(We decided to use the questioning format DuQuette suggests as a guide to begin with and may modify as we go along: for source see DuQuette, 2008: p.173-174)
Wednesday April 14th 2010
The action intended to call Axir, Earth of Earth ‘servient angel’, who are ‘powerful and learned in transformation’. The action was operated according to the protocol we’ve drawn up, which was outlined in this post and the script for which is here. (more…)
On Wednesday just gone we gathered together for the first action in the ongoing Enochian work we began this year. The scryer for the session was unwell, toothache, so the five of us that were there took the Holy Table and Sigillum Dei Aemeth that had been made for the workings and performed the action up to the end of the ‘Temple Ceremony’ as a form of ‘activating’ the table and sigillum. The script for the rite is linked here and there are some pictures taken during the making of the Holy Table linked to the picture on the left.
It was a good rite, with a strong LBRP and Middle Pillar chants. This was very satisfying, as last time we’d been active we’d been using the SIRP. The ‘Temple Ceremony’ aspects from DuQuette’s book then followed, the 7 chants of the Holy Table side letters, then the 7 chants of the middle 12, each one first 3, then 4. After this the calling fo the 49 names of the Sigillum and the whispering incantation of the Round table of Nalvage. We noted that each of us whispering, almost to themselves, the final Nalvage chant had a kind of re-centring role after the earlier chants of the letters. Those whispered chants at the end were repeated until each person felt they ended, rather than in unison, which may be why they worked like that.
After that we banished with laughter and chatted about the rite. Timewise it seemed to take about 35-40 minutes only to get to the elemental scrying operation. That would mean that there is enough time in the rite so far for there to be a comfortable scrying session of anything from 10 minutes to half an hour, with possibly room for other activity after the scrying if we wanted to consider that at a later point. It’s possible we might find scrying sessions go on longer, though I doubt it at this early stage of the work.
This post offers a review of the Brighton groups activities so far as we move into a new series of workings and an initial protocol for those new workings. The first section is the review, the second the protocol of practice.
Looking back
The small group of us in Brighton have come together through the activities of the kabbalistic meditation group that was originally set-up in May 2007 as a place of regular group ‘recharge’ activity. There are some notes on this in earlier posts, some of which also track the changes that take place as the group developed and moved. Towards the end of last year we once again made a shift to a new phase of work after focussing for a while on practising the SIRP . The decision we took was to try and practice the Enochian magick that Lon Milo DuQuette had made so accessible in his recent book, Enochian Vision Magick. The start of the new year therefore found us shifting focus from the practice oriented sessions we had been involved with to a series of study sessions in preparation for the Enochian work.
We have now had four sessions. The first was an initial planning session for how we were to approach things. This operated as a kind of overview and then a talking stick session, with a view to maintaining the strengths we had whilst we explored a new practice. Our first issue was working out how to move into a whole new type of practice without losing what we had so far built.
In the previous set of practices we had taken a decision very early on to make the sessions very similiar each time in order to establish a simple routine, rather than to have an eclectic mix of activities that shifted and changed every time we met. In part this came from the initial impulse to form the meditation group, which arose out of a group of magicians, most of whom were ‘chaos magick’ inspired and already meeting in a local CM cell. In many CM sessions the format is for participants to each bring a rite and then for the group to go through a whole series of different activities during the session. This can be extremely exciting and vibrant but also quite draining and so the meditation group was almost a reversal of this, with a format that was fairly fixed. We would meet, do the Qabalistic Cross (x3), an LBRP, the QC again (x3) then a series of Middle Pillar chants, 5 as a round and 5 unified. After that we would have a silent meditation of 20 mins followed by a pathworking. This basic format was adjusted at times but in effect the same thing would occur each time, the main difference of content being in the pathworking.
Gradually we adjusted elements as we developed. We moved our pathworkings further up the tree, we took it in turns to do these pathworkings and then we shifted from the LBRP to the SIRP. We did a slightly more organised set of pathworkings (the 3 Letter workings) which aimed to establish a personal contact on the tree for each participant. One of the participants was an experienced Chi Qung practitioner, so we added some CQ into the beginning of the meetings. Each change was small and built on the established routine of the sessions.The strengths of these practices lay in their regularity. This regularity meant we all knew what was going to happen each time we met, or at least the basic outline. The coherence of the rites was easier to build, energy easier to raise and a sacred space faster to establish because there was little or no need to discuss what we were doing each time we would meet – we simply met, did the work and generated the space in which we existed for that time. So our first job in planning the new work was to once again build on what we had.
We had a long chat about what it was people got form the existing work, what stage of development people were at magically and agreed a few groundrules for the new practice. Some of these are obviously private to the group but I think most importantly we agreed to continue the meditation sessions as ‘energy gains’ in between the Enochian work. So we will be doing 2 session of Enochian, followed by a 2 session break during which time we will have meditation session. We also agreed that for the first half dozen or so session of the Enochian practice we would all be there for the session to go ahead. In our meditation work it usually didn’t disrupt things greatly if one person couldn’t get along for one week, they would simply slip back into it the week after. In this new practice it seemed sensible to ‘all be new together’. Once we’ve overcome the initial ‘shock of the new’ together and have a shared vocabulary of experience we can again continue with a session even if one participant isn’t able to get along that week.
Having established some ground rules we then met again three times to do some study sessions on DuQuette’s book and get a rough, shared familiarity with the material we were going to work with. The first session looked at the Sigillum Dei Aemeth and everyone drew one out from the various tables and sources. The second session looked at the Ring, Lamen and Holy Table and then a third session spent time looking at the Holy Tables, clarifying the work in the Aethyrs with the symetrical characters of the Governors and the work in the Elements, with the Golden Talisman and the Elemental squares. Lots of material, lots of discussion, lots of fun – but all very school-like in many ways. Last night we finished off this initial set of preparations and sketched out the basic outline of how we’re going to begin the work.
Looking forward
In general we’re going to follow DuQuette fairly closely. Our own flavour of things will probably be most noticeable in the form of Middle Pillar exercise we do, the chanting in the round. After some discussion, however, this is the agenda of activity for the sessions:-
1) 3x Qabbalistic Cross, LBRP, 3x Qabbalistic Cross
2) Middle Pillar Chants
3) Temple Ceremony ( the Heptarchical operation)
4) Elemental working (the Scrying session)
5) Close
We begin in two weeks (initial session planned for 17th March) to give people time to adjust their practices in preperation. In particular this means maintaining or renewing regular Qabbalistic Cross, Middle Pillar, and LBRP activity (having been focussed on the SIRP, the shift back to the LBRP will be interesting for people). It’s a good time to look at the Whare Ra documents again, which you can find over here. The DuQuette book is the reference for the activity. He gives a classic form of the LBRP at the start of Appendix 1 (page 191) , the main differences to our previous practice being the triplicity of the Qabalistic Cross (‘Ateh, Malkuth etc’) at the beginning and ending and the way we pronounce the first pentagram, YHVH. The Temple Ceremony is what DuQuette calls the ‘ceremony of preparation’ (page 193-195) and the place of the ‘elemental working’ is indicated on page 193 but the content is effectively given on pages 179 – 181 (this protocol was one of the study session hand-outs). The content of the elemental workings are the subesctions on pages 179-181 in DuQuette’s book, titled ‘The Call(s)’, ‘Addressing the Hierarchy’ and ‘Calling your target angel’. DuQuette gives an example which you could work through, replacing this with our first point of activity, one of the the four basic Earth of Earth angels. I will prepare the Calls and the Address to the Hierarchy for our first session but this is a task that will land on everyone at some point. For the first session the Scryer and the Recorder have been decided (you know who you are) and the set of questions we use as the base from which to work is given in Enochian Vision Magick on pages 173-174.
We can use the comments thread here to discuss any initial adjustments we might feel we want to make to this protocol.
The three of us process separately down to the fountain, gathering after dark on the steps that surround it. Sunday evening activity surrounds the area, people wandering to and fro. Just behind the tree a fence twists around the park, surrounding a food festival of some sort that was there during the day. The air is clear and the anxiety that has been with me for the last couple of hours, along with the headache, are beginning to subside. The moon is dark above us. ‘nightgoing one, disheveled one of compelling countenance’
I mark the 3-turn labyrinth on the steps, mistakenly closing it on the first drawing, so I rub open the first turn, with my finger roughly caressing the paving stone. The rubbish is strewn through the fountain, now silent and dark. The water appears to have something like an oil surface, shining rich deep black. The rams horn which has my libation in it stinks, the water having taken the inside of the horns essence over the last couple of weeks. It matches the water in the fountain. ‘daughter of perses, lover of the wilderness who exults among the deer’.
We gather before the steps, placing a lantern on each of the three stepping stones, the light vibrant. One of us has a dog and full hands, so a brief re-arrangement of items – libations, prayers and dogs – before we begin to circle, whispering her name over and over, first one way, turn, then another, turn, laughter and smiling, then the last turn and now we stand. Invocation…’beloved hekate, of the crossroads and threeways, saffron cloaked goddess of the heavens, the underworld and the sea’
The water pours in a thick strong stream into the fountain. Mixing the sources and offering simple time and effort and devotion. No piety, simple acts and words. A small fetish for demeter is placed at the centre, another 3-turn labyrinth marked in chalk and then we all stand, arms outstretched in front, as we intone laguz. Smiles and banish with laughter, before we mill around, during which time I push a small key into the ground before eventually walking home for wine, incense and talk. ‘tauropolous, keyholding mistress of the whole world, maiden, nymph, mountain wandering nurturer of youth, we beg you be present at our rites…’.
As of writing, May 2008, the Kabbalah meditation group continues and we’ve now been working weekly for over a year, developing a consistent practice and learning a lot as we go. Our attitude is relaxed and flexible, primarily because the aim of the group was always to provide a space of grounding and recharge for a group of active magicians whose work in other areas can be complemented by this regular co-creation of sacred space. During the first year we have worked the bottom of the tree, most recently working the Death and Devil paths, gradually building up paths as we go, adding layers of symbolism and becoming intimate with the tree. We have now completed the QShTh or ‘rainbow’ and have already touched Tiphareth but the time now comes to begin to build Tiphareth.
When we began we worked the temple of Malkuth, giving us a strong grounding place from which to explore. The temple was perhaps the most vividly drawn and the one we spent most time in since we would often begin and end a journey by entering and exiting through Malkuth. Now the same process is to be done with Tiphareth, building it as a vivid ground from which to begin exploring the upper triads of the tree.
Whilst we use the Dion Fortune text, Mystical Qabalah, as the ‘book’ on the altar space and the ground of the associations we use, the temples are built intuitively, from hints and encounters and spontaneity. To a large extent this ends up being something that comes from my imagination as I work the paths myself and then share what I’m doing in the pathworking, so I’m aware that there’s probably a huge idiosyncracy in the way in which we work. At present this seems unproblematic, since this first ascent of the tree aims to install it into our consciousness in a way that enables it to be built upon in future and the tree feels strong enough to sustain any idiosyncratic presentation, at least one that comes from an intuitive response. The overwhelming nature of the tree and its associations is something I encountered before and in this project there was an unconscious avoidance of any necessity to install a ‘correct’ tree and the emphasis was on ‘what worked’, what enabled people in the group to work the path, visualise strongly and connect intimately. 
The temple of Tiphareth, then, is being built as a Golden Castle with a Child of Light at its heart. In our previous approaches we came through the path of Temperance and the working would involved a scene in which we fired a bow and then became the tip as it flew through the air, before landing in Tiphareth. Now I wanted to install a direct path into the castle, in the same way that we have a direct path that goes into Malkuth.
… you walk along a gravel path, through a line of trees that lead to a open grass park, with people playing and relaxing on a sunny day. You feel the crunch of the gravel under your feet, hear the sounds of the people in the distance. As you come to the end of the path and move onto the grass, feeling its soft bouncy texture, you feel the warmth of the sun on your face. You continue towards the Golden castle in front of you towards a doorway. The door to the castle is on the corner of two walls, with the Castle itself imagined as a hexagon. You ask Raphaels’ permission before entering the door and once within there are the Malachim, white robed figures moving to and fro along a pathway around the walls. Within the temple there is a courtyard, at the centre of which is a space of light, bright white light with hints of gold and pink. You move towards the light until it overwhelms your eyes and surrounds you in its presence. Gradually shapes become visible as your eyes adjust to the light, though everything is still surrounded by the bright light. In the centre of the space a child sits on a cushion, behind them a tall crowned man stands.
You move towards the child and sit on a cushion next to them. They place a hand on your chest and rest your hand on theirs and as they do a flow of light can be felt moving into and through you, filling you up, flowing into your body, filling your feet, your hands, your whole being. The child slowly withdraws their hand, as do you and then they rest it gently on your forehead and offer you 
a vision.
The child stands and offers you their hand. You stand and the child leads you, hand in hand, to the the right, where there is a door marked Death. The child then turns about and walks to the direct opposite side of the space and another door appears, this time marked Devil. Finally the child leads you back to the centre and you face the crowned man. Around the feet of the man and underneath the cushion the child was sitting on are rose petals. Behind the man there are five doors, too distant to make out any marking as as yet. The child lets go of your hand and sits down again, saying goodbye. You turn to leave, walk back the way you came and find yourself once more in the courtyard with the Malachim, one of whom opens the door and nods goodbye, smiling as they do so. you leave the Golden Castle, making your way across the grass, onto the gravel path and back to this world …
6 wands – victory, 6 cups – joy, 6 swords – earned success, 6 pentacles – material success
razorsmile :: philosophy//magic //revolution 