A Cautionary Note
During this period of time when most of this work was in the manuscript phase,
and various typists were working on it, their occasional comments concerning
the Golden Dawn System perturbed me somewhat. It was Christopher Hyatt, one
of the editors of Falcon Press, who first alerted me to the possibility that
this misunderstanding might occur, suggesting therefore that I interpolate
a cautionary word to prevent other readers developing the same misconception.
He was absolutely right, for some of them, as well as one or two subsequent
readers, seem to have developed the conception that the whole Golden Dawn
System was based on the initiatory rituals, and nothing more. It puzzled
me because I had labored under the delusion that the rituals themselves indicated
without equivocation that there was far more to the system than the rituals
themselves, and also because the remainder of the volume itself elaborated
a whole system of magical practice which could exist altogether independently
of the initiatory rituals.
I was so certain of this that to a couple of them I had confided that though
for the time being my intereset in writing was exhausted, nonetheless some
time in the future I felt compelled to write yet another book establishing
a relationship between Tibetan magical practices, as for example laid out
in Evans Wentz's book Milarepa the Tibetan Yogi and the Golden Dawn System.
There are innumerable parallels which are worth investigating and enumerating.
And these are altogether apart from the matter of initiatory rituals. I feel
strongly therefore that I must not proceed too far with this book without
stressing the fact that there is infinitely more to the Golden Dawn System
of Magic than the initiatory and other types of rituals. Not that I want
to minimize the importance of their role in the entire system but it comprises
so much more that it puzzled me how anyone could avoid the realization that
the performance of the rituals satisfactorily depends on so much more. If
the student has thoroughly studied the Z-1 and Z-3 documents, it should have
dawned upon him that efficacy of any ritual depends entirely on all the
participants having acquired considerable skills in the magical work prescribed
by the Order.
Apart from the rudimentary art of invocation by means of the Pentagram and
Hexagram, there is a vast repertory of techniques which must be used and
mastered, not merely to gain advancement to a higher grade in the Order,
which is not too terribly important by and of itself, but in order to become
a proficient student of Magic these must be not merely known but wholly mastered.
For example, assumption of God forms and the ability to build up Telesmatic
Images, more or less along the same line, these two are the very foundations
of practical theurgy. Then there is the Middle Pillar technique whose importance
simply cannot be overemphasized in any way. The student who has neglected
to achieve considerable proficiency in this particular practice will find
himself frustrated at every turn. And finally there is the vibratory formula
of the Middle Pillar. I cannot conceive of a ritual of any kind being
successfully consumated without being adept in the use of the vibratory formula.
I have elaborated this in a rather new way, I fancy, in that section dealing
with this matter, and I urge the prospective student of magic to pay particular
attention not only to this, but to all the techniques I have just mentioned.
Nor is the main thesis of the Order the memorization of dry Qabalistic knowledge
from the Knowledge Lectures or from any other text for that matter. This
material represents the dry bones of Order knowledge, the basic alphabet
of what has come to be known as the Magical Language. Every science and every
Art has its own language without which there can be little communication.
A great deal of undergraduate university work consists mainly of learning
different kinds of languages that belong to the various sciences one is learning
about. For example, physics has its own terminology without which little
headway can be made in mastering its complex mysteries. The same is true
of geology which must forever remain a mystery to those who will not master
its language. Even in the behavioral sciences a whole new jargon or language
must be assimilated. Eventually many students learn to use the jargon so
satisfactorily and skillfully that they become unintelligible in their everyday
conversations leading their critics to condemn the jargon in which they have
steeped themselves. Nonetheless, it is a language of its own. It must be
learned, mastered and used in order to become an effective means of
communications. Much the same is true of the magical language. It is a highly
complex one, and most of this work lays down the elemental principles of
this language. The student will do well to take his time mastering it - that
is if he has never been exposed to it before. But when he does become familiar
with this language, he will never fall into the booby trap that The Complete
Golden Dawn System of Magic comprises this item or that item only. It is
a vast and comprehensive system that is worthy of considerable effort to
make it an integral part of one's thinking and feeling.
Finally of course there is the method of the tattwa vision, also called skrying
in the spirit vision. This is most important. However I feel entirely too
much attention in the past has been paid to this method at the expense of
some of those just listed. There must have been many members of the early
Order who had a great talent for skrying, since it led to the possible
development of clairvoyance, etc. For this reason, its use was overdone.
Not only was this so, but some of the protective methods were neglected,
and some of the people became gullible and credulous, and lost their natural
scepticism which is one of the indispensable factors absolutely essential
to the welfare of the student of magic. Without it he is lost in a wilderness
of deception and fantasy. Nothing solid can be based upon this whatsoever.
Of course there are also the divinatory methods of the Order. Geomancy and
the Tarot. But the student must not stop there. These methods appear to be
devoted to divining the future, etc., but it would be a great mistake if
your interpretation were limited solely to this. Apart from the fact that
the use of these methods develop intuition and the inner psychospiritual
senses, there is a whole inner world to be explored and discovered by using
the geomantic symbols and the Tarot cards themselves as gateways to another
dimension of existence, to another aspect or ourselves of which we ordinarily
have little consciousness. And since the work of the Order is based upon
self discovery as suggested by the injunction in the Neophyte Ritual "Quit
the night and seek the Day," and by the very name of the Order itself - The
Golden Dawn, a symbolic representation of the spiritual experience which
is the goal of all our work, it is the attainment of the awareness of divinity,
and then bringing this divinity to operate in our daily lives in this world
of Malkuth which is the outer garment of God. I still like the old Qabalistic
aphorism that Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether but after another
manner. This is not unrelated to the Mahayana aphorism that Nirvana is Samsara
and Samsara is Nirvana.
Nor must I forget to call attention to something that is all to often neglected.
Meditation on the significance and meaning of the magical instruments. They
are often made and consecrated by members of the Order and used as always
recommended, but rarely do they come to terms with what underlies their common
usage. It should be obvious to any long term student that the Lotus Wand
for example is a symbol, amongst others, of the spinal column with the Lotus
at the top of the Head - a channel for the movement of the spinal spirit
fire, the Kundalini. (In this connection do make an effort to obtain and
read a book by a Hindu named Gopi Krishna entitled Kundalini). All the other
instruments similarly have profound meanings. In this connection, as an aid
to meditation, I can strongly recommend Aleister Crowley's magnificent early
book Part Two of Book Four dealing with the theory of Magick and its tools.
There are some beautiful meditative descriptions of the elemental weapons
which the good student cannot afford to overlook or do without. Such insights
will grow as he grows, insight and intuition piling on one another until,
of course, the ultimate goal of all the work is realized -- enlightenment.
As one becomes proficient in the work of the Order and one's insight and
understanding develops, it will become apparent that all of these methods
may be tied together and unified to become a magical engine by means of which
the Mountain of Initiation may be scaled and the Kingdom of Heaven reached,
so that man aspires to God and God aspires to man.
The Order is a magical one. But its mysticism is by no means to be separated
from its magic. At first they may seem to be entirely different methods of
attaining to the highest. And indeed so they appear to be. But it is the
mark of real adeptship when the student comes to realize that there is no
real separation between these methods, and that at the end they are one and
the same.
In other words, to come back to the initial theme stated at the outset of
this chapter, there is much more to the Order than the initiatory and other
types of rituals. There is so much in the Neophyte and Adeptus Minor rutuals
that are of value to the aspirant, that even if one were to assume that the
Order work is essentially that of ritualism, one would really not be far
wrong. They contain so much. For example in the Neophyte Ritual, one of the
first exhortations one hears is that coming from the Hierophant who states
by names and images are all powers awakened and reawakened. The newly initiated
Frater or Soror into the Order could spend considerable effort and time
meditating on just what this means. When he does this, he will be led into
the deepest mysteries of the teachings of the Order, and into some kind of
understanding of what all the variety of Order techniques amount to. I can
come to rest here about warning the student to dispense with any superficial
evaluation of the Order method arrived at by a rapid reading of the several
rituals, or of the book itself. The whole system needs to be studied carefully.
Don't be misled by the apparent simplicity of the system. It is enormously
complex and complicated - and at the same time so beautifully simple. It
may take the student some time, perhaps years, to appreciate the simplicity
of the Order system, but the expenditure of that time will be found to be
worth the effort. Though meditation is not exactly harped on throughout the
text, it is mentioned here and there. And my hope is that the good student
will do a great deal of meditation upon what he learns and does with the
Order work. There is much to be gained. So much is not stated in specific
works, but it is in this "non-statement" or understatement that much of the
essence of the system is contained.
Just recently (Easter, 1983) another comment was made, one which I have heard
before from one of the Order "failures," that there is a dearth of the devotional
element in the Order work. Ordinarily, this comment might be expected from
a former Church goer steeped in the Bible - or, which amounts to the same
thing, a member of the Fellowshipof the Rosy Cross, the name of the Waite
version of the Golden Dawn.
Ordinarily, this criticism is not worthy of note, save that in the last instance
when I heard it, a younger student had just returned from one of the Ashrams
in India where he had heard a great deal about bhakta yoga. I can understand
this criticism because bhakta is certainly not stressed in the overt sense
within the Order work. But I have to remind students that if they study the
Order work very closely - as closely as they have been taught to study the
yoga system, they will discover a great deal of emotional content. For instance,
on the few occasions when I have witnessed a Neophyte initiation, I have
felt very close to an emotional exaltation, almost enought to bring on tears
or at the very least a sense of choking, adequate to halt speech. Moreover,
the Hierophant of one of the existing Temples, V.H. Soror S.I.A.A., who has
officiated at the initiation of some forty Neophytes, also tells me that
the ceremony often brings her to the verge of tears.
Apart from that, however, I strongly urge the student who may entertain similar
feelings, to read once more a former work of mine What You Should Know About
the Golden Dawn, (Falcon Press, Phoenix, AZ. 1983). In that book, many quotations
from the different rituals are given, quotations which are not only choice
English and fine writing, but are good examples of the devotional aspect
of the Order's work. These are really worth reviewing quite often so as to
renew the sense that the Order is not without its bhakta aspects.
If that is not enough, then I must refer to the work of Aleister Crowley
who, after all, whatever is said and done, was once a member of the Order
and owes a very great deal to his Initiation therein. I especially suggest
reading his instruction which reviews the whole Eastern attitude about bhakta
- Liber Astarte vel Berylli to be found in one of the Equinoxes, or in my
book Gems from the Equinox (Falcon Press, Phoenix, AZ. 1982). So far as I
am concerned, this Liber is a masterpiece, which I can strongly recommend
especially to one complaining of the absence of devotional writing in the
Order.
Furthermore, and this I think is paramount, there is Crowley's early masterpiece
Three Holy Books originally published by Sangreal Foundation with a short
introduction by me, but which I understand will be republished by Samuel
Weiser Inc. of New York. This volume contains Liber LXV or The Book of the
Heart Girt with a Serpent, Liber VII or Liber Lapidis Lazuli, and finally
Liber 813 vel Ararita. All three are superbly written and breathe devotion
in every word. I am particularly fond of LXV and VII which falcon Press is
issuing as cassettes, containing Liber LXV, or The Book of the Heart Girt
with a Serpent, Liber VII, or Liber Lapidis Lazuli, and Liber DCCCXIII or
Ararita. Periodically I will play the tape on retiring to bed at night, and
permitting myself to fall asleep listening to its beauty and devotion. It
may be stretching definitions of things pretty far to state that these may
be considered part of the Order's devotional literature. But on the other
hand I would rather consider these to be in that category than the religious
lucubrations of Mr. A.E. Waite who was also once a member of the Order. He
founded his own Fellowship, and rewrote the Rituals (three of which are included
in a later section of this book) to include many excerpts from the Bible
and perhaps from the Roman missal. I am not to be construed as being antagonistic
to the latter by any means, but I do state strongly that if I must use one
or the other, I prefer to use the so-called holy books of Aleister Crowley.
They convey more devotion and love to me than almost anything else. So that
if there is actually a dearth of devotional material in the Rituals and work
of the Order, it is more than compensated for by reference to the work of
a former member, Aleister Crowley. I trust that this will be the end of any
complaints about this topic. |
