201
I. The Board shall meet regularly, at least four times per year, at
a time and place to be fixed by the Board. Additionally, The
Chair or any two Directors may call a Board meeting upon giving
at least 7 days notice to all Directors by U.S. Mail, or upon at
least 2 days notice given by telegram. Said notice will be
deemed delivered when deposited in the U.S. Mail with the last
known address of the Director and proper postage thereon prepaid,
or when the given to the telegram company. Any Director may
waive notice of any meeting. The attendance of a Director at any
meeting shall constitute a waiver of notice, except when the
Director attends the meeting for the express purpose of objecting
to the transaction of business because the meeting has not been
lawfully called or convened. The notice of meeting need only
contain the date, time, and place of the meeting.
J. The Board may make rules to govern the conduct of its own
meetings.
K. All Board Meetings are open to the membership of DAWN.
Accordingly, any Director is required to furnish information
regarding dates, times, and places of upcoming Board meetings to
any DAWN member upon request.
II. STEERING COMMITTEE
A. The Steering Committee shall be composed of the Directors, one
representative from each member coven and proportional
representation for such DAWN members as do not belong to any
member coven (hereinafter referred to as Solitaries). The method
of choosing a coven representative is left to the discretion of
the individual coven. A method for choosing representation for
Solitaries will be determined by said Solitaries, subject to
approval by the Board. There shall be at least one (1)
representative of the Solitaries, who is not a Director, on the
Steering Committee.
B. Steering Committee members must commit to serve for at least six
(6) months. They may serve as long as their constituents wish
them to serve.
C. The Steering Committee shall elect a Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and
Clerk of the Committee from among its members.
D. A quorum of the Steering Committee for the purpose of amending
the Bylaws or Constitution shall be two-thirds (2/3) of the
committee. A quorum for other business shall be a majority of
the Committee.
E. Steering Committee members will not have alternates.
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202
F. The Steering Committee may make rules to govern the conduct of
its own meetings.
G. Decisions made by the Steering Committee shall be referred to the
Board for action, except as otherwise provided for in these
Bylaws.
H. Any recommendation that dues be levied or changed must receive at
least two-thirds (2/3) of the votes cast by the Steering
Committee, ten (10) days notice having been given that dues will
be discussed.
I. The Steering Committee shall meet regularly at a time and place
to be fixed by the Committee. Additionally, the Board may call
Steering Committee meetings with 15 days notice should such
meetings be necessary.
III. OFFICERS
A. Chair - duties shall include:
1. Presiding over meetings of the Board.
2. Presiding over meetings of the general membership of DAWN.
3. Preparing an agenda for Board meetings.
4. Preparing an agenda for meetings of the general membership
of DAWN.
B. Vice-Chair - shall perform the duties of the Chair when the Chair
is absent or incapacitated.
C. Secretary - duties shall include:
1. Maintaining accurate and current minutes of all meetings of
the Board and all business related meetings of the general
membership of DAWN. All such minutes are to be made
available, upon reasonable notice, to all members of the
body so recorded, and are to be presented at the next
meeting of the Board for
approval.
2. Handling correspondence other than the newsletter and
general announcements.
3. Maintaining an accurate and current list of members and
friends of DAWN. The Secretary may NOT release the
addresses, phone numbers, or full names of any person
associated with DAWN, except as noted in this paragraph, to
any person, without specific permission from said person.
The Secretary will share this list with the Newsletter
Editor. When leaving this job, the Secretary will turn over
all copies of the membership list, in whatever form, to
their successor in these duties.
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203
D. Treasurer - is responsible for maintaining all the financial
records of DAWN. The Treasurer is also responsible for the
safekeeping and expenditure of the monies held by DAWN as
directed by the Board.
E. Speaker - shall preside over meetings of the Steering Committee
and prepare an agenda for said meetings.
F. Deputy Speaker - shall perform the duties of the Speaker when the
Speaker is absent or incapacitated.
G. Clerk of the Committee - is responsible for maintaining accurate
and current minutes of all meetings of the Steering Committee.
All such minutes are to be available to members of the Steering
Committee, and are to be presented at the next meeting of that
body for approval.
H. Newsletter Editor - duties shall include:
1. Providing timely announcements of meetings and other DAWN
functions.
2. Providing a regular newsletter in keeping with DAWN
policies.
3. Maintaining an accurate and current list of newsletter
recipients. The Newsletter Editor may NOT release the
addresses, phone numbers, or full names of any person
associated with DAWN, except as noted in this paragraph, to
any person, without specific permission from said person.
The Newsletter Editor will share the mailing list with the
Secretary. When leaving this job, the Newsletter Editor
will turn over all copies of the mailing list, in whatever
form, to their successor in these duties.
IV. AMENDMENTS
In orderto amendthis document, theproposed change mustreceive the
votes of at least two-thirds of the Directors and must receive at least
two-thirds of the votes cast at a proper meeting of the Steering Committee,
both bodies having received at least 20 days notice of the proposed
amendment.
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204
V. ELECTIONS
Onthe secondSunday in October,The Steering Committeeshall meet to
hold an election. At this time, the Steering Committee will elect
replacements for Directors whose term is expiring. Names will be taken in
nomination, consent obtained from those nominated, and one ballot cast.
Each Committee member, including retiring and interim Directors, shall have
as many votes as there are vacancies. The qualified candidate with the
most votes will fill the first vacancy - two year terms being filled first.
As each vacancy is filled, members of the successful candidate's coven are
stricken from the list. If only one vacancy remains and either part I.A.2
or part I.A.3 of the Bylaws has not been fulfilled, then only those
candidates who meet the criterion can be selected; otherwise, the position
will remain vacant to be filled by the Board, as soon as possible, by
appointment. If a tie exists between equally qualified candidates, where
all may not serve, a runoff election shall be held between those
candidates. Misspellings shall not invalidate ballots where the
appropriate person can be discerned; nor shall voting for fewer than the
number of vacancies. Voting for too many candidates shall invalidate that
ballot. No individual shall vote more than one time for the same person;
therefore duplicate names on a single ballot shall count as only one vote.
All elected persons take office at the first meeting in November.
VI. Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised (copyright 1970) will govern in
any circumstances not covered by the Rules, Bylaws, or Constitution of
DAWN.
VII. DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS ON DISSOLUTION
In theevent of dissolutionof theorganization, all remainingassets
will be delivered to a tax-exempt organization to be chosen at the time of
dissolution by the Board of Directors.
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205
GLOSSARY OF TERMS COMMONLY USED IN WICCA
Copyright 1992 by Rowan Moonstone and Durwydd MacTara
AKASHA- the spiritual ether (or Aether); the omnipresent
fifth occult element which embraces the other four- earth,
air, fire, and water; and from which they stem. This is the
realm of "pattern" or causality, from which the realm the
normally thought of "five senses manifests. Some define it
is the "other" of the "two worlds" that the witch or
magician walks between.
ARADIA- Daughter of the Goddess Diana, and a name for the
Goddess used by Italian Witches or Strega, commonly used in
many Wiccan traditions today.
ASPECTING- Any advanced magickal activity in which a practitioner
manifests a particular aspect of the Goddess or God, in thought,
feelings, behavior, appearance, etc.; Often as a direct result of a
"Drawing Down". Often a minor variation of this phenomena occurs with
the selection of a "Magical Name", of Craft Name.
ASPECTS- Forms, facets, or personas of Deity: for example, Brighid,
Iseult,Eos, and Kore are all aspects of the Maiden, and the Maiden
is an aspect of the Goddess.
ATHAME- black handled, double edged dagger. Principally used
to cast and dissolve the circle, for which purposes it is
interchangeable with the magic sword. A tool of the
"Element" of Fire in the Georgian Tradition and some others.
BELTANE- May Eve festival. One of the Ancient Celtic "Fire
Festivals." on this night, the cattle were driven between
two bonfires to protect them from disease. Couples wishing
for fertility would " jump the fires" on Beltane night. Also
the traditional Sabbath where the rule of the "Wheel of the
Year" is returned to the Goddess. This Festival also marks
the transition point of the threefold Goddess energies from
those of Maiden to Mother.
BOOK OF SHADOWS- Traditionally hand copied book of rituals,
recipes, training techniques, guidelines, and other
materials deemed important to a Witch or a coven. Each
tradition has it's own standard version of the Book and each
Witch's book will be different as he or she adds to it with
time from many different sources. Only another Witch can see
your book of shadows. Also, traditionally, it may never
leave your hands or possession until death, when it should
be destroyed, or (in some traditions) returned to the coven
to be disposed of.
BURNING TIMES- a term used by some Witches for the period of
persecution in the Middle Ages and later. It is in fact a
misnomer in some places, as Witches were only burned in
Scotland, and on the continent of Europe. In England and the
U.S., they were hanged.
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CANDLEMAS- Festival held on Feb. 1. One of the 4 Celtic
"Fire Festivals. Commemorates the changing of the Goddess
from the Crone to the Maiden. Celebrates the first signs of
Spring. Also called "Imbolc" (the old Celtic name). This is
the seasonal change where the first signs of spring and the
return of the sun are noted, i.e. the first sprouting of
leaves, the sprouting of the Crocus flowers etc. In other
words, it is the festival commemorating the successful
passing of winter and the beginning of the agricultural
year.This Festival also marks the transition point of the
threefold Goddess energies from those of Crone to Maiden.
CARDINAL POINTS- North, South, East, and West, marked in the
Georgian Tradition by candles of green, red, yellow, and
blue, respectively. The Circle is drawn to connect these
four points.
CHALICE- one of the tools of the Witch. Placed on the altar
to represent the element of Water.
CHARGE OF THE GODDESS- The Traditional words of the Goddess
to her followers, or "hidden children". Normally declaimed
by the HPS at every coven Circle.
CIRCLE- the area in which the magickal worship and spells
takes place. Can also be used to designate a particular
group of Witches or Pagans such as "Silver Acorn Circle".
CONE OF POWER- power raised in the circle by the Witches
assembled, and sent out into the world to work magick, is
usually visualized as being retained and built in the form
of a "cone" prior to release.
COVEN- an organized group of Witches, led by a High
priestess and/or a High Priest who meet regularly for
worship and fellowship. The traditional membership is 13,
but in fact most covens number considerably less. 3 is the
minimum in the Georgian Tradition. In Middle English,
"Covin" a group of confederates; In Old French "Covine" a
band or group with a single purpose; Latin "Com"-together,
"Venire"-to come or move.
COVENSTEAD- regular meeting place for a coven. Usually the
home of the High Priestess or High Priest.
COWAN- a non-Witch. Formerly used in a very derogatory
manner. Still used in Masonic Ritual to indicate the non
initiate and/or pretender to "real craft". Not often used
today among most Witches.
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COYOTE ENERGY- trickster energies. Named for the American
Indian Trickster, Coyote, who tricks man into learning what
he needs to learn. Applies to one who constantly jokes and
clowns. Also applies to the concept of "Holy Fool" in many
traditions.
CROSS QUARTER DAYS- The modern name for the Celtic Fire
Festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas.
DEOSIL- clockwise, or sunwise. Traditional direction for
working "building" magick.
DRAWING DOWN THE MOON- Ritual invocation of the spirit of
the Goddess into the body of the High Priestess by the High
Priest.
DIVINATION- magical method of exploration or inquiry into a
situation via such methods as Tarot cards, runestones, I-
Ching, etc.
ELEMENTS- Earth, air, fire, and water, plus spirit, which
includes them all. These are regarded as realms or
categories of nature (both material and non-material) and
are not to be confused with the physicists table of
elements, which the modern witch, of course, accepts.
ESBAT- weekly or biweekly meeting of a coven. Traditionally
held either on the full moon or the new moon.
FAMILIARS- Either a Witch's pet animal which has been
trained to be a magickal helper, or an artificially
created "elemental" which performs the same functions as
the animal friend.
FIVEFOLD KISS, FIVEFOLD SALUTE- The Witches' ritual salute,
with kisses; (1) on each foot, (2) on each knee, (3) above
the pubic hair, (4) on each breast, and (5) on the lips-
really 8 kisses in all. It is only used within the Circle,
but the words that go with it are the origin of "Blessed
Be."
GARDNERIANS- Tradition of Witchcraft descended from the
teachings of Gerald Gardner.
GNOMES- an "entity" or "elemental" that dwells in the plane
of Earth or is associated with the EARTH Element.
GREAT RITE- The rite which is the main feature of the third
degree initiation, and which is also laid down for certain
festivals. It is sexual in nature, but may be `actual'
(and private to the couples concerned) or symbolic, as the
participants wish.
HALLOWS- name used by some traditions for Samhain, or
Halloween
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HANDFASTING- Wiccan equivalent of a wedding. It can be made
legal if the Priestess and/or Priest are registered as
clergy with the local authorities, or it may only be
considered binding within the coven.
HIGH PRIEST/ESS- Technically speaking, a Witch who has
received the 3rd. degree initiation. More usually, the male
and female leaders of a coven.
IMBOLC- Celtic name for Candlemas.
INVOCATION- The ritual "calling-in" of an entity (or
energies) higher than human, either for communication with
the caller through a medium or by visible manifestation or
else to enter into a human body as in the Drawing Down the
Moon. In some traditions, a Prayer.
LAMMAS- August 1st. Witch Festival. The Old Celtic name for
this festival is Lughnassadh. It is the Festival of the
First Fruits, and is the first of the 3 harvests. This
festival also marks the change of the Threefold Goddess
energies from that of Mother to Crone.
MAIDEN- An appointment held by one of the women of the
coven. She is virtually the assistant High Priestess. This
term is also the descriptive term used to describe the first
of the aspects of the Threefold Goddess Energies (Maiden,
Mother, and Crone). It is traditionally associated with the
Waxing Moon, and the period from Imbolc (Candlemas) to
Beltane (May eve) where the energies are those of
initiating, beginning, and creation.
OLD RELIGION- another name for the Craft.
PAGANING- Presentation of an infant to the Circle and to the
Gods.
PENTACLE- a disc shaped talisman; in particular, the metal
disc which represents the earth element among the witch's
working tools.
PENTAGRAM- The five-pointed star. With a single point
uppermost, it represents the human being. Inverted, with two
points uppermost, it can have Satanist associations; but not
necessarily. Some traditions of Wicca use the inverted
pentagram to signify an initiate of the second degree.
QUARTERS- The North, East, South, and West parts of a
magickal circle or other ritual area. (See also
"Watchtowers")
REDE- rule or law.
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SABBAT- one of the Eight festivals or high holy days of
Wicca.
SALAMANDER- an entity that dwells in the realm of Fire.
SAMHAIN- The festival of remembrance for the dead, held on
the eve of Nov. 1st. It is the last of the three harvests.
This festival also marks the transition of rulership of the
"Wheel of the Year from that of the Goddess to that of the
God.
SCRYING- divination, usually using such methods as crystal
gazing, or divination via incense smoke, or water as opposed
to tarot or other manipulative means.
SPELL- a prayer, or verbal direction of magickal energies
toward the accomplishment of some goal.
SUMMONER- The male officer of the coven who corresponds to
the Maiden. He is the assistant High Priest.
SYLPH- an "entity" or "elemental" that dwells in the plane
of Air or is associated with the AIR Element.
TRADITIONS- any of the various "sects" of Wicca such as
Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Georgian, Seax, etc.
UNDINE- an "entity" or "elemental" that dwells in the plane
of Water or is associated with the WATER Element.
WAND- A rod or staff that is prepared so that it may be used
for magickal or psychic purposes, usually to project some
form of power.
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WARLOCK- a term coined in the Burning Times . It was used to
denote a traitor to the Craft, or one who had betrayed the
followers of the Old Religion. It's origin is Scottish.
Because of the negative connotations, it is not used by most
Wiccans today.
WATCH TOWERS- Originally from the Enochian branch of
Ceremonial Magick, now incorporated into many "Traditions"
of Wicca, these are the four elemental "directions" or
"quarters" (corresponding to the appropriate points on the
compass) called to protect the Circle during its
establishment. Each of them have a correspondence between
the compass point, an element, and (varying amongst
different traditions) color associated with them.
WICCA- the name most modern day Witches use for the Craft.
It comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Wicce, meaning to bend or
to shape. This is the root word from which we get wicker.
WIDDERSHINS- counter clock wise. Used for "tearing down"
OR BANISHING magick.
WHITE HANDLED KNIFE- the working knife of a Witch. It is
used to carve candles, and for fashioning the other tools.
Traditionally, it can only be used in a Circle.
Copyright 1991 by Rowan Moonstone and Durwydd MacTara.
Permission to reprint for educational purposes at no cost is hereby granted
to all and sundry, provided the text is not altered in any way.
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MOON WEB
C/O Michael Harismides
PO Box 4538, Sunnyside, New York 11104-4538
Subscription $3.00 a year
RITUAL FOR THE HEALING AND PRESERVATION OF RAINFORESTS
May 24th, 1988
8 pm local time
(Individual version):
Cast a circle
Invoke elements by calling upon them in protective aspects (for example,
you might invoke Watchfires or Beacons in the South).
Chant the names of the Earth Goddess, beginning with your personal
favorites, then naming as many as you can think of.
Take a piece of green string. Begin to tie knots in it, while chanting:
Tying the Cord, Renewing the Earth;
We are Her Children, bringing Rebirth.
(The knots may be simple or elaborate, but leave enough string to tie
together at the end.) As you chant, see the world as a network of
connected systems. Breathe the air that comes from the jungles of South
America. Feel the living fire of an ocelot's power. Taste the rain on the
leaves at the tops of the trees. Feel the delicate structure of the soil
at the forest floor.)
Tie the cord together in a loop; hold it up, strung around your two hands,
and begin chanting:
We are the Flow and we are the Ebb;
We are the Weavers, we are the Web.
As you chant, see yourself standing guard over the borders of the
rainforest. See yourself with others, protecting rainforest as you would
protect yourself,_because that's what you're doing._
Bury the cord in a container of earth. Earth the power; thank the Deities
and elements; open the circle. Later bury the cord in the forest if
possible.
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(If circumstances make the above impossible):
Sit quietly and see: the network of ecosystems that make up the world; the
rainforests thriving; plants and animals breeding; the Earth, green and
filled with life; yourself, standing guard. Breathe, and know that the air
comes from the sea and the jungles of Brazil. Drink and know that the
water has been around the world, and circulates through you as it does
through the air, land, and sea. Stand up and stretch; the strength of your
body is the Earth's strength.
RITUAL
FOR THE HEALING AND PRESERVATION
OF RAINFORESTS
(Group version):
Facilitators give each participant a slip of paper containing the name of
an Earth Goddess and a Nature God.
Facilitators invoke elements, stressing protective/preservative aspects of
each one and ending with "Into this circle I call the Element Air! (Fire,
Water, Earth.)" After each such invocation, a dancer or dancers
representing the particular element come into the circle from outside and
do an elemental dance.
A facilitator says: "We now call upon the Earth Goddess by her many
names!" Participants call out the Goddess name on their slip of paper,
then any other Goddess names they wish. This ends on a signal from the
drums.
A facilitator says: "We now call upon the God of Nature by his many Names!"
The God is invoked in the same fashion as the Goddess, ending with a drum
signal.
The elemental dancers go to the quarters and begin passing out pieces of
green string, while a facilitator explains that the condition of the
rainforests affects us all, that all things are connected, and that the
worldwide climate is changed every time another acre of rainforest is lost.
S/he explains that these sections of cord represent parts of the Life
Circle of Earth, and that they must be joined to protect her.
When the above speech has been made and all the cords have been passed out,
a facilitator ties the first knot, saying that tying the cord is renewing
the Earth, that we are her children, bringing her rebirth. This is the
signal to begin the chant:
Tying the Cord, Renewing the Earth;
We are Her Children, bringing Rebirth.
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213
Clockwise around the circle, one by one, each cord is tied to the next.
When the circle is complete, the elemental dancers go to the quarters and
hold the cord aloft (participants should not let go yet). The chant
continues until the facilitators begin a second chant:
We are the Flow and we are the Ebb;
We are the Weavers, we are the Web.
(Since this is to the same tune, the transition should be easy and
seamless.) When this chant begins, the elemental dancers begin to gather
in the cord, gently pulling it away from the participants, who gently
release it. The elementals bury the cord in a container of earth in the
center of the circle, then return to the outside to lead a spiral dance in
to the center and back out (once) as the chant continues. When the
participants are standing in a circle once more, the chant builds to a cone
of power and fires.
The Deities and Elements are thanked, the power is earthed, the circle
opened, hugs exchanged. Later bury the cord in the woods.
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WHAT ARE RUNES
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
LOKRIEN
In the most mundane sense, runes are an alphabet much as our own
alphabet and others such as the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets. Each rune
represents a sound and was/is used to write words with.
But that is in the most MUNDANE of senses.
Runes were used long before the concept of writing was around. Each rune
is an archetype of a force. People had concepts for such things as Fire,
Honour, Birth, et.al. and each of these concepts were given names to make
them easier for us to comprehend. In this way, runes are very similar to
the Hebrew alphabet. Each 'letter' not only has a sound and a name, but
is a complete word with all associated concepts.
This similarity with Hebrew extends even farther. Each hebrew word is
made of several Hebrew letters, therefore each Hebrew word is made of
several Hebrew words. The initial letters of several words in a sentence,
or of the first letters of each sentence or paragraph may be gathered to
form a new word that is used to help explain and expand upon what is
already written. The same can be done with runes.
Runes lend themselves readily to numerology. The Runic alphabet is
properly shown as three rows of eight letters. Therefore each letter can
be identified by row:column number. Additionally, each rune has it's
sequential number identified by it's placement in the alphabet. Much like
us numbering A as 1, B as 2, ... , and Z as 26.
Each rune can be placed in position on a tree pattern much like the
traditional Qabbalah. They may represent the different worlds or paths of
the tree and can be expanded and expounded upon as much as the Qabbalah
itself is. In fact, Runic Qabbalah is quite intriguing and does contain a
life of study (as do all other facets of Runework).
Runes can be used for fortunetelling. They can be drawn and placed and
read much like tarot cards. The can be cast or strewn and the
relationship of groupings, distance and angles and patterns formed will
tell the caster what he wishes to know.
Runes are also entities in and of themselves. Much like the angels,
princes, demons, sylphs, undines and watchtowers of the ceremonial
magician. Each rune can be invoked or evoked and the power harnessed to
work ones will to enlighten the intellect. They are a fantastic meditation
tool and will always increase ones knowledge.
Much as the primal elements of Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Spirit, each
rune also has it's part in the manifestation of all things manifested.
Chaos, grass, people, sunlight, honour, dragons, hopes, and sex are all
replete with runes are could not ever exist without the runic force that
creates, shapes, releases, destroys and changes them.
I have equated runes to many other branches of esoteric, occult,
phsycological and intellectual pursuits. This is in the hopes that if you
are already familiar or interested in one of these, you will realize that
runes are already familiar to you or that you are already interested in
them and don't yet realize it.
May you approach the Well of Wyrd and may your sip there only increase
your thirst.
Lokrien @ The Sacred Grove
(206) 634-1980 (WA)
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MODELS OF MAGIC
by Frater U.'.D.'. (Germany)
In the course of exploring the possibilities of new, more
efficient techniques of magic I was struck by the fact that a
structuralist view of the history of magic to date might prove
helpful. After all, magicians have always aspired to restate the
theory and practice of magic in the language of their times i.e. in
different models pertaining to current world views.
There is, however, some risk involved in such an approach:
models do not really explain anything, they are only
illustrations of processes, albeit rather useful ones. What's
more, over-systematization tends to obfuscate more than it
clarifies and one should not mistake the map for the landscape
anyway, a fallacy a great many kabbalists seem to be prone to.
Thus, the following five (or rather: four plus one) models
of magic should be seen as a means of understanding the practical
possibilities of various magical systems rather than as
definitive theories and/or explanations of the way magic works.
It has proved effective in practice to view magic under the
following categories:
THE SPIRIT MODEL
THE ENERGY MODEL
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
THE INFORMATION MODEL
THE META-MODEL
***
THE SPIRIT MODEL
This is purportedly the oldest model of magic though it may very
well have come into existence after or simultaneously with the
energy model. We can find it worldwide in shamanic cultures as
well as in many religions. Its basic premise is the existence of
an otherworld inhabited by more or less autonomous entities such
as spirits, angels, demons, gods etc. The shaman or magician is
someone who can enter this otherworld at will, who has travelled
widely in it, knows its language and customs and has made
friends, smitten enemies and/or acquired allies and servitors
there. This is important as all magic is of these entities'
making. The modern German word for witch, "Hexe" (f.) illustrates
this rather neatly if we take a closer look at its etymology. It
derives from Old High German "hagazussa" which translates as
"fence rider". The hagazussa is riding the "fence between the
worlds" i.e. she is at home in the world of everyday life as well
as in the magical otherworld of spirits.
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In the spirit model magic is seen as being effected by these
entities who are usually invisible, at least to the average
punter, and it is the shaman's or magician's task to make them
put his will into effect. This may be done by prayer, by barter,
by cajoling or even - vide medieval demon magic - by the
application of magical force, threats and pressure.
The otherworld may have its own geography but it is usually
considered to coexist with the world of everyday life. The key to
entering it is an altered state of consciousness, controlled
trance or ecstasy of which the shaman is an expert.
The spirit model has prevailed in traditionalist or Dogmatic
magic until today, some of its most noted exponents being Franz
Bardon and, at least to a great extent, Aleister Crowley.
THE ENERGY MODEL
The rise of the energy model in the West is marked primarily by
the appearance of Mesmerism towards the end of the 18th century.
Anton Mesmer, who was not an occultist but who was on the other
hand regarded by his contemporaries to be a "miracle worker" of
sorts, rediscovered amongst other things the ancient healing
disciplines of hypnosis and magnetism. He popularized his theory
of "animal magnetism" which he saw as a subtle force inherent in
organisms, but he also made heavy use of metal magnets for
healing purposes.
While the French Revolution put a temporary end to Mesmer's
movement, his ideas were not lost. They were taken up by a number
of others, primarily occultists, who drew on them while
developing their own theories of magic. One of the first to do so
was Bulwer Lytton of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA),
who postulated the existence of a subtle energy which he termed
Vril, possibly deriving from Latin virilitas or "force, power,
strength". (This was actually the model for the naming of Bovril,
from Latin "bovis" or "ox", and Vril or "life force".) We can
observe interesting parallels to this concept in the vitalist
theories of biology which emerged around the same time. Other
exponents of the energy model of magic (not then so termed) were
Reichenbach with his concept of Od, Eliphas Levi and his Astral
Light and Mme. Blavatsky, who adopted the theories of Prana from
Yoga physiology. This was also the time when anthropology and
ethnology discovered the Polynesian concept of Mana and Asiatic
scholars began to concern themselves with the Chinese principle
of Ki or Ch'i (Chi). The latter two go to show, of course, that
the idea of subtle energies utilized by magic is far older than
the 18th century. In fact, we can observe it already in early
shamanic cultures. Shamanic magic is very frequently a mixture
between spirit and energy model, e.g. the shaman may call upon
his spirits or gods to give him "power" or he may, vice versa,
use his power to extort favors from them.
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In its pure form, however, the shaman or magician is not in
need of spirits and other entities. The world is viewed as being
"vitalized" by subtle forces or energies and his primary task
consists in mastering the art of perceiving and manipulating
them. As all phenomena are basically energetic in nature, the
existence of an otherworld is not strictly required. Thus, the
magician is more of an "energy dancer" than a "fence rider" or
go-between. But even here the key to the perception, charging and
general utilization of these forces is again the magical trance
or, as Chaos Magic terms it, gnosis.
Theories and practices pertaining to the energy model can be
found with many magical authors but it has seen its real, large
scale popularity only since the seventies of our century when the
general influx of Eastern thinking (pace the Hippie movement)
made concepts such as chakra and kundalini work a mainstay of
most occult disciplines. Strong energy model elements can also be
found in Franz Bardon's system of "electromagnetic fluids",
"condensators" etc.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL
Sigmund Freud's theory of the subconscious revolutionized Western
thinking in general and psychology (which he did not, as some
people are wont to believe, invent all by himself) in particular.
Suddenly, man was seen as a being which was only partially
conscious and in control of itself. While psychology is still
fighting for its academical recognition as a science, it has
stamped its mark on therapeutic disciplines - and on magic.
The psychological model of magic does not purport to explain
how magic works, its only premise is that the subconscious (or,
as Carl Jung later retagged it, the unconscious) will do the job
if it is properly addressed and/or conditioned. This again is
achieved by magical trance, suggestion and the use of symbols
(i.e. selective sensory input) as tools of association and as a
means of communication between the magician's conscious will and
his subconscious faculty responsible for putting it into effect.
Aleister Crowley dabbled a great deal in the psychological
model which comes as no surprise as he not only tried to keep up
with all major academic disciplines of his time but thought
himself to be the world's greatest psychologist into the bargain.
But all considered he remained a traditionalist exponent of the
spirit model: after all Aiwass was, in his belief, a
preternatural entity. Nevertheless he did have a knack of
explaining magic in psychological terms to make it sound sensible
to the skeptics of his time.
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A more radical approach was taken by Austin Osman Spare
whose sigil magic rests on the basic tenets of the psychological
model. Spare's brilliant system is in principle an inversion of
Freud's theory of complexes: by actively suppressing his will in
the form of a graphical sigil and forgetting it, the magician
creates an artificial "complex" which then starts to work on
similar lines just as suppressed, subconscious traumas will cause
neurotic behavior etc.
The psychological magician is a programmer of symbols and
different states of consciousness. He is not necessarily in need
of a transcendent otherworld or even subtle energies, though in
practice he will usually work on the assumption that one or the
other (or both) do in fact exist and can be utilized by his
subconscious.
Authors such as Israel Regardie, Dion Fortune, William
Butler, Francis King, William Gray and to some extent Pete
Carroll subscribe to the psychological model which seems to be
the primary domain of the English speaking world of magic and
which has become the prevailing paradigm ever since the seventies
of this century.
THE INFORMATION MODEL
The information model of magic is being developed since about
1987 and there is still considerable debate about the direction
it shall ultimately take. Its basic premises to date are as
follows:
a) Energy as such is "dumb": it needs information on
what to do; this can be so called laws of nature or
direct commands.
b) Information does not have mass or energy. Thus, it is
faster than light and not bound by the restrictions of
the Einsteinian spacetime continuum. It can therefore be
transmitted or tapped at all times and at all places. In
analogy (but of course only as such!) it may be likened
to quantum phenomena rather than relativistic
mass-energy. It can, however, attach itself to a medium
e.g. an organism or any other memory storage device.
At the start of the theoretical debate it was still believed that
the postulation of morphic (or, more precisely, morphogenetic)
fields as hypothesized by Rupert Sheldrake had to be an essential
factor by way of explaining the mode of actual information
transmittance. This, however, while still being discussed, does
not appear to be strictly prerogative though it cannot be not
ruled out that an act of information magic may create such
fields. It does seem more probable, though, that the concept of
information matrices will prove to be the most promising theory
in the long run.
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The application of the as yet evolving information model has
led to the discipline I have termed Cybermagic (from
"cybernetics" or the "science of control systems"). Contrary to
the other models described above, Cybermagic does not rely on
magical trance to achieve its effects. Rather, the Cybermagician
activates either his own main memory banks, namely brain and
spine (the Golf-club chakra, so-called because of its shape
reminiscent of a golf-club) or those of the target person. The
desired information is then called up and transmitted quite
similarly to a copy command on an MS-DOS computer. The copy
command analogy holds good insofar as the information (not having
mass) is not actually "lost" in the process (as energy would be)
but rather is duplicated. This is an important point as it allows
for the magician to perform his magic even in a state of very low
physical power, possibly even when almost completely intoxicated,
as long as his basic "life support systems" are still functional
and the command syntax is employed correctly.
It is, however, obvious that this technique demands a fair
control of what used to be termed kundalini effects and practice
has shown ever and again that a good amount of Yoga and
meditation experience is a great help in achieving to Cybermagic.
Unfortunately, the full theory and practice of Cybermagic
cannot be described here due to lack of space and will thus have
to be the subject of a separate article to be published later. To
date the main experimental research work is being done within the
Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) and some
quite astounding results have already been achieved, especially
in the field of language and knowledge transfer as well as
magical healing.
In spite of its very modern, untraditionalist outlook the
basic principles of Cybermagic may in truth well be the oldest
form of magic extant. For we can, for example, find a number of
reports in the East to the effect of a guru transferring all his
knowledge to his successor before his death, which is usually
achieved by an act of long, mutual meditation.
This goes to show that magic as a whole has always existed
in many, coexisting models. What has changed, however, is the
stress laid on one model or the other in the course of time.
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THE META-MODEL
The meta-model of magic is not a model as such but rather an
instruction on the use of the others. For its only advice to the
magician is: "Always use the model most adequate to your aims."
This may sound a bit trite but we will see that it is not quite
as self evident amongst magicians as one might expect. It is
rooted in Chaos magic's assertion "Nothing is true. Everything is
permitted", which ultimately boils down to pragmatic
utilitarianism. Before this aspect is enlarged upon, though, let
us look at an example of the models presented here as applied in
practice.
We shall take the situation of magical healing to demonstrate how
these models differ from each other.
In the spirit model healing is regarded as an exorcism: illness
is caused by "evil" or, at least, undesired entities which have
to be negated.
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The Eight Paths and other Wiccan miscellany
Dogs in the Temple:
The "dogs" were MALE Canaanite temple prostitutes
(normally eunuchs, as I understand it), with whom male worshippers had
intercourse in order to obtain various boons from the gods, of which
the fertility of themselves, their herds and their crops were the
chief. A "dog"'s earnings couldn't be contributed to Yaweh's
treasury. (Nor could that of a FEMALE temple prostitute!) Now if
they were doing the Great Rite with male priests way back when TO make
things more fertility, why should Stewart Farrar have a cat over gay
men and lesbians being involved in the Craft now?!? (Although, in
fairness to him, I'll bet he's never thought of it that way! He
strikes me as a reasonable man, all in all... )
As for the Paths:
Meditation is the first and--in my opinion--the most basic,
because you use it to get to or enhance some of the other Paths.
Trance work is the second, which includes astral projection exercises.
Perhaps it's the most important, because it gets us where we go to
exercise the power or obtain the wisdom that we want to.
Dancing is a Path that I personal can't use because I'm lame; but I've
been told by able-bodied Pagan friends that it's great because it
engages the whole self--and especially it helps you be grounded AND
Elsewhere at the same time. Binding with cords and other forms of
sensory deprivation are good for helping the mind travel beyond the
body's limits because one wishes to escape the tedium and discomfort
of them. (I'm sorry, but even a flotation tank gets uncomfortable
eventually!) Scourging and other repetitive acts also use tedium as a
release but are more stimulating than being bound or floating in a
tank. (They do NOT use pain. If they're being done THAT intensely,
they're being done incorrectly... )
Chanting and mantras use repetitive sound and the inherent nature of
some sounds to produce altered states of consciousness.
Drugs (which normally means incense and MAYBE alcohol but NOT
hallucinogens and such) variously stimulate, relax, disinhibit or
otherwise change one's mental state.
And that brings us back to the Great Rite and other forms of sex
magick, which attempt to involve all levels from the physical to the
Divine Within at one time. That's VERY thumbnail; but if anyone wants
to know more, I'll be glad to elaborate on the ones I use or have seen
used. Oh, and I can--and should--add that the various Paths can be
used in combination as well as separately, that there's some variation
from one tradition to another as to what the Eight Paths are, and that
not ALL traditions have Eight Paths per se!
Bright blessings! Granny Spider
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Balance of the God and Goddess
Adrienne
I see the God as That is Created and Destroyed; the Goddess is the
Creator and the Destroyer. His knowledge is experiential and he sees
the cycle of rebirth from the unique perspective of the being that
experiences it. He understands, more so than the Goddess, how the
cycle shapes the world of the living. His life cycle of birth to full
power to age to death to rebirth parallels our own lives on this
earth. The Goddess loves Her children, the God understands His.
Through the love they bear for each other, they share in both the
knowledge of the mystery of rebirth and in the power, but the
knowledge remains His province and the power rests in Her.
--- Maximus-CBCS v1.02
* Origin: Pandora's Box, Ottawa, Ontario (93:9630/1)
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Where do we go from here?
By Pete Carroll
Occult revivals occur when the social, economic or intellectual
status quo is disturbed by the unexpected. Affluence combined
with the collapse of the Roman state religion caused one revival.
The rediscovery of classical knowledge in the Renaissance brought
about another. Dissatisfaction with catholic hellfire
christianity spawned spiritualism, theosophy, the Golden Dawn and
Crowley. In our own time anti-semitism, affluence, drugs and
oriental ideas spawned another outburst.
Occult revivals are stimulated by economics and by the availability,
rather than the creation of ideas. Roman culture was subject to a
huge influx of ideas, cults and philosophies from conquered peoples.
Written material surviving from this synthesis appeared again
as hermetics in the Renaissance. The revivals of the late
nineteenth century and the nineteen-sixties owe much to the
availability of scientific ideas and oriental philosophies. It is
probably more useful then, to look for impending changes in the
general situation rather than within the occult itself if we want
to second guess the next revival. The period between one revival
and the next is shortening rapidly and we are probably due for
another around the turn of the century, give or take a decade.
I`d like to try and identify some of the factors which may help
shape it.
Firstly the millennium. Christianity is unfortunately not yet
completely extinguished and humanity will have to cope with a
rising tide of apocalypse mania as the calendrical millennium draws
closer. Right wing christian fundamentalists in America may even be
in a political position to inaugurate a real Armageddon by then.
I hope that whatever courage and imagination there is in the occult
is put to good use in undermining this sort od idiocy. Those
occultists who do jump on the millennial bandwagon have only
disaster or ridicule to look forward to.
Economics has a powerful effect on the occult climate. A fairly
rapid increase in affluence will often provoke a revival as leisure
time becomes available and some minds turn to higher things.
Conversely, a decline in living conditions will sometimes make
people seek what they have lost, or a substitute, by occult means.
Boom propelled revivals are usually much more fun than slump
propelled upsurges. In this country, any increment in occultism
arising from socio-economic desperation, is likely to be some
species of neo-nazi mystic nationalism. As with millennium madness,
the greater honour will, in the long run, go to those occultists who
oppose such nonsense. However, the metaphysical fallout from the
sixties may yet carry us through to the next boom revival and these
problems may not yet arise.
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It seems unlikely that anthropology or archaeology will be able to
make fresh ideas available for cannibalization by the occult in the
next revival. Computerized libraries, satellite photography and
global communication systems leave few stones unturned. There seems
little chance lost ancient manuscripts, magical tribes or forgotten
occult civilizations coming to light nowadays. So it is to science
itself that I think we should turn for fresh ammunition.
There are already discernable strains of space mysticism in some
quarters of the occult. Questions about the reality or otherwise of
supposed visits by aliens should not distract us from recognizing
that UFO-mania itself is a mystico-religious phenomena. The
UFO-ologist wants to personally receive wisdom for the whole of
humanity from some superhuman being. Seeking angels in space suits
is to repeat humanity`s perennial mistake, pretending to look
outside for what is really inside ourselves.
Quantum physics has been quietly undermining the whole basis of
mechanistic cause and effect type science for nearly sixty years. It
has been said that if you are not shocked by the implications of
quantum physics then you have not understood it. This may be
perfectly true for the scientist but for the magician, quantum
physics provides elegant confirmation of many of his theories. A
quantitative approach to quantum physics is beyond all but the best
mathematician. Many of the principles are enshrined in equations for
which we have few verbal or visual analogies. Because of this very
few laymen or philosophers have been able to appreciate what has
been going on.
Briefly in qualitative terms, we now have hard experimental evidence
which strongly implies that physical process are, at root, acausal;
they just happen out of themselves and that consciousness, or at
least the decisions of the observer, can modify or control what
happens. Secondly it would seem that pure information can travel
anywhere instantaneously and perhaps persists indefinitely,
providing there is some sort of affinity, or magical link as we
would call it, between that which emits and that which receives.
Very few liberties need to be taken with quantum physics to fit in
virtually the whole of parapsychology. It remains to be seen if
quantum physics can be presented in sufficiently accessible form to
provoke another occult revival.
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A quantum based revival would effectively demolish the spirit
hypothesis. A "spirit" would have to be recognized as nothing more
than the information that a phenomenon emitted about itself when it
existed physically. Anything else would have to be put down to the
creativity of the observer`s subconsciousness. Thus the "tree-ness"
of a tree or the quality of a thought is just an extension of the
object itself on the plane of non-local information. If you talk to
Egyptian gods your subconsciousness is, at best, simply animating
the general personality characteristics of the gods projected by
their worshippers millennia ago. Spirits cannot be gaseous
vertebrates with powers of independent discursive thought. On the
practical level quantum physics implies that the medium of magic is
not some sort of nebulous psychic energy or force, it is simply a
transfer of information. Magical healing or attack is accomplished
by long range telepathic suggestion not by astral bandages or
thunderbolts. The quantum paradigm forces a re-examination of
reincarnation. There is no reason why anybody should not be able to
tap the memories of any historical person. Conversely we can all
look forward to fragments of our ideas and personalities manifesting
in other people in the future.
Telekinesis and related phenomena can be accommodated within the
quantum paradigm if we allow intent to expand upon the small degree
of fundamental uncertainty, or more properly indeterminacy, in the
position and momentum of any object. Prophecy is always the most
doubtful of the magical arts although short term prediction or
precognition can often be impressive. The quantum model allows for
this providing the operator later observes the precognised event.
Such apparent nonsense as astrology and homeopathy begin to make
more sense in a quantum paradigm which suggests that expectation can
have real effects via what one might call a magical level. This is
quite over and above the purely psychological effects of expectation
that materialists usually invoke to explain away these things.
I`ve heard the quantum occult paradigm described as Big Bang
Mysticism and Electro Gnosis. I rather like this, for it implies
that the universe is being viewed as a self-created magical organism
and that magic itself is a technology we can potentially master
because it is a part of the nature of ordinary reality. Of course,
what is missing in this scheme are the pseudo certainties of belief
in gods and higher powers or even a benign cosmic mind. It throws us
back on our own powers and ingenuities, but isn`t this what the best
occultism has always been about anyway ?
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(811) Mon 29 Apr 91 3:26
By: Madoc
To: Chris Anderson
Re: What's this "Right" stuff, anyway?
St:
------------------------------------------------------------
@PID: RA 1.01
@MSGID: 8:7703/8 4dba2fe8
>What would a Wiccan provide as an explanation for behavior that was
>"contrary" in the sense that you've given? We've all seen folks
behave in a way that is *apparently* inconsistent with stated beliefs,
even those that are closely held. What do you believe is the basis
for the difference between a "positive direction along the Path" and
actual behavior that is contrary to this by one who earnestly seeks
"the Path"? The answer is stated clearly enough for many other
religions, but I've never had the opportunity to hear a Wiccan add
his/her windage on this topic. Flip Wilson's answer obviously isn't
going to apply, so where do we go with it? ;)
Chris, sorry for the delay in answering your question. I have written
and re-written my response, and although I still may not have answered
your question herein, I feel that I must reply at last.
First, I must stipulate that what follows is my own interpretation of
Wiccan belief, and my own sense of "morals." You know, the usual
disclaimer.
Second, I wish to deal briefly with the concept of separation of Law
and Moral. What I am writing here has absolutely no relation to the
practice of law. I do not advocate murder, for example, nor do I think
that murder should go unpunished by the State. I recognize that we
live in a society which must have rules in order that the maximum
amount of freedom may be enjoyed by all. I would not hesitate, if I
were a juror, to vote to send a proven criminal to jail, or even to
death, if the situation warranted it. Therefore, let none who read my
words mistake my moral convictions with my beliefs about our judaical
system - I am not in disagreement with the majority of our laws as
they exist.
Finally; the point:
To save space, I'll omit the dictionary definition of 'sin.' I think
we all understand that Christians believe in sin, Wiccans do not. As
you have stated, members of other religions have their rules clearly
stated, so that one may easily decide if one is in error or not
(although it's often not quite *that* easy). Wiccans claim to follow
only the Rede, which states, "An it harm none, do as thou shalt."
You have asked how a Wiccan can stray from such a path. The answer is
complex and far-reaching, and even delves into (ugh) philosophy. I'll
try to keep it succinct.
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If one thoughtfully examines the Rede, it quickly becomes apparent
that almost every action has the potential to harm some creature in
some way. Drawing breath can kill micro-organisms that float unseen,
in the atmosphere. Drinking water does the same thing. One could
choose to marry, and ultimately bring pain and suffering on future
generations of children by way of an unhappy union. There is literally
no way that one could possibly foresee all circumstances and avoid
harming anyone. Yet, that is what the Rede demands. What is the
answer?
In my opinion, the answer is obvious. The Wiccan must choose. Each and
every Wiccan is responsible for their own actions, and will be
accountable to themselves for the results of those actions. The wheels
turns, and each Wiccan reaps what they have sown. No Godly mandate or
indulgence can save us from the results of our own actions, be they
good or bad. But, with ultimate responsibility comes ultimate freedom.
No God can shackle my soul or subject me to that which I do not Will.
I am supreme within myself, and I am the "captain of my soul." I have
chosen to obey certain of society's laws and mores. I have chosen to
be a "good" man. Mine is the reward for choosing such action, and mine
will be the punishment if I fail to meet my self-imposed
responsibilities. As you jested, I cannot claim Flip Wilson's
famous defence. Nor do I claim that such things as I do well stem from
my Creator - in ultimate hubris, I claim that "As I Will, so mote it
be."
Every day, I am met with new decisions. I make those decisions, and
then I live with the consequences of my actions. In my opinion, that
is what makes me human, what sets me apart from the animals. Man alone
can choose, man alone is not chained to genetically imprinted
behavior.
I have been asked why, if there is the possibility that the Christian
deity exists, do I not choose Christianity on the possibility that it
is correct? This is Pascal's famous wager. If I wager that (the
Christian) God exists and I am correct, then I win all. If I am wrong
and God does not exist, then I have lost nothing, and have lived
(hopefully) a good and productive life in the bargain. Why would
anyone not accept this wager? My answer to that is that I would not
willingly serve any God that would choose one of His/Her creations
over another, the good over the bad, the shriven over the heathen. If
I had definitive proof that such a God existed, I would actively
oppose Him/Her. I would rather suffer the cold comfort of damnation
than continue to exist in a hereafter peopled with only the "saved."
This is my choice, and again, as I Will, so mote it be.
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>What do you believe is the basis for the difference between a
"positive direction along the Path" and actual behavior that is
contrary to this by one who earnestly seeks "the Path"?
A fine, difficult question, Chris. As you've stated elsewhere, we've
been dancing all around this one for some time. Here goes:
I cannot determine what any one individual's Path is. I am not even
sure of my own. I often follow forks in the road until they come to a
dead end, and have to double back. Of course, that's the problem one
faces in following one's own Will, and not a set of directions laid
down by God. My concept of the Path is that it is like many roads, all
of which lead eventually to self-knowledge (enlightenment, Godhead,
nirvana, and so on). In my theology, my ultimate goal is to become one
with the God of my creation by gaining divine knowledge, or gnosis.
We've discussed the concept of "hidden knowledge" in the past, yet I
feel that my understanding of gnosis differs from yours.
The entire concept of the ancient mystery religions, and of modern
"occult" (which mean only 'hidden' after all) religions and practices
was based on the concept of the inverted filter. Each person passed
through successive layers of filters, gaining knowledge and
understanding at each stop, until they could absorb no more (and so
could not pass through the next layer of filter). Of course, at each
level, the initiate was given to believe that they were now in
possession of secret knowledge, and ultimate truth. If they could find
legitimate questions that led them to reject or doubt those 'truths'
and seek deeper meaning, then they passed through to the next level of
understanding. If they did not question, then they were satisfied that
they had gained truth.
This 'hidden knowledge' can be obtained outside of the constraints of
organized religion; in fact it originally was obtained independently.
Just as Newton's Laws could eventually be figured out by a person
ignorant of his discoveries, one could find a Path to enlightenment
separate from any of the mystery religions. However, just as one
attends school to learn that which is already known, so one pursues
illumination from the teachings of those who have already achieved
more than oneself.
Further, I do not believe that there is one 'right' Path. I accept
that the OTO has valuable knowledge to impart. I accept that Christian
Mystics, Jewish Quabalists, Muslim Sufis, and so on all have some
piece of the puzzle, and that all will eventually converge on the road
to wisdom. I know because I have been to that intersection once or
twice, although I am not there now. My Path is my own, and as Van
Morrison said, I have "No teacher, no guru, no method."
Can I move in a direction that is contrary to positive movement
towards the Laughing Light? You bet. The tough part is that the
definition of what is or is not 'positive' is not static. An example:
it might be proper that I learn what it means to take another human
being's life by killing an intruder in my home. It might not be proper
that I learn that lesson by following the orders of a superior officer
in time of war. OR VICE VERSA. I must choose at every instance, and I
might not immediately know if my choice has given or taken from my
search for truth.
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There are also times when I might know that I am actively choosing to
deviate from my Path. I might choose to sooth a feeling of anxiety
about whether or not I can pay the rent this month by yelling at my
wife. I'm not using this as an example because it is traditionally
"wrong," but because I know that I cannot solve my problems by
transferring my anxiety to others. If I choose to ignore what I have
already learned, then not only have I lost ground, but I will have to
deal with the anger that I've given out at some point.
In conclusion, I believe that I am responsible for my own actions, as
others are for theirs. I also believe that if I commit an action which
may seem 'right' to me, but which society has deemed to be a crime,
I'll be punished by society for breaking that law. I would punish
those who break the laws which are meant to hold our society together,
such as prohibitions on murder, burglary, and so forth. I believe that
my moral convictions are binding only on myself, not on others, and
that I'll ultimately deal with the consequences of my thoughts and
deeds. I believe that I have no right to judge the moral content of
another's actions. I believe in the Wiccan Rede, "An it harm none, do
as thou shalt," and I further believe that it is meant to make me
consider my actions and their consequences, and to make my own
decisions, rather than as a prohibition against any specific action.
There is much that I do not know about Godhead; much that I do not
know about Right and Wrong. I have only my instincts and intellect to
guide me, but I trust myself to make the right decisions eventually.
Madoc
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Sex & Magic
Fra.: Apfelmann
In this article I would like to address the issue of sex and magic.
I am quite aware of the fact that this is a loaded subject. It is
one of the oldest disciplines in occultism and virtually every magic
tradition applies it somewhere down the road. Yet it has always been
regarded as the innermost secret discipline. Witches, Shamans,
Runesters, Yogis and Magicians of all varieties work with it in one
form or another.
To build up, strengthen, direct and aim this powerful energy is an
awesome magical tool, as anyone who has ever worked with it knows.
Being limited in time and space, but having such a wonderful and
eclectic medium to work with, I want to give you a few unbiased
ideas on the subject.
No discipline of magic has attracted as much mumbo jumbo or
misinformation as sex magic does. Nothing stirs the mind more than
the left and right of the so-called middle path quite as vividly.
Nothing is more ancient, powerful and misunderstood as Sex magic.
Yes, the market on Tantra is booming, as a visit to any occult book
shop will show you. Yet well researched, practical introductions
into sex magic are virtually non-existent. Male sexist tunnel vision
abounds.
One of the reasons being that the general approach towards sexuality
and women is steeped in Judeo-Christian hang ups.
The most common approach seems to be: "Just lay down and be the
altar dear, you are going to love it." Even such revolutionaries as
Aleister Crowley have done very little to improve this. Louis
Culling even dares to state in his contemporary work (1971), that a
frigid woman is more conductive to sex magic practice than a sensual
or, mind you, sexually aggressive one. For this would surely disturb
ones concentration on the Great Work.
No wonder that there are few women attracted to these kinds of
partners! You will always get what you want in magic and the
so-called true will does reveal itself in strange ways. Doing some
soul searching and clarifying your motives is quite effective.
Now, regarding literature on this subject there is hope. My german
friend Fra.: U.D. has written a comprehensive, pragmatic book on sex
magic. It`s title is "Secrets of the German Sex Magicians"
(Llewellyn) and he told me last weekend that it is available in the
States right now. (I hope he will give me some extracts to post them
here...) It beats everything that has ever been published on the
subject. Get it!
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Now let me point out, one more time, that magic is a practical
science. Merely reading about it or going to a workshop will not get
you anywhere.
The multitude of sexual expressions is just as great and manifold as
human behavior in general. Here, like everywhere in Chaos Magic, it
is useful to keep in mind that if it works for you, use it!
Remember, the real sex magicians, male and female, have always known
that and discarded social conditioning and taboos, right along with
the do`s and don`ts of dogma.
We do magic to liberate ourselves. So if it is possible for one
thing to be sacred we logically conclude that everything else can be
sacred too.
Auto-, Hetero- and Homosexual expressions are equally valid in
sex magic. It is more about expanding ones horizons that about
finding a certain "right" way, partner or ritual to do it. The Chaos
Magical paradigm kicks right in: Nothing is True, and Everything is
Permitted!
The next issue I want to address is the Auto-erotic practice. So let
me state this loud and clear: Without auto erotic practice it is
impossible to achieve anything in Sex magic!
Auto-eroticism is of central importance because it is the ideal
practice and playground. It constitutes a powerful technique in
itself, and it makes us independent of partners. Especially in the
beginning it is much easier to explore, prolong and amplify orgasmic
trance states. For this very same reason it is possible to do
effective sex magic with a partner who knows nothing about it but
working with a partner who is equally trained in this art is ever so
much more effective. Most amateurs believe that sexual magic is
something that solely happens between partners in a ritual, but in
reality the vast majority of sex magical arts are performed
auto-erotically.
Regarding the physical aspects of the sexual magical training first
thing to consider is that your body is really _your temple_. And for
it to be your ultimate tool and asset it has to be in peak
condition. Physical and mental dependencies, be it alcohol,
stimulants or even tobacco, will interfere with your ability to
develop and direct this tool. I do not want to project a moral
attitude on this, or any other subject, but mind, spirit and body
are deeply intertwined. And the more you alter your mind from the
outside by using drugs of any sort, the harder it gets to focus your
will and physical reaction. If you are in a frizzy condition, you
will get frizzy results! Here, as in all magic, the borders are
fluid. A good training in practical magic will greatly enhance your
sexual magic and vice versa.
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A lot of physical exercises in sex magic derive from Tantra Yoga.
The only point of disagreement appears to be the way of using the
orgasm. In particular, the "traditional" Tantra authors seem to cling
to the idea that there is only a limited amount of sperm available
to men. Therefore this precious substance is carefully guarded, held
back and reassimilated when spent. Western magic does not agree
with this belief. Its approach is rather like: the more you spend -
the more you get! This applies to male magicians, women have always
been pretty much inexhaustible in their orgasmic capacity. What
joins both is that the intent in Sex magic is much more result
oriented and concrete than in Tantra, where it is mainly
transcendental.
The longing for transcendence seems to be inherently natural in
human behavior. Yet being western magicians living in the nineties
we know that we have to handle the "real world", our physical
reality first, and then we can move on to the loftier goals.
A good manual for your physical preparation and training is
"Stalking the Wild Orgasm" by Christopher Scott Kilham. Hie work not
only includes some excellent yoga exercises, but also gives you some
great clues regarding nutrition and aphrodisiacs.
When you get going in this direction you will find that it soon
penetrates into many other areas of your magical work. You will be
in better physical shape, more relaxed, focused and grounded. Magic
is a gut level art. We have to remove it from the intellectual
stuff. Trust your own experiences. Strive to conduct your magic work
from this part of your body where all magic originates - your loins.
Have fun!
With fractalic greetings and laughter * Fra.: Apfelmann *
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THE RIDDLE OF THE TRICKSTER
a cross-cultural overview
by
Thunderspud of Dragonfhain
Who is this trickster archetype, the one who inspires such mixed
feelings and brouhaha? Trickster has been with us from the
beginning. Trickster will be there at the ending. (If there is an
ending, Trickster will probably trigger it). Trickster is a creator,
a transformer, a joker, a truth teller, a destroyer.
Whoever has created a dance, a song, written a ritual, tailor-made a
job, birthed a child or invented a game has partaken of a controlled
Trickster energy. After all, in Northwest Native and Inuit
tradition, Raven created the world; Loki is known to the Norse as a
co creator (and the bringer of Ragnarok); Anansi the spider-trickster
among the Ashanti of Ghana and Nareau the spider in Micronesia;
Coyote among the Southwest Natives --these are the creator aspects of
this wild and uncontrolled energy. Trickster often begins in the
void, desiring to bring Order out of Chaos; once Order is imposed,
however, Trickster represents the breaking free of negative power
from the Universal Order of things.
As a shape-shifter, Trickster is all things to all people, at one
time or another, and often simultaneously. Of course Trickster is a
creator and a destroyer. Sure he's a family man and a vagabond.
Naturally he gives fire to humans and then steals their food before
they can cook it. This is his style; when he acts out of
selfishness, everyone benefits -- Maui of the Thousand Tricks might
snare the Sun to slow it down, making life easier for humans, but he
did it so his mother would have more time to cook for him. When he
acts out of altruism, there's most always a negative effect --Marawa,
a Lou Costello prototype from Banks Island carved human figures from
wood and put them in the ground so they would grow and be strong;
however, they merely rotted and death came into the world of humans.
This shape- shifter not only moves from shape to shape, but from
world to world. Number Eleven suffered at the hands of death to free
his brothers; his brothers then took his lifeless body away and
revived him. In the Winnebago cycle, Trickster dies three times and
returns to life three times. In just one collection of Coyote
stories, Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping With His Daughter, Coyote
dies of a snake bite, a gunshot, an arrow wound, a broken heart, a
rock-fall and a drowning; this resembles nothing so much as a
Roadrunner cartoon.
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Trickster fuzzes the lines between Male and Female, between cunning
and stupidity (in one story Coyote steals a horse, in another he
almost drowns trying to eat some berries reflected in a stream),
between wisdom and stupidity. Trickster tells us the truth about our
selves, showing us with truth and wit the sides of our nature that we
may be more comfortable not acknowledging; he's the one who points at
the Emperor's nakedness, he's Lenny Bruce and Ashleigh Brilliant, Ken
Kesey and Uncle Remus, Opus, Geech, Tom Robbins, Abbie Hoffman, Don
Becker, Weird Al Yankovich and David Letterman, holding up a skewed
mirror of reality for us to look into. Among the Aztecs, as serious
a culture as this continent has ever seen, Ueuecoyotl, a funny and
outrageously unacceptable clown figure; in the Southwest, at serious
rituals, he's the Koshare speeding around the circle with tickling
feathers and rattle, being ignored completely by the priest.
Trickster shines on as a culture bringer: Prometheus steals fire for
his poor stunted creations, and pays a terrible and eternal price for
his philanthropy. Loki also steals fire for humans, as do Anansi,
Raven, Coyote, Maui; so far I have found no less than seventeen
stories from different cultures on this theme. Anansi tricked
Nyankopon the Sky-God out of his stories and gave them to the humans.
Clat, from Banks Island, taught humans how to sleep.
In the stories of the Ashanti, Anansi invented the tar-baby as a ruse
to trap an elemental spirit, but in the Native American stories,
Coyote is trapped by a tar-baby set up by a farmer. Actually the
farmer had caught a rabbit with his tar-baby, but Coyote happened
along and asked Rabbit what he was doing there. "The farmer who owns
this field got mad at me because I wouldn't eat his melons, so he
stuck me here and said he'd come back and make me eat chicken."
Rabbit replies, "But I told him I wouldn't do it." Of course, greedy
Coyote extricates Rabbit and wraps himself around the tar-baby where
he still his when the farmer comes out and shoots him.
So this is the Trickster, the energy that allows us to break out of
our stereotypes, whether they've been imposed by ourselves, our
families, our culture. This is the energy that opens the world of
limitless possibilities and it behooves us all to work with it before
it destroys us, to touch the Trickster as he touches us.
...........from RMPJ, Oct.'86
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Notes on Kabbalah (a continuing series of many parts)
Copyright Colin Low 1991
Chapter 1.: The Tree of Life
At the root of the Cabalistic view of the world are three
fundamental concepts and they provide a natural place to begin.
The three concepts are force, form and consciousness and these
words are used in an abstract way, as the following examples
illustrate:
- high pressure steam in the cylinder of a steam engine
provides a force. The engine is a form which constrains the
force.
- a river runs downhill under the force of gravity. The
river channel is a form which constrains the water to run in
a well defined path.
- someone wants to get to the center of a garden maze. The
hedges are a form which constrain that person's ability to
walk as they please.
- a diesel engine provides the force which drives a boat
forwards. A rudder constrains its course to a given
direction.
- a politician wants to change the law. The legislative
framework of the country is a form which he or she must
follow if the change is to be made legally.
- water sits in a bowl. The force of gravity pulls the water
down. The bowl is a form which gives its shape to the water.
- a stone falls to the ground under the force of gravity.
Its acceleration is constrained to be equal to the force
divided by the mass of the stone.
- I want to win at chess. The force of my desire to win is
constrained within the rules of chess.
- I see something in a shop window and have to have it. I am
constrained by the conditions of sale (do I have enough
money, is it in stock).
- cordite explodes in a gun barrel and provides an explosive
force on a bullet. The gas and the bullet are constrained by
the form of the gun barrel.
- I want to get a passport. The government won't give me one
unless I fill in lots of forms in precisely the right way.
- I want a university degree. The university won't give me
a degree unless I attend certain courses and pass various
assessments.
In all these examples there is something which is causing change
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to take place ("a force") and there is something which causes
change to take place in a defined way ("a form"). Without being
too pedantic it is possible to identify two very different types
of example here:
1. examples of natural physical processes (e.g. a falling
stone) where the force is one of the natural forces known to
physics (e.g. gravity) and the form is some combination
of physical laws which constrain the force to act in a well
defined way.
2. examples of people wanting something, where the force is
some ill-defined concept of "desire", "will", or "drives",
and the form is one of the forms we impose upon ourselves
(the rules of chess, the Law, polite behavior etc.).
Despite the fact that the two different types of example are
"only metaphorically similar", Kabbalists see no fundamental
distinction between them. To the Kabbalist there are forces
which cause change in the natural world, and there are
corresponding psychological forces which drive us to change both
the world and ourselves, and whether these forces are natural or
psychological they are rooted in the same place: consciousness.
Similarly, there are forms which the component parts of the
physical world seem to obey (natural laws) and there are
completely arbitrary forms we create as part of the process of
living (the rules of a game, the shape of a mug, the design of an
engine, the syntax of a language) and these forms are also rooted
in the same place: consciousness. It is a Cabalistic axiom that
there is a prime cause which underpins all the manifestations of
force and form in both the natural and psychological world and
that prime cause I have called consciousness for lack of a better
word.
Consciousness is undefinable. We know that we are conscious
in different ways at different times - sometimes we feel free and
happy, at other times trapped and confused, sometimes angry and
passionate, sometimes cold and restrained - but these words
describe manifestations of consciousness. We can define the
manifestations of consciousness in terms of manifestations of
consciousness, which is about as useful as defining an ocean in
terms of waves and foam. Anyone who attempts to define
consciousness itself tends to come out of the same door as they
went in. We have lots of words for the phenomena of consciousness
- thoughts, feelings, beliefs, desires, emotions, motives and so
on - but few words for the states of consciousness which give
rise to these phenomena, just as we have many words to describe
the surface of a sea, but few words to describe its depths.
Kabbalah provides a vocabulary for states of consciousness
underlying the phenomena, and one of the purposes of these notes
is to explain this vocabulary, not by definition, but mostly by
metaphor and analogy. The only genuine method of understanding
what the vocabulary means is by attaining various states of
consciousness in a predictable and reasonably objective way, and
Kabbalah provides practical methods for doing this.
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A fundamental premise of the Cabalistic model of reality is
that there is a pure, primal, and undefinable state of
consciousness which manifests as an interaction between force and
form. This is virtually the entire guts of the Cabalistic view
of things, and almost everything I have to say from now on is
based on this trinity of consciousness, force, and form.
Consciousness comes first, but hidden within it is an inherent
duality; there is an energy associated with consciousness which
causes change (force), and there is a capacity within
consciousness to constrain that energy and cause it to manifest
in a well-defined way (form).
First Principle
of
/ Consciousness \
/ \
/ \
Capacity Raw
to take ________________ Energy
Form
Figure 1.
What do we get out of raw energy and an inbuilt capacity for form
and structure? Is there yet another hidden potential within this
trinity waiting to manifest? There is. If modern physics is to be
believed we get matter and the physical world. The cosmological
Big Bang model of raw energy surging out from an infinitesimal
point and condensing into basic forms of matter as it cools, then
into stars and galaxies, then planets, and ultimately living
creatures, has many points of similarity with the Cabalistic
model. In the Big Bang model a soup of energy condenses according
to some yet-to-be-formulated Grand-Universal-Theory into our
physical world. What Kabbalah does suggest (and modern physics
most certainly does not!) is that matter and consciousness are
the same stuff, and differ only in the degree of structure
imposed - matter is consciousness so heavily structured and
constrained that its behavior becomes describable using the
regular and simple laws of physics. This is shown in Fig. 2. The
primal, first principle of consciousness is synonymous with the
idea of "God".
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First Principle
of
/ Consciousness \
/ | \
/ | \
Capacity | Raw
to take _____________ Energy/Force
Form |
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
Matter
The World
Figure 2
The glyph in Fig. 2 is the basis for the Tree of Life. The first
principle of consciousness is called Kether, which means Crown.
The raw energy of consciousness is called Chockhmah or Wisdom,
and the capacity to give form to the energy of consciousness is
called Binah, which is sometimes translated as Understanding, and
sometimes as Intelligence. The outcome of the interaction of
force and form, the physical world, called Malkuth or Kingdom.
This quaternery is a Cabalistic representation of God-the-
Knowable, in the sense that it the most primitive representation
of God we are capable of comprehending; paradoxically, Kabbalah
also contains a notion of God-the-Unknowable which transcends
this glyph, and is called En Soph. There is not much I can say
about En Soph, and what I can say I will postpone for later.
God-the-Knowable has four aspects, two male and two female:
Kether and Chokhmah are both represented as male, and Binah and
Malkuth are represented as female. One of the titles of Chokhmah
is Abba, which means Father, and one of the titles of Binah is
Aima, which means Mother, so you can think of Chokhmah as God-
the-Father, and Binah as God-the-Mother. Malkuth is the
daughter, the female spirit of God-as-Matter, and it would not be
wildly wrong to think of her as Mother Earth. One of the more
pleasant things about Kabbalah is that its symbolism gives equal
place to both male and female.
And what of God-the-Son? Is there also a God-the-Son in
Kabbalah? There is, and this is the point where Kabbalah tackles
the interesting problem of thee and me. The glyph in Fig. 2 is a
model of consciousness, but not of self-consciousness, and self-
consciousness throws an interesting spanner in the works.
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The Fall
Self-consciousness is like a mirror in which consciousness
sees itself reflected. Self-consciousness is modelled in Kabbalah
by making a copy of figure 2.
Consciousness
of
/ Consciousness \
/ | \
/ | \
Consciousness | Consciousness
of ________________ of
Form | Energy/Force
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
Consciousness
of the
World
Figure 3
Figure 3. is Figure 2. reflected through self-consciousness. The
overall effect of self-consciousness is to add an additional
layer to Figure 2. as follows:
First Principle
of
/ Consciousness \
/ | \
/ | \
Capacity | Raw
to take _____________ Energy/Force
Form |
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
Consciousness
of
/ Consciousness \
/ | \
/ | \
Consciousness | Consciousness
of ________________ of
Form | Energy/Force
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
Consciousness
of the
World
|
|
|
Matter
The World
Figure 4
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Fig. 2 is sometimes called "the Garden of Eden" because it
represents a primal state of consciousness. The effect of self-
consciousness as shown in Fig. 4 is to drive a wedge between the
First Principle of Consciousness (Kether) and that Consciousness
realized as matter and the physical world (Malkuth). This is
called "the Fall", after the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden
of Eden. From a Cabalistic point of view the story of Eden, with
the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the serpent and the
temptation, and the casting out from the Garden has a great deal
of meaning in terms of understanding the evolution of
consciousness.
Self-consciousness introduces four new states of
consciousness: the Consciousness of Consciousness is called
Tipheret, which means Beauty; the Consciousness of Force/Energy
is called Netzach, which means Victory or Firmness; the
Consciousness of Form is called Hod, which means Splendor or
Glory, and the Consciousness of Matter is called Yesod, which
means Foundation. These four states have readily observable
manifestations, as shown below in Fig. 5:
The Self
Self-Importance
Self-Sacrifice
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
Language | Emotions
Abstraction_______________Drives
Reason | Feelings
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
\ Perception /
Imagination
Instinct
Reproduction
Figure 5
Figure 4. is almost the complete Tree of Life, but not quite -
there are still two states missing. The inherent capacity of
consciousness to take on structure and objectify itself (Binah,
God-the-Mother) is reflected through self-consciousness as a
perception of the limitedness and boundedness of things. We are
conscious of space and time, yesterday and today, here and there,
you and me, in and out, life and death, whole and broken,
together and apart. We see things as limited and bounded and we
have a perception of form as something "created" and "destroyed".
My car was built a year ago, but it was smashed yesterday. I
wrote an essay, but I lost it when my computer crashed. My granny
is dead. The river changed its course. A law has been repealed. I
broke my coffee mug. The world changes, and what was here
yesterday is not here today. This perception acts like an
"interface" between the quaternary of consciousness which
represents "God", and the quaternary which represents a living
self-conscious being, and two new states are introduced to
represent this interface. The state which represents the creation
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of new forms is called Chesed, which means Mercy, and the state
which represents the destruction of forms is called Gevurah,
which means Strength. This is shown in Fig. 6. The
objectification of forms which takes place in a self-conscious
being, and the consequent tendency to view the world in terms of
limitations and dualities (time and space, here and there, you
and me, in and out, God and Man, good and evil...) produces a
barrier to perception which most people rarely overcome, and for
this reason it has come to be called the Abyss. The Abyss is also
marked on Figure 6.
First Principle
of
/ Consciousness \
/ | \
/ | \
Capacity | Raw
to take _____________ Energy/Force
Form | |
|\ | /|
| \ | / |
--------------Abyss---------------
| \ | / |
Destruction | Creation
of_____\_____|_____ /____of
Form \ | / Form
| \ \ | / / |
| \ \ | / / |
| \ Consciousness / |
| of |
| / Consciousness \ |
| / | \ |
|/ | \|
Consciousness | Consciousness
of ________________ of
\ Form | Energy/Force
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ Consciousness /
\ of /
\ the World /
\ /
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
Matter
The World
Figure 6
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The diagram in Fig. 6 is called the Tree of Life. The
"constructionist" approach I have used to justify its structure
is a little unusual, but the essence of my presentation can be
found in the "Zohar" under the guise of the Macroprosopus and
Microprosopus, although in this form it is not readily accessible
to the average reader. My attempt to show how the Tree of Life
can be derived out of pure consciousness through the interaction
of an abstract notion of force and form was not intended to be a
convincing exercise from an intellectual point of view - the Tree
of Life is primarily a gnostic rather than a rational or
intellectual explanation of consciousness and its interaction
with the physical world.
The Tree is composed of 10 states or sephiroth (sephiroth
plural, sephira singular) and 22 interconnecting paths. The age
of this diagram is unknown: there is enough information in the
13th. century "Sepher ha Zohar" to construct this diagram, and
the doctrine of the sephiroth has been attributed to Isaac the
Blind in the 12th. century, but we have no certain knowledge of
its origin. It probably originated sometime in the interval
between the 6th. and 13th. centuries AD. The origin of the word
"sephira" is unclear - it is almost certainly derived from the
Hebrew word for "number" (SPhR), but it has also been attributed
to the Greek word for "sphere" and even to the Hebrew word for a
sapphire (SPhIR). With a characteristic aptitude for discovering
hidden meanings everywhere, Kabbalists find all three derivations
useful, so take your pick.
In the language of earlier Cabalistic writers the sephiroth
represented ten primeval emanations of God, ten foci through
which the energy of a hidden, absolute and unknown Godhead (En
Soph) propagated throughout the creation, like white light
passing through a prism. The sephiroth can be interpreted as
aspects of God, as states of consciousness, or as nodes akin to
the Chakras in the occult anatomy of a human being .
I have left out one important detail from the structure of
the Tree. There is an eleventh "something" which is definitely
*not* a sephira, but is often shown on modern representations of
the Tree. The Cabalistic "explanation" runs as follows: when
Malkuth "fell" out of the Garden of Eden (Fig. 2) it left behind
a "hole" in the fabric of the Tree, and this "hole", located in
the center of the Abyss, is called Daath, or Knowledge. Daath is
*not* a sephira; it is a hole. This may sound like gobbledy-gook,
and in the sense that it is only a metaphor, it is.
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The completed Tree of Life with the Hebrew titles of the
sephiroth is shown below in Fig. 7.
En Soph
/-------------------------\
/ \
( Kether )
/ (Crown) \
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
Binah | Chokhmah
(Understanding)__________ (Wisdom)
(Intelligence) | |
|\ | /|
| \ Daath / |
| \ (Knowledge) / |
| \ | / |
Gevurah \ | / Chesed
(Strength)\_____|_____/__ (Mercy)
| \ | / (Love)
| \ \ | / / |
| \ \ | / / |
| \ Tipheret / |
| / (Beauty) \ |
| / | \ |
| / | \ |
|/ | \|
Hod | Netzach
(Glory) _______________(Victory)
(Splendor) | (Firmness)
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ \ Yesod / /
\ (Foundation) /
\ /
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
Malkuth
(Kingdom)
Figure 7
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From an historical point of view the doctrine of emanations and
the Tree of Life are only one small part of a huge body of
Cabalistic speculation about the nature of divinity and our part
in creation, but it is the part which has survived. The Tree
continues to be used in the Twentieth Century because it has
proved to be a useful and productive symbol for practices of a
magical, mystical and religious nature. Modern Kabbalah in the
Western Mystery Tradition is largely concerned with the
understanding and practical application of the Tree of Life, and
the following set of notes will list some of the characteristics
of each sephira in more detail so that you will have a "snapshot"
of what each sephira represents before going on to examine the
sephiroth and the "deep structure" of the Tree in more detail.
Chapter 2.: Sephirothic Correspondences
The correspondences are a set of symbols, associations and
qualities which provide a handle on the elusive something a
sephira represents. Some of the correspondences are hundreds of
years old, many were concocted this century, and some are my own;
some fit very well, and some are obscure - oddly enough it is
often the most obscure and ill-fitting correspondence which is
most productive; like a Zen riddle it perplexes and annoys the
mind until it arrives at the right place more in spite of the
correspondence than because of it.
There are few canonical correspondences; some of the
sephiroth have alternative names, some of the names have
alternative translations, the mapping from Hebrew spellings to
the English alphabet varies from one author to the next, and
inaccuracies and accretions are handed down like the family
silver. I keep my Hebrew dictionary to hand but guarantee none of
the English spellings.
The correspondences I have given are as follows:
1. The Meaning is a translation of the Hebrew name of the
sephira.
2. The Planet in most cases is the planet associated with
the sephira. In some cases it is not a planet at all
(e.g. the fixed stars). The planets are ordered
by decreasing apparent motion - this is one
correspondence which appears to pre-date Copernicus!
3. The Element is the physical element (earth, water, air,
fire, aethyr) which has most in common with the nature
of the Sephira. The Golden Dawn applied an excess of
logic to these attributions and made a mess of them, to
the confusion of many. Only the five Lower Face
sephiroth have been attributed an element.
4. Briatic color. This is the color of the sephira as
seen in the world of Creation, Briah. There are color
scales for the other three worlds but I haven't found
them to be useful in practical work.
5. Magical Image. Useful in meditations; some are astute.
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6. The Briatic Correspondence is an abstract quality
which says something about the essence of the way the
sephira expresses itself.
7. The Illusion characterizes the way in which the energy
of the sephira clouds one's judgement; it is something
which is *obviously* true. Most people suffer from one
or more of these according to their temperament.
8. The Obligation is a personal quality which is demanded
of an initiate at this level.
9. The Virtue and Vice are the energy of the sephiroth as
it manifests in a positive and negative sense in the
personality.
10. Klippoth is a word which means "shell". In medieval
Kabbalah each sephira was "seen" to be adding form to
the sephira which preceded it in the Lightning Flash
(see Chapter 3.). Form was seen to an accretion, a shell
around the pure divine energy of the Godhead, and each
layer or shell hid the divine radiance a little bit
more, until God was buried in form and exiled in matter,
the end-point of the process. At the time attitudes to
matter were tainted with the Manichean notion that
matter was evil, a snare for the spirit, and
consequently the Klippoth or shells were "demonised" and
actually turned into demons. The correspondence I have
given here restores the original notion of a shell of
form *without* the corresponding force to activate it;
it is the lifeless, empty husk of a sephira devoid of
force, and while it isn't a literal demon, it is hardly
a bundle of laughs when you come across it.
11. The Command refers to the Four Powers of the Sphinx,
with an extra one added for good measure.
12. The Spiritual Experience is just that.
13. The Titles are a collection of alternative names for the
sephira; most are very old.
14. The God Name is a key to invoking the power of the
sephira in the world of emanation, Atziluth.
13. The Archangel mediates the energy of the sephira in the
world of creation, Briah.
14. The Angel Order administers the energy of the sephira in
the world of formation, Yetzirah.
15. The Keywords are a collection of phrases which summarize
key aspects of the sephira.
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=================================================================
Sephira: Malkuth Meaning: Kingdom
------- -------
Planet: Cholem Yesodeth Element: earth
--------(the Breaker of -------
the Foundations, sphere of the elements, the Earth)
Briatic Color: brown Number: 10
------------- (citrine, russet-red,------
olive green, black)
Magical Image: a young woman crowned and throned
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: stability
----------------------
Illusion: materialism Obligation: discipline
-------- ----------
Virtue: discrimination Vice: avarice & inertia
------ ----
Klippoth: stasis Command: keep silent
-------- -------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel
------
Titles: The Gate; Gate of Death; Gate of Tears; Gate of Justice;
------ The Inferior Mother; Malkah, the Queen; Kallah, the
Bride; the Virgin.
------
God Name: Adonai ha Aretz Archangel: Sandalphon
-------- Adonai Malekh ---------
Angel Order: Ishim
-----------
Keywords:the real world, physical matter, the Earth, Mother
Earth, the physical elements, the natural world, sticks
& stones, possessions, faeces, practicality, solidity,
stability, inertia, heaviness, bodily death, incarnation.
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=================================================================
Sephira: Yesod Meaning: Foundation
------- -------
Planet: Levanah (the Moon) Element: Aethyr
-------------- -------
Briatic Color: purple Number: 9
------------- ------
Magical Image: a beautiful man, very strong (e.g. Atlas)
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: receptivity, perception
----------------------
Illusion: security Obligation: trust
-------- ----------
Virtue: independence Vice: idleness
------ ----
Klippoth: zombieism, robotism Command: go!
-------- -------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of the Machinery of the Universe
--------------------
Titles: The Treasure House of Images
------
God Name: Shaddai el Chai Archangel: Gabriel
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Cherubim
----------
Keywords: perception, interface, imagination, image, appearance,
glamour, the Moon, the unconscious, instinct, tides,
illusion, hidden infrastructure, dreams, divination,
anything as it seems to be and not as it is, mirrors
and crystals, the "Astral Plane", Aethyr, glue,
tunnels, sex & reproduction, the genitals, cosmetics,
instinctive magic (psychism), secret doors, shamanic
tunnel.
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=============================================================
Sephira: Hod Meaning: Glory, Splendor
------- -------
Planet: Kokab (Mercury) Element: air
------ -------
Briatic Color: orange Number: 8
------------- ------
Magical Image: an hermaphrodite
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: abstraction
----------------------
Illusion: order Obligation: learn
-------- ----------
Virtue: honesty, truthfulness Vice: dishonesty
------ ----
Klippoth: rigidity Command: will
--------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of Splendor
------
Titles: -
------
God Name: Elohim Tzabaoth Archangel: Raphael
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Beni Elohim
Keywords: reason, abstraction, communication, conceptualization,
logic, the sciences, language, speech, money (as a
concept), mathematics, medicine & healing, trickery,
writing, media (as communication), pedantry,
philosophy, Kabbalah (as an abstract system), protocol,
the Law, ownership, territory, theft, "Rights", ritual
magic.
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===============================================================
Sephira: Netzach Meaning: Victory, Firmness
------- -------
Planet: Nogah (Venus) Element: water
-------------- -------
Briatic Color: green Number: 7
------------- ------
Magical Image: a beautiful naked woman
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: nurture
----------------------
Illusion: projection Obligation: responsibility
-------- ----------
Virtue: unselfishness Vice: selfishness
------ ----
Klippoth: habit, routine Command: know
--------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of Beauty Triumphant
------
Titles: -
------
God Name: Jehovah Tzabaoth Archangel: Haniel
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Elohim
----------
Keywords: passion, pleasure, luxury, sensual beauty, feelings,
drives, emotions - love, hate, anger, joy, depression,
misery, excitement, desire, lust; nurture, libido,
empathy, sympathy, ecstatic magic.
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================================================================
Sephira: Tipheret Meaning: Beauty
------- -------
Planet: Shemesh (the Sun) Element: fire
-------------- -------
Briatic Color: yellow Number: 6
------------- ------
Magical Image: a king, a child, a sacrificed god
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: centrality, wholeness
----------------------
Illusion: identification Obligation: integrity
-------- ----------
Virtue: devotion to the Great Work Vice: pride, self-importance
------ ----
Klippoth: hollowness Command: dare
--------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of Harmony
--------------------
Titles: Melekh, the King; Zoar Anpin, the lesser countenance, the
------ Microprosopus; the Son; Rachamin, charity.
God Name: Aloah va Daath Archangel: Michael
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Malachim
-----------
Keywords: harmony, integrity, balance, wholeness, the Self, self-
importance, self-sacrifice, the Son of God, centrality,
the Philospher's Stone, identity, the solar plexus,
a King, the Great Work.
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================================================================
Sephira: Gevurah Meaning: Strength
------- -------
Planet: Madim (Mars)
--------------
Briatic Color: red Number: 5
------------- ------
Magical Image: a mighty warrior
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: power
----------------------
Illusion: invincibility Obligation: courage & loyalty
-------- ----------
Virtue: courage & energy Vice: cruelty
------ ----
Klippoth: bureaucracy
--------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of Power
--------------------
Titles: Pachad, fear; Din, justice.
------
God Name: Elohim Gevor Archangel: Kamael
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Seraphim
-----------
Keywords: power, justice, retribution (eaten cold), the Law (in
execution), cruelty, oppression, domination & the Power
Myth, severity, necessary destruction, catabolism,
martial arts.
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===============================================================
Sephira: Chesed Meaning: Mercy
------- -------
Planet: Tzadekh (Jupiter)
--------------
Briatic Color: blue Number: 4
------------- ------
Magical Image: a mighty king
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: authority
----------------------
Illusion: being right Obligation: humility
-------- (self-righteousness) ----------
Virtue: humility & obedience Vice: tyranny, hypocrisy,
------ ---- bigotry, gluttony
Klippoth: ideology
--------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of Love
--------------------
Titles: Gedulah, magnificence, love, majesty
------
God Name: El Archangel: Tzadkiel
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Chasmalim
-----------
Keywords: authority, creativity, inspiration, vision, leadership,
excess, waste, secular and spiritual power, submission
and the Annihilation Myth, the atom bomb, obliteration,
birth, service.
================================================================
Non-Sephira: Daath Meaning: Knowledge
----------- -------
Daath has no manifest qualities and cannot be invoked directly.
Keywords: hole, tunnel, gateway, doorway, black hole, vortex.
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================================================================
Sephira: Binah Meaning: Understanding,
------- -------
Planet: Shabbathai (Saturn)
------
Briatic Color: black Number: 3
------------- ------
Magical Image: an old woman on a throne
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: comprehension
----------------------
Illusion: death
--------
Virtue: silence Vice: inertia
------ ----
Klippoth: fatalism
--------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of Sorrow
--------------------
Titles: Aima, the Mother; Ama, the Crone; Marah, the bitter
sea; Khorsia, the Throne; the Fifty Gates of
Understanding; Intelligence; the Mother of Form; the
Superior Mother.
God Name: Elohim Archangel: Cassiel
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Aralim
-----------
Keywords: limitation, form, constraint, heaviness, slowness, old-
age, infertility, incarnation, karma, fate, time,
space, natural law, the womb and gestation, darkness,
boundedness, enclosure, containment, fertility, mother,
weaving and spinning, death (annihilation).
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==================================================================
Sephira: Chokhmah Meaning: Wisdom
------- -------
Planet: Mazlot (the Zodiac, the fixed stars)
--------------
Briatic Color: silver/white Number: 2
------------- grey ------
Magical Image: a bearded man
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: revolution
----------------------
Illusion: independence
--------
Virtue: good Vice: evil
------ ----
Klippoth: arbitrariness
--------
Spiritual Experience: Vision of God face-to-face
------
Titles: Abba, the Father. The Supernal Father.
------
God Name: Jah Archangel: Ratziel
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Auphanim
-----------
Keywords: pure creative energy, lifeforce, the wellspring.
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==================================================================
Sephira: Kether Meaning: Crown
------- -------
Planet: Rashith ha Gilgalim (first swirlings, the Big Bang)
--------------
Briatic Color: pure white Number: 1
------------- ------
Magical Image: a bearded man seen in profile
-------------
Briatic Correspondence: unity
----------------------
Illusion: attainment
--------
Virtue: attainment Vice: ---
------ ----
Klippoth: futility
--------
Spiritual Experience: Union with God
--------------------
Titles: Ancient of Days, the Greater Countenance
(Macroprosopus), the White Head, Concealed of the
Concealed, Existence of Existences, the Smooth Point,
Rum Maalah, the Highest Point.
God Name: Eheieh Archangel: Metatron
-------- ---------
Angel Order: Chaioth ha Qadesh
-----------
Keywords: unity, union, all, pure consciousness, God, the
Godhead, manifestation, beginning, source, emanation.
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Chapter 3: The Pillars & the Lightning Flash
============================================
In Chapter 1. the Tree of Life was derived from three
concepts, or rather one primary concept and two derivative
concepts which are "contained" within it. The primary concept was
called consciousness, and it was said to "contain" within it the
two complementary concepts of force and form. This chapter builds
on the idea by introducing the three Pillars of the Tree, and
uses the Pillars to clarify a process called the Lightning Flash.
The Three Pillars are shown in Figure 8. below.
Pillar Pillar Pillar
of of of
Form Consciousness Force
(Severity) (Mildness) (Mercy)
Kether
/ (Crown) \
/ | \
/ | \
/ | \
Binah | Chokhmah
(Understanding)__________ (Wisdom)
(Intelligence) | |
|\ | /|
| \ Daath / |
| \ (Knowledge) / |
| \ | / |
Gevurah \ | / Chesed
(Strength)\_____|_____/__ (Mercy)
| \ | / (Love)
| \ \ | / / |
| \ \ | / / |
| \ Tipheret / |
| / (Beauty) \ |
| / | \ |
| / | \ |
|/ | \|
Hod | Netzach
(Glory) _______________(Victory)
(Splendor) | (Firmness)
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ \ | / /
\ \ Yesod / /
\ (Foundation) /
\ /
\ | /
\ | /
\ | /
Malkuth
(Kingdom)
Figure 8
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Not surprisingly the three pillars are referred to as the pillars
of consciousness, force and form. The pillar of consciousness
contains the sephiroth Kether, Tiphereth, Yesod and Malkuth; the
pillar of force contains the sephiroth Chokhmah, Chesed and
Netzach; the pillar of form contains the sephiroth Binah, Gevurah
and Hod. In older Cabalistic texts the pillars are referred to
as the pillars of mildness, mercy and severity, and it is not
immediately obvious how the older jargon relates to the new. To
the medieval Kabbalist (and this is a recurring metaphor in the
Zohar) the creation as an emanation of God is a delicate
*balance* (metheqela) between two opposing tendencies: the mercy
of God, the outflowing, creative, life-giving and sustaining
tendency in God, and the severity or strict judgement of God, the
limiting, defining, life-taking and ultimately wrathful or
destructive tendency in God. The creation is "energized" by these
two tendencies as if stretched between the poles of a battery.
Modern Kabbalah makes a half-hearted attempt to remove the
more obvious anthropomorphisms in the descriptions of "God";
mercy and severity are misleading terms, apt to remind one of a
man with a white beard, and even in medieval times the terms had
distinctly technical meanings as the following quotation shows
[1]:
"It must be remembered that to the Kabbalist, judgement [Din
- judgement, another title of Gevurah] means the imposition
of limits and the correct determination of things. According
to Cordovero the quality of judgement is inherent in
everything insofar as everything wishes to remain what it
is, to stay within its boundaries."
I understand the word "form" inprecisely this sense - itis
that which defines *what* a thing is, the structure whereby a given
thing is distinct from every other thing.
As for "consciousness", I use the word "consciousness" in a
sense so abstract that it is virtually meaningless, and according
to whim I use the word God instead, where it is understood that
both words are placeholders for something which is potentially
knowable in the gnostic sense only - consciousness can be
*defined* according to the *forms* it takes, in which case we are
defining the forms, *not* the consciousness. The same
qualification applies to the word "force". My inability to define
two of the three concepts which underpin the structure of the
Tree is a nuisance which is tackled traditionally by the use of
extravagant metaphors, and by elimination ("not this, not
that").
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The classification of sephiroth into three pillars is a way
of saying that each sephira in a pillar partakes of a common
quality which is "inherited" in a progressively more developed
and structured form from of the top of a pillar to the bottom.
Tipheret, Yesod and Malkuth all share with Kether the quality of
"consciousness in balance" or "synthesis of opposing qualities",
or but in each case it is expressed differently according to the
increased degree of structure imposed. Likewise, Chokhmah, Chesed
and Netzach share the quality of force or energy or
expansiveness, and Binah, Gevurah and Hod share the quality of
form, definition and limitation. From Kether down to Malkuth,
force and form are combined; the symbolism of the Tree has
something in common with a production line, with molten metal
coming in one end and finished cars coming out the other, and
with that metaphor we are now ready to describe the Lightning
Flash, the process whereby God takes on flesh, the process which
created and sustains the creation.
In the beginning...was Something. Or Nothing. It doesn't
really matter which term we use, as both are equally meaningless
in this context. Nothing is probably the better of the two terms,
because I can use Something in the next paragraph. Kabbalists
call this Nothing "En Soph" which literally means "no end" or
infinity, and understand by this a hidden, unmanifest God-in-
Itself.
Out of this incomprehensible and indescribable Nothing came
Something. Probably more words have been devoted to this moment
than any other in Kabbalah, and it is all too easy to make fun
the effort which has gone into elaborating the indescribable, so
I won't, but in return do not expect me to provide a
justification for why Something came out of Nothing. It just did.
A point crystallized in the En Soph. In some versions of the
story the En Soph "contracted" to "make room" for the creation
(Isaac Luria's theory of Tsimtsum), and this is probably an
important clarification for those who have rubbed noses with the
hidden face of God, but for the purposes of these notes it is
enough that a point crystallized. This point was the crown of
creation, the sephira Kether, and within Kether was contained all
the unrealized potential of the creation.
An aspect of Kether is the raw creative force of God which
blasts into the creation like the blast of hot gas which keeps a
hot air balloon in the air. Kabbalists are quite clear about this;
the creation didn't just happen a long time ago - it is happening
all the time, and without the force to sustain it the creation
would crumple like a balloon. The force-like aspect within Kether
is the sephira Chokhmah and it can be thought of as the will of
God, because without it the creation would cease to *be*. The
whole of creation is maintained by this ravening, primeval desire
to *be*, to become, to exist, to change, to evolve. The
experiential distinction between Kether, the point of emanation,
and Chokhmah, the creative outpouring, is elusive, but some of
the difference is captured in the phrases "I am" and "I
become".
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Force by itself achieves nothing; it needs to be contained,
and the balloon analogy is appropriate again. Chokhmah contains
within it the necessity of Binah, the Mother of Form. The person
who taught me Kabbalah (a woman) told me Chokhmah (Abba, the
Father) was God's prick, and Binah (Aima, the mother) was God's
womb, and left me with the picture of one half of God
continuously ejaculating into the other half. The author of the
Zohar also makes frequent use of sexual polarity as a metaphor
to describe the relationship between force and form, or mercy and
severity (although the most vivid sexual metaphors are used for
the marriage of the Microprosopus and his bride, the Queen and
Inferior Mother, the sephira Malkuth).
The sephira Binah is the Mother of Form; form exists within
Binah as a potentiality, not as an actuality, just as a womb
contains the potential of a baby. Without the possibility of
form, no thing would be distinct from any other thing; it would
be impossible to distinguish between things, impossible to have
individuality or identity or change. The Mother of Form
contains the potential of form within her womb and gives birth to
form when a creative impulse crosses the Abyss to the Pillar of
Force and emanates through the sephira Chesed. Again we have the
idea of "becoming", of outflowing creative energy, but at a lower
level. The sephira Chesed is the point at which form becomes
perceptible to the mind as an inspiration, an idea, a vision,
that "Eureka!" moment immediately prior to rushing around
shouting "I've got it! I've got it!" Chesed is that quality of
genuine inspiration, a sense of being "plugged in" which
characterizes the visionary leaders who drive the human race
onwards into every new kind of endeavour. It can be for good or
evil; a leader who can tap the petty malice and vindictiveness in
any person and channel it into a vision of a new order and
genocide is just as much a visionary as any other, but the
positive side of Chesed is the humanitarian leader who brings
about genuine improvements to our common life.
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No change comes easy; as Cordova points out "everything
wishes to remain what it is". The creation of form is balanced in
the sephira Gevurah by the preservation and destruction of form.
Any impulse of change is channelled through Gevurah, and if it is
not resisted then something will be destroyed. If you want to
make paper you cut down a tree. If you want to abolish slavery
you have to destroy the culture which perpetuates it. If you want
to change someone's mind you have to destroy that person's
beliefs about the matter in question. The sephira Gevurah is the
quality of strict judgement which opposes change, destroys the
unfamiliar, and corresponds in many ways to an immune system
within the body of God.
There has to be a balance between creation and destruction.
Too much change, too many ideas, too many things happening too
quickly can have the quality of chaos (and can literally become
that), whereas too little change, no new ideas, too much form and
structure and protocol can suffocate and stifle. There has to be
a balance which "makes sense" and this "idea of balance" or
"making sense" is expressed in the sephira Tiphereth. It is an
instinctive morality, and it isn't present by default in the
human species. It isn't based on cultural norms; it doesn't have
its roots in upbringing (although it is easily destroyed by it).
Some people have it in a large measure, and some people are (to
all intents and purposes) completely lacking in it. It doesn't
necessarily respect conventional morality: it may laugh in its
face. I can't say what it is in any detail, because it is
peculiar and individual, but those who have it have a natural
quality of integrity, soundness of judgement, an instinctive
sense of rightness, justice and compassion, and a willingness to
fight or suffer in defense of that sense of justice. Tiphereth is
a paradoxical sephira because in many people it is simply not
there. It can be developed, and that is one of the goals of
initiation, but for many people Tiphereth is a room with nothing
in it.
Having passed through Gevurah on the Pillar of Form, and
found its way through the moral filter of Tiphereth, a creative
impulse picks up energy once more on the Pillar of Force via the
Sephira Netzach, where the energy of "becoming" finds its final
expression in the form of "vital urges". Why do we carry on
living? Why bother? What is it that compels us to do things? An
artist may have a vision of a piece of art, but what actually
compels the artist to paint or sculpt or write? Why do we want to
compete and win? Why do we care what happens to others? The
sephira Netzach expresses the basic vital creative urges in a
form we can recognize as drives, feelings and emotions. Netzach
is pre-verbal; ask a child why he wants a toy and the answer will
be "I just do". "But why," you ask, wondering why he doesn't want
the much more "sensible" toy you had in mind. "Why don't you want
this one here."
"I just don't. I want this one."
"But what's so good about that one."
"I don't know what to say...I just like it."
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This conversation is not fictitious and is quintessentially
Netzach. The structure of the Tree of Life posits that the basic
driving forces which characterize our behavior are pre-verbal
and non-rational; anyone who has tried to change another person's
basic nature or beliefs through force of rational argument will
know this.
After Netzach we go to the sephira Hod to pick up our last
cargo of Form. Ask a child why they want something and they say
"I just do". Press an adult and you will get an earful of
"reasons". We live in a culture where it is important (often
essential) to give reasons for the things we do, and Hod is the
sephira of form where it is possible to give shape to our wants
in terms of reasons and explanations. Hod is the sephira of
abstraction, reason, logic, language and communication, and a
reflection of the Mother of Form in the human mind. We have a
innate capacity to abstract, to go immediately from the
particular to the general, and we have an innate capacity to
communicate these abstractions using language, and it should be
clear why the alternative translation of Binah is
"intelligence"; Binah is the "intelligence of God", and Hod
underpins what we generally recognize as intelligence in people -
the ability to grasp complex abstractions, reason about them, and
articulate this understanding using some means of communication.
The synthesis of Hod and Netzach on the Pillar of
Consciousness is the sephira Yesod. Yesod is the sephira of
interface, and the comparison with computer peripheral interfaces
is an excellent one. Yesod is sometimes called "the Receptacle of
the Emanations", and it interfaces the emanations of all three
pillars to the sephira Malkuth, and it is through Yesod that the
final abstract form of something is realized in matter. Form in
Yesod is no longer abstract; it is explicit, but not yet
individual - that last quality is reserved for Malkuth alone.
Yesod is like the mold in a bottle factory - the mold is a
realization of the abstract idea "bottle" in so far as it
expresses the shape of a particular bottle design in every
detail, but it is not itself an individual bottle.
The final step in the process is the sephira Malkuth, where
God becomes flesh, and every abstract form is realized in
actuality, in the "real world". There is much to say about this,
but I will keep it for later.
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The process I have described is called the Lightning Flash.
The Lightning Flash runs as follows: Kether, Chokhmah, Binah,
Chesed, Gevurah, Tiphereth, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malkuth, and if
you trace the Lightning Flash on a diagram of the Tree you will
see that it has the zig-zag shape of a lightning flash. The
sephiroth are numbered according to their order on the lightning
flash: Kether is 1, Chokhmah is 2, and so on. The "Sepher
Yetzirah" [2] has this to say about the sephiroth:
"When you think of the ten sephiroth cover your heart and
seal the desire of your lips to announce their divinity.
Yoke your mind. Should it escape your grasp, reach out and
bring it back under your control. As it was said, 'And the
living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a
flash of lightning,' in such a manner was the Covenant
created."
The quotation within the quotation comes from Ezekiel 1.14, a
text which inspired a large amount of early Cabalistic
speculation, and it is probable that the Lightning Flash as
described is one of the earliest components of the idea of
sephirothic emanation.
The Lightning Flash describes the creative process,
beginning with the unknown, unmanifest hidden God, and follows it
through ten distinct stages to a change in the material world. It
can be used to describe *any* change - lighting a match, picking
your nose, walking the dog - and novices are usually set the
exercise of analyzing any arbitrarily chosen event in terms of
the Lightning Flash. Because the Lightning Flash can be used to
understand the inner process whereby the material world of the
senses changes and evolves, it is a key to practical magical
work, and because it is intended to account for *all* change it
follows that all change is equally magical, and the word "magic"
is essentially meaningless (but nevertheless useful for
distinguishing between "normal" and "abnormal" states of
consciousness, and the modes of causality which pertain to each).
It also follows that the key to understanding our "spiritual
nature" does not belong in the spiritual empyrean, where it
remains inaccessible, but in *all* the routine and unexciting
little things in life. Everything is equally "spiritual",
equally "divine", and there is more to be learned from picking
one's nose than there is in a spiritual discipline which puts you
"here" and God "over there". The Lightning Flash ends in Malkuth,
and it can be followed like a thread through the hidden pathways
of creation until one arrives back at the source. The next
chapter will retrace the Lightning Flash by examining the
qualities of each sephira in more detail.
[1] Scholem, Gershom G. "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism",
Schoken Books 1974
[2] Westcott, W. Wynn, ed. "Sepher Yetzirah". Many reprintings.
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Chapter 4: The Sephiroth
========================
This chapter provides a detailed look at each of the ten
sephiroth and draws together material scattered over previous
chapters.
Malkuth
-------
Malkuth is the Cinderella of the sephiroth. It is the
sephira most often ignored by beginners, the sephira most often
glossed over in Cabalistic texts, and it is not only the most
immediate of the sephira but it is also the most complex, and for
sheer inscrutability it rivals Kether - indeed, there is a
Cabalistic aphorism that "Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is
in Kether, but after another manner".
The word Malkuth means "Kingdom", and the sephira is the
culmination of a process of emanation whereby the creative power
of the Godhead is progressively structured and defined as it
moves down the Tree and arrives in a completed form in Malkuth.
Malkuth is the sphere of matter, substance, the real, physical
world. In the least compromising versions of materialist
philosophy (e.g. Hobbes) there is nothing beyond physical matter,
and from that viewpoint the Tree of Life beyond Malkuth does not
exist: our feelings of identity and self-consciousness are
nothing more than a by-product of chemical reactions in the
brain, and the mind is a complex automata which suffers from the
disease of metaphysical delusions. Kabbalah is *not* a
materialist model of reality, but when we examine Malkuth by
itself we find ourselves immersed in matter, and it is natural to
think in terms of physics, chemistry and molecular biology. The
natural sciences provide the most accurate models of matter and
the physical world that we have, and it would be foolishness of
the first order to imagine that Kabbalah can provide better
explanations of the nature of matter on the basis of a study of
the text of the Old Testament. Not that I under-rate the
intuition which has gone into the making of Kabbalah over the
centuries, but for practical purposes the average university
science graduate knows (much) more about the material stuff of
the world than medieval Kabbalists, and a grounding in modern
physics is as good a way to approach Malkuth as any other.
For those who are not comfortable with physics there are
alternative, more traditional ways of approaching Malkuth. The
magical image of Malkuth is that of a young woman crowned and
throned. The woman is Malkah, the Queen, Kallah, the Bride. She
is the inferior mother, a reflection and realization of the
superior mother Binah. She is the Queen who inhabits the Kingdom,
and the Bride of the Microprosopus. She is Gaia, Mother Earth,
but of course she is not only the substance of this world; she is
the body of the entire physical universe.
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Some care is required when assigning Mother/Earth goddesses
to Malkuth, because some of them correspond more closely to the
superior mother Binah. There is a close and deep connection
between Malkuth and Binah which results in the two sephiroth
sharing similar correspondences, and one of the oldest
Cabalistic texts [1] has this to say about Malkuth:
"The title of the tenth path [Malkuth] is the Resplendent
Intelligence. It is called this because it is exalted above
every head from where it sits upon the throne of Binah. It
illuminates the numinosity of all lights and causes to
emanate the Power of the archetype of countenances or
forms."
One of the titles of Binah is Khorsia, or Throne, and the image
which this text provides is that Binah provides the framework
upon which Malkuth sits. We will return to this later. Binah
contains the potential of form in the abstract, while Malkuth is
is the fullest realization of form, and both sephiroth share the
correspondences of heaviness, limitation, finiteness, inertia,
avarice, silence, and death.
The female quality of Malkuth is often identified with the
Shekhinah, the female spirit of God in the creation, and
Cabalistic literature makes much of the (carnal) relationship of
God and the Shekhinah. Waite [7] mentions that the relationship
between God and Shekhinah is mirrored in the relationship between
man and woman, and provides a great deal of information on both
the Shekhinah and what he quaintly calls "The Mystery of Sex".
After the exile of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Kabbalists
identified their own plight with the fate of the Shekhinah, and
she is pictured as being cast out into matter in much the same
way as the Gnostics pictured Sophia, the outcast divine wisdom.
The doctrine of the Shekhinah within Kabbalah and within Judaism
as a whole is complex and it is something I don't feel competent
to comment further on; more information can be found in [3] &
[7].
Malkuth is the sphere of the physical elements and
Kabbalists still use the four-fold scheme which dates back at
least as far as Empedocles and probably the Ark. The four
elements correspond to four readily-observable states of matter:
solid - earth
liquid - water
gas - air
plasma - fire/electric arc (lightning)
In addition it is not uncommon to include a fifth element so
rarified and arcane that most people (self included) are pushed
to say what it is; the fifth element is aethyr (or ether) and is
sometimes called spirit.
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The amount of material written about the elements is
enormous, and rather than reproduce in bulk what is relatively
well-known I will provide a rough outline so that those readers
who aren't familiar with Kabbalah will realize I am talking about
approximately the same thing as they have seen before. A detailed
description of the traditional medieval view of the four elements
can be found in "The Magus" [2]. The hierarchy of elemental
powers can be found in "777" [4] and in Golden Dawn material [5]
- I have summarized a few useful items below:
Element Fire Air Water Earth
God Name Elohim Jehovah Eheieh Agla
Archangel Michael Raphael Gabriel Uriel
King Djin Paralda Nichsa Ghob
Elemental Salamanders Sylphs Undines Gnomes
It amused me to notice that the section on the elemental kingdoms
in Farrar's "What Witches Do" [6] had been taken by Alex Saunders
lock, stock and barrel from traditional Cabalistic and CM
sources.
The elements in Malkuth are arranged as follows:
South
Fire
East Zenith Aethyr+ West
Air Nadir Aethyr- Water
North
Earth
I have rotated the cardinal points through 180 degrees from their
customary directions so that it is easier to see how the elements
fit on the lower face of the Tree of Life:
Tiphereth
Fire
Hod Yesod Netzach
Air Aethyr Water
Malkuth
Earth
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It is important to distinguish between the elements in Malkuth,
where we are talking about real substance (the water in your
body, the breath in your lungs), and the elements on the Tree,
where we are using traditional correspondences *associated* with
the elements, e.g.:
Earth: solid, stable, practical, down-to-earth
Water: sensitive, intuitive, emotional, caring, fertile
Air: vocal, communicative, intellectual
Fire: energetic, daring, impetuous
Positive Aethyr: glue, binding, plastic
Negative Aethyr: unbinding, dissolution, disintegration
Aethyr or Spirit is enigmatic, and I tend to think of it in terms
of the forces which bind matter together. It is almost certainly
a coincidence (but nevertheless interesting) that there are four
fundamental forces - gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear
& strong nuclear - known to date, and current belief is that they
can be unified into one fundamental force. On a slightly more
arcane tack, Barret [2] has this to say about Aethyr:
"Now seeing that the soul is the essential form,
intelligible and incorruptible, and is the first mover of
the body, and is moved itself; but that the body, or matter,
is of itself unable and unfit for motion, and does very much
degenerate from the soul, it appears that there is a need of
a more excellent medium:- now such a medium is conceived to
be the spirit of the world, or that which some call a
quintessence; because it is not from the four elements, but
a certain first thing, having its being above and beside
them. There is, therefore, such a kind of medium required to
be, by which celestial souls [e.g. forms] may be joined to
gross bodies, and bestow upon them wonderful gifts. This
spirit is in the same manner, in the body of the world, as
our spirit is in our bodies; for as the powers of our soul
are communicated to the members of the body by the medium of
the spirit, so also the virtue of the soul of the world is
diffused, throughout all things, by the medium of the
universal spirit; for there is nothing to be found in the
whole world that hath not a spark of the virtue thereof."
Aethyr underpins the elements like a foundation and its
attribution to Yesod should be obvious, particularly as it forms
the linking role between the ideoplastic world of "the Astral
Light" [8] and the material world. Aethyr is often thought to
come in two flavors - positive Aethyr, which binds, and negative
Aethyr, which unbinds. Negative Aethyr is a bit like the
Universal Solvent, and requires as much care in handling ;-}
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Working with the physical elements in Malkuth is one of the
most important areas of applied magic, dealing as it does with
the basic constituents of the real world. The physical elements
are tangible and can be experience in a very direct way through
recreations such as caving, diving, parachuting or firewalking;
they bite back in a suitably humbling way, and they provide CMs
with an opportunity to join the neo-pagans in the great outdoors.
Our bodies themselves are made from physical stuff, and there are
many Raja Yoga-like exercises which can be carried out using the
elements as a basis for work on the body. If you can stand his
manic intensity (Exercise 1: boil an egg by force of will) then
Bardon [9] is full of good ideas.
Malkuth is often associated with various kinds of intrinsic
evil, and to understand this attitude (which I do not share) it
is necessary to confront the same question as thirteenth century
Kabbalists: can God be evil? The answer to this question was
(broadly speaking) "yes", but Kabbalists have gone through many
strange gyrations in an attempt to avoid what was for many an
unacceptable conclusion. It was difficult to accept that famine,
war, disease, prejudice, hate, death could be a part of a perfect
being, and there had to be some way to account for evil which did
not contaminate divine perfection. One approach was to sweep evil
under the carpet, and in this case the carpet was Malkuth.
Malkuth became the habitation for evil spirits.
If one examines the structure of the Tree without prejudice
then it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that evil is quite
adequately accounted for, and there is no need to shuffle evil
to the periphery of the Tree like a cleaner without a dustpan.
The emanation of any sephirah from Chokhmah downwards can
manifest as good or evil depending on circumstances and the point
of view of those affected by the energy involved. This appears to
have been understood even at the time of the writing of the
"Zohar", where the mercy of God is constantly contrasted with the
severity of God, and the author makes it clear that one has to
balance the other - you cannot have the mercy without the
severity. On the other hand, the severity of God is persistently
identified with the rigors of existence (form, finiteness,
limitation), and while it is true that many of the things which
have been identified with evil are a consequence of the
finiteness of things, of being finite beings in a world of finite
resources governed by natural laws with inflexible causality, it
not correct to infer (as some have) that form itself is
*intrinsically* evil.
The notion that form and matter are *intrinsically* evil, or
in some way imperfect or not a part of God, may have reached
Kabbalah from a number of sources. Scholem comments:
"The Kabbalah of the early thirteenth century was the
offspring of a union between an older and essentially
Gnostic tradition represented by the book "Bahir", and the
comparatively modern element of Jewish Neo-Platonism."
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There is the possibility that the Kabbalists of Provence (who
wrote or edited the "Sepher Bahir") were influenced by the
Cathars, a late form of Manicheanism. Whether the source was
Gnosticism, Neo-Platonism, Manicheanism or some combination of
all three, Kabbalah has imported a view of matter and form which
distorts the view of things portrayed by the Tree of Life, and so
Malkuth ends up as a kind of cosmic outer darkness, a bin for all
the dirt, detritus, broken sephira and dirty hankies of the
creation. Form is evil, the Mother of Form is female, women are
definitely and indubitably evil, and Malkuth is the most female
of the sephira, therefore Malkuth is most definitely evil...quod
erat demonstrandum. By the time we reach the time of S.L. Mathers
and the Golden Dawn there is a complete Tree of evil demonic
Klippoth *underneath* Malkuth as a reflection of the "good" Tree
above it. I believe this may have something to do with the fact
that meditations on Malkuth can easily become meditations on
Binah, and meditations on Binah have a habit of slipping into the
Abyss, and once in the Abyss it is easy to trawl up enough junk
to "discover" an averse Tree "underneath" Malkuth. This view of
the Klippoth, or Shells, as active, demonic evil has become
pervasive, and the more energy people put into the demonic Tree,
the less there is for the original. Abolish the Klippoth as
demonic forces, and the Tree of Life comes alive with its full
power of good *and* evil. The following quotation from Bischoff
[10] (speaking of the Sephiroth) provides a more rational view of
the Klippoth:
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"Since their energy [of the sephiroth] shows three degrees
of strength (highest, middle and lowest degree), their
emanations group accordingly in sequence. We usually imagine
the image of a descending staircase. The Kabbalist
prefers to see this fact as a decreasing alienation of the
central primeval energy. Consequently any less perfect
emanation is to him the cover or shell (Klippah) of the
preceding, and so the last (furthest) emanations being the
so-called material things are the shell of the total and are
therefore called (in the actual sense) Klippoth."
This is my own view; the shell of something is the accretion of
form which it accumulates as energy comes down the Lightning
Flash. If the shell can be considered by itself then it is a dead
husk of something which could be alive - it preserves all the
structure but there is no energy in it to bring it alive. With
this interpretation the Klippoth are to be found everywhere: in
relationships, at work, at play, in ritual, in society. Whenever
something dies and people refuse to recognize that it is dead,
and cling to the lifeless husk of whatever it was, then you get a
Klippah. For this reason one of the vices of Malkuth is Avarice,
not only in the sense of trying to acquire material things, but
also in the sense of being unwilling to let go of anything, even
when it has become dead and worthless. The Klippah of Malkuth is
what you would get if the Sun went out: Stasis, life frozen into
immobility.
The other vice of Malkuth is Inertia, in the sense of
"active resistance to motion; sluggish; disinclined to move or
act". It is visible in most people at one time or another, and
tends to manifest when a task is new, necessary, but not
particularly exciting, there is no excitement or "natural energy"
to keep one fired up, and one has to keep on pushing right to the
finish. For this reason the obligation of Malkuth is (has
to be) self-discipline.
The virtue of Malkuth is Discrimination, the ability to
perceive differences. The ability to perceive differences is a
necessity for any living organism, whether a bacteria able to
sense the gradient of a nutrient or a kid working out how much
money to wheedle out of his parents. As Malkuth is the final
realization of form, it is the sphere where our ability to
distinguish between differences is most pronounced. The capacity
to discriminate is so fundamental to survival that it works
overtime and finds boundaries and distinctions everywhere - "you"
and "me", "yours" and "mine", distinctions of "property" and
"value" and "territory" which are intellectual abstractions on
one level (i.e. not real) and fiercely defended realities on
another (i.e. very real indeed). I am not going to attempt a
definition of real and unreal, but it is the case that much of
what we think of as real is unreal, and much of what we think of
as unreal is real, and we need the same discrimination which
leads us into the mire to lead us out again. Some people think
skin color is a real measure of intelligence; some don't. Some
people think gender is a real measure of ability; some don't.
Some people judge on appearances; some don't. There is clearly a
difference between a bottle of beer and a bottle of piss, but is
the color of the *bottle* important? What *is* important?
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What differences are real, what matters? How much energy do we devote
to things which are "not real". Am I able to perceive how much I
am being manipulated by a fixation on unreality? Are my goals in
life "real", or will they look increasingly silly and immature
as I grow older? For that matter, is Kabbalah "real"? Does it
provide a useful model of reality, or is it the remnant of a
world-view which should have been put to rest centuries ago? One
of the primary exercises of an initiate into Malkuth is a
thorough examination of the question "What is real?".
The Spiritual Experience of Malkuth is variously the
Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), or
the Vision of the HGA (depending on who you believe). I vote for
the Vision of the HGA in Malkuth, and the Knowledge and
Conversation in Tiphereth. What is the HGA? According to the
Gnosticism of Valentinus each person has a guardian angel who
accompanies that individual throughout their life and reveals the
gnosis; the angel is in a sense the divine Self. This belief is
identical to what I was taught by the person who taught me
Kabbalah, so some part of Gnosticism lives on. The current
tradition concerning the HGA almost certainly entered the Western
Esoteric Tradition as a consequence of S.L. Mather's translation
[11] of "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage",
which contains full details of a lengthy ritual to attain the
Knowledge and Conversation of the HGA. This ritual has had an
important influence on twentieth century magicians and it is
often attempted and occasionally completed.
The powers of Malkuth are invoked by means of the names
Adonai ha Aretz and Adonai Melekh, which mean "Lord of the World"
and "The Lord who is King" respectively. The power is transmitted
through the world of Creation by the archangel Sandalphon, who is
sometimes referred to as "the Long Angel", because his feet are
in Malkuth and his head in Kether, which gives him an opportunity
to chat to Metatron, the Angel of the Presence. The angel order
is the Ashim, or Ishim, sometimes translated as the "souls of
fire", supposedly the souls of righteous men and women.
In concluding this section on Malkuth, it worth emphasizing that
I have chosen deliberately not to explore some major topics
because there are sufficient threads for anyone with an interest
to pick up and follow for themselves. The image of Malkuth as
Mother Earth provides a link between Kabbalah and a numinous
archetype with a deep significance for some. The image of Malkuth
as physical substance provides a link into the sciences, and it
is the case that at the limits of theoretical physics one's
intuitions seem to be slipping and sliding on the same reality as
in Kabbalah. The image of Malkuth as the sphere of the elements
is the key to a large body of practical magical technique which
varies from yoga-like concentration on the bodily elements, to
nature-oriented work in the great outdoors. Lastly, just as the
design of a building reveals much about its builders, so Malkuth
can reveal a great deal about Kether - the bottom of the Tree and
the top have much in common.
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References:
[1] Westcott, W. Wynn, ed. "Sepher Yetzirah", many editions.
[2] Barrett, Francis, "The Magus", Citadel 1967.
[3] Scholem, Gershom G., "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism",
Schocken 1974
[4] Crowley, A, "777", an obscure reprint.
[5] Regardie, Israel, "The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic",
Falcon, 1984.
[6] Farrar, Stewart, "What Witches Do", Peter Davies 1971.
[7] Waite, A.E, "The Holy Kabbalah", Citadel.
[8] Levi, Eliphas, "Transcendental Magic", Rider, 1969.
[9] Bardon, Franz, "Initiation into Hermetics", Dieter
Ruggeberg 1971
[10] Bischoff, Dr. Erich, "The Kabbala", Weiser 1985.
[11] Mathers, S.L., "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin
the Mage", Dover 1975.
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Chapter 4: The Sephiroth (continued)
========================
This chapter provides a detailed look at each of the ten
sephiroth and draws together material scattered over previous
chapters.
Yesod
-----
Yesod means "foundation", and that is what Yesod is: it is
the hidden infrastructure whereby the emanations from the
remainder of the Tree are transmitted to the sephira Malkuth.
Just as a large building has its air-conditioning ducts, service
tunnels, conduits, electrical wiring, hot and cold water pipes,
attic spaces, lift shafts, winding rooms, storage tanks, a
telephone exchange etc, so does the Creation, and the external,
visible world of phenomenal reality rests (metaphorically
speaking) upon a hidden foundation of occult machinery.
Meditations on the nature of Yesod tend to be full of secret
tunnels and concealed mechanisms, as if the Creation was a Gothic
mansion with a secret door behind every mirror, a passage in
every wall, a pair of hidden eyes behind every portrait, and a
subterranean world of forgotten tunnels leading who knows where.
For this reason the Spiritual Experience of Yesod is aptly named
"The Vision of the Machinery of the Universe".
Many Yesod correspondences reinforce this notion of a
foundation, of something which lies behind, supports and gives
shape to phenomenal reality. The magical image of Yesod is of "a
beautiful naked man, very strong". The image which springs to
mind is that of a man with the world resting on his shoulders,
like one of the misrepresentations of the Titan Atlas (who
actually held up the heavens, not the world). The angel order of
Yesod is the Cherubim, the Strong Ones, the archangel is Gabriel,
the Strong or Mighty One of God, and the God-name is Shaddai el
Chai, the Almighty Living God.
The idea of a foundation suggests that there is a substance
which lies behind physical matter and "in-forms it" or "holds it
together", something less structured, more plastic, more refined
and rarified, and this "fifth element" is often called aethyr. I
will not attempt to justify aethyr in terms of current physics
(the closest concept I have found is the hypothesized Higgs
field); it is a convenient handle on a concept which has enormous
intuitive appeal to many magicians, who, when asked how magic
works, tend to think in terms of a medium which is directly
receptive to the will, something which is plastic and can be
shaped through concentration and imagination, and which transmits
their artificially created forms into reality. Eliphas Levi
called this medium the "Astral Light". It is also natural to
imagine that mind, consciousness, and the soul have their
habitation in this substance, and there are volumes detailing the
properties of the "Etheric Body", the "Astral Body", the "Causal
Body" [1,2] and so on. I don't take this stuff too seriously, but
I do like to work with the kind of natural intuitions which occur
spontaneously and independently in a large number of people -
there is power in these intuitions - and it is a mistake to
invalidate them because they sound cranky. When I talk about
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aethyr or the Astral Light, I mean there is an ideoplastic
substance which is subjectively real to many magicians, and
explanations of magic at the level of Yesod revolve around
manipulating this substance using desire, imagination and will.
The fundamental nature of Yesod is that of *interface*; it
interfaces the rest of the Tree of Life to Malkuth. The interface
is bi-directional; there are impulses coming down from Kether,
and echoes bouncing back from Malkuth. The idea of interface is
illustrated in the design of a computer system: a computer with a
multitude of worlds hidden within it is a source of heat and
repair bills unless it has peripheral interfaces and device
drivers to interface the world outside the computer to the world
"inside" it; add a keyboard and a mouse and a monitor and a
printer and you have opened the door into another reality. Our
own senses have the same characteristic of being a bi-directional
interface through which we experience the world, and for this
reason the senses correspond to Yesod, and not only the five
traditional senses - the "sixth sense" and the "second sight" are
given equal status, and so Yesod is also the sphere of
instinctive psychism, of clairvoyance, precognition, divination
and prophecy. It is also clear from accounts of lucid dreaming
(and personal experience) that we possess the ability to perceive
an inner world as vividly as the outer, and so to Yesod belongs
the inner world of dreams, daydreams and vivid imagination, and
one of the titles of Yesod is "The Treasure House of Images".
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To Yesod is attributed Levanah, the Moon, and the lunar
associations of tides, flux and change, occult influence, and
deeply instinctive and sometimes atavistic behavior -
possession, mediumship, lycanthropy and the like. Although
Yesod is the foundation and it has associations with strength, it
is by no means a rigid scaffold supporting a world in stasis.
Yesod supports the world just as the sea supports all the life
which lives in it and sails upon it, and just as the sea has its
irresistible currents and tides, so does Yesod. Yesod is the most
"occult" of the sephiroth, and next to Malkuth it is the most
magical, but compared with Malkuth its magic is of a more subtle,
seductive, glamorous and ensnaring kind. Magicians are drawn to
Yesod by the idea that if reality rests on a hidden foundation,
then by changing the foundation it is possible to change the
reality. The magic of Yesod is the magic of form and appearance,
not substance; it is the magic of illusion, glamour,
transformation, and shape-changing. The most sophisticated
examples of this are to be found in modern marketing, advertising
and image consultancies. I do not jest. My tongue is not even
slightly in my cheek. The following quote was taken from this
morning's paper [3]:
Although the changes look cosmetic, those responsible for
creating corporate image argue that a redesign of a
company's uniform or name is just the visible sign of a much
larger transformation.
"The majority of people continue to misunderstand and think
that it is just a logo, rather than understanding that a
corporate identity programme is actually concerned with the
very commercial objective of having a strong personality and
single-minded, focussed direction for the whole
organization, " said Fiona Gilmore, managing director of the
design company Lewis Moberly. "It's like planting an acorn
and then a tree grows. If you create the right *foundation*
(my itals) then you are building a whole culture for the
future of an organization."
I don't know what Ms. Gilmore studies in her spare time, but the
idea that it is possible to manipulate reality by manipulating
symbols and appearances is entirely magical. The same article on
corporate identity continues as follows:
"The scale of the BT relaunch is colossal. The new logo will
be painted on more than 72,000 vehicles and trailers, as
well as 9,000 properties.
The company's 92,000 public payphones will get new decals,
and its 90 shops will have to changed, right down to the
yellow door handles. More than 50,000 employees are likely
to need new uniforms or "image clothing".
Note the emphasis on *image*. The company in question (British
Telecom) is an ex-public monopoly with an appalling customer
relations problem, so it is changing the color of its
door handles! This is Yesodic magic on a gigantic scale.
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The image manipulators gain most of their power from the
mass-media. The mass-media correspond to two sephiroth: as a
medium of communication they belong in Hod, but as a foundation
for our perception of reality they belong in Yesod. Nowadays most
people form their model of what the world (in the large) is like
via the media. There are a few individuals who travel the world
sufficiently to have a model based on personal experience, but
for most people their model of what most of the world is like is
formed by newspapers, radio and television; that is, the media
have become an extended (if inaccurate) instrument of perception.
Like our "normal" means of perception the media are highly
selective in the variety and content of information provided, and
they can be used by advertising agencies and other manipulative
individuals to create foundations for new collective realities.
While on the subject of changing perception to assemble new
realities, the following quote by "Don Juan" [4] has a definite
Cabalistic flavour:
"The next truth is that perception takes place," he went on,
"because there is in each of us an agent called the
assemblage point that selects internal and external
emanations for alignment. The particular alignment that we
perceive as the world is the product of a specific spot
where our assemblage point is located on our cocoon."
One of the titles of Yesod is "The Receptacle of the Emanations",
and its function is precisely as described above - Yesod is the
assemblage point which assembles the emanations of the internal
and the external.
In addition to the deliberate, magical manipulation of
foundations, there are other important areas of magic relevant to
Yesod. Raw, innate psychism is an ability which tends to improve
as more attention is devoted to creative visualization, focussed
meditation (on Tarot cards for example), dreams (e.g. keeping a
dream diary), and divination. Divination is an important
technique to practice even if you feel you are terrible at it
(and especially if you think it is nonsense), because it
reinforces the idea that it is permissible to "let go" and
intuits meanings into any pattern. Many people have difficulty
doing this, feeling perhaps that they will be swamped with
unreason (recalling Freud's fear, expressed to Jung, of needing a
bulwark against the "black mud of occultism"), when in reality
their minds are swamped with reason and could use a holiday. Any
divination system can be used, but systems which emphasize pure
intuition are best (e.g. Tarot, runes, tea-leaves, flights of
birds, patterns on the wallpaper, smoke. I heard of a Kabbalist
who threw a cushion into the air and carried out divination on
the basis of the number of pieces of foam stuffing which fell
out). Because Yesod is a kind of aethyric reflection of the
physical world, the image of and precursor to reality, mirrors
are an important tool for Yesod magic. Quartz crystals are also
used, probably because of the use of crystal balls for
divination, but also because quartz crystal and amethyst have a
peculiarly Yesodic quality in their own right. The average New
Age shop filled with crystals, Tarot cards, silver jewelry (lunar
association), perfumes, dreamy music, and all the glitz, glamour
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and glitter of a demonic magpie's nest, is like a temple to
Yesod. Mirrors and crystals are used passively as foci for
receptivity, but they can also be used actively for certain kinds
of aethyric magic - there is an interesting book on making and
using magic mirrors which builds on the kind of elemental magical
work carried out in Malkuth [5].
Yesod has an important correspondence with the sexual
organs. The correspondence occurs in three ways. The first way is
that when the Tree of Life is placed over the human body, Yesod
is positioned over the genitals. The author of the Zohar is quite
explicit about "the remaining members of the Microprosopus", to
the extent that the relevant paragraphs in Mather's translation
of "The Lesser Holy Assembly" remain in Latin to avoid offending
Victorian sensibilities.
The second association of Yesod with the genitals arises
from the union of the Microprosopus and his Bride. This is
another recurring theme in Kabbalah, and the symbolism is complex
and refers to several distinct ideas, from the relationship
between man and wife to an internal process within the body of
God: e.g [6].
"When the Male is joined with the Female, they both
constitute one complete body, and all the Universe is in a
state of happiness, because all things receive blessing from
their perfect body. And this is an Arcanum."
or, referring to the Bride:
"And she is mitigated, and receiveth blessing in that place
which is called the Holy of Holies below."
or, referring to the "member":
"And that which floweth down into that place where it is
congregated, and which is emitted through that most holy
Yesod, Foundation, is entirely white, and therefore is it
called Chesed.
Thence Chesed entereth into the Holy of Holies; as it is
written Ps. cxxxiii. 3 'For there Tetragrammaton commanded
the blessing, even life for evermore.'"
It is not difficult to read a great deal into paragraphs like
this, and there are many more in a similar vein. Suffice to say
that the Microprosopus is often identified with the sephira
Tiphereth, the Bride is the sephira Malkuth, and the point of
union between them is obviously Yesod.
The third and more abstract association between Yesod and
the sexual organs arises because the sexual organs are a
mechanism for perpetuating the *form* of a living organism. In
order to get close to what is happening in sexual reproduction it
is worth asking the question "What is a computer program?". Well,
a computer program indisputably begins as an idea; it is not a
material thing. It can be written down in various ways; as an
abstract specification in set theoretic notation akin to pure
mathematics, or as a set of recursive functions in lambda
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calculus; it could be written in several different high level
languages - Pascal, C, Prolog, LISP, ADA, ML etc. Are they all
they same program? Computer scientists wrestle with this problem:
can we show that two different programs written in two different
languages are in some sense functionally identical? It isn't
trivial to do this because it asks fundamental questions about
language (any language) and meaning, but it is possible in
limited cases to produce two apparently different programs
written in different languages and assert that they are
identical. Whatever the program is, it seems to exist
independently of any particular language, so what is the program
and where is it? Let us ignore that chestnut and go on to the
next level. Suppose we write the program down. We could do it
with a pencil. We could punch holes in paper. We could plant
trees in a pattern in a field. We can line up magnetic domains.
We can burn holes in metal foil. I could have it tattooed on my
back. We can transform it into radically different forms (that is
what compilers and assemblers do). It obviously isn't tied to any
physical representation either. What about the computer it runs
on? Well, it could be a conventional one made with CMOS chips
etc.....but aren't there a lot of different kinds and makes of
computer, and they can all run the same program. It is also quite
practical to build computers which *don't* use electrons - you
could use mechanics or fluids or ball bearings - all you need to
do is produce something with the functionality of a Turing
machine, and that isn't hard. So not only is the program not tied
to any particular physical representation, but the same goes for
the computer itself, and what we are left with is two puffs of
smoke. On another level this is crazy; computers are real, they
do real things in the real world, and the programs which make
them work are obviously real too....aren't they?
Now apply the same kind of scrutiny to living organisms, and
the mechanism of reproduction. Take a good look at nucleic acids,
enzymes, proteins etc., and ask the same kind of questions. I am
not implying that life is a sort of program, but what I am
suggesting is that if you try to get close to what constitutes a
living organism you end up with another puff of smoke and a
handful of atoms which could just as well be ball-bearings or
fluids or....The thing that is being perpetuated through sexual
reproduction is something quite abstract and immaterial; it is an
abstract form preserved and encoded in a particular pattern of
chemicals, and if I was asked which was more real, the transient
collection of chemicals used, or the abstract form itself, I
would answer "the form". But then, I am a programmer, and I would
say that.
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I find it astonishing that there are any hard-core
materialists left in the world. All the important stuff seems to
exist at the level of puffs of smoke, what Kabbalists call form.
Roger Penrose, one of the most eminent mathematicians living has
this to say [7]:
"I have made no secret of the fact that my sympathies lie
strongly with the Platonic view that mathematical truth is
absolute, external and eternal, and not based on man-made
criteria; and that mathematical objects have a timeless
existence of their own, not dependent on human society nor
on particular physical objects."
"Ah Ha!" cry the materialists, "At least the atoms are
real." Well, they are until you start pulling them apart with
tweezers and end up with a heap of equations which turn out to be
the linguistic expression of an idea. As Einstein said, "The most
incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is
comprehensible", that is, capable of being described in some
linguistic form.
I am not trying to convince anyone of the "rightness" of the
Cabalistic viewpoint. What I am trying to do is show that the
process whereby form is impressed on matter (the relationship
between Yesod and Malkuth) is not arcane, theosophical mumbo-
jumbo; it is an issue which is alive and kicking, and the closer
we get to "real things" (and that certainly includes living
organisms), the better the Cabalistic model (that form precedes
manifestation, that there is a well-defined process of formation
with the "real world" as an outcome) looks.
The illusion of Yesod is security, the kind of security which
forms the foundation of our personal existence in the world. On a
superficial level our security is built out of relationships, a
source of income, a place to live, a vocation, personal power and
influence etc, but at a deeper level the foundation of personal
identity is built on a series of accidents, encounters and
influences which create the illusion of who we are, what we
believe in, and what we stand for. There is a warm, secure
feeling of knowing what is right and wrong, of doing the right
thing, of living a worthwhile life in the service of worthwhile
causes, of having a uniquely privileged vantage point from which
to survey the problems of life (with all the intolerance and
incomprehension of other people which accompanies this insight),
and conversely there are feelings of despair, depression, loss of
identity, and existential terror when a crack forms in the
illusion, and reality shows through - Castaneda calls it "the
crack in the world". The smug, self-perpetuating illusion which
masquerades as personal identity at the level of Yesod is the
most astoundingly difficult thing to shift or destroy. It fights
back with all the resources of the personality, it will
enthusiastically embrace any ally which will help to shore up its
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defenses - religious, political or scientific ideology;
psychological, sociological, metaphysical and theosophical
claptrap (e.g. Kabbalah); the law and popular morality; in fact,
any beliefs which give it the power to retain its identity,
uniqueness and integrity. Because this parasite of the soul uses
religion (and its esoteric offshoots) to sustain itself they have
little or no power over it and become a major part of the
problem.
There are various ways of overcoming this personal demon
(Carroll [8], in an essay on the subject, calls it Choronzon),
and the two I know best are the cataclysmic and the abrasive. The
first method involves a shock so extreme that it is impossible to
be the same person again, and if enough preparation has gone
before then it is possible to use the shock to rebuild oneself.
In some cases this doesn't happen; I have noticed that many
people with very rigid religious beliefs talk readily about
having suffered traumatic experiences, and the phenomenon of
hysterical conversion among soldiers suffering from war neuroses
is well known. The other method, the abrasive, is to wear away
the demon of self-importance, to grind it into nothing by doing
(for example) something for someone else for which one receives
no thanks, praise, reward, or recognition. The task has to be big
enough and awful enough to become a demon in its own right and
induce all the correct feelings of compulsion (I have to do
this), helplessness (I'll never make it), indignation (what's
the point, it's not my problem anyway), rebellion (I won't, I
won't, not anymore), more compulsion (I can't give up), self-pity
(how did I get into this?), exhaustion (Oh No! Not again!),
despair (I can't go on), and finally a kind of submission when
one's demon hasn't the energy to put up a struggle any more and
simply gives up. The woman who taught me Kabbalah used both the
cataclysmic and the abrasive methods on her students with
malicious glee - I will discuss this in more detail in the
section on Tiphereth.
The virtue of Yesod is independence, the ability to make our
own foundations, to continually rebuild ourselves, to reject the
security of comfortable illusions and confront reality without
blinking.
The vice of Yesod is idleness. This can be contrasted with
the inertia of Malkuth. A stone is inert because it lacks the
capacity to change, but in most circumstances people can change
and can't be bothered. At least, not today. Yesod has a dreamy,
illusory, comfortable, *seductive* quality, as in the Isle of the
Lotus Eaters - how else could we live as if death and personal
annihilation only happened to other people?
The Klippothic aspect of Yesod occurs when foundations are
rotten and disintegrating and only the superficial appearance
remains unchanged - Dorian Gray springs to mind, or cases where
the brain is damaged and the body remains and carries out basic
instinctive functions, but the person is dead as far as other
people are concerned. Organizations are just as prone to this as
people.
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[1] A.E. Powell, "The Etheric Double", Theosophical Publishing
House, 1925
[2] A.E. Powell, "The Astral Body", Theosophical Publishing
House, 1927
[3] "It's the Image Men We Answer To", The Sunday Times, 6th.
Jan 1991
[4] Castenada, Carlos, "The Fire from Within", Black Swan, 1985.
[5] N. R. Clough, "How to Make and Use Magic Mirrors", Aquarian
1977
[6] S.L. Mathers, "The Kabbalah Unveiled", Routledge & Kegan Paul
1981
[7] Roger Penrose, "The Emperor's New Mind", Oxford University
Press 1989
[8] Peter J. Carroll, "Psychonaut", Samuel Weiser 1987.
Copyright Colin Low 1991
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Footprints in the Chamber - Towards a Quantum Qabbala,
by Fra.: +0-
The Qabbala has through the ages been used as a directory towards
the understanding of the universe and man`s relationship to it.
Since former Aeons of magick have had their perceptions rooted in
the observance of simple cause and effect relationships, the Qabbala
itself, having attained its nascence in the earlier traditions, was
unfortunately bogged down by this limited apprehension of the
universe. Here mathematics as used in a more or less Pythagorean
context provide a sort of key with which to approach the
unfathomable nature of human consciousness.
To this very day there are groups which still adhere to and openly
practice the more traditional ramifications of Qabbalistic
principles which are still firmly rooted in the mire of Nineteenth
Century Newton-sewed-it-all-up-there-are-no-more-mysteries physics.
But of course, owing to the leaps and bounds acquired by a very
unpredictable but consistent quantum model of reality as observed in
our laboratories, this simplistic view is necessarily obsolete. We
no longer live, we have learned (if indeed we ever did) in a simple
cause and effect universe where the source can always be gleaned
from observable effect. For the same reasons, Newtonian-based magic
must give way to a more quantum model. Newton`s apple must now take
into consideration Heisenberg`s Uncertainty Principle. The secret
wisdom must follow suit towards quantumization.
Another unfortunate tendency of some modern practioners of Qabbala
is to continue to regard everything from the standpoint of the
Demiurge, Yahweh, which of course is the basis of the now obsolete
(and dangerous) Judeo-Christian foundation of religious thought
which has held western civilization in its thrall for about two
thousand years. Personally I find it amazing that modern
practioners, who despite no real Semitic disposition still practice
an unmistakably orthodox Jewish mysticism. It was Aleister Crowley,
that great Qabbalistic agent provocateur, who initiated the process
of liberating the Qabbala from its otherwise Judaic orientation.
(This is not anti-semitism but a necessary step towards individual
development. It must also be stated that a Qabbala had been in use
centuries earlier by the Egyptians. The Jews merely adopted it to
their own religious precepts. They didn`t invent it. The actual
origin most likely predates Egyptian history.)
Crowley emphasized that the enlightened magician must, after careful
study and application of his knowledge, develop his own Qabbalistic
framework. By virtue of this the magician has arrived at a more
chaotic paradigm in opposition to a purely empirical view. Crowley,
by adapting the Qabbala to a Thelemic context initiated that first
leap forward into the quantum age. Thus, the foundation for a more
quantum/chaotic system was lain.
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I would like now to redefine the secret wisdom in terms of
quantumization as follows:
"The Qabbala is a table of observed synchronicities wherein multi-
dimensional potentia overlap into the field of perception implying a
correlation/interaction as perceived on a three-dimensional plane."
The sum of the parts of the whole is determined by conceptual
visualization and the observer`s ostensible observation thereof. It
is therefore merely a perceptual tool for perceiving hidden meaning
in the world determined entirely by the perceived-perception of the
perciper (in the language of Satre), which will alter its form and
content (via expansion and contradiction) according to the
percipere`s own innate tendencies.
The qabbala is no longer merely a mathematical construct of an
ordered universe as conceived by divine will. Instead it becomes a
kind of computerized network of extra-sensory information. Even the
idea of a prima causa itself may be inadequate as well. This idea is
based solely upon a linear time frame and is therefore a corollary
of our erroneous perception of time whose actual nature may tend
more towards the cyclical. Primitive man, for example was very well
aware of this fact, and acted in accordance with it. (This may have
to do with primitive people being more in tune with their own
circadian rhythms. This expresses a more lunar-intuitive cycle
rather than our own solar one.) If perception of time is based upon
natural rhythms which effect the body coupled with our observance of
nature, then our concept of time is entirely contrary to what nature
itself is telling us. We are thus unaligned with a proper time
framework. Since a cycle is essentially a circle, no beginning or
ending can be found. And, it is already been theorized that there
are other dimensions of reality in which time as we know it (in a
durational, linear sense of perception) simply cannot exist.
The universe has again and again defied our attempts a definable
order upon it. Yet, mysteriously it does seem to act intelligently,
even though this cannot be grasped by a rigid point A to point B
structure. What emerges is a kind of chaotic mandala structure, and
it is the task of quantum qabbalism to apprehend, as much as is
possible, the interior of this structure. This opens the doors to
practical mysticism as opposed to impractical mysticism. The qabbala
must then be updated to accommodate this vital realization in regard
to its properties of being able to regulate perceptive awareness via
interacting forces springing from more or less hidden dimensions
whose effect is known but not the cause.
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The understanding of the intention of creation is a product of the
mind of the qabbalist himself. The fabric of reality is thereby
flexible, effected by his own experience of it, and in turn, this
experience determines his perception of it, which is altered by the
interaction of these elements, more clearly understood as a
transaction. In other words, one perceives his environment and that
environment by virtue of one`s perception of it begins to act
accordingly to the reality model which is believed to be true. This
could be described as a kind of Copenhagen Interpretation as applied
to qabbalistic principles. The qabbalist then shares a unique
position of receiving qabbalistic impressions via observable
systematic synchronicities by means of inclination represented in
his own psyche. These impressions will translate back as meaningful
data insofar as the transaction between observer and the observed
becomes enacted. His perception modifies the universe and in turn,
the universe modifies his perception. (This can serve as a
representation of the union of microprosopus and macroprosopus.) The
feedback of this required information will be meaningful to him
alone as it is a byproduct of his own psychic field. He becomes a
kind of decoder of esoteric information which he has learned to
process.
From this quantum/chaos framework the qabbala can be regarded as a
four (or five) dimensional transaction as revealed in the mundane
world, whereby an enriched quality of information provides the key
to a higher understanding of the universe and of oneself, provided
the person in question is capable of processing this information.
From this perspective, ghosts, poltergeists, and other enigmas of
paranormal phenomena can be understood as failed communication or
remnants of a highly coded system which hasn`t been solved. The
problem arises when one dimension fails to adequately "translate"
into another. You might term this the Tower of Babel Effect. The
information being received is misinterpreted due to inadequate tools
of reception and perhaps an inability to use tools properly. There
is also a basic misunderstanding of what this information means and
to what extent the source can be determined. This is a little like
trying to demonstrate fourth dimension physics by a purely three
dimensional means. The instances of paranormal phenomena as
described above, may be due to a discrepancy of overlapping
dimensions which allows for a greater margin of error which impedes
effective communication between the dimensions themselves. One is
reminded of Plato`s parable of the cave, wherein the shadows of the
things observed on the wall of the cave are mistaken for reality
itself. Granted, a shadow does resemble the object projecting it,
but it is hardly the object itself. It is the task of the quantum
qabbalist to make allowances for this margin of interpretive
miscalculation by preparing for it in advance and thus integrating
this possible glitch into his qabbalistic computer. He makes
allowances for this possible occurrence of organizational entropy and
thus he is able to use it to his advantage.
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The idea of a qabbala based upon an exploration of prima causa is no
longer valid in the quantum age. The quantumized qabbalist learns to
regard himself in the mirror of chaos. For him, the old Gnostic
dictum of "there is no part of me which is not of the gods", is
literally true. His "Tree of Life" is based squarely upon the
apprehension of his own enigmatic existence. He is more interested
in a practical application of his qabbalistic ideas and principles
for himself and others, than a cosmological game of hide and seek
wherein one searches for a prima causa "God" figure. But even for
this, he has an explanation: By careful observation of himself
within the mirror of chaos he has learned that the miracle of
creation is somehow a byproduct of his own consciousness and that he
has played an inexplicable role in the very act itself. ("Did ye not
know that ye were gods?") Joyously he has found that the tracks of
God etched across the illimitable sands of time in the accelerated
particle chambers of his own expanding consciousness. Thus has he
learned to adore the divine mystery of existence donning the masks
of creation.
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The Dark Night of the Soul
Fra.: Apfelmann
"The Dark Night of the Soul" is the name given to that experience of
spiritual desolation that all students of the Occult pass through at
one time or another. It is sometimes characterized by feelings that
your occult studies or practices are not taken you anywhere, that
the initial success that one is sometimes granted after a few months
of occult working, has suddenly dried up. There comes a desire to
give up on everything, to abandon exercises and meditation, as
nothing seems to be working. St.John of the Cross. a christian
mystic, said of this experience, that it;
"...puts the sensory spiritual appetites to sleep, deadens them,
and deprives them of the ability to find pleasure in anything.
It binds the imagination, and impedes it from doing any good
discursive work. It makes the memory cease, the intellect become
dark and unable to understand anything, and hence it causes the
will to become arid and constrained, and all the faculties empty
and useless. And over this hangs a dense and burdensome cloud,
which afflicts the soul, and keeps it withdrawn from the good."
Though the beginner may view the onset of such an experience with
alarm (I know I did), the "Dark Night" is not something bad or
destructive. In one sense it may be seen as a trial, a test by which
the Gods examine our resolve to continue with occult work, and if
you are not completely whole-hearted about your magical studies, it
is during this period (at its beginning) that you will give up. The
Dark Night of the Soul should be welcomed, once recognized for
what it is (I have always received an innate "warning" just before
the onset of such a period), as a person might welcome an operation
that will secure health and well-being. St.John of the Cross embraced
the soul`s Dark Night as a Divine Appointment, calling it a period
of "sheer grace" and adding;
"O guiding Night,
O Night more lovely than Dawn,
O Night that has united the lover with his beloved
Transforming the Lover in her Beloved."
When entering the Dark Night one is overcome by a sense of spiritual
dryness and depression. The notion, in some quarters, that all such
experiences should be avoided, for a peaceful existence, shows up
the superficiality of so much of contemporary living. The Dark Night
is a way of bringing the Soul to stillness, so that deep psychic
transformation may take place. All distractions must be set aside,
and it is no good attempting to fight or channel the bursts of raw
energy that from time to time may course through your being. This
inner compulsion to set everything aside results in the outer
depression, when nothing seems to excite.
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The only thing to do is obey your inner voice and become still,
waiting for the inner transformation, (which the "Dark Night"
heralds), to take place. You may not be aware for a very long time
of the results of that inner change, but when the desire to work
comes again and the depression lifts, the Dark Night has (for a
moment) passed. No one can help during this time, and in many cases
there is hardly anyone to turn for advice. One must disregard the
well-meaning advice of family and friends to "snap out of it" this
is no ordinary depression, but a deep spiritual experience which
only those who have passed through themselves (in other words to a
magical retreat) but for many, as the routines of everyday life
prohibits this, all you can do is cultivate an inner solitude, a
stillness and silence of heart, and wait, (like a chrysalis waits
for the inner changes that will result in a butterfly) for the
Transformation to work itself out. There are many such "Dark Nights"
that the occult seeker must pass through during the mysterious
process of mitigation. They are all trials but experience teaches
one to cope more efficiently.
With fractalic greetings and laughter * Fra.: Apfelmann *
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Weaving Webs
Fra.: Apfelmann
The Mantra Web is a very simple and effective technique for using
sonics in a group. Choose a mantra with a number of syllables
corresponding to the numbers of operators, eg. IAO for 3 people. The
operators should link hands, left palm up and right palm down, and
slowly start to circle clockwise, each vibrating their syllable. As
this is done the operators should each project a thread of light
from their Solar Plexus (Manipura chakra) to a central focal point.
The color(s) of the threads of light should be determined before
the operation according to its purpose and the current beliefs of
the operators. As the speed and resonance of the mantra is built up
over a period of time, so the web is empowered, until a climax is
reached and the web energy directed by a pre-specified operator to
its purpose. This is just a sketchy outline of the technique, which
obviously can be used for much more than this. Some of the more
common uses for this technique include healing (with the individual
in the center at the focus, crystals would also boost the energy
levels); sexual magick (with operator(s) in the center and, if
possible, the climax timed accordingly); empowering sigils, and so
on.
If the operators vibrate their syllable alternately instead of
together, the mantra will spin around the circle and have a
positively disorienting effect on the operators.
It is important that the operators visualize their thread of light
continuously, and not just when vibrating their mantra syllable. I
particularly recommend this technique for outdoor use, especially at
suitably aspected power sites. However, if you are using a stone
circle or any other site of magick, please do think about what
aspects the site has, and preferably visit beforehand to achieve
some rapport with the site.
With fractalic greetings and laughter * Fra.: Apfelmann *
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Supradimensionality Part I
by Fra. Forovius
The Quest for Unknown ENNEAD:
Supradimensionality itself cannot be experienced directly; our
senses are not equipped for it. We are used to aligning our
consciousness with the three space dimensions, and these proceed
along the dimension of time. Whereas we can move freely in space, we
experience the dimension of time as a continuum that goes inevitably
in one direction - from past to future, with no return. People often
lay all their hopes and theories on some new, fourth or fifth, or
whatever, dimension, when they are confronted with supernatural
phenomena and ask themselves where it all came from. At the very least
science fiction novels tend to overstress supradimensions; as a source
of UFOs, for example, or of inexhaustible energy sources and similar
things. In this article I would like to try out a little mind
experiment with you to see if we might get a feeling for what it could
be like if a gate opens to other dimensions. Let`s take a look:
In answering the question about the meaning of the word "dimension",
we should leave out all overburdened explanations, be it SciFi or
traditional mathematics. Mathematics is a perfect symbolic language(!)
for the relationships of numbers and quantities, as it is very
accurate and gives exact results where normal language gives up. But
not everything is true that can be proven by mathematics, it is just
conclusive. Let`s use our imagination first...
For the following we begin at the simplest point. Try to experience
your surroundings as a one-dimensional being. You can use all your
senses as in hot/cold, hard/soft, light/dark, silent/loud. You can
move only along one line in one direction - forward. So, now you are
sitting in your easy-chair and start to move as a tiny speck of dust.
At first the world is soft and comfortable; the room`s center gets a
bit more cool, although light; then, at the wall, it is extremely
hard, dark and uncomfortable, and so on. For every section of the way
you have gone you have a single, irreversible impression. Sounds
familiar doesn`t it, like we think of the "eternal flow of time and
aeons". But let`s steer clear od speculation that would not be apt for
a speck of dust.
Resume: when every section of this way has it`s own distinct
characteristic (not affectable by time, because time doesn`t exist),
it is inconceivable for us that in some places other conditions along
the same length in same sector may exist, just to the right or left of
the way. Don`t forget - right/left have not been invented yet!
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Were it able to move left or right, if only slightly, it might be
able to experience different conditions on the same spot of its
one-dimensional axis (on a border, a corner, a different surface).
But what lies outside its one-dimensional paradigm is unknowable. The
model for this paradigm is, therefore, that along the dimension there
can only be one condition at one spot.
Let`s shift now to a 2-dimensional paradigm. Now the first dimension
and the 2nd can be used, and the room presents itself to us like a
section with an even surface. Along the first dimension there are
still the same conditions as before, but to the side (left/right)
there are some more.
The model is changed as follows: along dimension 1 (length) there
can be different conditions, but at different levels of dimension 2
(width). This new being acts in a more familiar manner as, like maps
for example, it orients itself according to a horizontal and
vertical axis.
You can guess how the riddle continues. We learn to move or grow up
and down. Now different conditions are possible on the same surface
coordinates but at different heights and depths. In the new paradigm
there is only one condition at one point in space.
Finally, we shift to our normal paradigm by adding time. We can now
observe different conditions at the same point of space at different
times, and can formulate the paradigm as follows: At the same point in
space only one object can exist at the same time. This is a long
established model of physics, matching perfectly our mechanical world
and our senses.
In this mental experiment we have learned 2 things:
1, Moving along a dimension, one can recognize differences. This is
the characteristic of a dimension, not its definition.
2, After each shift to the next dimension, the model (dogma) of the
preceding one is superseded. Generally, the most recent dimension is a
continuum, ie., a dimension that goes irreversible in one direction.
Our own paradigm model consists of the (old) 3 space dimension plus
the (new) time as a continuum. How could a world look like that
contains one dimension more, the fifth one, called "E" or Ennead for
example? (I think Ennead is an expression from a science fiction
novel, but the Ancient Egyptians had a similar expression for the
place where all possibilities exist that don`t exist here; or where
all the possibilities manifest that are kept by us from manifesting in
this world here.)
You can construct the new model dogma by yourself: at one and the
same point of space and time there CAN be different conditions
(objects, colors, temperatures...), but at a different Ennead(!!).
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BUT: at the same point of space at the same time and Ennead, there is
again only one condition (object etc.) possible! This game can
theoretically be continued forever, but soon gets uninteresting,
because everything becomes far-fetched.
The step to the next dimension implies several interesting changes
because:
- first of all it calls for the parallel existence of different
things and events, side-by-side and at the same spot of the
space/time-paradigm. This sounds very much like the sometimes
incomprehensible reports of mystic experiences, whether from
contemporary times like the Seth-books, or long ago, like Meister
Eckhart, Tauler or Seuse. It is also similar to the picture of the 4
worlds of the Kabbala which exists inside one another, and it makes
certain Egyptian mysteries understandable.
- it makes a huge number of connections possible that we normally
would not think of. Numerous events inexplicable by rational
thinking may have their roots here, because causality is only valid in
the exact space/time paradigm and loses its ultimate character the
moment a new dimension is brought in.
- most probably, and here all thinking and imagination stops, it
replaces the time continuum with a ubiquitous time dimension (like
length, width and height in our paradigm) where we can move freely
forwards and backwards - but always at the same Ennead. Again, this
dimension shift doesn`t free us completely, it just opens a gate and
makes the next border visible.
The question about the quality or sense of this new E-dimension
remains unanswered. But our familiar dimensions also have no state or
sense or quality; they just exist and make us feel that they exist by
limitations of our sense of movement etc. Although we live in this
system, we cannot give a real definition of it (should we really?),
only some more or less mathematical explanations. We just experience
that along a dimension something changes. Dimensions let things
happen. We feel something has changed along a dimension and we measure
it by looking for regular changes. We measure time by observing the
regular movements of the sun and the earth, but with no feeling for
their pure quality.
Also, a new dimension E would not change our world radically; its
only effect to our paradigm would be that some additional things
happened - miraculously side-by-side in time. But as we have no
sensors for this, it would be totally imperceptible. And should a
short impression slip through, it would be instantly erased by our
mind`s censor. Moreover, if some of us should get to this dimension it
would prove nearly impossible to explain it to others; having no
common language, comparisons or symbols for it.
This mental experiment has done its job, if we have achieved a
feeling for what supradimensionality could be. Our paradigm is not the
ultimate possibility, others exist - in between!
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Other Forms of Existence:
Anyone used to observing nature from the heart, will have seen
that it doesn`t like to have jumps in it; especially when it is only
to be fitted into an artificial theoretical system of the human
brain`s. Therefore, it is not consequent to assume that our paradigm
of a space+time-continuum is the only valid system. The motto cannot
be: "either you are with us in our system, or you are non-existent!"
- a logical chain that we tend to follow all too often. If there are
more simple dimensional systems, they will surely have their
inhabitants. However, the creative amongst you should refrain from
designing flat monsters for a 2-dimensional world now. As explained
before, this all exists in our world, one in the other!
Again a little mental experiment may show us the way. Let`s imagine
the following:
1, We put away all conditions related to the last dimension, the
continuum. At the same time the last-but-one dimension becomes the
continuum automatically, as explained before, because the last
dimension always is a continuum (!!). It is interesting that our
time-continuum physically is related only to movement, which means
that everything able to move freely can experience time.(As stated
here, the gift that our space+time paradigm gives to us is motion.
Now, in Ancient Egypt, a very important symbol was the Ankh, meanings
originally a sandal`s belt (scientists say). So, the meaning of the
respective hieroglyph means "TO WALK". On Egyptian pictures, when a
GOD gives life to a HUMAN he hands an ANKH to him, i.e. giving him
LIFE = TO WALK = MOVEMENT.)
So we ignore everything that has to do with motion. And the space
becomes continuum.
2, We look for forms of existing lacking exactly that last paradigm
element, ie., (in our case) time and movement.
That means we are looking for something that fulfills the picture of
this reduced paradigm. In our previous example: something that
doesn`t move, but spreads in space continuously and irreversibly.
Just let the picture grow before thinking further; that`s it -
GROWING! Anything that grows steadily and cannot shrink
deliberately.
We may think of plants growing, clouds rising, micro-organism, fungi
etc. For example, a tree starts from an exact point in space (the
seed) and spreads evenly according to a distinct blueprint. Its size,
especially the section rings of its stem, correlate exactly with its
age; that means spatial growing and age match exactly. It cannot
shrink definitely; it is able to drop leaves or branches, but they
soon grow back to make it fill the same space occupied before. The
process of spatial growth is irreversible. A harrowing thought - most
probably we "grow" through time in the same manner! Maybe, even like
some herbs or grass that die off in Autumn and grow again in the
Spring - a picturesque allegory of death and rebirth!
For our next example we again take one dimension less. Now there is no
free (active) motion and no growth in space. The continuum is the
surface. A much more tricky paradigm. Something existing here must
have the tendency to spread in surface as much as possible and never
contract again deliberately. Hmmm.. what`s the biggest surface on
earth? Of course, water! Water, as a liquid, can be formed freely, as
it has no fixed form and will mould itself to fit any surface. But it
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cannot be compressed, and has the tendency to fill a space from
beneath with the maximum of even surface at the same time. The gain
with this form of existence is in the changeability of form - its
flexibility and adaptability. The picture for this is the ocean, the
river, or organisms like lichens which exist in clumps or patches.
Our next move is one more step towards reduction of existence. Now
there is no area and no spreading over a surface. The continuum is
dimension 1, the line, and everything else is fixed. In this paradigm
all solid objects exist. Changes, if any, are only allowed along one
line and are irreversible as in falling towards a center of gravity
for example, or rolling down a slope. This dimension 1 does not have
to be a straight line, but is the most efficient and best way of
coming nearer to the center of attraction. Irreversible.
It`s interesting to see that we humans still align our orientation in
space according to these same systems as described. The vertical line
is a solid object hanging down, the plumb-rule; the horizontal
surface, the level, is adjusted by hydrostatic balance (with water!).
And the only independent (ie., not geodetic) system for measuring
height is an instrument derived from a barometer (the
altigraph), which works on the basis of the expansion and reduction of
a specific gas volume in a sealed shell.
These thoughts are certainly a little bit hard to chew on, but I`m
sure they give enough themes for meditation.
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Here`s an example for a simple meditation; freestyle of course. Get
yourself into a trance-journey somehow. You may use a shamanic
technique or jump through a Tattwa sign or whatever you prefer and are
best used to. Let`s take the water element for example. According to
classical technique, you imagine the horizontal syrinx sign and go
through it (but in silver and not in green as usual when you want to
explore the water world) and become the water yourself. Try to let
the feeling flow freely. Flow down, spread, split into drops while
breaking on a stone that lies in the water way; flow down as a torrent
etc.; trickle to the ground; evaporate to the sky; experience total
passivity in the respect of controlled growth or active motion. Be
totally passive! It is important to collect oneself after this
meditation and perform a thorough earthing. This exercise is
comparatively easy with the water element. It is also possible with a
3-dimensional system (plant or cloud), but more complicated, or with
1-dimensional system (solid object), but the latter takes a long time
in my experience.
The purpose of this exercise is to get a feeling for the structure and
physical reality of other dimensional existence and their relation
with other systems, and to comprehend that these need not be projected
to distant universes, but really exist in our world and that we meet
them every day.
For people dealing with magic it is of immense value to get the
right feeling of the existence of one universe in the other, and to be
able to shift from a low dimensional system to a supradimensional
system and vice versa. This is because we face many phenomena reaching
into our paradigm from other systems. For example, severe distortions
of reality go hand-in-hand with deep trance, (lucid) dreams and
precognition. These all make our reality and our normal environment
appear more or less different from normal experience: for example,
when we experience our home in dream reality or on a mental journey,
the table in the room isn`t where it normally used to be or maybe the
window is on another wall and looks into a different landscape etc..
All this is due to distortions along the 5th dimension (the Ennead as
I named it provisionally).
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Let`s continue our little mental experiment, but this time in the
forward direction. At first we see no differences, when we go from our
paradigm to a 4+1 dimensional system. Obviously we have no sense and
no feeling for what`s happening when we go beyond our 3+1 (space+time)
system. So the new mental experiment leads nowhere. It`s worth it to
demonstrate that no practical model comes from mental speculations in
this direction. But we can derive a description from our "experiences"
with low-dimensional systems. Keeping the last paradigms in mind and
adding a new dimension, the Ennead, we can formulate the new paradigm
by same method as follows:
"At the same place in space at the same time there ARE different
conditions possible at different E-dimensions."
Exactly like the addition of a "new" time-dimension to the old 2+1
(area+space) paradigm makes free movement possible for the first time,
so also the addition of a new dimension E to our 3+1 paradigm makes it
possible (at least theoretically) for the following to exist:
- the one-inside-the-other-existence of different entities and
conditions
- parallel worlds
- events occurring simultaneously in time
- time travel (forward and backwards).
The key to all this seems to be the existence of "parallel worlds",
and I want to take a little look into how our ability to distinguish
objects function. If different things exist on the same spot at the
same time this implies that the same things exist in different worlds
(systems, universes etc., it`s all the same!). The explanation for
this you will find in the section Other Forms of Existence. Things are
distinguishable for us by their presence (POSITION in space+time) and
their QUALITY (that we check by our senses). They are different if
they have different position and/or quality. Example: sheep A is as
dull as sheep B, looks the same, sounds the same, smells the same. I
know they are different as one stands beside the other (ie. at
different positions at the same time). If there are enough sheep that
are so similar and they run among each other, I can distinguish
nothing. That is unless I mark them to make them look different; or
one has changed its appearance, by having been sheared, for instance.
Then it looks different at a different time, but still is essentially
the same. In all these cases we orient according to differences and
coherence of existence,
and not very reliably at that. I want to show with this shaggy sheep
tale that the question of continuous existence throughout different
positions and qualities is not easily resolved, and therefore we
should be carefully before we discount all talk of "double existence,
parallel worlds etc.".
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Existence is hard to imagine and contradicts with experience and
commonsense unless we postulate the existence of parallel worlds in
which all possibilities at least potential exist. But only one
possibility becomes reality. By taking this thought further, we see
that all these parallel worlds contain the possibilities of life, and
we move through all this, making reality out of one of them - by
DECISION or free will, call it as you like. A picture that we also
find in some of Castaneda`s books.
Outlook:
The question remains unanswered is: What makes these parallel worlds
manifest (ie. how often do "I" exist) or just remain hypothetical
assumptions. But this is without importance for us at the moment. In a
simple and subjective way, only that which we experience actually
manifests. For me it appears dimly that out of Ennead only the
parallel worlds through which we pass by our subjective experience,
our acting and our reality become reality and sharply outlined. All
else remains dim and unreal but may be experienced by others - who
knows? This is similar to a widespread network of rails in a railway
shunting station, with numerous railtracks linked by switches, but
only ONE track being used by a train. The switches stand for important
decisions which open this or that way. According to our decisions we
pass a track leading more "up" or "down", more "ahead" or "back" (all
seen from Ennead), or we just shuttle back and forth in the middle. To
help to understand this we can look at certain games, like chess, that
show how the chain of events is predetermined by decisions that lie
far back in the past. By playing chess you can get an idea of the
reality of fate, and that some errors taken in the past can hardly be
set right whilst some may easily be. These causal chains may be very
long in any case.
The previously described Ennead system could work in a similar
fashion to this: exactly like our space+time paradigm enables us to
move, so the jump into the space/time+ennead paradigm opens the gates
to potentiality and its network of connections. Although we cannot
take part in this because of our limited senses, and we cannot jump
into the next dimension and its adherent paradigm, we can take a peek
behind the curtain and at least get a feeling for the kind of
interference therein. It may open a new view on things hitherto
believed to be inevitable: the passing of time, all our actions and
interactions, and on fate itself. Are we just "programmed" towards
another target or direction, that can only be seen from above, from
Ennead, from the next dimension? Do we "move" in Ennead with our
decisions (and this implies things like character, mental attitudes,
views and opinions, by which we decide on this or that way)?
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However, for a being fixed and rooted in his/its paradigm, there is
not much difference how it decides. A root or a branch can grow in
this or that way, and reacts to certain stimuli like light or water,
but remains fixed and not suited for free movement. The more simple an
animal is organized, the more unidirectional its reactions are:
"lurk - snap - gorge" and suchlike. The (occasionally) more complex
motivations of men lead me conclude that we may be on the threshold
before the door to the next paradigm. (Similar to plant-like
organisms, corals for example, that are fixed to the ground but can
push out and pull in their tentacles... Hagazussa already?).
We can "move" in this way - and this is certainly the most noble
expression of "do what thou wilt" and Thelema - by influencing our
position in Ennead consciously and constantly, and without mercy
giving our decisions a certain orientation and thereby "moving" with
this through Ennead and the parallel worlds. (If our personal
"thelema" was not a nonsense ie. Choronzon.) I`m sure many of you have
experienced that after somebody changed their attitude and opinions,
sometimes their environment also begins to change, but without any
causal reasons! Just the right people appear; some lucky (or unlucky)
opportunities open up; old friends seem to withdraw and appear more
and more strange... Maybe a new parallel world has opened, and you
move in? But besides these speculations and as a last consequence this
means we bring all that we face by our own decisions, and we blame
nobody else but our own good selves for "all the bad luck and hard
days we suffer from". On the other hand we are not responsible to
anything/anybody/anygod for all the shit we are in... its our own hard
way! All that has to do with character building starts here. Here and
now and in our own earthbound and mortal life and in our own paradigm,
we have the chance to move in a certain direction, perhaps "up" or
"down" or maybe recognized only from aside/above/from Ennead. Even
from the next paradigm maybe. But
we have the chance NOW. Possibilities are numerous. Let`s use them for
maximum experience.
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CELTIC CRAFT READING LIST - 6 JULY 1991
Rowan Moonstone
*** Marks especially good books. Read these FIRST!! Keep in mind,
this is simply a listing of the books that I have found useful.
Question everything.
A.E.(GEORGE RUSSELL); "The Candle of Vision", Quest Books,
Theosophical Pub. 1975
ALFORD, VIOLET; "The Hobbyhorse & Other Animal Masks", Merlin Press
1978
AMERICAN CONFERENCE FOR IRISH STUDIES; "Guide to Irish Studies in
the U.S.A." 1987
ANWYL, EDWARD; "Celtic Religion in Pre-christian Times", Archibald
Constable & Co. 1906 ***
ARTOS, ALLEN; "Arthur, The King of Light", Lorien House 1986
ASHE, GEOFFREY; "The Ancient Wisdom", London 1977
BAIN, GEORGE; "Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction", Dover Pub.
1973
BARBER, CHRIS; "Mysterious Wales", Paladin Press 1983
BOASE, WENDY; "Folklore of Hampshire & the Isle of Wight", Rowman
& Littlefield 1976
BONWICK, JAMES; "Irish Druids and Old Irish Religion", Arno Press
1976
BORD, JANET & COLIN; "The Secret Country", Grenada 1978 ***
BORD, JANET & COLIN; "Mysterious Britain", Grenada 1974 ***
BORD, JANET & COLIN; "Earth Rites", Grenada 1983 ***
BORD, JANET & COLIN; "Sacred Waters", Paladin Books 1986 ***
BREFFNY, BRIAN DE, ed.; "Ireland, A Cultural Encyclopedia", Thames
& Hudson 1983
BREFFNY, BRIAN DE; " The Irish World", Thames & Hudson 1986
BRIGGS, KATHERINE; "Abbey Lubbers, Banshees, & Boggarts", Pantheon
1979
BRIGGS, KATHERINE; "Nine Lives; Cats in Folklore", Rudledge & Kegen
Paul 1980
BROWN, PETER, ed. & selected by; "Book of Kells", Alfred A. Knopf
1980
CAMPBELL, J.F. & GEORGE HENDERSON; "The Celtic Dragon Myth",
Newcastle Pub. 1981
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CARMICHAEL, ALEXANDER; "Celtic Invocations", Vineyard 1972
CASTLEDEN, RODNEY; "The Wilmington Giant", Turnstone 1983
CHADWICK, NORA; "The Celts", Pelician 1970
CHANT,JOY; "The High Kings", Bantam 1983
CHMELOVA, ELENA; "Celtic Tales", Exeter Books 1982
CLARE, T.; "Archelogical Sites of Devon & Cornwall", Moorland Pub.
1982
COGHLAN, RONAN; "Dictionary of Irish Myth and Legend", Donard Press
1979
COHANE, JOHN PHILLIP; "The Key", Crown Pub. 1969
COLLUM, PADRAIG; "Treasury of Irish Folklore", Crown Pub. 1967
COLLUM, PADRAIC; "Treasury of Irish Folklore", rev. ed. Killenny
Press 1967
COLLUM, PADRAIC; "The King of Ireland's Son", McMillian & sons 1933
CONWAY, D.J.; "Celtic Magic", Llewellyn Pub. 1990
COOKE, GRACE & IVAN; "The Light in Britain", White Eagle Pub. Trust
1983
COSMAN, MADELEINE, PELNER; "Medieval Holidays and Festivals",
Charles Scribmer & Sons 1981
CROSSLEY-HOLLAND, KEVIN, ed.; "Mabon of the Mabinogion", Thorsen
Pub. 1984
CUNLIFFE, BARRY; "The Celtic World", McGraw Hill MCMLXXIX ***
CURTAIN, JEREMIAH; "Myths and Folk Tales of Ireland", Dover Books
1975
DAMES, MICHAEL; "The Avebury Cycle", Thames & Hudson 1977 ***
DANAHER, KEVIN; "The Year in Ireland", (Leinster Leader, Ltd. 1972)
Mercier Press 1972 ***
DANIEL, GLYN & PAUL BAHN; "Ancient Places - The Prehistoric &
Celtic Sites of Britian", Constable 1987
DAVIDSON, THOMAS; "Rowan Tree and Red Thread", Edinburgh 1949
DAVIES, EDWARD; "The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids",
J. Booth 1809
DELANEY, FRANK; "The Celts", Little Brown & Co. 1986
DILLON, MYLES; "Early Irish Literature", University of Chicago
Press 1948
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DINNENN, REV. PATRICK S.; "Irish- English Dictionary", Irish Textes
Society 1927
DUGGAN, COLM; "Treasures of Irish Folklore", Mercantile Marketing
Consultants, Ltd. 1983
DYER, JAMES; "The Penguin Guide To Prehistoric England & Wales",
Penguin Books
EVANS-WENTZ, W. Y.; "The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries",
Universtiy Books 1966 ***
FELL, BARRY; "America, B.C.", Wallaby Books 1976
FITZPATRICK, JIM; "The Silver Arm", Paper Tiger Press 1981
FITZPATRICK, JIM; "The Book of Conquests", E.P. Dutton 1978
FLOWER, ROBIN; "The Irish Tradition", Clarendon Press 1947/1978
FORDE, JOHNSTON J.; "Prehistoric Britian & Ireland", W.W. Norton
& Co. 1976
FRAZIER, SIR JAMES GORDON; "The Golden Bough", (The Macmillan
Company, 1951) Avenel 1981
FRENCH, J.M.F.; "Prehistoric Faith and Worship", London 1912
FROUD, BRIAN & ALAN LEE; "Faeries", Harry M. Abrams 1978
GANTZ, JEFFERY; "Early Irish Myths & Sagas", Penquin 1982
GERALD OF WALES; "The History & Topography of Ireland", Penquin
1982
GLASSIE, HENRY; "Irish Folk History", University of Pennsylvannia
Press 1982
GREGORY, LADY AUGUSTA; "Visions and Beliefs in the West of
Ireland", Colin Smythe 1920/1979
GREGORY, LADY AUGUSTA; "Gods and Fighting Men of the Celts", John
Murray 1913 ***
GUARD, DAVID, "Dierdre: A Celtic Legend", Celestial Arts 1977
HERM, GERHARD; "The Celts", St. Martin's Press 1975
HIGGINS, GODFREY; "Celtic Druids", Philosohpical Research Society
1977
HOPE, MURRY; "Practical Celtic Magic", Aquarian Press 1987
IRISH TEXTES SOCIECTY; "Poems of Egan O'Rahilly", Rev. P.S. Dinnenn
& T.O. Donough 1966
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IRISH TEXTES SOCIECTY; "Duanaine Finn", Vol VII, part 1, ed. &
trans. Eoin MacNeil
IRISH TEXTES SOCIECTY; Keating, "History of Ireland, Vol 1-4,
1902/1987
IRISH TEXTES SOCIECTY; "Adventures of Suibhne Geilt", ed. & trans.
J.G. O'Keefe 1913
IRISH TEXTES SOCIECTY; "Poems on the Marcher Lords", ed. Anne
O'Sullivan & Padrain O'Riain 1987
IRISH TEXTES SOCIECTY; "Labor Gabala Erenn", parts 1-4, Trans.
R.A.S. MacAlister 1941 ***
JACKSON, KENNETH HURLSTONE; "A Celtic Miscellany", Penguin 1980
JACKSON, KENNETH HURLESTONE; "The Oldest Irish Tradition; A Window
on the Iron Age", Cambridge 1964
JACOBS, JOSEPH; "Celtic Fairy Tales", Dover 1963
JONES, GWYN & THOMAS; "The Mabinogion", Dragon's Dream 1982 ***
JOYCE, P.W.; "Social History of Ancient Ireland", Vol 1 & 2
Benjamin Blum Pub. 1968 ***
KERR, MILDRED L., HARNES, ELIZABETH & ROSS, FRANCES; "Giants &
Faires", Charles E. Merrill Co. 1946
KINSELLA, THOMAS; "The Tain", Oxford Univ. Press 1969 ***
KNEIGHTLY, THOMAS; "The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and
Other Little People", Avenel Press 1978
KNIGHT, GARETH; "The Secret Tradition in Arthurian Legend",
Aquarian Press 1983
KRUTA, VENCESLAS & VERNER FORMAN; "The Celts of the West", Orbis
1985
LEAMY, EDMUND; "Golden Spears", Desmond Fitzgerald 1911
LEHMANN, RUTH P.M.; "Early Irish Verse", University of Texas Press
1982
LOGAN, PATRICK; "The Old Gods", Apple Tree Press 1981
LONSDALE, STEVEN; "Animals & the Origin of the Dance", Thames &
Hudson 1982
LUCY, SEAN; "Love Poems of the Irish", Mercier Press 1977
MACALISTER, R.A.S.; "Tara; A Pagan Sanctuary of Ancient Ireland",
Charles Schribner & Sons 1931 ***
MACCANA, PROINSIAS; "Celtic Mythology", Hamlyn Pub. 1970
Last amended June 11, 1989 -- Page NEXTRECORD