The Rosicrucian Vault

This time of year is the point where the mercury falls below the point of typical comfort, days are noticeably shorter, the trees are reduced to bare branches, and the last of the fields are emptied. The dry foliage of trees and crops leaves a faint rattling on the chill wind, and as the end of October draws near, images of the Halloween celebration become present where the Angel of Death (in many various forms) plays a major role. His presence known by the frosty mornings, come to kill off the remaining fruits of the year. In this way we see that our world is in a state of flux.

The Angel of Death has been known by many names in many cultures throughout history. The earliest known personification of Death comes from a Neolithic settlement in Anatolia around 700BC, where he is depicted as a large black bird. Later images show tall masculine images or pale figures with black wings to be the Angel of Death. The most widely recognized name today, “Azrael”, comes from Hebrew and means “Whom God Helps”. Early Islamic teachings describe him as having 70,000 feet and 4,000 wings, his whole body covered in eyes, and tongues as numerous as living souls on the earth. Also in Islamic tradition, Azrael was the fourth Angel that God sent to obtain seven handfuls of Earth used in the creation of man and the only one to succeed, which earned him the task of separating body from soul.

When the body dies, Azrael - existing in a realm betwixt Life and Death - receives the soul; being the point of transition from one existence to the next. His task is not to carry the soul to Heaven or cast it into the pit but to sever the threads of life from the body; erasing the name on his great scroll that was written down at the persons birth. For this reason the personifications of Azrael are often accompanied by a tool - usually a scythe or other bladed instrument - with which to cut the thread of life told of by the Ancient Greeks. In Western culture the scythe is his usual tool for its connotations with the time of harvest, which is the transition point between living summer and cold-dark winter.

The task of ending life carries with it stigma of fear leading to misunderstanding - hence, Azrael has become a piece for many a Halloween costume. The encompassing darkness of a grave or tomb gives people chills while its relaxed silence is never acknowledged. The eminent end of life has been challenged by man since the dawn of civilization, though few view it as something that can always be counted on. And walking through a dark cemetery at night unsettles the strongest of men, but it is a hallowed place where the dead can rest peaceably. (Just like living beings, the dead don’t like to wake up from a sound sleep either, so zombies are no cause for concern.) These things are the rawest form of representation for Death and are almost never viewed with a sense of compassion for the weight that Azrael carries, and the positive aspects he brings.

Life on Earth is a wonder and a miracle; Azrael must take that miracle away at some point, and with a heavy heart. Every minute of every day someone is exiting the world of the living and Azrael is the one to assist that transition. To my knowledge, only Azrael exists in a realm neither purely in Spirit or purely in matter, in the Shadowy Valley of Death. Only one other Angel is said to have experienced a task similar to his and that is the Archangel Michael who is said to have sacrificed the souls of the righteous to God. I imagine that the task of plucking a soul from its body must be a difficult task for one to do every minute of every day. "Alone of gods Death has no love for gifts... from him alone persuasion stands apart."~ Aeschylus (525-465 B.C.)

However, with his solemn command, Azrael is said to be one of the sweetest and gentlest of Angels known. Its been said that he appears to the deceased depending on the life they live or on the way that they expire. If a righteous person dies he comes with angels carrying sweet odors of paradise and if a wicked person dies he comes with demons who pull the soul out with iron spits. Also, there is a piece of Jewish literature which says "that when the soul sees Azrael, it 'falls in love', and thus is withdrawn from the body as if by a seduction." Logically, no soul would willingly pass through the veil by force but by the touch of a gentle loving guide. Much like the Egyptian Anubis who protected and guided the soul through the Duat, provided he was sufficiently honored. This gentleness comes directly from Azrael's Qabalistic correspondence to the sphere of Binah being the dwelling place of the Holy Mother and of Isis. Just as the god Saturn gives birth to its children and consumes them again, the birthing of the Mother and the Ending through Azrael bring life full circle.

We live in a Universe that since its creation has been in constant motion. In physics, energy is everywhere and it is in a constant state of motion or vibration; its what holds our Universe together. This state of motion is sustained by the transition from one state to another - death, if you will. So our Universe is maintained by assistance from the transitional force of Azrael, whose essence is not that of Death but of Transition and of the Life to come; for it is in dying that we are Reborn.

I leave you with a quote from Forrest Gump:

“Don’t you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of Life.”

First, excuse me for the first paragraph of this blog, to some of you it may seem more like a review from a rock concert, but I assure you it isn't. I'm a big fan of the mundane. As such I try to find all of the hidden magic that is in plain sight. Last night was just one such occasion. I sat alongside my father and watched as guitar player after guitar player approached the stage all paying homage to arguably the greatest rock-guitar player who has ever taken the stage. Two-and-a-half hours had come and gone and finally the waiting was over. As the house lights went dim the M.C. announced the next and final act: Steve Vai.. Now one can say whatever they would like about the style of music, it certainly isn't for everyone, but one thing was apparent: viz. Vai's genius was tangible. Of all the performers, of which there were several, and most of whom I imagine music critics would call above average even for there own genres; it was only Vai who seemed to be making music not just covering old Hendrix tunes. He was certainly the only artist to play one of his own songs; which was a tribute to Hendrix. The sounds that came from that instrument would seem impossible for the rest of the world. His arms flailed as he swung the guitar from around his body in all different directions while sustaining a diminished chord and after about what seemed like an eternity of beautiful lush sustain his hands instinctively returned to the right frets as he continued blaze up and down the neck of the guitar. The guitar literally acted like an extension of his body, and while he may not call it by the same name, he was definitely in communion with his Higher Genius. I will stop this tirade by writing that; it appeared that though the show consisted of great musicians, eleven of them were doing one thing and one of them was doing something else.

I've heard and/or read that not everyone can attain to their Higher Genius. I believe this is in error. More than likely most people will not attain to their Higher Genius, it isn't that they cannot, nor does this mean that they won't achieve a level of greatness. To use the above example it is the difference between Steve Vai and those other eleven guitar players; they were all great, truly great, but he stood by himself.
So how does one start on this path? By taking a piece of wisdom from the Greeks, and probably before their civilization, 'Know Thyself'. It's a bit cliched sure but maybe because it's true.

"Your mission is your priority. Unless you know your mission and have aligned your life to it your core will feel empty. Your presence in the world will be weakened."

IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR PURPOSE DISCOVER IT, NOW!

The core of your life is your purpose. Everything in your life, from your diet to your career, must be aligned to your purpose if you're to act with coherence and integrity in the world. If you know your life's purpose, your deepest desire, than the secret of success is to discipline your life so you support deepest purpose and minimize distractions and detours. But if you don't know your deepest desires than you can't align your life to it. Everything in your life is dissociated from your core. You go to work, but since it's not connected to your purpose it's just a job; a way to make money. Each moment is just another long string of moments going nowhere, not inherently profound. However, when you know your true purpose, each moment can become a full and profound expression of your core. Every instant of career, every instant of intimacy is filled with the power of your heart's purpose. (from The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida)

Find some time to yourself where you will not be disturbed
Take as long as you need, but with pen and paper write down what is your deepest desire; you purpose
Write it down
Align your life to it

Don't sabotage yourself by keeping your head in the sand. You might be reading this right now and saying to yourself well I'm going to hold off till I accomplish goal x. Underneath the b.s. that you're feeding yourself you know that you're putting it off until you get to goal x because you can avoid doing what needs to be done. You might believe that if you discover the thing you'll have to to change everything about yourself over night. Nothing could be further from the truth. Break the change down into a hundred steps if that helps, even one thousand; and do a step a day.

Figuring out your unique ability

Obviously I can't tell you what your unique ability is, but someone I have a great deal of respect for and treat as a mentor, even though he is probably unaware of it helped me in this area by stating the following:
Your unique ability should:Be easy to grasp

Makes life immediately more enjoyable
Contributes to improve communication cooperation
Produces results in the world that keep getting better
And makes personal happiness a daily reality instead of a wish.

It has four characteristics.

It is a superior ability that other people notice and value.
We love doing it and want to do it as much as possible (payment not necessary).
It is both energizing for us and others around us.
And, we keep getting better never running out of possibilities for further improvement

Take as long as you need it isn't race, but know that the sooner you get there the happier you'll be.

Mercury Hod Octagram Sacred Geometry Eight 8 Scrying

One does not have to look long or with much effort to see the presence of numbers in every corer of the Rosicrucian tradition. Numbers lie within the realms of ritual work, mediation, talismanic magics, and beyond. The symbolism of numbers is of paramount importance to Western occultism.

When most people think of numbers, they consider only what they have been taught since grade school: the quantitative aspect. In other words, numbers for most people are just for counting, and keeping track of inventory, money, and other areas of commerce. However, numbers also have another counterpart: their qualitative aspect. In other words, there is a subtle force behind every single number.

The ancient Qabalists certainly must have known this to be true. After all, one of the central images of the Qabalah, the Tree of Life, is entirely compose of numbers. The eminations on the Tree of Life, as many of you know are called "Sephiroth." This term itself literally translates as "Numbers." Specifically, these Ten Divine Emanations directly relate to the numbers One through Ten. I do not see these as mere correspondences, but direct relationships between the numbers and the Sephiroth.

I find the purest means of expressing any number is through the employment of geometric shapes. For example, traditionally a circle corresponds to the number 1 because it can be traced by only a single line. The number 5 can be expressed by the pentagram and pentagon because of the 5 vertices or 5 lines that define such a figure. Thus, the circle relates to the first Sephirah of Kether, the pentagram to the fifth Sephirah of Geburah. The number ten and the dekagram correspond to the Sephirah of Malkuth. Below are a couple artistic representation that I've made for meditating with the number ten, for connecting with the energy and state of consciousness of the Sephirah of Malkuth. While the shape alone is attractive to those forces, the colors certainly assist in connecting with the same.

Again, I state that these attributions are not some arbitrary correspondences. I have found from both my own personal work, as well as from working with a number of people that the meditation upon these numbers, primarily through employment of their corresponding geometric figures, induces states of consciousness that directly relate to their partnered Sephirah. I have even found that those with no background in the occult describe their state of consciousness induced by a particular geometric shape remarkably similar the theoretical qualities which even an armchair magician can know by reading mostly any book that discusses the Tree of Life.

One method I have had quite a bit of success with lately is using the geometric figures in sequence for rising in the plains. The method, visually, is an ascent through the center of each successive figure, beginning with the Dekagram, from head to toe, followed by the Enneagram(9), etc. and ending with the Circle. This is method is very useful once you have labored to establish a connection with each of these figures on an individual basis, and is very well paired with various types of invocation of Spirit, including the Bornless work.

I think no one would contest the importance of prayer is an important part of Western Spirituality. All forms of religion in the Western world rely on some form of prayer as a main staple of their religious observation and practice. It should be no surprise then that prayer has found its way into some of the more sacred or holy Occidental esoteric practices. Even in the Golden Dawn we have prayer before most workings, just they are often times universal and non-denominational in their focus.

One Rosicrucian practice of which prayer is an essential element is the work with Angelic beings, particularly the art of working with the Angels of the Shem-hamforesh. These Angels, in particular, are very holy and pure. Prayer and supplication, the humbling of the spirit, is not only an important part of elevating one's consciousness to the highest of spiritual planes, but is also important preliminary work for communing with the holiest of Spirits.

There are traditional prayers associated with each of the Angels of the Shemhameforesh. They are prayers derived from the Book of Psalms that have a direct relationship with the name of the Angel, as well as include the Tetragrammaton. There is one specific to each Angel, and the Prayer helps to align one with that specific Angel, when properly employed. Below is such a prayer for the Angel Achaiah:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

Miserator, et misericors Dominus: longanimis, et multum misericors.

The prayers themselves, while derived from Hebrew in their correspondence to the Angels, are often time employed in Latin or English.

I had the opportunity to study a manuscript a few years back, hand-written by Frederick Hockley, titled the "Divine Cabal." It was a translation of a French book on the Shemhamforesh by Lezare Lenaine. The most peculiar portion of the book is the inclusion of some prayers not derived from the Bible. They are supposedly written by Lezare Lenaine, but I have yet to see any corresponding French documents by the man that contain the same prayers.

Shem Angel Achaiah Taurus Virgo Frederick Hockley Lezare Lenaine

The prayers are more Christian oriented, and most of them use the name of Jesus Christ in one form or another. The prayer for the same angel reads as such:

Lord Jesus who art the true God and true man, whose word is unchangeable thou art holy in all thy works, take from us the spirit of incredulity and defiance and fill our hearts with the gift of thy grace that we may acknowledge thee as the true God.Thou who shewest by thy miracles that thou art the Lord of all men.Amen.

These prayers, while not directly relating to the Psalms, are attributed to the same Angels. They are probably written while working with the Angels directly. Whatever their source and origin, they are a beautiful addition to the prayer work with the Angels of the Shemhamforesh, and they bring something else into the fold.

That being said, I believe anyone can compose their own prayers for workings with any Angel, and I believe this not only personalizes the experience for the individual, but also enriches the relationship with the same.

The Sephiroth on the Tree of Life are related to Numbers in correspondence and in spiritual reflection. They correspond to the Numbers 1 through 10 as such:

Kether - Primum Mobile
Chokmah - Zodiac
Binah - Saturn
Chesed - Jupiter
Geburah - Mars
Tiphireth - Sol
Netzach - Venus
Hod - Mercury
Yesod - Luna
Malkuth - Earth

These are very basic attributions that are perhaps too obvious to seem at all significant. However upon reflection, meditation, scrying, and other methods of working with numbers one will find that they directly relate to the Sephiroth in a meaningful way.

It is my strongly held opinion that geometric figures are the purest expression of numbers, and their use is far more meaningful to Sacred Geometry than say the symbols used in mathematics. Numeric symbols are more symbolic of numbers, far removed from what used to be closer to a more direct representation of the number. For example, the number 1 is drawn with a single stroke, the number 2 as two lines drawn without lifting the pencil from paper, and three the same. The numbers 2 and 3 actually used to be drawn as separate lines, and the forms they developed over time are sort of a cursive way of drawing the figures. The number four is the same. The number four is represented by a cross, or four lines conjoined into a single point. When drawn without lifting your pen or pencil from the writing surface, you will create a "4."

The cross relates to the four Elements, to Jupiter, Chesed, and to the number Four. This is contrary to the value that some teachings give to the cross. Some Rosicrucian, Golden Dawn, and O.T.O. writings attribute the cross to Chokmah, Number Two, likely due to the fact that it can be made by two crossing lines. This correspondence is not only wrong in theory, but also does not fit when working with such a symbol. The Cross is never used to represent duality of any kind, and is always used in conjunction with the Number Four. Work with this figure will give the occultist the assurance that it should similarly be placed with the Sephirah of Chesed just as is the Square.

So then problem arises for some that they then have no geometric symbol for Chokmah. I disagree. There are a few that I have used with great success that tie directly to the symbolism of the Number Two as well as help tap in quick to the forces of Chokmah. These would include figures that can be drawn with two lines or represent the number two in some other capacity. I use the following to represent the Number 2:

Two interlaced circles
Vesica Piscis
Two points
A Circle bisected by a line
Taijitu (Yin Yang)

The Taijitu is a symbol more commonly known as the Yin Yang symbol. It represents the polarity of Yin and Yang, masculine and feminine. This is exactly the symbolism and energy of the Number Two, the polarity of opposites. In the context of the Tree of Life, this makes sense as the polarity of the forces of Kether and Binah. Kether is the active, creative, projective Spirit. Binah is the feminine, passive Dark Light. Chokmah is the mediator between the two.

"But when do I get to learn ______?",

or put a different way,

"It is simply bad faith to to swear a man to the most horrible penalties if he betray...etc., and then take him mysteriously apart and confide the Hebrew Alphabet to his safe-keeping."

and one of my all time favorites,

"When will I ever use this?"

Fundamentals... if you aren't well versed in fundamentals you will take a technique, put it to use, and get unwanted results, or worse; no results.

For nearly a decade Vince Lombardi took the Green Bay Packers to victory almost entirely on one play: The Power Sweep. Now, if you're from the U.S. odds are you are familiar with that name. Why? Because he drilled into his team the fundamentals of football, and as a result won. HBO produced a wonderful documentary on his life and at one point John Madden reminisces about a time he went to a coaching clinic hosted by Lombardi, and while most clinics would range any number of topics, this clinic went on for eight hours about "The Power Sweep."

You must exercise the fundamentals; constantly. Someone taking up the guitar will no more learn hammer-on's and pull-off's before single-note picking; than you would learn to manipulate your aura before cultivating energy.

Gematria first, sigils second.

Techniques are useless. You will probably have to find this out on your own. How can you gain any experience without endangering yourself or others?

Let experience be your teacher.

Excuse me officer, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

Theoretical knowledge is not the purpose of practice. When at the center of the circle you might find yourself hard-pressed to "think of anything at all."

If the mountain of Abiegnus has a pathway, ladder, rope, or route to the summit, it is surely composed of Love. Initially I was going to write about Christian Love and mention the passage:

John 13:34-35

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Even Westcott writes in 'Thoughts on the Ever-Burning Lamps of the Ancients'Rosicrucians are nothing if not Christians, and Christians have ever believed in miracle, or have ever acknowledged the existence of an Omnipotence who can act at times in such a manner as to leave the traces and steps of the process so hidden as to tempt scoffers to doubt, and doubters to scoff.

I am inclusive and not an apologist. If you should practice that one commandment and show love to your fellow man, and not even so much as read the Book of John from whence it is derived - I would still call you a Christian - even if it makes you gasp in horror. As I look at it in the more Universal 'Anointed' sense of the word.

But it goes without saying (although I'm writing it) there is nothing particularly Christian about Love. In this way it shows the universality of the Rosicrucian. If there are books of wisdom that don't contain some words of love, I haven't read them; what's more is even as I write that it seems a contradiction of terms.

Should you find yourself awake in the spirit you'll see that this lends itself to the first of six rules viz.

To alleviate suffering and to cure the sick and without accepting any remuneration.

So, go ahead and practice ceremony, alchemy etc. without love - I dare you. Or read just a bit differently - Spread a little more love this week than last week, and compound that further next week.

A dear friend and brother gave me this meditation - in regards to compassion (paraphrased)

If you find it difficult to show a given person or persons a great amount of compassion then odds are that you are too focused on the hi-story you've made up about both yourself and that person or group of people. Take a step back and identify less with your meat-puppet and identify your consciousness with Universal Compassion. If, like me, you find that you want to express compassion from the heights of Kether all the way down to the G'uph in Malkuth (or wherever she's residing these days) then:

1. visualize this person (in the case of visualization it would probably be most beneficial to do this one person at a time) who for whatever reason you can show neither love nor compassion to, and

2. see them suffering, if this does not immediately soften your heart,

3. see them on their death-bed and ask yourself if your animosity towards them is so strong that you would bind them to yourself after their death.

4. If by now you still have a hard time mustering up love and compassion for this person, see someone they love who is suffering and see them caring for this person.

- What if, I don't know what this person's loved-ones look like?

Then the person impacts your life far less than you're giving them credit for... get over it

Ah yes, the importance of fundamentals is, well… fundamental! And one of the most fundamental subjects to a Rosicrucian is the study of Alchemy. And one of the most fundamental subjects of Alchemy is the all encompassing maxim of ‘Solve et Coagula’. For those that aren’t familiar with this Latin phrase, it translates to ‘Dissolve and Coagulate/Recombine’ and indicates that in the Great Work we must break down the material to be transformed and recombine its most essential parts.

The concept of ‘Solve et Coagula’ exists most notably in the story of the Phoenix who is birthed from the ashes of its own destruction. Another animal allegory is the Ouroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, showing a cyclical nature and a constant loop. Other such ideas of destruction/creation can be seen in the East as the Taijitu (Yinyang) then later in the West as Sulphur and Mercury. The symbol of the Taijitu was discussed in an earlier blog to represent the sphere of Chokmah but here I display it as a dance between masculine and feminine forces. I also offer the symbol of the Caduceus to partially display this idea in the serpents winding along its central shaft. These serpents - one white and one dark - have an ancient Sumerian counterpart known as Ningishzida which was represented as early as 2100 B.C., which indicates that this idea of two interlocking forces has been a part of human history for millennia.

In the Alchemical operation itself, this is accomplished through the many and various processes such as calcination or distillation then later the parts that have been removed and purified are all rejoined to create a new and wonderful product; but this process is not exclusive to alchemy alone. One might recognize similar occurrences in everyday activities such as cooking - where the recombination of gravy to meat brings all the flavors together - and in music - where the harmonies and rhythms of instruments are rejoined to complete a full symphony. Disolution and Reconstitution exist manifold in our Universe.

Of the Universal forces represented by this dance of Destruction and Creation we are brought to the qualities of the third Sephirah and the sphere of Saturn. In mythology Saturn gives birth to her children only to devour them again. The turning of the wheel of time comes into play in Solve et Coagula for the ultimate perfection of the work; as any alchemist or magician will tell you, the Great Work is an ongoing process. So in alchemy the matter to be perfected will go through Solve et Coagula multiple times. When a substance is broken into its Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt it will again be recombined only to be separated again.

Our world is no different from an alchemists philosophical substances which he perfects through Solve et Coagula. As we read in the book of Revelations, the Earth and Mankind are separated. Time and again does Mankind go through terrible trials and dissolution until at last all is perfected when Christ returns and says “I am the Alpha and Omega; the first and the last.”

I just wanted to take the time to share a site that I stumbled across a few weeks ago. It's called OccultCenter. It seems rather new. While some of the stuff is fun to read for giggles, I'm really posting about this site because they had links to downloadable PDFs of the Dictionnaire Infernal and a Clavicula Salomonis, sort of.

A printed copy of the Dictionnaire Infernal is a coveted prize for any library. The illustrations are quite impressive and some are actually familiar from their publication in such works as the Goetia, in some manifestations. The file itself is available from the website of the French National Library. It is a staggering 97.9 MB and is a 738 page PDF.

There are two documents linked to from the site that are referred to as Clavicula Salomonis. The first one was apparently owned by a woman that the poet Goethe had a crush on, Dutchess Anna Amalia. It is available for download from Ana Amalia Library.

The second of the documents advertized as Clavicula Salomonis is available from a German Herzog library's website. I don't read German very well, but I do read occult imagery. The only symbols are those of the Olympic spirits, which are not very Solomonic at all, but are generally referred to the Arbatal. In either case, they were both interesting finds.

We can only hope that publishing these rare manuscripts and way out of print books on library websites is a trend that may continue.

I've decided to try out a series of blogs on the use of technology in modern occultism. I'm going to start with a review of some astrology applications I've been using on the iPhone, which are more than likely available on other smart devices.

For a few years now I've been using a program called Astromo. It is a great reference for doing astrological magic. It is far superior to using an old fashioned ephemeris, though it has an ephemeris integrated into the program.

The main screen for this app is the two-dimensional standard astrology orrery chart. It is easy to navigate through. You can, with the stroke of a finger, change the time, day and year to quickly see aspects at any given time. Additionally, you can easily move any planet to a desired location to see when it may next be in a desirable house.

For a great method of translating and projecting this two-dimensional style chart to the Celestial Sphere, see Frater B.T.'s blog on the Rainbow Banana Band Sphere.

The Celestial Sphere

If you desire, you can also show the planets projected on the celestial sphere, on the belt of the zodiac. The stars are also present in this view, but there is too much imagery on such a small screen that it is just visually noisy. This mode is not very useful on the iPhone screen size, but it may be more useful on the iPad, which I haven't tried yet.

My favorite new toy is the app called Pocket Universe. The free version I'm using is great, and I like it more than the Astromo app for which I paid $9.99. Both apps use the GPS technology installed in the phone, but this app goes a step further.

Pocket Universe Screen Shots

Pocket Universe uses the compass, available in more recent iPhone models. In conjuction with the GPS, compass, and whatever else it is inside the iPhone that senses how you tilt the phone, the program knows exactly where you are in the world and where you are holding the screen. In other words, I can hold my phone up to the sky and it will show me where the planets, zodiac, and other constellations are located.

What makes this program so great is that it is always in my pocket, and is much easier and convenient for finding celestial bodies for invocation purposes. At home, in a temple, or out in the world, this app is useful for my spiritual work.

Thank you, programmers.

For those who haven't been aware of the existence of TheOccult.bz, it is a website that is filled with numerous torrents for occult literature, of a variety of subjects. I don't personally have an account, as I never caught on to the whole torrent thing, but I know a few people who do.

Pros

It's free (kind of)
A great place to find obscure or out of print resources
Very well organized, can search by major categories (such as Rosicrucian, Golden Dawn, Alchemy, Astrology, and other I can't remember)

Cons

Not really free (you have to either upload documents or pay in order to maintain membership, therefore someone is probably profiting off the illegal service of distributing copyrighted materials)
There are books available for download from modern authors who have done a great deal of service to the modern occult community and are getting ripped off from this community (please buy these books, so that talented and experienced authors will continue to write and contribute to our occult culture)

A basic tenant of Golden Dawn magic is that powers are awakened by names and images. I further extend this teaching to include mostly any form of stimulus upon the psyche of the initiate. Certainly music, in its effect to inspire and uplift a person (or otherwise), falls within this category. Music can be a great addition to ritual magic and can help the practicing magician to focus by creating an ambiance that is sympathetic to the energies being invoked. Used with appropriate incense, regalia, symbols, and the properly performed ritual, you can have a very deeply enriched ritual from all different angles.

A dear friend of mine was also recently commenting on the experimentation of William Wynn Westcott using a small string ensemble in ritual, which was a short lived experiment. I wonder if he would have made the musicians wear blindfolds like in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. In any event, we conjectured that even the early Golden Dawn initiates would have used iPods if they had them.

Below is a sample list of some songs I enjoy using for certain invocation work. I may do a follow up of this post with musicians who I think gravitate toward certain planetary energies in their art, which I've been thinking about writing for some time. While silence certainly serves its purpose in ritual, and is important at times to observe, I do rather love the use of music in setting the tone for some work. Further, I think too much music can be a bad thing too.

I tend to choose music that is light on percussion, particularly for a ritual that has a lot of recitation, as you don't want to be fighting with the music to make your words very clear. That being said, I also use a lot of music with percussion. Anyway, here is a list of some examples of music I have used recently:

Saturn

"O Virgo Spendens Choral, LV: Fol. 21 V" from Llibre Vermell de Montserrat

Jupiter

"Mai" from Josh Groban's album Awake

Mars

Selections from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Planet of the Apes, by Danny Elfman
"Launch Vipers" from Battlestar Galactica Soundtrack, by Richard Gibbs

Isis

"Flames" from Vast's album Visual Audio Sensory Theater
"Polorum Reginaa 1. LV: Fol. 24v" from Llibre Vermell de Montserrat

Spirit

"Inside" from Pig's album Genuine American Monster

(p.s. Ed, if when listening to music you ask yourself "would this song be good for ritual invocation" you might be an initiate)

So I've made some updates to GoldenDawnPedia.com. I haven't updated it for quite some time, so this is long overdue.

I just added some books that have been published in the last few years to the bibliography page.

I've also added some additional links to the links page.

If there is anything you might like to see added this these or any other pages, or would be interested in submitting an article, please do let me know.

found a fascinating article today on an old German Cipher Manuscript called the Copiale Cipher. It is dated from the 18th century, contains one hundred pages, and is written entirely in code, a sum of 75,000 characters.

The Cover of the Copiale Cipher

Detail of the Cipher

The code was cracked by Kevin Knight and associates at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California with the aid of computers.

A current, not quite complete, translation of the manuscript can be found here (thanks Peregrin!). Part of the manuscript has the label, in German:

ceremonieN der aufnahme

In English this translates to:

Ceremony of Initiation

As reported, the book does contain some rites of some German secret society, name or lineage unknown. Toward the end of the book it contains some political philosophy. With what little I've seen, these ideas seem to cover the necessary freedom of humanity, and seem to strike a chord with the first part of the U.S. Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The Copiale Cipher has a statement that is written in the same spirit:

As I was born from my mother's womb, that is free, not a servant and subjected to no human law, but obedient only to that of God.

It would be interesting indeed to see what relation the rites and initiations given in the manuscript have with the Rosicrucian tradition that finds its roots in Germany.

Pi - Max and Sol discussing numerology

I am a mathematician, and as such I have always been drawn to the esoteric study of number. To my delight, I have directly experienced the power and objective nature of the quality of numbers and have led others to these same experiences. I have a firm belief in the spiritual power of numbers.

However, I start to sway my acceptance of occult practices of number once they start jumping to conclusions with erroneous or entirely missing logic. I truly believe that all things, when properly understood, can be understood through the lens of logic. Additionally, I have sought to uncover universal truths with my work in numbers.

17 = 8 ???
ummm.... no

Reduction of numbers is not a system into which I place any confidence. In fact, the more I read on the subject and the means authors have come to their conclusions, the stronger my opinion that it is an illegitimate form of sacred mathematics. The problem is that so many place this as the core of their practice in numerology for no apparent reason.

Reduction of numbers is simply this: if I have a number such as 63, the idea is that this number is also equivalent to 9 because 6 + 3 = 9.

However, this does not work in other numeric systems. Take 63 as a binary number.

BINARY

63 base 10 is the same as 111111 base 2.

Yet the addition of 1+1+1+1+1+1 in binary yields 110 (6 in decimal). Yet this practice always calls for a single number, so lets further break it down to 10 (2 in decimal). Again we reduce this number down to 1 (1 in decimal). At no point was calculated a form of 9, which was arrived at by reduction of the decimal form of 63 by reducing the binary equivalent. In fact, by reducing any binary number down to a single digit, you will always arrive at 1.

HEXADECIMAL

Take this same number to a higher base, say hexadecimal (base 16), and you will arrive at yet a different conclusion. 63 in hexadecimal is written as 3F. Adding thus yields the result: 3 + F = 12 (18 in decimal). By further reduction 1 + 2 = 3 (also 3 in decimal). Again, no output of 9. Reducing any hexadecimal number down to a single digit will offer 15 possibilities (because you won't reduce down to 0).

Conclusion? Reduction of numbers is completely different, depending on the numbering system you are using. Further, there is no real connection between the number 17 and 8, for example, because 8 is incomparable with 17. 8+8 = 16, likewise 8x2 = 16. 8+8+8 = 8x3 = 24. 17 is no multiple of 8.

However, 63 does have a relationship with the number 9, but not because of number reduction.
9+9+9+9+9+9+9 = 9x7 = 63. The number 63 could equally be said to have a relation with the number 3, 7, and 21, and this is a truth that permeates even the base of the number system being used.

In my opinion, the reduction of numbers is based on a misinterpretation of modern numbers using a primitive structure of math. Nowadays, we have a system of numbers that has placement value. In other words, the 3 found in 103 is 3 x 1, because the first number has a placement value of 10^0 (which is 1). The 1, while the digit itself is less than 3, actually has a greater value because of its location on the number, being in the hundreds place or 10^2, meaning 100. This is actually a very modern innovation in mathematics that is brought to you by the number zero, which serves as a placeholder.

Cuneiform Numbers

Prior to modern mathematics (we've been using zero in the context we are today for only a few hundred years) numbers were arranged and interpreted quite a bit different. There was no place holder, so numbers were usually determined by what was present, by adding all numeric symbols present representing the whole number. This was true of Babylonian Cuneiform, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Hebrew and Greek numbering systems as well as others.

We don't use this system anymore, and a number written in modern time has a specific context in which it is written. It is erroneous to assume that 10 = 1 on the terms that 0 has no value. Beyond this, 10 is a specific number with its own value and energy. Aside from the erroneous nature of this practice, there is no need to reduce the number.

BIRTH DATES

However, while this practice is certainly not based on universal truths, I am willing to admit there is a possibility that this practice has its place within minds that have been conditioned to be affected by these numbers in these ways. Birth dates are a major part of numerology, in particular the reduction of birth dates. For example, someone born on April 24th would be a number 6 (2+4=6), and this would in theory say something about a person's personality.

I think the only way this could be possible is if we are talking about a person that lives in a society whose main numeric mode is the decimal system, and historically this has not always been the case. Additionally, these numbers have to be something they observe. I think the date of birth in the context of their numbers only has an affect on a person in as much as it is a number which they celebrate every year, and not all cultures do. I believe if this is true that a person could be lied to about their birthday their entire lives and that corresponding number would then be the one in question affecting their psychological makeup.

While I believe in the possibility, I think it is also a bit of a stretch to narrow down to a mere 9 personalities, even down to 31. I still place no confidence in the reduction of numbers, but I can see how on an unconscious level a mind might under certain circumstances interpret 24 to be 6 and how that could affect the psychological makeup on a subtle level if and only if one were to regularly identify with that number. It certainly is not a universal or consistent truth (is it even a truth at all then?), so it is of little use to me.

A quick post to make you aware of a wonderful effort by Darcy Kuntz. The Ruby Tablet, an online magazine featuring reprints of articles from esoteric magazines and journals from the past with the intention of covering Alchemy, Hermetics, Kabbalah, Enochian, Rosicrucian etc. This first run is a trial and is donation based. There is a link where you can donate what you think the magazine is worth to keep it running. The Golden Dawn Research Trust has gone to great lengths to see that more than just the Regardie black-brick is available for the independent student and temple; and is well worth your time and donation.

This post is primarily going to focus on the distinction between a magician who has trained their rational mind, and one who has trained their mind to believe anything it experiences as reality. Something I have sought to maintain in my practice, and have encouraged in my peers and students, is seeking something more than a mere personal truth in my aspirations: objective truth.

The fact of the matter is that something can sound really good in your own head, yet when you speak of such things to others they make absolutely no sense at all. There is of course the possibility that the people you are talking to in such cases aren't competent enough to grasp the concepts you are laying in front of them, and no doubt the arrogant man will think this the case even when it is clearly not.

The same can be said of magical rituals. If a ritual works for you and does not work for anybody else, given the same degree of understanding and competency in the underlying energies and formulas and the will to make use of the ritual, then it probably isn't being properly communicated, as there must be some assumption made on the part of the person transmitting such a teaching upon what probably seems obvious to them. The other possibility is that the ritual really does nothing at all, and the person who believes in it has programmed a state of self-delusion through repetitive practice.

In another sense: if a ritual works and then another person, or group of people, is given the same ritual and then it no longer has any potency, then it never was a proper ritual to begin with. There has been some recent statements on the internet that making rituals publicly available somehow makes them therefore no longer effective. This is based on a false assumption that magic only works if nobody else is using the same names and ritual formulas. While I'm not personally a fan of making all things available to anyone and everyone that wants them, just because they want them and not because they have proven their understanding of the rudiments necessary to do something useful with them, said rituals and teachings should remain effective for those that do understand them even when they are in the possession of those that perhaps do not.

The proof that this assumption is false can be formed by anyone who has performed a ritual that is in the public domain. Certainly the most popular of the Golden Dawn rituals that has leaked out even beyond Golden Dawn style groups would be the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Anyone who has devoted the time and energy to practicing this ritual, attaining a proper understanding of the symbols, names, and colors used in the context of the ritual, and has taken the time to really allow their consciousness and state of being to be transformed by this rite know that it still works, despite it haven been published in countless books and websites.

If something works, then it works. We could also look to all the mathematical and scientific methods that have been published in countless ways. Despite these ideas being given unto the masses throughout the entire world, they still work. I can add 2+2 in China and it will equal the same 4 as it does in America. I can measure the mass of an object in South America or on the moon, and it remains constant. I can do an LBRP, you can do an LBRP, and someone we've never met can do an LBRP, and the methods when properly employed STILL WORK.

Isis was Published on the Walls of Ancient Egypt, yet Still Serves as a Powerful Spiritual Archetype Even Today

The same can be said of the Neophyte Initiation. While there are slight variations of the 0=0 Initiation Ceremony from Golden Dawn order to Golden Dawn order, they are all still effective in the hands of a properly trained Hierophant even though Israel Regardie published one form of the ritual decades ago. Any Neophyte who has been properly initiated can tell you this.

The same truth I'm trying to express here can be seen by the masses of religious people throughout the world. If you are of X religion, you are certainly taught names of your god(s). These names are generally not a secret, with few exceptions, but are specifically transmitted to people of that given faith. The same can be said of prayers and methods of praying. Do the Divine Names, prayers, and praying methods become less effective as more people use them? I don't think so. In fact, an argument could be made that they probably become MORE effective, assuming they were worth anything to begin with.

I firmly hold that for someone to ultimately be successful on this path of the Golden Dawn, that one must develop a strength in both hemispheres of the brain and balance between the left and the right. The two extremes of one or the other are not good. Unbalanced intuition creates a state of mind where a person believes everything they experience to be the ultimate truth and the fullness of reality, with little or no care for tradition and objective reality, tradition, or known truths. Unbalanced logic would be likened to an armchair magician, and I don't think I need to explain the shortcomings of such an individual.

In my opinion, the perspective that "magic" only works when the techniques are kept secret to a select few is based on a foundation of mental imbalance. I think it is extremely easy to convince ourselves that we are supremely powerful magicians if we cut ourselves off from the outside world, cut ourselves off from reality. When our magic only appears to work when nobody is aware of it, I tend to think this is actually a state of delusion and is an imbalance in intuition.

The fact of the matter is, even with Golden Dawn teachings and rituals being published, only the people who are actually doing the work are going to understand it anyway. Thus the teachings still remain secret, behind of veil that can only be parted by the diligent, hidden in plain sight for those with eyes to see and those with ears to hear.

If you've studied the Golden Ratio, you know that it is the most pleasing ratio to the human eye. Studies have been done that asked participants to choose the rectangle they liked the most, and they would almost unanimously choose a Golden Rectangle. I've even seen a fascinating study in human sexuality that showed that people with bodily proportions that are closest to the Golden Ratio are the most sexually attractive. On the flip side, body shapes that were exactly the Golden Ratio seemed alien and weird to subjects, as they are too perfect.

The Golden Ratio, also referred to by the Greek letter Phi, is a ratio that is found all through nature. It can be found in the spiral of a seashell, in many flowers and plants, as well as all over the human body. It can be found within many geometric shapes including, but not limited to, the ratio of line segments upon the pentagram. It is one of the most important concepts in the field of sacred geometry.

I was recently analyzing the Cross and Triangle in the context of looking for the Golden Ratio, as the figure seems pleasant to look upon, and so I presumed it must be present. I was delighted to find that my hypothesis was correct. At first I made some technical drawings, made some measurements, and found that according to my measurements the ratio of the height of the cross to the side of a triangle was the close to the Golden Ratio. Then the hard part was creating a mathematical model that more clearly demonstrates the presence of this Divine Proportion, which just required some initial creative thinking and a bit of trigonometry.

The model I'm using is one based on the cross being a sort of cubical cross (if you fold it up it forms a cube), otherwise known as a calvary cross of six squares, relating to Tiphareth via the number 6. This cross is then made to fit the borders of the triangle to the fullest, where the corners of the cross just touch the legs of the triangle, and the base of the cross is collinear with the base of the triangle. As such:

I then padded the cross with more squares and used the side of one of the squares composing the cross as the base unit for measurement. This is how I was able to calculate the size of the triangle, and various divisions therein, in respect to the cross. As such:

I then extracted the triangle formed at the bottom left vertex of the triangle from the extrapolated rectangle. Based on the fact that the height of the triangle, or the vertical leg, is 3 squares high, we can use the value of 3 units for that leg. The angle of the triangle vertex is 60 degrees, as it is the corner of an equilateral triangle. As the cross meets the triangle at 90 degrees, we can further derive that the top angle of this triangle is 30 degrees.

The rest is all trigonometry.

With these calculations, we can fill in the diagram with all lengths.

From the diagram with all the values, I think you can see where I have pulled the following values for the ratio of the side of a triangle to the height of the cross. Phi, the funny looking Greek letter if you're not used to looking at the characters of the Greek alphabet, is the character associated with the Golden Ratio.

So there you have it. The Golden Ratio (Phi) is approximately 1.61803, and the ratio of the side of a triangle to the height of the cross is about 1.61603. They are not EXACTLY the same, but they are super duper close. Make the triangle just an eency weency bit larger and you would have a more precise cross and triangle. Then again, I'm not sure we can get more exact than to 2/1000ths of a unit difference with tools we'd be using to make them.

So I have recently come across some interesting research that suggests that the universe is not infinite, but that it may in fact be a finite space, and more interestingly that the research evidence is suggesting that the universe is the shape of a dodecahedron (12-faced polyhedron).

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac upon the Dodecahedron

The research is not very recent, as I have found articles that date back at least as far as 2003, but it is new to me. The research is based upon data collected by an American satellite called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). This satellite collects data relating to microwave radiation, energy whose source is supposed to be the big bang. The conclusions of this data alluding to the universe being shaped as a dodecahedron all seems to be pointing to the French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet. I rather like the description from this article from the Economist as to how this data of energy bouncing around the universe is analyzed in this context:

The wavelength of this radiation is remarkably pure, but like a musical note it has harmonics associated with it. These harmonics, like those of a note, reflect the shape of the object in which the waves were generated. In the case of the note, that object is a musical instrument. In the case of the microwave background, that object is the universe itself.

The reason I find this so interesting is because I have been doing a lot of work with the Platonic Solids, so they've been on my mind. Plato, while he didn't discover these any more than Christopher Columbus discovered America, attributed these solids to the four elements and a fifth, the dodecahedron, to the quintessence and the Universe, and did so more than two thousand years ago. I love it when modern science agrees with ideas in the realm of occult science. Plato wrote in Timeaus:

One other construction, a fifth, still remained, and this one the god used for the whole universe, embroidering figures on it.

Or alternatively translated as:

There was yet a fifth combination which God used in the delineation of the universe.

The first translation is a bit more flowery. The second more so implies the shape to be a construct for the structure of the Universe. Being that I don't know much Greek, I cannot myself say which translation is more accurate, but the second makes more sense in the way it is generally interpreted, and fits with the work of Luminet.

To the twelve sides are generally referred the twelve signs of the zodiac, with the Sun at the center. Being we attribute this figure to the universe, and the signs of the zodiac to the twelve faces upon it, this makes me curious as to whether early adepts were considering this when defining the symbolism of the Universe tarot trump. As here, in the Universe card, we see the number 12 and the Zodiac quite prevalent. Were I to one day create a tarot deck incorporating concepts of sacred geometry, I think I would experiment with the dodecahedron with the female figure or the Sun at the center. Something like this I made for meditation, which expresses the number 12 in two and three dimensional space:

So many people in the world, of all ages, look at the symbol we call the pentagram and immediately refer to it as a symbol of evil. I have to assume it is because they were taught that it is a symbol of the devil. I'm not entirely certain, but I'm inclined to believe this has a lot to do with the large amount of media attention Anton Levey had and his use of the inverted pentagram with the superimposed Goat Head as the logo for his Church of Satan. His attribution of the goat to the inverted pentagram is not unique, as even the Golden Dawn teaches that the inverted pentagram is one of evil and of the Goat of Mendes.

For those people, it is a symbol of evil, but that doesn't mean it truly is. This is a trained emotional response. This is an illusion that our mind has been trained to accept, because someone else says it is so. That doesn't make the experience for such a person any less valid, but it is based upon a filtered automatic response that when a pentagram (inverted or otherwise) is seen they, in some cases for some people, experience fear and anxiety over evil.

An image of the pentagram entering the sphere of sensation and magically transforming into evil
He is supposed to look surprised by all the evil in that pentagram

That is to say, when anything enters our sphere of sensation, it is subject to modification by our automated mental and emotional response to it. In the case of those trained to be offended by a pentagram, it arouses a corresponding emotional response. (The point of this post is the overcoming of these barriers.)

The same can really be said of non-offensive symbols as well. The symbols/letters we use for the "A" only refer to those corresponding sounds because we say it does. But that's okay, because we want that symbol to mean that. However, in the case of occult symbolism, while there are often specific applications of a symbol, the symbols themselves have significant meaning that is beyond mere human definition.

"A" is for "Apple"
...but that doesn't mean "A" is an Apple

Get out of the way and let the symbols do the talking! One problem I have noticed over the years with so much learning and theory in training is that some students aren't able to evaluate whether their experiences are actually happening or if they are projecting meaning upon the symbols during meditations and scrying sessions. When I work with people who don't have the background in occult theory and correspondences, they don't have this problem. The theory and knowledge lectures serve a purpose, as without it we have no way of knowing if our experiences were consistent with the centuries of experiences of other initiates, but it also brings in another issue altogether. To overcome this obstacle, key skill that must be developed is discernment. There are other times however that we intentionally and properly project meaning onto a symbol as part of a magical formula.

Using the pentagram as our example, we generally ascribe the pentagram to the five classical Greek elements. Does this system work, utilizing the pentagram as a model? YES! Does that mean the pentagram IS the elements? No.

The pentagram is a great model for the harmony of the elements. There are multiple correct ways to perceive the model of the elements upon the pentagram. The one that is most obvious is the Pentagrammaton, and the elements corresponding to the letters, superimposed upon the pentagram from the bottom right around to the bottom left. The other I have found is that which emerges when tracing the pentagram. The energies, following the path of the invoking fire pentagram, go from Spirit down to Earth(matter), from the most volatile to the most fixed. The system is effective.

However, the pentagram itself has significance, meaning, and energy outside this specific use and meaning which we have ascribed it. The pentagram is a visual, geometric expression of the number five, and as such is a symbol pertaining not only in theory, but also in practice has an affinity to the energies of Geburah. If one shuts off the mind and what we have been taught about a symbol, and get out of the way of the purity of that symbol's expression, we can access its energy and force. Many symbols are "occult" because we have blinded ourselves to them with culture, education, and personally constructed thought-forms.

In my opinion, it is only by removing these filters and obstacles between our mind and the truth that we can actually gain access to the powers which a symbol "awakens." We first have to wake up from the dream world of our own mind's making.

Happy Halloween Azrael

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Prayer and Angelic Work

Chokmah, The Number Two, the Cross, and the Taijitu

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On Love

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Technology in Modern Occultism

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Ritual Playlist

GoldenDawnPedia

Copiale Cipher

Thoughts on Numerology

The Ruby Tablet

The Efficacy of Revealed Truths (or Falsehoods)

The Golden Ratio and the Cross and Triangle of the Golden Dawn

Dodecahedron and the Universe

Let the Symbols do the Talking