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August 16, 2014

The Fall and the Mysteries

“Socrates, in the Phaedo, speaks of “the ancient doctrine that souls pass out of this world to the other, and there exist, and then come back hither from the dead, and are born again.”

In Hesiod’s Works and Days there is the image of the Wheel of Life. In the mystical tradition there was prominent the wide-spread notion of a fall of higher forms of life into the human sphere of limitation and misery. The Orphics definitely taught that the soul of man fell from the stars into the prison of this earthly body, sinking from the upper regions of fire and light into the misty darkness of this dismal vale. The fall is ascribed to some original sin, which entailed expulsion from the purity and perfection of divine existence and had to be expiated by life on earth and by purgation in the nether world.”

Both Plato and Empedocles were expelled from a Pythagorean society or school, for revealing the secret teachings to the profane.

(R.D. Hicks: “The Platonic myths afford ample evidence that Plato was perfectly familiar with all the leading features of this strange creed. The divine origin of the soul, its fall from bliss and the society of the gods, its long pilgrimage of penance through hundreds of generations, its task of purification from earthly pollution, its reincarnation in successive bodies, its upward and downward progress, and the law of retribution for all offenses.”)

“There is evidence pointing to the fact that Plato was quite familiar with the Mystery teachings, if not actually an initiate. In the Phaedrus he says:

“….being initiated into those Mysteries which it is lawful to call the most blessed of all Mysteries….we were free from the molestation of evils which otherwise await us in a future period of time. Likewise in consequence of this divine initiation, we become spectators of entire, simple, immovable and blessed visions resident in the pure light.”

–Alvin Boyd Kuhn,  A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom, pg. 8.

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August 16, 2014

Sex on the Edge of the Abyss

“The experiences of magicians over several hundred years have shown that the flow of etheric substances in the physical world increases and decreases in regular patterns. There are, in effect, tides in the Unseen, and the Moon affects these as strongly as it does the tides of the ocean. This influence is powerful enough that certain kinds of ritual work can only be done effectively at certain lunar phases. The association of the Moon with Yesod followed naturally from this.”

“Despite the common notion that sex is the most physical of activities, most of sex takes place on the etheric and higher levels. Deprived of these, sex becomes nothing more than friction, and–since the etheric aspects of sex link, through the nephesh, to the instinctive drives that energize the whole affair–not especially enjoyable friction at that.

Some of the most closely guarded teachings of traditional Cabalism deal primarily with sex. […] Sex …  is much more a matter of the etheric body than the physical one. … The etheric body itself is a vehicle for the ruach, and the union of etheric bodies (which is what happens in sex) can, and often does, become the basis for a corresponding union of one or more levels of the ruach.

When this happens in ordinary life, sex becomes the basis of love; when it happens between two people who have made some progress toward the parting of the Veil, the energies of the union can rise to levels of the ruach not normally accessible, and open these up to consciousness; when it happens between two people who stand on the edge of the Abyss, the joining of the two can flower into the experience of the union of all.

The mating of lovers in this context becomes not merely a poetic simile for, but an experience of, what mystics have called–in equally sexual terms–the mating of God and the world.”

–John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom: The Magical Cabala in the Western Tradition, 1996, pg. 114-5.

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August 16, 2014

The Watcher of the Threshold

“Most traditional mythologies contain legends of living people who journeyed to the land of the dead; from the legends of Orpheus and Ishtar to Dante’s Divina Comedia, the image is a potent one, and rarely missed by the storytellers of any society.

Such tales have a tendency to follow similar lines, down to points of fine detail. These tales are closely paralleled, as well, by the experiences of shamans in their trance voyages to the Underworld–and by Cabalists venturing along the Path of Tau. Often–again, not universally, but often–there are ghosts and monstrous creatures along the way, caverns and narrow passages, the rush of underground water, the unnerving journey across a bridge as narrow as a sword’s blade; at times the traveler must give up something–anything from a small gift to the flesh on his or her bones–as the price of the descent. At the end of the journey comes the return to light and air, and very often the light is the light of stars.

One of the entities often met on this Path has a somewhat broader role: the Watcher of the Threshold, symbol of the fear that bars the way to transformation. Although the Watcher can makes its presence felt at any point, this Path is perhaps its most common lurking spot; Saturn’s involvement with time and death make the Path of Tau congenial ground.

It will sometimes happen that the Watcher will take concrete form in a working of this Path, appearing as a monster barring the way. While this can be unnerving, it usually marks a turning point in the work of the student. Once the Watcher is squarely faced on any level, its power dwindles.”

–John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom: The Magical Cabala in the Western Tradition, 1996, pg. 107.

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August 16, 2014

On Metatron

“Unlike the other Spheres, which have one archangel each, Malkuth has two. The first of them is named Metatron, and is also the archangel of the first Sphere, Kether. Alone of the Archangels, his name has no meaning in Hebrew (in point of fact, it is a Hebrew form of Mithras, the name of a Roman savior god of Persian origins). For reasons that will be discussed later on, Metatron is known as the Prince of Countenances; he represents a secret link connecting the highest and lowest of the Spheres.”

“Cabalistic traditions make a distinction, a useful one, between the aspect of Metatron assigned to Kether and that assigned to Malkuth, a distinction that involves a different spelling of the archangel’s name. Metatron in Malkuth is held to be the transformed Enoch, taken bodily into heaven according to the Biblical myth, and to function as a celestial scribe recording all the acts of humanity. His name was spelled MThThRVUN…Metatron in Kether, by contrast, is seen as a transcendent power, the “Lesser Tetragrammaton” created before the birth of the universe, and his name is spelled with an additional Yod, MIThThRVN….In either form, Metatron may be visualized as an angelic figure of pure light.”

The second archangel of Malkuth is named Sandalphon. As Metatron expresses the spiritual energies coming into Malkuth from above, Sandalphon expresses the spiritual energies of Malkuth itself; these two angels are usually paired in the traditional symbolism, and are associated with the two angelic figures atop the Ark of the Covenant, Metatron on the right hand, Sandalphon on the left. As Metatron is linked with Enoch, Sandalphon is often equated with Elijah, the other Old Testament figure who is said to have ascended directly into heaven.

Despite this and the meaning of the name, Sandalphon is often represented as female; she is called the Reconciler for Earth, and the Celestial Soul of Earth. She represents the driving force of evolution, the constant upward striving toward the spiritual on the part of every created thing. As the counterpart to the bright radiance of Metatron, she is sometimes envisioned as a luminous figure clad in dark garments.”

–John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom, the Magical Cabala in the Western Tradition, 1996, pg. 99-100.

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August 16, 2014

The Third Son of Adam

“Adam and Eve, in the Genesis account, had three sons whose names are recorded; the first two, Cain and Abel, gained an unpleasant fame as the first murderer and his first victim.

The third, however, was named Seth, and had a different destiny. The Bible says little about him, but legend tells that he journeyed back to the gate of Eden and spoke to the angels who guarded the gate.

From them, according to one story, he received the secret teaching which was to become the Cabala.”

–John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom, the Magical Cabala in the Western Tradition, 1996, pg. 81.

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August 16, 2014

The Pearl Net of the god Indra

“What is the Sphere of Sensation? In simplest terms, as mentioned earlier, it is the aura, the egg-shaped outer layer of the nephesh that extends out several feet from the physical body.

It is not, however, a simple featureless shape. Some texts refer to it as the Magical Mirror of the Universe, and this term is meant to be taken quite literally; the entire universe, in all its complexity, is reflected on its surface.”

“The Buddhist Garland Sutra makes use of an old Indian legend to express a similar insight. The god Indra, it was said, had a net infinitely large, in which each crossing of threads bore a brightly polished pearl. Each pearl reflected all the others, so that the whole net could be seen by looking at any one part. In this metaphor, the pearls are individual beings, the net the dance of becoming in which all beings are snared.”

–John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom, the Magical Cabala in the Western Tradition, 1996, pg. 72-3.

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August 16, 2014

Old Testament as Cipher

“Over the years  the belief grew that the whole of the Old Testament was a gigantic cipher, a secret message from God to humankind containing all of the wisdom of the universe in encoded form.”

–John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom, the Magical Cabala in the Western Tradition, 1996, pg. 22.

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August 16, 2014

On Magical Incest

“Later on this wickedness is followed by the magical prostitution of evil, or the act of Magical Incest, through the intermingling of the Sons of God (the demoniac powers engendered by the disruption of Tetragrammaton) with the daughters of men–the carnal lusts of humankind.

Here is symbolized a process of leveling down (a carnal communism) and not of rising up, and the result is the establishment of Black Magic, the earth being peopled by “mighty men,” or despots. Why not White Magic? Because the Sons of God (the Above) came down to the daughters of men (the Below); that is light absorbed by darkness.

Thus mankind sank into the Qliphoth, the reflection of the world of Assiah upon the chaos of human passions, and Hell is created–the materialized mental pit. Thus also it came about that the world became corrupt and filled with violence, and to redeem it it was necessary to destroy it, except for Noah and those in the Ark.

Noah was, however, far from perfect; consequently we find that after the deluge he profanes the Mysteries, “And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent” and, his son Canaan divulging this profanation, is cursed. Thus magic, in spite of the repentance of Tetragrammaton, continued to grow until the repopulated world cried:

“Go to, let us build a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name,” that is an object of worship, for they had a crafty design to rid themselves of the Supreme Power and to transfer His glory to another.”

“The inner meaning of the Tower of Babel is that any attempt to possess the secrets of heaven in order to divulge them to the uninitiated on earth must lead to misunderstanding and anarchy–a confusion of tongues, that is of false symbols. A universal pentacle cannot be constructed for the unpurified multitudes, for the multitudes can only comprehend parables.”

–JFC Fuller, The Secret Wisdom of the Qabala, pp. 58-9.

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August 16, 2014

The Fall

“Behold, the man is become as one of us [the Elohim], to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

–JFC Fuller, The Secret Wisdom of the Qabala, pp. 57.

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August 16, 2014

The Ancient of Days

“As we have explained, this first Sephirah represents “I am” as being, that is as pure existence. It is neither positive nor negative, but  ±,  and though sexless it is androgynous.

Though the primordial point of light, it is nevertheless the circumference of all things, the centre of which is nowhere because it is in No-Thing; containing all the potency of Tetragrammaton (YHVH), it is simultaneously past, present and future.

In the letter ∞od, which corresponds to it, is enclosed the imminence of the ten Sephiroth. Frequently it is called the Ancient of the Ancients, the Ancient, or the Ancient of Days. For instance, in the Book of Daniel we read:

“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.“

–JFC Fuller, The Secret Wisdom of the Qabala, pp. 28.

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August 16, 2014

The Beatitude of Children

“Take heed that ye not despise one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”

–JFC Fuller, The Secret Wisdom of the Qabala, pp. 16.

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August 16, 2014

The Creation as Transcript

“Amongst the Mohammedans we find the same idea: the first thing God created was a pen.

Indeed the whole creation is but a Transcript, and God when He made the world, did but write it out of that Copy which He had of it in His Divine understanding from all Eternity. The Lesser Worlds (Mikrokosmos) or Men, are but transcripts of the Greater (the Makrokosmos), as Children and Books are the copies of themselves.”

“The idea ex nihilo nihil fil (from nothing nothing is made) is abhorrent to the Qabalah.

Not any Thing [says the Zohar] is lost in the universe, not even the vapour which goes out of our mouths; as all things, it has its place and its destination, and the Holy One, blessed be It, makes it concur to Its works; not anything falls into the void, not even the words and the voice of man, but all has its place and its destination.”

–JFC Fuller, The Secret Wisdom of the Qabala, pp. 14.

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August 16, 2014

The Secret Doctrine of Jesus

“…He said: Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” To the common folk Christ spoke in parables, not because He was of a common mind, but because He was an initiate and so understood how fine is the division between reason and madness, and how easily can knowledge dissolve the filament which separates these two.

“… Amongst the Jews, and Christ was of that race, we find it firmly established, and it is not a mere coincidence that the Hebrew word Sod, which means “mystery” or “secrets,” has the same numerical value, namely 70, as the Hebrew word which represents “wine;” for mystery can intoxicate as well as refresh.”

“The mysteries of the early Hebrews were closely guarded by the Sons of the Doctrine, and it would appear that many of their secrets were derived from Egypt and later on from Babylonia. We are told that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and that in the first four books of the Pentateuch he has esoterically laid down the principles of the secret doctrine. He initiated seventy elders into the mysteries, which they transmitted from mouth to ear.”

“…Though refuted by Origen, Celsus was undoubtedly right when he declared that the primitive Christian Church was possessed of a secret system, and Weishaupt, the supposed founder of the Illuminati…said:

“No one … has so cleverly concealed the high meaning of His teaching, and no one has finally so surely and easily directed men on to the path of freedom, as our great master Jesus of Nazareth. This secret meaning and natural consequence of His teaching He hid completely, for Jesus had a secret doctrine, as we see in more than one place of the Scriptures.”

“…there can be no doubt whatever that the Bible is a mystical work containing a secret doctrine which is only known to those who have been initiated into it. … Even when … Leibnitz published in the Acta Eruditorum … his scheme of differential calculus, he did so in such a way as to hide both the method and object from the uninitiated. Newton did the same with his invention of infinite series; and algebra, as far as it was understood by the Arabians, was, as a secret, known to and hidden by certain Italian mathematicians for three hundred years.”

–JFC Fuller, The Secret Wisdom of the Qabala, pp. 8-9.

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August 16, 2014

JFC Fuller on the Defamation of the Mysteries

“It is like a ship drifting on a shoreless sea. She may be well built, well stocked, and bravely manned, yet her destiny is foreordained; having no port to put into, sooner or later she and her crew must sink beneath the waters and be lost forever. 

“When this doom encompasses mankind, as today it would seem to encompass it, man does not so much wring his hands in despair as drown his hopelessness in physical enjoyments. “Let us eat and drink….for tomorrow we die” become the passwords of the age, and the more this obsession  gains sway the less does wonder illumine his path, until the age enters its eclipse. Love becomes lust, the noble ignoble, the beautiful hideous, the generous selfish, and all is lost in a scramble of greeds. It is in this dismal darkness that Satan materializes and Satanism becomes a cult. The symbols go on, potent and impotent; but now they are turned upside down, for fear is hope reversed.” 

“The knowing are few; the ignorant are many. What to the one is supreme goodness, to the other may prove to be a deadly poison. As Adam eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil lost Eden, so throughout the ages have the wise kept wisdom to themselves, imparting to the multitudes only just sufficient knowledge to fill them with wonder, and guarding against giving too much lest wonder intoxicates them and turns them mad.”

“…When this wisdom has been observed an equilibrium has been established in the social order, and when it has not been observed chaos has always held sway. A society or a civilization seldom perishes by the sword; nearly always it perishes through a defamation of the mysteries which held it in equilibrium. When Ham uncovered his father’s nakedness he was cursed; so also was Promethius punished for stealing fire from heaven. Thus it happens that a people or a civilization is cursed when its rulers uncover the mysteries in the public places. When the symbols are made cheap they are misunderstood, they cease to be symbolical and become real, idols in the eyes of the multitudes. When the multitudes dance round the Golden Calf, then are the Tables of the Law cast upon the ground.”

“…Freedom is a sublime mystery; but when this mystery is vulgarized it becomes anarchy. Look around: everywhere we see turmoil, strife, jealousy, fear, and greed; Satan brooding over the four corners of the world and the drums of war beating nearer and nearer.”

“…Why has science thus failed us? Because the wisdom of the few has been cast like pearls before the swinish ignorance of the many. The intellectual evolution of the masses has not kept pace with the physical evolution of the scientists. … Chaos surrounds us, because the mysteries have been communicated to those unworthy to receive them, and not until the new body is endowed with a new mind will a new soul be born within it. Such an equilibrium can alone be established through wonder–a stepping out from the finite towards the infinite, a transmutation of Satan into God.”

–JFC Fuller, The Secret Wisdom of the Qabala, pp. 6-7.

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