Showing posts with label Tree of Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tree of Life. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 August 2017

Manifestation and the Supernal Triad



If you really want to manifest your desires you need to use the principles expressed in the Qabalah as the Supernal Triad.

I hope you haven't switched off at this point.  Yes, I know that unless you have studied the Tree of Life what I have just written is probably Double Dutch to you!  But bear with me - the concept is both important and easy to understand.

Before I go any further let me reassure you.  I am not saying you have to learn the basics of the Qabalah in order to manifest properly.  Rather, I am just saying that the Qabalah neatly outlines what you must do in order to manifest your desires, even if when you do so you do not realize what you are doing has a Qabalistic interpretation.

In Qabalah, the Supernal Triad is the top three "Sephiroth" of the Tree of Life.  It is the way the Supreme Being begins creation.  And used properly it is the way we, too, create reality from our inner dreams.

There are three points in the Supernal Triad, as you probably realize from the name.  They are "Kether", "Binah" and "Chokmah".  Some describe Kether as the Soul, Binah as the Womb into which the Soul enters, and Chokmah as the force of Creation that results when the Soul enters the Womb.  But there are also other names for these three Sephiroth, and those names show you what you need to do in order to manifest properly.

Kether, the Soul is also known as "Desire".  Binah, the Womb, is "Imagination".  Chokmah, Creation, is "Visualization".

In order to manifest you must have all three in balance.  Miss out any one of the three and you will have, at best, a very lukewarm power to turn your dreams into reality.  More likely nothing will happen at all and you will walk away from the whole concept of the Law of Attraction complaining it doesn't work.

The work of Manifestation begins with Desire.  If you do not really desire whatever it is you are dreaming of it will remain as just a dream.  Your desire has to be strong.  Like a flame in a furnace you can stoke up your desire as long as there is a spark of desire there in the first place.  But make sure you are focussed on a real dream.  Too many people think they really want to achieve something, but the desire is not strong enough simply because they have not truly identified their real dream.

Once you have fanned your Desire into a passion, it is ready to act - which it does by entering the womb of Imagination to create through Visualization.

Imagination is important.  Too many people go straight from Desire to Visualization and miss out the step of Imagination.  You need to use your Imagination to begin creating the right Visualization.  Stoke up your Desire, and then begin using your Imagination to create the right scene.  If you use your Imagination properly you will find it automatically leads to a powerful Visualization.

If you find you don't have enough Imagination to create a vivid Visualization, such that it seems, when you close your eyes, to be as solid as the "reality" you see around you when you open your eyes, you should work on improving your Imagination.  To some people this comes naturally.  Those are the people who find the Law of Attraction works for them the moment they hear about the need to Visualize, as long as they are Visualizing something they truly Desire.  But it can also be a learned skill.  Like any other skill, you need to study it and then practise it.  One way to build your imagination is to read voraciously.  Pick authors who write powerfully, whose books are filled with descriptive paragraphs.  Read those paragraphs and then picture the scenes in your mind.  After you put the book down, re-visit the scene.  Try to see it in detail.  And don't just see it - use all your other senses too.  Hear it.  What do you smell?  What do you feel?  If, for example, you are reading a Joseph Conrad book with the setting in a jungle in Southeast Asia, imagine yourself in that jungle.  You are so hot!  The sweat is pouring off you.  There are the smells of strange plants around you.  This really works!

I have mentioned Joseph Conrad.  Yes, his novels are now very dated.  But they are also very powerful and a great source of scenes to improve your skills of imagination.  Or try Ernest Hemingway - another now perhaps dated, but very powerful author.  John Steinbeck, perhaps.  If you are into science fiction (or maybe even if you are not!) try Ray Bradbury or Brian Aldiss.  There are very many authors who are really great at building a scene, where you can visualize what they are describing as you read.  Just remember to keep practising re-creating those scenes even when you are not reading.

Once you have gained the skill of re-creating in your mind the scenes from the books, use that same skill to Visualize whatever it is you desire.  Again, use all your senses.  As you do so, fill the scene you are Visualizing with your deep Desire to make this dream a reality.  By doing this properly you will be using the full Supernal Triad which is the Universal force of Creation, and you simply cannot fail.  You are using a Universal Law, and Universal Laws never fail.

If you wish to source any of the writers I have mentioned, try your local library.  Certainly Conrad, Hemingway and Steinbeck should be there as their works are absolute classics.  One disadvantage, though, is that you will have a limited time to practise your imagination skills.  Also, some people find it helps to highlight or underline the passages they want to visualize.  Don't do that to a library book!

An alternative is to buy the book from a reputable source.  I have listed the particular books I think you will find the best for this exercise, and given you quick links to the cheapest copies I have found on Amazon.  Just click the link and it will take you to the right page to order it.  The first list is if you wish to pay in US$ and the second if you wish to pay in UK£.

US Versions:

UK Versions:

Finally, if you would like some help in using words, sounds and images to improve your Creative Visualization techniques, try using Mind Movies.  This is a brilliant way of focusing your Desire through Imagination into Visualization, and therefore using the Universal Law of the Supernal Triangle to create reality out of your dreams.  Click here to find out more.

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Ceremonial Magic


If you came to this article looking for a magical ritual you can take away and use as is, I am afraid you will be sorely disappointed.  My purpose here is to give any non practising magicians just a little idea of what is involved.

Firstly, for my Christian and Muslim friends I want to dispel the notion that ceremonial magic is a form of idolatory, or even of black magic.  In its purest form it is neither, although the beliefs of some magicians may come close to what may be described as a form of idolatory, and a black magician may well use a distorted form of ceremonial magic.

Another word for ceremonial magic is "theurgy".  A ceremonial magician may also therefore be called a "theurgist".  I will use these terms for brevity.

A theurgist recognizes that there are many different powers "out there".  Some theurgists will view them as personal gods, and therefore would attract the ire of Christians and Muslims alike.  Others will view them much more as Jungian archetypes.  My own view is that the distinction is rather academic, although I would perhaps veer closer to the archetype than personal god view.

Those who have not studied theurgy in any depth may view these "powers" as nonsense, yet at the same time fear any invocation or evocation of them.  Ignorance usually results in fear, so I guess this should not really surprise me.  I am not going to attempt to "convert" those who refuse to believe.  I believe, and am happy to share my belief with those who wish to understand.  Is there any need for fear?  Well, if someone is going to try playing with forces they do not understand, yes there is.  Not because we are talking about devils or evil spirits, but for the same reason you should fear electricity if you are thinking of playing with some powerful electric black box when you know nothing about what is in it or how it works.  Electricity is not evil, but it can still kill you if you use it in the wrong way.

Another great misunderstanding about theurgy is the idea that a god, spirit, or other power is being harnessed purely for the purpose of achieving some material gain.  That should not be the aim of the ceremony at all, although it may nevertheless result in such a gain.

Returning to the Jungian concept, you could view the purpose of theurgy as an individuation process.  Creating a proper balance of all the powers that are there whether we like it or not, by working one by one with each power, integrating each of the archetypes properly into our true self.  The theurgist does this by focusing on one power so completely that this power materializes.  In a very real sense, the theurgist now "owns" this power.  Yet the power itself is something far greater than anyone who has not studied this subject could ever imagine.  Once one power has been properly invoked in this way, the theurgist moves onto the next, until eventually he or she has incorporated all the powers, or archetypes, and (using a term from another discipline) achieves samadhi.  Purists will probably criticize me for mixing terms from very different disciplines in this way, but to me it sums it up perfectly.

If you wanted to achieve individuation in the traditional psychotherapeutic manner this is not something you could achieve by yourself.  You would have to surrender yourself totally to another person.  It would also probably cost you a lot of money!  A theurgist does not surrender himself or herself to any other person.  Also, no money should change hands for the ceremonies themselves - although if you are going to do this properly (and it would be very dangerous to try doing it any other way!) you will need to invest a lot of time, energy, and probably money too assembing all the right magical implements.  When I undertook my first magical ceremony as a teenager I invested many long evenings searching for exactly the right branch to create my magic wand - and then had to time the cutting of the branch to the right astrological alignments.

If this brief introduction has ignited a spark of interest, I encourage you to study some of the masters (and mistresses) of the ancient theurgical art.  I suggest you go back to before the current fad of "new age" beliefs, as these have often corrupted the original pure teachings.  Search for works by Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie or Mouni Sadhu.

As a start, try "The Tree of Life" by Israel Regardie, "Theurgy" by Mouni Sadhu, and "The Training & Work of an Initiate" by Dion Fortune.  And when you have soaked up the wisdom in those three books, you will be ready to acquire the full training and rituals of the Golden Dawn.  Only then will you be ready to start on the great task of theurgy yourself.

PS, the above links are all US sources.  If you prefer UK sources, here are more links: