Nick Farrell’s secret chief sauce of the WISE

For many years I have kept SECRET this most excellent ELIXIR which ALCHEMICALY TRANSMUTES even the most base of the animal kingdom into something tasty.  It was past to me by my on SECRET CHIEFS and I transmitted it to those of the most SENIOR BRETHREN

in ITALY where they had heard of it not. It should be prepared after much prayer for the making of the SECRET SAUCE is not to be embarked upon lightly.  If it is prepared incorrectly it can partake of too much of OUR FIRE and not be pleasant.  But if you follow the MIDDLE WAY between FIRE and Water you shall find the elixir should transform into a REDDENING of pure Fire EARTH.
It is ideal for transmuting the charred flesh of the BBQ into something which tasteth nice.  Indeed many have claimed that it is a MIRACLE of MYSTICAL SCIENCE.

Take then the following.

1 Tablespoon of the purest olive oil.

2 cloves of the bulbs of Alliaceae (Garlic)

3 cm of Gingiber (Ginger)

1 Escalonia  (shallot) finely chopped

1 teaspoon of the grindings myrtle pepper  from the e Greater Antilles  (All Spice)

1 teaspoon of the grindings of Sinapis hirta (mustard).

2 teaspoons of the spice made by the Turks of Broda (Paprika)

1 teaspoon of the grindings of Capsicum being a member of the nightshade family, Solanaceae (Chilly powder)

230gms of dark brown sugar

400g of Tomatos

280mls of the MOTHER OF VINEGAR (red wine vinegar)

2 tablespoons of the Sauce of Worcestershire

Salt and pepper

Over a medium flame warm the oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and shallot and cook for three minutes.  The vegetable matter should be transformed by the heat to the colour of the Sun.

Add in the Allspice, mustard powder, paprika and chilli powder and stir for no longer than a minute.

Add the sugar and stir for 30 seconds or until the sugar takes on the nature of caramel.

Add the Tomatoes, vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce and stir 20 times clockwise while reciting a Paternoster or the Orphic Hymn to Mars.

Raise the flame and simmer for 15 minutes.  The sauce must be exposed to the sunlight.  Do not simmer with a lid on for that will create a sauce of great evil.

When the time has passed. Take from the heat and allow to cool to the temperature of blood. Then liquidize until it is smooth.

Season with salt and pepper.

Pour into a sterilised bottle. It is best left in a cool place for 24 hours for the sauce to transmute and its flavours to arise.

Killing off the Past Heirophant

The top table of chiefs in the Golden Dawn ritual are composed of the Imperator, the Cancellarius and Praemonstrator. The Hierophant is also supposed to sit between them and behind him sits the Past-Heirophant.

Throughout the history of the Golden Dawn little work has been done about the magical function of these officers. Instead the titles are seen as mostly administrative. The person who fancies themselves in charge of the group takes the role of Imperator because it means “the person who rules” and it gets to stick them on a throne above all the others dressed in bright red and holding a jolly big sword.
However this ego stroke shows the ignorance of the system and the belief that it was an Imperator that ran the Order. In the original GD these officers were not seen and their function was not discussed by the great unwashed.

The Hierophant's throne was between a half open curtain and that was all that could be seen of these officers. If there was any dance of the ego it was conducted behind closed doors or curtains.
There were three important officers on the top table and one, the Heirophant which moved between the three.

The three represented the three pillars on the tree of life, the alchemical principles, Fire, Air and Water and the gods Nepthys, Thoth and Isis. The Hierophant (and the candidate) represented Osiris, Salt and Malkuth, and Earth.

But what does all this mean?

There are three great currents which come into the 0=0 ceremony from the withdrawn orders which are personified by the three chiefs. For the sake of identification I will call these the Nephsys, Thoth and Isis current. Their function is to rebuild and empower Osiris.

Isis

Nephsys is water and Mercury.

Her function is to alchemically separate (ie disolve) the candidate during the various processes of the 0=0. She is the force of putrefaction which takes place after death. She is also the purifier. Isis is fire and sulfur and the consecrating force which alchemically binds the candidate. Thoth is the quintessence the force which unites the forces of Sulphur and Mercury and thus resurrects Osiris.

These three rays take up a third of the temple each. Every time a candidate or an officer (with their godform) enter into those temple sectors they are working with and interacting with those rays. Thus when the candidate enters the temple in the West the first thing that happens to them is that they are broken down by the Nepthys force so that they can be rebound by the Isis force and raised up under the Thoth ray. The work of the 0=0 therefore can be said to be using the “Solve et Coagula” maxim of the alchemist.

This means then that the circumambulations where the candidate crosses the three lines of force mirror the alchemical processes of dissolve and bind. These transmutions are carried out by Maat and Anubis as they lead the candidate around the temple. They are also a factor at the various points where the candidate is stopped.

Also it is interesting to note that when Sulphur is mixed with Mercury and baked it creates a vermilion powder which was the basis for red paint. It makes sense of why the Hierophant wears red and how the action of the Imperator and the Praemonstrator bound by the power of the Cancellerious manufacture within the order the “created fire and the uncreated (or hidden) fire” which powers the Hierophant.

Thoth

The Hierophant then takes his power from these three rays which are manifested throughout the grade rises of the outer order. He is the salt, or material result of their action and hopes to pass on these powers to the candidate.

To me this answers the question as to whether the Hierophant should sit in front of the officers or in a line with them. He should be on an apex of triangle which the base line is the Imperator, the Cancellarius and the Praemonstrator. He should be seated in front of the Cancellarius who provides him with the middle pillar of air and the powers of the quintessence which he is expected to manifest into the the temple of Maat.

 The question about all this is what has all this work got do with the post of “past-heirophant”?. In Whare Ra this job was basically to assist the Hierophant in bringing in all the energy into the temple and to effectively sit in his chair as Osiris when the Hierophant was running around being Aroueris. He is Aroueris when the Hierophant is sitting down. The question is, is this role really required as it breaks a lot of very important symbols on the top table. You lose the idea of the tree of life, you lose the trinity, because four officers do not mean the same thing as three.

 The role, while an interesting idea, is not mirrored with other officers. Just because the Heirus stands up there is not a past Heirus to fills the passive role while the officer is active on the floor.

Since none of the chiefs roles are contained in the Cipher manuscripts it means that they are the invention of Mathers and Westcott. While the idea of three chiefs shows some alchemical genius, the use of four does not. In fact it shows the influence of freemasonry. In freemasonry once someone has passed through the chair they are given a past master title. They are supposed to assist the current master in their role. Sound familiar? However it is just another officer and a sop to the lost status which is afforded to the new master of the lodge.

Magically it does little which is not done elsewhere and actually messes with the tree of life and alchemical symbolism which is much more important. When I started to question the role of the past Hierophant I noticed that with the officer sitting on his desk there are actually 11 officers. Praemonstrator, Cancellarius, Imperator, Hierophant, Past Hierophant, Hegemon, Hierus, Dadouchos, Stolistes, Kerux and Sentinel. While this is a little superstitious, it is not a desirable number of officers to have, since it represents the qlippoth, whereas ten indicates the sephiroth.

Given this, I think it is probably better that the past Hierophant is handed his P45 and pink slip and told that in a magical order we don't really need to create senior jobs to avoid upsetting people who can't be Hierophant any more.


First published 2010

Unpublished AO and Golden Dawn Alchemical diagrams

I was reviewing some of the unpublished AO documents I have  to see if there were any noticeable differences from either the later Stella Matutina versions.  These two diagrams come from the early AO and the Nisi collection, which formed the basis of my Mathers' Last Secret and King Over the Water  book.  Since it was different from the Stella Matutina versions printed by Pat Zalewski in his Golden Dawn Rituals and Commentary Book, I thought that readers of my blog might appreciate it.  The diagrams are simpler than the Whare Ra versions which now appear to be a later development.
These two diagrams were shown to the candidate during the 2=9 ritual and they provide a somewhat strange attribution of the metals to the Tree of Life.   In Whare Ra students were given a copy of Westcott's translation of Aesch Mezareph which was supposed to explain it. It does not very well.
The two diagrams actually show two stages of the great work, but it is not explained how this is useful.  The Nisi document header seems to suggest that Mathers was trying to show how the different metals could be placed on the tree to show different things. However it doesn't really do that either.
Quoting his teacher, Jack  Taylor, Zalewski said that Mrs Felkin refused to remove the diagrams from the ritual.  He suggests that it might be only there to encourage students to study Aesch Mezareph.  But in my opinion the diagrams presentation might be magical.  They are placed in the South West and shown to the candidate by the Hierus before the Hegemon shows the candidate the geometric shapes diagram.
One of the things that I have noticed is that the candidate's sphere of sensation changes when exposed to these two diagrams.
One of the reasons why Felkin did not want the diagrams changed or removed is that they were forcing the sphere of sensation into an alchemical process.  In otherwords the diagrams were not meant to be understood intellectually, but their symbolism accepted.  The fact that the are shown the diagram by the Mars  and fire orientated Hierus would be significant to that process.
Regardie never saw this diagram during his initiation.  When he was initiated into the Bristol temple it was one of many which had been removed and set aside for "later study."  Thus he would have missed out on any magical exposure to these tablets.  As an alchemist he would have looked at them later and wonder what the hell they meant really.