3 Phases of Adepthood
-
Excerpts from my article "Magick Power & Karma Yoga" in Black Pearl No. 5 (much of this is essentially quoted from Chapter 10 of The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'. as well):
Acquisition of magick power is the chief characteristic of the Adeptus Major Grade. Though, even as a Neophyte, the aspirant will have practiced ceremonial magick…, the Adeptus Major is an Adept. All of her magick is performed as the menstruum for the Word of the Holy Guardian Angel. The difference between this and the magick of the most technically skilled Neophyte is immeasurable.
True magick power, The Master Therion wrote in Magick in Theory & Practice, is “the assimilation of all force with the Ultimate Light, the true Bridal of the Rosy Cross.” The source of the Major Adept’s power is the work undertaken ** in the Paths of Mem and Lamed, the conscious conforming of oneself to the Will of the Holy Guardian Angel. Among the results of this are that the conscious choices of the Adept’s human will, the decisions of the Adept’s human reasoning, are in accord with the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent force which is the Holy Guardian Angel. In psychological terms, the Greater Adept has become essentially free of internal conflict. The Will is unimpeded by conscious or unconscious interference. …The Adeptus Minor has committed herself to do [the True] Will, and it alone. Being one-pointed and without lust of result, her Will is Law. Thus is the Major Adept’s magick a continuous process of intensifying her relationship with the HGA, of becoming ever more intimately the medium for the transmission of the Angel’s Voice. It is not an end in itself but, rather, one step toward the Adept’s eventual surrender to the Abyss. […]
Although no specific reference to Karma Yoga exists in any official AA instruction for the 6=5 Grade, the practice of Karma Yoga integrates all of this Grade’s main themes, including power, ritual magick, and the free expression of True Will. The practice of Karma Yoga is the 6=5 Grade - the identity is that close.
Karma means “action” or “deed.” […] “Karma” refers to nothing other than our actions - which include thoughts and words, as well as deeds - and the inherent consequences thereof. This seeming dual meaning (of actions and consequences) exists because, in the philosophical context from which the word arises, it is understood that there is no difference between our actions and their consequences. The relationship is not one of linear cause-and-effect, but of uninterrupted continuity, or even identity. This relationship is recognized in most Latin-based languages (but not in English!) in that there is no distinction between the verbs meaning “to do” and “to make” — what you do is what you make. Awareness of this identity becomes the continuing living reality of the Major Adept. […]
Karma Yoga is “Union by Action.” That is, it refers to the increasingly profound union of the Adept with the Holy Guardian Angel that is wrought in the translation of the Angel’s Word into Action. All of the classical components of the practice of Karma Yoga are subsumed within this simple concept which, in turn, synthesizes all of the main threads of the Adeptus Major Grade.
Though not listed in the official curriculum, Swami Vivekananda’s book Karma Yoga is, therefore, recommended by us as a central instruction of the 6=5 Grade. We can advise no better “survival guide” to any 6=5 than to study, practice, and take to heart what is written in this classic. Those who have not studied it may be surprised to discover how intimately this practice is connected to the expression of Power by which Crowley defined the 6=5 Grade, and with the progressive growth therefrom, through the Paths of Kaph, Yod, and Teth, unto the 7=4 Grade that naturally succeeds it. We can give only a small sampling of the more obvious quotations that may hint at this:
[A series of lengthy quotations followed, excerpted from Vivekananda’s book.]
In summary, then, the essence of the Adeptus Major Grade is the mature expression and enacting, by the Adept, of the True Will. Ultimately there is no other “magick power” for one to master. Ritual magick, per se, is the formally assigned method; but it is also a veil of the real process and purpose, the natural Next Step beyond the attaining of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. That Next Step is to incarnate and carry forth, into action, the Word of the Angel that has been heard - to “do the Work the Angel has assigned,” so to speak. In this, one has all power to do that which one must do.
-
Here are some quotes from Chapter 11 of The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'. on one aspect of 7=4, Bhakti Yoga:
Bhakti Yoga is the primary hallmark of the Adeptus Exemptus Grade. …The Hebrew word chesed is nearly synonymous with the Sanskrit bhakti, “passionate love of God.” Furthermore, the “Vision of Love” is the mystical experience related to the attainment of Chesed. In the 8=3 Oath, wherein one clause is attributed to each sephirah, the line corresponding to Chesed is, “That I will Love all things.”
…the Philosophus is required to study and practice Bhakti Yoga; but the Philosophus is only required to be examined in methods, not results. In contrast, in Frater O.M.’s unpublished diary notes on the requirements of the AA grades, he wrote of the 7=4 that, “Chesed is majesty and love. His Bhakti-Yoga must be perfect.” The preparatory, outer, ritualistic forms of Bhakti Yoga, called gauni-bhakti, are assigned in Netzach; but the higher perfection of Bhakti Yoga, called para-bhakti, is natural to the Adeptus Exemptus, the initiate of Chesed.
What is this para-bhakti? Recall that the faculty of memory is attributed by Qabalists to Chesed, in the same sense that desire is attributed to Netzach, or intellect to Hod. This is important because the essential characteristic of Bhakti Yoga is recollection or remembering.
To remember is exactly the opposite of to dismember; hence the considerable psychological and mythological meaning in the old joke that the last, dying words of the dismembered Osiris to his bride Isis were, “Re-member me always.” (And she does!)
[A long quote on this topic, from Bhagavan Ramanuja, follows.]
In brief, Bhakti Yoga, in its para (“supreme”) form, is a continuous recollection of the Belovéd, an uninterrupted union-by-recollection with Deity-as-Love, and a continuing participation in that Love. It is, at root, identical with the d’vequth (“adherence, intense devotion”) of the Chassidim. Both Bhakti and d’vequth have outer and inner aspects of worship wherein ritualistic forms serve initially to establish the conscious awareness of this relationship with the root of all love and, later, serve as a stimulus to its continuing recollection; but the essence of the higher practice is simply the continuing awareness of, and abiding within, the interminable Love itself. […]
This state has long been described by mystics, of East and West alike, as one essential characteristic of the extreme ripening of adepthood implied by the grade attributed to the sephirah Chesed. The davaqah regards this intimate relationship as being with “God.” The bhakti regards it as being with Ishvara. We say it is with “the Holy Guardian Angel.” All of this is the same, but for the words.
The Adeptus Exemptus surely needs little help or guidance in this, even from her incarnate superiors in the Order; for in the Holy Guardian Angel she is given the most perfect instructor one could desire in the ways of Love.
-
@Lapis said
"What (if any) forms of Yoga apply to the Grades of the Babe of the Abyss? Magister Templi? Magus? Ipissimus?...or are these Grades more compatible with the language of Buddhism & Taoism?"
You're being overly narrow on looking at the work - one, by relating it only to yoga, and two by presuming that one specific school is distinctly relevant to each step. These grades, in particular, are beyond that sort of formulary system (though AC did specifically apply the Three Characteristics to them - it was good Qabalah!). I suggest you read "One Star in Sight" with your question in mind and see how it all looks: ordoaa.org/onestar.htm
PS - I'd have to give a nod to relevance of Taoism - or at least the Tao Teh Ching (in contrat to institutional Taoism) - for having language expressive of some of the points of 9=2 and 10=1.
-
@Jim Eshelman said
"You're being overly narrow on looking at the work - one, by relating it only to yoga, and two by presuming that one specific school is distinctly relevant to each step."
I'm not trying to reduce the system to a bunching of the paths of Yoga - I was just curious if the Supernal Grades had Yogic practices attributed to them on account of virtually every Grade before them having one - but I wasn't trying to narrow it down to that.
I will take a look at One Star In Sight.
-
@RifRaf said
"(Off Topic: Is your book on Amazon yet?)"
OT: It was shipped almost two weeks ago and I haven't seen it up yet. They again requested a tiny number - less than a case, I think. They should be ordering three or four cases at a time, but this is all handled by automated decision-making software I think.
-
@Jim Eshelman said
"The preparatory, outer, ritualistic forms of Bhakti Yoga, called gauni-bhakti, are assigned in Netzach; but the higher perfection of Bhakti Yoga, called para-bhakti, is natural to the Adeptus Exemptus, the initiate of Chesed.
What is this para-bhakti? Recall that the faculty of memory is attributed by Qabalists to Chesed, in the same sense that desire is attributed to Netzach, or intellect to Hod. This is important because the essential characteristic of Bhakti Yoga is recollection or remembering.
To remember is exactly the opposite of to dismember; hence the considerable psychological and mythological meaning in the old joke that the last, dying words of the dismembered Osiris to his bride Isis were, “Re-member me always.” (And she does!)"
Jim - the association of memory with Chesed is fascinating. Do you see a correspondence between this type of memory as a continual recollection of the Beloved and the formulas found in the Egyptian mortuary spells - e.g. the Papyrus of Ani - for the deceased?
In *Little Essays Toward Truth *Crowley makes an intriguing comment at the end of his chapter on Memory:
And meditation upon this whole matter may not unlikely bring us to this further vision of Wonder: that the nature of things themselves is in reality but a function of Memory.
(italics mine)
-
...Memory associated with the watery Sephirah ha-Chesed...coincidence?...hmm...
616
-
@h2h said
"Jim - the association of memory with Chesed is fascinating. Do you see a correspondence between this type of memory as a continual recollection of the Beloved and the formulas found in the Egyptian mortuary spells - e.g. the Papyrus of Ani - for the deceased? "
That doesn't seem the same to me - at least, as far as I can remember them. I might be missing some aspect of it, though.
-
KRVB MMShCh - that’s an interesting observation, thanks.
Crowley’s comment on memory is interesting to read in context of Plato’s concept of recognition and anamnesis and Path of Return.
We know Isis represents the principle of occult science. Her remembering of Osiris is an act of resurrection, healing and preservation. Similarly the formulas and spells in Egyptian mortuary texts are designed to protect the deceased, to keep it from disintegrating in the Amduat, to successfully pass beyond various guardians. What few people note is that books of the dead are, in fact, mnemonic texts with a two-fold purpose: to enable the soul to remember something he or she has forgotten via the process of incarnation (where I draw the parallel to recollection of the Beloved) and to shed their recently-finished earthly identity, like dead skin. Parallels with the initiation system may be noted.
