THE HOLISTIC QABALA:
A CONTEMPORARY GUIDE TO MAGICK
by Philo Stone (aka Richard and Iona Miller), ©1982,2002

BOOK I: SPHERE 10: MALKUTH, the Earth

by Iona Miller ©2002

BOOK I: MALKUTH, the Sphere of Earth

PREFACE(top)

Malkuth means "the Kingdom." All gross matter may be considered to express the qualities of the four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. In more modern terms, there are four fundamental natural forces. They are "strong" force, "weak" force, electromagnetism, and gravity. "Strong" force holds the nucleus of the atom together, contributing to the stability of matter; "weak" force occurs in many natural processes, but the most familiar is radioactive decay. Malkuth is the Sphere of Earth.

The basis of any stable magickal development is a maintenance of physical health through proper diet and exercise. Wrong diet, especially eating at inappropriate times is a major cause of physical, emotional, and mental imbalance.

Opinions differ on whether man's natural diet should include meat. However, what serious aspirant would want to kill any living creature for food or sport? The advantages of a meatless diet include a lower incidence of hardening of the arteries, and less uric acid, steroid, and antibiotic consumption. Supplements of vitamin B-12, brewer's yeast, lecithin, and minerals will ensure optimal physical and mental performance.

Stress management programs have received a lot of media attention, lately. The best stress management programs consist of a combination of physical exercise and meditation. One works on the sympathetic nervous system, and the other on the parasympathetic system.

Development of body-awareness is important for "coming to wholeness." There are many techniques to choose from. A disciplined physical fitness routine might include any of the following: aerobics, "chopping wood and carrying water," Tai Chi, hatha yoga, or dance.

In the four worlds, Malkuth is represented by these correspondences:

1. Physical Plane: The four natural forces. Resonance. Sensory awareness. Diet and exercise. Level of observation in Physics; matter

2. Astral Plane: The Magickal Image is a Young Woman, Crowned and Throned, who is Demeter/Persephone, a dual form of the Goddess. She is at once Earth Mother and her daughter (the Kore), the archetypal maiden. This young bride becomes the Queen of the Underworld, or subconcious.

3. Causal Plane: The Personal Unconscious includes the memories and repressed material which must be raised to consciousness. These conflicts must be resolved before one is ready to confront the Collective Unconscious. These repressed contents require a specific technique designed to "raise" them.

4. Archetypal Plane: Initiation into a Mystery has to do with "initium;" an image of "going within, suddenly," as in the abduction of Persephone into the Underworld, below the threshold of consciousness. Her "going within" changed her in a fundamental way, suddenly and forever.

Aleister Crowley also corresponded the powers of the Sphinx with forms of Yoga:

Bull........Karma Yoga........Life

Lion.......Raja Yoga........Light

Eagle......Bhakta Yoga........Love

Man.......Gnana Yoga........Liberty

In The Book of Wisdom Or Folly, he also added this note of caution: "Yet mark thou well how these interfuse, so that thou mayst accomplish no one of the Works separately. As to make Gold thou must first have Gold (it is the Word of the Alchemists) so to become the Sphinx thou must first be a Sphinx."

c.1894 Mystical Knight--Oedipu & the Sphinx
Artist: Odilon Redon

INTRODUCTION

In our approach to true self-knowledge, via the Tree of Life, we begin with Malkuth, the Sphere of the Earth, the Four Elements, and the Physical Body. At this point we seek the wisdom of nature and develop a zealous dedication to the principles of the Great Work. We come to understand the value and necessity of placing our self-unfoldment as our main priority.

Anima Mundi by Iona Miller ©2002

"To do this we must begin with the things of this world; the things that can be perceived with the physical senses. ...The objective universe and all it contains are the initial subjects of occult study." To this end a knowledge of physics and physiology are basic. We seek an understanding of the apparently hidden laws of material existence. "Everything of knowledge we possess comes to us through sense experience and our mental impressions of these sensations. Whatever of the laws of life we grasp must be apprehended in this way." Through practice and study we can cultivate a more accurate interpretation of inner sense reports. We develop our ability to concentrate or focus attention, which prepares us for more subtle understanding.

"Knowledge of the physical plane, including the findings in the field of the natural sciences, prepares us intellectually for a direct experience of the essential unity of all the seemingly separate things in this world. Whether the body considered is that of a mineral, plant, animal, or human being, its seemingly separate form is the result of a focus of various energies."

"The primary forms these energies take are classed in physics as radiant energies, fluids, gases, and solids. Ancient symbolism referred to them as fire, water, air, and earth, the four elements assigned to Malkuth. Everything in the Kingdom is a combination of various proportions of these primary forms of matter, which are in continuous motion."

However, Light or Spirit is the primary substance of every form. Spirit is in matter and reflects the Qabalistic aphorism "Kether is in Malkuth." Gradually we learn to perceive this directly as our consciousness rises from earth to heaven, from outer appearances to the inner Reality. Then we learn to ground the force of the spirit in daily life. Limitations in perception give way to clarity.

At this stage of re-dedication we should re-evaluate our attitude toward our body, making sure to give it the essential love and care which will enable us to continue the physical reconstruction work of transformation. There are periods of great tension in the work when pairs of opposites are attempting to reconcile. A strong immune system is helpful at this time, since the tension is physically tangible, adding to any normal load of stress.

The body will subconsciously cooperate in the Great Work. "When attention is focused toward a definite purpose and we set a process in motion which tends to destroy all ideas, responses and automatic activities that are not in harmony with that intention. When the attention or intention is directed toward becoming a servant of the Light, processes are initiated which rid us of all that stands in the way of transparency to the Superconscious Will."

The elemental forces will work in the body, dissolving resistances, and purifying the desire nature. Rest and patience are required, for this takes time to establish the new pattern in the physical body and become stabilized. Studying, practicing and meditation require a process of assimilation or digestion to gain their full value. Thus, the admonition not to "lust for results."

Malkuth, as the sphere of physical sensation, incites to action. Alchemically, this has four phases. The earthy phase is our recognition of our ignorance and delusions, which allows us to seek wisdom. The watery phase is one of purification from emotional colorations. Fire refers to mental activation, wherein we dedicate our reasoning and analytical faculties to the earnest search for truth. The airy aspect, or stage of incandescence (also known as imaginal faculty), marks the receiving of an illumination, or direct experience of the Astral. The densest forms of earth are essentially one with the Light.

THE FOUR ELEMENTS

The most simplistic division of the circle, as a symbol of wholeness, is into four quadrants. This four-fold division is an expression of the potential characteristics of balance, solidity, and regularity. Mankind distinguishes four seasons, four directions, and four quarters of the heavens.

Since this quaternary system of orientation is so basic, it is not surprising that the early Greek philosophers came to the conclusion that all things are made through the combination of four fundamental materials: fire, water, air, and earth. Through the years, various contemporary interpretations have been corresponded with these original elements, but their qualities remain consistent.

Fire Nitrogen Electricity "Strong force"
Water Hydrogen Liquids "Weak force"
Air Oxygen Gases Electromagnetism
Earth Carbon Solids Gravity

Fire and air express masculine qualities. They are active, positive, and creative. Water and earth are feminine in nature, being passive, negative, and receptive. Fire is known as the spiritual element, and is associated with aspiration, energy, purification, and transformation. Water is the universal medium, the unfathomable depths of the human subconscious. Air is associated with the breath, soul, and flights of the imagination. Earth expresses solidity and practicality, the physical body. The ideal, or perfected person, is a balanced combination of these forces.

When matter is conceived as consisting of four divisions, the psyche is also perceived in a similar structure. In Magick, this fourfold division is expressed as the Four Powers of the Sphinx. The Sphinx is a mythological creature, whose androgynous nature combines both masculine and feminine elements.

The magician seeks an equilibrated development of the forces of nature. This balanced strength is expressed in the axiom, "To Will, to Dare, to Know, to keep Silent." These four powers are corresponded with the Fixed Signs of the Zodiac:

To Will, Taurus, Earth, Bull, patience, solid energy
To Dare, Leo, Fire, Lion, strength and courage
To Know, Aquarius, Air, Eagle, swift, soaring intelligence
To Keep Silent, Scorpio, Water ,Man, subtlety, soaring intelligence

LOVE IS THE LAW

I see the shadow fall the other side of the line.
Within the Dithyramb, I love the Divine.
I strive to slay the dog-faced demons of doubt.
My dagger gleams to banish them from about.

LOVE IS THE LAW, LOVE UNDER WILL!
THERE IS NO LAW BEYOND "DO WHAT THOU WILT."

Toward the King's Chamber my journey begins.
May the 22 Guardians allow me therein,
to the inspiration of the spiritual Sun.

The Tree's branches are roots in Heaven.
The roots, as branches they grow
into the Hermetic Axiom:
"As Above, so Below."

LOVE IS THE LAW, LOVE UNDER WILL.
THERE IS NO LAW BEYOND "DO WHAT THOU WILT."

What am I doing? I'm lifting the veils
Of infinite mystery that life entails.
Where will it take me? Heaven and Hell
Must be balanced on earth before I can tell.

The pathos I choose fills my cup.
I will always be "I", but there's more, higher up
to descend in the splendor of a rainbow.

1. PHILOSOPHY

a. Initiation: Neophyte, (The Value and Meaning of Initiation)(top)

Initiations may be roughly divided into 3 types: shamanistic, magical, and mystical. The meaning of initiation arises from the death/rebirth paradox. A ritual death opens the way for a new birth, but not without the pain, awe, fear and dread of the helpless infant.

Vestiges of the sacred ordeals required for initiation survive in daily life in such customs as hazing and mandatory army haircuts. Ritual rapes survive in panty raids.

The tests of endurance, strength, ridicule, fear, humiliation, and abuse are followed by oaths of fealty, and obligations which define the aspirants purpose and intent. These tests produce a social bonding among members of a group.

Shamanisitic initiations produce a trance state, and induce confusion, muzziness, and an inhibition of consciousness. Frequently, there is use of mind-altering substances from the plant world. A shamanistic initiation is best described through a first-hand account:

Halloween
October 31, Moon in Pisces

Today, I was INITIATED in the First Degree. I am now officially a__________.

The ceremony began by me having to wait naked, and in isolation, while ___________, my initiator prepared the Temple. While waiting, I meditated on the significance of my commitment, and prayed that I might be worthy to receive what was to come. It was the inevitable event, at that moment in my time and space. Absolutely necessary.

I was given a cord and told to tie it around my waist. I was told the meaning of the passageway. Then I had to be blindfolded. I was asked 3 times if I was certain I wished to proceed. Of course, I answered yes without hesitation.

I was led into the Temple, and at the final questioning a knife was put to my heart. I received introductions with my magical name to the powers of the four directions.

By this time, I was pretty involved and I can't recall precisely in what order things occurred. Some salt was placed in my mouth. I was consecrated by the four elements. My measure was taken and given to me. I swore an oath to _______ and made a personal oath to devote myself wholeheartedly to the Great Work. I received my athame and scourge. I was scourged on the back while on my knees, for forty times and received transmission of the power.

Finally, I was allowed to take off the blindfold and to robe, and Lo and Behold, a new initiate appeared.

There are two major branches of mysticism: magic and yoga. One enters the circuit of the Tree of Life by adopting the magickal world-view, with its paradigms and models. The aspirant makes the choice to strive for human perfection following that inner urging which demands he elevate himself. This is where we meet the difference between psychotherapy and spiritual discipline. Psychology considers the urge to spiritual development to be "heroic", "puer flight", or "transcendence fantasies." It can be all of these, if there is not proper, simultaneous growth of the cognitive, as if it is an analysis of the personal unconscious to determine motives. Is there a yearning desire for the soul to go to its true home with God, or is it merely a neurotic escape mechanism?

There are two types of initiation left to cover here: those of the magical path and that of mystical yoga, or the union of the soul with the sound current.

Magick requires a hierarchical series of initiations with an order, where the initiating officers represent dramatic projections of the various psychological figures which are latent in the subconscious of the aspirant. The goal of these initiations is to progressively bring the student to awareness of his divine nature, allowing him to differentiate among and consciously integrate his unconscious projections. Dramatic ceremonies stir up the imagination. The officers represent such faculties as reason, the higher mind, the will, and the Self. It is the duty of the Hierophant to communicate the spiritual current to the aspirant. Failure to do so does not produce a true initiation.

This initiation awakens the aspirant's complexes; he confronts them and gradually learns about the divine form they express, and comes to accept them as part of his wholeness. Gradually, he comes to Knowledge and Conversation with his Guardian Angel, that divine spark of the soul from God which is incarnate in an individual human being. This is more than Self-Realization; it is a spiritual quest which leads him to try to cross the Abyss.

Mystics have a slightly different orientation. The first criteria is to find a perfect, living Master. Remember, a teacher takes you no further than he himself has gone. A magickal initiator may be only Self-Realized, not God-Realized, as a Master is. It is fine to honor "ascended" Masters of the past, but they can only care for the souls they initiated while alive. They are on the inner planes, and can be met with, but one needs a living Master to initiate a first-hand experience of the divine Light and Sound. Who would seek a dead surgeon for needed surgery? One must seek a Master who speaks of traveling to the highest possible experience, God-Realization. The so-called "inner orders" of certain magickal traditions insist upon yogic practices as an adjunct to ceremonial practice.

To find a Master and have the good fortune to become initiated is not enough. One only matures on the Path by the daily discipline of meditation for 2 1/2 hours per day. This is tithing one's time, not money. The purpose is to "die daily" which ultimately brings liberation from the wheel of rebirth. At death the soul goes to those inner realms it is used to traversing. It undoes its knot with the mind, and goes back to its true home with God (represented in Qabalah as #1, Kether).

There are always living Masters on the earth. You must evaluate your goals before seeking to enter any mystery school. Consider this: who is the living Master of the Egyptian mysteries, who is the master of the Eleusinian mysteries, what are the credentials of this Qabalistic teacher, what lineage is represented, who is a credible Archdruid, how far can Wicca take me? By choosing a teacher who can take you to the furthest region, you avoid changing disciplines in mid-stream. This means less energy wasted on fruitless practice.

Teachers of magick are known by their grade: minor adept, exempt adept, master of the temple, magus, ipsissimus, etc. In magick, the teacher need only be one grade higher than the student.

In the Eastern systems, there is one teacher, and his initiated disciples. But, you can also determine grade in these systems:

Physical Plane: (chakras) Bhagwan.

Astral Plane: (pranayam) prophets, auliyas, yogis

Causal Plane: (self-realization) gyani yogis and yogi wars

Archetypal Planes: (God-Realization) perfect Sadh (disciple) paramahansa (phoenix, or awakened soul) Sat Guru (Saint) Master or Param Sant Sat Guru (highest kind of Saint who has elected to also be a teacher).

Any true Master will come to his disciple shortly before death, inform him it is his time, and accompany him through the transition in his Radiant Form. He IS the divine Logos or Word in its present incarnation. There can be more than one on earth at a time.

Christ may have been "the Way, the Truth, and the Light" to his initiates, but THE WAY is only through the begotten Son, not through the only begotten Son. God is not stingy. Anyone who promises salvation after death is wrong. The soul's purpose in life is to get a master and make such progress on the spiritual path during life that he need not reincarnate. So the question becomes: "Who is a current, living Master?"

Spiritual practice requires neither outward affectations (clothes, hairstyles, asceticism), nor abstinence from sex. The practice of ceremonial magick can be a very private affair, and for those who prefer mysticism, there are "householder" yogas which go to the highest region.

The initiation in Magick for Malkuth makes the aspirant a Neophyte, a beginner or novice. His tasks include familiarizing himself with the Astral Plane, by proceeding along Path 32, Tau, THE UNIVERSE. He creates his astral body for soul travel to higher realms.

b. Ritual: "On the Practice of Ritual and Ceremony"(top)

A potential participant in Magick might well inquire into the meaning, value, practice, and mode of constructing rituals. To begin, let us examine the archetypal motivating factor, or godform, behind the desire for ritual enactments.

As a god who presides over boundaries, Hermes, the Magician, is able to transcend them. He rules ceremonial magick. He enables us to move from one state of consciousness to another. This brings to mind the three phases of every ritual process:

1). separation from profane or daily life;

2). the transition stage, or twilight zone, which lies between;

3). the new order or perception of reality which occurs in the sacred time of the soul.

The in-between, or twilight zone, enables a state of receptivity to be established. Ritual acts reawaken deep layers of the psyche and bring the mythological or archetypal ideas back to memory. Though the basic or original forms of magic and schizophrenic fantasy spring from the same roots, they are not synonymous. Magick is, in general, the counterphobic attitude, the transition from passivity to activity. The Will is essential. Realistic action does not follow schizophrenic magic; the fantasy is a substitute for action. The ego is weak or absent.

Jung asserted that ritual might be an effective way of re-establishing the experience of an inner fullness. This would be a great boon in our society where so many feel alienated, isolated, and lonely.

Magical practices are the projections of psychic events which, in cases like these, exert a counter influence on the soul and act like a kind of enchantment of one's own personality. That is to say, by means of these concrete performances the attention, or better said, the interest, is brought back to an inner sacred domain which is the source and goal of the soul. This inner domain contains the unity of life and consciousness which, though once possessed, has been lost and must now be found again.

--C.G. Jung/Secret of the Golden Flower

How many people long for a return to the well-springs of being for an experience of rejuvenation? This renovation, or renewal of personality opens the doors to an inner world, which is at least as rich and diverse as the physical world.

Ritual is often considered as the celebration of a myth. Myth functions as a paradigm or model. In this school of thought, the construct of a ritual can be seen as the enactment of this myth, as myth would be represented as the source. Myth is actually a dynamic expression of the motivational power of the archetype at its core.

Other schools believe that the ritual existed first, and the tale or myth was created from the need to account for the action that was occurring. In Magick, the former system is used because of its adaptability to Jungian psychology: the myth existed first, and then the ritual was developed around the myth.

The main value of ritual is for the soul. Ritual can be defined as an imitation of a Numinous Element (or godform) in the life of the aspirant. Ritual can be seen as the outward or visible form of contact, or an epiphany with, an inward or spiritual grace. It is essentially a metaphorical expression of creative imagination.

The distinction between concrete and literal, so important to alchemy, is the essential distinction in ritual. The ritual of theater, of religion, of loving, and of play require concrete actions which are never what they literally seem to be. Ritual offers a primary mode of pathologizing, of deliteralizing events and seeing them as we "perform" them. As we go into a ritual, the soul of our actions "comes out"; or to ritualize a literal action, we "put soul into it."...Ritual brings together action idea into an enactment.

--James Hillman/Re-Visioning Psychology

For example, when you do a ritual (this could be "High Magick" or the way you put your toothpaste on your toothbrush each morning), it is a representation of something internal which is being externalized. The symbol always starts on the inside and is projected outward. It is because of this observation that it is believed that the myth was first, and the ritual was created as a projection of the myth.

Rituals dramatically represent the need in man to transcend the barriers of narrow ego-consciousness in order to experience himself as part of something greater. Since ritual is seen as the enactment of myth, the myth inherently possesses an archetypal structure rather than being based on a logical format. Therefore: if one constructs a ritual and attempts to do it with logic, this should be, by definition, in error. This can be the first key to designing a ritual. It should not be strictly logic-oriented, but more archetypal in design. However, it is necessary to follow some practical guidelines. Magickal rituals contain basic elements which must appear in approximately the following sequence:

1) setting up the circle to define a working area

2) a form of "banishing" to clear the working arena and help concentration and focusing.

3) Middle Pillar Exercise to bring in Light and build up libido or magickal potency.

4) invocation, or "calling in" of the desired godform or attribute, in an attempt at self-transformation

5) charging of a eucharist with the energy of the godform, and its consumption as an epiphany with the god

6) meditative period

7) banishing to return the aspirant to "normal" consciousness

8) closing the Temple.

These steps may be expanded to include divination, dance, dramatic scenarios, etc. Any appropriate gestures may be added, but none of these basics can be omitted without incurring peril, by exposing the soul to random forces.

Rituals reveal values at their deepest levels. Men express in ritual what moves them the most. If the form of expression is conventional or obligatory, group values are revealed through the physical enactment of a myth. Ritual is the key to understanding society, according to many anthropologists, including Levi Strauss. It is a key to getting a better understanding of a given society, and how it may function from within.

Ritual can be a rightness of routine which manifests in habitual patterns; it may manifest in the precision of drill. Others see it as a prescribed series of manipulations of proper combinations to achieve a specific purpose. A third, primitive category deals with ritual's basic objectives such as warding off evil, bringing good luck, or propitiation of supernatural forces. Students of religion have made use of these three different aspects of ritual in that they look upon them as the origin of religion. It is a technique of Magick to use these ethics as the control system of a given religion. The choice of these perspectives is arbitrary.

Jung expands on the concept that ritual acts stand in direct contrast to technical acts. The former are purely symbolic, while the later are purposeful. This means that when one is doing something specific, one is purposeful in the action.

A ceremony is magical so long as it does not result in effective work but preserves the state of expectancy. In that case the energy is canalized into a new object and produces a new dynamism, which in turn remains magical only so long as it does not create effective work.

--C.G. Jung/"On the Nature of the Psyche"

Ceremonies and rituals are the means for periodically drawing up the sums of energy, or libido, attached to symbols. Only periodic or regular repetition provokes expectation. Therefore, since archetypal processes are recurrent or chronic, regular repetition of rituals builds expectations.

Symbols are the abstract forms of religious ideas. They are expressed as rites or ceremonies in the form of action. Only through a symbol, can a portion of energy which customarily goes toward sustaining the regular course of life be transformed and channeled into another form. This produces cultural, rather than instinctive, activity. Its by-product is the creation of surplus energy, which is then at the free disposal of the ego which can use this energy for further transformation. When one makes ritual use of symbols, they are prevented from falling back into a purely subconscious form of manifestation, (for instance disease, or neurosis).

The purpose of ritual lies in its expression as an artform. Partaking in its performance is an end in itself. Ritual, as symbolic action, is the enactment of mythic patterns for the sheer joy of relationship with the archetypal dimension.

Ritual does not mean only the performance of sacred actions on particular occasions, but is a state of mind which makes sacred all we do. Seeing through to the mythical patterns underlying common activities sanctifies all human acts. This includes the pathological aspects of the archetypes even though this does not justify moral lapses to society.

Ritual is the expression of tension in a symbolized manner; we abreact our anxieties in ritual. It is therefore the transferal of stifled feelings. Rites are calculated to arouse the sentiments that support a given Pathworking. The value of ritual is:

a). It is a method of organizing an experience. This allows more conscious control of our growth and development.

b). It lends grace and style to action. This prevents clumsy uncertainty, wasted energy and distractions.

c). It helps the general atmosphere by specific symbolism necessary to conjure a frame of mind conducive to the experience desired.

The Gods must be invoked in a balanced manner: this is the value of a Magickal Order. How does an unskilled aspirant know what God to invoke and when it is necessary? Unless he is lucky enough to have prior training in psychology, he cannot even fathom what a Godform represents until his training is near completion. He could even do psychological harm to himself, inadvertently, by not letting "sleeping dogs lay." The exception to this is the practice of Middle Pillar Exercise. This ritual is inherently balanced and can do no harm to the psyche, practiced in excess, or poorly executed.

Magick is the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will. Whenever an individual performs a mind-altering experiment, he is performing an act of Magick. Rituals are used to "program" a religious awakening. They are also used to overcome our random pre-programmed cultural narrowness concerning the value of an inner psychic life. The Art of Magick is to blend the Magick and Science into ritual. This then allows an individual to "control" the experience, thus allowing him/her a form of self-realization, through relationship with the archetypal dimension. The nearest definition science has for the Soul is long-term memory...the data experience.

It has been argued that ritual occult beliefs and practices tend to manifest during crisis situations. These situations occur where formed principles of social organization are in conflict. These produce actual or potential disputes which cannot be settled by judicial or other purely intellectual procedures. Ritual operates where there are fundamental disharmonies within the theoretical harmony of a social situation. One evokes basic stresses in order for the ritual to work most effectively, or in "right action".

The term "right action" is used in Magick in reference to the Will. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says:

The world is imprisoned in its own activity except when actions are performed as worship of God. Therefore, you must perform every action sacramentally and be free from all attachment to the results.

Remember, the purpose of ritual is an end in itself. This leaves no rationale behind lusting for results.

There are pitfalls inherent in the practice of ritual. Jung spoke of boomerang effects. There can be many unforeseen and unforeseeable repercussions in a self-directed program. This is the value of guidance along the path by a qualified teacher. The teacher has been there, and knows the dangers of each step. Archetypes do not only manifest in benevolent ways. They are good/bad, and their activation in the psyche unleashes their dynamism.

Every initiation has its ordeals:

But she said: the Ordeals I write not: the rituals shall be half known and half concealed: the Law is for all.

--A. Crowley/Liber Al vel Legis I:34

The ordeals are unknown to the aspirant, and repercussions cannot be anticipated. These Ordeals are independent of the aspirant's or teacher's conscious care; they come from the Self. They are not, like traditional ordeals, formal, or identical for all candidates. The complexes afford a real test of the ethics and conduct, and compel the aspirant to discover his own nature. He has the opportunity to become more aware of himself by bringing his secret motivating forces to the surface.

If any ritual is completely or openly given there would be dogma and that is not the purpose of Magick. When a ritual is begun, there is a synergetic effect that often occurs in the inevitable ordeal. The secret part of the ritual is, in fact, this unique ordeal. The secret part of the ritual is, in fact, this unique ordeal. That is the concealed aspect of the action. The ordeal is the evoked form or stress and the "right action" is the movement toward knowing one's True Will.

Another pitfall of ritual is the tendency for the ego to identify with the godforms outside of the magickal circle. In Ego and Archetype, Edward F. Edinger recounts an ancient remedy for this inflation.

There is an interesting ancient Mithraic ritual called "The Rite of the Crown" designed to protect against inflation. The following procedure was enacted during the initiation of a Roman soldier into Mithraism. At sword's point a crown was offered the candidate; but the initiate was taught to push it aside with his hand and affirm "Mithra is my crown." Thereafter he never wore a crown or garland, not even at banquets or at military triumphs, and whenever a crown was offered him he refused it saying, "It belongs to my god."

According to Robert Grinnell, in Alchemy in a Modern Woman, women bear a particular relationship to the unconscious and ritual; this bears on her deepest significance.

This distinction between feminine and masculine ways of experiencing the unconscious can best be seen in the different ways prima materia is represented. Whereas in a man's psychology the unconscious as prima materia is experienced as chaos, as violent and irrational processes of generation and destruction, in a woman it appears as a fascinating psychic background for sacred images and rituals expressive of her fundamental feminine conscience.

Later, he goes on expanding on this feminine experience.

Here we have both the problem and the deeper meaning of the "modern woman." For just as she produces an intensified polarity which seems very "modern" and raises to consciousness factors which seem "masculine" and which are left out of the dominant masculine view, so too she activates the unconscious rites linked to forgotten customs belonging to the primitive state of man whose aim was precisely to reconcile conflicting opposites. These rites are performed by men and women, but their content emanates from the divine sphere which is past, present, and future. These rites unite the instinctual pattern or pole of the constellated archetype to its divine, spiritual pole: the animal shadow of the archetype and its superhuman, divine aspect are linked together. A "reversal" occurs, in which the shadow of a latent consciousness at a psychoid level is extracted and "sublimated." The archetype in its archaic aspect is raised to a contemporary level.

This ennobling process shows the value of recreating ancient rites for modern living; it lies in the fact that they bring together the instinctual and divine poles of the archetypal continuum. They provide a sense of unification unobtainable through other means. This is a healing balm for our modern dualistic, or fragmented, consciousness.

Insert (square talisman)pending

c. Practical QBL: The Holographic Concept of Reality.(top)

The true purpose of philosophy was once held to be the search for essences, the underlying nature of things manifested. "Meaning" is nowhere to be found except in those fields of study that point to a unity between man and the universe. In modern terms this could be called a search for the archetypal level of reality.

Since the dawn of time there have been two conflicting explanations for the nature and structure of the world in which we live. These two conflicting ideas appear in Greek thought: Democritus stressed the field theory and Heracles the particle theory. Today, fields are stressed in relativity Physics, while particles are emphasized in quantum mechanics.

Throughout history many attempts have been made to synthesize the field and the particle theories. In current Physics those attempts fall under the name Geometrodynamics (Wheeler, 1959). "A Holographic Concept of Reality" by R. Miller, et al.(1) shows how a cross synthesis of particle theory and field theory can shed new light on living processes.

As postulated by Northrup and Burr (1935), the pattern or organization of any biological system is established by a complex electrodynamic field. This field is in part determined by its physio-chemical components, seen on an atomic or quantum mechanical level of analysis. This field also, in part, determines the behavior and orientation of those components.

Presman (1970) has postulated that such electromagnetic (EM) fields normally serve as conveyors or information from the environment to the organisms, within the organism, and among different organisms. He further postulated that in the course of evolution, organisms have come to use these fields in conjunction with the well-known sensory, nervous, and endocrine systems of the body. They affect coordination and integration.

Szent-Gyorgi (1957, 1960) has theorized that cells and other biological components might have various electronic solid-state physical properties such as the semi-conductor. He suggests that the use of quantum electrodynamics is necessary in order to understand biological processes which regulate the vital activities in organisms. Becker (1963) has maintained that it is already established that EM forces can be used to change a number of fundamental life processes in mammals.

Heisenberg explored the possible relevance of the quantum indeterminacy of elementary particles for biological systems, especially in humans (Koestler, 1972). He stated that there are two places in the human system where the quantum in-determinacy of a single particle can have a profound influence. The first is that of mutation in the genetic code. The second important influence is the alteration of the behavior of neurons during human thought processes.

Tien (1969) has conceptualized the mind as mass in relative motion, and the brain as energy at relative electrical charges in motion. They can be seen as electrons bombarding a television screen, where personality is seen as a time series of scintillation frames of consciousness. Personality becomes a reverberating input-output pattern of self-creation, seeking information or patterns of energy from the environment, as well as from its own memories.

According to the holographic model of reality, all the objects we can observe are three-dimensional images formed of standing and moving waves by EM and nuclear processes. All the objects of our world are 3-D images formed electro-magnetically, i.e., holograms. This concept and the models of human information processing based on the hologram, throw interesting light on the philosophical traditions which hold that the world of objects is an illusion.

POSTULATE (First):

The "reality hologram" which appears as a stable world of material objects is the elementary particle which has a long-term existence and fairly simple rules of interaction.

POSTULATE (Second):

The existence of a "biohologram" which appears as mobile and evolving, through the DNA molecule. This "biohologram" projects a dynamic 3-D image that serves as a guiding matrix for the manipulation and organization of the "reality hologram".

Thus, there are mobile self-organizing holograms moving through a relatively static simpler hologram. The possibility exists that such "bioholograms" could achieve sufficient coherence to continue existence as a pattern of radiant energy apart from a material substate.

Holography is the process of recording and recreating complex 3-D wave fronts in space. The holography with which we are most familiar deals mostly with the visible spectrum, so we tend to think of holography in terms of 3-D photography.

However, holography can be conceived in different realms of the spectrum. The whole process of lasers and laser abilities to create images in space in visible light radiation is closely connected to microwave research and a device called a "maser," which broadcasts coherent radiation in the microwave frequencies. It should be possible in theory, with the proper kind of equipment, to capture and broadcast complex 3-D wave-form structures in space across a whole broad band of the EM spectrum, "broad-band holography."

Some of the interesting properties of holography have to do with its differences from photography. In photography, the light from an object is reflected onto a flat surface where it essentially discolors that surface; or rather, the shadow that it casts discolors that surface. If you cut a photograph in half, you have half of the original picture that came from the original. Holography is quite different.

In a hologram, the pattern of light that is created by the object is recorded at each point on the film. Each grain contains the whole image. Each image is slightly different, however, and all of the images are very vague and fuzzy.

Detail in a photograph is not particularly connected to the size in the sense that a small piece of a photograph will have a lot of detail on a small area of the scene. A large photograph will have a lot of detail on all of the scene. In a hologram, each grain has some of the information about the whole scene. A large hologram has a lot of details about the whole scene. So something different happens when you cut a hologram in half;you are left with the original picture, but it loses detail.

In the nuclei of each cell in the human body, the DNA carries the structure of our whole body. Not just our physical form, but also the processes that form undergoes in terms of survival. If all of these things are in truth locked in the DNA, how does that turn into a functioning being?

The DNA could possibly be the holographic projectors. The DNA could be projecting a field that would be experiencing by other DNA in the body. The DNA, in a sense, could be linked together. The DNA are also linked to their own cells that they are controlling via mechanisms of RNA transfer and enzymatic action in the cell.

POSTULATE (Third):

The DNA is the projector of the "biohologram," both at the cellular level and at the whole-organismic level. The DNA creates a situation of a complex pattern of 3-D EM standing and moving wave fronts in the space that the organism occupies. These wave fronts interact with, interpenetrate with, and interdetermine the physical substance that makes up the creature.

The biohologram has characteristic properties of affecting the DNA that occupy specific positions within the biohologram. The nervous system constitutes a coordination mechanism that integrates DNA projections of the rest of the cells in the system. It is a coordination mechanism, first and foremost. It aligns these cellular holograms and the linkage of the whole creature hologram.

The DNA in a particular cell is not totally active. It has been determined that there may be as little as 1% of the DNA present in the nucleus of the cell acting as the determinant for the structure of that cell. The nervous system, interesting enough, has the highest percentage of operating DNA of any cell system in the body, up to at least 10% of the DNA in the brain cells. The neuron nuclei are the most active.

The nervous system projects a biohologram which interacts with the cellular
bioholograms. If the membrane structure of the neuron nuclei are examined closely, it will be seen that the different cavity systems that enter the outer membrane and also enter the inner membranes, will be seen to topologically be a single membrane. So the nucleus is lacking a membrane, or the neurons are lacking a membrane in the sense that two of their membranes are topologically one membrane.

Within the holographic model, the neurons are not actually seen as brain cells. The brain is the cell, and the neurons are like a distributed nucleus for that cell.

As long as the biohologram is functioning properly, as long as the nervous system is continuing to coordinate and project the complex 3-D fields that support the biological processes in the organism, the organism survives. When the biohologram ceases to function properly, the organism suffers. And when the principle action of the biohologram stops, the organism dies.

If there is any scientific correlate to the concept of Soul, it is most probably this bioholographic pattern system. The actual geometrical structuring of the DNA is a holographic "lens", projecting "reality" and the material world as a hologram-image when it interacts with the ultimate stuff of the universe, electromagnetic field energy. People can be seen as wavefronts, not solid matter.

Using this modeling or view of the universe, it is possible to comprehend both the cosmos and consciousness as a single unbroken totality of movement. When one works with such an implicate (or implied) order, one begins with the undivided wholeness of the universe. The task of science is to derive the various sub-totalities, which could be called as explicate, and show how these relatively autonomous sub-totalities are part of a greater whole.

Explicate or observed phenomena then become part of the implicate or implied whole. To begin to understand this form of ordering, a new tool for perception is needed. This new concept of order involves the discrimination of the relative differences in both time and space. Attention is now given to distinguishing between similar differences in both time and space. Attention is now given to distinguishing between similar differences and different similarities. Such a format in mathematics is called a ratio, or matrix field. "The universe is a cosmic computer on the pregeometric level of information in which space and time appear as secondary statistical constructs."(2)

The Vector Equilibrium Matrix (3) (see Book VII: TIPHARETH) is such a matrix; although seen as a geometry at any stage, it is pregeometric in that it describes the change from one state to the next. It is a quantized state of information. So are the "Holographic Concept of Reality" and the Qabalah (QBL) Tree of Life model.

These "ratios" or "similarities" between successive steps remains invariant. As the degree of steps becomes infinitely high, it then become possible to describe random events. These events are not determined by any finite number of steps, but rather they have a certain kind of order, one which is of an indefinable high degree.

We no longer use the term "disorder" (or chaos), but rather distinguish between different degrees of order. Order is not to be identified with predictability; it is found in the connectivity of two events. The mechanism used to identify an "event" is most revealing:

Insight is the perception (or psychological equivalent) of a certain type of resonance.

This specific form of ordering (insight) has meaningful implications to the individual experiencing it. Intelligence is a sequence of such insights, leading to purpose and practical behavior.

This resonance allows for the transference of information from an implicate order to the explicate order, from latent to manifest. Since the total of the explicate is encoded throughout the implicate order, the resonance provides a direct access or return to psyche. This resonance is called a "complex" in psychology.

The electromagnetic field, which is the ground of the holographic image, obeys the laws of the quantum theory, and when these are properly applied to the field it is found that this, also, is actually a multi-dimensional reality which can only under certain conditions be simplified as a 3-D reality.

The implicate order has to be extended into a multi-dimensional reality. In principle, this reality is one unbroken whole, including the entire universe with all its "fields" and "particles". This holographic concept enfolds and unfolds in a multi-dimensional order, the dimensionality of which is effectively infinite. It is "matter" on it's most fundamental level of understanding.

What we call empty space contains an immense background of energy. "Matter" (as we know it now) is a small, "quantized" wavelike excitation on top of this background, like a tiny ripple on a vast sea. Space, which has so much energy, is full rather than empty. Thus, in Greek thought, the School of Parmenides and Zeno held that space was a plenum. Matter, thought of as consisting of special recurrent stable and separable forms in this ether (4), would be transmitted through the plenum as if the latter were empty.

The holographic concept of reality suggests that the implicate order applies both to matter (living and non-living) and to consciousness, and that it can therefore make possible an understanding of the general relationship of these two. With this broader-based perspective of Malkuth we may be able to come to some notion of the common ground between psyche and matter.

Matter as a whole can be understood in terms of the notion that the implicate order is the immediate and primary actuality, while the explicate order can be derived as a particular, distinguished case of the implicate order. Pribram (1971) has given evidence backing up his suggestion that memory is recorded over all the brain. Information concerning a given object or quality is not stored in a particular cell or localized in a part of the brain. Instead, all the information is enfolded over the whole. This storage resembles a hologram in its function, but its actual structure is much more complex.

This model of the electron as an enfolded order is grasped in thought, as the presence together of many different but interrelated degrees of transformations of ensembles. For example, music is sensed immediately as the presence together of many different but interrelated degrees of transformations of tone and sounds.

In listening to music, one is therefore directly perceiving an implicate order. It is clear that visual images must undergo active transformation as they "enfold" into the brain and nervous system.

There is a basic similarity between the order of our immediate experience of movement and the implicate order as expressed in terms of our thoughts. Movement is comprehended in terms of a series of inter-penetrating and intermingling elements in different degrees of enfoldment, all present together.

In terms of the implicate order of the holographic concept of reality, movement is a relationship of certain phases of what is to other phases of what is, that are in different stages of enfoldment. Therefore "imply" involves the notion of enfoldment. Here is meant not just the content of thought, rather it is also the actual structure, function, and activity of thought that is part of the implicate order.

The manifest (that which is recurrent, stable, and separable) content of consciousness is based essentially on memory. This allows such content to be held in a fairly constant form. To make possible such consistency it is also necessary that this content be organized. Not only through relatively fixed associations, the organization occurs with the aid of the rules of logic, and our basic categories of space, time, causality, universality. In this way an overall system of concepts and mental images develop, more or less faithful representations of the "manifested" world.

This all-systems view includes The Tree of Life, it's correspondence system, archetypes and the holographic concept of reality.

Matter and consciousness can both be understood within this implicate ordering. A moment cannot be precisely related to measurements of space and time, but rather converses a vaguely defined region which is extended in space and has a duration in time.

The laws of the implicate order are such that there is a relatively independent, recurrent, stable sub-totality which constitutes the explicate order. This connection of the mind and body has commonly been called psychosomatic, from the Greek "psyche", meaning "mind" and "soma" (for "body"). In the implicate order we have to say that mind enfolds matter in general, and therefore the body in particular. Similarly, the body enfolds matter in general, and therefore the body in particular. Similarly, the body enfolds not only the mind but also in some sense the entire material universe.

The more comprehensive, deeper, and more-inward actuality is neither mind nor body, but rather a yet higher-dimensioned actuality. It is their common ground and yet is of a nature beyond both. We do not say that mind and body causally affect each other, but rather that the movements of both are the outcome of related projections of a common higher-dimension.

Thus, since the quantum theory implies that elements that are separated in space are generally non-causally and non-locally related projections of a higher-dimensional reality, it follows that movements separated in time are also such projections of this reality.

Inquiry into the psychological origins of mathematical models is still to a large extent neglected, even though inquiry into precisely this area would be especially significant. Inquiry into the preconscious creative processes in researcher's subconsciousness is also still largely ignored. The concept of the collective unconscious defines that "intermediate realm of subtle bodies" without presuming to say anything definitive about the substance.

Von Franz (1979) has shown that most all scientific advances and the modeling used to describe those advances are all explicate ordering of a more implicate view involving specific archetypes. If we look back to the scientific-mythological world principles that Greek natural philosophy understood as the ground of being, one is struck by the fact that most of them represent the intuitive-visual pre-stage of what has developed into today's scientific hypotheses or thought-models.

Alchemy, in the strictest sense of the word, has two parents: Greek rational philosophy and Egyptian technologies. The Greek philosophers initiated rational thought regarding the problems of nature, of matter, space and time, but made practically no experiments to verify these models. Their theories were bolstered by certain observations but it never occurred to them actually to experiment.

Egyptians, on the other hand, had highly developed chemical-magical techniques, but in general gave no thought to them, either philosophical or theoretical. When the two trends of Greek and Egyptian civilizations came together they united in a very fruitful marriage, of which alchemy was their child. From the Greek philosophy all the basic concepts are still valid in modern physics.

When considering the concepts of matter and space, the problem of time, one thinks of Zeno. The concept of energy was Heraclitus. The concept of the particle was created by Leukippos and Democritus. The concept of affinity of the elements and the idea of the four worlds prevailed right up to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. All of these concepts were created by the different pre-Socratic philosophers.

In Greece it was a switch from a religious mythological outlook on the existence of the world to a philosophical one. It was a foundation for the implicate order of modern sciences. One of the ideas, namely that the basic elements of the universe are mathematical forms, was created through the Pythagoreans and was developed into a slightly varied form of Plato. It is now again present in the Heisenberg's theory and quantum mechanics.

There is a strong line going through Greek philosophy into modern sciences, even though it never occurred to the Greeks to make practical tests. In Egypt, techniques had been highly developed but these chemical techniques were used mostly in a specific realm of Egyptian religious life.

The great opposites of human nature, extroversion and introversion, play a tremendous role in the historical development of alchemy and modern science. The theoreticians of natural philosophy among the Greeks had been more extroverted and the Egyptian technologies had been more interested in its psychological inner aspects. So they switched roles at that moment, but naturally the inner opposition and the play of these two opposite attitudes continue.

Geometry is a divine art, because the law of the creation of the world is revealed in its axiomatic structure. Space and time are regarded as a 4-D metric field that determines the distance between closely adjacent points. The metric components attributed to the field have absolute meaning. One cannot speak of them without taking into account the presence of matter.

In Einstein's theory the same primordial image turns up in modified form, but it is also closely joined to the idea of matter. According to Einstein, matter would be an excited state of a "dynamic geometry". The superspace of this dynamic geometry contains "wormholes" in which the electric lines of force are, so to speak, caught in the topology of superspace. It was Newton and Kepler who began the process of partial secularization and mathematicization of the image, with the loss of its "mythical" meaning. The aspects of the symbol gradually receded into the background.

Today, however, there is within the holographic concept of reality, an implicate aspect to specific explicate modeling. The archetypal images formed the basis of all scientific ideas about time and about space as 3-D conceived, as well as the idea of the atom (omnipresent point) and the idea of continuum and discontinuum. Therefore all these fundamental scientific hypotheses are, in the end, derived from a mandala-formed God-image.

Whenever physicists attempt to construct a comprehensive model of reality or a thought-model of what they are doing, they always return to a quaternity of principles, generally without suspecting that Jungian psychology long ago discovered the quaternal structure of consciousness. The purpose of science is to bring inner images into coincidence with external facts. Both the soul of the perceiver and that which is recognized by perception are subject to an order thought to be objective.

The combination of the holographic concept of reality, Jungian archetypes, and The Tree of Life (QBL) represent an implicate ordering which then allows for explicate application and relationship. Their combination enfolds all other aspects now envisioned and thus forms the basic foundation of Malkuth, the world of physical images.

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