The reversed pentagram; the key to the liberation of matter

The  Golden Dawn Temple Deck  by Harry Wendrich

The modern Golden Dawn has a bit of a problem with using the reversed pentagram due to some very mixed messages about its use by its founder Samuel Mathers.

Mathers firstly tells students that it is an evil symbol and you should not use it, however later on he tells you that it has a use for controlling evil spirits. It is possible that Mathers changed his mind, but it is equally possible that he expected people to work out what the reversed pentagram actually meant.

In Mather’s Last Secret I printed the only version seen of the original GD portal ritual. In it Mathers describes the Devil card which shows the Devil with an upright pentagram above his head and a face which is shaped like an inverted one.

“Thus he represents the gross and materialized Elemental Forces of Nature, and the whole would be an evil symbol, were it not for the pentagram of light above his head which guides and regulates his movements. He is the eternal renewer of all the changing forces of creation in conformity with the laws of the All Powerful One, Blessed be He, which controlling laws are typified by the Pentagram of Light surmounting the whole.”

In other words, the reversed pentagram represents lowest elemental force, but it is redeemed by the message of the upright pentagram.

How not to do it... very naughty Mr Case

The upright pentagram means that spirit rules the elemental nature, however the reversed pentagram appears to show that spirit is under the control of the elements. However, in fact the pentagram means a little more than that. It actually shows that spirit is latent within all matter. Moreover, if you use a reversed pentagram to banish or invoke you end up revealing that latent spiritual force.

The reversed pentagram is about finding the divine in everything around you. This is a mystery and a heresy to those who find matter evil and something which needs to be escaped. This might be the reason why it does not get a mention or developed in much of the GD paperwork.

The formula of the Devil card hints that it is possible to do a supreme inverted pentagram ritual which is intended to liberate and use the divine force which is around you.  If you look at the card it would suggest you would do a normal upright active or passive pentagram and then an inverted pentagram of the element.  You are, using Mathers’ words working with the “eternal renewer of all the changing forces of creation in conformity with the laws of the All Powerful One.”

A lesser ritual of the pentagram ritual has nothing to do with the elements and Mathers suggests that were you to draw an inverted pentagram you would be drawing symbol of the “gross and materialised Elemental Forces of Nature.” What I think he is suggesting is that spirit is latent in everything but slumbers. You cannot draw it out naturally but need the extra energy of a spirit pentagram to awaken it.

Mathers suggests using this reversed pentagram when you are dealing with evil spirits so that you do not harm them. This too is probably a blind. When you open the quarters using any supreme pentagrams you are working with the elementals through the power of spirit. Inverted pentagrams take you much lower into matter. This is a point often represented by the depths of the underworld. It is hard for us to get to that point naturally because it is bound up with our own rational fears. We are trying to conceive of a point where matter slows down to the point where it triggers unconscious fears of demonic forces, death, plague and extinction.

The reversed pentagram acts as a diver’s weight drawing us down, but before we can do so we need to be sure that we can handle that pressure.

It takes a balanced soul not to journey to that level and not project their own devils into the dark, but rather see the divine manifesting there.  It takes an adept to see those forces as Gods working slowly at those levels.

It is probably for this reason that Mathers warned his students off, while at the same time gave hints of what they needed to do.  

On the nature of Gods, Spirits and Demons

 What follows is cryptic writing but inside it are Ideas which should give the reader concepts which I am playing with now.  

These are the realms and natures of spirits.

The One Thing is like light, in which darkness and shadow are one. To understand itself it created a mirror and divided itself into seven aspects and these formed the jewels of a crown for creation.  

From these jewels were born the seven proto-gods, the Elohim, who contained in themselves the seeds for the reflection of the One Thing. These proto-gods created matter so that it could reflect the Face of the One Thing.

They divided the reflection into two; the light and its shadow became separated. Thus, the colours of the Elohim where reflected through-out creation, from the lightest to the shadow.

Then these proto-gods made the astral form of themselves and called it Adam Kadmon and they sat on his head as a nameless crown of reflected light. 

This child of the Elohim partook of two different natures, and contained within itself the rainbow of creation from light to shadow. Adam Kadmon existed in a twilight world of light and shadow for in matter were the full range of the colours of the Elohim expressed.

Adam Kadmon saw the Elohim in all aspects of himself and he named them. The highest Crown it called them the Seven Celestial Gods and declared all the colours pure inside them. Then it proceeded to name all the gods between the light and the shadow. At the top Adam Kadmon declared, was a trinity of male, female and union.

Adam Kadmon noted that there were those Gods which were closer to his nature than others were. Colours, and beings which were similar to him. These he related to strongly, but they changed with his mood and development. Sometimes they were overthrown by a vision of the Celestial, sometimes they were dragged down deeper into his own shadow.  

Some gods were bound to this shadow by their rivals and their true meaning became lost to all but those who sought them in the Shadowlands. They were called demons, but they were no more evil than that aspect of Adam Kadmon. They were ruled by King, a Queen and a Prince.

Then there were gods who Adam Kadmon feared so completely. They were part of himself and part of his not-self. For he knew that there was an infinity of being above the crown of light and below the shadow crown which were above his understanding -- beings which could only be defined by what they were not. They were nameless shadows beyond Erebus whose darkness ebbed and flowed like a black ocean between the subjective and the objective. When the waters rose, the shadows darkened and when they retreated, the shadows lightened. Likewise, when the nameless crown did brighten, so the light became dazzling.

There were also those spirits who were born of the Kingdoms of matter in which Adam Kadmon lived and these he called elementals and he was their manipulator using them to change his universe until it suited him.  Sometimes he would call upon the powers of his Gods to help him and other times he would bind them with his own power.

There were the fragments that Adam Kadmon had cast off; aspects of itself had fulfilled their destiny. Some, which partook of its highest aspects, merged their fates with the God which corresponded to it, others became Gods, and fewer managed to raise themselves beyond the trinity of light and darkness. Others became one with their family line and existed at their own level within the mind of Adam Kadmon.

And it shall be so until Adam Kadmon has truly reflected the Elohim and shall merge with them and he shall then merge with the One Thing, which will have understood itself.