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By G. H. Frater D.D.C.F.
In order to obtain a clear idea of the relation of Man to the Universe, and to
the spiritual planes, it is necessary to understand and perceive that the scheme
of the Ten Sephiroth, and their symbolic representation as the Tree of Life is
to be applied both to the Macrocosm and to the Microcosm; to the Celestial
Heavens to Stars, Planets, the World, and to Man. One aspect of this assertion
that has been recently pointed out to you, and has been demonstrated to you on
the globe, is in reference to the scheme of Divination; you must further extend
this idea when considering the rationale of Clairvoyance and must recognise a
Sephirotic arrangement in the constitution of every Star, and if every atom, of
Man and his principles.
We look above us into heaven, and see the Stars, and it is commonly supposed
that we see the material globes, their Malkuth, but they are complex in
constitution and we see but their luminous aura or atmospheres, containing the
rest of the Sephiroth, etc., or a reflection of them.
Then as to ourselves, we must never forget our own complex Sephirotic symbolism,
and that our bodies that we feed and clothe are but our Malkuth on its lowest
plane, and that the higher nine Sephiroth hover around us in our auras, or
atmosphere.
We pass through life affecting others, and being affected by others through
these akashic envelopes that closely surround us— so that when we close the eyes
of the body and senses upon the material world, we first apprehend by interior
vision the essences of our own and contiguous natures. This perception of our
own environment is a source of error to the beginner in Clairvoyance; for he
believes himself to have gone away and to see elsewhere, and may be but among
the confused images of his own aura.
An old name of Clairvoyance, in our ancient MSS was ‘Skrying in the Spirit
Vision’; becoming a ‘Skryer’ was not simply becoming a Seer. but one who
descries what he seeks. not only the impassive receiver of visions beyond
control or definition.
When one stands in common life in the kingdom of Malkuth, there is but little
confusion of sight, but when one voluntarily leaves the dead level of
materialism and passes up the Path of Tau towards Yesod, then there is a
confusion of lights; one comes within the scope of the crossing, and reflected,
and coloured, rays of the Qesheth, the Rainbow of colours spread over the earth,
and here then we require instruction and guidance to avoid confusion and folly.
And yet this stage must be passed through—to go higher.
Beyond Yesod you enter the path of Samekh, the strait and narrow path which
leads to truly spiritual regions of perception, this is attained by the process
called Rising in the Planes.
Our subject falls most conveniently into three heads, which are however, closely
related, and the three forms or stages pass one into the other.
1. Clairvoyance. Descrying in the Spirit Vision.
2. Astral projection. Travelling in the Spirit Vision.
3. Rising in the Planes.
Begin with simple Clairvoyance, and then pass to the other states.
It is well to commence this form of practical occultism by means of a Symbol,
such as a drawing, or coloured diagram, related in design, form and colour to
the subject chosen for study. The simple and compound Tattva emblems are
suitable for this process. It is better for them not to be in the complementary
‘flashing’ colours for this purpose as though more powerful, they are also more
exhausting to the student. The Symbol should be of convenient size, for the eye
to take it in at a glance, and large enough not to require too close an
application of sight to realise the details.
There are several scales of colour, but for our present purpose we need only
note two. Firstly, the scale of the King, that of the G.D.; and that of the
Adept Minor. Scarlet is Fire, Yellow is Air, Blue is Water, Four dull colours
are Earth and White is Spirit. Secondly, the Tattva scheme, which is nearly the
same as our scale of the Queen, which is applied also to the Sephirotic colours
in the Minutum Mundum Diagram. Red is Fire, greyish White is Water, Golden
Yellow is Earth, Blue (greenish) is Air, Violet Black is Akasha or Spirit.
Tablets and Telesmas are described as being made in Flashing Colours, when in
one tablet, a certain colour and its direct complementary are shown in
opposition and shine by contrast. In such tablets do the elemental forces
manifest most readily, and most students can perceive their flashes of radiance,
which are, however, partly subjective and partly objective. They attract and
reflect the rays of light from the akashic plane enveloping them.
These tablets when formed by an Adept of high spiritual attainments receive from
him a charge of akashic force of a magnetic character; as line by line and
colour by colour is added, the Telesma grows in virtue as well as progresses to
completion. But the beginner fails, thus, to impregnate his work with his vital
astral force and his finished Telesma needs a ceremony of consecration, after
which the figure should remain sacred to his touch alone. All Telesma, however,
are better consecrated ceremonially, for they then hold more firmly the ‘charge’
of force, and if carefully preserved, apart from contamination, and from
influence by other Telesma, will retain force for an indefinite period. All
powerful Occult work, such as this, exhausts the Vital force, especially from
beginners, and you will feel at first distinct exhaustion from loss of akasha,
which however is not lost but transferred to the symbol and there preserved,
fading away from thence, only slowly into the ocean of energies.
To use the Symbol for Clairvoyance, place it before you, as on a table, place
the hands beside it, or hold it up with both hands, then, with the utmost
concentration, gaze at it, comprehend it, formulate its meaning and relations.
When the mind is steady upon it: close the eyes and continue the meditation, and
let the conception still remain before you, keep up the design, form, and colour
in the akashic aura, as clearly as they appeared in material form to the outward
seeing. Transfer the Vital effort from the optic nerve to the mental perception,
or thought seeing as distinct from seeing with the eye; let one form of
apprehension glide on with the other—produce the reality of the dream vision, by
positive will in the waking state. All this will be only possible if the mind is
steady, clear and undisturbed and the will powerful. It cannot lead to success
if you are in an unsuitable state of anxiety, fear, indignation, trouble or
anticipation. You must procure peace, solitude and leisure and you must banish
all disturbing influences.
But, above all, never attempt these Magic Arts if there be any resentment in the
mind, anger, or any evil passion; for if you do, the more you succeed, the
greater will be the evil that will follow—for yourself.
With the condition favourable, the process may be continued, and this, by means
of introducing into the Consciousness and by formulating into sound, the highest
Divine Names connected therewith; this invocation produces and harmonises
currents of spiritual force in sympathy with your object. Then follow with the
sacred names of Archangelic and Angelic import, producing them mentally,
visually and by voice.
Then, maintaining your abstraction from your surroundings, and still
concentrating upon the symbol and its correlated ideas, you are to seek a
perception of a scene, panorama, or view of a place. This may also be brought on
by a sense of tearing open, as a curtain is drawn aside and seeing the ‘within’
of the symbol before you. As the scene dawns upon you, particularise the
details, and seek around for objects, and then for beings, entities and
persons—attract their attention, call mentally to them by suitable titles and
courtesies, and by proper and appropriate signs and symbols, such as the signs
of the Grades, Pentagrams, etc. Test them by divine and angelic names, observing
their attitude and responses thereto. Thus losing sight of the symbol, you see
its inwardness, perceive things as in a mirror by Reflection. In this form of
Descrying, note, that you see objects reversed, as to right and left, for which
suitable allowance must be made. You project, in this process, part of your own
nerve and spirit force upon the symbol, and by this you attract and attach to it
more akashic force from the environment, hence the results obtained. If, instead
of this Simple Spirit Vision, a ray of yourself is sent and actually goes to a
place (astral projection) there is not necessarily the sense of reversal of
objects.
In using Symbols it is necessary to avoid Self hypnotisation, for this
occurrence would dispose you to mediumship, and to be the playground of forces
you must control, and not permit to control you. For this reason, partly, it is
well not to have the Symbol too small. It is of advantage to pursue these
researches with the aid of the presence before you of the four Magical
Implements, and even to hold the one suitable to the investigation. If you enter
upon the Spirit Vision without a Symbol you proceed by a mental symbol, imagined
in the Astral Light: this is not a wise proceeding for learners because it opens
the door to other Astral effects; you create a vortex, into which other astral
influences are drawn and hence confusion and mischief may result.
The process of working by a small symbol placed upon the forehead, or elsewhere,
is not wholly good; it is more liable to derange the Brain circulation and cause
mental illusion and disturbance, headache, and nervous exhaustion than the first
method.
In using symbols, placed before you—it is a useful addition to provide a large
circular (or square) tablet, around which are placed Divine Names etc. related
to the Elements, and to the cardinal points; then after arranging this duly,
with respect to the compass, place your symbol upon and within this frame.
Astral Projection, although from one point of thought a development of
Clairvoyance, yet is from another distinct: in Astral Projection, the Adept
emits from his Ego a perceptible ray of his identity, and by cultured and
instructed Will, sends it to travel to the place desired, focusses it there,
sees there—directly and not by reflection—perceives its bodily home, and
re-enters it.
In this Travelling of the Spirit the process may be caused to start also by the
Symbol, as before, or by Will alone; but anyway the Divine names should be used
and relied upon. If the ray be emitted, and you succeed in this travelling to
the place—you perceive a different result to that of the clairvoyant,
mirror-like vision—scenes and things instead of being like a picture, have the
third dimension, solidity, they stand out first like has relief, then you see as
from a Balloon, as it is said, by a bird’s eye view. You feel free to go to the
place, to descend upon it, to step out upon the scene, and to be an actor there.
Having attained success in projection you should practice the method when
opportunity offers, and having passed to any place, should make efforts—and if
you Will—success will follow
—to pass through all elements, Water and Earth as well as through Air—practice
will enable you to fly through air either quickly or slowly as willed, and to
swim through water, or pass through earth and through fire fearlessly with the
aid of the Divine Names, in this Astral Projection.
Seek then the forms and persons of the place or of the Plane you reach to, seek
converse with them, by voice, word, letter and symbol and claim admission etc.
by signs, and by invocation. Every figure is to be tried and tested, whether he
be as he appears or whether a delusive and deluding embodied power. It may be,
too, that your travel is not real, and that you are wandering in your own
environment, and are misled by memory etc.; hence you might be self-deceiving by
your own reminiscences.
Try all beings, and if offered favours or initiation by any, try and test them
by Divine names and forces; and ever remember your own Adept Obligation and your
allegiance to it, to your own Higher Sell, and to the Great Angel HVA, before
whom you stood fastened to the Cross of Suffering, and to whom you pledged your
obedience.
This old Proverb enshrines a great truth, as many of them do:
‘Believe thyself there and thou art there.’
Rising in the Planes is a spiritual process after spiritual conceptions, and
higher aims; by concentration and contemplation of the Divine, you formulate a
Tree of Life passing from you to the spiritual realms above and beyond you.
Picture to yourself that you stand in Malkuth—then by the use of the Divine
Names and aspirations you strive upward by the Path of Tau toward Yesod,
neglecting the crossing rays which attract you as you pass up. Look upwards to
the Divine Light shining down from Kether upon you. From Yesod leads up the Path
of Temperance, Samekh, the arrow cleaving upward leads the way to Tiphereth, the
Great central Sun of Sacred Power.
Invoke the Great Angel HUA, and conceive of yourself as standing fastened to the
Cross of Suffering, carefully vibrating the Holy Names allied to your position,
and so may the mental Vision attain unto Higher Planes.
There are three special tendencies to error and illusion which assail the Adept
in these studies. They are, Memory, Imagination and actual Sight. These elements
of doubt are to be avoided, by the Vibration of Divine Names, and by the Letters
and Titles of the ‘Lords Who Wander’—the Planetary Forces, represented by the
Seven double letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
If the Memory entice thee astray, apply for help to Saturn whose Tarot Title is
the ‘Great One of the Night of Time’.
Formulate the Hebrew letter Tau in Whiteness.
If the Vision change or disappear, your memory has falsified your efforts. If
Imagination cheat thee, use the Hebrew letter Kaph for the Forces of Jupiter,
named ‘Lord of the Forces of Life’. If the Deception be of Lying—intellectual
untruth, appeal to the Force of Mercury by the Hebrew letter Beth. If the
trouble be of Wavering of Mind, use the Hebrew letter Gimel for the Moon. If the
enticement of pleasure be the error, then use the Hebrew letter Daleth as an
aid.6
Never attempt any of these Divine processes when at all influenced by Passion or
Anger or Fear—leave off if desire of sleep approach, never force a mind
disinclined. Balance the Mem and the Shin of your nature and mind, so as to
leave Aleph like a gentle flame rising softly between them.
You must do all these things by yourself alone. No one can make you nor take
you. Do not try to make, or take others. You may only point out the Path, and
guide but must not help others.
A strong person can galvanise a weak one, but its effect is only a temporary
folly, doing good neither to the strong nor to the weak. Only offer guidance to
those who are making necessary efforts of themselves: don’t assist a negligent
pupil, nor encourage one whose desire is not in the work.
6 Use the Hebrew letter Peh for Mars to coerce sense of anger and violence. Use
the Hebrew letter Resh for the Sun to coerce sense of haughtiness, vanity. (Note
in original.)
This rule is open to some alteration when, passing from our Mystic studies, you
refer to the worldly guidance of childhood
—a parent is in a special position, and has a natural duty incumbent upon him or
her to train, guide, and protect a child.
Still, even here, do protect and lead, but don’t ‘obsess’ a child, don’t
override by your peculiar personal predilections all the personal aims of the
offspring. A man’s ideal of true propriety is often himself, and his idea of
doing good to a child is to make it like himself. Now, although this father may
be a good man, his form of goodness is not to be made a universal type, and
there are many other forms equally existing, and equally fit to exist, and any
attempt to dictate too dosely a child’s ‘thought life’ may, while failing of
success, yet warp aside from the truth what would otherwise pass into a Good
Path, through its own peculiar avenue.
It is well to make all symbols for Clairvoyant use yourself, otherwise, to
obtain a purely individual result, you have to banish the influence of him who
made them.
It is best to do high Clairvoyance alone, or only with others of the utmost
purity, and in whom you have the utmost confidence.
If more than one, is attempting in concert the same process, there is the source
of error that there becomes formed in the Astral Light a complex symbol, and a
struggle ensues as to who shall lead the direction of the currents. When two sit
together, as in the Vault, they should be balanced: and so with three. For two;
one each side of Pastos or one at each end; for three assume the position of the
angles of a triangle, say one at head of Pastos, one at the Right and at the
Left hand of the form of Christian Rosycross.
Example
The V.H. Soror V.N.R. 6°=5’, sat at a table, robed, and took a Tattva card
coloured symbol (Tejas—akasha)—an erect red triangle, upon which is a dark
violet black egg shaped centre. She placed her hands beside her side, or held it
in turns before the eyes (held the Magic Fire Wand). Gazed and contemplated and
considered as the Symbol grew before her, so enlarged and filled the place, that
she seemed to pass into it, or into a vast triangle of flame. She realises that
she is in the presence of a desert of sand, harsh, dry and hot.
Thinks of and vibrates—Elohim. Action seems set up, increase of heat and light.
Passing through the symbol and scene:
seems to arrive and descend there, feels the hot dry sand—perceives a small
pyramid in the distance—Wills to rise up and fly through air to it, descends
beside it, passes around, sees a small square door on each side. Vibrates—
‘Elohim—Michael—Erel— Seraph, Darom. Ash.’ Stamps five times—figure appears at
an entrance, stamps again five times and vibrates Seraphiel. A Warrior figure
leads out a procession of Guards, she asks for his Seal—he shows a complex
Symbol of four triangles around a central emblem—? deceptive. Draw Beth before
him—he appears terrffied. Withdraw Symbol—he is courteous—ask him about pyramid:
he says they conduct ceremonies there—she seeks admission— gives sign of o°
=o—there is a sense of opposition—gives sign 10 = 100, this appears to
suffice—But he gives signs of Adeptship —Guards kneel before her and she passes
in—dazzling light, as in a Temple. An Altar in the midst—kneeling figures
surround it, there is a dais beyond, and many figures upon it—they seem to be
Elementals of Fiery nature—she sees a Pentagram, puts a Leo into it, thanks the
figure who conducts her—Wills to pass through the pyramid, finds herself out
amid the sand. Wills her return—returns—perceiving her body in Robes seated in
the Second Order Hall.
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