Golden Dawn Spirit Vision over Pathworking

 I wrote this in 2009 and I thought it was time to dust it off now that my new book Magical Imagination, which is reviewed here is out.  Since the 1960s the idea of 'pathworking' has largely changed the Golden Dawn techniques of 'Rising on the Planes'.

Gareth Knight once told me that he started out using the GD techniques and then discovered they worked well without many of involved details that the older system had.
Recently I have been reviewing the GD techniques as part of my own work and am starting to wonder if the baby has gone out with the bathwater.
My own book. Magical Imagination, uses modern techniques. But my view has been that they are taking place within the person's own psyche and if they extend into the macrocosm it is more or less by accident.
This was good and powerful because it enabled much transformation work to be done on the personality. However it did lead to the lower aspects of the self overwhelming the experience.
Reading carefully what the GD was up to it is clear that they wanted to go beyond the personality and into the macrocosm. They argued that thought when projected with the strength of the lower will, under the guidance of reason, and illuminated by Higher Will can manage this task.
With this in mind the Adept sends a thought ray, illuminated by his Higher Self to the symbol which resides in his Sphere of Sensation. From that point the adept sees the Macrocosmic view and may step into it.
Boiling down the formula the GD system requires a lot more donkey work before such a Macocosmic pathworking is attempted.
Firstly the person selects an objective or destination. This is wide, for example I will go to the 32nd Path. But it will not be simply throwing one's self onto the astral and seeing what you get. This is because you need the focus of an objective to get the sort of information you are after.
Next the operator would swat up on all the correspondences associated with the path and review any intellectual knowledge they may have. There should be some meditation on the various symbols. This makes the unconscious mind susceptible to the symbols and will open channels to improve vision. In addition the operator should memorise any names sigils and other tokens that are connected to the path.
The adept would then write and work invocations to the divine and angel powers that are set over that path. This could include the pentagrams and hexagram rituals. This empowers the intellectual learning within the sphere of sensation and creates a Macrocosmic connection.
Next the operator creates a Gate in his imagination. The most common is the Gate of the Veil, which is a door frame with a veil with the colour of the path and a symbol of the path.
This gate is supposed to be at the edge of the adepts sphere of sensation and forms the link between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic. It is clear reading the diaries of those who have used these techniques that there is a link formed in the process between the individual and the macrocosm and the result is much stronger.
Modern Pathworking has kept the gate but removed its real purpose. A pathworking begins at the gate with little precursor. This means that the result cannot be beyond the person's own psychological sphere. The experience is limited because it can only give intellectual extensions of knowledge rather than Microcosmic bursts of inspiration.
The flow of a GD pathworking is connected to the operator's own spiritual energy which allows the sphere of sensation to be reprogrammed by the experience.

The limits of silence

I read a particularly interesting Kindle book over the weekend called the Seal of the Secrets of the World by Soror ZSD23.  The book covers the author’s personal work with the Arbatel and the Seals of the Olympic Spirits.

It is turn cheap and can be found on Amazon here.    In the way of a review, the book tells you a bit about the Arbatel and how she used it practically and the effects it had.

What makes this book important is that it tells you what you need to know from someone who has been there.  It is the sort of thing that a teacher might pass on to their students, but keep secret from the rest of the world.

The reason for this secrecy was that it is an inside look into someone else’s magical practice and is extremely revealing. A teacher often does not allow themselves to be exposed in this way, preferring to keep barriers between themselves and their students.

In the process of reading Seal of the Secrets of the World  you learn about what was happening in the author’s life and how this magical stuff created an effect.  The book itself pours poison on any possible theory that is popular in the occult scene which says that magic is great for you and will do you no harm. Soror ZSD23 experiences quite a few unpleasant experiences in the process of her experiments, and it is clear that you can’t write these off as her “not knowing what she was doing.”

Commercially this book is not going to do well.  That is because most people want to read about magic from the comfort of their armchairs. Those that actually experiment with this sort of stuff will find it invaluable. It gives you clues to how the Seal is supposed to be used, and also the sorts of problems you are likely to suffer as a result.  It also reveals a lot more of the nature of the Olympic Spirits, which are forces I personally think are not looked at enough.

This sort of book is the occult equivalent of a science journal where the experiment is available for peers to look at and work with themselves.

This sort of sharing is common in the scientific world but it is not in the occult world.  I have picked up diaries from famous occultists before, Dion Fortune’s, Paul Foster Case’s and John Dee’s diaries are valuable insights about how magic is supposed to be practiced and what results you might see.  However this unvarnished approach was not meant for public consumption.  Dion Fortune’s channelling sessions were more uneven than her followers gave her credit for and in one case Master R slagged off Anne Davies for her lack of cabbalistic knowledge. 

Dee’s diaries highlighted the wife swapping incident which has forever blighted Enochian magic’s squeaky clean reputation. But at the same time, using Dee’s diaries has reconstructed whole chunks of the system which were missing and enabled people like Aaron Leitch have a crack and reconstructing what real Enochian sounds like.

When I wrote my own books I put in lots of stories with some of them being about me which are not that flattering.  What I did not do was write an effective diary of each of my experiments as Seal of the Secrets of the World does.

While I would argue my books sugar the pill a bit, Soror ZSD23 has made her subject more directly useful for serious magical workers.   

As information has become available online in blogs and ebooks I think we can see a lot of this sort of thing happening.   If people are up for it, information can be shared that will aid the development of magic generally.

While these works will not see any commercial success they will slowly build into a common body of magical experience.

This sort of material goes above and beyond each tradition.  For example Seal of the Secrets of the World by Soror ZSD23 uses a lot of psychological and Eastern terms because of her background and training.  Although I don’t personally get on with that approach,  I can see what she means it remains useful.

What this approach would also mean is that those systems which are hidden behind a cloud of secrecy cannot really function and remain credible in the esoteric community at large.  There will be those who feel that their experiments are too personal to put in the public arena, which is fair enough.  But there are equally those who have stuff to share.

I remember when I was in David Goddard’s group, a member of the temple died.  We trooped to Glastonbury to scatter his ashes and say nice things about him.  Then the teacher also flung the ashes of his burnt diary to the winds.  

I thought, the man had gone, even his words have been destroyed and now I have forgotten his name.  What were in those words which I might have found useful?   He was a nice bloke, I am sure he would have wanted me to know them. 

Then I thought of other bonfires – such as those in Whare Ra, where words and teachings were removed from the magical community to protect “memories” of people.  Letters from Mathers, Westcott, teachings etc all up in smoke, all because of secrecy.

Evola and the myth of Being Special

Mussolini’s favourite occultist, Julius Evola, is enjoying rehabilitation at the moment.  I say “enjoy” – he is actually dead and is not capable of enjoying much.

Julius Evola

Since the war Evola has been ignored in the wider occult community.  There might be some collective embarrassment about him, as he proved quite conclusively that you could be a clever occultist but at the same time be a dog poo of a human being. 

 Evola references and books have been preserved by right wing occultists who have had likewise to keep a low profile.  Now, with the rise of the “other” Now with the rise of the “other” Golden Dawn and Ring Wing groups in France (who are calling for the expulsion of Muslims), Germany, Russia and the UK Evola stuff is being repackaged and it looks rather good.

Intelligent, reasoned, well thought out and practical.  Hell, he had a technique or two that I use.  If you pick up his books you can’t help be impressed by what Evola knows and how he expresses it.  Any experienced occultist find much to agree with and indeed work with. 

This for example explains some of the practical part of magic really well:

Fix your eyes on the goal and never lose sight of it.

Close your eyes. Create an image and look at it. In the dark, learn to discern a light that cannot be seen with physical eyes. This ethereal light carries the first secret of the Work.

Become insensitive to good and evil, upright, absolute, naked.

Learn to will without yearning, without fear or regrets.

Create a power to act without tiring. Let this power be cold, hard, and at the same time labile and flexible. The Secret of the Force consists in willing well, willing long, willing without ceasing—and in never yearning.

Cut yourself free from the bonds of sensuality, intoxication, and passion: reduce yourself to a simplicity that wills.

Violate every need. Use everything and abstain from everything as you please. Become the absolute ruler of your soul.

Create a resistance. What is mobile obeys what is immobile, and the powers of nature become subjected to him who can resist them. Having reached a point when you desire nothing and fear nothing, there will be few things over which you will not rule. However, enjoy nothing until you

have first vanquished it within yourself.

The Force does not give itself up. Take it. Dare.

Being free, well balanced, strong, calm, and pure, and having slain desire, say: "I WANT."

 

However, he has one problem which undermines the whole of his work and turned him into something that even the Nazis and Italian Fascists thought was too extreme.  

 He thought he was special.

It is a common thing amongst occultists and probably something that we get accused of the most.  There is a belief that knowing the secrets of the universe, or talking to gods and angels and realising the reality of occult knowledge makes us different from other humans.

Quoting Evola:

This shore is the one plagued by misery, darkness, and pollution.  Before you is the mighty current. There lies the other shore. 

On this side are ignorant people, lacking knowledge, pale, passive, intoxicated, whose lives are still outside and on this side of the Waters.  On the other shore you will find virile men, heroic souls, awakened to disgust, to revolt, to the Great Awakening; having left one shore behind, they dare face the current and the undertow, being led by their ever more firm, unshakable will.  Once there, they are known as "Survivors of the Waters," "Walkers on the Waters," the "Holy Race of the Free," "The Conquerors," "The Lords of Life and Salvation," "The Radiant Ones."  They are the "Dragon Slayers," the "Dominators of the Bull," "Consecrated to the Sun," those who have been transformed through Ammon's power and Wisdom.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it?  There you are, battling against everything to get to the other shore.  Others are just “ignorant people, lacking knowledge, pale, passive, and intoxicated” while you are going to be something much better.

What is scary is that what Evola is saying is sort of true.  An occultist does feel an outsider from their society, and what he is doing is saying “it is just as well they are all scum and you are going to be a hero.”

The thing is that it does feel like that at times.  Magic is a lonely path because it is hard to find those who can share your universe.  However it is a mistake to feel that you are any better than the rest of humanity.  In fact, you are supposed to know better.

All things spring from the mind of the One Thing as expressions of itself.  Since the One Thing is infinite, everything is made from it.  It is an illusion that we are separate from other humans, or even different aspects of creation.

Once you start saying something is better than something else you create a concept of separateness between “us and them.”  If you have the sort of intellect that Evola had it is possible to place more hierarchies of superiority between you and others, reasons why you need to be special.

Evola was a major influence on Mussolini

For example, using Evola logic, if you are special it is logical to assume that others are special too.  Like Plato you can suggest that it would be a better place if instead of being ruled by the great unwashed that you were ruled by enlightened priest-kings (although Plato saw the problems with that sort of society in his description of Atlantis).  These would be small autocratic units that have no monetary interest in ruling.  If the closest political system to this is fascism, well why not, it can be reformed in time to the point where the Hitlers and Mussolinis are replaced by you and your special friends.  

If you and your friends are special, what do you do about those who are different?  Well that just does not make sense does it?  They are different, but they are not occultists, they are black, Chinese or Jewish.  Well there must be a form of spiritual natural selection with each race having to bring about a different expression of spirituality.  We must keep these races apart or we will contaminate our spirituality.  We need to keep races pure, or we will stop being spiritually special.  If they do not go back to where they came from, they need to be exterminated to keep our spirituality pure.

All this is a logical expression of considering yourself special.  However it is not quite, but completely and utterly, wrong.

The wrong Golden Dawn

Take Evola to the top of a mountain and tell him to look at the infinite universe.  Explain the size of it, and the length of time that it has been there, and will remain there.  This universe is the closest expression of the One Thing in matter.  How does the universe see this galaxy, let alone this solar system, planet or country and you?  How will it see a difference between Evola and a beggar? 

Sure Evola has a divine spark within him which gives him the power to observe creation but so does the beggar.  In fact the beggar will do more observing of his immediate surroundings than Evola.

You might think you are pretty neat because you can talk to spirits, but if you can’t mend a fuse, does it make you better than the Polish electrician who does it for you?  Does the fact that you understand 13 ancient languages make you any better than the bloke who knows Java? 

What Evola did not get, is that occultists were not special but were just another specialisation of the powers of the One Thing.

Specialisation does not make something better; it just makes someone able to do something else.  Specialisation is one of humanity’s greatest tools and is what hangs the species together more than anything else.  It has created a species which is actually inter-dependent on each other.

Humanity’s weaknesses are caused by the hierarchies of superiority that Evola and his kind wanted to create.  A more powerful person is one with money, education rather than one who is most themselves.  By favouring an elite, Evola was never going to fix this problem. 

So when the person comes into your news group, occult group, or life waving the writings of Evola as if he were a god, remember that whatever Evola said, wrote or could do, he missed the most important lesson of all.  We are all One Thing expressing itself and therefore missed the whole point of magic.  Accepting Evola’s way is to accept that others are superior to you and you have to be a slave to them.  But on the plus side, other are inferior to you and must be your slaves.

Not in my universe.