The Circle

I am not certain, to be honest, just how long the circle has been a magical symbol. I will presume that it has been so just on this side of eternity. At least by the time of Socrates and Plato it has been a symbol of the micro/macrocosm, as evinced by the Socratic description of the Ouroboros as a fully self-contained reality. The magic circle used by many ceremonial magicians, as well as Pagans, today, shares in that quality.

The circle is, simply, a microcosm or, if you prefer, a symbolic representation of a perfected and dedicated creation. It uses employs Frazer's law of sympathy, one of the few things he got right. Its easy; manipulate the signifier and the signified is manipulated as well. Okay, maybe not that easy. I think I'll go back to the microcosm/macrocosm thing.

I think there are, really, two ways to look at this, and though they are different ways of speaking, I think they are, ultimately, saying the same thing. On the one hand the circle is a perfected symbol of creation. All the colors, lights, smells, etc., those are to create a better harmony between the circle and what it represents. But the circle can also be a specific creation; one might imply that the Sefer Yetzirah teaches one how to go about this. Its through this understanding that a lot of magic is done, especially the more Medieval and Renaissance styled stuff and its what all those hexagram and pentagram rituals from the Order of the Golden Dawn are geared towards; creating a universe with a specific intent. The theurgist, for one truly is a God-Worker when creating a universe, is able to create a Space and fill it with specific harmonies. You want the energy of Mars in Libra, you can do that. You want the energies of the sub-element of Water of Air, you can do that, too. It is, I think, the genius of modern systems of ceremonial magic. No longer does the magician need to wait for a particular astrological occurrence to harness its power, no longer does a negative aspect corrupt a working. In the universe you create those corrupting influences are non-existent. In the universe you create the precise astrological aspect exists in eternity.

That's its beauty, but also its danger. Or maybe seduction is a better term.

It is so very easy to become arrogant, you are the creator of universes, after all. We forget that there is always something bigger out there, the non-theistic (in the loosest sense of the term) systems tend towards that more than the theistic ones, but everyone gets it to some degree. Beyond that, we forget to take responsibility for our creation and the things that inhabit it. Magic is life, where ever we do magic, there is life. If we are the god (notice the small "g") of that life, do we not have responsibility for it? This ties in with concepts of morality, but those can wait for later.

But, as I said before, this is that. Micro/macrocosm and harmony with creation as it is all around us, for there is no place that we can create that God hasn't already created and there is nothing that we seek that does not already exist somewhere.

Ouroboros indeed. But we must choose between that, and the crooked serpent. Both are biting their own tails and, unfortunately, all we can usually see of them are their heads. So, be careful; either we crush its head with our heel, or our heels are bitten.

Probably both.

Humility and Sympathy

I sometimes find myself asking, well, myself, does God have an ego, is God arrogant? My instinct on this would be "no, God doesn't have any reason to be arrogant or egotistical, its not in the nature of Ayin to be anything that is quantifiable." Then I ask myself "Then why are there so many occultists who are 'doing the work' egomaniacs? Where is the humility of simply being one's own Self?"

I probably have an answer to that last bit, but lets focus on the positive, shall we?

The Regalia of Ezekiel's Chariot - Part II

But that's all vary vague, which rather matches my thoughts on the subject I'm sure, and doesn't get to the heart of the matter, though it perhaps hints at its spirit. I have been thinking of magical tools of late, because I've been designing my own.

Again.

The regalia are somewhat similar to what most might expect, at least outwardly: Chalice, Rod, Sword and Ring. Yeah, not your father's elemental weapons, because, you know, they are not elemental weapons. They are aligned sefirotically to mirror the vision of Ezekiel, which is a formula of the soul, which is made fairly clear in the Zohar. So, the Chalice of Shefa, the Gevuric Rod, the Sword of Justice and the Ring of the Kingdom.

I would have gone with the Sword of Truth, but that's too Terry Goodkind.

All of this is kind of related to the previous post, but also related to the first and the idea of sympathy. If one were to sit down and read through the Junior Doorstop . . . er, Regardie's Golden Dawn paperback, first, one is kind of insane, as its like reading stereo instructions written in bastardized Latin, and second one might wonder just why the hell do you have to make the elemental weapons. From my own experience in a GD temple that is further compounded when you realize that no one ever seems to actually use them once they have been made and consecrated.

The answer is sympathy. One is not simply "charging" these impliments, one is consecrating them to a purpose, giving them life and in order to do this successfully one must have sympathy with what they are being consecrated to. So, it is a test or perhaps an ordeal. Crowley's version of these implemants really suggests this, as you had to actually design your own tools, not used a rote version. This mean you had to both demonstrate your understanding of the principle being symolically represented and then consecrate it to that idea, to the best of your ability. You had to become your understanding and any failure to consecrate your tools correctly would suggest a corresponding lack of sympathy and lack of real understanding (da'at, real experiential knowledge, just like the sexual metaphor suggests).

In this light the GD tools are really quite important, as they represent, and thus become, fundamental building blocks of creation: the playground of the magician. The Regalia, as symbolic of the four modes of the soul, are the life of the theurgos.

The Regalia of Ezekiel's Chariot - Part I

I have been thinking about magical tools of late. No, not that kind, I mean the "weapons" made famous by the Golden Dawn and subsidiaries. Well, kind of. I'll get to that later I suppose. Usually, I don't share my views on the subject on the various fora I'm on, largely because my experience and thoughts on the subject are so completely different from those around me that my disagreement with them sounds somewhat condescending, and to be honest, it probably is.

As it happens, I spend a good deal of time around Pagans of various stripes. So I don't entirely know that current state of thought in the ceremonial magical community on the subject. My experience with the vast majority of Pagans is that the magical implements; the wand, sword, dagger, etc., are little more than props and mental foci. I don't deny that this can be a way of looking at them. It is, in my opinion, the lowest way of looking at them, though I'm thinking PaRDeS sort of way.

I tend towards a somewhat more "old school" view, with old being 500+ years old. Agrippa tells us that the world is filled with Life and the creation of a magical implement or talismans is the giving of life to an object. Perhaps more broadly, Jewish mystical thought shows us that creation is nothing but Light, though it may not seem that way to us. Marry these views and you have something of my own. The work of the theurgos is to realize the Light and Life of the world. Thus consecrated magical objects are living, spiritual beings (for lack of a better term). If this is true then the creation of such objects should never be undertaken lightly and they should be treated with proper respect.