Zur aufgehenden Morgenröte

Introspection and the Higher Self

2012-02-21T04:39:00.002-08:00

So, folks....i've been posting nothing for a long time now and iam sorry for the few fans i have of this blog. I hope you all still stay tuned.
The reason for not writing for so long is that i have been involved in a deep phase of introspection and retirement, both magical and analytical, and the outcome of this and the conclusions i draw are often so personal that i feel it is counter productive to share, seeing that everybody has its own individual way of pesonal development and i dont want to spoil the process for those who are "lesser" developed by giving answers that everybody has to conquer for him/herself.
Nonetheless, i think it is time again to share a little bit.

Its a fact that i feel i have made quantum leaps in self knowledge throughout the last two years, and the credit goes to the wonderful magical system of the Golden Dawn, as well as to my experiences as a client on the couch of my analyst.
One fundamental thing that i had to learn is that i had many false ideas and misconceptions about
myself as a person, and how i interrelate with the world around me.
Magically, this is the process that the advancement on the path of PEH, which is connected to ATU XVI, The Tower, has set in motion.
The lightning flash of higher reason that destroys outmoded beliefs, ideas and conceptions. Conceptions that hinder the process of true knowledge.
This can come as a shock, but this shock can change into a feeling of deep relief also.
Many of the insights i have got through this have thrown me into a critical phase of doubting my whole belief system and inner motives and led me to the question of what i really want to be and achieve in this world and reality.
What has really thrown me into a dark night of the soul, a phase of inner conflict that is crucial to true inner development, was the realization that i am much more a robot of inner conditioning and fear and impulses to avoid those many fears (the hydra that raises its many heads to nearly all areas of life!) than i ever thought or wanted to truly admit before myself.
I learned that you have to be very attentive and watchful in every second of your life and that it needs a great deal of honesty to accept your own faults and flaws.
But the realization of fear is the first step to overcome it or at least to handle these forces in a more healthy and careful way.
To learn that you are a robot, a slave of automatic consciousness and conditioning, is a tough thing. Especially when you consider yourself a spiritual person and somebody who wants to attain the Light and be a perfect servant for a higher Will, the Will of the One-All!
But already Buddha taught that the first step towards Freedom is to accept that Life means suffering, and that suffering comes through attachment.
And attachment can also mean holding on to outmoded infantile survival techniques and infantile self images that stand in the way between you and your divine Genius.

So, i learned a great deal about me on a very mundane level through my analytical process.
I learend that it is often good to allow oneself a certain maneuvering room between the first impulse and reaction.
Because the first impulse to the many negative situations in life is, alas, often fear!
Most of the people are driven by fear.
Fear is such a fundamental emotion. But it is the best way to face all your fears, without holding back anything, because this is the way how it can be conquered and transformed.
Then, fear can be a very useful guide and teacher.

On the magical side i learned that the attainment of knowledge and conversation with your Guardian Angel, not to speak of the perfect and constant embodiment of it! is an ongoing process and much more far reaching than i ever wanted to believe.
To bring the divine spark to full bloom in ones body and consciousness IS the attainment of the inner Stone.
And between the final attainment, the Summum Bonum, and the beginning of self transformation as with a well designed magical system like the one that is practised in the Golden Dawn, are many intermediary levels, although i understand the process to be a continuous and natural one.

On the slighty-above-average level the Genius speaks to you through your unconscious, through dreams, sudden intuitions about spiritual and magical principles (gnosis) and higher reason.
When you want to know something from your Genius, you have to be attentive, because the way His answers are revealed can come through seemingly mundane channels also.
Sometimes speaking to an outsider can reveal a very important key to something, or sometimes you get hold of a book that reveals an answer and causes a sudden flash of insight.

The most fantastic revelations are of course those that come totally unexpected.
Sometimes you ponder for weeks about some alchemical passage you have read and not understood, and suddenly, in a split second, the veil is lifted before your eyes and you understand some principles in such a profound way that you have never dreamt of before!

This is what true gnosis is about, and during the last months i have been blessed with some wonderful insights about the true nature of magic and alchemy that i now truly believe that the greatest teacher and master is residing IN YOURSELF.
An order and a teacher can give you the tools for learning the language of the secret forces of nature and your consciousness, and can ignite fruitful conditions in your soul and thereby preparing the acre by initiation, but the real answers come through personal gnosis. At least at the level where i am now.

The other thing that i have learned already many years ago, after having performed the famous Bornless invocation several times, and what i am still about to learn is that knowledge about my Angel comes through the establishment of ever more healthy boundaries between myself and the world around me.
And this is perfect in line what i have been taught about the Sphere of Sensation and what magic tries to achieve with it.
Which implies a paradox, because the aim of Theurgy is to purify oneself from the innate flaw of separateness, the realization of the One All inside!

And this is why certain mysteries cannot be told, but only experienced and conquered by constant labour.

Yours in the Light,
Fr.:. L.:.

Who cares for the lamp of the all pervading One Power?

2011-09-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

It was after years of travelling through the wilderness, enduring many hardships that were meant to refine both my inner nature and my relation towards the Sole and Most High Lord, that i came to a desert that was the lonliest place in all of the worlds.

It consisted of nothing but sand, strechted from infinity to infinity, and no creature or plant was living there.
There was only permanent night extended over this deserted plane, and the sight of myriads of stars and galaxies sending their light down on it as the only sign of hope i could reach for.

But eventually i found a lonely tent in the midst of this desert.

It was foursided, and supported by pillars on every corner, and had curtains in deep blue with golden stars on it.
On every side it had three golden pennants extended from its roof.

Although i could find no entrance, i managed to enter it by prayer, and when i was in i found that the inside was circular shaped, and there was nothing in it but a little burning oil lamp in the midst of the floor and a Being that was sitting in front of it, caring for the Light to never extinguish.
I was desperate to see the face of this caretaker, but was informed by intuition that his countenance has to remain in darkness this time.

When i was asking him for his mission he revealed to me that he was installed by the Lord to care for that Light, and i saw him playing with the reflections and shadows that it threw on the walls.

Then i lifted my eyes towards the roof and found that i could pierce through it and stare into the majesty of the starry sky.
And suddenly my whole being was lifted up into space and i trembled before its immeasurable vastness and glory.
Then i beheld a woman clothed in shining gold, bearing a torch with a dazzling golden flame.
She was so full of beauty and grace that no word can describe it properly.
And she was walking in a circle, lifting her torch up high, and the beam of the torch was wandering through all the fixed constellations.

While she was walking i saw her face turning older, but by no means loosing its grace.
It was turning from old to young to old, in an endless fashion of unspeakable beauty.

The caretaker told me that the mystery of Time is that it is a circle, and a circle has no beginning and no end, and that the Lord has designed it as this in order that mankind is wandering through Aeon after Aeon, from Black to Gold in an endless round, and that nothing was ever meant to come to an end.

So i was thanking the Lord in an ardent prayer. I was attesting that iam infinitely small and I was praying to become a better man, and that the cloud of unknowing is falling from my eyes, and that by His grace i may eventually attain the most glorious medicine, not only for the refinement of my own nature and the salvation from my sins as a mortal, but for the betterment of all mankind, and to the glory of His Ineffable Name.

Ben Gamuret,
Summa scientia nihil scire-
World without ends.

Can you imagine magicians outside the blogosphere?

2011-08-31T06:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry, folk, for not having posted something for so long.
Iam quite lazy regarding this blog at these times.
Although iam a fan of most of the bloggers who belong to my Order, and also of one blog of a certain gentlemen that does not belong to my Order, but who seems to work in a similar tradition, iam quite fed up with the flame wars, bickerings and ego-show-offs that go on at the occult blogosphere.
Following this means unnecessary distraction, at least on my part.

I better concentrate on serving my Order and the Temple i belong to and on working to become more than human, which is the Great Work. And iam working quite hard on that.

Iam totally tired of magicians with profile neurosis and people who have not yet learned the lesson that spiritual pride is such a common obstacle on the path to attainment.
Seeing attitudes like this simply makes me yawn.
And believe it or not, there are magicians and adepts out there who dont even care about whats going on at the web! This is a revelation, huh?
Even most of the brethren in my Temple dont care for the on-goings at the web, and they do a good job in not caring but instead focussing on their magical development!
And to be honest, i think the adepts and Chiefs of my Order are much more polite and welcoming to "outside" GD orders and magicians than i would ever be.
For me, it WAS NEVER a question of belonging to the right or wrong Order.
When i got initiated back in 2003, i knew i now simply belong to THE Golden Dawn, nothing more and nothing less. I didnt need any proof. My initiation was proof enough.
And IF i would have needed proof afterwards, there would have been MANY instances, instances that were and are so precious to me that i would not even think about talking about them publicly.
Well, iam quite traditionalistic, and iam very strict in regards to secrecy, because i believe secrecy to be a necessary seal INWARDLY and OUTWARDLY when hoping for success on the path of transmutation.
To all the people out there who call themselves magicians in the Golden Dawn tradition, but have nothing better to do than trying to undermine the magical authority that gleams through the bits and pieces of revelations that were made publicly here at the web, and on behalf of my Order, i simply refer to to the fox in the fables of Aesop, who wanted to enjoy pears he saw on a tree.
But when he realized that he could not reach them, he simply went on to rant about their bad taste.

This all does not mean that i want to give up this blog.
I simply need time to re-think what i REALLY want to say, because there has already been said so much and also true things by other people.
Neither do i want to keep this as a magical diary, nor do i want to debate on subjects where others already have been quite competent and eloquent.
I dont want to re-invent the wheel, and at the moment i dont want to even discuss my Magic, but instead focussing entirely on my practise, experience and internalization.
I also dont want to let the public follow my hardships or breakthroughs on this difficult path.
And it IS a difficult path. The more you progress, the more tricky and subtle the obstacles and tests will become.
Well, i have some ideas on my mind what to say here, but they are not ripened yet.
I have time. I hope you have time, too.

And till time is ripe i advice you all to KNOW YOURSELF.
This is part of the herculean task. While Theurgy is a great means to develop higher and divine consciousness in a safe manner, i know from experience that it does not cover up the whole business of knowing yourself.
You can attain divine consciousness on a regular basis and STILL suffer from dysfunctional behaviour without even knowing that.
There are other tools to cover up the business of knowing yourself entirely, so use it, because
it is in vain that the wine of Gods is poured into broken vessels.

A bit bitter today,
your Ben Gamuret.
Summa Scientia Nihil Scire

Side adventures

2011-06-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Today i have several things on my mind which i think are worthy to share.

One thing, for example, that fascinates me since long, is how to bring statues to life.
As you can imagine, i have a few egyptian statues at my home.
My main Deity which i have since 7 years is constantly cared for.
I regularly anoint his chakras with Abramelin Oil we made as a side project once.
I visualize him growing large in space, with all his colours and attributes, and vibrate his name into him.
I BREATHE life into him (try this with Godforms you use for your Magic).
You can also combine this perfectly with the Vibratory Formula of the Middle Pillar.
For egyptian Deities the coptic spellings work best, of course.
I also offer him food, worship him, pray to him, read paragraphs from the egyptian Book of the Dead, light special coloured candles, burn special incense, sometimes combined with the planetary day and hour to which this God is attributed.
All this has the effect that subtly and slowly but nonetheless unmistakingly the statue begins to develop an Aura and to radiate energy.
Through all this, the statue becomes an easy focal point for contacting the power behind.
Certainly it would have the best effect when the statue is not treated like a statue, but as the Deity itself, but hey, thats a hard nut to crack for most that are brought up in a cultural environment like ours.
But nonetheless, this Magic is really simple.

Another thing that i use sometimes is the application of the Z formula for protection for my house.
This may sound silly, but iam convinced it works.
More than one time it happened that some visitors have not found my bell, although the description to find it was clear. Later on it turned out that it was quite good that these people did not find it!
And i dont mean the over elaborate workings á la Regardies black brick.
For what i mean you just have to be able to sit down and use your visualisation skills.
There is one power in this formula that can be extended like a protecting shield over the borders of your apartment or house.
You can use this also for giving energetical comfort to people in trouble, of course only when they want it or ask for it.
You can also install astral guardians on your doors.
By names and images are all powers awakened.
Or draw an invisible pentagram on your doorstep, and this is pretty much folk Magic.
Not that iam paranoid or have over valuable possessions in my house, by the way.
For the most part its just the fun of creating my own magical castle, or so to speak.
But i also live in an area where burglary gets more common.
It already happened to some neighbours in my apartment block, and well, caution is the mother of wisdom.

I am anyway pretty much attracted by the practical side of Magic these days.
I know what it means to practise Theurgy, and i know that constant practise makes the master, but i also know that the more practical or thaumaturgical side of Magic is a huge field that i only have touched here and there.
For finding practical applications of Magic (apart from the creation of talismans by ceremonial workings) you not only have to dig quite deep in the theoretical documents of the First Order, but you also have to do research outside the system.
I think the 72 angels of the Shemhamphorasch could be used for spiritual as well as for practical purposes (and in fact i think they were exactly meant for that), but i cannot fight the feeling that their publicly known and published sigils are corrupt.
Because of that i started to do some experiments with their hebrew names and psalms only.

I have also done some research in folk magic and am totally fascinated by the pagan traces that are still alive where i grew up.
But i better leave this for another posting some day.

Summa Scientia Nihil Scire,
your Ben Gamuret

Effects of a well functioning Egregore

2011-06-03T01:34:00.000-07:00

One thing that astonishes me more and more is how perfectly in line and attuned are the minds of members who work closely together for a longer time, even if the characters are totally different.
Well, you certainly know this from close friends. E.g. you think of a friend, and at the very moment your phone rings.
But i experienced this to be on a much more advanced state amongst co-workers on a magical level.
We often dream similar things at the same night, mutually block our telephone lines or ponder about similar topics and come to the same conclusions, and this works even across the continents.
It also happened more than once that when something is going on across the ocean, at a time when we are sleeping here, we dream correspondingly.
How far from being a dead tradition is this, then? Lots of Laughter!

But well, everything can be refined endlessly.
Just think about something i read at Agrippa's- the experiment of sending information by moonlight.

The purpose of Theurgy

2011-05-03T08:26:00.001-07:00

In everything there are two poles, especially in human consciousness.
Human consciousness can be regarded as operating on one scale, having two opposite poles, or opposite extremes of one and the same thing.
The one end is our individual consciousness, or unprocessed Mercury.
The other end is consciousness of the One Self, or Mercury of the Sages.
The purpose of Theurgy or Lunar Magic is to "simply" achieve a gradual shift in consciousness towards the realization of the Divine, which is already hidden inside us, because Man is the hermetic Arcanum.
This is the herculean task.
The more fixed our sense of human individuality, the more tedious the Work will be.
But a continuous purification of the metals will lead to a purification of perception towards the other end of the scale.

In classic alchemical tracts the alchemist is often demanded to search and look into the mysteries of Nature instead following obscure procedures laid down by so-called puffers.
This kept me wondering for a while.
I thought things like: shall i study agriculture now or go with reading glasses through meadows studying the interplay of flowers and bees and things like that?
But then it dawned upon me that the nearest and most obvious and easiest thing for me to study is human nature.

There are two substances mingled and conjoined in every human being and it is said that this conjunction is relative loose and can be solved by Art.
These two substances go with many many names.
It is Mecury and Sulphur, Water and Fire, Moon and Sun.
Translated to the body its blood and heat.
At the level of consciousness its Spirit and Soul.

These substances trapped inside the body cause a feeling of seperate identity.
A new born child does not have this identity.
And a child is generated by a process not unlike coction.
When the child is born, again a process not unlike gradual coction will produce this identity sooner or later. The older it becomes, the more fixed this identity will be.
And it is again a process of coction that helps to overcome the obstacles that are formed by the personality itself and to attain the famous Ravens head.

I can imagine that there are ways that work faster towards this attainment than others.
Its all a question of which Fires you use in your Work.

It is said that Mercury is everything that the Alchemist needs.
It is also said that Nature enjoys herself, and Nature overcomes herself.

So what are we doing when we train our minds and bodies with techniques for which we only need our mind?

Thought of the day.
Oculator Abis,
Frater L.e.N.e.

Magical Synergy

2011-03-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

Following the energy debate on different blogs that are listed on my blog roll, i want to give in my two cents also, although maybe a little late.

Iam sure that energy work comprises the most important factor in magical development, since i believe that it is only by being able to feel ever greater amounts of subtle energies inside the physical body that the astral body, which is closest to the physical body, can develop.
Just like a baby needs food to grow, the energetic bodies need subtle energy to develop.
And to feel a greater variety of subtle energies is what makes us more than human.
But subtle energy is not necessary subtle energy suited for this undertaking.
In Reiki you also work with subtle energy, but compared to L.V.X. in the Golden Dawn i experienced Reiki as much more low vibrating (and therefore easier to feel).

In the Golden Dawn we have a great set of techniques that enables the practitioner to invoke, raise and move magical energies through the body.
Apart from the initiation ceremonies, which render the matter of the candidate philosophical (thanks to S.R. for borrowing this), the practical work is done by the combined effort of will, imagination and vibration.
We have basic techniques to invoke L.V.X. in a more general manner, and we have more advanced techniques with which to invoke L.V.X. in a ever more differentiated manner, not unlike sending light through a colour prism.
With all this comes a great deal of mental concepts, kabbalistical and otherwise, which may be necessary in this regard or not, i dont know.
But at least the objects of study, which should bit by bit complement the practical experience, serve the purpose of training the intellect, which is a good thing in itself.
The lust for learning ever more is what keeps people young.
And the classic hermetic and alchemical studies have the wonderful effect of both accustoming the mind of the student with the subtle intricacies of what is known as the "Language of the Birds", and of rooting out certain misconceptions about matter and spirit we have inherited by our culture.

But back to energy work:
I found out that energetic evolution can be experienced also on a collective group level.
I experienced this with the german Temple, of which iam proud to be part of.
Of course, we would not progress with our work there if we would not do our daily energetic and magical work at home.....but the more we progress on a personal level, the more the energy that we raise and invoke in Temple Openings accumulates.
And i dont believe that a Temple is as strong as its weakest member.
Given you have three strong Officers that have attained a certain level, one or two relative beginners will not weaken the intensity of the flow.

Temple work is something that is growing slowly in intensity.
You need a core of people who get along well with each other, and who bring the necessary perseverance, discipline and a certain character that allows to work in a hierarchical structure.
People who are lazy or dominated by their power drive will dismiss the work or fall out of the system very soon. You also need people with strong commitment when it comes to sacrifice your weekends for rather altruistic ends.
But if these points are covered, the road is free for discovering and exploring the mysteries of the Golden Dawn and magical evolution on a group level also.

The amount of energy that can be raised by this collective work is HUGE.
I remember many occassions when i served as main officer in initiation ceremonies where i felt such a great amount of energy that my body was literally shaking, mostly at very distinct points of the rites.
And after 8 years of constantly working together the energetic flow of the Hall begins to subtly materialize even before the actual Opening ceremony is happening.
We sit down at our positions, and i already feel it flowing through me, and i can see it also, lighting up my Sphere.

When the Hall comes to life, you can feel and see the L.V.X. manifesting around the Altar, on the Pillars, on the implements, streaming along the main channels of the Hall, like the Middle Pillar that is formed by the three main officers in the Hall of Neophyte, but also vitalizing the whole air in the Hall to a truly visible extent.
Everything starts to vibrate, even seemingly dead objects, and everything breathes.
I can tell: this is spiritualisation of matter!
And i never experienced it as strong as this when i was working alone.
The combined wills of several people can achieve much more, and the sum is greater than its parts.
Magical synergy!

Oculator Abis,
Frater L.e.N.e.

Books i have recently read and recommend for earnest seekers

2011-03-18T03:26:00.001-07:00

-The magical writings of Thomas Vaughan, ed. by A.E. Waite
-Treatise on the Great Art by Don Pernety
-The Twelve Keys by Basilius Valentinus
-Corpus Hermeticum (auf dt. von Edition Akasha)

The counter-initiatic force

2011-02-23T02:36:00.000-08:00

In his latest posting on the Golden-Dawn-blog, David Griffin talked about the counter-initiatic force as a force that tries to hinder important initiatic events.
Well, i think i have encountered this force several times for myself.
I remember my first date with the german Imperator back in 2002.
I wanted to introduce myself to him, and ask for initiation into the Neophyte grade.
We had an appointment in a cafe i knew well.
I was in there right on time, and since i have already seen him at the official inauguration of the german Temple, i knew after whom i was looking.
But i could not see him, neither inside the cafe at one of its tables, nor outside or in front of it.
I spent maybe half an hour going in and out again, desperately looking after him.
Then i went home again, sadly thinking that he must have made a joke on me, and doubting my worthiness for initiation into the Order.
But then i decided to call him again and it turned out that he, like me, was there right on time, and could not find me too!
When we finally met again, we could not explain how we could not have met at this first date.
This still puzzles me.

What is also still on my mind is my trip to America to attend an international Golden Dawn gathering and to receive my Philosophus initiation (!).
First, my bosses would not grant me vacation.
But then i decided to go there for just a weekend, despite my voice of reason (and now, of course iam glad i ignored that voice on that special account).
One or two days before my actual flight, several flight unions started to strike.
This caused great horror in me, since i knew i had to be exactly on time in Las Vegas to not miss anything important.
Finally every plane i had to take was too late and i missed every planned connection flight.
I found myself at the airport in Frankfurt, not knowing for one hour where my luggage is or which plane to take. Time was running, and i already had the thought of giving up altogether, and flying back to Berlin.
Finally, maybe 15 minutes before start, i found out that i had been redirected to an alternative route, and that my luggage was already at the new plane.
All in all i spent 24 hours on planes and in airports. And i would have missed the last possible flight from Washington to Las Vegas, and thereby coming one whole day later and only being able to meet-and-greet before going home again, would i not have ran through the customs and practised queue-jumping (i remember one european guy shouting: "Oh these germans, they always cant wait!").

The most bizarre thing happened one day before my scheduled flight to another european city for my initiation into Portal.
I woke up very early in the morning because the heater in my sleeping room started to make nerving hammering sounds.
I rushed out of bed, deciding to deaerate it now.
I grabbed a screwdriver and fumbled with it at the valve on the side of the heater.
Suddenly, the valve broke off, and a fountain of hot, almost boiling water flooded my room. It was a matter of seconds, and all my bed and furniture and book piles on the floor stood under water.
It even ran in cascades down the stairs to the lower floor.
In my shocking state, i was nonetheless really quick in collecting every towel from my house.
Fortunately, a good friend and neighbour came to help me with the mess.
But then i realized that the hot water had flown over both my hands, and that they started to blister!
So i went to my doctor and got both my hands bandaged.
Well, i thought, now i can cancel my flight and postpone my initiation.
But over night my hands started to heal very quickly, and when i was ready for the flight the next day, miraculously i even needed no bandages anymore.

I think i even know, to some extent, the counter-initiatic force, or the force that wants to hinder spiritual progress, before every greater invocation i plan. Especially in the past, or when i began to invoke regularly.
There have been many voices and moods that wanted me to linger away from my plans.
Sometimes this manifested as urgent phone calls from friends with unexpected news, sometimes maybe as slight headaches (that passed at the moment when i started to do my preliminary banishings), sometimes as subtle ailments in one or another kind.

In regard to my personal work at my temple at home, i always thought this to be a kind of spiritual or magical test in itself.
My own Evil Persona, trying to convince myself in subtle ways to give up my lofty plans.
But the more often i conquered this force with firm will, the less distractive or convincing it became.

But now i wonder about the gravity of the counter-initiatic force when it ever comes to higher initiations.
Will i nearly escape death if i ever receive higher adept grades?
Lots of laughter.

In L.V.X.,
L.e.N.e.

Gustav Meyrink and the occult tradition in Germany before World War II

2011-02-01T03:30:00.000-08:00

All through the years i have always been interested in the occult history of Germany, and especially Berlin.

Of course, I have read Karl Frick's masterpiece of scholar research "Die Erleuchteten", a heavy volume which deals with all the gnostic-theosophic and alchemical-rosicrucian secret societies in the german speaking countries up to the end of the 18th century.
Therein i found the most extensive excourse on the german Gold-und-Rosenkreutz-Orden and its spin-off the asiatic Brethren i have ever read, both organisations being antecedents of the modern Golden Dawn.

I have another book in my possession, a limited edition of 500 copies which is simply called "Gold-und Rosenkreutzer", published by the "Archiv für altes Gedankengut und Wissen" in Germany, with beautiful typeset and bound in red linen, and this one consists mainly of very cryptic recipes of laboratory alchemy written down by different brethren of the old G.u.R. Order.

A very detailed historic account on the occult history of Germany and Bohemia we also find in the biography of Gustav Meyrink, a german writer (1868-1932) who is famous for his occult novels, especially "Der Golem".

Gustav Meyrink not only was the head of the bohemian branch of the Asiatic Brethren, but also of countless other masonic and esoteric bodies and branches of that time. He knew every renowned person of the occult and theosophic scene of that time, and he also was in mail contact with William Wynn Westcott, from whom he received certain instructions on hermeticism.

This biography is full of interesting anecdotes on occultism, since Meyrink, throughout his whole life, tried to "become more than human", and experimented with several systems to achieve this, western and eastern techniques alike.

At the end of his life he even said that he found out that the primary aim of any occult student should be to strive to not only change consciousness through magic, but moreover to transmute the physical body into higher forms of energy.

This, and the whole knowledge displayed throughout his extensive body of writing, published and private, reveals that he certainly has reached a high level of attainment.

One of the most interesting anecdotes that comes to my mind when remembering Hartmut Binders biography is that Meyrink once described the official emblem of the Asiatic Brethren, which consisted of the heads of a boar and of an unicorn, placed symmetrically to each other.

Then there is http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/, the page of one Peter König, who is regarded as one of the best historic researchers on german occultism, especially on the phenomenon of the O.T.O., the german Fraternitas Saturni, and everything that predated these two organisations. It is said that Peter König possesses even more material on the history and origin of the O.T.O. than the O.T.O. itself.

On the 7th of December 1937, the german Nazi government forced every masonic and related esoteric organisations to close down their lodges, and on Königs research page we find a facsimile of the original edict with a list of all the names of these esoteric bodies. And hey, this list is HUGE.
Amongst all the numerous masonic organisations, we find also countless rosicrucian bodies, and even one organisation called "Der hermetische Orden der Goldenen Dämmerung", which, of course, caught my greatest interest, since i never heard of one german branch of it before.

I also once saw on TV a documentary on Hitler and the occult, where i saw shots of the inside of several occult lodges in Berlin in the 30s.

This all sums up to the conclusion that there once was a rich occult tradition in the german speaking countries, and that this tradition suffered a severe cut through Hitlers regimen.
He not only was committing genocide, but also murdered a vast esoteric corpus, and at the same time, and paradoxically, tried to incorporate bits and pieces of plain esoteric knowledge into his semi-esoteric ario-sophic Order of the S.S.
Hitler made tabula rasa on the occult landscape of Germany, and i believe only the smallest pieces of it could survive underground.

After World War II, the occupation forces of America helped to re-erect Freemasonry, and a few personalities from the several occult bodies who survived the War began to re-erect the O.T.O. and a pansophic lodge out of which was born the Fraternitas Saturni.
Soon Crowley appeared on the scene, and after becoming head of the english branch of the O.T.O. through Theodor Reuss, exerted his influence on the german countries as well, by proclaiming that he was the Prophet of the New Aeon at a famous congregation of occultists in Thüringen in the 40s.
Since then, the loose strands of german occultism that survived WWII became influenced by the Law of Thelema in varying degrees, and in my opinion, spoiled.

What is left in Germany since then is Freemasonry, the O.T.O., and the Fraternitas Saturni, that was founded by one Eugen Grosche, formerly secretary of the pansophic lodge, who was also present at the convention in Thüringen and highly excited by Crowleys appearance.

And last but not least, in 2002 a Temple of the Golden Dawn was inaugurated in Berlin
by David Griffin, the international Imperator G.H. Frater L.e.S., to bring back the Light to its original place!

My conclusive thought on all that is, although its sad that probably a great deal of knowledge simply got lost during WWII, its maybe not necessary to have a vast amount of esoteric bodies here, like it has been in former times.
We have to bear in mind that at the beginning of the 20th century, and even before, it was to some extent simply "trendy" to be member of a secret society- given that you were upper class or at least of "good standing", of course....
Quantity is not quality.

9/11, Pluto etc.

2011-01-29T09:13:00.000-08:00

For most of you this will be an old hat, but i found it interesting to examine the astrological chart of New York on 11th September of 2001.
We see an exact opposition of Pluto in Sagittarius and Saturn in Gemini.
Religious motivated terror against established structures (in Gemini- Twin Towers).
A little plain my interpretation, maybe, but nonetheless interesting.

Pluto is an explosive, unpredictable force.

We also had a Pluto return into Scorpio when the AIDS crisis came up in the early 1980s.

I for myself have Pluto and Uranus in my seventh house in Libra and Scorpio-
this fits to my experiences, or better the absence of experience, with long lasting relationships.

On the other side, i never had difficulties in learning to know every person that i wanted to learn to know- and i know a great deal of very interesting persons!

But I found out that those partners who were willing to stay with me for longer than several months in an intimate relationship always have been persons with a strong Scorpio influence, and the longest relationship i ever had was with an artist who had Pluto in Scorpio in his first house!

Well, maybe i should start to look after persons with certain astrological nuances instead other features, HAHA.

Tears and Wisdom

2011-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Iam going through an incredibly tough time. All through the last year i had to face my inmost fears and sorrows. I had to face emptiness, boredom and chaos. I had to ask myself if iam trying to compensate my sometimes low self-esteem with success in magic. I felt like running in circles. I also felt like 8 years of practising magic led to nowhere, and questioned if i had chosen the right goals when "only" wishing spiritual attainment.
I indulged in vices that nearly brought me to the edge of ruin.
I also over and over asked myself why i do attempt to write at this dammit blog.
I cried so much during the last months like i never cried throughout all the last 8 years.
But: now i definitely know that all my eager and zealous invocations of the Highest have taught me one thing, and at least this one special thing, although this realisation had to come up with many tears and struggles: and this one thing is-----
COMPASSION. Compassion, that is understanding of and forgiveness for my own faults, and my own needs, and compassion for all human beings and their right to experience joy and freedom.

Sorry for sounding melodramatic this time, but emotion is a powerful force and it can teach valuable things at times.

Astral initiation?

2011-01-10T10:38:00.001-08:00

Following recent articles about astral initiation into the Golden Dawn on the blogosphere i cannot help but giving in my two cents about this topic too.

I have many years of experience in active Temple work, and assisted as magical Officer at numerous initiations of dozens of candidates throughout the grades of the Golden Dawn in the Outer.
Especially the experiences i made when assisting at Neophyte receptions comprise the highlights of my whole magical journey until now, and i deem them so precious that i never dared to speak about that in public so far.
And its not because i fear to violate my magical oaths- as long as i never give out names, dates and places, they remain unsullied.
Its more about the fear that a true transcendental experience becomes stained when trying to verbalize it.
And its a question of magical power that is kept strong by keeping it hermetically sealed (and with this i touch the very sore spot behind my relation to this blog of mine, but i digress)....

Of course i heard about the legend of Moina Mathers, who, after the death of her husband, gave one american A.O. temple dispensation to nominally confer the grade of Neophyte without physical initiation to any candidate who is willing to send in 10 Dollars per mail. I never read anything about this temple performing astral initiations instead, by the way.

Well, its a pity that Moina cannot reply on this anymore, because i believe this is either an idle rumour or Moina simply was out of her head in her later years.
To be honest, the picture of her that i had in my mind after reading books of Dion Fortune, Ithell Colquhoun or Mary K. Greer never was free of ambivalence, seeing a certain deal of envy and competitivness and also some instability in her character.
But, anyway, who is free of flaws? And also, this alone can't be reason enough for throwing overboard important magical principles.

First of all, when i speak of initiation i mean initiation into the system of the Golden Dawn.
Initiation is a wide concept, from rites de passages in so-called primitive cultures to truly primitive adolescent rites in our culture, everything is possible.

Initiation into the Golden Dawn means getting initiated into the grade of Neophyte.
In general, i believe that the main intention behind this ceremony, apart from the official reception into a magical brotherhood, is to awaken into activity the divine spark that lies dormant in every human being.
It tries to trigger and raise the vibration of the seed of Soul and illumination that is trapped deeply in our material bodies.
It cleanses the Sphere of Sensation or Aura of the candidate, and by opening certain energy channels makes his etheric and astral bodies more receptive for the influx of L.V.X., the magical universal and transformative energy without every performance of ritual magic would be worthless.
And, last but not least, it also impresses on the mind and consciousness of the candidate the idea of illumination in a symbolic manner.
So it is clear that the initiation into Neophyte tries to accomplish its aim on more than one level.
There is a transmission of energy that works on the subtle bodies via the physical body, and a reprogramming of the mind by occult symbols, and in certain points the technique behind this resembles what i have read about brain washing techniques long ago.

Symbols are the language of the unconscious.
It is common to every occult student that the mere act of looking upon magical symbols will have an effect on the unconscious. By staring at a Tarot Trump, you allow the symbolism of the card to sink deeply into your mind. On the deepest level, the Trump will become an entity that is talking to you, leaving distinct messages and imprints for you to work with, if you are aware of it or not.

The whole ceremony of Neophyte is loaded with occult symbolism. There is nothing in it by chance. Every prop or implement, every speech and movement made by the officers, from the Banner of the East down to the colour of the robes of the officers, everything has a kabbalistical, magical or alchemical meaning or concept behind.

To see a Temple of the Golden Dawn in full bloom for the first time of his/her life is like a magical assault on the senses of the canidate. Even when the candidate knows nothing at all about the meaning of the symbolism displayed there, it will leave an important imprint on his consciousness, and this is the meaning behind the Z3- document stating that
"...the Sacred Rites may gradually, and as it were, in spite of himself, lead the Neophyte unto the Knowledge of his Higher Self".

But there is more behind it than just displaying certain symbols.
The Golden Dawn makes use of an ancient technique that accomplishes it to imprint these symbols much more deeper upon the mind than by simply showing them.
And part of this technique is to blindfold the candidate for quite a time, and to send him through a challenge and drama that makes his mind highly absorptive. The whole dramatic procedure of the ritual arouses his nature to the greatest extent.
By these devices, the emotional armour of the candidate is temporarily cracked and the symbols are allowed to flow in unfiltered, without the necessary barriers that ensure the sanity of our daily affair with the world around us.

This is no uncommon procedure. Freemasonry makes use of this technique, and we are also told that in ancient mystery cults like Eleusis the aspirants had to grope through darkness and to go through physical and emotional challenges before being received into the Light.
Sadly enough, even terrorists know about the effectiveness of putting somebody into emotional and physical insecurity in order to reprogram his mind and value system.

I think the whole process of re-programming the mind by ceremonial devices is impossible to accomplish by astral initiation.
While a magician or Adept may be able to send occult energy or force over long distances to somebody, or to ignite a certain current of force that is felt and absorbed by somebody at another place, i think s/he is not able to manipulate the energetic body in the same way as when performing the ceremony when the candidate is present.
The astral body is rooted in the physical body and its development is largely dependent on the treatment of the physical body. So if you want to affect anything, it would be only logical to affect the root of it.

I think there are many magicians out there who can attest that a magical ritual performed physically has a much more deeper and long lasting effect than any ritual performed only on the astral level, that is in imagination.
The hidden forces of nature strive to be "incarnated" on the material level.
This is the reason why you always complete any invocational round of a force with the consecration of a talisman- by doing this, you complete the formula of YHVH, you make the force practically accessible in your all day life.

I think Dion Fortune once spoke about this aspect. She said that a occult force, if not called down into a material basis, is likely to bring trouble to the Sphere of the occultist, because till then it is "only" whirling in the astral.
But when bound into a talisman, the force is equilibrated.
The talisman in case of the Neophyte Ceremony is the candidate himself!
And what a living and vibrant talisman he is, with all his senses in divine expectation and awe!

So i believe that the energetic transfer accomplished by astral initiations is at least very dubious.
And i believe that the re-programming of the mind and unconscious by the symbolic impact is simply impossible with astral initiation.

It also makes me sad to hear that aspiring Golden Dawn- candidates only receive astral initiations. With this they get robbed of the most wonderful and exciting experience i can imagine.
Of course i know that the successful performance of a Neophyte ceremony requires the Hierophant and its officers to build up and enliven the astral hall, that is the Godforms and invisible stations of it.
This part of the work sets in motion the magical current of the Order- and that will saturate, purify and consecrate the astral body of the candidate as well.
By names and images all powers are awakened and re-awakened.
This is basic knowledge for any Golden Dawn magician.
But this is only half of the work required for a successful initiation....

And there is also the argument that astral initiation is offered in order to serve students who cannot afford travelling to a temple.
Well, i travelled around the globe in order to receive certain initiations, although iam not a wealthy man at all!
Its always a question of what it is worth for you.
And this path never was there for serving the masses, but for the few and elected.

May you be blessed under the wings of the Eternal!
Summa scientia nihil scire,
Fr. L.

Reflektionen zum neuen Jahr

2011-01-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

1. Januar 2011, Dies Shabbatai, Sol in Capricornus, Luna in Sagittarius:

Ich bin Typhon,
die innere Wüste,
ein karger durstiger Acker.

Ein Mensch, zum Tier degradiert, da all seiner höheren Anteile entledigt.

Ein seelenloser Zombie, gesteuert von blindem Verlangen,
auf die gröbsten Vitalfunktionen reduziert, gierig, zerstreut und unersättlich.

Meine Augen sind die Einfallstore zu einer ausgetrockneten Einöde.

Von der Seele abgeschnitten, damit ich mir bewusst werde, was ich vermisse, was ich verloren habe- und was ich dennoch wiedererlangen kann, sollte ich meinen Glauben nicht komplett verlieren.

Erst wenn ich dessen beraubt werde, wird mir bewusst, was für ein natürlicher und wesenseigener Bestandteil meines Gesamtgefüges mein inneres Licht war, doch war ich vorher praktisch betriebsblind, wie Adam im Garten Eden vor dem Fall.

Die Schleier der Nacht verbergen den göttlichen Funken der Seele so gut, dass sie ausgelöscht zu sein scheint, und dies bewirkt das eigentliche erste Gewahrwerden Ihrer Selbst.

Erobert man sie sich zurück, wird die ursprüngliche Reinheit wieder hergestellt.

Eine Reinheit, die vor dem Fall nur scheinbar vorhanden war, da der mit den Schlacken des Egos behaftete Abglanz mit der eigentlichen Glorie verwechselt wurde, eine Glorie, die sich schon spätestens mit dem Einsetzen der Adoleszenz verflüchtigt hatte.
"Nicht ehe Ihr werdet wie Kinder...."

Die Vision von Typhon, stumpf und leer aus mir herausglotzend, ist die Vision des Hüters der Schwelle, also dem Anteil meiner selbst, der den Zutritt über die Schwelle blockiert, und ist die folgerichtige Entwicklung meiner magischen Arbeit des Jahres 2010.

Und dies alles bestätigt wiederum die wunderbare Funktionsweise der Einweihung, der dunklen Nacht und der Erlangung-
noch besitze ich sie nicht, die Perle, die alles enthält.

Oh helfe mir Gott und meine höhere Seele!

(Typhon besiegt Osiris, damit Osiris wiederauferstehen kann, der fleischgewordene Solar-Mythos.
Typhon, auch Set, der dunkle Zwillingsbruder des Horus, des aktiven menschlichen Willens, der vom automatischen Bewusstsein gesteuerte, seelenlose Roboter, der nur auf die Befriedigung seiner gröbsten animalischen Instinkte und Triebe programmiert ist.
Es ist Zeit, dass der Gott im leeren Tempel wieder aufersteht- der Sieg der Sonne über die blinden Kräfte der Natur.)

Das Labyrinth der Alchemie

2010-11-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

Nachdem ich nun mehrere Jahre verschiedene alchemistische Texte und Bilderserien studiert habe und immer noch studiere und sicher noch ein ganzes Stück studieren werde!- darunter Basilius Valentinus, Eugenius Philalethes, Raymundus Lully, Evola, Helmond, Böhme, Michael Meier's Atalanta Fugiens, Rosarium Philosophorum, Book of Lambsprinck, Aurora Consurgens, Mutus Liber etc. etc.- ganz nach dem hermetischen Leitsatz "Ora, lege, lege, lege, re-lege, labora et invenies"- kann ich zwar noch nicht behaupten, dass ich die Kunstsprache der Alchemie vollkommen durchschaut habe- fehlen mir doch noch einige ganz entscheidende initiatorische Schlüssel-, aber hatte trotz allem schon ein paar Geistesblitze, die mir etwas weiterhelfen konnten.

Es gibt manche Texte und Bücher, die ich schon mehr als dreimal gelesen habe, und wahrscheinlich so oft wiederlesen werde, bis mir das Licht dämmert.
Es heisst ja, dass wenn die "Weißung" eintritt, der Alchemist an einem Punkt angelangt ist, wo er -theoretisch- all seine Bücher verbrennen kann.
Ich nehme an, dass damit gemeint ist, dass wenn einmal ein Kontakt zu einer höheren Ebene, dem Genius oder Engel, etabliert ist, keine Führung "von außen" mehr notwendig ist.
Nun, ich stecke eben noch mitten im schwarzen Werk.
Bücher sind für mich noch vonnöten- und als Bibliophiler mehr als nötig, ja leidenschaftlich geliebt!

Ich glaube, das Prinzip, die Alchemie theoretisch zu verstehen, besteht darin, seinen Geist mit all den Informationen zu füttern, die vorhanden sind (und ich meine damit KLASSISCHE Texte und Bilderserien aus der hermetischen Tradition)- egal, ob man sie versteht oder nicht- und gleichzeitig daran zu glauben, dass das Unterbewusstsein eigene Schlussfolgerungen und Erkenntnisse formulieren wird, unabhängig vom Verstand, und diese zu einem gegebenen Zeitpunkt als Geistesblitze präsentiert.
Natürlich funktioniert das nur mit begleitender meditativer oder rituell-magischer Praxis (Ora et labora).
Und mehr als einmal hatte ich diese kleinen Geistesblitze!
Mittlerweilen bin ich schon so an diese Art theoretischer Arbeit gewöhnt, dass ich mir denke: je unverständlicher und verstiegener solch ein Text, umso besser!
Mit einer fast schon perversen Lust stürze ich mich auf die verwirrendsten Traktate.
Heisst es nicht, dass je unverständlicher die Adepten über ihre große Kunst geschrieben haben, umso klarer sie sich ausgedrückt haben?
Gerade alchemistische Bilderserien wie die "Atalanta Fugiens" von Michael Meier transportieren nicht selten universale Wahrheiten.
Nun sind universale Wahrheiten oft paradox, und erscheinen dem Verstand als unlogisch, und Logik ist eben nur ein überlebensnotwendiges Werkzeug unseres Verstandes, dem Vermittler zwischen dem höheren Bewusstsein und der instinkthaften Natur.
Auch in den östlichen Traditionen gibt es Methoden, den Verstand und die Logik auszutricksen, um an ein höheres Verständnis zu gelangen- man denke nur an die berühmten Zen-Koans.

Ich erinnere mich aber noch genau an meine ersten Reaktionen, als ich Bücher wie "Die entschleierte Alchemie" von Johannes von Helmond, oder "Die hermetische Tradition" von Julius Evola gelesen habe.
Das erste Mal Helmond ist bestimmt 7 Jahre her, und ich habe verächtlich darüber gelacht!
Nun, nach mehrmaligem Lesen, ist es ein wahrer Brunnen der Weisheit für mich geworden.
Beim erstmaligen Lesen von Evolas Meisterwerk hätte ich das Buch am liebsten erzürnt an die Wand geschleudert, oder gleich aus dem Fenster.
Aber ich habe gelernt, dass theoretisches Verständnis mit persönlicher Reife und Entwicklung wächst.
Viele dieser alchemistischen Bücher kommen wir nach Jahren des Wiederlesens vor, als hätte ich sie niemals zuvor gelesen.

Die Kunstsprache und Bilderwelt der Alchemie ist ein Labyrinth aus Allegorien, Fabeln und Symbolen.
Nicht selten wird innerhalb eines Textes ein Feuer als Wasser und dann wieder als Salz bezeichnet, oder Schwefel als Merkur und Merkur als Schwefel oder Salz.
Alleine für den Merkur gibt es wahrscheinlich hunderte von Bezeichnungen, die sich ähnlich sind oder widersprechen.
Meine Vermutung ist auch, dass oft Wölfe, Löwen, Drachen oder Geier ein- und dasselbe Ding bezeichnen.
Auch, dass manchmal z.B. Putrefaktion, Calcination und Sublimation nur technische Ausdrücke für ein- und dieselbe Operation sind.
Abgesehen von der Tatsache, dass viele alchemistische Autoren das Geheimnis extra verschlüsselten und die verschiedenen Ausdrücke und Abfolgen der Prozesse und Kunstkniffe vertauschten etc., um den Profanen in die Irre zu führen, und den wahren Suchenden zu weiterer persönlicher Forschung und Arbeit zu ermutigen, ist ein wichtiges Prinzip, das in diesen Texten steckt, das Prinzip der Erziehung des Bewusstseins zu einem höheren Verständnis.

Letzten Endes glaube ich, dass es nur eine Wahrheit, ein Licht, und ein Geheimnis, ein Arcana Arcanorum gibt, aber dieses Geheimnis so einfach und gleichzeitig gewaltig ist, dass es dem Verstand nur in Allegorien mitgeteilt werden kann, und auch nur in kleinen Häppchen.
Das Bewusstein muss schrittweise an das Geheimnis gewöhnt werden.
Dafür dient die Kabbala, die Magie und die hermetischen Allegorien. Sie bereiten das Bewusstsein graduell darauf vor, irgendwann das ganze Geheimnis erfassen zu können.
Und ist es dann erfasst, ist das Licht im Bewusstsein in seiner vollen Glorie gedämmert, verhindert es seine wesenseigene Natur, dass es klar und direkt, d.h. ohne Symbol oder Allegorie, ausgedrückt werden kann.
Deshalb: Isis schützt sich selbst!

Oculator Abis!
S.S.N.S.

Golden Dawn als eine archaische Form der Psychoanalyse

2010-10-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

Als ich das erste Mal auf der Couch meines Psychoanalytikers lag, hatte ich sofort ein Schlüsselerlebnis.
Mir war sofort klar, warum man liegt und wieso der Analytiker nur als Stimme hinter Deinem Kopf wahrnehmbar ist.
Es hatte etwas extrem beruhigendes zu wissen, dass da eine Stimme aus dem Off ganze zwei oder drei Stunden in der Woche nur dafür da zu sein scheint, sich um Dich und Deine Probleme und Sorgen zu kümmern.
Das weckte Assoziationen von einem Über-Papa und dem lieben Gott, der sanft zu Dir spricht, und Dir vor allem auch zuhört.
Ich ahnte auch, dass irgendwann und unweigerlich genau diese Stimme ganz ätzend und unausstehlich werden wird, dass dieser Punkt kommt, und dass das dann ein Zeichen ist, dass die psychologische Übertragung in vollem Gange und erfolgreich ist. Der Garten Eden fällt unweigerlich und die Hydra wird ihre hässlichen Kopfe in der dunklen Nacht erheben und dies ist gut, denn es ist die notwendige Bedingung, damit Eden sich zu seiner ursprünglichen, ja noch reineren Glorie erheben kann.

Ich hatte das Gefühl, ich verstehe den Prozess gleich von der ersten Stunde an so gut und instinktiv, weil ich ihn kenne. Oft dachte ich, dass der Prozess, den man im Äußeren Orden des Golden Dawn durchläuft, nichts anderes ist als eine archaische Form der Psychotherapie.
Die Übertragung zwischen Analytiker und Patient in einem psychoanalytischen Prozess ist der Schlüssel zum Verständnis des eigenen Wesens.
Die Übertragung, die zwischen dem initiierenden Hierophanten und seinem Kandidaten geschieht hat dasselbe Wirkprinzip, doch dockt sich direkt an der feinstofflichen Matrix an.
Abgesehen davon hat man der Reformation des Ordens im Jahr 1999 zu verdanken, dass man den initiatorischen Effekt noch verstärken und verfeinern kann und damit zu einem noch umfassenderen Wissen über das eigene Wesen gelangen kann, indem man systematisch und entsprechend den Graden bis 5=6 alle Elemente, Planeten und Sternzeichen invozieren und damit analog die Persönlichkeit in 24 grobe Teile zerlegen und betrachten kann.
Invoziere dreimal Widder mit vollem Herzen und ganzer Kraft, und Du weisst genau, welchem Anteil deiner Persönlichkeit diese Kraft entspricht, da Dir in den folgenden Wochen entsprechende Situationen widerfahren werden.

Kurzum: Ich glaube, dass die Ausbildung, die man im Golden Dawn durchläuft, das Verständnis und den emotionalen Zugang zu einem psychoanalytischen Verfahren extrem erleichtert und dass gleichzeitig der analytische Prozess das Verständnis um die magisch-initiatorischen Effekte und Mechaniken extrem vertiefen kann.

Es grüßt,
Frater Leise

The Woman of Revelation

2010-09-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

I was asked by somebody if i think that the Golden Dawn is a luciferian path.
Of course, i said no, and i had to laugh, because magical orders that promote a so-called luciferian path simply teach black magic, or work with unbalanced forces, the back side of the tree and the goetia etc.
But then this man insisted on the simple etymology of the word Lucifer as Light-Bearer and that the initiate of the Golden Dawn invokes LVX, Light, and works with this Light and therefore can be seen as a Light-Bearer.
And this brought me to something that i was thinking about many weeks now, for a long time not knowing how to formulate it right.

Of course every true alchemist loves God.
The love for God, His Wisdom and His Creation i believe is pre-requisite for any serious alchemical work.
By the way, without being true christian in heart, you would have not been allowed to the famous german Gold- und Rosenkreuz-Order.
This should clear away the notion of black magic in the term "luciferian".

But on the other hand, the brothers of the Rose-Cross as well as magicians and alchemists of the west were not seldomnly famous for their many social contacts.
Withdrawal from the outer world is never propagandised at this path, or maybe only at rare occassions as requisite for certain operations in a limited time frame.
Moreover, chastity or physical ascetism is not required as well to have success in magic. A healthy attitude towards sexuality prevents the student from becoming obsessed by his own complexes instead of attaining to his highest potential, and in regards to semiluxury food moderation and discernment is the key.
Even Jesus drank wine every day and loved to have many people around him, people of every kind, even a "whore".

I once had the intuition that the alchemist, instead of refraining from the material, by his ascent on the Mount of Abiegnus in reality descends deep down into the Materia- in order to give Divinity back to Her, that what she has lost at the Fall in Eden. This is also in line with the antinominan attitudes in sabbatean and especially frankist movements in the kabbalistic traditions.

The magician does channel Light into his/her sphere, and this Light i believe not only inflames our beings, but the beings that are around and with us also. I think this happens, on a subtle level, without you having any intention to do so.
It often happened that friends who have no clue of or interest in what i do spiritually and magically told me of experiences in their lives that corresponded with the element i was initiated in at that time and i certainly know that not all of these coincidences just happened because i had manipulated my focus...
When two people meet in a room, their spheres automatically mix to a certain extent.
What much more mingling of subtle energies when two people make Love!
Therefore being a magician or theurgist maybe means to propel evolution also.

More than one time i had the slightly heretic and, alas, megalomaniac thought that my energetic evolution maybe is only one side of the coin.

I had to think about St. John's Apocalypse.
The woman that appears, clad with the Sun and the Moon under her feet, and crowned with twelve Stars.
Its Isis, the goddess of Magic;
the four beasts about the throne, the presidents of the forces of the elements;
the book of the seven seals and the lamb in the midst of the throne and four beasts and elders...

The thought of mine was, and i urge you to instead of taking this too serious to take it with a certain wink:
maybe the magicians of the Golden Dawn are just like marionettes of the Divine that call down the forces of the macrocosm into their microcosmic spheres, believing that they unite with God internally, which may be true, but at the same time, and more important, they create the Kingdown of God on the whole globe by accelerating the collective evolution. Breaking the seven seals and speeding up a process for mankind and our planet in general.

Believe me or not, i undertake speculations like this mostly for personal entertainment. My ascendant sign is Pisces, therefore i have the strong inclination to let my fantasy drift in any possible direction and at any given time....but the outcome of it i do often take with a good pinch of salt.

Sincerely,
the Son of Gamuret

The Chymical Wedding, II

2010-09-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

When Christian, in the second chapter of "Die chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosencreutz", arrives at the castle where the (al)chymical wedding takes place, he has to pass through three portals.
At every portal he meets a guardian, at every portal he has to give something, but he also receives something in reward.
Written over the first portal he reads "Procul hinc, procul ite Prophani!", which is the latin version of "Hekas, hekas, este bebeloi!", the call of the Kerux in the Neophyte ceremony.
At this point it is clear that, whatever will take place in the castle, is reserved for initiates only.
And that Christian already is an initiate is clear when we read at the beginning of the first chapter that he sits down, like every evening, to engage in humble prayer and to create an undefiled "easter lamb" in his heart. He also tells us that "the Father of Light has shown him not only few of his mysteries so far".

At the portal, Chrisitan is asked to buy a "sign".
He has no money with him, so he tells the guardian to take whatever he likes.
The guardian takes a small bottle of WATER that Christian carries in his bag.
He then receives a golden coin with the letters S.C. on it.
It is not particularly said that this sign is a coin, but i always thought it to be exactly that. There is this old german word "Denkpfennig", which can be a coin that has engravings to remember you of something or to identify yourself before a higher instance.
The coin Christian gets is a perfect symbol for every initiation or grade you receive.
Remember that coins are attributed to pentacles and the element of Earth.
This means that something has manifested, or came down.
It is also a symbol for positive acknowledgment for what you have achieved.
In the sense that denkpfennige were nominal fees for your landlord in medieval times this coin in this novel can be compared to the effect of the elemental initiations in the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn as some kind of astral passports for the astral planes in question.

For the meanings of the letter S.C. Johann Valentin Andreae gives different possible interpretations in his footnotes to his first edition.
One of them is "Signum Crucis".
This, as well as Christians formal verbal introduction to the first guardian as Christian, the "Brother of the Red Rose Cross", delineates him as not only an initiate, but an an adept of the inner mysteries.
Andrea gives more alternatives like "Spes Caritas" (hope and love), but this is not the point i was thinking about-
Christian will receive more coins with letters on it, passing signs for the portals.
The second coin has the letters S.M., the third S.P.N.
Apart from that it is good mental training to cabbalise the meanings of these letters, by gematria or finding the yetziratic attributions, i know that when i was reading that, i had to think about what the practising magician or theurgist is doing with words and letters.
For the profane, Adonai is just a hebrew word meaning Lord and Ararita is just an acronym out of 7 hebrew words.
But by constant magical practise and faith in God and your magic you breath ever more life into these words.
You make them meaningful and thereby vibrant with power and life.
You turn simple words into effective magical agents.
There existed whole magical schools who only practised energising and vitalising certain words or names of power in order to attain illumination.

Over the second portal Christian reads "Date et dabitur vobis!" (Give and you will receive). The path of initiation always means that you have to invest a certain amount or manifestation of energy into something to be rewarded, at least time, discipline and faith.
Think of the five red cords and tassels on the Banner of the East symbolizing divine self-renunciation: the adept has to give up his illusion of being separate from the All.

At the second portal there is a wild lion that is tamed by the second guardian.
Very simplistic, the lion can be seen as a symbol for tremendous energy, or LVX, or the magical agent per se, on the human level as the force of Kundalini.
Christian buys the second sign with S.M. ("Sal Menstrualis", Salt of Purification, or "Studio Merentis", to the study of the Most Worthy) on it, by giving the guardian the SALT he has with him.
I find it curious that he first gives water, and than salt.
Iam lacking of deeper understanding of the alchemical principles so far, but am naive enough to interpret this in terms of that you can work on your energetic bodies (salt) by working on your consciousness (water) and not the other way around.

He then hurries to the third and last portal before the entrance.
He slips through it just before it is closed- he seems to be the last one that comes through it (Matthew 19,30-;-))

This time, he does not have to give anything in order to get the last sign.
But instead, by slipping through the closing gate in the last second, he looses a piece of his cloth that got tucked into the gate.
Clothes are a symbol for personality or persona in the sense of identity or "outer mask".
This is a re-affirmation of the necessity to overcome that which is called the flaw of seperateness.

He then sees that on one side of the portal is a happy picture with the word "Congratulator" over it, on the other side is a sad face with the word "Condoleo".
For me, this is the most excellent because most concise definition of the effect of magical initiations in general.

It has happened to me more than once that i at the one hand had reason to rejoice, but on the other hand, sometimes on a material or "profane" level experienced challenges. Sometimes these two events were so closely timed that it cannot be held as by chance. "By chance" does rarely exist for a magician.

Iam not the guy who builds a house in 1=10, marries in 3=8 and has success in 4=7.
Thats why i so deeply sympathise and feel a great empathy with this protagonist called Christian.
Throughout the book, he is a victim of mocking and scorn.
It already starts at his way to the castle, when he looses his bread for cheeky birds, and continues at the portal when he is the last one to come in and looses a bit of his cloth, and culminates in the (mostly) funny mockeries his brethren and masters play on him.
But at the end, he will receive the greatest gift.

Sexuality, again

2010-09-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

Inspired by one comment on H. Frater A.I.T.s excellent blog, i feel inclined again to share some thoughts about sexuality.
To my astonishement, i often come across students asking me how to behave sexually and asking about my attitude towards this issue.
This is a sign that the general attitude towards sexuality in our culture and civilisation is in a deep misery.
Although it seems as if we are living in an elightened, modern and progressive time, i think nothing has changed since medieval times- maybe it has changed to the worse...
Sex is everywhere in mass media- in movies, real life documentaries, advertisements, internet, porn is free for everyone....But for what? Sex still has its "dirty" and sinful connotations.
But i say: There is nothing whatsoever dirty about sex- if its straight, bi- or homosexual. As long as two adults are involved and they are in perfect agreement.
Its just the crooked attitude of christianity that left the impression of sex as being dirty and sinful on our collective subconsciousness- even if we are not christian- we live in this culture and are impregnated by its moral standards and crooked ethics.
Maybe iam in a better position to talk about this issue because iam gay and from very early on i had to make my own thoughts about what is normal or sinful and what not. Even today i find myself often confronted with people thinking or expressing in some way or another that iam no "real man". Thats bullshit. I think i have much more right to call myself a real man than many other straight guys who never questioned their behaviour.
And my advise is: Try to root out all notions of sex as being dirty or sinful from your consciousness. This is not your idea.
Sex is nothing to be ashamed of.
Sex is holy and an expression of the holy will to UNITE.
Sex is the same drive as the will to unite with your Higher Soul, only expressed on a lower arc.
Nobody has to feel ashamed or feel like a sinner only because he enjoys having sex with somebody or him/herself.
Nobody has to "sublimate" his sexual feelings and orgasms.
Orgasms are JOY and i truly believe that God wants his children to experience JOY.
Its not God who will judge you for having joy.
Its the false and crooked attitudes and ideas planted in our subconsiousness that make us feel at odds with sexuality- and these false ideas and notions simply have to be rooted out and cleansed.

The Olympic Spirits

2010-09-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Iam investigating into the nature of the olympic spirits right now and find it quite fascinating.
Not much has been said in the traditional Golden Dawn papers about them, except that the candidate receives their sigils and planetary attributions at some point in the Outer Order.
Last weekend, when initiating a candidate into the certain grade where this diagram is displayed, i finally felt its time to do a little magical research.
One only has to do the planetary invocation at the right time (and a shortened version of a Greater Invoking Ritual will even suffice), and use the sigil as skrying device.
To my astonishement, i found out that these spirits are very easy accessible and that they have distinct functions in the universe in general, and in nature and human life in particular.
I dont want to reveal what i have seen on the astral, because i would like to know if other magicians maybe have similar insights, and it would be great to compare.

Summa scientia nihil scire,
Fra. L.

Gebet

2010-08-18T13:04:00.001-07:00

"Ich bin Nichts in mir und ich Selbst in Dir,
und diese Selbstheit existiert von Anbeginn zu Anbeginn.
Du bist der goldene Magnetstein meiner Liebe,
das Eine Licht, die Eine Wahrheit und das Eine Leben.
Du bist der All-Eine, gekrönt, funkelnd und mit Macht beladen.
Und ich bin machtlos in mir, weil befleckt vom Makel des Geteilt-Seins.
Komm herbei als starkes und unsterbliches Feuer!
Dein Antlitz ist Weite, Deine Schwingen Unermesslichkeit.
Auf den geflügelten Hengsten der Morgenröte reitest Du von Haus zu Haus
und ich erwarte Dich, wie eine Jungfrau ihren Bräutigam.
Komm herbei und verschlinge mich mit dem Feuer Deiner Liebe,
auf dass ich mich mit der Selbstheit vereinigen kann, die in Dir ist,
und die ich immer war und immer sein werde. Amen."

(C)R.N.

Magic and the romance of adventure

2010-07-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

Recently i did reflect much on what i have experienced throughout my last seven years as student of the hermetic sciences.
It did this not on purpose, rather it came naturally, like many things that fit to the actual level of attainment.

Apart from many insights on my own psychic make-up, by seeing how i relate to and function in the world, sometimes coming even as superb soberings and disentchantments when detecting my own weaknesses, signs of low self-esteem and inferiority complexes and the like, i found out that there were innumerous highlights in my practise that spurred me on on my path. Even highlights that had some very funny aspects.

For example, i remember coming to my working place, a bookshop, one day after one of my first invocations of elemental Earth, being a fresh-baked Juniorus.
The first thing my boss did when he saw me on that day was giving me a package of incense sticks a guy from india had left in the bookshop for me the day before.
Till now i dont know who this guy was, and in all the 9 years working at this place i also cant remember anyone leaving me incense sticks for a present.
But i will never forget that these incense sticks had "Lily of the Valley"-scent!

Or then there was this impressive revelation when i did pathworking once as a Neophyte, a specific variation that my Hierophant had taught me.
I was travelling to Gimel, the High Priestess, and completely out of a sudden, in the twinkling of an eye, i had a vision of my Holy Guardian Angel.
Words cannot describe the bliss and ecstasy i bathed in, after seeing Him clothed as our planet Earth, suddenly catching Fire.
When i look at this special event now...i tend to think that this could have been the moment when the holy trouble started LOL.

I will also not forget the skrying into the plane of Earth when i was working for 2 weeks in Munich, under limited conditions in a foreign place.
There, when travelling in the Spirit Vision, i found out that the Watchtowers do really exist, at the far corners of the elemental plane. I saw a huge tower of stone on a vast and deserted, rocky plane. The atmosphere was full of sulphurous fumes and heaviness. I think i met an Angel that shaped himself out of the bricks of the Tower, and i realized that every brick or stone of this Tower is an Angel.

One of the strangest memories i have was when i was Theoricus, travelling to Tunisia on my own. From the beginning, i had planned this trip to be some sort of magical retirement, and like always, magic did not fail to impress me.
I love doing magic under foreign circumstances and limited conditions.
This always adds a special flair of adventure and romance.
I remember invoking Libra for the first time in my hotel room, at a time when Libra was rising in the East, being aspected very good, and i think i caught the tattvic tide of Air as well.
I had a one to one meter space between my bed and the commode, which served as the altar.
The Sun was nearly setting over the balcony, and i could see the sea.
After having traced the second pentagram in the south, i could see the room around me transform in a few seconds, like when you put a filter over a movie that only highlights green and red colours, also a lot of soft focus lens, and my aestethic sense was trembling in bliss.
To be short: it was a psychedelic experience, something i thought the mind always be able to produce without the aid of any substance, just by magical exaltation!
After the ritual i went down to the hotel foyer to meet with an older woman i had learned to know at the breakfast table a few days before. I had spent long walks and good conversation with her along the beach and now we wanted to take a last drink, letting the day settle.
After an hour she freaked out on me completely and out of no logical reasons!
She blamed me being frightening in my black clothes and pale skin, and she made no use of flattery when she said that i look like a living corpse, and went on to question my ethics
by considering what i had told her about my plan for life. We departed with really strange faces, and the rest of the week i would not sit with her at the breakfast table anymore, only seeing her throwing mischievious glances at me from the other corner of the room.
By the way, she was Libra. And i have Uranus in Libra, together with Pluto in Scorpio in my seventh house!

At one occassion, when i was Philosophus, i simply wanted to know it. It was a summer night, and i was sitting with friends in a backyard that a close friend of mine had turned into a little green paradise. We had made a fire in the midst of the place, and the 4 of us watched the play of the tongues of the flames in relative silence.
Then it came over me, and i did invoke astrally the forces of elemental Fire, by first banishing astrally around the place, using an improvised invocation of my Angel, and putting on the Godform of Horus, and tracing one pentagram and sigil and calling on the hierarchy. I especially called the salamanders to visible appearance, and i truly wanted it, out of curiosity and, well, fun.
Believe it or not, it was a matter of some two or three minutes and my friends did not notice anything at all. I just seemed to stare into the fire, saying nothing for some time.
Right after it, when collecting myself again in just being with my friends, i saw a small subtle and green shadow emerge out of the Fire, but thought it to be just an optical reaction.
We were talking about this and that till my friend N. suddenly prompted us all to look at the funny lizard in the fire.
I could hardly believe my eyes!
One of the biggest wooden logs in the metallic tub that served as fireplace had, with the help of Fire, transformed into a lizard of 20 centimeters length, with sparkling combs and gills, and a distinct, amphibian mouth out of which came a burst of fire in regular intervals!
Everbody saw it clearly and had to laugh, and i, secretly, thanked God and the forces of Fire and released them with banishings and blessings!

Iam sure i would have more like this on my mind, but its late now, and when being creative i usually dont have the patience to work on entries longer than at the first record, and, OH! this was a hot and long summer day, so.....

Khabs am Pekht,
L.e.N.e.

Solve et Coagula

2010-07-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after a long brooding over alchemical texts and these emblems, I came to the thought that the two modes of working in Alchemy that are described as "Solve et Coagula" could not only be understood as two successive phases of the Work, but instead as happening at the same time.
The King on this emblem is the consciousness of the Adept, and the sea in which it is drowning is a symbol for the unconsciousness and its dissolving powers or also for an alchemical agent that has great dissolving qualitites, but of which i do not know anything now.
This process of dissolution is the "Solve" part of the formula. It frees the consciousness from the bonds of the body, and may be a kind of philosophick death.

On this picture we see an Egg as the central symbol, next to a fireplace and a Man holding a sword in his hands.
The philosophick Egg is a symbol for the energetic body of the Adept.
With the use of fire one can boil the egg, and make it solid.
In our tradition we use magical energy, known as L.V.X., to feed the energetic bodies of the aspirant. The magician learns to generate and transmit ever more magical energy through his body, and this energy in turn helps to make the energetic bodies of the magician ever more solid and stable.
The source of L.V.X. is akin to a celestial, mighty Fire, that is our Sun, the giver and dispenser of Light and Life on our earth.
The sword is a symbol for Air, and to the magical element of Air belong all faculties of the reasoning mind.
All magic and energetic transformation happens with the use of our minds, as it is said by the Alchemists that the Work is done by the aid of Mercury alone, and Mercury is a symbol for self-consciousness and reasoning abilities.
So this emblem is a symbol for the "Coagula" part of the process. The volatile principles are made solid and fix, an energetic vessel is created, just like a potter who uses clay to form vessels.

When the perception is freed from its physical limitations, when the Adept experiences a philosophick Death, or when his Mercury begins to fly, the bonds that attach or fix the consciousness to the body are volatized, and at the other hand (and maybe at the same time, but i could easily be on the wrong track here), by the influx of celestial essences that Mercury carries with him on his flight back to the body, the energetic bodies of the Adept reach the highest maximum of solidity.
Besides the ability to maintain some sort of identity (a quality that is trained on the dream level i guess), the process of becoming freed from the physical limitations requires, as i understand it, a great deal of emotional control. I have read more than one time that at the moment of this separation (which is a union with the All-One) the greatest danger arises when the Adept is not able to constrain or control his feelings. He could be too easily carried away by a wave of divine ecstasy and put himself in risk to die.

L.e.N.e.

The Athanor

2010-07-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

On the first emblem of Atalanta Fugiens you can see a human body with an infant in his belly.
The peculiar thing about this human body is that it generates fumes out of his head and hands.
Without an internal fire, there could be no fume.
The alchemical athanor is the human body, which produces the secret fire of the Work.
The foetus in the belly is a symbol for the infant Sulphur, the seed of Soul.

L.e.N.e.

The First Matter

2010-07-07T02:56:00.000-07:00

I had to think about this alchemical emblem from Michael Maiers "Atalanta Fugiens" lately.
I tried to interpret this on my own for many times, and knowing that although i do not yet possess the initiatic keys to unlock the mysteries of Alchemy in its whole, i think its nonetheless good to draw conclusions and to share them, even if i may be on the wrong track.

This emblem is connected with the saying that the Stone is everywhere, is omnipresent, its there for everyone, and many do dismiss it as worthless. Its also said that children play with it in the streets.
On this picture you can see cubical stones in the air, in the water, and on the earthen ground.
Therefore, the Stone must be something that is closely connected with the alchemical elements, and especially not with one element but the sum of them all.
Now, the first premise to work alchemy is the discovery of the First Matter.
Without having discovered the First Matter properly, an Alchemist is not able to get the Great Work started.
I believe that the First Matter in turn is closely connected to the Quintessence (which is another term for alchemical Spirit, Azoth or Akasha).
It is also said that the quintessence is not to be confused with the totality or synthesis of the elements, and their interplay and mixing, but rather its understood as generating the elements, as being the principal source of them.
This reminds me of the function of our apparatus of perception, of which our senses are the clients.
By studying the conclusions of modern brainresearch, we find out that reality as we perceive it, with material objects inclusive our bodies as being solid and the material world as something that does exist objectively outside ourselves, is just the interpretation of our perception apparatus, our brain. There is no objective universe as we perceive it.
Its just the brain that interprets the world around us as being a material universe with us as being separately functioning individuals in it.
There i see a close parallel to the nature of the Quintessence.
The quintessence is not the synthesis of the elements, but rather the quintessence is the generator and source of the elements.
Or to put it another way:
Our Quintessence (the nature of our mind) coagulates the impulses that flow through our senses into objective reality.
Reality in turn is perceived as something that exists outside of us, with us being its product, but in truth reality (the perception of a solid materiality) is born out of the Quintessence, our mind.
The perception of reality as we know it is due to the function of consciousness in our body.

I believe to discover the First Matter means to see and experience the world as it really is.
Here, the kabbalistic scheme is of great help to intellectually grasp this idea.
According to the kabbalistic dogma, the material Universe (Malkuth) is just the most condensed form of an all-pervading, omnipresent energy: Light.
The source of this Ain Soph Auor, this limitless ocean of Light, is God. God is the All-One, and as the Emerald Tablet of Hermes puts it: All things are from One, by the contemplation of One, so from this One Thing come all things by adaption.
So, a premise to discover the First Matter could be the realisation that our Quintessence is the generator of material reality and binds us to the perception of being separate from the One.
The actual discovery of the First Matter enables us to be freed from this perception, to clear the mind from the illusion that we are separate.
Would the mind be freed from its physical limitations, we would be able to perceive the Universe as it really is: an ocean of Light in varying degrees of vibration.

Therefore i think that the whole Outer Order process of the Golden Dawn enables the hermetic student to discover the First Matter, and therefore truly is a preparation for hermetic Alchemy, by practically studying and experiencing the effects of the alchemical elements, the planets and signs and the alchemical principles, which are different modes of vibrations of the One.
This leads to find out about the true nature of Spirit, which is the Quintessence, and often termed as Chaos and Emptiness at once.
I believe that the discovery of the First Matter to be not only an intellectual quest, but rather an impressing spiritual experience which may correspond to the Knowledge of the Holy Guardian Angel.
The Angel is the Divine Spark that is latent in every human being, and it is the link to the All-One or God, just like Jesus said that nobody reaches the Father than through him.
The Angel tears down the illusion of being separate from this Divine Core.
This may lead to the experience that the whole universe is truly born out of the One and that the One is our intrinsic nature, a fact that the Rose Cross (Spirit nailed to the cross of the elements) in the middle of the emblem hints at.

L.e.N.e.

Admission Badges of the Outer Order

2010-06-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a thought about the admission badges of the Outer Order grades, the crosses and pyramids in particular, although this idea might be a bit half-baked till now.
I just thought that they tell the story of the growth of Soul.
For example, when entering the Sephira of Malkuth at 1=10, the candidate holds the Fylfot Cross in his hand.
Because of its dynamic shape, this Fylfot Cross (or Swastika) reminded me of the Divine Spark that is latent in every being- the "Prima Materia" of Soul or energetic bodies that have to be evolved during the initiatory process, and this Spark is located deep inside our physical bodies, which fits nicely to 1=10.
When entering the Path of Tav in 2=9 this Cross has changed into the solid greek cubical Cross, that is to say by receiving the purifications and consecrations of the kerubic forces of the Astral Sphere the aforementioned Divine Spark will become more solid.
It then changes into a tetrahedron at the Path of Shin in 3=8, or into a pyramid at the Path of Tzaddi in 4=7.
Amongst other things, the pyramid can be seen as a symbol for the Soul that has become ever more solid and at the same time receptive for angelic and divine forces, see also the truncated pyramids that are used as devices for sub-elemental enochian skryings.
Finally, at the Path of Peh in 4=7, the last official path to traverse in the Outer Order, you have the Sephirotic Cross of 10 squares, with the 10 Sephiroth assigned to each square in logical order, a perfect symbol for the Soul in balance and equilibrium.

Practise of the Divine Presence

2010-06-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

During the last weeks i have occassionally experimented with a technique that Regardie once published in his genuine "12 Steps to Spiritual Enlightenment", namely the "Practise of the Presence Divine".
The procedure is to first relax the body to its greatest extent, and then to imagine that the skin, the muscles, the flesh, bones, brain and inner organs are consisting of billions of pores that enable the atmosphere to rush through every second.
When this is achieved, and usually this will take some practise, the whole body should feel like a sponge, that is not solid or fix, but more like an organism of myriads of vibrating cells loosely bound together and able to absorb the whole atmosphere around you.
The idea behind this exercise is that God is Life-Power and that this Life-Power is distributed through and pervading all the Universe, without boundaries, sustaining every atom of the universe, God is everywhere and everything, the One-All----and with Air as its vehicle, which is the clue of this exercise.
Because when having achieved this sponge-like feeling, you should imagine the Air around you as God, sustaining and pervading the whole universe.
I amplified this imagination by visualising that iam located in the center of a universe filled with brilliant white light or LVX, and that by exhaling and inhaling i direct this God-Power through all my body, filling every cell and atom with its vibrant energy.
And i was amazed about the effects of this exercise!
On one occasion i really FELT that our Universe is a vibrant and living and intelligent organism, a powerful One-All, and this experience came with such a greatness and vastness that it simply cant be described with words.
This exercise also fits very good in group-settings with Temple work, and the Opening of the Temple in 2=9 is just perfect for it. Then you can imagine that the Divine Breath is transmitted from Kether down the Middle Pillar and coming from the East into your Temple.
A preliminary invocation ritual of Pentagram of Air or Spirit fits also very well.

One of my favorite dreams this year

2010-05-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

I dreamt that iam at my parents house, at night.
I stand with a friend at the balcony, looking at the roofs of the houses in the village.
The moon stands in full brightness at the sky above and iam amazed by its sheer beauty.
Then suddenly, the moon begins to fall onto the earth.
My reaction is panic. I say: Oh no, it will fall onto the earth and destroy everything!
I expect a big explosion, but to my astonishement there is no crashing sound, but instead it hall happens without noise. It falls softly, and hits a spot in the village hidden from our sight.
When it hits the earth, i notice a silent explosion of soft and warm silvery light. This light fills everything and is warm and gentle and seductive somehow and therefore my panic turns into excitement.
I say to my companion: Come on, lets go to the place where the moon crashed in.
So we go through the village and come to a mountain, where i suppose it to be.
I look towards the top of the mountain and there i see a huge female giant, maybe 10 to 20 meters life-size.
She is about to crawl down the mountain, towards us.
My reaction is panic again and i urge my friend to hide with me from her.
So we climb into a sandbox and hide behind a plank of wood, we are really small now, like little children.
I hear the giant coming near, with big steps that make a thundering sound.
Iam totally scared and try to make myself even smaller behind the plank of wood.
But then i notice that the giant is already in front of us, hidden from our sight behind the plank.
She starts to speak to us in a very gentle, soft and comforting voice and tells us that we do not have to scared, that everything is okay, and that we are safe and have to climb out of the sandbox to welcome her.
So, for the second time in this dream my panic changes into amazement and joy, and i do as she has told me.
Then there was something i dont remember anymore, but i remember that in the last sequence of this dream the female giant has introduced us to the company of many other giants.

L.e.N.e.

Elementary versus Zodiacal Magic

2010-05-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

I found out that the repeated performance of the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram on the elemental level (that is invoking the combined forces of all five elements) creates some sort of tumult at everyday life, and that the spiritual task is to stay calm and balanced, no matter what problems arise.
But by invoking the combined forces of the Zodiac via the Pentagram ritual i create some sort of tumult in my inner life, and the task is to get rid of psychic ballast, a psychic clearing out of overcome attitudes and habits.
I can tell that the first performances of the elementary SIRP created much tumult! For example, i had water damages at my apartment, suffered loss of family members, fell unfulfilled in love, had trouble at work etc etc.
But by repeatedly performing it i found out that the tumult turned to peace again, up to the point where i did not notice any outside changes anymore. This i took as a sign that the elements are balanced in my sphere to a certain sufficient extent, at least at the grade level iam in.
This whole elementary balancing process took around 3 months of my current Portal grade.
In these 3 months i have performed the SIRP ca. 10 times, alternately with connotation on the elemental hierarchy and Spirit itself.
I dont know if it would have taken longer if i would not have started with occasional SIRPs and Opening of Watchtowers already at the Theoricus level- mostly due to a burning curiosity how it is like.
Now iam in the process of zodiacal balancing, and found out that, just like with ordinary zodiacal invocations, there is not so much happening in the outer world, but instead on the inner and emotional and psychic level.
May my Angel guide me through this delicate phase (-and hopefully a good psychotherapist i can trust)!

Yours,
L.e.N.e.

The Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Zodiac and Assumption of God-Forms

2010-05-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

In order to prepare for the performance of the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Zodiac, where the magician invokes the forces of every zodiacal sign in one session, i decided to train myself by first invoking all the cardinal, then the kerubic and finally the mutable signs, that is invoking the Quadruplicities.
I found out that this is also a perfect exercise for creating the respective God-Forms, seeing that in each of the three sessions the colors of the Godforms complement each other at the opposite direction of the Temple, which made it quite simple to create the astral hall.
For example, for the invocation of the cardinal signs we have Aries with red at the East and Libra with green at the West, and Capricorn with blue-violet at the South and Cancer with yellow-orange at the North.
The creation of the God-Forms is an integral part of every ritual invocation and i noticed that the more precise and patient i work on this part, the better is the outcome of the whole ritual.
I will give an example how i proceed.
After the introductory banishings, purification and consecrations and after having invoked the Highest Divine Force with as much devotion and emotion as possible, i sit down at the Altar, relax my body and close my eyes.
I imagine the room where i work in vanishing in a silvery-white mist, till everything is filled with this silvery-white light, symbolic for the astral Light.
Then i imagine sitting in a large temple in the form of a perfect cube. The floor has black and white tiles, like in a traditional Golden Dawn temple, and in the middle is the double cube Altar of the Universe, and between the Altar and the East stand the black and white pillars of Jakin and Boaz.
Then i imagine the walls of the temple colored in the colors of the respective forces, like for the cardinal signs red in the East, blue-violet in the South, green in the West and yellow-orange in the North.
To keep this posting short, i will only give an example for the creation of the Godform of Libra in the West, which is the egyptian Maat.
I stare at the green temple wall and imagine a portal opening in its middle, with red pillars on each side. Over the portal i can see the red glyph of Libra flashing on the green wall.
Then i vibrate the name of Maat for the first time and see that it takes shape for the first time between the pillars of the portal. I imagine the headdress (a feather), the dress, the lotuswand and ankh in her hands. Then i vibrate the second time and the shape of Maat gets more alive with color- a green dress with red trim, green and red egyptian-style jewelry around the neck and ankles, green nemyss with smaller red stripes and a feather on her head.
When i vibrate the third time, the details become more clear. I see her face more clearly, her make-up, the details of the jewelry and implements.
I vibrate her name the fourth time and imagine her becoming truly alive, seeing that she opens her eyes, seeing her chest moving with her breath etc.
Then i take my time and go through all the details again, mostly i start from the top, her head-dress, going down all her body to the feet.
Then i use the vibration formula of the Middle Pillar to enliven the God-Form ever more. I invoke Kether, bring a shaft of white Light to Tiphareth, vibrate the name of Maat there, bring it down to Malkuth, and up to Tiphareth again, where i once again vibrate her name, and then i project the name out of myself by giving the Sign of the Enterer, projecting a powerful shaft of white Light into the God-Form, and sealing it with the Sign of Silence. This will enliven the God-Form to the greatest extent.
Sometimes i also use my breath by imagining that i breath life into the form.
When it comes to assume it i first go the respective quarter and vibrate the name several times.
I imagine the form coming towards me, with its back before me. I concentrate on my Tiphareth center and softly step into it.
Then i imagine that my whole body turns into the God. I see myself dressed as the God, in the respective colors, having the jewelry and the head-dress on, also holding the implements.
When this is done sufficiently, i vibrate the name again for several times and give the Sign of the Enterer. When having done this, i imagine that i grow bigger and bigger, till i have the feeling that i truly AM the God, standing huge in the Universe, vibrating with power and grace.
I vibrate the name several times more, bringing myself in divine ecstasy, and finally i perform the Kabbalistic Cross to ground the feeling.
I view the assumption as succesful when having the feeling that iam really huge and vibrating with power, and feeling a flow of warm energy trickling through my body, like being bathed in warm golden sunlight.
Then i start to invoke the force with the respective pentagram, sings and names.
When the assumption is successful, the invocation itself usually takes not much energy.
I also amplify the invocation by imagining a current of light flowing through the invoking pentagram, saturating the God-Form with more life and power, and pouring through the Tiphareth center of the Form into my temple room.
To divest of the God-Form, i start to vibrate the name again, and with each vibration i grow smaller again and get more and more aware of my own body and personality, till i finally step out of the Form with the Sign of Silence, imagining the Form moving between the pillars of the portal in the wall again.
At the end of each invocation, after the Greater Banishing, i take my time to imagine the astral hall again, and reverse the process by imagining that the God-Forms in the quarters give the Sign of Silence and turn backwards and out of the Temple, the portals close, the colors fade, the walls fade and everything is filled with the silvery-white mist of astral Light again.
Then i perform the Lesser Banishings.

Ascetism and Sexuality

2010-05-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that many novices and candidates for initiation think that ascetism is necessary for success in the magical arts and thereby busy themselves e.g. with not drinking alcohol anymore or suppressing their sexual drive. I think this is a mistake. On one hand it is surely healthy to stop wasting the body with poisonous substances like alcohol and tobacco, seeing that the body is the physical temple of the Lower Will and Higher Self.
On the other hand there arises a great danger of developing some sort of spiritual heroism or egotism, which may be a far greater sin than enjoying worldly pleasures from time to time.
One of the keywords to success in Magic is Balance. Amongst other things, this means to be moderate in all things human. One should neither practise vice, nor strict ascetism.
Especially regarding the sexual drive this is very important. I have heard from many students that they try to suppress it to the point of having no sex at all anymore, only to find themselves "tortured" by sexual dreams and obsessions.
There is the diffuse notion throughout the esoteric camps that the sexual drive has to be sublimated, that its energy has to be directed towards the higher chakras in order to reach enlightenment.
This may be true for some eastern practises, but surely not for hermetic Magic.
I think a healthy attitude towards sexuality is really necessary. To suppress sexuality over a long time can only result in obsession and perversion. A fact that the current scandals with german catholic priests can attest.
The sexual impulse is a creative expression of the Divine Life-force that saturates all the Universe, and as such it should be treated. To suppress sexuality means to deny this fact, and to contaminate it by unconsciously viewing it as something impure.
Instead we should consider sexuality, may it be straight, homo- or bisexual, as something sacred and rejoice when we have a partner with whom we can enjoy this sacred act of union.
Unfortunately the whole so-called sophisticated western civilisation is in a crooked situation in regards to sexuality. The media, at least in Germany, nearly explodes with sexual images. Sex sells everywhere, may it be in movies, fine arts or advertisements.
But at the same time i always get the feeling that sex still is viewed as something dirty, something that one has to be ashamed of.
Maybe iam over-sensitive to this fact because iam gay. You can find the mandatory gay couple in every soap opera on TV, but at the same time the teachers of every primary school confirm that "gay asshole" and "faggot" are the most used swearwords on the schoolyard. This is pretty sad.

But I want to come back to ascetism. I think Israel Regardie once wrote that many students of the occult fall into the trap of confusing the voice of their infantile ego with the voice of their Higher Self. To be more plain, many tend to think that "when i dont drink alcohol anymore or when i dont do this or that anymore, i will reach my Higher Self". I think this is not true. The Angel is not reached by good deeds or virtues, instead virtue is the outcome of communion with the Angel, but then virtues may have another connotation, and may not be measured by common moral standards anymore, instead taking on an alltogether different meaning.
Desires do not have to be suppressed, but instead purified. And purification means to analyse the true impact of every desire, seeing if it is necessary to fulfill it in order to be satisfied or if its just another escapist tendency.
Eliphas Levi once wrote that only he can enjoy the lust of love who has overcome the love for lust.
We all have to handle our saturnian appetites. In fact, we are all human and equipped with physical bodies that have certain appetites. We have to see that we dont overfeed them, but give them moderate nutrition.
When it comes to semiluxury food we have to see that we dont become slaves of our passions but instead become masters over our desires.
This may be a hard task, but its the only way to the golden palace.
The attitude of temperance in all things human is what distinguishes the hermetic path from the eastern paths. I think the roscicrucian claim that none of the posterity should be constrained to wear one certain kind of habit but therein to follow the custom of the country points in the same direction.
And also it is to be considered that the path that leads to Tiphareth is the path of Samekh, the path of Temperance, which is the straight and narrow path, and only few are able to find it.

In L.V.X.,
Frater L.e.N.e.

Sorry for the break

2010-05-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a long time since i posted something here. Iam well aware that the longer i keep on pausing the greater is the danger that people forget about this blog.
The pause was not about laziness. I just had a lot going on in my life. Iam deeply involved in my grade work, temple work, tutoring students etc.
So if there is anybody out there who is interested in this blog, iam sorry, but i can assure you that i still want to work on it.

In Licht, Liebe und Leben,
Frater L.e.N.e.

Who is Frater L.e.N.e.? - Part 2

2009-12-13T04:46:00.000-08:00

After having my first spiritual awakening when i was 19, i knew that the Search for Light will be the most important factor for me in this present incarnation.
I felt a deep longing for the gigantic feeling of Divine Love that i have experienced in these split-seconds, and 15 years later i still feel this longing burning in my heart.
But i still was very young and wild and therefore would not have the persistence to submit to a daily discipline of spiritual practise.
Also, i was not sure if eastern practises would be the best option.
Although i already had a copy of Israel Regardies "Golden Dawn" in my possession, i did not know that it is a workable system even without an existing Order. I just had a few glances at the Initiation Rituals in there and thought them to be far too complicated to do something practically with it, on myself and without any group or teacher.

At the age of 20 i moved from Southern Germany to Berlin, feeling that my environment had become too narrow-minded for me to fulfill my dreams.
In this crazy town that i still love so much i first started to go to school again, preparing for my high-school exams at a school for adult education.
For the next 5 years my interest in spirituality faded.
I was too busy in exploring what adventures my new habitat had to offer me, made many friends, went to a lot of parties and also engaged in small art projects.
Eventually, this somehow spiritual unfocussed life-style led to a deep personal crisis.
After a violent breach with a man that i was deeply in love with at this time, i suffered severe feelings of depression and loss of identity in the year of 2000.
I could not open the door for visiting friends, did not want to read a book or listen to music, could not do anything except for eating and sleeping, and just shut myself up in my house, awaking every morning with the deep feeling of not knowing anymore who I am. Often, the days in this year started with tears and desperation and ended with panic attacks on the street when i tried to go to the supermarket.
But, as it is normal with every spiritual crisis, there was a little glimpse of Light that shone through all this desperation and that finally helped me to come out of it again, fortunately without having to look for professional help.
It happened that one time i picked up a book from my bookshelve, and more or less out of chance it was a book by Carlos Castaneda, that i have read and admired when being a teenager.
At random i read a small passage about the concept of Tonal and Nagual, with the Tonal as everything that can be perceived and termed as reality, and the Nagual as everything that lies beneath and beyond this material reality. It also said that if a person once made contact to the Nagual and after that did not care about the implications and impact of this experience, s/he would ever suffer a feeling of undefined longing, a longing that could never be stilled with any material act.
By reading these few sentences, i suddenly began to realize the true meaning of my present and completely unpleasant state of mind.
So i started to think about what i really want out of this life and made some serious decisions.
I started to prescribe a daily routine of fitness training and meditation to myself and entered one of the local universities to study comparative religious sciences.
With this, the interest in the occult was enflamed again.
I bought every book about magic i could lay my hands on, and especially read everything from and about Aleister Crowley.
In the years of 2001 and 2002 i experimented with some kind of self-styled auto-erotic magic on a regular basis by creating one personal sigil per month and charging this with sexual energy and will-power with the intent to come into closer contact with my Holy Guardian Angel.
I somehow also began to realize that without help from any spiritual teacher or school that fitted my temperament and character, i could not progress further.
This thought was quite new for me, seeing that up to this point i have always regarded myself as some sort of spiritual and solitary warrior.
Eventually- i heard about the inauguration of a local Golden Dawn temple in Berlin at the end of the year 2002!
I was totally surprised because i had thought that the famous Golden Dawn was dead long ago!
Of course, i went to this public event where our Chief Adept held a lecture about the Golden Dawn and its system, and introduced the Hierophant of the new temple to the guests.
I was deeply impressed by the sobriety and solemnity of this lecture and event and had a very peculiar vision when the Chief Adept provided a Skrying session with one of the main symbols of the tradition.
Straight after this event i bought the "Ritual Magic Manual" by David Griffin and at home performed my first Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and Middle Pillar along its outlines.
From this moment on i knew that eventually i had found the spiritual techniques that i was looking for for so long!

So in April 2003 i got initiated into the Neophyte Grade of the Golden Dawn and therewith became a member of the local temple.
I consider this initiation as the most important day in all my life.
It was truly a new beginning and i will always be grateful for having got this remarkable opportunity. No word can truly describe what this initiation meant to me.
I was 28 then and time was ripe and perfect for a disciplined, practical and scientific approach to the spiritual heights i have sworn myself to reach long ago!

And here I am, still a member of the german Temple and international Order, and all i can say is that the Order and its brilliant system of attainment did never disappoint me at any given time.
Over the years i have realised that attainment is not a single event, but more likely demands a life-long endeavour and willingness to tread the path, no matter what grade you are in.
I also realised that spiritual development comes gradual only, that the powers of the Soul unfold subtle and slowly and only with a great amount of personal discipline and perseverance, and that
the process of going through the grades is often an unpleasant one, because you are forced to reflect deeply on every trait of your personality.
In order to establish contact with the Divine, you first have to establish balance in your Microcosm, at least to a certain extent.
This is what the elemental grades of the Outer Order aim at- they prepare your sphere for the cultivation of Soul. And at the same time, you are made perfect in the performance of basic magical techniques like Banishing, Invocations, Skryings, Consecrations and Divination.
I will ever be grateful for the founders of this system and everybody who is willing to teach it to the aspiring student, because i can see that its initiations and techniques are truly able to unlock the doors of Heaven and of Hell, and finally lead to the Summum Bonum, True Happiness and the Stone of the Wise.
I do not consider myself as super intelligent or genuine, in fact i think iam a quite lazy person and there may be times when i am not able to do more than the prescribed and necessary work. I know that also there will always be people who progress faster and display more intellectual brilliance than me.
But i think this is not the point.
The point is that i truly believe that i have found my spiritual homeground and that iam willing to dedicate my whole life to the study of hermetic sciences and the cultivation of my Soul, and thereby to delve ever deeper into Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of the Divine, to hopefully to become more than human one day and then to help other aspiring students to realize the same.

By the Truth that is One and Ineffable,
Summa Scientia Nihil Scire,
Frater L.e.N.e.

Who is Frater L.e.N.e.? - Part 1

2009-12-12T03:26:00.000-08:00

I was raised by very loving and tolerant parents in a small village in Southern Germany and since early on i had a deep hunger for everything occult, religious and mystical, although my parents were no regular church-goers and didnt lay this interest on me.

But of course we had a bible in our house and this should be the first occult book for me to read.

I didnt get through the Old Testament, although i tried it, and i dont remember if i went through the whole New Testament, but i remember clearly reading the Genesis and Apocalypse excessively again and again.

Also from early on i was excited by any scary and horror movie, and although i was still very young, i managed to convince my mother to let me see all the cruel late night movies that i wanted to see on TV.

From early on it was clear for me and my family that i am not like other boys in my age.

As a child and teenager i was damned to look like a girl and in my first years on this Earth i was very silent and self-sufficient, up to the point that my mother was already thinking iam somehow autistic, but the doctors were assuring that, apart from my hayfever, iam totally fine.

Later on i did not like to go playing football outside with the other boys from the village, due to my hayfever but much more because i was satisifed with either reading at home (i have learned reading on myself before entering school) or playing witches with my very best friend, a girl that i was closely befriended with since kindergarden on.

We played spirit medium and made table-turning and glass-moving, tried to evoke ghosts in deserted places around the village and even created an imaginary friend that we shared.

We did our best to scare our neighbour children with our ghost and witch stories, and we were hunting after every local legend that had something to do with supernatural things.

In fact, my childhood seemed to be very "Buffy".

When we were 10 or 11 we bought a book at the local trainstation bookstore that was called "The World of Magic". It was a heavy paperback and in it i read about Aleister Crowley for the first time, and as you can imagine-

i was totally fascinated.

I trained myself to read everything backwards and even walk backwards, because i read that Crowley was doing this to un-do his mind.

We tried every magical recipe we could find in this book.

One time we were trying to evoke Beelzebub (!) by reciting some strange hebrew verses backwards- i think at this time i did not even know that it was hebrew, but i remember words like Adonai and Tetragrammaton. We were doing it at my room in my parents house, after school, when my parents were still at work.

We were chanting the verses many times and came into a wild frenzy. It was so fun that we didnt want to stop, but suddenly we heard a heavy bang from the top floor, like something really big has crashed to the floor, and we abruptly stopped chanting, with faces full of fear and expactation. Of course we went to the attic to see what has happened, and to our disappointment we did not see anything, but at least i can swear that we smelled a heavy sulphurous odour that made us fastly flee downstairs again!

When my mother came home from work she noticed that i had spread flour on the floor of my room because i had read that when ghosts or entities show up at night, they would leave footsteps in the flour.

Another time my friend and me were collecting all the plants that were necessary for a magic witch salve, a recipe from the book which said that all the witches in the past were using this to fly.

In our childish innocence, we picked Datura and Belladonna from the local nature reserve, and in the following weeks my friend made a slimy thick and pink salve from these plants and other additives.

We used to celebrate Walpurgis Night every year, alone in the party cellar at her parents house.

We played mixed tapes with spooky gothic songs and used to dance along mystically.

So this one Walpurgis Night we planned to rub our bodies with the magic salve, feeling that this Night would be perfect to test it.

I do not remember much of this special night anymore. In fact i think i had many blackouts.

I only remember fragments of it, like laying next to my friend on the floor of the party cellar, naked and sweating really heavily, and then suddenly coming to consciousness again and it is already long after dawn. This was the first night that i have not spent at my parents house, and i fastly ran home because i thought my mother must be very angry, which she was not by the way.

Today, after over 20 years, and knowing about the (side-) effects of magical plants i think that we were very lucky, having this sort of special children protection from high above, and that maybe apart from natural sleeping and dreaming our astral bodies really were travelling for the first time.

It must have been around the age of 12 that i began writing poetry.

Soon, and more or less out of accident, i got discovered by a local newspaper that was printing my poems in the art section and a lot of people from local art projects began being interested in me.

I was praised by the local media as a poetic "wunderkind" and i started to hold readings in several cities of Southern Germany, and was involved with a off-theater-group that was organising musical poetry readings for me.

I even managed to get my poems published in an anthology of young writers when i was 14, and made a TV live appearence by reading one of my poems on my 16th birthday, dressed in full gothic style and surely scaring the hell out of several of the millions of people that were watching this certain german art show on one of the two main channels at this one sunday afternoon in the early nineties.

But this was not the beginning of a straight-forward artistical career, although there surely would have been a bit of potential.

I was either surrounded by people who had (too) great expactations or who were predicting loss of interest and talent the older i get. Therefore i was tensed by pressure and the fear of loosing.

But moreover, i detected that iam gay when i was 14, and the time was ripe for my coming - out and for exploring what love and life had to offer me.

So i completely delved into a bohemian lifestyle, seeing that the experiences i had made in my early teenage years had programmed me not to want to live a "normal" life like many other people, including following a well laid out plan for making money.

I deeply fell in love, several times, sometimes lucky and sometimes not, and especially one time so heavily, that i was convinced to have lost my identity when the relationship broke up when i was 18. This was the time when my interest in mystic and religion was enflamed again.

I started reading everything about buddhism i could lay my hands on. For two years, I read through piles of books about this subject and started experimenting with certain tibetan meditation practises.

At the age of 19 something happened that i consider as my first and certainly one of my most groundbreaking magico-spiritual experiences and kick-starts i ever had.

I was at a home party and suddenly, and completely out of chance, fell into a out-of-body-experience.

I was sitting on a sofa next to a friend, and one second after i saw myself standing maybe 100 meters in front of me, tiny and small, and bathed in complete darkness, a blackness i have never experienced before.

Then i saw a Light rising in front of my body, a huge and warm golden Light, and this Light was so intense and gigantic like the Sun and so full of Love that i saw my small body shaking, hardly bearing the sheer intensity of it.

I have never experienced such a full power feeling of Divine Love before and after.

Only one small beam or even the reflection of a tiny beam from this source seemed so powerful that it could destroy my small and insignificant being in one million of a second.

Then a voice was whispering to me that this is the Divine Core that is hidden in every human being and that it is my task in life to firstly find the way to this Light on my own and secondly to tell every human being i meet from now on about this special experience.

Then i was back in the room again, sitting next to my friend, noticing that only a few seconds had passed, and desperately trying to verbalize the experience, which i could not manage this very night.

To be continued….

Adoration of the Lord

2009-11-21T10:32:00.000-08:00

This is a small ritual that i have created for myself, based on the traditional Golden Dawn ritual of the Adoration of the Lord of the Universe.
I mostly do it when having not enough time for a Greater Invocation ritual, but wanting a certain flair before proceeding with my daily Middle Pillar ritual.
It takes not more than five minutes.
It can be enlarged and deepened in many directions, e.g. I have combined it with the Bornless Ritual several times and found it quite strong and energetic, even without using regular pentagrams for invocation.

A.Perform the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and if you like, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram. You can also perform a Purification with Water and Consecration with Fire to further prepare your temple space.

1. Go to the northeast corner of the room and circumambulate the Temple once in the course of the sun.

2. Go round another time but halt in the north.

3. Close your eyes and give the Sign of Osiris risen (by crossing your arms before your breast and slightly bowing your head).

4. Imagine yourself in the Godform of Nephthys, standing huge in the Universe.

5. Imagine floating before yourself in the Universe the large and vibrating Sigil of Enochian Earth.

6. Give the Sign of a Juniorus/Zelator, 1=10.

7. Say: Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows out to the ends of the 8. Universe rejoicing! Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows from Eternity to Eternity.

8. Imagine a stream of dark green, dense and cold energy flowing from or through the Sigil through Nephthys, while doing this.

9. Stop giving the Sign and open your eyes again.

10. Circumambulate the temple again, at the second round make halt at the east.

11. Close your eyes and give the Sign of Osiris risen.

12. Imagine yourself in the Godform of Thoth (Djehuti), standing huge in the Universe.

13. Imagine floating before yourself the large and vivid Sigil of Enochian Air.

14. Give the Sign of Theoricus, 2=9.

15. Say: Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows out to the ends of the Universe rejoicing! Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows from Eternity to Eternity.

16. Imagine a stream of yellow, warm and subtle energy flowing from the Sigil through Thoth.

17. Stop giving the Sign and open your eyes again.

18. Circumambulate the temple again, at the second round make halt at the west.

19. Close your eyes and give the Sign of Osiris risen.

20. Imagine yourself in the Godform of Isis, standing huge in the Universe.

21. Imagine floating before yourself the large and vibrating Sigil of Enochian Water.

22. Give the Sign of Practicus, 3=8.

23. Say: Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows out to the ends of the
Universe rejoicing! Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows from Eternity to Eternity.

24. Imagine a stream of blue, watery and cold energy flowing from the Sigil through Isis.

25. Stop giving the Sign and open your eyes again.

26. Circumambulate the temple again, at the second round make halt at the south.

27. Close your eyes and give the Sign of Osiris risen.

28. Imagine yourself in the Godform of Horus, standing huge in the Universe.

29. Imagine floating before yourself the large and vibrating Sigil of Enochian Fire.

30. Give the Sign of Philosophus, 4=7.

31. Say: Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows out to the ends of the Universe rejoicing! Holy Art Thou, Lord of the Universe, because thy Glory flows from Eternity to Eternity.

32. Imagine a stream of red, hot and fiery energy flowing from the Sigil through Horus.

33. Stop giving the Sign and open your eyes again.

34. Circumambulate the temple again, and at the second round halt West of Altar, looking
towards East.

35. Close your eyes and give the Sign of Osiris risen.

36. Imagine yourself in the Godform of Osiris, standing huge in the Universe.

37. Imagine floating before yourself a large black Spirit-Wheel.

38. Open your eyes and give the Sign of the Portal, the Rending of the Veil.

39. Then give the L-V-X-Signs.

40. Give the Sign of the Enterer towards East, and proclaim: Holy Art Thou, Lord of the
Universe!

41. Give the Sign of the Enterer again and proclaim: Holy Art Thou, Whom Nature hath not formed!

42. Give the Sign of the Enterer once again and proclaim: Holy Art Thou, the Vast and the Mighty One!

43. Proclaim: Lord of the Light and the Darkness!

44. While saying the final word "Darkness!", give the Sign of Silence and remain for a few moments, contemplating the voice of silence in your heart.

O. Proceed with other ritual work like the Middle Pillar ritual and close with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

Ouroboros

2009-10-02T12:56:00.001-07:00

"Eins ist das Alles und durch Es alles und zu Ihm alles: wenn das Alles nicht alles enthielte, wäre das Alles nichts."

Träume

2009-09-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

Träume sind der beste Beweis für das Vorhandensein eines natürlichen astralen Wahrnehmungsorgans im Menschen und einer astralen Daseinsebene, auf der man sich genauso sicher wie auf dem physischen Plan bewegen und Dinge erleben kann ohne an einen materiellen Körper und Sinnesapparat gebunden zu sein.

Die hermetische Tradition sagt, dass sich beim Träumen das Merkurprinzip vom Körper löst- der Merkur flügge wird sozusagen, und dass man deshalb den Schlaf als kleinen Tod oder kleine Nacht im Vergleich zur grossen Nacht, dem Tod, bezeichnet.

Schon allein die Tatsache des Träumens an sich katapultiert mich in allerlei philosophisches Grübeln über den Echtheitsanspruch unserer sog. Realität. Wenn Träume nur Fantasie sind, könnte es doch gut sein, dass unser Hirn die Reize, die unsere Sinne im alltäglichen Leben übermitteln, auch nur "irgendwie" interpretiert.

Ich habe einmal eine okkulte Theorie gehört, nach der es, abgesehen von Träumen die durch körperliche oder äußere Reize beeinflusst sind (wo also die Körperlage, Indispositionen, Licht, Schall oder Temperatur das Traumbild beeinflussen) ganz grob zwei Arten des Träumens gibt: in der einen geht man ein ins höher schwingende Astral, das von klarem Licht durchströmt und von universellen Essenzen oder Engeln bevölkert ist, doch diese Variante sei selten und meistens erinnert man sich nach dem Aufwachen schwer an etwas und hat oft nur das Gefühl, einen ungewöhnlich erholsamen und verjüngenden tiefen Schlaf genossen zu haben.
Die andere Variante spielt sich im tiefer schwingenden Astral ab, analog zu dem Konzept des persönlichen Unbewussten, und ist die häufigste Art des Träumens. Dort werden die Inhalte des alltäglichen Bewusstseins verarbeitet.

Natürlich ist die astrale Sphäre unendlich differenzierter als höher und tiefer schwingend. Die astrale Sphäre ist die unermessliche Region, aber auch das Schatzhaus der Illusionen. Will man sie im Wachbewusstsein bereisen, braucht man eine Art Landkarte und ein konkretes Ziel, sonst kann man sich leicht verirren.

Die Tiefenpsychologen der Jung’schen Schule gehen davon aus, dass Träume vorwiegend aus zwei großen Bewusstseinsschichten entstammen: entweder aus dem individuellen Unterbewusstsein, oder aus dem kollektiven Unterbewussten, das die gesamten Ideen und Erinnerungen unserer menschlichen Rasse enthält.
In der Kabbala entsprechen diese beiden Bereiche dem niederen und höheren Astralreich. Der Okkultist fügt diesen beiden Bereichen noch einen dritten hinzu, nämlich das Überbewusste, oder die Seelenanteile, die am Höchsten teilhaben, entsprechend den Drei Übernatürlichen Sephiroth am Baum des Lebens.

Natürlich gibt es Menschen, die begabte Träumer sind und die Fähigkeit besitzen, Informationen aus höheren Regionen der Astralsphäre im Schlaf zu empfangen oder es gelernt haben, ihre Träume willentlich zu beeinflussen. Doch viele habe ich bisher nicht kennengelernt. „Den Seinen gibt’s der Herr im Schlaf“.

Nichtsdestotrotz sind Träume der Schlüssel, den uns unser Bewusstsein gibt, um uns selbst zu erkennen.
Selbst wenn man sich im Schlaf nur auf der Ebene des persönlichen, und nicht des kollektiven oder gar göttlichen Planes bewegt, kann man stets eine Menge über sich herausfinden, von daher ist jeder Traum äußerst wertvoll.

Ein Traumtagebuch zu führen ist die beste Methode, um tiefer in Traumwelten einzusteigen.
Je länger man die Methode benutzt, umso einfacher wird es, zusammenhängend zu erinnern.

In der magischen Praxis ist ein Traumtagebuch auch deshalb wichtig, da man mit fortschreitender magischer Praxis eine immer größere Kontrolle über seinen Astralkörper erlangt und damit auch nach und nach lernt, die Träume bewusster zu lenken und die Dimensionen der Traumwelten zu erweitern.
Am besten ist es, neben dem Bett immer das Tagebuch nebst Stift bereitliegen zu haben. Unterstützend kann man seinem Geist kurz vor dem Einschlafen suggerieren, dass man sich nach dem Aufwachen ganz klar an alles im Traum Erlebte erinnern wird.

Ein deutliches Anzeichen für erste Fortschritte in der magischen Praxis und ein gewisser Beweis für die Ernsthaftigkeit des okkulten Schülers ist das Auftauchen von magischen Techniken, die man im Traum benutzt. Tue etwas über eine lange Zeit immer wieder und es wird sich im Traum verankern.

Und dann gibt es ja noch die sog. Klarträume! Fast alle Menschen kennen sie und meistens hat man sie, wenn man jünger ist, was unter Umständen dafür sprechen könnte, dass der astrale Körper in jungen Jahren noch besser entwickelt ist als im Erwachsenenalter, oder zumindest noch nicht so stark an und in den physischen Körper gebunden ist. Erst letzthin habe ich einen begabten Klarträumer kennengelernt, der mir berichtete, dass luzide Träume, also die Bewusstheit darüber, dass man träumt, bei ihm fast jede Nacht auftauchen. Dieser Träumer hat sogar herausgefunden, dass es seiner nächtlichen Erholung zuträglicher ist, wenn er nicht versucht, das Traumgeschehen willentlich zu beeinflussen oder zu ändern, sondern sich brav an das ihm vom Unterbewussten vorgegebene Skript des Traumes zu halten.

Eine gängige Empfehlung, luzides Träumen zu provozieren, ist, sich über einen längeren Zeitraum mehrmals am Tag bewusst zu machen, dass man wach ist. Diese Bewusstmachung kann man unterstützen, indem man sich im Spiegel anguckt, in die Wange zwickt und laut ausspricht: Jetzt bin ich wach!

Träume oder Visionen im Wachbewusstsein sind in der magischen Praxis nur erwünscht, wenn sie gewollt und zielgerichtet sind.
Der Magier invoziert eine bestimmte Kraft und bereist oder schaut dann in deren astrale Sphäre, oder um genauer zu sein: er betrachtet die Reflektion der Einstrahlung dieser Kraft in seiner Sphäre oder Aura, also die invozierte Kraft gefiltert durch sein persönliches Bewusstseinsfeld. Das ist Skrying oder Reisen in der astralen Schau.

Der Clue am Skrying ist, dass man sein Urteilsvermögen nicht ausschaltet. Anhand der kabbalistischen Landkarte und gewisser Techniken kann der Magier genau bestimmen, ob er sich am richtigen Zielort befindet oder ob er einer Illusion erliegt oder nicht.
Eine Vision in der Astralsphäre zu empfangen und gleichzeitig sein kritisches Wachbewusstsein aufrechtzuerhalten ist schon eine "chymische Hochzeit" für sich und bedeutet zumindest, dass man lernt, seinen Astralkörper bewusst zu entwickeln und einen ernsthaften Schritt gemacht hat auf der Stufenleiter der magischen Entwicklung.

Zum Schluss fällt mir noch die Gnosis ein, im eher wörtlichen Sinne von spontaner Erkenntnis über innere oder okkulte Zusammenhänge.
Die muss nicht zwingend an eine visuelle Erfahrung gekoppelt sein, wie man auch beim Skyring nicht unbedingt nur über astrales Sehen Informationen filtert. Die spontane Gnosis wird jedoch meistens, aber nicht nur, von bestimmten Auslösern verursacht, wie etwa durch intensive Meditation, Trance oder Rausch.

Träume können jedenfalls die ersten Schlüssel um das Wissen und Verständnis um den Höheren Genius oder Heiligen Schutzengel liefern, jenes magisch-mystischen Seelen-Anteils, um dessen Erlangung die ganze vorbereitende Magie des Golden Dawn kreist.

Dazu Agrippa von Nettesheim:

„Wer weissagende Träume erhalten will, muss sich körperlich wohl befinden; sein Gehirn muss frei von Dünsten und seine Seele von Leidenschaften ledig sein; er muß sich auch an ein solchem Tage des Essens enthalten und darf nichts trinken, was ihn berauschen könnte; sein Schlafgemach soll rein und freundlich, auch exorzisiert und geweiht sein; ferner soll er Räucherwerk anzünden, die Schläfe mit einer Salbe einreiben, Traumringe an die Finger stecken und ein himmlisches Bild unter sein Kopfkissen legen, in heiligen Gebeten die Gottheit anrufen und so zu Bette gehen, indem seine Gedanken auf das gerichtet sind, was er zu wissen wünscht, denn alsdann wird er wahre und unzweideutige Träume erhalten und ihm auch das Verständnis derselben erschlossen werden.“

Es dürfte für einen modernen Magier nicht schwer sein, die Weisungen dieses mittelalterlichen Gelehrten und Magiers in die Praxis umzusetzen!

Frater L.e.N.e.

Eine kleine erfreuliche Synchronizität- my personal Jesus

2009-09-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

Schon am Abend des Montags, den 21. September, spürte ich auf subtile Weise den heilsamen Einfluss der Sonne, die das Zeichen Waage betreten hatte.
Obwohl ich mich durch verschiedene Umstände unpässlich gefühlt hatte, spürte ich nachts einen Schub erneuter Energie und innerer Ausgeglichenheit. Spontan beschloss ich also, nochmals eine kleine magische Übungseinheit zu praktizieren und ging danach dazu über, alle meine ägyptischen Statuen und Buddhas, die sich in meiner Wohnung befinden, mit selbstgemachtem Abramelin-Öl zu weihen und für jede dieser Statuen ein Licht zu entzünden, um den höheren Kräften, die zu jeder Equinox am Werk sind, meinen Respekt zu zollen.
Am Morgen des Dienstags, den 22. September, fuhr ich dann mit der Bahn zu meiner Arbeitsstelle. Die Zeit in der Bahn nutze ich seit 6 Jahren stets für stille Meditation, teils aus Langeweile, teils aus dem Willen, gerade inmitten störender Geräuschkulissen einen Zustand klarer Konzentration zu erreichen.
Ich beruhigte also erstmal meinen Geist mit einer stillen (und unauffälligen) Atemmeditation, betrat dann meinen astralen Tempel und vollzog darin zunächst astral das Kleine Bannende Pentagrammritual.
Danach visualisierte ich auf dem Boden meines astralen Tempels ein grosses, in 10 goldene Quadrate unterteiltes Tau-Kreuz und plazierte mich auf dem Quadrat, welches symbolisch Tiphareth entspricht.
Dann betete ich eine geraume Zeit zu meinem Höheren Genius, und bat Ihn, mich unter Seine Schwingen zu nehmen, mir meine Sünden zu vergeben, versprach Ihm, Ihn zu lieben und alles dafür zu tun, Seine Gegenwart anzuziehen und bat Ihn schliesslich darum, dafür zu sorgen, dass mein Geist und mein Herz die Stille entwickeln, die nötig ist, Seine Stimme zu erhören.
Dann verliess ich den astralen Tempel und just in den Moment, als ich wieder die Augen aufschlug, fiel ein Sonnenstrahl direkt durch das Fenster der Bahn auf mein Gesicht und zeitgleich begannen Strassenmusikanten, die das Abteil betreten hatten, und die ich, versunken in meinem Gebet, nicht bemerkt hatte, eine akustische Cover-Version von "Personal Jesus" von Depeche Mode anzustimmem: "Your own personal Jesus, someone to hear your prayers, someone who cares...".
Natürlich konnte ich mir mein Grinsen nicht verkneifen....hätten doch die Musikanten auch ein anderes Abteil betreten können, oder eher oder später anfangen können, aber nein: alles geschah in perfektem Timing zu meinem Gebet.
Ich bin geneigt zu glauben, dass mein Engel an dem Skript für dieses Erlebnis geschrieben hat und weiss, dass eben jene kleinen Synchronizitäten dafür sorgen, mich seit 6 Jahren magisch am laufen zu halten.

Frater L.e.N.e.

Über die Notwendigkeit von Disziplin in den magischen Künsten

2009-09-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

Das Ziel der magischen Arbeit ist die Entfaltung eines höheren Bewusstseins, welches stufenweise zu der immer deutlicher werdenden Realisation einer transzendentalen Einheit führt. Je weiter der Student auf dem initiatorischen Pfad entlang schreitet, umso mehr wird sich individuell ausgeprägtes höheres Bewusstsein entwickeln und damit auch das Verständnis um die formbildenden, schöpferischen Kräfte und Gesetze des Universums.

Mit zunehmendem Bewusstsein und Verständnis wird der Student irgendwann auch immer besser fähig sein, dieses Wissen auf konkrete Alltagsziele hin anzuwenden.

Doch um dies zu entwickeln, bedarf es täglicher praktischer Übung, denn die magischen Kräfte können nur gedeihen, wenn man die Werkzeuge seines Geistes regelmäßig benutzt.

Die Tradition sagt, dass Talent und Begeisterung allein nicht ausreicht. Vielmehr ist es die Beharrlichkeit und das Durchhaltevermögen, die die Möglichkeit einer spirituellen Entwicklung gewähren.

Genauso, wie sich physische Muskeln erst durch regelmäßige und ausdauernde Übung entwickeln, entwickeln sich geistige Fähigkeiten wie Visualisationskraft, Konzentration und gesteigerte Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit feinstofflicher Energien nur langsam und unter der Voraussetzung täglichen Trainings.

Schon von Beginn der magischen Ausbildung an erlernt der Student der okkulten Wissenschaft den Umgang mit einer Kraft, die in der rosenkreuzerischen Tradition LVX, ausgesprochen wie das lateinische „Lux“, benannt wird.

Diese Kraft ist okkult in dem Sinne, in dem sie von der Wissenschaft noch nicht entdeckt und gemessen wurde, doch tatsächlich „vor aller Augen verborgen“ liegt, insofern das gesamte phänomenale Universum ein Aspekt ihrer Manifestation ist.

Die alten Kabbalisten vertraten die Ansicht, dass die Wahrnehmungs- und Verstandesfähigkeit des Menschen begrenzt sei, und somit auch die Fähigkeit des Begreifens des göttlichen Ursprungs unseres Universums. Sie räumten aber die Möglichkeit ein, dass sich der Mensch anhand mehr oder weniger abstrakter Symbole dieser Wahrheit graduell annähern könne.

Ein perfektes Denkmodell hierfür liefert die kabbalistische Glyphe des Baumes des Lebens.

Sie veranschaulicht deutlich, dass das Universum aus Emanationen einer ursprünglichen, göttlichen Kraft besteht, die sich stufenweise und über wechselseitige Polarisationen immer mehr ausdifferenzierte und verdichtete, bis sie schliesslich zu dem wurde, was wir als unsere physische Realität verstehen. Somit betrachteten die Kabbalisten die Objekte in unserem materiellen Universum nur als verdichtete Energie.

Hunderte von Jahren später anerkannte auch die moderne Wissenschaft, dass Materie nur Energie in einem bestimmten Schwingungszustand ist.

Das Wissen um das Vorhandensein einer okkulten Kraft, die als magisches Wirkprinzip funktioniert, war schon seit jeher bei den verschiedensten Urvölkern bekannt.

Diese Kraft hatte schon viele Namen. Die nordamerikanischen Eingeborenen nannten sie „Manitou“, die polynesischen Inselbewohner „Manas“, die Afrikaner „Ngai“, die Aborigines „Kutchi“.

Die hinduistischen Religionen bezeichneten sie als „Prana“ und stellten sich vor, dass das gesamte Universum ein Ozean aus Prana sei, mit den Sonnen als ihren Zentren und Verteilern darin.

Eliphas Levi schliesslich, dessen Schriften in der 2. Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts massgeblich daran beteiligt waren, eine Renaissance der magischen und hermetischen Wissenschaften einzuläuten, nannte diese Kraft „astrales Licht“, und bezeichnete damit eine Kraft, die sich über das ganze Universum ausbreitet und alles durchdringt und postulierte, dass das Wissen um den Umgang mit und die Meisterschaft über die astralen Strömungen dieser Kraft das Grosse Werk der Adepten ausmacht.

Mithilfe dieser Kraft, dem LVX der Rosenkreuzer, kann es dem Studenten der Magie gelingen, höheres Bewusstsein und ein tieferes Verständnis für die Gesetze des Universums zu entwickeln. Das LVX ist ausserdem der Treibstoff seiner persönlichen und magischen Entwicklung und Transformatíon.

Das Initiationsritual zum Neophyten dient dazu, den Samen des höheren Bewusstseins in die Psyche des Anwärters zu pflanzen.

Dies geschieht durch einen komplexen Ritualablauf, in welchem das Bewusstsein und das Unterbewusstsein des Kandidaten mit mächtigen, da uralten Symbolen imprägniert wird.

Diese werden wie Samenkörner in die Psyche des Kandidaten gepflanzt, und pflegt der Kandidat in den darauffolgenden Jahren den Garten seines Geistes mit täglicher Übung, wird der Same irgendwann aufgehen zu einem lebendigen Wesen, das schließlich als Höheres Selbst oder Heiliger Schutzengel die alltägliche Persönlichkeit des heranwachsenden Adepten regieren wird.

Während dieser Initiation erfolgt eine Übertragung der magischen Kraft des Hierophanten auf den Kandidaten. Dies impliziert, dass ein fähiger Hierophant schon Kenntnis erlangt haben muss im Umgang mit dieser Kraft, denn nur so kann er diese Kraft erfolgreich auf die Sphäre des Kandidaten übertragen.

Das LVX, welches im Verlauf der Initiation übertragen wird, dient einem Anstoß und einer energetischen Initialzündung in der Sphäre oder Aura des Kandidaten. Mithilfe dieser Initialzündung werden die Grundsteine für seine weitere Entwicklung gelegt, außerdem erleichtert sie ihm fortan den Zugang und die differenzierte Wahrnehmung dieser subtilen Kraft während seiner täglichen Übungen.

Die Tradition sagt auch, dass genauso wie das menschliche Bewusstsein einen physischen Körper braucht, um zu existieren, das spirituelle Bewusstsein oder der Heilige Schutzengel einen voll ausgebildeten energetischen, oder astralen Körper braucht, um im Geist des Studenten zu inkarnieren.

Indem der Student kontinuierlich, mit täglicher magischer Übung, seinen energetischen Körper entwickelt und seine feinstofflichen Wahrnehmungskanäle aufreinigt, und mithilfe gebündelter geistiger Fähigkeiten magische Kraft oder LVX anruft und in seinem energetischen Körper assimiliert, baut er stückweise und beharrlich an dem Tempel, „der nicht mit Händen erbaut ist“, und erschafft einen astralen Körper, der sich in perfekter Analogie und Harmonie mit den Gesetzen und Kräften des Universums befindet.

Was dies impliziert, deuten wiederum die alten Kabbalisten an, indem sie darauf hinweisen, dass es nicht nur so ist, dass der menschliche Körper mit einem energetischen oder feinstofflichen Körper verbunden ist, sondern dass vielmehr dieser subtile Körper das Fundament und die Matrix nicht nur des physischen Körpers, sondern auch unserer gesamten Gefühls- und Erlebniswelt ist.

Die Beschaffenheit unseres astralen oder lunaren Körpers bestimmt die Art und Weise, wie wir unsere Umgebung und unsere Mitmenschen wahrnehmen und auf unser Umfeld reagieren.

Auf diesen energetischen Körper kontinuierlich und mithilfe magischer Kraft schöpferisch einzuwirken, bedeutet schrittweise die gesamte Wahrnehmung der Umwelt und schließlich auch die eigenen Lebensbedingungen positiv zu transformieren.

Fähigkeiten wie Hellsicht, geschärfte Intuition oder die Aktivierung selbstheilender Kräfte sind Nebenprodukte dieses Prozesses.

Emotionale Gelassenheit gegenüber den verschiedenartigen Widrigkeiten des Alltags und ein harmonisiertes, ruhiges Gemüt sind also die Erkennungszeichen eines Adepten, der gelernt hat, seinen astralen Körper zu kontrollieren und beherrschen.

Die Schlüssel zu magischer Entwicklung liegen somit einerseits in der Initiation, andererseits in der unabdingbaren täglichen Disziplin.

Die wichtigsten Werkzeuge, mit deren Hilfe man magische Kraft anruft und benutzt, sind die Willenskraft, die Imaginationskraft und die Konzentration.

Jeder besitzt diese Fähigkeiten in unterschiedlicher Ausprägung, doch nur wenige erkennen ihr Potential oder geben sich die Mühe, sie zu schärfen, zu trainieren und am Leben zu erhalten. Diese Fähigkeiten sind das Instrument, welches uns der All-Eine geschenkt hat, um seine Präsenz zu realisieren, und um unser spirituelles Erbe, den schrittweisen Aufstieg zur Erkenntnis spiritueller Wahrheit anzutreten.

Deshalb sollte sich jeder ernsthafte Anwärter auf die Mysterien der hermetischen Tradition einer jahrelangen, ja vielleicht sogar lebenslangen Disziplin verschreiben, denn so wie die Kraft Gottes laut den Kabbalisten bis ins Unendliche expandiert, lässt sich die individuelle Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit und Realisation der subtilen und „okkulten“ Kräfte der Natur bis ins scheinbar Unendliche verfeinern.

The "Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz"

2009-05-24T02:52:00.000-07:00

FESTINA LENTE - MAKE HASTE SLOWLY

When Christian Rosencreutz, the protagonist of the 17th century book "The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz" written by the Tübinger theologian Johann Valentin Andreae, starts his journey to the mystical castle of the King and the Queen, he comes to a crossroad and is forced to decide between 4 different ways leading to the castle.

Fortunately, a little tablet on a tree offers help regarding the right decision to make.

It says that there are 4 ways to come to the castle, but that only 3 of them are possible to follow. Every one of them will lead to the goal, but only when you do not go astray.
The first one is short, but full of dangers, because on it are many murderous cliffs.
The second one is longer, because it has side tracks, although they do not lead into offside.
It is said to be plane and easy, as long as, with the aid of your compass, you do not get lost on the right or the left.
The third one is said to be truly the Royal Way.
The fourth one, however, is not for the living, because its power is said to be overall consuming and not digestible for corruptible bodies.
The tablet also says that, once it is chosen, it is not permitted to leave the way.

We find that, eventually, Christian Rosencreutz chooses the second way.

Next to the quasi- anonymous "Fama Fraternitas" (1614) and the "Confessio Fraternitas" (1615) J. V. Andreae's book "Die chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosencreutz" (1616) was one of the three german manifestos to inaugurate the rosicrucian movement on the european continent.
Whereas the first two texts are written in the form of a lecture and open letter from an allegedly secretive rosicrucian Order to the learned and pious public, with the "Fama" giving detailed account of the legend of the Order and its first members, as well as detailed description of the discovery of the tomb of its founding member Frater C.R., and the "Confessio" being a critical and satirical speech with a certain reformative intent (the protestant movement was still in its infant years), the "Chymische Hochzeit" somewhat falls out of place.
It is written in the style of a novel or fairy tale and is full of allegory and mystico-magical and alchemical symbolism. In seven chapters it deals with the magical journey of a certain Christian Rosencreutz, who, after experiencing an inner awakening, follows the invitation to a mystical "wedding" that takes place in the castle of the King.
Due to the impact of ancient and hermetic symbolism that is contained in every chapter of this novel, its inherent statements and implications are still alive and make it a timeless allegory on the initiatory path of the mystery traditions of the west. Because of the ageless validity of the symbolism involved, one is able to translate and adapt it to modern times.
Also owing to the qualities of these symbols is the fact that their meaning may be manifold and their different layers may not be grasped by one person alone.

Regarding the passage about the crossroad at the beginning of the second chapter, Christian Rosencreutz can simply be regarded as someone who has decided to follow a path of spiritual attainment, without yet to know exactly what path to choose.
So why does he choose the second path? Being very humble and of no noble descent he does not regard himself as royal, and therefore unprepared for the third path of Royal Art.
And although the tablet warns in unmistakable terms of the danger of the fourth path, he already decided not to take this route- seeing that poisonous clouds and tongues of fire emit from its direction.
Finally his reason tells him to take the second path, because having the constitution of an old man, he fears to loose control over the pitfalls of the shorter first path and to fall over its cliffs.

This little passage reminded me of some thoughts i had regarding the nature of the path of an hermetic initiate and why only few people are attracted to follow the serious practical and theoretical study that is involved there.
By flipping through various esoteric newspapers on the market iam always astounded by the vastness of offerings that is made to the esoterically inclined. Salvation is advertised by many groups, gurus and healers, nearly for nothing but one mouse-click or some cash transfer. Buy a guided meditation CD for 100 bucks and delete your karma! Visit a high priced retreat and attain illumination in one weekend! Transform your personality by letting a self-acclaimed spirit healer lay his hands on you - in just one session!
These and similar claims flood the mainstream esoteric landscape and many people i know who regard themselves as "highly spiritual", always leave me with the feeling that most of them do not really search for spiritual transformation, but for entertainment only, entertainment with the flair of the supernatural and occult. Also, in times like ours, many people are simply angst driven, and seeing that exoteric religion, common science and school education offer no means to relieve the feeling of uncertainty, the feeling that something is missing, the feeling of incompleteness and being the playball of forces which you can neither perceive nor control, they turn to dubious gurus and practises who nicely and with brilliant marketing skills know how to fill the gap that is yawning inside their hearts.
This is sad, but iam scared that no one is to blame. The esoteric scene is a market of belief systems, and like any market it needs and lives by its customers.

Now big cities like Berlin are a murky pool of esotericism and strange cults. There are hundreds of people out there who hop through different workshops every weekend. One week they pay for a buddhistic retreat, the other weekend they go to a "spiritual healer" who leads them through their "past lives", the next week they go to a dynamic meditation workshop or join the latest lecture about maya culture or conspiracy theories.
But for what? Only to empower their feeling of, alas, being superior over others - not knowing that hypocrisy and spiritual pride are the greatest hindrances on the path and lead to nothing except self-delusion.
But that is just the "mainstream" side of it.

When people are especially interested in magic and occultism, most of them dismiss the Golden Dawn as "outmoded". There are mainly three different lines of argumentation. The one fraction says that its system is outmoded because Crowley initiated a new aeon with his Liber Al (which is, in my estimation, only an adress from Crowleys own higher to his lower self, so purely individual), and not knowing that Crowley would not have been what he was unless having been trained by the Golden Dawn, they turn to the O.T.O.
The other fraction says that the Golden Dawn is merely a "right hand path", that is a path that mainly concerns itself with the exploration of divine hierarchies in order to adopt divinity and transcend the ego as opposed to the "left hand path" on which the aspirant seeks to work on and master the qlippothic or unbalanced forces of the universe in order to become truly godlike in his own right. This is underlined by confuse speculations about the loss of ego and literal death of the initiate when crossing the Abyss that divides the three uppermost and supernal Sephiroth from the seven lower.
So fraction two turns to saturnian and satanic brotherhoods, in order to bath their egos in the glory of a dark and broody magician, not knowing that the Golden Dawn regards itself as neither right nor left, but rather embraces both paths in a coherent workable system.
The third fraction says that the system is outmoded because its an illusion to think that enlightenment, that which is ineffable, can be attained by successive initiations and working on grade curricula and following a certain dogma, and that all is about simply attaining heightened states of awareness, and that this can be achieved by any means, and so they turn to Chaos Magick, neglecting the fact that when trying to use and train consciousness one must first employ certain tools with which to find out how this consciousness works.

But although every person out there in this world who tries to transform his personality and is interested in spiritual development has all my respect, no matter what or what not system he/she may follow, by the danger of simply sounding polemic and causing many magicians to turn their head angrily at me, i think that many of these debates about right or left are just an excuse for laziness and in very special cases it may also be the unconscious fear of truly attaining something, the fear of change.
Ora, lege, lege, lege, relege, labora et invenies ("Pray, read, read, read, re-read, work and you will find") was the advice of alchemists given to Neophytes in ancient times and i think that still holds true today.
Magic is a precise science that has to be conquered.
Magical attainment is something that comes gradually and usually the dawning of light on consciousness is hard-won.
I do not want to say that other systems apart from that which the Golden Dawn has to offer lead to failure.
There are many ways leading to Rome and there certainly is not only one way that is superior over others.
And i also do not think that working on magical or esoteric systems is the only possibility for human beings to gain insights into the mysteries of Nature and thereby reach some sort of spiritual perfection. Who were i to know?

But when choosing a system, i would consider that different systems have different advantages in regard to the socialisation of the individual and i guess few of them are out there who want to dedicate their whole life-time to one system only, or at least till they gain some strikingly results in terms of personal development.
And being a spiritual searcher for all my life i know that there came a time in my life where i realized that without the help of some school or guidance i could not progress.
Nature unaided fails is another axiom of ancient alchemy.

In my estimation, the hermetic path should be regarded as a life-long endeavour, seeing that the transformation of ones self comes in very little steps only, hardly recognizable and subtle at the beginning, and it certainly never ends.
Therefore, every true and earnest searcher for the light of occult knowledge should consider his choice and reflect about his motives when joining this or that organisation or school of knowledge.

Just like Christian Rosencreutz, who at the beginning of the second chapter of this timeless novel, stands at the crossroad, thinking about what path to choose. And he has a hard time in making his decision!
But finally, the light of reason dawns upon him, just like the Neophyte at the first initiation ceremony of the Golden Dawn is guided by the Kerux.
He chooses the second path, which has side tracks although they do not lead into offside.
This is symbolized by the ascent of the initiate on the kabbalistic Tree of Life.

The hermetic student cannot achieve the beauty of Tiphareth, unless he has undergone the elemental initiations of Malkuth (Earth), Yesod (Air), Hod (Water) and Netzach (Fire), which are seen as the "lower" constitutions of the kabbalistic Ruach, the ego-personality. The Microcosm must be studied before the Macrocosm can be comprehended.
The opposing counterparts of ones self must have reached a certain amount of balancing and the auric field and astral body of the candidate must have reached a certain rate of vibration in order to attract a ray of the Divine, because "it is in vain that the wine of Gods is poured into broken vessels".

To transcend the ego may be possible when being raised and trained by buddhistic monks in an asian monastery, secluded from the profane world, but not when living in an ego-dominated world like ours. Unlike with buddhistic practises, the magician in the western and hermetic tradition does not seek to transcend the ego with experience of Nothingness, but rather tries to transform the ego and subtle bodies to a shining tower of light that will hopefully transmit the knowledge of the One Truth, which is and stays ineffable and at the same time remains to be very individual.
The goal of both the eastern and western systems may be the same, but the approach fundamentally differs.

The tablet on the tree says that the second path is plane and easy, as long as you stick to your compass, and turn neither right nor left.
The compass is the Law of Equilibrium, which is stressed throughout the grades of the Golden Dawn.
It is the straight and narrow path between the opposites that create the dynamic interaction out of which our world is born. The Law of Equilibrium is expressed in many rituals in symbolic form, in many different and brilliant ways, but surely most simple and salient in the placement of the newly admitted Neophyte between the black and the white pillar of Hermes and Salomo, when receiving his final purification and consecration by Water and by Fire.

This being said, i close by again citing three ancient proverbs that strike me deeply with their simplicity and meaningfulness. The first two supposedly were written over the portals in the forecourt of the ancient initiation temple of Apollo in Delphi. The third one was displayed at the last page of the original "Chymische Hochzeit".

Gnothis Seauton - Know Thyself.

Meden Agan - Nothing in Excess.

Festina Lente - Make haste slowly.

Summa Scientia Nihil Scire,
Frater L.

2009-05-24T02:40:00.000-07:00

Nature displays her secrets very openly.
They are for everyone to see,
but many people have not eyes nor time to see.

For example:
At daytime you can see the Sun.
It is the one and central star at the sky,
beaming its light with sheer intensity and majesty,
hardly bearable for human eyes.

At nighttime you can see myriads of stars,
as if the One Light from daytime
is split up in innumerable counterparts,
dazzling the mind with the idea of vastness.
At the same time you can also see the Moon
in its mystical beauty,
evoking strange feelings in everyone,
feelings of undefined longing,
or melancholy,
or fear,
because she is reflecting
the idea of Unity.

But sometimes,
you can neither see the Sun nor the Moon nor the Stars-
it is just cloudy,
and this is also part of the game.

Nature is One,
and we are all part of it,
fragmented in the All.

There is only one Truth,
and one Knowledge,
and One All,
and we dearly want to know it.

But our brains are so small
that they first have to get accustomed
to the mere idea of One-All
with the puzzles of hermetic study.

Did you ever watch the Sun at dawn?
You can definetely say that it has risen
when it has changed its position,
but you cannot watch
the actual movement of
this rising Body of Light.

R.N.