All Hail the God of Fire and His Bastard Brother of Secrets!

I have just learnt that the collection from which I have obtained copies of the Aura Papers has been burnt. This is because the person who owned them died. So long as he lived, they were fine. But upon death – poof – up they go in smoke.

This is one of the most frustrating aspects of magical and esoteric folk – their incendiary tendencies, carried out by willing relatives and students. Why do magicians and Lodge ritualists love to do this? Are they expecting a one way trip down into the Fiery Pit and want their precious documents for company?

Of course, I am venting here somewhat. I understand, practice and value actual magical secrecy well. But when someone has some original documents (which they did not obtain by oath) I cannot see why they do not want to share them. Honestly, it fairly boggles the mind.

I first came across this tendency when as a young Pagan I was asked to do some research and present a project to the group. Little did I know, what was actually meant was, “get some books, copy some paragraphs and read them out at the end of the night while we all get pissed”. Sadly, as a young eager student at university I went the whole hog and did some original research on Ley Lines in the Perth area, including importing some texts from England to help.

During my research I bumped into a Mason who had already done the same research and far more, all across the State. Now back then I had a habit of simply asking for what I wanted, and so I asked for copies of his findings. He was outraged I even asked and refused to give any. I asked if he planned to publish them or share them. He did not. His said that he had spent “too much time and too many dollars eating hamburgers at truck stops” to just “give it away”. I still haven’t quite figured this one out, though the gentlemen did seem to get a bit of kudos delivering snippets of information and hinting at more to his Masonic buddies.

Now the collection of material I’ve got the Aura Papers from was nothing special in terms of magical potency. The Aura Papers themselves are nothing special and have been superseded in many ways, and are being put up here more for interest than anything else. However, as a historical collection they did hold value. Most of the material was from the Magical Church Society – or so I was told. The documents only had the letters M.’.C.’.S.’. on them, and occasionally also RR et AC. The MCS could have stood for anything I suppose.

I still have some Aura Papers from another source I will put up as soon as time permits. The MCS itself was, from what I was told, an interesting beasty. A Christian order that used the Rosicrucian Grade structure and other trappings from the GD/RR et AC. It seemed to me at the time to have possibly been started by or connected with people from Waite’s Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, though I was told it more in common with W.B. Crow’s (Mar Basilius) Order of Holy Wisdom. However, I have never seen anything of substance from that Order, so cannot comment.

The MCS view of the Rosicrucian grades was very interesting viewing them in pairs and linking them to the Five Wounds of Christ. The motif, as far as I understood it, was that as one progressed through the grades the more, they, like Christ, were affixed to the Cross of Sacrifice.

Grade	Sephira	Wound
Neophyte	-	Introductory Grade – no wound
Zelator	Malkuth	Left foot, anterior (entry)
Theoricus	Yesod	Left foot, posterior (exit into Cross)
Practicus	Hod	Right foot, anterior (entry)
Philosophus	Netzach	Right foot, posterior (exit into Cross)
Portal	-	Left hand, anterior (entry)
Adeptus Minor	Tiphareth	Left hand, posterior (exit into Cross)
Adeptus Major	Geburah	Right hand, anterior (entry)
Adeptus Exemptus	Chesed	Right hand, posterior (exit into Cross)
Consummation	Daath	Breast or side, whence flowed blood and water

Once affixed to the Cross by his four limbs, the final ‘grade’ believed bestowed only by the Holy Spirit as an act of Grace, was that of having the heart pierced, like Christ, making oneself united with Him. I don’t believe I have come across this attribution anywhere else, and had completely forgotten about it until digging around in some old journals last night. If you know of any group or Order using this motif, I would love to hear from you.