flames and their robes were black bordered. Some wore blue winged helmets and doaks, red breast-plates and Swords and black leg-armour. I was told that only through my Knowledge of Amesheth was all this shown unto me.
Then I saw the Sphynx. The head was that of a Blue Eagle, and so were the back and wings, the tail and hind legs were black like a Bull and the fore legs and chest that of a Red Lion. The creature lay on a black marble pedestal. I saluted it and called on it by the Names to tell me its nature and office, its universal quality; it said ‘It is change and development, not apparently harmonious, but growing stable after the first efforts’.
In the Elements (weather) floods of rain and lightning refreshing the Earth. The elementals and angels are above described. The general effect of this Square upon the Earth is the partly unbalanced efforts of the material universe towards perfection- which efforts are all towards spirit and are all necessary-as taken all together they are balanced. In the Tablets there are equal numbers of triangles of each element.
On this World the effect is that of the floods of water mingling with submarine volcanoes and so disturbing the Earth under the Sea. The animal life is that represented by the fish who rest hidden among the rocks in warm climates. I seemed to see them, blue with black or red specks. The plants are water-lilies, a root in the black mud, the leaves resting on the surface of the water, loving the Sun. In regard to minerals I saw a great blueish opal with red lights playing in it: it rested in a black marble basin, and from all sides radiated a lovely light.
On man the effect of the Square is restlessness, like waves of the sea, carrying him on with enthusiasm to some completed work. I seemed to see a nervous (highly strung) person with a pale face, dark deep-set eyes, and thin white hands, making a great effort, willing to pass through fire to reach his goal, a solid black pedestal from which I knew that he could begin to rise to the Higher. But hot douds of steam and great water tried to hinder him from even reaching the fire. The lesson seemed to me that severe criticism, social difficulties, and heredity must all be overcome before we can reach the purifying fire of Initiation and, through that, the solid ground of spiritual knowledge.
A vision of the Square ‘n’ in the Airy Lesser Angle of the Fire Tablet
By V.H. Fra. A.P.S. (Dr. Pullen-Berry)
Formed pyramid over me. (Remember that the pyramid is only the symbolic Formula of the plane, and not a solid material pyramid.) Went through it, looked for pyramid of the plane and saw it immediately with its yellow face towards me, and a large glowing white brilliance on the top. Approached and saw Aheiphi in the centre of the brilliance, and himself light and white. On calling on him he turned his head and in answer to 5°=6° Signs he inclined it. I said I wanted to interview the Sphynx of the pyramid, he consented to my doing and I descended thereunto.
I saw him easily and at once, but his colours were not brilliant. I asked him to explain to me the forces to which he corresponded, beginning with the universal force he represented. Answer (By expression, I am deaf to words) ‘I represent active forces acting between the waters above and the waters below the firmament dividing the waters and energised by Fire. Two active forces operating in the midst of a polarised passive force. You personally cannot see a universal application of this correspondence; but you may see it in nature in the weather, where the Fire and the Air keep the upper and nether Waters apart. It represents a cloudy atmosphere with a sea below, but the air between is dry and in active motion: there is no chance of rain, nor is there much evaporation from the surface. It is a very stable weather with plenty of circling clouds high in the atmosphere.’ Later on he said-‘In creation I represent the separation of the Waters; the expression of physical form out of the all-containing Astral; and also the reverse, the restoration to the physical of that which keeps it in that condition; hence the return of the physical to the Astral. I am but one of the forces through which Fire would act.’ (This seems to me to be a force spoken of in Alchemy as that which ‘fixes the volatile’ and ‘volatilises the fixed’, according to which way it is directed.)In Man’s figure you have a type with round face and full lower parts and legs, with active and strong, but perhaps less clumsy, back and arms; the type of mind, however, is a very good one, it will be meditative, and its meditation will be accompanied by subtle and keen reasoning and energetic thinking. It will lead him to compare the lower with the higher and the higher with the lower. Just the sort of mind to find out for itself that ‘as above so below’ is a great truth in nature. Because he directs his attention to the upper and to the lower equally he is hence a philosopher combining religion and science into a sublime union.’
Among animals, I caught nothing but the Elephant, and from the nature of the Elephant’s mind, which may be considered meditative from an animal point of view, his intelligence, physical force, bulky watery build, and warm blood I am inclined to think this attribution correct, although it seemed incongruous at first. Furthermore the use of Tau did not alter the vision.
Among vegetables I received the impression of the banana. Among minerals I saw an orange crystal column with pyramidal ends (I think hexagonal).
I asked him (the Sphynx) to show me the Angel and to accompany me outside to see her. She appeared as follows: face roundish, short curly hair, light brown brilliant halo, and a small golden crown. Robe blue at the neck and bottom, girt with a white and gold belt, with the name in gold, and the robe white in the centre. Wings small and bluish-white. In her right hand she held a small wand of wood like cedar, with a gold top nearly cubical in shape, and in her left hand a peculiarly shaped, dark maroon coloured base.
Then, from the summit of the pyramid, I surveyed the surrounding country. On the yellow side at some distance was a sea, passing round to the right there was a dark thick wood, the land gradually rising till opposite, the red side of it (the pyramid) rose apparently as a sandy desert hill until it encountered a fogbank which hid all behind it; passing round to the fourth side the country was very flat. There were lakes and marshes and beyond them some slightly wooded land. The lakes and marshes seemed as if partly salt and partly fresh water. As if the pyramid stood at a spot where the waters from the land came in contact with the waters from the sea, though I could not see where or how either the one or the other, the salt or the fresh, got there. There was no inlet from the sea, nor was there a river from the land.
A Vision of the Square ‘n’ of the Airy Lesser Angle of the Tablet of Water
By V.H. Sor. Vigilate (Helen Mary Rand)
The full name is nhdD an the Pyramid God is Ahephi.
Having recited the 4th and 10th Enochian Calls, and invoked the Angelic Names of the Tablet of Water, and the Airy Angle, I was carried up by the gentle moving waves of warm moist Air, through which I could see bright blue sky with greyish white clouds moving across rapidly. I rose in the Air till I found myself on a vast sandy plain, on the right little vegetation, on the left a broad river with trees and grass on its banks. A cool breeze was blowing from the river across the plain, and seemed to refresh the green after the heat of the day.
I called on Ahephi to appear and the form gradually filled the place till the scene disappeared altogether. Tested by the letters, it grew immensely larger, and seemed to have a yellow and blue striped Nemyss, whitish wrappings, with broad blue bands round it, and a greenish yellow light shown about it. I gave the L.V.X. signs and asked to be shown the Sphynx of its power. This gradually appeared through the yellow light behind the God-form, human head, very fair and bright face, wings, yellow and blue nemyss, claws of Eagle extended in front, and hind-legs and tail of a lion in reclining position.
On asking for the action of the force of the Square, was shown a bubble of Water into which Air was continually pouring, and expanding it till it burst and disappeared, the energy seeming then to pass into other forms and come under the rule of another square It seemed a transitory action, more the initiator of fresh conditions than an end in itself. I asked its effect on the earth, and was taken to the scene I had left, and saw again how the moist breeze from the river gave fresh life to the vegetation which had flagged during the day. Asking its effect on the animal world, I was shown a Deer standing by a lake. A current of force passing over it, seemed to bring the dawn of reason and glimmering of consciousness, the first conscious stirrings of an animal. Acting on man, it seemed to affect the brain, producing a vague waving motion which prevented fixity of thought and definiteness of idea, loss of the power of concentration.
I then asked to see the elementals of the plane, and saw numbers of small-sized human figures, fair, active expression on face, bodies rather solid-looking compared to the head, large wings like dragon flies which were iridescent and seemed to reflect the colouring of things about them.
“I gave the 5°=6° Signs to the Sphinx and then called on the Angel of the Square. I saw above the God the figure I had drawn-the Wings on the Crown were blue, the cuirass bright steel with the Eagle symbol on the breast in gold, the drapery below was a yellowish green, and the feet bare.”
A Vision of the Square ‘l’ of the Earthy Lesser Angle of the Tablet of Air
By V.H. Sor. Shemeber (Mrs. Percy Bullock)
The full name is ISha an the Pyramid God is Anoubi.
This atmosphere was damp and cold. I stood on the summit of a mountain, cloud-enwrapped, and there, having rehearsed the Angelical Calls, and vibrated the names, I beheld the colossal form of Anubis, who, after a time, shewed me the Sphinx of his Power. This again shewed me a mighty Angel who answered my signs, and when in that of the Theoricus I saw that a brilliant ray descended into the outstretched palm of each of her hands. On my asking for guidance and information, she gave me one of these rays, which I beheld as a crystal cord whose other end rested in the Eternal. The Angel led me first among the Ethers, and after a space I beheld stars and worlds innumerable.
Through the brighter Suns, particles passed-coming out the other side as blackened cinders. Then came forth a mighty hand which gathered these cinders and welded them into a mass, lifeless and vast. Then we passed to this Earth-to a frigid scene, all snow and huge blocks of ice. The cold was intense, but I felt it not. Here were polar bears, and seals, as also many sea gulls. In places, the ice was stationery but again it was violently moved, block crashing against block with deafening roar. The inhabitants of the place were small and bloodless, wrapped chiefly in the skins of polar bears.
“The influence of this square on Man, makes him violently impetuous in the absence of difficulty, but instantly hopeless in the face of an obstacle, abandoning at once every project. The Elementals are demure, bird-like creatures with semi-human faces. The spiritual beings are beautiful diaphanous Angels, light brown in colour, with sweet serious faces. They were all much occupied when I saw them. Some had silver in their left hands and mercury in their right, which they would put into a golden vessel together, whence immediately a pale gold coloured flame which ever increased in size, spreading out through the Worlds. Others bearing the legend ‘Solve et Coagula’ woven into their belts, mixed water and the principle of cold which they bore in a pair of scales, and the union was the ice of the region we were in. I was wondering whether all this had any counterpart in human nature, and its possibilities of development when I saw two types. One an ancient man toiling along most painfully and the other a child skipping along light-heartedly. As they faded there rose between them a radiant figure clad in gold, bearing on her brow the sign Libra in living emerald. Then I understood that only in and by the reconciliation of these two forces, the fixed and the volatile is ‘the pathway of true equilibrium’ found. On asking for plants I was shown mushrooms, which seemed to be particularly consonant to this square.”
A Vision of the Square ‘C’ of the Watery Lesser Angle of the Tablet of Air
By V.H. Fra. Resurgam. (Dr. Berridge)
Read the 3rd and 7th Calls. Vibrated Oro Ibah Aozpi, Bataivah, the Angel CPao. The Egyptian God is Hoorpokrati.
Found myself in the air in the midst of whirling clouds. Travelled on by the above names. Saw the Angel of colossal size clothed in white. Tested with a letter Tau and Beth placed over the form, but there was no change, so removed those letters. Clouds seemed to be floating around the Angel. Saluted with L.V.X. Signs and asked to see the Egyptian God, who appeared equally colossal while the Angel floated up above his head. Tested as before.
Vibrated Hoorpokrati second time, saluted as before, and asked to see the Sphinx, both Angel and Harpocrates returning the saluting sign. Sphinx then appeared with Eagle head, lower part human, on one side Eagle’s wings, the other side human arms. Tested and saluted as before. The Sphinx was of colossal size.
Now I vibrated all the names repeatedly, and asked to see the meaning of the Square. I was told that it was the astral region of storm and rain clouds with wind. I saw elementals in grey or pearly robes floating on the white fleecy clouds. (Note: I get them greyer and less defined.-D.D.C.F.) On dark thunder clouds were forms in dark lurid grey raiment, bearing thunderbolts like the images attributed to Zeus; many eagle-headed forms among them. Presently I saw one with a Crown. I asked him to show me, and he took me by the hand and we traversed an enormous distance beyond the Earth which became invisible. Then we soared upwards still in the midst of the same surroundings, till I saw the Sun of that region, shining brightly, but clouds frequently drifting across it, while the clouds were now below us but only partially so. He told me that the nature of this Square was to supply the forces on the Astral Plane which generate wind, rain, clouds, and storm on the natural plane. That these occurred throughout the Universe but with different effect. That on our evil planet the effect was sometimes disastrous, being perverted from their original intention by our evil sphere. But on other higher planes the effect was always beneficial, clearing away that which had fulfilled its purpose and replacing it by fresh influence. The region attributed to this Square seemed simply limitless. We traversed an enormous distance, yet seemed no nearer the end. So he brought me back again. Then I thanked him and saluted him, and descended to the former plane. There I thanked and saluted the Angel Hoorpokrati, and the Sphinx. So I returned home, dimly seeing my natural body before reentering it.
A Vision of the Square ‘c’ of the Earthy Lesser Angle of the Tablet of Air
By V.H. Fra. Resurgam. (Dr. Berridge)
Having rehearsed the 8th Angelical Call and enclosed myself within a pyramid as above, vibrating the Names, I followed the ray and found myself in a hot, very dry atmosphere; I therefore invoked the God Kabexnuf by the power c.n.m.o. on whose appearance I used all the tests I knew, whereby he was strengthened. At my request he then made manifest the Sphynx of his power, who became visible to me. He was resting upon a black cube. Having once more used the Signs and applied the tests I asked for information respecting the Square, when my repeated invocations brought before me the Angel, a powerful virile figure of exquisite proportion and strength. He then showed me the action in the Macrocosm, which appeared to be the solidifying of Nebulae into Worlds by mutual attraction of the particles. Then, on this planet, we rested in the mouth of a volcano in active eruption, so much so that we were surrounded by flying lava. It was intensely hot, and almost mechanically I formulated in myself the idea of wrapping myself in an Apas, but a stern voice said: ‘You must not, if you want to learn you must bear the discomfort.’ Embedded in the sides of the volcano were crystallised jets and drops of fire which, I was told, was living gold;
I asked for another scene and was taken on to a higher plane where there was a luxuriant forest of tropical plants of gorgeous scarlet and orange waving to and fro in an imperceptible breeze. The earth in which they grew was of a rich black colour, but there poured on them such fierce rays from the Sun that I looked to see them wither, but was told that they were on a higher plane than our flowers, and defied the scorching rays by virtue of their own internal heat which sustained their life. This Square being akin to our tropics, we went there, and saw a beautiful scene smiling in the heat of the Sun; suddenly a hot wind arose, bearing with it stones and dust with which it devastated the whole landscape. Here I was shown many tigers, and for flowers tiger lilies and Japanese red lilies in abundance. The type of human being I was shown was such a man as Chopin playing madly on a piano in a large empty room. The elemental is a bird like creature which hops rapidly over the ground; its influence on human nature gives the desire for violent sensation.
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By Frater Sub Spe (John William Brodie-Innes)
My wife had suffered a severe attack of influenza recovery was followed by great exhaustion, an exhaustion which ultimately I came to share. I considered this exhaustion which seemed more than natural and it came to me that this was the obsession of some vampirising elemental. I to hear a voice say ‘cast it out'. I contemplated cons an Adept of our Order, but during intense concentration heard an almost audible voice say ‘You must do it yourself under my instruction'. Thereupon I became conscious presence in the room of a stately figure in a black robe, wearing some shining insignia — I did not see or hear it speak physically, but, nevertheless, I saluted it with the Portal and 5°=6° signs. The figure first responded by saluting gravely and then appeared to merge with me, to take session of my body. It gave me, partly signs and par words, the following instructions: —
Lower the gas. (I did.)
Burn Incense (I used Incense on a live coal from the fireplace.)
Trace invoking Pentagram of Fire towards East.
Trace the sigil of Leo in the centre of pentagram.
Vibrate the Name of Power ADNI ha ARETZ.
Return the coal to the fire.
Face East and make Qabalistic Cross.
Trace invoking Pentagram of Earth.
I carried out these instructions to the letter but in default of any magical implement traced the Pentagrams with my hand. As I drew the Earth Pentagram I called up the foul thing that had troubled me to manifest visibly before me. As I did so a vague blot, like a scrap of London fog, materialised before me. At the same time I sensed my guide, standing close to my right hand, raising his hand in the attitude of the 1°=10° sign. I felt him (my guide) mentally order me to command the appearance of the obsessing entity, using the Names JHVH, ADNI, AGLA, AHIH. I did so and the mist thickened and formed a kind of nucleus. My guide then instructed me, ‘Use the Name of the Lord Jesus'. I did so, commanding in that name a fuller manifestation. I saw, at first dimly, ‘as in a glass darkly', and then with complete clarity, a most foul shape, between a bloated big-bellied toad and a malicious ape. My guide spoke to me in an audible voice, saying ‘Now smite it with all your force, using the Name of the Lord Jesus'. I did so gathering all the force I possessed into, as it were, a glowing ball of electric fire and then projecting it like a lightning flash upon the foul image before me.
There was a slight feeling of shock, a foul smell, a momentary dimness, and then the thing was gone; simultaneously my Guide disappeared. The effect of this experience upon me was to create a great tension of nerves and a disposition to start at almost anything. (You ought to have brought back to yourself the ray you projected. N.O.M. And you should also have closed up the opening you made to admit it, Resurgam). Afterwards, when going upstairs, I saw floating balls of fire; this may have been hallucination. (No. D.D.C.F.)
Both my wife and myself rapidly recovered our full health. Afterwards, a message came to me that ‘the unclean spirit is gone out, but it remains to purge away his traces from the house of life'. (The effect was first upon the Ruach and later upon the Nephesch. N.O.M.)
A Final Note by D.D.C.F.: It is not always permissible to completely destroy an Elemental; you must not do it on your own responsibility — but what you did was to disintegrate a collective built-up form, not one Elemental, but many, built up into one. Always invoke the Higher Forces first, Angelic as well as Divine.
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NOTES ON THE OPENING EXORDIUM OF Z
The Great Thooth is the highest aspect of the Hermas of the most ancient Egiptian Mysteries, and corresponds almost to the Great Angel Metatron. It is the Archangel of Kether in the Briatic World. The Mercury of the Romans must not be confused with this Great Hermes.
The doctrines of Gnosticism and of Valentinus approached those of the pure Qabalah. In them we find Speech and Silence. Across the Abyss of Silence comes the Primal Speech. The Divine Ones here referred to are the A eons in the Atziluthic World. These formulae of knowledge are designed in terms cognizable to us in the lower world.
Eheieh — implicit and explicit sound. “Every being pronounces all its existence, the Name of the Lord of Life, by inspiration and expiration.”
Macroprosopus is Aima and Abba, Mother — Father. The two nostrils pass up and down the two breaths, as through the two Great Pillars. These throw all things into vibration; compare the Rashith ha-Gilgalim. Piercing of the Dragon's Coils suggests the freeing of Malkuth, which is also referred to as the Washing of the Garments of the Queen, the Inferior Mother. Then comes the Breaking Forth of the Light. Over Malkuth as Guardians are Metatron and Sandalphon as the Two Pillars, and Nephesch ha-Messiah, the animal soul of Messiah, the Shekinah or Presence between the Kerubim.
THE PARTICULAR EXORDIUM
The Bornless Ones of Time referred to are those coruscations of the Divine Light which are above Kether of Atziluth. In such Supernal Realms, the Ain Soph, though negative to us, is there intensely positive. Thence came forth the Gods, the Voice, the Aeons, and the Name.
The Egyptian Gods are generally most differentiated by their Crowns:
Amen-Ra by the high feathers, Mo-ooth (Maut) has the same headdress as Horns. She corresponds to Aima Elohim. The high Hermes-Tho-oth has the same headdress as Amoun Kneph, the Sacred Spirit. Remember that Thooth, Truth, has two aspects — the higher and the lower. The higher is Absolute, the lower is suitable to human comprehension. To tell the higher form of a truth to one who cannot understand it is to lie to him because, though correctly formulated, it will not be correctly received.
The Forms of Thmaah:
There are four forms of spelling for the Goddess Thma-Est whereby she is attributable to the Four Letters of the Name, and therewith to the Elements and the Tree.
In the Equinox Ceremony, the Hegemon is Air, Spirit, and the principal officer. She reconciles from East to West, and from North to South, and in a circular formulae.
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OF SKRYING & TRAVELLING WITH SPIRIT VISION
By V. H. Soror V.N.R (Moina Mathers)
Having acquired the general rules, it is probable that the student will discover for himself particular methods more or less suited to his own particular temperament. But it may prove useful to some for me to write in some detail the mode of skrying and of astral projection which I have proved likely to bring successful results, and which by reasons of its continual tests would tend to lessen the many chances of illusion. Before proceeding further it may be well to refer to the Microcosm Lecture regarding the theory of skrying and astral projection.
The rules for skrying and astral projection being almost similar, the two subjects can be studied together, the one being taken as the complement of the other.
You can commence the operation “skrying” simply. That is to say, not projecting the astral beyond the sphere of Sensation into the Macrocosmos, but retaining it and perceiving some scene in the Universe reflected in the symbol which you hold, this latter being to you as a mirror which shall reflect to you some scenes not within your range of sight. And secondly, you can continue the operation by using the same symbol, and by passing through it project yourself to the scene in question, which before you had only perceived as a reflection. The latter process will probably appear more vivid to the perception that the prior one, just as in material vision one is less likely to be deceived by going to a place and actually examining it, than by obtaining knowledge of it from a mere reflection in a mirror.
For example, in the room in which l am now, I see reflected in a mirror a portion of the garden. I obtain an impression of all within my range of sight, but not nearly so powerful a one as when I step out into the garden to the spot in question, and examine all the objects therein, feel the atmosphere, touch the ground, smell the flowers, etc.
But it is well to practise both methods. The latter will probably be found to be more instructive, though far more fatiguing, since you will, when projecting the astral, have to supply it with much vitality, drawn mostly from the Nephesch.
In both skrying and astral projection, then, the key of success would appear to be, alternately to employ Intuition and Reason, firstly by permitting each thought-picture to impress itself on the brain in the manner comprehended generally by the word ‘inspiration,' followed by the reason applying its knowledge of correspondences to an affirmation or correction of the same.
You must be prepared to receive impressions of scenes, forms and sounds as vivid thought forms. “Thought forms” I use for want of a better word. There are distinctly in these experiences, things heard, things felt as well as things seen, which would prove that the qualities that we are here using are really the sublimated senses. That the faculty of clairvoyance, etc. exists is easily provable after a little patient exercise with one of the first methods given unto us for the practice of skrying.
Take the Tattwa cards, and from them choose one at random, without looking to see what symbol it may represent, and lay it down on a table face downwards. Then try mentally to discover the symbol. To do this make your mind a blank as much as possible (yet always keeping control over the same) chasing therefrom, for the time being, the reasoning element, memory, etc. You will find that after a few moments of gazing attentively at the back of the card, that it will seem as though the thought form of the Tattwa appeared to enter the mind suddenly, and later, when more practised, it will probably appear to you as if the Tattwa symbol were trying to precipitate itself materially through the back of the card.[1] But sometimes, especially if the cards have been long kept together in the pack in the same order, we may find that the back of the card in question is charged astrally not with the symbol upon its face, but with that upon the card whose face has been next its back in the order of the pack.
Some may find it easier to turn the card over astrally, that is in imagination, and in imagination endeavour to perceive what flashes into the mind at that moment.
As it is with the Tattwas that our first experiences are made, I will choose one to illustrate the following rules, preferably one that shall be in harmony with the time that I commence my working.[2]
RULES FOR SKRYING
Work if possible in an especially prepared magical room, S. M. altar in the centre, on which stand the four elements and the Cross and Triangle, incense burning, lamp lighted, water in the cup[3], bread and salt. As well as these, place on the Altariour four magical implements. Clothe yourself in your White Robe and 5°=6° sash, wearing on breast your Rose-Cross.[4]
Have by you your Sword and Lotus Wand. Sit at the side of the Altar facing the Quarter of the Element, Planet or Sign with which you are working. Should any other Frater or Soror be with you, arrange that they shall sit in balanced disposition[5] around the Altar. That is, if the forces with which you work be in the West, your place is East of the Altar facing West across it. Should it be inconvenient for you to have your own consecrated room, or to have all or any of your implements for your experiment, do your utmost to imagine them as astrally existing about you, and in any case in astral projection wear the garments and insignia astrally all through the experience. In fact, after constant, most constant, practice you will not probably find the absolute physical so necessary. Yet remember, that though the material in magical working is the least important of the planes in one sense, yet in another it is of the utmost importance for it crystallises the astral plane and completes it. And also have before you the exact correspondences of certain universal formulae (for in the aforesaid insignia and implements you hold a perfect representation of the Universe[6], the contemplation of which should in itself tend to prevent your mind dwelling on irrelevant subjects, but on the contrary compel your attention to the sublime studies of the mysteries of the Macrocosm.) Also do these Insignia, which have been consecrated, give you a certain power through their having attracted rays of force from the Infinite Invisible more or less potent in proportion to your development.
The importance of using the implements on every occasion would appear to be great. For the implement assists the invoking of a ceremony, and the latter should help the implement, and therefore every voyage, for example, to the realms of Fire or Water should add a flame to the Wand and moisture to the Cup.
Next purify the room with Fire and Water and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Imagine that we have chosen as a Tattwa, ApasPrithivi. For this symbol naturally, use the correspondences of Water and Earth, but bear in mind that the World of Water is here chiefly expressed, the Earth being secondary. Therefore in this particular example, it is well to use principally the Cup, the Pentacle only in a minor sense. To imply this, use the Cup to make even many of the Earth symbols, and only occasionally employ the Pentacle in working the particular symbol.
In this suppositious case of , thoroughly to fill your Sphere with the idea of this Tattwa, draw with the Cup around your Room the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram both of Water and of Earth. Then return to your seat, and for Process One, Skrying, do the following. Place the Tattwa card before you on the Altar, take the Cup in the right hand and the Pentacle in the left, and look at the symbol long and steadily until you can perceive it clearly as a thought vision when you shut your eyes. Vibrate the Names of Water and of Earth (Empeh Arsel, etc.) and try to realise the mental union more and more. It may help you to perceive it as a large crescent made of blue or silvery water containing a cube of yellow sand. Continue trying to acquire a keen perception of the Tattwa until the Element and its shape and its qualities shall seem to have become a part of you, and you should then begin to feel as though you were one with that particular Element, completely bathed in it, and as if all other Elements were non-existent. If this be correctly done, you will find that the thought of any other Element than the one with which you are working will be distinctly distasteful to you.
Having succeeded in obtaining the thought vision of the symbol, continue vibrating the Divine Names with the idea well fixed in your mind of calling before you on the card a brain picture of some scene or landscape. This, when it first appears, will probably be vague, but continue to realise it more and more of whatever nature (imagination or memory, etc.[7], you may believe it to be — remembering that this is a passive state of the mind, and not yet is the time to test or reason.[8] Only when the thought picture shall have become sufficiently tangible and vivid,[9] and you find that you are beginning to lose the sense of confusion and vagueness should you begin to apply tests.[10] Before this period, all reasoning, all doubting, is destructive to the therefore astrally fly or leap through it.[11]
My first impression is to find myself standing on a boulder slightly out at sea, which I had noted as an im ortant point in the picture. I realise that I am standing clothed in my 5°=6° insignia and white robe, on this rock, facing the shore. Turning to the right I am conscious of the gallery of cliffs, and to the left and back of me the sea, everywhere.
(On the planes, it would appear well to act exactly as one would in a physical experience or a landscape, realising each step as one goes, not trying to look on both sides at once or at the back of one's head, but turning first to the right hand and examining that, and then to the left, then turning right around, and so on. It is better as much as possible to remain in one spot (until very experienced) to avoid reflexes. In fact, the more practically the experiences are worked, the more chance of success.)[12]
I have an impression that the air is very cold. I stoop down and feel the rock, which I find is of a coral nature. I have already tested this vision in process. One (skrying), but it is well to repeat the same, to see if I am sufficiently in touch with the landscape.[13] I therefore trace with my astral Lotus Wand the symbols I evoked before, the TAU and the CAPH, in white light, making them very forcibly. In fact, I do not cease tracing them until I actually perceive them as vividly as I do the landscape. Seeing that the scene does not vanish or become dim.[14] I now with my Astral Cup and Pentacle, draw in Light very large Water and Earth Pentagrams, standing on the sea. These, even more than the former symbols should be continued and accentuated until they become to the impression of the mind as living entities as the landscape itself. If these latter be correctly drawn and sufficiently realised, there will be little chance of illusion during the rest of the experience.
The drawing of these Pentagrams standing above the sea appears at once to increase the vitality of the scene, for the rather intangible Elementals and Angelic Being that I had perceived in the reflected picture became more and more real to the impression.
Had I commenced at once with astral projection without the introduction of my Skrying experience, I should have had probably to evoke these figures. In such a case, using the Invoking Pentagrams of Water, I should continue vibrating the Deity Names, etc. of these Elements (employing as well as the names before mentioned, those of the Angels and Rulers, such names as Tharsis, Kerub, etc., being very potent) and would call upon a force by right of these names and symbols to manifest, and I should continue this process until some forms appeared.
After careful examination, by first receiving the impression and then testing it, I can describe the following. The Angelic being, feminine in type, pale brown hair and light grey-eyes, is draped in blue and white, draperies heavy in nature, and wears a crown formed of crescents. She holds in the left hand a curious cup, heavy, and with a squarish base, and in the right a wand with a symbol much much like the positive element of Water.
The Elementals vary in type, the majority being of the mermaid and merman nature, but again many tending to the Earth and Air nature.
Turning to the Angelic Being, I make the 5°=6° Signs and LVX Signs, and to the Elementals the 3°=8 and 1°=10° Signs, and by right of these (that is to say by the knowledge of the central spirit, and, in their instance of that of water and earth) I ask to have explained some of the secrets of the working of the plane of The Angel having answered my signs by similar ones, gives the impression that she is willing to instruct me. (This can enter the mind as an extraneous thought, or may be heard[15] clairaudiently.) She shows how even the work on this particular spot is varied, and according to the types of the Elementals is the labour allotted. Some of the Elementals tending to the gnome type are digging in the cliffs, with spiky instruments, and boring holes therein, thereby permitting the water to enter freely. (This may explain the spongy rather than broken aspect of the rock). The mermaid and merman Elementals, which are in the large majority, I think, receive some of the dust, which they carry into the sea. (Some of this may go to form islands.) Others also are bringing earth and weeds and such-like from the depths, also probably to form land. There are also figures holding funnel-like Cups who rise from the sea, and having drawn air into them, dive again, carrying that element into the sea.[16]
It can be understood how these investigations can be carried to very great detail, but to be as brief as possible I ask if I may be shown the effect of this Ray of on the Universe generally and on this Planet in particular.
I understand that the effect of the Ray is generating and fructifying generally, and on the whole beneficient, though everything would depend on the Force with which it was united. Its correlative would be thick rich water, containing such substance. I ask for its influence on the Earth. (To do this I can show as a thought-picture this planet of ours, with its continents, seas, etc., drawn thereon, and pray this Angel to send a ray first to one spot and then to another.) In answer I perceive the ray falling right through the water of the Earth, as if the affinity lay with all land underwater. “The Lifter of Earth in the Waters is its Name” does the Angel say. Nearly all vegetation attracts this ray, but very especially water plants, most of all those growing underwater. The Zoophyte only partially attracts it, this latter seeming rather largely composed of some active element, Fire, I think. Among animals the Ray appears to fall on the seal and hippopotamus, and has a general affinity for most amphibious animals. With fish, the link seems to be small, a tortoise, a frog, and a snail are shown me, and some water-fowl of the duck type, very few actual birds, a sea fowl to an extent.
Falling on man, on the savage it would appear to be beneficial to health generally, to give a feeling of well-being, and would also govern to some extent generation. Its tendency would be to accentuate sensuality and laziness. On the intellectual man it increases intuition, with some desire to clothe idea with form, therefore the first vague development of form in the mind of the artist. (As before remarked, these experiences can be carried very far indeed, but as this experience has already become rather voluminous I will cease at this point — believing that sufficient is here expressed to suggest the manner of working these astral experiences generally.)
I salute therefore the Angel with the LVX Signs and the Elementals by the 3°=8° and 1°=10° Signs, and banish astrally the Pentagram and other symbols that I have traced upon the scene. The more powerfully the symbols have been evoked, the more powerfully should they be banished.
If you should be feeling a sensation of fatigue, as I before mentioned, make towards the symbols the sign of the Enterer indrawing their vitality into yourself again by the sign of Harpocrates. Then return by the way in which you came, that is through the symbol, and back into your room.[17] Once in your room, perform the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagrams (Supreme) that you have evoked; supposing a scene to remain on the symbol of the Tattwa banish that also. When you have had considerable practise it is probable that such detailed care as is herein indicated will not be necessary. Should the operation be too complicated to accomplish at one sitting it would be possible to divide it into parts. It is certain that you will find that you have practised your spritual vision and acquired more knowledge in one experience carefully worked and tested than in a hundred careless and vague experiments which simply strengthen mental deception.
Footnotes:
[1] This experiment is very good for the practice of Spiritual Sight, and in this manner you can easily prove correctness of vision. Also for this kind of simple experience you need not prepare yourself spiritually to such an extent as with further working, so that you can have your cards if you wish continually with you, and practise with them when you will, at odd moments.
[2] To find Tattwa when in course, note time of sunrise. Akasa always begins with sunrise and lasts 24 minutes, followed by Vayu 24 minutes, Tejas 24 minutes, Apas 24 minutes, Prithivi 24 minutes.
[3] Placed at junction of Cross and Triangle, the incense, lamp etc., should be at an les of arms of Cross.
[4] All 5°=6° members who are Zel. Ad. Min. have the right to wear the white robe and yellow girdle of the 3rd Adept, but not his cloak or Nemyss.
[5] If 2 persons, one should be opposite the other.
If 3 persons, form a triangle.
If 4 persons, form a square.
If 5 persons, a pentagram, etc.
[6] The G. D., Altar, the most synthetical of the symbols. Material universe ruled by the Spirit and Four Elements. The Rose-Cross contains the affirmation of the principal divisions of the Universe, synthetical like the Altar, but particular in the sense that it is attributed to the Sephirah Tiphareth, the central Sun, and is therefore the symbol for the Microcosm — Man, the Adept, he to whom perfection of the Microcosm means a certain conscious union with the Macrocosm.
The white robe and yellow girdle imply Purity — Kether, Harmony —Gold, Tiphareth. Lotus Wand — Mercy. Sword — Severity.
[7] Imagination (eidolon) means the faculty of building an Image. The imagination of the artist must lie in the power, which he possesses more or less in proportion to his sincerity, and his intuition, of perceiving forces in the Macrocosm, and allying or attuning himself thereto, his talents naturally and his artificial training permitting him to formulate images which shall express those forces.
[8] During this process, it is more than likely that you will be oelieving that the picture is one of memory, of imagination, of construction, etc. All these qualities being analogous to the faculty that you are employing, and the probability of their arising at this moment will be great.
[9] Let it be remembered that this can only be a part of the plane of the Symbol expressed by (i.e., The compound Tattwa you are working. C.LW.)
[10] Employ the “Lords who Wander” (the 7 Planets), the planetary Tarot trumps, as important test symbols.
[11] Use occasionally the Pentacle, so as not to ignore to too great an extent the part that Earth plays herein.
[12] In the case of starting the entire experience with Astral Projection only, you will understand that you ignore the portion of the process which attracts the picture to the card, but simply go forward through the symbol when once the latter is realised.
[13] If working with correct correspondences, you are bound to arrive at some place answering to the same, if you project your astral sufficiently.
[14] If after these repeated tests the Vision becomes diminished or changes very much, banish with the Astral implement, and return in the way you came, through the symbol, and start again freshly. If you feel you have expended too much force in the symbols which you traced in the scenes, redraw some of the force spent into yourself again by the formula of the signs of Horus and Harpocrates. Extend towards the symbols in the sign of Hoor, redrawing them into yourself by the sign of Hoorpokraat.
[15] Sometimes it seems as though one had to find the words to translate the impression; sometimes the words appear to be found already, for one believes that one has heard them.
[16] The symbol shows the potency of the whorl-formation.
[17] Some students, I believe, have great difficulty in returning. In such a case one can do so gradually by first flying into space, thinking of this Planet, fixing the thoughts on the particular country, then on the particular spot therein, then on the House, and lastly on the room and entering therein. But in most cases this would be unnecessarily complicated.
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Proof read and edited by Frater D.M.T. © Thelemagick.
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Last updated: 24-10-2024 |
