Middle Pillar Ritual
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Just curious...
Did Crowley ever publish the Middle Pillar ritual? I haven't ever seen it if he did.
If he did not, then does anyone have any speculation on why he didn't? I'll take a completely unfounded attempt at it. Someone in the Golden Dawn wrote it only after the Matherses went to Paris, so Crowley, working there, just never learned it. I don't really have any idea when it entered the knowledge lectures or who wrote it. Just speculating.
Or might Crowley have had practical objections to it?
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@sasha said
"Just curious...
Did Crowley ever publish the Middle Pillar ritual? I haven't ever seen it if he did."
No. Israel Regardie invented it.
(There was a kind of "proto-MP" in the Stella Matutina in the form of preliminary building of the Tree of Life in the aura at Portal - but even that wasn't there in the Golden Dawn.)
"If he did not, then does anyone have any speculation on why he didn't?"
No need for speculation: It hadn't been written yet.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Israel Regardie invented it."
Hmmm.... Interesting. I had no idea. I assumed that at least the Stella Matutina used it, because Regardie included it in the Portal grade material, at least in one of his two big bricks.
I'm glad he did it. It greatly empowers any ritual work I do after I do the MP ritual.
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@sasha said
"Just curious...
Did Crowley ever publish the Middle Pillar ritual? I haven't ever seen it if he did.
re M.P.Ritual ;the sufis and various oriental yogis ascertained that the 7 Cakras spread out naturally as a colour spectrum within our mind-body. Via negative conditioning we may suppress certain emotions and thereby make some cakras inert and deadened hence the proposed healing propensities of such spectrum based cakra opening in certain situations.
In the Middle Pillar exercise however the "colour code" for each body zone is of course different e.g. the naturally solar diaphragm cakra is now on the Tiparethic chest centre and the indigo (ajna) colour is found in the Daath / throat. The violet crown is of course lowered to the genital zone. Are the cakras therefore being stimulated in the M.P.R. to the extent by which they are in the sufi Oriental path? I guesse the former exercise is for healing and the latter for the raising of the whole WoMan to the powers of infinity.
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@gerry456 said
"Are the cakras therefore being stimulated in the M.P.R. to the extent by which they are in the sufi Oriental path? I guesse the former exercise is for healing and the latter for the raising of the whole WoMan to the powers of infinity."
People make correlations between the chakras and the sephiroth as used in the Middle Pillar Ritual. But I don't work with chakras at all, so I haven't ever had any need to reconcile them. I see the MP as primarily opening up a channel between the sephiroth, as well as stengthening my awareness of those sephiroth. So I consider this more than just a healing ritual. I'd love to hear how others interpret this ritual. I emphasize creating a channel to draw down the purest divine into matter. It also seems to allow me access to greater power during other rituals. I find all of my other work greatly empowered if I do a MP before it. I also see it as strengthening one's balance and ability to handle magical energies in the long term.
Regardie, I think, emphasized the difference in directions dealt with in the MP and yoga. In the MP, we bring the light down into matter. In yoga (when dealing with chakras), you raise the material up into the divine. I don't know if he understood yoga properly or not, but I find the distinction useful for thinking about the meaning of the MP.
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93,
This one had me hung up fror the longest time. As a general rule, I think it's a mistake to precisely equate the chakras with the sephiroth.
The chakras are aligned along the spinal column. The sephiroth are positioned more forward than that - they're partly in front of the body.
The systems are obviously not entirely unconnected - both involve a vertical line of centres along the main axis of the body - but from that we shouldn't derive an exact equivalency. Malkuth, for example, is really at the feet, not at the base of the spine.
There are different color-codings in different people's MPs, it seems. One of the commonest approaches is simply to use white light in all sephiroth, which helps eliminate any conscious confusion with the chakras.
93 93/93,
Edward
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@Edward Mason said
"There are different color-codings in different people's MPs, it seems. One of the commonest approaches is simply to use white light in all sephiroth"
In his recent book, Kabbalah Magic, Lyam Thomas Christopher says that the student should practice the Middle Pillar in four stages that corresspond to the four qabalistic worlds, Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. The student is supposed to master the Assiatic MP with appropriate Assiatic divine names and colours before moving onto the Yetziratic MP, etc., etc. He even suggests that this is how it was originally supposed to be practiced! I was always under the impression that the Middle Pillar originated with Regardie, so how can this be the case?
Although Dion Fortune hints at this technique in one of her novels too."Israel Regardie is the author primarily responsible for revealing the secrets of the Golden Dawn to the world. His book The Golden Dawn, however, reveals mostly the framework and the philosophy and tells little of the most important techniques of transformation. Regardie did manage privately to teach a Middle Pillar Exercise that calls upon all of the Four Worlds at once. But this is a rather monumental task for the inexperienced beginner. In his book, The Middle Pillar, he only goes as far as dropping a hint: "Tradition gives us several scales of color, all of which are of equal efficacy."
In 1969, R.G. Torrens published the vital clue to the proper use of the Middle Pillar Exercise in the Four Worlds: "This is known as the technique of the Middle Pillar. The Glyph of the Tree, which you should now be familiar with in all it's five color scales, as in the Minutum Mundum and the Four Worlds, is the key."
It is best for the beginner to build up the the colors one Tree at a time, one in each elemental grade. Each Tree of Life represents a ladder to the next higher world, and therefore to the next grade. By assimilating the colors of one Tree at a time into your aura, you are scaling the height and breadth of your soul, from the outer world of physical action to the inner worlds of formation, creation, and emanation. As you build Tree upon Tree, you draw closer to essence of your being.
Kabbalah Magic ~ Lyam Thomas Christopher."
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@Her said
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@Edward Mason said
"There are different color-codings in different people's MPs, it seems. One of the commonest approaches is simply to use white light in all sephiroth"In his recent book, Kabbalah Magic, Lyam Thomas Christopher says that the student should practice the Middle Pillar in four stages that corresspond to the four qabalistic worlds, Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah. The student is supposed to master the Assiatic MP with appropriate Assiatic divine names and colours before moving onto the Yetziratic MP, etc., etc. He even suggests that this is how it was originally supposed to be practiced! I was always under the impression that the Middle Pillar originated with Ragardie, so how can this be the case?
"The Middle Pillar ritual per se was created by Israel Regardie, yes. However, it was based on a much more vague instruction - barely more than an inferring recommendation - given to the Portal member of the original G.D. (It was fleshed out a little more in the Stella Matutina.) Regardie "ran with it" and formalized it into a practice.
I haven't seen anything prior to suggest that what you cite was the original intended practice. The original was quite vague. One bit of indirect, inferrential evidence: Nothing resembling the Middle Pillar appears in Liber O and yet, given the rather astonishing importance and power of it, it seems unthinkable that it would not have been included there if Aleister Crowley or Cecil Jones had known about it.
There is a minor problem - still a problem, but a relatively minor one - with working the ritual a while only in Assiah. The Princess Scale colors are enormously powerful in opening astral gateways, much like taking very pure and fairly strong psychedelics. (OK, so I just set a bunch of folks off to try this, right? Not my intent, but all I can do is give the facts as I know them, yes?) The Queen Scale is really the most stable and reliable and (in the long-run) growth-stimulating of the scales, and I'd still recommend that as the starting place.
On the other hand, it would be dangerous, and even irresponsible, to recommend starting from the other end of the continuum, with Atziluth. I would never recommend that a student begin with the Atziluthic colors! In fact, the migration from the usual Queen Scale colors up to King Scale is a definite advance in the practice that I would never recommend to anyone unless they had long and stabilized practice in the Queen Scale form and a fair bit of other personal work. The very first time I ever did it with King Scale colors (under admittedly foolish circumstances), the lightning flash (which I usually take to be much more subtle) literally and actually blew out the engine of the vehicle I was driving in the very second I vibrated the Malkuth name. Before completely stabilizing my aura to the King Scale frequencies, I had a number of other small physical phenomena, mostly of an electrical nature.
One responsible variation on the technique (but not one I'd recommend for a beginner - not the place to start!) is a variation taught by the Aurum Solis where the "composite Tree" (Sephirothic triangles mapped against the Four Worlds) is used. Kether is seen in King Scale, Da'ath and Tiphereth in Queen Scale, Yesod in Prince Scale, and Malkuth in Princess Scale. This matches well with the core value of the practice, which is to use the image of bringing energy down the body to, in fact, bring it down the planes (or from within to without).
In reading your quote at the end, I note that the author says Regardie didn't teach the Four Worlds variant to beginners. Also, I read it to mean that this is Regardie's own innovation, not some prior (original G.D.) technique. The relationship to the original G.D. seems inferred by Torres, and then appears to be speculation only.
Edward's suggestion of using only white light for a while is quite excellent. I'd recommend this for at least a month, perhaps better something like six months, before adding any color at all.
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Interesting information in this thread. Thanks!
I seem to experience a problem with the MPR. If I do it regularly, my throat gets a lump, it often gets soar and so on. That sounds to me like one of those things Regardie talks about in his MPR book, the same as the Kundalini risks, that I have a blockation in the throat. Depression and so on is said to bring about lump sensations, but this feels more real. It passes a few days after I stop doing it. I really "enflame myself in prayer" and almost sing the Hebrew words and try to sink into the mood etc., but I do the circulation ritual everytime afterwards, even if maybe I could do it more thoroughly. I circulate the energy about 2-3 times in each direction and usually don't even do the spiral circulation.
Is it perhaps possible that doing the circulation in the wrong direction (which is possible, since it was a while since I looked the technique up) either diminishes/extinguishes the balancing effect or even making things worse? I circulate from in front up, down the neck and spine, from the left side up, down the right side, from the feet up inside the MP and off the head out like an external rain around me, and the spiral in a clockwise motion up, counterclockwise down. Correct?
In any case, does this sound like problems caused by doing the MPR wrong? I'm fairly certain it's the ritual and nothing else.
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I had recently been planning to add to my MP work, for which I currently just use the Queen colors and divine names. Between this and my earlier practice of just using white, I've worked with this for about a year and a half. I had considered doing the following:
Start with Kings scale and the divine name for Kether, then do Queen scale with archangel name for it. Then do those with Da'ath/Binah, etc. I vaguely figured I'd eventually go on to include Prince scale with angelic names and then Princess scale with the names of the Heavens of Assiah.
Or do y'all who have experience with this recommend changing only the colors and not the names? Or some other variation?
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@Malaclypse said
"I really "enflame myself in prayer" and almost sing the Hebrew words and try to sink into the mood etc., but I do the circulation ritual everytime afterwards, even if maybe I could do it more thoroughly. I circulate the energy about 2-3 times in each direction and usually don't even do the spiral circulation."
All good in principle, but perhaps toning down might give some insight into the immediate problem.
For example, is the "inflamming" primarily internal (which is what I would recommend), or is it also external, i.e., mre extreme uses of your voice? (That alone could cause the throat phenomena.)
You might also drop the circulation for a while and compare. It's anm "add-on" in any case - if you still want to be sure to distribute through the aura, a simple Qabalistic Cross is sufficient. Again, this is just a recommendation for "fact-finding" on your question.
"I circulate from in front up, down the neck and spine,"
That one is reversed. It should be down the front and up the back.
"from the left side up, down the right side,"
It seems you aren't starting these at the Crown? The direction is fine, but the form is down the right then up the left - again, the source of light originating from the Crown for this one like the prior one.
"from the feet up inside the MP and off the head out like an external rain around me, and the spiral in a clockwise motion up, counterclockwise down. Correct?"
The first one is correct, yes. The second one... if I ever had that form in my brain it's long gone. I'm not sure what the "down then up" is intended. First gut impression is that it seems strange, but that could be an overly hasty response.
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@sasha said
"Start with Kings scale and the divine name for Kether, then do Queen scale with archangel name for it. Then do those with Da'ath/Binah, etc. I vaguely figured I'd eventually go on to include Prince scale with angelic names and then Princess scale with the names of the Heavens of Assiah.
Or do y'all who have experience with this recommend changing only the colors and not the names? Or some other variation?"
I wouldn't move away from the Divine Names - at least not until there is very extensive experience with the basic technique.
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@sasha said
"Or do y'all who have experience with this recommend changing only the colors and not the names? Or some other variation?"
The book I mentioned earlier suggests that the Assiatic colours should be used with the names of the Assiatic House's. The Yetziratic colours should be used with the names of the Angelic Choirs. The Briatic colours should be used with the names of the Archangels. And the Atziluthic colours should be used with the regular god names of the sephiroth.
I've never used this technique myself, and although I can understand the principles behind it I'm not really sure how valid it is.
This exercise begins with just the Middle Pillar but then expands to include the whole Tree. -
93 All,
Without spilling any beans.
I am curious if there is or could be a Thelemic based Middle Pillar Ritual? Or a sequence of Sephiroths that reflects a Thelemic current or idea?Just recently, I attended an esoteric Christmas ritual were there was a total of five officers on the floor. It seemed like a variant of Israel Rergarde Middle Pillar Ritual. It also, suggested that different sequences of Sephiroths produce different results.
The first officer represented Kether, held a WHITE CANDLE and chanted Ehyeh.
The second officer represented Chokmah, held a CENSER and chanted YHVH.
The third officer represented Binah, held a CUP and chanted Elohem.
The fourth officer represented Malkuth, held a platter of bread and chanted Adoni.
The fifth officer represented Tiphareth, held a bell and chanted Yeshwah.So the sequence was Kether/Quintessence, Chokmah/Fire, Binah/Water, and Malkuth/Earth and the chanting ended in Tiphareth/Air.
On the other hand, the middle pillar ritual by Israel Rergarde. The sequence is Kether, Daath, Tiphareth, Yesod, and ends in Malkuth.
Love is the law love under will.
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@Fraterdeen said
"Without spilling any beans.
I am curious if there is or could be a Thelemic based Middle Pillar Ritual? Or a sequence of Sephiroths that reflects a Thelemic current or idea?"Yes, of course. "Could" is a good word
Some, in fact, regard the opening part of Liber Reguli is serving this purpose.Personally, I see no reason to disentangle Thelemic magick from its Qabalistic roots. I understand the point of view some have that Judeo-Christian formulations are Old Aeon, or that they are "the enemy," etc. - It's easy to chuckle at some of these political formulation by remembering that one of the best weddings of magical traditions is that between the historically antipathetical Egyptians and Jews.
So, for me, there is no Thelema separate from Qabalah, and there is no practical reason to set aside the specifically Hebraic Qabalah (except in much of its pedantic rhetoric). Its the roots of Nuit's hair, the Trees of Eternity.
"Just recently, I attended an esoteric Christmas ritual were there was a total of five officers on the floor. It seemed like a variant of Israel Rergarde Middle Pillar Ritual. It also, suggested that different sequences of Sephiroths produce different results."
Sounds like the B.O.T.A. Christmas service - a beautiful ritual.
I don't know that they are specifically doing a MIddle Pillar formulation - in fact, the sequencing by itself says they aren't. They're just representing the five Elements as expressed by the YHVH formula on the Tree of Life.
BTW, Temple of Thelema's public "Return of the Light" ceremony, offered by our Temples and Pronaioi every December 28, uses a similar formulation, though the Tiphereth-Malkuth switch doesn't occur. (No big doctrinal reason - it just seems better for the dramatic flow.)
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93 All,
"I don't know that they are specifically doing a Middle Pillar formulation - in fact, the sequencing by itself says they aren't. They're just representing the five Elements as expressed by the YHVH formula on the Tree of Life."
I didn’t think about it that way. This is very cool Jim.
"BTW, Temple of Thelema's public "Return of the Light" ceremony, offered by our Temples and Pronaioi every December 28, uses a similar formulation, though the Tiphareth-Malkuth switch doesn't occur. (No big doctrinal reason - it just seems better for the dramatic flow.)"
This is very suggestive. Because each sequence has a different feel! (I chanted each one right before RESH.) One for each day, over the last two days.
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@Fraterdeen said
"Interesting enough, T.O.T. sequence, the flow would be consistent with YHVH: Y/Fire. H/Water. V/Air. H/Earth. As it flows down the Tree of Life.
Where the other sequence represents YHHV: Y/Fire. H/Water H/Earth V/Air.
If the above premise is correct? "
Since Ann Davies isn't around to ask, there may be no way of knowing what was intended. My sense of how she wrote things points to this having nothing to do with the sequence - probably more an issue of culminating the energies in Tiphereth instead.