Avoiding Pitfalls in the Golden Dawn System
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All:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.In Jim Eshelman's talk on the Mystery religions and modern initiatory Orders, he spoke about how the specialized symbol systems which they employ -- although arbitrary in themselves -- help to create a common system of magickal working which would allow the initiates to better build a "group mind," building up their ability to move magickal and initiatory force.
This comment struck me with irony, because just a little time before, Jim had given an (apparent) example of petty politics in a major initiatory Order. I asked Jim about the seeming paradox: Magickal Orders should create powerful unity of purpose in their members for the purposes of their magickal/initiatory activity (and not more broadly: we are not creating "the Borg," I hope!), which should let magicians work together in harmony for the high purposes of the Order, and yet the record seems to show that petty politics have, if anything, been even more disruptive in magickal Orders than in organizations clearly founded on simple self-interest.
I gave the particular examples, drawn out of the hat, of the Golden Dawn and the OTO (although I could have cited others). Jim said that the TOT had thus far been blessed with little such troubles, and gave brief sketches of what he thought were the fatal flaws in the particular Orders he cited. I would like to hear a more detailed explications of these ideas.
I will split this into two threads, then, so that issues related to GD can be discussed seperately from those related to OTO. Here, let me ask about the GD. GD magick is at the heart of most modern High Magickal practice, including the core rituals commonly used by Thelemic magicians and (per its webpages) the TOT initiatory rites:
The old grade ceremonies of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn have been recrafted to conform to Thelemic symbols and principles, but remain true to the original patterns called the "Cipher Manuscript Formulae." Nomenclature has, in places, been changed so as not to cause confusion with certain other terminology. A tremendous amount of residual sexism some overt, some exceedingly subtle, has been weeded out of the system.
helema.org/temple_of_thelema/index.htmlJim suggested that there were structural flaws in the GD that would tend to bring out petty elements in the membership. He also suggested that there was a danger when undeveloped people were expected, as in GD Temple work, to assume high God-forms: a person might well just take on, astrally, the lower Yetziratic shells of Egyptian Gods (a pantheon whose mythos -- when taken at face value rather than as allegories of magickal formulae -- portray some of the "worst family sqabbles in world religion" (as Jim amusingly put it)) instead of the high symbols of deep initiatory processes that they are.
I was especially struck by this because I had just recently been reviewing the GD material on the Vibratory Formulae. The documents are careful to caution about a problem very similar to the one Jim outlined:
In vibrating the Divine Names, the Operator should first of all rise as high as possible towards the idea of the Divine White Brilliance in KETHER - keeping the mind raised to the plane of the loftiest aspiration. Unless this is done, it is dangerous to vibrate only with the astral forces, because the vibration attracts a certain force to the operator, and the nature of the force attracted rests largely on the condition of mind in which the operator is.
- Flying Roll XII, "Telesmatic Images & Adonai", by By GH Fr. D.D.C.F. (Macgregor Mathers)
I know that a lot of people who have learned to Vibrate either from early, stripped-down books on High Magick, or Donald Michael Kraig's widely-used (and, I hasten to add, otherwise-excellent) basic self-training manual Modern Magick (which explicitly denies the need to go through the whole process involved in Vibration, reducing it to a purely vocal technique), or even (unfortunately) Liber O (which carefully outlines most of how to properly Vibrate, but (a) omits the idea of drawing the force in specifically from Kether, and (b) separates this off in a way that leads a lot of people to just not do it except as an isolated technique (ie, a lot of people have learned how to Vibrate, and have also learned eg. the LBRP, without understanding that they should use the technique of Vibration for the Divine Names in the LBRP!)).
So my questions to Jim are:
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How can people working the GD system -- or any system involving techniques essentially identical with the assumption of God-forms -- avoid the problem that he outlines in assuming God-forms, either via prior training or via specific technical aspects of assuming them?
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What structural flaws do you see in the original GD system as a whole, and how can people working with it avoid them?
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Without violating the Temple's important veil of secrecy, how has the TOT avoided these problems in its use of a reformed GD system?
Thanks!
Love is the law, love under Will. -
93
while i don't feel that i can comment on some of your ?s, i can say that, from my own personal experience, that there is a real advantage to having a training system in place to support the process of initiation and advancement through a grade system like what we are talking about.
from my own personal point of view and insight, from reflection, the process of having a LOT of work to do keeps my head focussed on what is really important -- accomplishing the Great Work, and limits my time for getting caught up in petty dramas and turmoils which occur commonly with the human condition. now, that is not to say that i don't sometimes get caught in dramas and turmoils from time to time, but i have a FOCUS which draws me back to the more important task at hand, accomplishing the Great Work. (actually, i tend to feel really OFF-TRACK if i get "distracted" with drama)
thus guided, by having a LOT of work to keep me focussed, and my own internal drive to achieve, it's easy to look at personality squabbles and say "this too shall pass" and get on with it.
having several different initiations into a few different groups, i can honestly say that i have felt more of a vague sense of drifting in the ones that haven't given me a bunch of homework
while at the same time, each of the initiations themselves were extremely potent and profound.magick IS powerful, no matter which way you slice it and no matter who is doing it (well, assuming that they are practiced and skillful, but the basic premise being that one form of magick or 'school' is not necessarily "better" than another, per se) but knowing what to do WITH the magick once you have access to it, now that's another story -- or maybe relevant to one or another particular system.
some systems are more mystical in nature and so they may not feel the need to provide such a structured process for work (for example, one of my tantric initiations is like this)...
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@Forever93 said
"I was especially struck by this because I had just recently been reviewing the GD material on the Vibratory Formulae. {...} I know that a lot of people who have learned to Vibrate either from early, stripped-down books on High Magick, or Donald Michael Kraig's widely-used (and, I hasten to add, otherwise-excellent) basic self-training manual Modern Magick (which explicitly denies the need to go through the whole process involved in Vibration, reducing it to a purely vocal technique),"
Almost as a digression to the thread, let me hasten to clarify that "vibrating a Divine Name" is mostly a breathing and vocalization matter, and doesn't necessarily refer to the other technique is a very specific one called "Vibrating by the Formula of the Middle Pillar." I think it a mistake to confuse all references to "vibrating" with references to this particular (and somewhat specialized, though powerful and valuable) technique.
As I said, a digression...
"or even (unfortunately) Liber O (which carefully outlines most of how to properly Vibrate, but (a) omits the idea of drawing the force in specifically from Kether,"
Yes, an unfortunate omission in a mostly superb booklet.
Part of the explanation is that Liber O was expected to be used in the A.'.A.'. in conjunction with considerable oral supplementation and additional instruction. Several things are left out, e.g., the connecting of the quarters in the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals - just to grab an example at hand.
I would have preferred this intentionally trim instruction be fleshed out a bit more.
"and (b) separates this off in a way that leads a lot of people to just not do it except as an isolated technique (ie, a lot of people have learned how to Vibrate, and have also learned eg. the LBRP, without understanding that they should use the technique of Vibration for the Divine Names in the LBRP!))."
I hold that it is a separate technique. For example, I wouldn't teach it as the usual way to vibrate Divine Names when doing the Pentagram Ritual. It's main purpose is for identifying one's consciousness with that of a specific Divine idea - usually but not invariably in conjunction with assumption of a theurgic image for it - as part of targeted invocations.
"So my questions to Jim are:
- How can people working the GD system -- or any system involving techniques essentially identical with the assumption of God-forms -- avoid the problem that he outlines in assuming God-forms, either via prior training or via specific technical aspects of assuming them?"
That's not easy to give in, say, bullet points. Subtleties are crafted into the entire body of Temple of Thelema. But there are at least a few key points that can be made. One is the point you quoted earlier about exposure of under-trained and undeveloped people to what should be extremely high-frequency Divine Images (Stolistes can be 0=0 - could have been initiated the day before!) which then fall short to Yetziratic levels - and specifically picking pantheons where the personality projections are highly neurotic.
I won't say in public what we actually use in practice, but you can probably guess it when I say that it is a set of images designed to bring distinctly Briatic energies into play; which have a long-nurtured strong rapport and affinity with the human psyche; and and which (with a few thrilling examples) have been kept relatively pristine with regard to neurotic traits.
Another technical point is that the old G.D. relied heavily on Enochian, and on a set of Enochian tablets that were very flawed. They were a jumble of accurate and inaccurate tablets from multiple sources, and these were - again! - capable of stirring very potent Yetziratic currents.
There is also simply the commitment to a different style of behavior within the bounds of the Order. The basic principles of this should be clear enough.
There is also the necessity for a certain amount of psychological training and discipline and a focus on conscious self-examination in conjunction with certain specific techniques. For example (to take one open example from College of Thelema's public curriculum), training and required ongoing practice in recognizing, recording, and analyzing psychological projects is a central part of our work from a certain fairly early level. This category (this present paragraph) is surely one of the most important.
Endeavoring not to be (let alone appear) opportunistically self-congratulatory, the actual initiatory level and psychological awareness of the people heading the group will have a significant effect on its own. There is also the need for the top people, as well as "local management" (the Chiefs of each Temple) to understand and work with the dynamics of how a Group Mind is built, fed, led out of health and back into it, etc.
I've probably forgotten something obvious, but that's what comes to mind at the moment.
"2. What structural flaws do you see in the original GD system as a whole, and how can people working with it avoid them?"
I mentioned some points above.
"3. Without violating the Temple's important veil of secrecy, how has the TOT avoided these problems in its use of a reformed GD system?"
I've mentioned some of these points above. However, in addition to avoiding pitfalls, a really significant part of this is simply the expectation that there isn't room for serious personality wars. There will always be some - the personality is, in many ways, the primary First Matter of our work in the Lesser Mysteries, and of necessity it must be stirred, heated, accelerated, toxins drawn out, etc. But this needs to happen in an environment where (for example) every person is committed to exercising their best effort to maintaining harmony. A key part of this is Thelemic philosophy itself, especially that part which acknowledges the sovereign state of everyone else's universe.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Having gone on to read Sesheta's post, I want to quickly agree. The amount of practical work in the old G.D. was negligible. (I discussed this more elaborately during the NYC talk.)
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Almost as a digression to the thread, let me hasten to clarify that "vibrating a Divine Name" is mostly a breathing and vocalization matter, and doesn't necessarily refer to the other technique is a very specific one called "Vibrating by the Formula of the Middle Pillar." I think it a mistake to confuse all references to "vibrating" with references to this particular (and somewhat specialized, though powerful and valuable) technique."
I was just reading Liber O and was struck by the fact that Crowley doesn't mention vocalization at all -- he refers solely to breathing the Name "through the nostrils with the air which has been till then retained in the lungs."
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@zeph said
"I was just reading Liber O and was struck by the fact that Crowley doesn't mention vocalization at all -- he refers solely to breathing the Name "through the nostrils with the air which has been till then retained in the lungs.""
One of the most unfortunate miscommunications in the whole A.'.A.'. standard canon of instructions is Crowley's use of "vibration" in Liber O. It has led to lots and lots of misunderstanding.
The technique described in Liber O for vibrating Divine Names has a proper name - that Crowley doesn't use. It's called "Vibration of Divine Names by the Formula of the Middle Pillar" (not to be confused with the Middle Pillar Ritual which Regardie invented several decades later). It is a specific technique to be used for a specific purpose: identification with a specific God-idea by losing consciousness into etc.
But since that's the only use he makes of "vibrate" etc., people take it as the instruction on what is meant whenever it is said to "vibrate" anything in magick - even though it's not what's intended at all, nearly always.
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thread necromancy!
I was just thinking about this. The two instances I am familiar with using the Vibratory technique of the Middle Pillar are mostly used when performing assumption of god-forms and creating telesmatic images (a process quite similar to assumption of god-forms.).So considering some of the information here, when performing the various Banishing and Invoking rituals, it is only neccessary to simply intone the divine names deeply, without making use of the Vibratory Technique of the Middle Pillar. So when performing the LIRP, I don't need to visualize my Kether, the Name entering my Tiphareth etc., I simply just deeply intone the Name...? This seems far more sensible.
On another note, Crowley never makes any mention of the GD Invoking and Projecting Whorls, which work upon pretty much simlar lines.
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Ok, I see that my man question was answered in an earlier post by Jim. So I'll follow this up with a more detailed question. When performing the Banishing and Invoking rituals, is it simply enough to breath in deeply and then intone the name in a sonorous manner? Is it necessary at all to visualize the letters of the Name or recommended? It seems like a lot of writers have created a lot of confusion around this, seemingly based off a misinterpretation of Crowley's material and an over emphasis upon the Vibratory Technique of the Middle Pillar (and the Middle Pillar exercise in general) in his own writings.
In Liber O, when Crowley says "through the nostrils" does he mean that kind of nasally intonation we hear in Tibetan chanting?
I'am a bit confused at this point how I am supposed to avoid the "Yetziratic shell" of the god images, as I have always considered Egyptian and other such deities to be essentially a combination of a Divine force formulated into a Creative image. For instance, in the Hebrew heirarchy, you have Shaddai EL Chai, the Name that represents the Atziluthic force, and Gabriel, a Briatic form. But in the Egyptian system, Name and Image, Atzliuth and Briah are combined into on "individual" Name and Image. How can I avoid the astral shell of this image?
I have always taken the neurotic behavior of these deities as having a deeper symbolic meaning than the obvious. For instance, I had long ago dropped the notion that Set had "murdered" Osiris out of an act of malice but was instead thrusting him from a place of stagnation into a more dynamic realm of experience (initiation). -
@AEternitas1 said
"When performing the Banishing and Invoking rituals, is it simply enough to breath in deeply and then intone the name in a sonorous manner? Is it necessary at all to visualize the letters of the Name or recommended?"
"Necessary" is to strong. These are techniques, and rank under the heading either of "discipline to be learned" (when one is first learning it) or "really good ideas" (in subsequent practice). I fall back to that exact technique often, especially when I want to settle my consciousness more deeply into the ritual or overcome any tendency (on the occasion) of going on "automatic pilot" and zipping through the ritual inattentively. (Hey, it happens.)
"It seems like a lot of writers have created a lot of confusion around this, seemingly based off a misinterpretation of Crowley's material and an over emphasis upon the Vibratory Technique of the Middle Pillar (and the Middle Pillar exercise in general) in his own writings."
I think the root misunderstanding is the view that Liber O was written as do-it-yourself instructions. In fact, these are crib notes to support the person-to-person instruction on which the A.'.A.'. system rests. There are all sorts of things missing in the instructions - say, drawing the horizontal circle in the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals IIRC - but they are sufficient as summary notes if someone is actually being taught all of this in person.
"In Liber O, when Crowley says "through the nostrils" does he mean that kind of nasally intonation we hear in Tibetan chanting?"
No. When he says that for exhalation, it's presuming that all the vibration is internal, and the name is not vocally sounded.
"I'am a bit confused at this point how I am supposed to avoid the "Yetziratic shell" of the god images, as I have always considered Egyptian and other such deities to be essentially a combination of a Divine force formulated into a Creative image."
Please reread your sentence above. I believe your good sense and your humor will prevail and you will see that, given the wiring of your brain that you have literally expressed, it's a good idea to become able to do without that regardless of any other consideration
But... as a more general answer... those are only needed when you are identifying with a specific deific idea. This is not part of the method of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. You aren't identifying with Yod Heh Vav Heh the way (in a Jupiter invocation) you might identify with Amoun. Atziluthic Names have no images. (As you correctly infer, anything you create is a Yetziratic degeneration of them. These only play to unconscious personality dynamics, like the "God" of unthinking expressions of popular religion.)
"For instance, in the Hebrew heirarchy, you have Shaddai EL Chai, the Name that represents the Atziluthic force, and Gabriel, a Briatic form. But in the Egyptian system, Name and Image, Atzliuth and Briah are combined into on "individual" Name and Image. How can I avoid the astral shell of this image?"
How to avoid it? Just don't do it! (That's the how.) - But I dispute that the Egyptian system actually combines Atziluth and Briah in an image, since no image exists above Yetzirah. Egyptian gods, at best, are Briatic - they may be expressions of deeper (unnamed) Atziluthic ideas, but they aren't Atziluthic. And their images (like those of the archangels in the pentagram ritual) are Yetziratic "housings" for the Briatic ideas.
Though my main answer here is that Hebrew Divine Names, being truly Atziluthic, do not have images, the following alternative answer might serve you better temporarily: All of the Hebrew Divine Names have the same magical image, and it is imagelessness. (This is actually true and not just a technique, since it addresses the idea that sits in your brain.)
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"Though my main answer here is that Hebrew Divine Names, being truly Atziluthic, do not have images, the following alternative answer might serve you better temporarily: All of the Hebrew Divine Names have the same magical image, and it is imagelessness. (This is actually true and not just a technique, since it addresses the idea that sits in your brain.)"
Respectfully, aren't the Partzufim in Atzilut? Or are the Partzufim ,perhaps, only Yetziric expressions of Atziluthic Ideals through wich we might develop some slight concept of the purely Ideal? (I konw the first answer is that the orders of angels are of the yetzric world, but if Atzilut is of complete formlessness then how can the Partzufim be said to be of Atzilut?)
Please let me know if I am mixing systems here. -
@dominic said
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"Though my main answer here is that Hebrew Divine Names, being truly Atziluthic, do not have images, the following alternative answer might serve you better temporarily: All of the Hebrew Divine Names have the same magical image, and it is imagelessness. (This is actually true and not just a technique, since it addresses the idea that sits in your brain.)"Respectfully, aren't the Partzufim in Atzilut?"
Well, first, I'm not a big fan of Luria, so I don't necessarily accept the validity of the question.
But, to center on the actual answer of this entire class of question: Images don't exist above Yetzirah. Atziluthic realities can have images (i.e., we can render images of Atziluthic realities), but the images they have are Yetziratic, not Atziluthic. Unless one can tap Atziluthic realities on one's own, then these images are only going to expose you to Yetziratic levels of consciousness.
"Or are the Partzufim ,perhaps, only Yetziric expressions of Atziluthic Ideals through wich we might develop some slight concept of the purely Ideal?"
That's the right line of thinking, yes.
"(I konw the first answer is that the orders of angels are of the yetzric world, but if Atzilut is of complete formlessness then how can the Partzufim be said to be of Atzilut?)"
Primarily, I reject the question for reasons stated above.
BTW did I actually say formless, or did I say imageless? (I think it was the latter.) In any case, they are with form in the sense that "form" is used to translate yetzer.
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Thank you for the insight. I not very familiar with Isaac Luria, my information came from Gnostic sources (Tau Malachi), not that I'm saying this is where the tradition began. The more I learn , the more questions arise. Through all I've learned, witnessed, and expierienced, I only know that I know nothing! I am lost in the dark, but knowing I'm am lost is a begining.
In Light and Love,
Dominic -
A bit rambling, but I am also very tired... that having been said; I am quite involved in Lurianic (which is actually "Zoharic") Kabbalah (albeit in its more radical and heretical forms) and would emphasize that in ALL the Lurianic Writings, the Holy ARI ("The Lion" and also the ONLY Kabbalist ever given the monicker "Alohi" as in Alohi Rabbi Izaak, i.e. ARI... later changed by the Orthodoxy ,i.e. the "Erev Rav" to Ashkenazi Rabbi Izaak to downplay his Angelic Nature), OBM, without fail; indicates that any use of Images to express the sexual interactions between the G_dly forces are strictly to "suit the eyes" of the student, just as the use of Words is only intended to "suit the ears" of the student. The Holy Ari, OBM, strongly warns that the higher concepts can only be alluded to by these Finite methods of communication based in the Physical Human senses. They are ONLY used to "foster understanding" in the student.
One should consider that the very "Shattering of the Vessels", or "Death of the Kings of Edom" coincides with the blasphemous attempt at limiting that which is boundless; by the Creation, Formation, and Actualization of Words and Images which occurred with the blasphemous utterance of the Ineffable Name "by the Divinity itself". So, yes, I am saying the Creative Fiat was a Left-handed action. The Lurianic writings most surely indicate that the Sexual Potencies are in no way dependent upon any Imagery whatsoever; but that the Secret Doctrine of said Potencies often requires the use of such Imagery to be even remotely understood by the student who has not directly experienced "Unifications" (Yehudim) with the Forces via the various "Couplings" (Zivvugim) symbolized by the interactions between Partzufim, and the various components of Holy Writ, per se.
"True" Lurianic Kabbalah is far more akin to Tantra (One of the "Gifts" given to the "Children of Keturah" by Abraham... "We are all related") than is commonly perceived. The conundrum is the usual assumption that the Religious Orthodoxy promotes the True Lurianic Kabbalah. We know that the holder of the Luyrianic Writings or "Kitvei Ha'ARIZAL" (Schmuel Vital) was directly involved with the Chelebi Raphael Joseph who received some of the first letters from Nathan of Gaza, OBM. Schmuel Vital read and voiced no opposition to "The Prophet" who was considered the reincarnation (Gilgul) of the Holy ARI, OBM... and the Holy ARI, OBM was considered the reincarnation of Schimeon Bar Yochai, OBM; the composer of the Zohar or "Spiritual Oral Torah"...
Thus, Schmuel Vital, OBM, was involved directly in the Sabbatian inner circle surrounding Nathan the Prophet, OBM. The Orthodoxy and particularly the Hasidim ignore this...
This circle felt strongly (as did the majority of the World's Jewish population) that Shabtai Tzvi housed the "Messiah" within his Physical Vehicle, and that Yeshu (Jesus) had been the "Qliphah of the Messiah". The paradigm promoted by the Messiah speaking through Shabtai Tzvi (AMIRaH), before he was occulted away to Tifaret, and later absorbed into the Sefirotic configuration; was the Talmudic maxim, "Mitzvah Ha'Ba'ah Ba'Averah" or "The Violation of the Law is its (True) Fulfillment" (semi-translated by Scholem as "Redemption through Sin"), and the related Theology developed by Nathan the Prophet, OBM; concerning the multi-level Aeonic Progression termed "Shemitah" becomes quite interesting in a Thelemic context...
P.S. My mother's ancestors were Polish Believers (Ma'aminim) or 'Frankists' that quite successfully hid their ancestry and beliefs behind a veneer of Catholicism, but were later assimilated. In Frankism the Potencies/Partzufim assumed Physical Form in the Body of the Believers, and this was the basis for some of the Sexual Rites. If it were not for such Rites I would not exist. So, there are many levels to the Partzufim.
Dennis