Occult couples

“Fear is failure, so be thou without fear, for he that trembles and the fire and the flood hath no part of God”

Most occultists believe that they live without fear. They claim that within its teaching, they find that their fears, particularly of death, are washed away. While this might be true, one of the biggest problems we find within the Golden Dawn community stems from fear – the fear of being alone.

The study of magic is such a minority activity and is divided still further into different strains of teaching. Even within a single group, magicians vary in what they believe so that the chances of you finding someone who thinks like you is remote.

Ultimately the magician has to go it alone. This is the message of the Tarot card the Hermit.

But humans do not do well when they are alone. Humans are social creatures who need to function with others to thrive. There are all sorts of illnesses that come from being alone. Being alone is simply un-natural. Every biological system within our body requires us to find a mate and raise children.

But this causes another problem, how to you fulfill your biological and emotional needs for people when your universe is so different from anyone else.

The Tuhoe Tohunga, Hohepa Kereopa said that everyone has a separate universe and relationships between men and women are dependent on the similarity of those universes.

When I look at the relations I have had, the ones that have been successful have been so when people have been thinking along similar lines to me. Relationships with muggles have only worked while there was enough in the relationship which was not occultism that could hold everything together.

Anna Branch, who was an American magician, once told her husband that he should not ever make her choose between occultism and him. I guess occultism was the real her and the rest was just what they had in common. That was enough to hold them together unless he tried to intervene in her “real life”. Fortunately, Branch said, “he died” so it never came to that.

As magic grew increasingly important to me, it became more difficult to have partnerships with muggles. Even if they were sympathetic to the magic ideas, the concept of having your partner locked in a room banging on a computer knocking out books which were designed only to be read by a few thousand and understood by six did not make sense. Winging your way around the world to initiate people and not having a holiday at the same time seemed senseless.

The obvious idea is to have a relationship with another magical person. However this causes problems too. Not only are the right people rare, just because you have that certain chemistry in the ritual and can talk about magic does not mean it is the sort of relationship that can help you function on the mundane world.

Often because of the relief of being in a relationship where magic can actually be talked about creates such a relief that it takes a while for you to realise that the person you are with is not one you would normally want to go out with. You allow your standards to slip, or end up in an abusive relationship, just because this person has similar spiritual experiences to you.

I know of one person who thought she could deal with this problem by having two men. One for her mundane life and another for her magical one. Unfortunately most people want exclusivity in their partners, she thought she could have the same level of love from the magical partner by not sleeping with him while demanding his undying “spiritual love”. Needless to say it did not end well.

It is a problem which resolves itself in one way or the other. Either you deal with the crushing loneliness by compartmentalising your life so you can find a balance. Or you try and being entirely magical or entirely “normal”. The unbalanced way will ultimately be unsatisfying in my experience.

If you are really lucky you find a partner who is magical AND your material universe works. Life becomes a meandering path in which the darkness that overwhelms one, can be repelled by two working in harmony; each upholding each other’s strengths and balancing each other’s weaknesses. This is rare and even harder work. You not only become responsible for your life on a material level, but your job becomes to assist each other's spiritual walk.

But it does mean that Goals which were impossible for one, become obtainable for two. The shared universes weave themselves into a life destiny which alone they could not obtain.

While this sounds great, sometimes relationship problems become spiritual ones and it becomes difficult to separate the two. Many couples strive to understand one another, but an occultist knows that another person is as complex and hard to understand as God.

Such couples exist to do the work. What is interesting about these relationships is that it is rare that they have children. The work becomes their child.

Dion Fortune once said that for people to become true magicians they have to have passed through the path of hearth fire.This mirrors the old Cabbalistic idea which implied that you are supposed to have had a few kids and proven yourself able to be a parent before you pressed ahead with spiritual work. While this sounds great, in principle, if Fortune had followed her own advice she would never have been a great magician. Her relationships were all dire and it means that she never followed that path at all.

Any spiritual path, be it hearth fire or Solomonic magic, is optional to the magician. What is important is to find your way through it. What ever you choose, it becomes a life path decision. Sometimes finding that balance is part of your spiritual destiny. Certainly the cure for being alone is to find someone to share your life with. However make sure it is the right person. Don't jump simply because someone appears to share your world view, they have to fit everything. All your universes have to match. On the whole, it is worth the wait.

Temples of Humanity

Below is an unpublished Whare Ra document. It is has close similarities to a paper written by Dion Fortune and is related to what I call the Inner Temple method. Fortune said that she acquired the Inner Temple method from the AO Chief Maiya Tranchell-Hayes where it was a Second Order AO proceedure. Since this paper was written after the split and is an ST document, it indicates that the idea had a common source and that both sides of the divide used Astral Temples for ritual and teaching. You can see hints of it in the Flying Rolls and the Z-documents.

The idea of using the astral counterparts of important landmarks was very important to Dion Fortune's work. She used the astral aspects of Glastonbury Tor, but she had the additional advantage of living there.

We are lucky to have a similar site in Rome where the astral reality and the physical overlap.

As this paper points out, these are powerful sites to work for humanity rather than individuals. Rituals which take place at these levels can help humanity a lot.

To seek out these places, even using this paper as a guide, is a lot of work. Even then they are “protected” by their own guardians. If you do find your way into one, it pays to be very, very polite. If you find entrance is easy then you are in the wrong place. 

The Temples of the Earth (M.C.)

There are certain areas on the earth's surface which are surcharged with ritual force. These we call "Temples", for on them,or most of them, men have erected buildings set aside for Spiritual Teaching.

It seems probable that in the first place such areas were marked by some natural phenomenon, such as flames or hot springs in some cases. At all events they have formed sanctuaries for the wild creatures in time of stress

Having once been recognised and dedicated by man, they continue to be used by whatever form of religion prevails at any given time. As for instance the site of St. Paul and Westminster Abbey , which are known to have been Temples of the Sun and Moon, in pre-christian days. There are at least 12 such sites and there may be many more. It seems likely that our own Temple at Whare Ra is such a spot.

These areas have, from time immemorial, been associated with the Astrological Signs and Planets. We know of one on the bank of the Euphrates, which is dedicated to the Sun.

One on the Ruenzori Mountains (between Lakes Albert and Victoria), which is associated with the Moon. One in Central Europe, which is linked with Venus. And another in North Italy linked with Mercury.

There are some others in China and elsewhere.

Mesopotamia (Sun) Northern Persia (Mars) North Asia (Saturn)

Mountains between China and Tibet (Jupiter).

To contact any of these, it Is necessary to be quite clear which you desire to visit, and how you would reach it if you were travelling there by ordinary methods.

In these days we can go almost anywhere by air, therefore you van imagine yourself entering an aeroplane .

First protect yourself by the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

Then enter your plane and behave exactly as though you were going an actual physical journey. Follow mentally the route you have already plotted out. Descend at a convenient distance from the selected site and then endeavour to see with the interior eyes, what is before you.

It may be added that all these sites are distinguished by the presence of mountains, water (either river lake or springs). Pure invigorating air and abundant light .

So far Where Re has lacked the near presence of water. The Order should aim at boring for there is as there is at least one underground stream and there may be two .

One of the easiest Temples to reach is the Sun Temple on the Euphrates. It is simple to follow the course of the river until you are on top of a hill in a loop of the river. After a short canal cuts it off from the surrounding ground and it is therefore approached by crossing a bridge either North or South of the building and climbing steps. On the South side steps begin on the far side of the stream and thus form a bridge in themselves.

On the Northern side the bridge crosses the stream first and the steps are broken into three sets of twelve seven and three,, each marked by a square landing and supports. The lowest of these is a pair of obelisks, the second two palms, the third two lion headed sphinxes.

The southern approach is unbroken and has a hundred steps with a balustrade on each side. At the top either side there are great doors opening down the middle and giving entrance to a large square portico: on the inner side of which hang heavy embroidered curtains.

The aspirant must be ready with all his Order Signs, Grips and Passwords. If he is a Mason he had better be ready with these also.

Remember that you must always enter such a place with the saluting sign and the sign of Silence. Stand still and await further guidance and instruction; use your eyes and intelligence, make a careful note of whatever you see or hear.

So that you can write out a short, clear account when you return.

Remember that these Temples are not simply astral, you should receive spiritual vibrations from them : and the Teaching should not be merely personal.

These places are cosmic and are concerned with world affairs, not petty personal contacts. Most of them seem to use some form of ceremonial: and you may be called upon to take part in this , but if so it is for definite reason and purpose.

Tohunga: Hohepa Keropa

There are few moments where I have picked up a book and found things that "spoke to me" and this one is one of the rare ones which should be on every Golden Dawn magician's reading list.
Written by Paul Moon it is based on interviews he carried out with a Maori  magician, or Tohunga.
Kereopa was a Tohunga amongst the Tohuoe tribe.  I went up there once to do a feature and I can safely say it was one of the rawest moments I had with Maori spirituality.  I never met Kereopa and it is on my list of things I can kick myself about.   His blunt approach to people was legendary and he felt compelled to say stuff which was politically stupid but turned out to be incredibly accurate.  He saw it as a Magician's job to shake people up a bit.

The book is well written.  It is possible to hear the man's voice and what he has to say is well reasoned and clear to anyone involved in any magical tradition.   If you were to replace the world Tohunga with magician you would get a very good message on a lot of the sorts of subjects which are essentially screwing up the Golden Dawn.
The Tohunga tradition is fading a bit because of white suppression and there are few good ones left.  But rather than reconstruct a lost system, Kereopa sees change as part of any living tradition.  He did not mind the fact that it was losing information when he died.  He felt that teaching would come to future Tohunga anyway.  They would work it out for their age and teach it.

"Each person who takes a leaf of Knowledge opens themselves to receive more knowledge, and so the thing that keeps the [magicians] going in the end is the knowledge that survives, even if it is not past in the way it used to be.  I don't have any fears that there will not be a single person to carry on what I have learnt, because everyone who is interested will discover all they need to discover." 

In otherwords the modern Golden Dawn is different from anything that existed before 1978, it has been built by those who have discovered new things about it.  It does not matter that it is not the same as Mathers or Westcott people will find the knowledge in the spirit which is behind it.

I think this process was going on even when the old Golden Dawn was going.  It is just that some, like the Maori, harken back to a golden age which never was.

To quote the book again:

Traditional knowledge tends to accrue gradually and unevenly in communities.  The challenges of a new or changing physical environment, economic developments, perceptions of spirituality, spurts of population growth, grinding political advances and the unremitting pursuit of of every kinds of perceived progress, all merge into a chaotic concoction which propels the emergence of a corpus of knowledge that is unique to that community.

In other words each Golden Dawn group is going to be different, and each temple will be slightly different from the main group.  There can never be ONE Golden Dawn and certainly no one RIGHT Golden Dawn.

There is a lot in this book about personal development too and it did fill a few holes my own spiritual thinking. Like I said you can tell a useful book because you say "oh right" or "aha" a lot or put it down while you think through the implications.