Divination and Prophecy

To be honest, this isn't the post I have been planning in my head. That post has to do with the three phases of approaching the Shekhinah, as mentioned in the Zohar, as an analogy for coming to know the Higher Self. That one will have to wait. Instead this was inspired by some recent reading. I have been going through a book by the late W.E. Butler (whose books I highly recommend, especially if you're a Dion Fortune fan). He was discussing clairvoyance and precognition in a way that is essentially how I see divination working.

He described it like catching glimpses from a very high window to the street below. From this perspective you can see all sorts of things going on. For instance you can see a man in a suit, though his features would be indistinct from that height. He's walking down the side walk. You can also see a painter high above the sidewalk, but still below you. The painter drops his bucket of paint and you can see that the falling paint can is in the path of the man on the sidewalk. Then the blinds on the window go down and that's it. Now, from your perspective, and by doing a little mental math, it seemed more likely than not that the man on the sidewalk was going to get splattered with paint or even get hit by the bucket. That's what you can predict from what you've seen. However you have no way of actually knowing this will happen. Perhaps he will stop to talk to someone, perhaps he will turn into a building, perhaps he will get knocked down. The permutations are nearly infinite. That's kind of like what divination is like.

Prophecy is something different. There are, it would seem, in fact two varieties of prophecy. The first might be considered "passive," the second "active." The terms aren't perfect but they'll have to do. The passive form is what you find in the Bible or Qur'an. Think Abraham, Moses or Mohammad. Yes, they actively participated in God's work for them, but they didn't go out and seek divine revelation; it was thrust upon them. This kind of prophecy isn't what I'm going to talk about. It is what it is, but without your friendly neighborhood deity there to initiate it, it doesn't really matter what its like.

The second form is also Biblical and represents the later schools of prophets but is also discussed by Sufis such as Al Ghazali. Here the prophet, through various mystical techniques, purposefully seeks visions of . . . whatever. These tends towards being funky, mind you, because they work differently from divination. In divination you are looking through time and space and just seeing it from a superior, but still limited, perspective. With this kind of prophecy you are viewing things from an even more superior perspective, but one that is outside of time and space. Sort of like getting a God's eye-view. It is therefore unlimited as well, or at least effectively so. The problem is that eventually you come back to yourself (a state of sobriety, in Sufi terminology), which is very much in space and time. This means things have to be translated from one view to another, from spirit to soul, as it were. Thus the funkiness of this kind of prophetic vision. The brain just isn't designed to deal with that kind of thing.

Those aren't the only differences, of course, but it is what caught in my mind.

Considering Mystery Schools

This has been prompted by a post made by Frater Yechidah concerning the apparent death of the esoteric lodge system. Now, I'm a fan of the lodge system, yes, there are problems sometimes, but there are problems with every form of education depending on how its done and who's being educated.

One of my thoughts on this, though, is about mystery schools being mystery schools. Classically, there were a lot of different "mystery" things out there; schools, religions, whatever. These were interesting things, for instance, we know that they had oaths of secrecy, usually with dire consequences for violating them (which were actually meant to be carried out, unlike in Masonry today). Another interesting thing is that despite this we know about them. But its what we know about them that is interesting to me. This is to say we know very little about them. Various people from the time have written about their rituals and such, but rarely with any precision about what those rituals meant to the initiated; they were invariably written from the lay person's point of view and, I would imagine, probably mistaken in their interpretation. Some we know almost nothing about, Pythagoras's school took their oaths of secrecy seriously, the one person to violate their oat, revealing a mathematical equation, was put to death.

Now, lets compare this to modern mystery schools. OTO, BOTA, GD, AS, SOL, the abbreviations go on forever. We know all about these schools, much of their material has been published, they have web sites, they advertise (and always have). More or less, just about anyone can join. Yes, I know, some have interviewing processes and don't let just anyone in (I've been in Temples were applications were denied after all), yet some allow everyone in. Some branches of these have simply become businesses, others are power plays for the insecure. Its really not how it was supposed to be, I think. For those who think the lodge system is dying, take into consideration that the various GD orders today have many, many times the members of the original GD and its various off shoots.

Now, there are some schools out there that are not like this, they seem to be few and far between. I'm aware of a very few of them (because, you know, they don't generally advertise and their members keep their vows of secrecy. An amazing concept, I know!). Now, I don't dislike any of the above orders in a general sort of way, I've even been a member of at least one of them. But I have to wonder at what point quantity was thought to make up for quality.

Spirital and Moral Growth

This has been an issue of my for some time now and, as a blog is a cheap form of therapy, here it is.

I have read the biographies of countless mystics it seems. For those of you who are really interested in the subject I highly recommend Fr. William Harmless's Mystics. Beyond this, of course, are the actual writings of these mystics. While there are a great many similarities, and a great many differences (I am very much not one of those "all mysticism is ultimately the same" sort of people, they might all be equally good (then again, they might not be), but they are not the same and frequently have quite different goals, but that's a different issue. One neurosis at a time.) one thing that seems to be extraordinarily common amongst them is an insistence on the moral growth of the practitioner as being both a requisite for spiritual growth and a result of spiritual growth.

This isn't my issue. I like this. I see this in my own life. It is good.

My issue is that it seems to be almost completely ignored by the vast majority of ceremonial magicians, who are supposedly attempting to gain the "Knowledge and Conversation," and you already know how I feel about that phrase, or whatever other metaphor for spiritual attainment you would like but remain complete and utter jerks throughout their entire life.

That's me being polite, but this is a family show.

Kabbalistically speaking one is attempting to unite Malkhut and Tiferet, the Shekhinah and the Bride Groom (Sophia and Christos for my Gnostic readers). The metaphor usually employed is quite insistent that it is the higher that will take control of, rectify, perfect, whatever, the lower.

Again, I'm good with that, even if the ancient metaphors are quite sexist.

Now, let's look at Tiferet. Tiferet means beauty. This is probably not an accident. If you are looking for Platonic philosophy you've probalby found it, beauty is a direct product of the Good. The Sefer Yetzirah gives Keter the title of Good, Tiferet lies directly below Keter on the Tree of Life. Tiferet is also called Compassion (rachamim), Truth (emet) and Justice (mishpat, which should not be confused with the judgment of Gevurah). These are the qualities of the fully actualized ruach. We should remember that the "higher self" of modern Hermeticism is the lower Genius, it is the unified ruach and nefesh, which is then to be brought under the sway of the neshamah. Someone who claims to have this level of consciousness/spiritual awareness/mojo, or even just the union of the two, the lower genius rather than the higher, should also be exhibiting these traits. They should be compassionate, they should be truthful, be just. That doesn't disqualify someone from being a jerk, of course. There are levels of attainment/awakening/enlightenment/whatever, and our starting points will all vary as well (compare with Confucius' idea of the natural moral self before education and becoming a student-scholar) but moral change and growth should be an observable phenomenon for those on spiritual paths.

Al-Ghazali probably said it better.

At any rate, my issue is, simply: where is this today? I know it is there somewhere, I know a few people, fellow magicians, who have noted the same thing, but they seem few and far between today. Is it the PostModernism? The excuse that morality is cultural and therefore totally subjective is just that, an excuse; no one lives their lives that way. Is it just laziness? I admit this is one of the advantages of the working lodge; if everyone is doing their job no one can be lazy and everyone keeps moving. Is it all out there but I'm just missing it?

I hope so.

A bit of routine

Solar Adoration – Thrice/twice daily – ideally sunrise, past noon and sunset.

Morning – Face South, Afternoon – Face East, Evening – Face North

Blessed art thou O holy Bride Groom, who has taught us to discern between Day and Night.

(Optional prayer. In kabbalistic tradition the morning prayer is associated with Chesed/Abraham, the afternoon prayer with Gevurah/Isaac and the evening prayer with Tiferet/ Jacob. Sometimes the afternoon and evening prayers would be combined during the afternoon service. A kabbalistic explanation of this is that only the morning and afternoon prayers, Chesed and Gevurah, are necessary as together the include Tiferet. Traditionally a fourth time for prayer and study, at midnight, was associated with Malkhut/Shekhinah.)

Invocation of the Spiritual Depths:
Me-Reshit, Le-Takhlit,
Me-Tov, Le-Ra’a,
Kashar Yod Hey Vav Hey Et Kol be-Tokh Shemo. Amen.

Ot ha-Moznayim.

Psalm 19:1-6 (NRSV):
The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.

In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them;
and nothing is hidden from its heat.

Invocation of the Sarim.
In the name of the Name:
On my right hand, Mikhael.
On my left hand, Gavriel.
Before me, Auriel.
Behind me, Rafael
And above my head, and above my head the
Shekhiah of YHVH.

Close Ot ha-Moznayim.

Invocation of the Spiritual Depths:
Me-Reshit, Le-Takhlit,
Me-Tov, Le-Ra’a,
Kashar Yod Hey Vav Hey Et Kol be-Tokh Shemo. Amen.

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.

Dirk Gently

I tend to take the Dirk Gently approach to certain purchases and the acquisition of occult paraphernalia. So, after a year of not looking I finally found a good enough tree branch for the Gevuric rod. Now, if sterling and gold rings of particular design were as easy to find.

Thaumaturgy and Theurgy

I'm hoping that getting this on here will also mean that I get to sleep sometime sooner than an hour from now.

A thaumaturge is like Michelangelo below, painting an image on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. A theurgos is above, painting an image in the mind of Michelangelo to be painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.