So long as it works – praxis, synthesis and eclecticism in magic

One of the most common invisible beliefs within the contemporary magical and Pagan communities is that practices and methods are good and effective “so long as they work”. This often sits side by side with an eclectic approach to magic and practice that posits the validity of mixing and matching parts of various systems, “so long as they work”. A dramatic example of this was given by Druid Priestess Emma Restall Orr when running a workshop in Perth several years ago.

Emma recounted how she was present at a large Pagan gathering where four different groups and traditions were chosen to open the four quarters. She recognised and appreciated the first three, but did not know the fourth group, opening the North quarter. They did so however wonderfully, producing an effective invocation of power but in a language she did not recognise. Afterwards, speaking to one of the invocators, she asked what the language was. “Klingon“, came the reply.

Now the moral being presented to us was that Star Trek Paganism is fine – anything is fine – “so long as it works”. However, I feel this simple statement needs a little unpacking.

As I keep pushing on MOTO, I think magic works by a concept I call orthometapraxy, that is a correct way of meta-action; ‘adjacent’, ‘beyond’, or ‘inner’ action. So while we recognise variants in Pagan circle casting procedures for example, we understand that a ‘correct’ circle process will have some interior action, intention and focus of clearing space and/or our minds, sacralising the circle area, linking the participants to their sacred ones etc. The focus here is on the principles of the inner activity, the ‘meta’ aspect of this rather long word.

Once we focus upon orthometapraxy rather than orthopraxy we are able to be more open to variants and changes within our broader traditions. And possibly even Klingon rituals

Gareth Knight

On a side note, his excellent focus on magical and inner principles is what prompts Gareth Knight to write of his recently republished classic, Magical Images and the Magical Imagination, that “armed with determination to follow through there is arguably little need for any other book if you want to know what magic is all about.” I certainly agree with this, but also highly recommend an upcoming work along the same lines by Nick Farrell, Magical Imagination: the Keys to Magic. Both books show a deep understanding of the principles we are talking about and both show how they are applied in practical magic.

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Levels

When we say, “so long as it works” we need to be clear what we mean. Often people nod and agree to this statement without thinking what the word “works” entail. Magic functions, or should do, on several levels. Here I will use the generic schema of physical, etheric, astral, mental and spiritual planes or worlds, simply because this is what I use in my book, and readers are referred there for more information. Readers of experience can easily translate into the Qabalistic Souls schema or Theosophy or your favourite interior world paradigm.

When we say “so long as it works” we need to be clear then what effects, what changes and transformation are we requiring for the magic on each of these five levels. We need specific criteria for each level. Only then can we discern if our magical practice “works” or not. These criteria are seldom discussed within the public literature on magic, which leads to all sorts of problems.

Physical

Ye Olde Black Rod

I have a friend who has the coolest job title ever – ‘Usher of the Black Rod’. As such she is involved in ceremonial rituals within Parliament. These rituals require one thing, and one thing only to be effective – they have to be done. That is all. So long as the physical actions are carried out and the words spoken, the rituals are a success. Another friend is a civil marriage celebrant who specialises in Pagan and ‘alternate’ ceremonies, and again there are certain words that need to be said for the ritual to be a success. Anything else can be done around those words – even Klingon invocations – but the physical recitation of those words, even if done in a bored BBC newsreader voice, is what constitutes success.

In magic, we too need physical actions and physical words, otherwise it is not magic. Even interior journeys are grounded by some physical action. Obviously, however a magical circle is not a House of Parliament, and magic requires far more than just the physical to be fully effective.

Etheric

This is the ‘densest’ level of subtle existence, and our etheric embodiment is aware of the magnetic and almost electrical interchange of etheric substance between ourselves, our environment and other people. This is the level we ‘feel’ when we stand opposite someone we are sexually attracted to. Magic is very, very good at generating vast quantities of etheric substance – from our own bodies, the earth, the solar and  lunar forces etc.

On this level we need to have pre-established criteria of what type of etheric substance  (its source, stability etc) is going to be generated, by what actions and for what purposes. It is all too easy to feel the buzz of excess etheric substance in a ritual and conclude it was ‘energetic’ and ‘powerful’. But if the substance is not going to consciously used and/or absorbed to affect pre-established change, we are but a little better off than attending a football game or a dance party with horny singles on a Friday night. There is plenty of excess etheric substance in both these examples, and though not as clear and as healthy as that generated by a good Pagan ritual, they will give the same etheric buzz people often take as a hallmark of successful magic.

Astral-Emotional

The astral level is where most of the effects of much magic takes place. We feel better for it, or we may have astral experiences and visions. Our astral bodies can be altered by magic very easily, even inscribed or infused with certain symbols or energies. Again, we need to clear exactly what we are after. Invocations, visualisation  and the presence of interior beings affect the astral body which again leads to a feeling  of ‘power’. A classic example of this is the Middle Pillar exercise Regardie developed from RR et AC principles. This experience of astral ‘power’ can easily become intoxicating and the benchmark for a ‘good’ ritual. However, excess astral light is, in and by itself, worthless.

The astral level is that of our regular personality, and this is why some magic really shakes us up – the idea of our self is literally injected with another force, or it is expanded, or pared away or becomes insignificant in the presence of a greater force or being. These effects however will not result in permanent changes in the astral body and our selves unless the ‘higher’ levels are involved.

It is a major principle of magic that any level of our embodiment can only be fully transformed by the action of the ‘superior’ level to it. We can see this clearly when we examine our lives: our conscious physical actions requiring energy from the etheric, which in turns requires a personality level decision. Changes to this personality level requires a mental awareness and will.

However, if we are happy for a ritual to simply affect us emotionally, like many exoteric church services, then we need not worry about higher level principles, or even controlled astral experiences. Otherwise, like the etheric we need to have pre-established principles concerning the exact effects we are seeking on the astral level, which is not to say we need to control or limit the inner experience, but only choose the principles behind it. An interior being can be seen in several different astral forms by different people, but the principle of its effects on our astral bodies will be the same for each person.

Mental

Not all magic effects the mental level, and this is why a lot of western magic and Paganism is just the same old circle going round and round – like most spiritual systems really. Full and effective work on the mental level requires going beyond our ego, our sense of self. This takes correct motivation – that not focused on the self.  Often though so called altruism is really about making the self feel good. A non-self focused is not all light and compassionate either.  It does however, normally require experience and maturity and often, some decent magical training. To quote, yet again, my favourite Anglican contemplative:

As Buddhism observed long ago, pain and pleasure are simply two ends of the old “egoic stick.” As long as one is drawing one’s vital energy from self-esteem, self-affirmation, and self-expression, even in service of the purest and noblest of causes, one is still orbiting within the egoic feedback loop. As long as happiness and a personal sense of self-worth are still the measures by which one relates to life and adjusts one’s heading; as long as vitality is the measure of spiritual wellbeing, one is trapped within the egoic feedback system. These are not moral judgments; they are descriptive criteria. And by these criteria, it is depressingly clear that ninety-nine percent of what is being promulgated as contemporary Western spirituality is merely fine-tuning the ego.

(http://www.sacredweb.com/online_articles/sw4_bourgeault.html)

The mental level is concerned with meaning and it here we connect with transpersonal forces and beings of meaning, that are beyond ourselves. For example, whereas a symbol will have a personal meaning at the astral-emotional level, and affect us personally, when we interconnect with the same symbol on the mental level we encounter a deeper, non-personal meaning. Our relationship with that meaning is what changes us and helps us grow.

Developing pre-established criteria for successful magical action on the mental level is a lot harder than the previous three levels. This is because at this level we, our personality selves, cannot accurately create such criteria – they are conceptually and by definition beyond us. We can only use established traditional criteria or an interior sense that cannot be conveyed in words, except perhaps through great poetry. The traditional criteria points to a change in function within our lives, that is mental level magic should be slowly changing us towards a non-personal modality, that nevertheless functions through the personal.

Spiritual

To be fully effective, all magic needs to work on the spiritual level also, the level of deep divinity. It is this connection that empowers all other levels and which keeps all other levels balanced. The spiritual level however is not able to be manipulated by human will. It is beyond the affairs of humanity and it is only our honest openness and interior relationship with beings and presences at this level which can ‘invoke’ it at all.

Successful magic on a spiritual level cannot be described, only experienced. One of the few words we may use to sum it up, pointing to a glimpse of understanding, is Communion.

Eclecticism

Allied to the concept of “whatever works” is eclecticism. For the sake of clarity, in this post we will contrast this with the concept of synthesis. An eclectic approach is where we consciously take and use particular parts of various traditions, religions, rituals and magic and create our own version. This is done from a limited, personality base, that is to say the consciousness level of you and I and the regular lady on the street. Unless we are someone special of course. I have spoken a little about this in a previous post.

Synthesis on the other hand brings in a third and higher force. There is the human creator(s), the various diverse elements she is working with and a third higher, divine force – something beyond the personal, beyond the self. The third higher force is the controlling agency and is typically the initiator of the synthetic project, not the human creator(s). Its ways and motivations are its own, and sometimes the choice of human collaborators is a bit mystifying to our perception. In this synthesis something new is created which nonetheless bears the hallmark of its sources, human creator(s) and the third higher force.

I consider the Golden Dawn to be the classic example of magical synthesis in the modern era. This explains why it works so well (when practiced properly). As a synthesis, one can, if reductive, analyse it to show the various component sources – Hermetic, Masonic etc –  that went into its making, as well as the personality marks of its founders, Westcott and Mathers. We can also detect, if we are careful, the divine hallmark of the third power, often associated with the motto Lux ex Tenebris or the angel Raphael. It is this third, higher and divine power that ensures the GD is a real, living creation and can be worked by those without physical lineage to the mother temple(s). It is why its practitioners recognise each other and each other’s work.

Eclecticism, which creates without the third higher non-personal force, even if influenced by the higher conscious of its creator, is not synthesis. It cannot be universally useful, by definition, for anyone beyond its creators. And this is why so many magical groups and Orders that seemingly took a similar approach to the GD have long since withered and died. Even on a individual level, eclecticism may be less than useful, since we so often choose from a distinctly ego basis not our own inner higher power. If we do this we feed the ego and are therefore barred from the higher forces.

The beautiful thing about practicing a synthetic tradition, such as the Golden Dawn, is that it is constantly expanding us beyond ourselves, the limited notions we have about our place in the universe and of the universe itself. An eclectic tradition may allow some measure of this, if we consciously subsume our choices to conform with someone else’s higher, creative force, but there is not a touch of the third higher force. This is not sustainable over the long haul for true seekers of divinity. This is why those groups that are created in this manner seldom continue beyond the death of their founders and why true synthetic traditions, such as the Golden Dawn and the Inner Light, continue today.

The concept of magical synthesis also clearly shows the interior blessings these groups had, regardless of forged charters and bogus continental adepts in the case of the Golden Dawn (Dion of course was always honest about her interior commission). It also shows where to place our focus – towards the interior beings and blessings behind our traditions, not any outer organisation at all. Now that does work! Thanks.

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A Witchcraft to Sink Your Teeth Into – review of A Deed without a Name.

Lee Morgan has delivered a corker of a first book; easily read, engaging, intriguing, poetic and deep. I have no hesitation in recommending it highly. Lee is clear in her intention:

It is my aim to make the practical implications of this [new] witchcraft scholarship available through the lens of my own occult experience, namely in Traditional Witchcraft.

Since of course there is precious little evidence that any traditional religious Witchcraft existed in pre-modern Europe, this is an interesting intention. Witchcraft has been, and remains for the majority a word for malefic magic and practice. Folk did not self-identify as ‘witches’, much less as Pagan-religious Witches, until the early 20^th century. Lee is able to accommodate this academic consensus within a practical book on traditional Witch methods and world-views by her own subtle and deep poetic vision, obviously borne out of years of profound and even troublesome experience.

To access what some people call the ‘tradition’ of witchcraft we need to first understand that witchcraft as we know it is a myth. But this is no to say it doesn’t exist. The ‘nameless deed’ that lies behind that myth is part of the eternal nature of mankind.

This identification with the myth of Witchcraft is what enables this book to do its work. The reader becomes aware very early on that Lee is poet as well as a Witch, and her poetic vision shines throughout her words and practices. Ronald Hutton draws similar attention to Starhawk’s poetic nature – “The tendency of The Spiral Dance was not to explain or to instruct so much as to intoxicate”. So too with A Deed Without a Name; it is a wonderful journey into and through a consciously embraced myth. Yet, like The Spiral Dance, there is also practical instruction in the book, and more invitations to the reader to produce their own works. Indeed, Lee Morgan may well do for Traditonal Witchcraft what Starhawk did for feminist Wicca.

Lee consciously uses the term Witchcraft as a means of opening up the ‘possibility of a brotherhood of the Other’ – the fey folk, those shunned because of innate connections with the Otherworld or the dead, those destined to be marked by the Gods or dragged into the Underworld for service. In this she gives a valuable service to these folk who often find no place in non-traditional or New Age spirituality, or even magical groups that should know better.

Lee Morgan

One of the criticisms I have seen levelled at the book is that it is too sparse in detail and specifics on its many topics. Personally, I think this scarcity is a strength and it is obvious that Lee knows, on many levels, what she is writing about.  The introductory nature of the chapters allows the reader to be motivated and inspired, but does not provide enough information for the rash idiot percentage to wander off fully armed, or so they think, and get themselves and others in deep trouble. True, most clinical psychologists would hate this book to be read by their schizophrenic patients, but most occultists will laud its careful revealing and the constant reminders of the need for protection and mental integration.

Lee ranges widely with an eye for synthesis, drawing on British, Italian, Grecian, Irish, Norse, western occult and even Hoodo for her work. She makes links between trial records of the Early Modern Witch-hunt across continents and incorporates current academic thinking into her myth and practice. There are chapters and sections on cosmology, links with ‘shamanism’, Witch pacts, ontology, Imps, entering the Otherworlds, the Dead, Faery folk, ritual space, exorcism and a lovely Bestiary too.

There is much in the book that obviously stems from Lee’s own experiences and tradition, lore, story and cosmology. As said, Lee knows her stuff. Take this example from the chapter ‘Riding Plants’, concerned with the use of herbs and plant drugs, where Lee is at pains to spell out the importance of the Witches’ correct relationship with the spirit of the plant:

But due partially to the modern drug culture, very few people are able to look at entheogens (I use this term rather than hallucinogens because it suggests their sacred function) in anything other than a materialist and consumerist manner. They look at the plants (marijuana or ‘magic mushrooms’) like a product that they can get some fun sensation out of. Instead, if one wishes to cultivate ‘plant familiars’ and learn to ‘ride plants’ it would be better to master the art of ‘riding’ those that don’t have such potent inner fire, the non entheogens. The spirits of these plants are not so powerful and less likely to end up riding you!

Her discussions on the dead, the fetch-mate, the triad of the Witch, the place and the Otherworld and other areas are all real, solid and full of traditional lore. Personally, I do not think this was ever, until very recently called ‘witchcraft’, but it is the same ‘deed without a name’ regardless.

Like the mythic hedge-crosser, the journeyman between our world and the Otherworld, so well discussed by Lee, this book attempts to span two worlds – the mythic and the scholarly. Because of my limited knowledge I am not sure how well it does this. Lee brings in academic references at some points, but forgoes them when they are needed elsewhere. I would love to have seen references used more freely. But, then again, it is not an academic work…

Lee’s Blog (click for awesome)

Another personal bug-bear is the subtle decrying of Christianity, for example as ‘flesh-hating’. Lee is wise enough to know one cannot talk about Christianity in any homogenous way at all, and that some Christianities may be like this, but not all, and that the ultimate mystery and truth of Christianity is centred on the holiness of the flesh, as it there where we partake of the mystery of Christ.  I’ve talked about this before.

Similarly, I think on one or two occasions Lee does not do the western occult traditions justice. In good wise-woman, or depending on your view, Witch, fashion she is not above using elements of western occultism in her correspondences and Necromantic rite whilst declaring them earlier as have a less complex, and by implication a reductive, view of the inner world and beings thereof. Lee’s criticisms of occultists lumping various interior beings and parts of the self as ‘aspects of the higher self’ may be true of western magicians of her acquaintance, but certainly not of mine, or any of the modern authorities on the subject.

Still these are minor, personal concerns which few else would share. So I have no hesitation in giving this lovely book – which reproduced very well on the  iPad Kindle app – a hearty vote of approval. It is highly recommended for any and all interested in Witchcraft in any form.

A Deed Without a Name: Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft  by Lee Morgan.

Amazon | Amazon UK | Book Depository | Moon Books

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Review: the Last Scabbard by Josephine McCarthy

Before I decided to review this book I checked if it was ‘spiritual fantasy’, a genre which generally does not agree with me, particularly if self-published. Spiritual fantasy authors often think they have something ‘important’ to say are at the forefront of my mind when I remember Phil Rickman‘s heartfelt words words:

I mean, have you read some of this crap? The most embarrassing thing is that people who can’t write are usually the very last to realise they can’t write. Even if you scream in their faces, YOU CAN’T FUCKING WRITE! they just think you’re jealous because they’ve mastered in a couple of weeks something that took you years of heartache, false-starts and terrible disappointments.

Fortunately this book is not ‘spiritual fantasy’, Josephine can write and is big enough to take a few criticisms now and then (she lives on Dartmoor and is probably kept by cats that see off the Baskerville hound before breakfast). Not that much criticism is called for at all. The book is a wonderful, engaging, well written example of the better class of occult fiction. Based in part on real, strange and uncanny ‘coincidences’ in Josephine’s life and magical development, it has much to offer both the casual reader and seasoned magician.

The Last Scabbard is comprised of three sections, or books, those of Sword, Stone and Judgement. The novel is broad and deep in its scope, stretching from mythic prehistory until the present day with notable events integrated along the way – including the foundation of the Golden Dawn. The fictional account of this offered by Josephine is bloody marvellous, and has to be read to be believed. It includes the full list of known historical characters, some notable Franco interlopers and a few fictional folk. I loved the inclusion of ‘poor sick Mr Firth’ of Sheffield, offering possible links to Dion Fortune in any future novels, which I am sure there will be.  The ceremonial magic to establish the Order in Josephine’s account does not go well:

Beings passed from the inner worlds to the outer worlds, passing through the doorway created by the sword. But the doorways were not filtered by careful magic, and terrible powers passed into the room before flowing out into the world…There was no filter, there were no guardians; no one was taking notice as the greatest disaster of modern time was secretly and quietly unfolding…

Soon Europe would be huddled in fear as these powers manifested themselves through humanity in the form of world wars, sadistic serial killers, vicious pandemics and untold greed…1888 would be a year that everyone would remember as the year that first London, and then Britain lost its innocence.

Fiction it may be, but there are important principles and concerns here and there is clearly not enough ‘careful magic’ being carried out in today’s magical and Pagan communities. Nor are there enough humble folk carefully trained to discern such things, as the single of twelve ‘watchers’ in this fictional ceremony, a female magician who has the Sight to see the ‘terrible dark beings’ let loose upon the world. It is important that this is a woman, as the damage and egotism which causes havoc in the novel is connected with malformed and self focused masculinity, divorced from the body and the Land. This form of masculinity is summed up in this stark and moving paragraph when one of the early characters rests after sexually forcing himself upon a dependant woman clairvoyant, used as much for her Sight as her body:

He flopped his hand to her body in a gesture designed to build bridges where there were none. His hand fell to her public hair which was smeared with the juice of his hating and the lubrication of a soul unloved. He removed his hand as if stung. He found such fluids as distasteful as he found himself.

Josephine explores this theme of warped masculinity and a responsive femininity with deftness, avoiding stereotypes and creating a wonderful lead character, a woman of profound connection and individuality, Lumis. This exploration alone would mark the novel as a must read for all male magicians, and the warning from an inner, feminine source given to the main character is as true in the real magical community and world as in Josephine’s fictional one:

Harken to the true heart of a man who loves nothing but himself, for he shall be the downfall of all that is beautiful in this world.

The calamity caused by the ill formed creation of the Golden Dawn is part of a thread of the abuse of power, misogyny and ego-damage that stretches across time, with reincarnation, soul groups and attraction acting as a pivot. Such themes are normally handled terribly badly by occultists who turn their hand to fiction writing, and often make me wince. Josephine avoids this trap by crafting her writing to a fine degree and allowing her own inspirational forces and intuition to have voice and place. There are passages within the novel that moved and connected me to a deep inner reality as fully and clearly as Dion Fortune at her best.

Another brilliant strength of the novel is that Josephine has not produced a simple good versus evil story, with all she personally valorises at one end of the spectrum and the godly unwashed at the other. True, the character of one of the central ‘baddies’ could be more developed, but the narrative itself is subtle and complex intertwined with some truly impressive myth making and storytelling. All is seamlessly beyond the individual, yet intimately dependent on individual choices and actions, from incarnation to incarnation in an ever-flowing outpouring that seeks to express the deepest spiritual truth.

Josephine’s writing is skillful and deft, and while the book is not in the Booker Prize category it is far better than the normal range of occult fiction selling today. I was completely drawn in and lost in several parts of the book and simply stunned by some phrases:

Within me is exhaustion. Within me is a pain so profound I call it God.

True to the magical worldview, a goodly part of the book takes place within the inner realms, though this is not immediately apparent. And this section of the book explores and enlivens traditional Qabalistic knowledge wonderfully. It is a delight to see several excellent twists in this section, including a complete reversal of the power relations between a magician and a servitor as Truth dawns. It made me smile and nod

Overall this is a great novel, which will teach, inform, inspire, and entertain the reader. It certainly did for me, and I await further novels in the same series with eagerness. It has high production values, an easy to read layout and font and truly magical cover art by Josephine’s partner, Stuart Littlejohn. It is highly recommended for all magicians, Pagans and others interested in these themes. Congratulations, Josephine

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The Real Meaning of Christmas (there I done wrote it!)

Meister Eckhart – Seems a little glum for a mystic

Every year I wonder if some lazy Archbishop or church leader gave last year’s “Christmas Message” would anyone actually notice? They are all the same vague, inspirational notes cautioning against materialism and calling for the real ‘meaning’ of Christmas to be remembered. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that this ‘real meaning’ is only ever described in milk-water platitudes or by reference to a composite ‘Christmas story’ that actually means nothing to most people today.

So what if Christmas is ‘actually about the birth of Christ’? What does this mean? And, how, if it has meaning, can it be personally and mystically experienced? These questions are never even asked, let alone answered, in the bland Christmas chattering delivered by the Right Reverends each year. Now, I think I have experienced a little of the answers to these questions, which I will share in a bit. It’s pretty short, so stay with me

At this point of course, we just have to digress and quote the incredibly apposite Meister Eckhart, a German heretic theologian most Bishops know not of, but whose presence remains strong within certain heterodox and esoteric Christian movements:

We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: when the Son of God is begotten in us.

Even those cool ‘progressive’ Christians who love this sort of stuff seldom follow these questions to their ultimate end: meaning is found if we personally birth the ‘son’, the incarnation of God, of the One, within our own time and culture. This of course has nothing do to with Churchianity, or even Christianity. The majority of times, the majority of cultures have never known the Incarnation of the One as part of the Christian religions. And today, in a distinctly post-Christian culture, we are still called to be the Mother of the One, to incarnate and birth the One within us. Whether we are Christian, Pagan, magician or wot-not.

Personally, I think the Christian mysteries, even as expressed outwardly in exoteric liturgy, express this meaning, this inward call to birth the One, much better than the Pagan solstice circles, or even most magical circles. It’s just that most people, especially the gold-robed Bishops, just don’t get what’s right before their eyes. Still, I suppose their business is religion – which people just kinda do, to get through the day – rather than the Mysteries upon which their religion is based. I find the whole thing as sad as I am uplifted and transformed by working the services and liturgies they offer. The operative word here is working, co-creating on the inner levels as the outer church performance goes on.

Leonard…glum or not?

On Christmas Eve I started the inner work as we drove through the country dark to Midnight Mass. As we drove we were accompanied by the gorgeous voice of my beloved’s 11 year old daughter in the back, singing the Leonard Cohen song ‘Hallelujah’. She was imitating the Jeff Buckley version. I much prefer the original. Connecting deeply through previously constructed inner temples, and moved by the emotion of the lines “And remember when I moved in you / The holy dove was moving too / And every breath we drew was Hallelujah”, I was in a deep and primed state before entering church.

And so, to the Meaning…

Midnight Mass proper begins with the procession of the infant Jesus up through the congregation by the head Priest before being placed in the nativity scene. And really, this simple action carries the entirety of mystical import of the night – the rest of the service being elaboration and analysis (in the magical sense) of the mystery through our lives, bodies, community and the world. Properly understood, we could all go home once this action had been performed.

The priest, as a representative of our own inner priesthood, our own dedicated vocation to serve and commune with the One Being, carries Christ. This means we, ourselves, our lives, are being called to carry the One, to be the vehicle for the Incarnation of the One, just as Meister Eckhart described above. Just as the Golden Dawn teaches that our ‘lower’ personality self must become the lens, the vehicle for the deeper, authentic self, to allow the One Thing to experience itself through creation.

As this procession took place, we in our little church sang the classic ‘O Come All ye Faithful’. The ‘Bethlehem’ in the carol is not a literal, geographical location on earth. It is literally, “the House of Meat” or “the House of Bread” – our physical, earthy lives, our Guph, our bodies able to incarnate the One. We, our lower consciousness, our ‘lower’ spheres of activity are moved by the song and we are called to fully appreciate and know the divinity of the body, of our own selves as a vehicle for the One. And we adore, worship, recognise the worth (the meaning of worship) of the One within flesh, the possibility of our own and others’ conscious co-participation with the One.

Christ, as a child is at once perfect and imperfect, human and divine – Malkuth and Kether, manifest yet drawing on the unmanifest, one of the Many, yet completely the One. This is us, in our full and wonderful potential, as we are meant to be, to fulfil the purpose of the One Being. And this potential, this incredible gift, drawn aloft by arms representing our own dedication is paraded straight through the middle of the congregation. The congregation represents and is the world which is now blessed by the introduction of Christ into its midst, the seed to awaken the potential birth of the One within all of us. This is why it is important to have ‘special occasion’ attendees on these Holy Days – they represent the non-Church goers, the rest of the world and their presence both serves to share the blessings into the community and as reminder that all are interiorly divine.

This procession, the movement of Christ to the altar is the reverse of the normal state of affairs, where Christ comes into the host via the Priest standing in persona Christi at the altar. Here the Christ comes to the congregation via the Host at the front of the Church, where the altar is – the congregation coming to the altar. At Christmas, Christ explicitly comes through the community from the back of the Church. This action, at the moment of Incarnation within the liturgical year, sets the template and base mystery point for the whole Church – Christ within and through the people. The procession is of course retraced every Sunday with the Priests coming up through the congregation, but in most churches, I doubt there is much remembrance of the Incarnation as and through the people being conducted on the inner levels by the Priests. At Christmas though it is explicit and it is wonderful.

Later, when the congregation moves to the altar they trace the journey of their priest, representing their interior vocation, carrying Christ. As we walk we take on this journey, affirm and realise within our bodies the mystery of dedication to the Incarnation of the One within us. We then are met by the Incarnated One in the form of the transubstantiated host, which we consume, sealing the aspiration to Incarnation (via the Christmas walk), with the realised Incarnation in the Host. Qabalistcially we are of course in Tiphareth, where the movement towards the One is met with the One’s movement towards and through us. We are at once fully and beyond body, reaction, thought and emotion – beyond even our self – we simply are and the One is.

And this is the meaning of Christmas.

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No Sex (Magic) Please, We’re British

Mr Crowley, by Mr Crowley

Last week I wandered down to Burrati Fine Arts to see ‘The Nightmare Paintings‘, a small exhibition of Aleister Crowley’s art. It was well worth the visit. Perth doesn’t always get such events, so it’s something you just have to do. Now Uncle Alick’s writings and life have never inspired me to even consider Thelema as a path, philosophy or wot not. And I still think he misunderstood heaps about the Golden Dawn (the so called ‘elemental’ grades for a start).

Misgivings aside however, Crowley is certainly a prominent Beast. It seems like you can’t wander across the esoteric net these days without coming across pronouncements of new-new Aeon currents and magical formulae expressed by arcane numbers. And above all else, be amazed at how often these numbers refer to Crowley’s most influential contribution to Western esotericism – sex magic.

Crowley of course did not start western sex magic, but he definitely put a certain spin on it, tarted the whole process up and inspired hundreds of lesser imitators and wannabes for the last century. So much so that these days many people think the classical Golden Dawn secretly taught sex magic also. Ho hum. Now, despite risking a thunderous, roaring volley of accusations of being anti-sex and infected by Victorian morality, the simple fact is there is no evidence the Golden Dawn taught sex magic, even at its highest levels.

And just to be clear; I am saying there is no evidence. If new evidence is discovered, I’ll happily change my tune.

Bishop Allen Greenfield is no stranger to the part sexual magic played and plays in the western gnosis. In fact, he’s studied and written an awful lot on the subject. In his The Authentic Magical Tradition in the 18th & 19th Centuries he clearly describes the authentic tradition as holding a “traditionally secret approach to sexuality as a means of transcendence”. He also categorically states that this tradition “did not make it into” the Golden Dawn because of Victorian morality and therefore the GD style of  ”strictly above the waist magick” misses the point.

Naturally, I heartily disagree with the good Bish that the GD tradition misses the point; many and varied forms of non-sexual contact magic have served and continue to serve magicians across the world, leading them to service, transformation and fulfilment. I do however agree with his opinion that sexual magic was not part of the classical (pre 1903) Golden Dawn. And the other day I saw comments from Pat Zalewski and Nick Farrell echoing this view. So, that’s a neat little argument from authority, isn’t it?

In fact, the whole notion of sexuality and sexual expression was a bit of a powder-keg and a persistent difficultly for the Order – just like it was in society as a whole back then.

The Golden Dawn, being a progressive institution, we might expect to have been sexually liberated.  The accounts of the Order that we have tell a different story.  With a few notable exceptions, the Golden Dawn was as much subject to late-Victorian morals as the rest of society.” – Gordon Strong, forthcoming, The Golden Dawn: Priest and Priestess – the Key to Ritual Magic, published by Silent Eye Press 2013.

J.W. Brodie-Innes

This does not mean the Golden Dawn rituals and teachings are devoid of the symbolism, connections, motifs and structures for sexual magic. Greenfield is also clear that early antecedents to the Golden Dawn, such as The Society of Eight, held the ‘authentic’ tradition. It is therefore reasonable to assume some influence from the ‘authentic’ tradition entered the Golden Dawn. This influence, like so much of the accumulated western magical tradition, is often ‘buried’ within the GD corpus. Just as modern magicians are daily finding new treasures in the vast richness that is the Z Document (now 120 years old) so too are there many other depths waiting to be brought out. As I have said before, this exegetical form of magic is a hallmark of the RR et AC, and each adept personally creates her own gnosis by interacting with the tradition. It is never revealed from outside, much less a part of some secret and codified ‘higher’ teaching of an Order.

It is possible certain elements of the ‘authentic tradition’ concerning sexuality entered or were revived in Orders associated with the post-classical Golden Dawn, most notably the Cromlech Temple. The CT may have, in some ways, functioned as a higher or third Order of the Golden Dawn, and many of its mysteries remain hidden even today. Its chief officer and originator of most of its original material was J.W. Brodie-Innes, a man to whom there is more to meet the eye of even the most dedicated occult historian.

It may not be a coincidence that the Master of the Temple in Eric Ericson’s rip roaring occult novel of the same name is also a Scot named ‘Innes’. This fictional Innes is described as handsome, sturdy, young for his age and with the look of someone who spent much time outdoors, something that could have been said of the real Mr Innes. The novel is wonderfully researched and happily conflates Golden Dawn lodge work with OTO styled sex magic along with some nifty creations by the author himself. Whoever ‘Eric Ericson’ was/is, he certainly knew his stuff.

Anyway, I digress. Brodie-Innes was also likely a magical mentor and teacher of Dion Fortune during her early years of magical training. It seems then a possibility that some of her ideas on sacred sexuality and the feminine may have stemmed from this venerable Scottish leader of the Golden Dawn. Certainly there are magical sexual themes and explorations within the unpublished Aura Papers of the CT. I’ve been able to publish a few of these here, but most at this stage remain unpublished. Look at Aura Paper 23, Concerning Sex on the Aura to get a sense of what I mean.

Any practical magical exploration of these themes however is best conducted well outside the gaze of the Neophyte and indeed the Outer Order. In this light we can again read the much quoted letter from Moina Mathers to Paul Foster Case, a letter used by those who believe the GD taught sex magic to ‘prove’ their argument:

I regret that anything on the Sex question should have entered into the Temple at this stage for we only begin to touch on sex matters directly, in quite the higher Grades. In fact, we only give a rather complete explanation of this subject in that Grade where the Adept has proved to be so equilibrated and spiritualized that he is complete lord of his passionate self. Believe me, this is not mere theory.

Moina Mathers

There is nothing here that indicates methods and processes for physical sexual magic were taught at all, only information on “sex matters” at a very high grade. The “not mere theory” clause is obviously used to emphasise the implicit warning that “sex matters” not be approached before the adept is completely in control of his “passionate self”.

Annie Hornimann, as Theoricus-Adeptus Minor, was also given the brush off by Moina back in 1895, a few short years after the Inner Order had begun. Either the Mathers had nothing much to teach on the subject and were temporizing or the matter was indeed far above the Adeptus Minor grades. The ‘high level’ nature of this subject is I think a crucial point, whether or not the Mathers at some point developed some theories about it all.

Personally, it is only now after 25 years of intense esoteric practice and a bucket load of grace that I think I understand what sacred sexuality actually entails. What this ‘is’ is not easily explained. From a Qabalistic perspective I would say we can’t even begin to understand sacred sexuality without the Tipharetic level of consciousness, a point of view affirmed by the few authentic esoteric traditions that ‘teach’ the subject.

So really, as a magical community we should say very little about the practice of sex magic and a lot about how we move towards valuing sex as sacred. The way to do this is through our own personal spiritual unfoldment, not through any magical sexual practice at all. During the unfoldment process we need to approach sex from a moral perspective which guides us to make choices as if we were already at the deeper level of consciousness that fully understands sex as sacred. This is the function of ethical choices and disciplined behaviour. All the authentic esoteric traditions would agree with this.

The dangers of prematurely acting within the sexual-magic realm are real, as are the results which are sadly visible in any modern Neo-Pagan and magical community. The Golden Dawn arrangement of the Outer and Inner Orders limits these dangers – if adhered to. Any form of magic, traditional or sexual, within the Golden Dawn is only ever conducted as part of Inner Order work. The integrity of the Order’s method of transformation is predicated on this structure which follows the traditional esoteric approach to spiritual unfoldment of: renunciation of the false self (Outer Order), followed by re-creation of a functional-magical self (Inner Order) to eventually embody the revelation of the eternal verities (symbolised by the Third Order).

Rose Cross

Modern magical groups that flaunt or revise this system and bring magic into the early grades damage the coherence and the integrity of a sophisticated approach to magical development. Simply put, we cannot use magic to re-create a self that is still in a process of renunciation. Any non-traditional redactions of the methods of the RR et AC to include physical sexual magic should be limited to the Inner Order, if undertaken at all. This is just plain sense. In fact, I would say a rough rule of thumb would assign the practices to the Chesedic Adeptus Exemptus grade. Tiphareth would integrate the concept of sacred and magical sexuality within the newly developing self. Geburah would limit and transform personal and transpersonal hindrances to this reality, leaving Chesed as the sphere of any operations. Indeed, “quite the higher Grades” as Moina would put it. Maybe the ol’ girl knew a thing or two after all?

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