The Way of the Wizard
-
I am a pretty big fan of film. I watch a lot of movies, not as many as are made but I do try to see as many films as I can. After a while, and some study of literature and mythology it becomes fairly easy to pigeon hole movies into genres with in the first few moments of the film. Action and adventure, romance, tragedy, comedy, educational, inspirational, good vs. Evil......any and all can be easily reduced to a few categories.
One genre of film caught my attention along time ago and for a while I watched as much of them as I could bear. It started innocently enough with black and white silent films, they were so raw and bare that the theme was able to bore it's way right into my being, not sure if it was my head, or my heart or my soul, but bore away it did. There I would sit, Saturday and Sunday afternoons watching classic horror films. I watched any classic actually, but those horror films really struck a chord with me.
After a while of watching these films, and getting all worked up about them; scared silly, relieved, infatuated, sad, confused and at the end complete, I caught on to a little formula, a rule it seemed to always play out the same way ( except in the case of KingKong, but that is an entirely different sort of story). After a while my fear wouldn't run so deep, because no matter how scary the devil was I knew at the end he wouldn't prevail, I knew the bad guy would be caught, the maiden saved, the crisis averted, animals and children were rarely rarely victims, and the sun always rose bright the next day.
So many films have been made about the black mass, of magicians and priests trying to open the portals to the abyss, to release the hordes of demon upon the earth, to uncreate what god created......and for a long time I sat as a child and watched them all play out, from the classics to the campy B movies to the slayer psychopathic. None of my friends liked those movies, most girls don't, and yet it was normal in my house for us girls, mom and grandma to watch horror.
It was never spelled out to me why it was That there were black magicians always trying to get the devils seed, to have some special women bear a demon child into this world, to open the gates of the abyss. It just was, and when I got older and took some higher educational classes I figured it was some sort of archetypal issue, one of those few story lines that all stories must derive from, like the heroes quest, or the fools journey. I just took it for granted that for some cosmic reason the black magician was always blocked, that no matter what he did on his path he could only get so far......and then.....there was no way possible for him to succeed with that path.
Well a while ago I was busy online looking up something to do with math and the MerKabah, and I stumbled across a site that had an interesting diagram of the Tree of Life. It was strange for me because the moment I saw the diagram I recalled watching all those blasted black magicians raising the devil to open the abyss and/or impregnate the oh so special virgin. As I read through the material (which with my limited study of Jewish mysticism was not all that clear to me) and saw the tree diagram I was also reminded of a few conversations that have gone on here, so I thought I would do a little creative writing and then share this link and the original page I referenced which inspired me and gave some insight into a question and issue I had had for some time now.The art of watching film is an art enjoyed by a thinning crowd. Even though I don't watch slasher and horror films anymore they have a place, just like musicals, or beach movies, or something as plain as a film of an old steam engine.
The mysteries of the cosmos whisper to us through creation, (sometimes they scream at us actually) and when we find an artistic medium that speaks to us; like film, music, basket weaving, painting, model building, cooking, sex, and more sex....then we in turn can take that message and share it in our own way. That is Doing What Thou Wilt, that is the Law. Love is the Law.The following quote is taken from a book, the online version of the text can be found among these pages.
www.workofthechariot.com/TextFiles/Sources-Introduction.html
Trees of Life from the Sefer HaShmoth and the Sefer Yetzirah - Angelic Tree Language of the Sefer HaShmoth
The "Way of the Saint " and the "Way of the Wizard"
Like the Ways of the Angels of Elohim and the Angels of Destruction, the Working Trees known as the “Way of the Saint” and the “Way of the Wizard” are opposite in nature and intent. The Way of the Saint involves an arduous progression up the Tree in which all the Sefiroth of all three Columns are traversed one by one through a specific sequence of letter-gates (see Diagram) In occult literature, this path is often confused with the Way of the Wizard. The wizard moves up the Tree in the identical manner as the saint, but in exactly opposite order and using different lettergates (see Diagram). The Wizard’s Path begins with ritual purification to gain access to the Column of the Right through the Gate of the Yod y. The Saint’s Path begins with trials by fire via the Gate of the Samek c to bankrupt the ego and engender complete surrender to the Will of the Divine.
The wizard seeks to acquire power out of selfish desire for personal control, and the saint seeks to respond with righteous intent to the dictates of the Divine Will. For this reason, a wall of fire blocks the gate between the Sefiroth Power/Fire and Wisdom/East on the Way of the Wizard, obstructing progress into the three supernal Sefiroth. As with black magicians, the Gate of the Ayin i between Sefiroth Understanding/North and Crown/Above short-circuits wizards through the Abyss into the negatively existent roots, thereby preventing very powerful wizards from gaining access to Atziluth and disrupting the Creation. There is no wall of fire in the gate linking Sefiroth Mercy/Water and Understanding/North on the Way of the Saint. On this path, the Gate of the Heh h from Sefirah Wisdom/East gives access to Sefirah Crown/Above, so movement into the supernal Sefiroth and Atziluth is smoothly accomplished. The Tree of the Saint is keyed to the Name hvhy; the Tree of the Wizard is keyed to the Name Olam (,lvi)
.-end quoted materialI certainly have no authority to vet this quote but it seems fairly straight forward. If it is wrong, or incomplete I would genuinely like to be set straight about it.
-
Being a fan of the symbolism/archetypes in movies, you will probably want to check out this book coming out in 2014 from one of my favorites authors:
Cinema Symbolism: A Guide to Esoteric Imagery in Popular Movies - Robert W. Sullivan
-
That definitely sounds like a winner. Will have to keep my eyes open for that one. I just scored two mint copies of Kenneth Angers' Hollywood Babylon I and II. Doesn't seem to be strictly horror, as the dust jacket has a great cleavage shot of Marilyn Monroe. But since it Anger I'm very interested the content. I was lucky to get my hands on them.