“Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power.” – Freud

Your brain is a quantum computer. If you program it, it can compute, and create, solutions to almost any problem. While this is often apparent through dreams, it is equally possible to program the brain through focused study, concentration, self-hypnosis, conscious auto-suggestion, affirmations, and visualization.

For those who are sceptical, consider the following developments in human history:

• René Descartes developed a framework for scientific method after a dream that he had on 10^th November, 1619.
• Friedrich August Kekulé discovered the structure for benzene, following a dream in which a group of snakes swallowed their own tails.
• Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA after Watson dreamed about a series of spiral staircases.
• Elias Howe invented the sewing machine in 1845. His breakthrough followed a dream in which cannibals waved spears up and down. The spears had holes in the tip, which inspired Howe to place the holes in needles close to the point, revolutionising mechanical sewing.

Moving into the realms of consciousness thinking, Elmer Gates developed a method he called psychotaxis. He was able to use his system to invent or improve various things. These included the foam fire extinguisher, an improved electric iron, an aseptic brewing and fermenting process, electric loom mechanisms, diamagnetic and magnetic separators for extracting gold from sand, and an incandescent gas mantle furnace, amongst other things.

The method outlined in this document is based on standard visualization techniques. What differs is the pre-loading and loading of concepts that will help reinforce the visualization process. The mind works by connecting things together, both physically in its network of neurons, and psychologically, as demonstrated by such things as associative memory techniques and symbolism.

Esoterically, everything in life is connected. For the native Americans, The Great Spirit runs through all things. To the early Christians, the Kingdom of God is within you, and outside of you. The Kabbalah shows the interconnectedness of all of life through such things as gematria, and the Tree of Life.

The Vedic god Indra has a net that demonstrates this connectedness. Each segment of the net is connected by a multifaceted jewel, which contains the reflection of every other jewel.

In Norse mythology, the three Norns spin the threads of fate. They represent the connectedness between the past, present, and the future.

The concept of willing something to happen is directly related to wishing, and the fulfilment of desires. Combining visualisation, belief, and determined will can manifest your desires.

For more background, the following articles on Magical Path are recommended:

• Some Basic Concepts of Magic
• Introduction to Visualization
• Magic Lessons
• Magical Language

The System for Winning Lotto – Loading

“The psychological mechanism that transforms energy is the symbol” – Carl Jung

Slowly read the following points carefully. Concentrate carefully on each point, as you are effectively loading this data into your subconscious mind. You may need to adapt some of the points for various systems of lottery. The examples in the points are for the Lotto 6/40 where you must pick the 6 winning numbers out of a pool of 40 numbers.

• Numbers should have a relatively uniform mixture of odd numbers and even numbers. Examples:
  • 2 odd / 4 even;
  • 4 odd / 2 even;
  • 3 odd / 3 even.
  • Numbers should be spread relatively uniformly across the pool. Examples:
    • 2 numbers between 1 and 20 / 4 numbers between 21 and 40;
    • 4 numbers between 1 and 20 / 2 numbers between 21 and 40;
    • 3 numbers between 1 and 20 / 3 numbers between 21 and 40;
    • Avoid picking all six consecutive numbers. Example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
    • Avoid picking all numbers in a group. Example: 1-9; 11-19; 20-29; 30-39
    • Avoid picking all numbers ending in the same digit: Example: 4; 14; 24; 34
    • Avoid duplicating numbers between rows. Most lotteries require you to buy a minimum number of rows, such as four rows. A couple of duplicate numbers is acceptable, but it must be minimal.

It is recommended that you study some of the some of the past lottery results to get a sense of how the numbers fell.

The Spider’s Web Technique – Running

“Determined will is the beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result, that the magical arts are so uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain.” – Paracelsus

The following visualisation should be done in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. The more concentrated and focused your visualization, the more powerful the result. It may be a good idea to use a pencil to write down the numbers you see in the visualisation.

• Sit down and close your eyes.
• Take a few deep breaths, exhaling slowly.
• Get a sense of the surface that you are sitting on.
• Feel yourself connected to all of life, all that exists; connected to all energy and matter within the Universe.
• See in front of you a spider’s web, gleaming with drops of dew.
• Like you, this web is connected to everything in the Universe. The drops of dew reflect everything – past, present, and future.
• Move your senses and frame-of-reference forward in time so you are now focused on the time and place of the next lottery draw.
• Look carefully, and you see a ball containing a number fall into the web and become trapped within the web. Look carefully at this number, and memorise it. (Jot down the number on your paper if you need to.)
• Continue to visualize balls falling into the net until you have the amount of numbers you require.
• Now, visualize the spider’s web covering the lottery machine or computer system. The numbers trapped in the web become fused with the machine, locking these numbers in, causing them to manifest as the next draw.
• Spend a few moments getting a good sense of these numbers becoming infused into reality.
• Continue to do this for as long as you feel is necessary.
• When you are ready, open your eyes.
• Take a few deep, fast breaths, and start to take notice of your surroundings.
• Allow your attention to move between any sounds, sights, smells, tastes and tactile sensations in your physical environment.
• Write down your lottery numbers, and be sure to purchase a ticket!

Good luck!

Feedback is welcome. Email: spiders.web.method@gmail.com

You can download an epub version of this document from Lulu.

The Will in Magick

Colin Wilson identified the importance of the Will and points out that life in modern society has taken away our need to truly know and use this essential inner force:

“Modern civilization induces an attitude of ‘passivity.’ When a Stone Age hunter set out to trap wild animals, he was aware of his will as a living force. When the prehistoric farmer scored the surface of the earth with a crude plough, he knew that his family’s survival through the winter depended on his effort, and his will responded to the challenge. When a modern city dweller walks down a crowded thoroughfare, he feels no sense of challenge or involvement. This city was built by other people; all these shops and offices are owned by other people. He can get through an ordinary day’s work in a state approximating to sleep. Most of his routine tasks are carried out by the ‘robot.’ There is neither the need or the opportunity to use the will.”

Various definitions and descriptions of Magick use Will in attempting to convey the meaning, processes or intention of the magickal arts. For example:

• Aleister Crowley – “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.”; “Every intentional (Willed) act is a Magical act.”;
• Dion Fortune: “Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will.”
• Eliphas Lévi: “Would you learn to reign over yourself and others? Learn how to will. How can one learn to will? This is the first arcanum of magical initiation…”
• Edward Berridge (V. H. Frater Resurgam): “To practice magic, both the imagination and the Will must be called into action, they are co-equal in the work… The Will unaided can send forth a current… yet its effect is vague and indefinite… the Imagination unaided can create an image… yet it can do nothing of importance, unless vitalized and directed by the Will.”
• Paracelsus: “determined will is the beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result, that the (occult) arts are so uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain.”

Both Eliphas Lévi and Paracelsus put great emphasis on the Will; Eliphas Lévi in his statement that “learn[ing] to will [...] is the first arcanum of magical initiation” and Paracelsus stating that “determined will is the beginning of all magical operations.”

E.E. Rehmus in The Magician’s Dictionary notes that Will and Imagination are the two natural human powers for altering reality.

Émile Coué formulated four laws of Imagination and the Will:

1. When the will and the imagination are antagonistic, it is always the imagination which wins, without any exception.
2. In the conflict between the will and the imagination, the force of the imagination is in direct ratio to the square of the will.
3. When the will and the imagination are in agreement, one does not add to the other, but one is multiplied by the other.
4. The imagination can be directed.

In Flying Roll V (Thoughts on Imagination) Edward Berridge noted similar points to Coué:

• Imagination creates a form on the Astral or some higher plane.
• This form is as real and objective to beings on that plane, as our earthly surroundings are to us.
• This form may have only a transient existence, productive of no important results; or it may be vitalised and used.
• To practice magic, both the Imagination and the Will must be called into action.
• The Imagination must precede the Will in order to produce the greatest possible effect.
• The Will unaided sends forth nothing but the current or force.
• The Imagination unaided can create an image and this image has an existence of varying duration; yet it can do nothing of importance.
• When the Imagination creates an image and the Will directs and uses that image, marvellous magical effects may be obtained.

In Flying Roll II (Part III Three Suggestions on Will Power) Florence Farr describes a method for cultivating the Will by use of a visualization:

“imagine your head as centre of attraction with thoughts like rays radiating out in a vast globe. To want or desire a thing is the first step in the exercise of Will; get a distinct image of the thing you desire placed, as it were, in your heart, concentrate all your wandering rays of thought upon this image until you feel it to be one glowing scarlet ball of compacted force. Then project this concentrated force on the subject you wish to affect.”

In Flying Roll VI, S.L. MacGregor Mathers adds:

“I would suggest that: – Before bringing the scarlet ray into such intense action in the Heart, as is explained by her, that the Adept should elevate his thought and idea to the contemplation of the Divine Light in Kether, and considering Kether as the crown of the head, to endeavour to bring a ray from thence, into his heart – his Tiphereth through his path of Gimel and then to send the scarlet ray into action; the effect will be powerful and the process safer: otherwise there is a risk to the heart, and a risk of fever, if it be frequently done.”

Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary makes the following observations relating to the Will:

“called laws of nature are the action and interaction of the combined consciousnesses and wills which pervade the kosmos. The will pours forth in floods of light and life from the primal Logos. … They … descend, plane by plane and cycle by cycle, into the depths of matter, from which finally they arise again towards their primal source. In this progressive descent and ascent, will is made to manifest in keeping with each plane or state of consciousness which it enters. There is, therefore, the one fundamental kosmic will-ideation, breaking into innumerable streams of willing entities during periods of manifestation, and thus it operates in myriad ways…”

“In the composite human being — the microcosm — there are the divine, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, animal, astral, and even physical wills. The old maxim ‘behind will stands desire’ accounts for the paradoxical influence of this colorless force which is used to energize both good and evil motives. … The origin of good and evil lies respectively in the harmony and the conflict of wills in the kosmos.”

“The ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally, if one’s attention (and Will) is deeply concentrated upon it; similarly, an intense volition will be followed by the desired result … For creation is but the result of will acting on phenomenal matter, the calling forth out of the primordial divine Light and eternal Life.”(SD 2:173)

The Will upon the Tree of Life

Flying Roll XX describes the location of the Will (both Human and Divine) upon the Tree of Life, as the Constitution, or Elementary View, of Man. The Yechidah, located in Kether, is called the Divine Consciousness and the Divine Will, while the Ruach, located in Tiphereth, is the human Consciousness and the human Will.

The Willed Act

Assagioli's Star Diagram

The formulation of the Willed Act is given by Roberto Assagioli in his book The Act of Will:

1. The Purpose, Aim, or Goal, based on Evaluation, Motivation, and Intention
2. Deliberation
3. Choice and Decision
4. Affirmation: the Command, or “Fiat,” of the Will
5. Planning and Working Out a Program
6. Direction of the Execution

Assagioli assigned seven categories for the qualities of the Will:

1. Energy – Dynamic Power – Intensity
2. Mastery – Control – Discipline
3. Concentration – Attention – One-Pointedness – Focus
4. Determination – Decisiveness – Resoluteness – Promptness
5. Persistence – Endurance – Patience
6. Initiative – Courage – Daring
7. Organization – Integration – Synthesis

Assagioli's Egg Diagram

Assagioli’s Star Diagram shows the relationship between the Self and the Psychological functions.

1. Sensation
2. Emotion-Feeling
3. Impulse-Desire
4. Imagination
5. Thought
6. Intuition
7. Will
8. Self

Assagioli’s Egg Diagram is a map of consciousness depicting various levels and aspects of consciousness.

1. The Lower Unconscious
2. The Middle Unconscious
3. The Higher Unconscious or Superconscious
4. The Field of Consciousness
5. The Conscious Self or “I”
6. The Higher Self
7. The Collective Unconscious

The Will in Kiaism

Kiaism Diagram - Austin Osman Spare

Kiasism was the magickal system of Austin Osman Spare. It represents no specific way for personal development and/or any sets of instructions but requires the person to devise his personal system of philosophy or magic. Kiaism regards Belief and Desire as the great duality. In this system, Ego is a part of Self belonging to one Being while Self encircles the whole Being. Each “human” Being wills the desire. This desire imagines a new belief and belief by means of conceptualizing new concepts forms the Ego. Spare names these conceptions, “the ramifications of belief” which form different personalities for corresponding Ego. But the mentioned will is a partial one. The Will (emphasized by capitalizing) lies in the realm of Self – pertaining to Kia.

Tarot and the Will

The Magician - from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck

Paul Foster Case, the founder of Builders of the Adytum and a well known occultist, summed up the two principles of Will and Imagination in the symbolism of The Magician tarot card. Case wrote, “The primary manifestation of Spirit is Will, of which Attention – the wand – is the essence, and to which Memory – the wallet – is closely linked. Wisdom, having for its essence Imagination – the rose – is the secondary expression.”

Correspondences

Celestial Bodies

• Mars, Sun, Mercury

Chakras

• Sahasrara
• Anahata (Also a connection with kalpa taru, the wish-fulfilling tree)

Gods

• Vili (Norse mythology), brother of Odin.

Human Body

• Pituitary gland relates to human will
• Thymus gland
• Pineal gland
• Heart

Magickal Element

• Fire

Sephiroth

• Geburah
• Tiphereth – Lower (Human) Will
• Kether – Divine (Higher) Will

Symbols

• Sun (Sol) – symbolises the power of the human will (source: A. Leo)
• The Psychosynthesis ‘Will’ Personality Type symbol of Roberto Assagioli

Tarot Cards

• Trump: 1 – The Magician
• Suit: Wands

Zodiac Sign

• Aries

References

• Symbolism and Astrology: An Introduction to Esoteric Astrology. ‘A. Leo’, 1914
• Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary Online Edition

External Links

• The Will Project A comprehensive exploration of concepts relating to the Will.
• Will; Imagination; Will and Imagination – A Three Part series on Will and Imagination from a Magickal perspective.
• Cultivation of Will A exercise in the use of Will.

Etymology

From the Indo-European Root wel- meaning to wish, will.

Translations

• Arabic: إرادَه
• Chinese: 意志
• Czech: vůle
• Danish: vilje
• Dutch: wil
• Estonian: tahe
• Finnish: tahto
• French: volonté
• German: der Wille
• Greek: θέληση, βούληση
• Hungarian: akarat
• Icelandic: vilji
• Indonesian: kemauan
• Italian: volontà
• Japanese: 意志, いし (ishi)
• Latvian: griba
• Lithuanian: valia
• Norwegian: vilje
• Polish: wola
• Portuguese: vontade
• Romanian: voinţă
• Russian: воля
• Slovak: vôľa
• Slovenian: volja
• Spanish: voluntad, albedrío
• Swedish: vilja
• Turkish: istenç, irade

The Magician Card from the Tarot de Marseille, AGMüller, Switzerland (1870)

Tarot (tarocchi, tarock) is a deck of seventy-eight cards divided into twenty-two major arcana or Trumps, and four suits of minor arcana, composed of ten pip cards and four court cards for each suit. The art of divination, reading or fortune-telling with playing cards is known as Cartomancy. The images of tarot are based on images and scenery of life and nature, spirituality, occult, and religious themes.

Early Decks

Current research in Tarot history shows that the European Tarot was influenced by Arabic and China card games. The Arabic game of Tarot migrated into Europe through the invasion of Africa, Spain and Sicily by the Islamic and Persian Malamuk army. These early card games of the Malamuk were called Naibi, a gambling card game which made reference to the Knight and Court cards. These early hand painted cards had four suits, known as the coins, the cups, the staves, and the swords, along with court suit cards.

Evidence for the existence of tarot in Europe can be found as far back as the 14th century, where it was used as a game for gambling and card playing. One of the earliest records about tarot on record was found in Bohemia in 1354 C.E. created by the artist Jonathan Kraysel, and the 1423 hand painted deck from Ferrara Italy. In Italy, the card game was known as carte da Trionfi, cards of Triumphs, or Trumps. The Trifoni deck was known to have existed in 1442 as a 70-card game played by the nobles of Italy.

The early decks created in Christian Europe was used to play Tarot card games such as Tarocchini. Hand Painted decks were purchased and used by royalty. More common decks were available to the public when they were created by more economical means like printing. The first decks which were printed on a press are recorded in documents found from Ferrara Italy in 1436.

The Sola Busca Tarot

The Sola-Busca is the oldest surviving set of seventy-eight cards, dating from 1491. These cards were engraved and hand painted in Ferrara Italy, and sold in the markets of Venice. The complete deck which is owned by the Sola-busca family survives only from photographs taken in 1907, kept in a private collection in Milan, Italy.

The Sola-Busca cards were painted with scenery and mythology which were popular at the time. They were symbolic, representing social, philosophical, religious and mythological themes. One style of Busca deck recorded by the poet Boiardo in 1461 describes the tarot imagery represented by the Greek gods.

Cary Yale Visconti

The Cary-Yale Visconti is the oldest existing deck of Tarot. This deck, from the 15th century, was created for the Visconti-Sforza family, rulers of Milan. There are only sixty seven cards left of the original deck. The Visconti deck contains six court cards per suit, unlike the traditional system of tarot that decks use today.

These cards are the King, The Queen, The Male Knight, The Female Knight, the Male Valet and the Female Valet. Some have theorized that this deck was created before the seventy-eight deck system was used, or that originally there were only sixteen trumps in the deck. The themes of this deck, like many other deck of the time were influenced by christian theology and painted with images of medieval life and royalty. The major arcana had cards which depicted images of the Three Virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity.

Tarot de Marseille

The Tarot of Marseille is a deck that originated in Italy, which gained popularity in France and Switzerland in 1499. This deck, sometimes called the Milan pattern, was inspired by medieval religious art. The Marseille pattern was re-introduced to northern Italy by the 17th century, and by then the Marseille deck design was considered to be the standard for tarot. The cards were typically produced by woodcut printing and they were hand colored or painted with stencils.

The traditional Marseille tarot is fifty-six cards. There are four suits in the Minor Arcana numbering from one to ten, the Batons, Swords, Cups, and the Coins. Each suit contains four court cards, The Royal Arcana: The Valet, Cavalier, the Queen and the King. Included with this is the fool card which was sometimes numbered as zero or twenty-two, or left un numbererd in some variants of the Marseille deck. The Tarot of Marseille was painted with imagery like the Pope, the Devil and the Last Judgment, themes from the Christian Bible. A controversial image in the Marseille deck is the Popess card, which some say could represent an image of Pope Joan.

The Occult Tarot

Antoine Court De Gébelin

Tarot was not generally used for divination until the late 18th century, when Antoine Court De Gébelin wrote about the origins of Tarot. De Gébelin was the son of a protestant minister from Switzerland. He was a member of the Freemasons and he was ordained as a Protestant pastor in 1754. De Gébelin traveled to France in 1762 where he undertook the work of writing and working as a protestant apologist in Paris for several years.

De Gébelin first encountered the tarot in 1781 in Switzerland, where he connected the imagery of the tarot to occult concepts. De Gébelin’s book, titled Le Monde Primitif, 1781 made the claim that the tarot had an occult origin. He claimed that the twenty-two arcana were similar to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. He claimed that the tarot was an allegorical story that should be read from the twenty-second card, the world, to the first card which was known as madness the fool]. He renamed the Popess card as the High Priestess and he renamed the pope card as the Heirophant. Court De Gébelin also modified the tarot by reversing the hanged man image of the tarot, so that the image represented Prudence, instead of sacrifice.

De Gébelin wrote that the tarot had its origin in the lands of Egypt, where gypsies cultivated the use of tarot for divination and oracles. Historians dispute this because the occurrence of early christian medieval imagery in tarot disproves this theory. A patron of the arts and Sciences, De Gébelin was also a member of an esoteric order, the Philalèthes, a Freemason order with ties to the Elect Cohens. De Gébelin’s occult background allowed him to create the esoteric and mystical symbolism that tarot uses to this day. De Gébelin influenced occultists like Eliphas Levi, and the Freemasons, who used tarot for divination and occult study.

Jean-Baptiste Alliette

Jean-baptiste Alliette Etteilla] is given credit for making the occult tarot popular. Etteilla published information on tarot divination and ascribed elemental and planetary attributes to the tarot. Working from the theories of De Gébelin, he created a deck made for divination in 1788. Ettilla is credited for the revival of occult tarot and for preserving the tarot history and theory of De Gébelin.

From the knowledge of De Gébelin’s esoteric writings, Etteilla wrote a book in 1783 titled Maniere de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes trans. Manner of recreation with a game of cards named Tarots. This was the first time that a tarot deck was published along with an accompanying book. This same deck created by Etteilla is still used today for divination.

Etteilla’s system of tarot was developed from the traditional game decks known as the piquet deck, a shortened version which used hearts, clubs spades and diamonds. Along with this he added the Etteilla card, and he added upright and reversal meanings to the cards. Etteilla also published a deck, the Petit Etteilla which was based on the same system of occult divination. The tarot of Etteilla had twenty-two major arcana and fifty-six minor arcana. From the inspiration of De Gébelin, Etteilla had reordered the Major Arcana or Trumps, and added his own images and scenery. He also used astrological and elemental associations for his cards.

Eliphas Levi and the Tarot

The French occultist and writer Alphonse Louise Constant 1810], Eliphas Levi, psuedonym] influenced occult revivalists of the 19th century like Crowley and Waite. Eliphas Levi had never created his own deck, but his perceptions on the origins and meaning of the tarot had influenced modern systems of tarot. By 1853, Levi was working as a journalist and giving lessons in occult theories. He adopted the name Eliphas Levi from a Hebrew translation of his own name. He attended a seminary in Paris where he trained to be a priest. While at the St. Sulpice seminary, he learned about the Devil, animal magnetism and energies, which lead to his study of the occult.

Levi traveled to England in 1854, where he met the Rosicrucian author Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Lytton was known for his writings on occult, mesmerism, astrology, clairvoyance and magic. Levi formed a partnership with him and this launched his career as an occult writer. he published the book, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie in 1855 Eliphas Levi’s Transcendental Magic Its Doctrine and Ritual, which was translated and annotated by Arthur Edward Waite.

In this book he criticized the Etteilla method of Tarot, claiming that it was incorrectly made, claiming that “The writings of Etteilla, now very rare, are obscure, wearisome and barbarous in style”. Levi reversed the order of the tarot as it had been known to Etteilla and the earlier De Gébelin which was designed to be ordered and read from the twenty-first card to the zero, or fool.

Papus Tarot

Occult tarot was influenced by Gerard Encausse [pseudonym, Papus, 1865]. The name Papus, inspired by Eliphas Levi’s Apollynus Of Tyanna, means Physician. Papus was a physician and a hypnotist. He was a French occultist who studied the work of Eliphas Levi, Kabbalism, alchemy and magic. Papus was a member of Madame Blavatsky’s French Theosophical Society in 1884 until he left the Society one year later. Papus was an outspoken member and activist in the occult community. He joined the Ahathoor Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in Paris. In 1888 he created his own occult order, The kabbalistic order of the Rose-Croix. He was also the founder of the Martinist Order, a method of esoteric Christianity.

Papus wrote a book about his system of tarot, The tarot of the Bohemians. In his book he connects the different theories of occultism, such as the kabbalistic association and astrology into one system. The theory of Papus about the origins of tarot were inspired by writers who developed their ideas from authors like Court De Gébelin and Levi, who claimed that Tarot had its origins in Egypt, the Romany Bohemians, the origin of the Gypsy Tarot theory. The system of Papus tarot assigned the Fool card to the Hebrew letter Shin [the element of fire], and he places this card in the deck as the twenty first card, even though it remained un-numbered in the deck.

Golden Dawn Tarot

The golden dawn tarot is based on the teachings of the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This was Rosicrucian Freemason order which was founded by Dr. William Westcott, Dr. William Woodman, and S. MacGregor Mathers. The teachings of the golden dawn are based on the document known as the Cypher Manuscript.
The tarot manual of the Golden dawn written by MacGregor Mathers, Harriet Felkin titled Book T was a document that was originally circulated among private members of the Golden Dawn for instruction on tarot. This book influenced other golden dawn based decks. Book T is a manual that includes descriptions of the tarot, along with the astrological, qabalistic, elemental and spiritual attributes. The golden dawn method of esoteric tarot was based the seven planets, on associations with the Hebrew letters, and the tree of life from kabalah. The major arcana is positioned on the Sephira and paths in the tree of life through symbolic association.

The original Golden Dawn tarot was created by Richard Dudschus and David Sledzinski under the guidance of Pat Zalewski The Classic Golden Dawn Tarot deck is a re-creation of the original Tarot used by the Golden Dawn order. There are only 1200 which were printed, uncolored for the instruction of tarot. This deck inspired other Golden Dawn style decks by other authors, such as the Thoth Deck and the Waite-Smith deck, the BOTA deck and many more.

One version of the Golden dawn Tarot was created by Robert Wang, and Israel Regardie. is the New Golden dawn Magical tarot [formerly, the New Golden dawn ritual tarot] This deck includes Hebrew and astrological associations which were created by the golden dawn. In this deck are two temperance cards, and the court cards are the King, Queen, Prince and Princess

Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

The Devil Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (1910)

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is one of the most popular occult and divinatory decks available. It was created in 1909 by William Rider and Son, in London. The creators of this deck, Pamela Coleman Smith, and Aurthur Edward Waite were both members of the esoteric order of the Golden Dawn. The accompanying book The pictorial Key to the Tarot was published in 1911.

The designs for the RWS deck were based on the Sola-Busca tarot, Eliphas Levi and other decks throughout history. There are seventy-eight cards in this deck, with scenery in all of the cards except for the Aces. The Rider-Waite-Smith court royals use a classical system of King queen knight and page.

Crowley Thoth Tarot

The result of a collaboration with the often misunderstood Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris, notable for extremely heavy use of symbolism to help tarot usage of all purposes and the removal of a lot of old and outdated medieval representations of cards.

It would also be suggested you read “the Book of Thoth” to understand the volume of wisdom and understanding that was committed to this work.

Tarot Systems

Cartomancy

In Cartomancy the querant is the one that the tarotist reads for. The quereant either chooses the cards, or the cards are chosen by the reader. The cards are laid out into a spread, and read in succession. The layout of the cards in the spread often form a panoramic scene for the tarotist to read.
Another method is to choose a Significator card for the querant before reading, and to use this card as a focus during the reading to represent the querant. The Significator card is a card is a major arcana card, or a court card which is chosen from the deck that represents the quereant. This significator card is sometimes chosen based on calculations of birth numerology or based on the astrological sign of the querant. The numerology of the cards which are chosen are also used for divination.

Tarot Arcana

The standard modern arrangement for most modern tarot decks is twenty two trumps, sixteen court cards and forty pips, or Minor Arcana creating the whole seventy eight card deck. The specific ordering of the Major Arcana can vary between decks, such as the Crowley Thoth deck which switches the Emperor Card with the Star Card, and the Golden Dawn Tarot which applies a switch between Justice and Temperance.
The Minor Arcana are known as the pips. The fourty pips in a standard deck are classifed according to classical elemental associations known as suits. The suit of wands is represented by the element of Fire, the suit of Cups, is repersented by water, the suit of swords is Air, and the suit of coins, or pentacles is Earth. They number one to ten, and the first card of each suit are known as Aces. These associations were inspired by the tarrocchi suits of hearts which are the cups, spades are the swords, clubs are the wands, and the Coins, are the pentacles

The Court Royals can vary in different decks. The standard for Court Royal arrangements, such as the Rider-Waite-Smith, is the King, Queen, Page and knight. The Crowley Thoth court Royal arrangement is the Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess. The court cards of the thoth deck are given elementary attributes, except for the princess cards are given a planetary instead of an elementary association.

References

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Books

The term ‘Guild’ was chosen to reflect the three levels of training, which is along the lines of a traditional guild: apprentice, journeyman, and master. There are some differences from many traditional Guilds, and occult fraternities for that matter. For the Guild, education is taken to mean “leading out that which is within”, reflecting the importance given to an individual’s Higher Self, and our belief that anyone can effectively discover many of the so-called ‘occult secrets’ through internal work – trancework. The Trance Guild does not offer tutoring per se. A number of basic lessons are provided free of charge. The Guild does not claim the information to be unique, however it believes that these techniques provide the basic skills needed to gain a genuine education, via experience, in trancework. From the basics, we encourage members to hone and sharpen their skills, and learn to develop and extend techniques for themselves, rather than slavishly follow a set curriculum.

The Trance Guild does not require monetary payment for its lessons or membership. By undertaking the lessons you pay by investing your time and energy. If you progress to the higher levels of the Guild, payment is also made by adding to the Guild’s collective knowledge of trance, e.g. researching, developing, or extending techniques and theories.

Titles within the Guild are administrative and do not indicate that a member has any special abilities or attributes. The structure recognizes a members’s knowledge of the terminology and techniques that are taught by the Trance Guild, but does not indicate personal or magickal advancement or attainment.

Apprentice – Open to all, with free access to lessons. This part of the training is aimed primarily at people who want to use trancework, without learning the mechanics.

Journeyman – By invitation only, after completion of lessons and other requirements. Builds upon the basic lessons with more advanced concepts. This aspect of training requires more dedication and involves learning the mechanics of trance and will involve some academic effort to begin learning the Trance Model for analyzing and constructing trances.

Master – By the completion of training within the Trance Guild’s methods and completing of a masterpiece. This masterpiece will be a presentation of research on a particular area of trancework. This involves giving back to the Guild by way of extending the knowledge and techniques available to other members.

For further information see the Trance Guild website or read Liber ‘A’ for the free trancework lessons available to the Apprenticeship.

Coinciding with an interest in magic, today there is also increased attention being paid to transpersonal or depth psychology, a trend initiated by Jung and further examined by psychologists such as Roberto Assagioli (1888-1975). The word transpersonal means that which transcends the personal or the individual. Transpersonal psychology takes a more spiritual approach to the human dilemma, and does not reject the idea of the soul – rather, it embraces it. A true system of transpersonal psychology must examine the highest aspects of the unconscious and take a philosophical as well as pragmatic approach to human evolution.

Seeing that psychoanalysis was an incomplete system, Assagioli developed his own form of therapy and called it psychosynthesis. Psychosynthesis accept the idea of the soul, the libido, and the imagination as essential aspects of the human being. It also includes the use of symbolism and allegory to initiate alchemical change and psychic integration.

May I emphasize the fact that the elements and functions, coming from the superconscious, such as aesthetic, ethical, religious experiences, intuition, inspiration, states of mystical consciousness, are factual, are real in the pragmatic sense … because they are effective … producing changes both in the inner and outer world. There they are amenable to observation and experimentation, through the use of the scientific method in ways suited to their nature; also they can be influenced and utilized through psycho-spiritual techniques.

Assagioli defined the parts of the psyche (see Figure 6, below) as:

1. The Collective Unconscious, a surrounding psychic “membrane” which permits constant and active interchange between all parts of the psyche and with the general psychic environment. It is the common primordial symbols, images, and metaphors of all humanity – the part of the soul that is shared. Archetypes of the collective unconscious include extremely primordial god images such as the Mesopotamian Apsu and the Greek Chaos.
2. The Higher Self or the true transpersonal self which is above and unaffected by the thoughts from the mind-stream or the sensations of the body. It is that pure consciousness, the core self, that underlies all other aspects and functions of the psyche as well. All personal energy and consciousness issues from this source. Archetypes of the higher self include omnipotent sky gods such as the Babylonian Marduk, the Greek Zeus, and the Hebrew Yahweh.
3. The Conscious Self or “I” is the ego or point of self-awareness. It is the seat of personal identity that we organize our field of awareness around. Its function is to coordinate the vast amount of interior and exterior information that we acquire and to act as a intermediary between our internal and external realities. Experience is processed by the ego through various functions such as the emotions, the senses, the intellect, and the imagination. To carry out these duties, the ego relies on discrimination, reason, and certain defense mechanisms that often conflict with other aspects of the psyche, sometimes posting obstacles to growth and healing. Archetypes of the ego include all deities who have “walked between the worlds” of life and death (conscious and subconscious), such as the Sumerian Inanna and the Egyptian Osiris.
4. The Field of Consciousness, which contains the ego, is the incessant flow of observable images, feelings, thoughts, sensations, and impulses. Archetypes of this region include several groups of deities with a variety of attributions: wisdom (Enki, Thoth, Hermes); love (Hathor, Aphrodite); war (Horus, Ares); pleasure (Bes, Pan); etc.
5. The Higher Unconscious or Superconscious is the transpersonal level of the unconscious – containing higher intuitions, inspirations, latent psychic functions, and spiritual energies. It is here that the higher self expresses itself in various forms through archetypes. The ordinary person is usually unaware of these forces and archetypes until they are brought to light during the process of self-realization. Archetypes of the superconscious include the first gods of a pantheon, such as the Greek Titans or the Norse Giants.
6. The Middle Unconscious is an inner region similar and accessible to that of the waking consciousness. This contains all things in our field of awareness that we are not normally aware of, but that we can become aware of. It is an unconscious matrix that underlies the conscious mind where the mental activities are “incubated” before their birth into consciousness. Archetypes of the middle unconscious include all deities who are associated with prophecy and oracles, such as the Greek divinities Apollo and Gaea.
7. The Lower Unconscious contains fundamental drives, primitive urges, inferior dreams, and complexes. This is the personal unconscious which is the storehouse of hidden memories, repressed psychic content, and the shadow personality. This part of the psyche is accessed by working with hypnosis, trance, and imagery. Archetypes of the lower unconscious include all underworld deities, such as the Sumerian goddess Ereshkigal and the Greek divinities Hades and Persephone.

Figure 6: Assagioli's Model of the Psyche

If we were to add anything to Assagioli’s model it would be the body, or manifest psyche, which must be considered in a holistic psychology. Mind and body are interrelated extensions of one another. Just as physical discomfort can affect the mind, the mind, through focused visualization, can affect the body. Archetypes of the manifest psyche include all earth deities, such as the Egyptian Geb, the Babylonian Ninhursag, and the Greek Demeter.

Assagioli’s division of the psyche is remarkably similar to the Qabalistic model of the soul. Like Jung he saw the pressing need for all human beings to achieve a balanced inner integration and true self-realization, and he outlined a system for achieving this goal in four stages:

1. Thorough knowledge of one’s personality. This includes a frank analysis of all parts of the psyche, both conscious and unconscious, including the shadow. Psychoanalysis is the method used by the therapist for this objective. (In magic and alchemy it is the first half of the equation solve et coagula – dissolve and coagulate)
2. Control of the personality’s various elements. After having discovered all parts of the psyche, we must take control of them. According to Assagioli, one of the most effective ways of achieving this is a method called disidentification, which aids in the dissolution of harmful complexes whose newly freed energies can be controlled and used toward more positive ends. Dispelling these complexes requires the methods of objectification, critical analysis, and discrimination. (In magic, the shadow aspects of the psyche are collectively called the evil persona – they must be recognized, subjugated to the magician’s higher spiritual will, and their energies transmuted and employed for the completion of the Great Work.)
3. Realization of one’s true self: the discovering or creation of a unifying center. The intermediate link which, if focused on and identified with, allows for the integration / unification of the lower and higher selves, and freedom from selfish interests and personal limitations. A point of connection between the individual and the divine self, which is reflected and symbolized in that point.
4. Psychosynthesis: the formation or reconstruction of the personality around the new center. Once the unifying center is found, the next step is to gradually and systematically build a new “ideal” personality around it in an organized, purposeful manner and with clear, achievable goals in mind.

Practical psychosynthesis commences with the construction of this new personality. This process involves the active utilization of all available energies and the transmutation of unconscious and previously latent forces – development of those aspects of the personality which are weak or insufficient. It is accomplished through techniques of auto-suggestion, affirmation, visualization, and by the systematic training of the less developed functions of imagination, will, and memory. Finally, all the various psychological energies and functions must be coordinated as the new personality achieves a stable organized form.

There are many levels in this process of transmutation and self-realization, and as stated earlier, they are not always entirely pleasant. It is a multi-faceted process which includes several stages – the elimination of impediments which block the flow of energies between the superconscious and the lower realms of consciousness, evolvement of latent or dormant higher functions (memory, will, imagination, etc.), and stages where the ego must yield to the work of the higher self and withstand the stresses and unavoidable discomfiture that the process requires.

In magic, this is the spiritual discipline of the Great Work and reunification – the second half of the solve et coagula formula of alchemy. It represents our goal to “become more than human,” or in less mystical terms, to become the best possible human being we can be, evolving to our fullest potential.

Various methods and tools are employed in psychosynthesis, just as they are in other transpersonal psychologies. In psychosynthesis, the focus is always on a holistic approach to treatment, and all techniques used are subservient to the health, well-being, and psychic integration of the individual. The keeping of a diary, dream analysis, free association, hypnosis, group analysis, psychodrama, relaxation, meditation, music therapy, autosuggestion, humor therapy, chromotherapy, disidentification, visualization, development of the will, utilization of the symbols and metaphors, transmutation and sublimation of sexual energies, and development of the imagination are but a few of the methods used to obtain self-realization.

One of the goals of psychosynthesis is to integrate the superconscious, as much as possible, into the conscious and unconscious realms. Numerous metaphors for this process of self-realization and self-integration can be found in the language of the alchemists. What spiritual alchemy describes as the transformation of lead into gold is simply another way of describing the transmutation of the mundane into the spiritual, discord into harmony, and the personal into the transcendent.

Recommended Links:

• Israel Regardie
  Biography of Israel Regardie by Chic and Tabatha Cicero.
• Llewellyn New Worlds of Mind and Spirit. the World’s Oldest and Largest New Age Publisher.

I was driving home one day after visiting my sister Sue, musing to myself that it was about time we held a workshop. The subject that seemed so obvious was The Healing of the Inner child as we constantly talked to our respective clients about the importance of this issue. [We both work as Reiki Masters and Spiritual Healers facilitating others to heal themselves.] I made a mental note of my thoughts to tell her, needless to say I forgot about it.

Two weeks after that drive during a nights sleep I had the most vivid dream. Sue and I were back in the bungalow that we had grown up in, as I looked around in the dream Sue was curled up asleep, suddenly there right in front of my face was a little girl. I only was aware of her face, she had coppery very curly hair that framed her wide pale freckly face, and her eyes were almond shaped, green and set wide apart. The skin on her cheeks really drew my attention it was blue, red and yellow and mottled these colours all blended. The little girl stayed in front of me until I had drunk in every detail of her looks, she made sure I would not forget her. I then woke up and could still see her in my minds eye.

The next day Sue and I were to meet up at my Healing Garden where after a while we began to talk about holding a workshop and how we would go about it. I remembered the little girl and began to describe her in detail to Sue. Immediately very clearly in my head I got the message that she was The Deva of The Inner Child. Sue and I were to say the least astounded and delighted!

The afternoon discussion came to a close and we were prompted to go into a meditation to the Stone Circle [this is where we often go for healing and information] .The Stone Circle was full of people when we got there, we both received some healing energy and Sue when she came back had also met the Deva of the Inner Child and was told how delighted the Deva was that we were going to hold a series of workshops.

The Deva has been around prompting us ever since. The following Tuesday Sue wanted to do some gardening but was not allowed to until she had drafted some posters for the workshop. I was at my weekly Reiki share when it came into my head very strongly to make a vibrational essence for the healing of the inner child. I had actually been thinking of making a different essence [I am a flower essence therapist and producer]. So my thoughts turned to wondering about what emotional aspect that this essence would be for. The Reiki share finished and we all went home. I went straight to bed as I prepared to go to sleep a host of thoughts to do with the inner child came flooding into my head, I had to get up and get a pad and pencil. The word reassurance rang out strongly ….that was it, that was the crux of what the essence would be about. I then connected specifically to speak to the Deva and asked if she would help in making the essence. [It is not unusual to have spirit help to make essences, they are not always flowers]. Two days later it was made written up and posted to my webmaster to put on my website. I then thought that I would write up how this all occurred the pen just flew across the paper.

The Devic kingdom is absolutely vast and includes every aspect of our lives, from Devas who hold the blueprint for the plants on the planet to Devas of our homes, gardens and relationships, the list is endless and surprising. We humans could not actually exist on this planet in our bodies without assistance from this realm.

The Deva showed herself as a representation of a little girl because this is a picture I would be comfortable with, the Nature spirits show themselves as fairies because this is how humanity will accept them ,they are actually bands or frequencies of energy.

For Sue and I the story will continue as we hold our courses and we look forward to the unexpected.

Magical philosophy says that the two most important powers in the human psyche are will and imagination, both properly tempered by the greatest cosmic force, love. Imagination is what we use to create the world in which we live, and will is the force by which we create it. In bringing these two forces together, magic can be defined as making something intentional happen. The key to success is using your intention aligned with your true will or innermost sense of purpose. Putting this viewpoint in a nutshell, the Hermetic philosopher Goethe said: “Reality is that which is effective.” All methods for transforming oneself and the world, whether considered spiritual, mystical or mundane, that change your inner reality and outer behaviour, are considered valid approaches to self-realization.

A medieval treatise called ‘The Magic of Abra Melin the Mage’ is based around the notion that to have ‘knowledge and conversation of your guardian angel’ (which will be discussed further in Chapter 4), the equivalent to ‘illumination’, it is essential to first go into your depths, to face ‘the demons of darkness’, and bring them under your control. From a magical perspective, we can come to understand and experience that the light of the Self can be found shining in the darkest places and, when found, its light, brighter for being experienced in the darkness, may illuminate us.

In the Oxford English Dictionary, magic is defined as ‘the pretended art of influencing the course of events, and of producing marvellous physical phenomena, by processes supposed to owe their efficacy to their power of compelling the intervention of spiritual beings, or of bringing into operation some occult controlling principle of nature.’ If you remove the qualifying words ‘pretended’ and ‘ supposed’ from this definition you are left with:

The art of influencing the course of events, and of producing marvellous physical phenomena, by processes that owe their efficacy to their power of compelling the intervention of spiritual beings, or of bringing into operation the occult controlling principle of nature.’

In other words, Magic is a way of making happen what you want to happen, using imagination (the intervention of spiritual beings) and will (the occult controlling principle.) As mentioned above, magicians believe that imagination and will are the two most powerful human faculties. Israel Regardie says that through imagination ‘we are capable of being united to the gods, of transcending the mundane order, and of participating in eternal life. Through this principle, therefore, we are able to liberate ourselves from fate.’ Regardie goes on to reflect that ‘it is a great mistake to consider imagination to be the same as fantasy and daydreaming. Imagination is the image-making faculty, an image creating power which when developed may prove of the utmost importance as assisting the soul in its forward journey.’

What distinguishes magical imagination from daydreaming is that the imagination is being directed by the will. When in The Secret Doctrine, Helena Blavatsky writes of imagination that it is ‘the mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy,’ this energy is the will in action. In Chapter 5 we will explore how the act of will is a natural process, the very spark of life itself, and how every choice or decision you make is an act of will.

The definition of Magic most widely used in esoteric books is from Aleister Crowley who defines it as ‘the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with your will’, which is another way of saying making happen what you want to happen. Of course to make magic work can be a complex task. To make happen what you want to happen, many different circumstances and conditions need to be taken into account. If what you want is, for instance, a bar of chocolate, you have to decide on the degree and kind of force to use; the shop is only a short distance away so you may decide upon walking as the kind of force, forward at approximately four miles per hour as the degree. You have to exert this force in the correct manner and through the correct medium – it would be no use walking in the wrong direction and up the garden path. This decided upon, you only have to apply your force to the correct spirit – the shopkeeper – using a magical link, in this case money, and you have succeeded in your magic as you now have a chocolate bar to eat.

In this example, the spirit you have involved in your magic is a shopkeeper, the best kind of ‘spirit’ to invoke when you want to purchase something. You might not know exactly what they are or why they exist at all, but you can experience the presence of ‘spirits.’ Despite there being many different ideas and opinions about what the spirit world is, or whether it even really exists or not, the shared experience of magicians and shamans of all persuasions is that alongside our everyday reality there is a realm (or realms) of spirits populated by innumerable different types of entities. These range from the powerful to the weak, from the bright to the dim-witted, from benevolent through cheeky to downright malicious.

A magician’s power to communicate with a spirit, in either their world or ours, depends upon knowing the names, strengths, weaknesses, and correspondences to the spirit in question. This knowledge enables you to call or dismiss spirits, and compel them to perform tasks for you. Thus in the example of summoning up a shopkeeper to acquire a bar of chocolate, your knowledge that a shopkeeper spirit will exchange a bar of chocolate for money enables you to communicate with the spirit and make your Magic work. Learning the most appropriate means to communicate with a spirit is equally valid on the spirit plane as in our mundane realm, perhaps more so.

Magic is generally more oriented towards using the will rather than not and thus concentrates on developing our ability to choose. Some Eastern approaches to self-realisation suggest that it is better to simply accept things as they are and surrender to the unfolding nature of life. A good magician will certainly choose to do just that at times, to let things be, wait and see what unfolds. The point is, however, that the magician has a choice in the matter, whether to act or not, and that is what defines Magic as the ability to choose. The nineteenth century magician Eliphas Levi, defining magic as ‘the traditional science concerning the secrets of nature transmitted to us from the magicians of the past’ is affirming that Magic is a tradition, a science, natural and transmittable. Indeed, there is nothing unnatural about magic, as making happen what you want to happen is a basic human desire.

Magic is about moving to the place beyond your everyday and ego-led limitations, to discover ways to make the right things happen for you, then to put this into practice. Your birth, early development, family upbringing and education affect your abilities as a magician but you can effectively clear these blocks from the past. Some occultists complain that this work is too psychological in nature, but it is truly the ground stone of Magic. Indeed, in Kabbalistic Magic, to work through the sphere of the past (Yesod) is the only way to truly become oneself, both in a spiritual and a material sense. To that aim, it is vital to explore your journey from the past, and consider ways to release energies for your magical development. Then the realm of potential – all the potential of who you are and what you may be – is opened and, as a magician, you can step confidently into each present moment, knowing your future is assured.

On the Tree of Life, both the internal and external structures of the nose and mouth are attributed to the 14th path, which also corresponds with the Empress tarot card and the letter Daleth. The primary concern of both the nose and mouth are the act of breathing. Many (even most!) systems of spiritual development attest to the importance of learning to breath properly, or in a particular way. Often at the beginning of exercises, particularly in groups, I make a joke, telling the participants not to try breathing in any special yogic way but just allowing their own breath to enter and exit the body easily at its own rate. Of course, the hidden joke in this is that this is the most esoteric way to breathe! And, interestingly, it is the most difficult.

For all breathing exercises, unless otherwise told to do something different, it is a good idea to keep your breathing connected: that means, as soon as all your breath is out, you breathe in, and as soon as it is all in, your breathe out. (That is, there are no gaps or stops between your in and out breaths.) Spend a few minutes now just breathing, letting the air enter your body, fill your lungs, then pass out again easily, without effort. As you do so, pay particular attention to any holding patterns that you become aware of in your body. Now place a hand on your belly and breathe in a way that causes your belly to expand and push your hand away; then as you breathe out, feel your belly contract and at the end of the breath use your hand to just lightly push your belly in (and, as it were, the remainder of the air out). Then as you breathe in again feel your belly expand and push your hand outwards. Continue breathing like this for a few minutes.

Now place your hand on your chest and do the same, feeling your in and out breath alternately push your hand away and fall under the (light!) pressure of your hand. Do you habitually breathe from your chest or belly? Dont judge one better than the other, but notice which is your habitual pattern. Whether you usually breath from your belly or chest, consider the other (i.e. if you tend to chest breathe, then consider your belly and vice versa). What might you be holding onto in this part of your body?

Now breathe in the fullest way you can for a few minutes. As you breathe in, first feel your belly expand then your chest until you feel completely full of air in your whole body. Then effortlessly let the air out until you feel empty, and repeat the process. Do at least 20 of these full breaths and note any particular effects, immediately and for a short while afterwards.

There are a series of breathing exercises that connect different patterns of breathing with the five elements of spirit, fire, water, air and earth. There are different versions of this, but try experimenting with the following:

After preparation, do a walking meditation in which you practice these different ways of breathing. Note any effects.

Apart from breathing, the nose and mouth are also concerned with the senses of smell and taste. It is said that a dog has somewhere in the order of 30 times stronger an olfactory sense than humans, and some (rather surprising) creatures, such as for instance a moth, have 30 times greater olfactory sense than a dog. Salmon are said to find their way from the depths of the ocean back to a distant river, to their original spawning ground, through their sense of smell! Smell and taste are chemical senses, receptors in the nose and tongue responding to chemical stimuli. It is interesting to note that smells entering the right nostril and tastes affecting the right side of the tongue pass to the parietal lobe of the opposite, left side of the cerebrum, and vice versa. This tells us something of the functioning of the 14th path in the Yetziratic and Assiatic worlds.

Another function of the mouth is for eating. Many of our psychological functions have a parallel with eating (and eating disorders are not just common, they are pretty well universal, to some degree or another, with all human beings.) Hes bitten off more than he can chew; she finds that hard to swallow; the idea of doing that stuck in my throat; chew on that for a while; come on, spit it out … these and other similar well known phrases apparently originate from eating analogies but are used to describe psychic functioning.

The Mass of the Holy Ghost, or the sacramental supper, involves the imbibing of commingled male and female essences. To smell, taste, and ingest this elixir is said to confer magical powers and be the true meaning of the stone of the wise or elixir of life. The particular charge of the elixir is varied through the particular state of the emanations involved, for both the male and female. Kalas are described as the female emanations (or vaginal juices). Kala is a Sanskrit word meaning star and also perfume. At different times of the month (the cycle of existence) the kalas vary (after menopause as well as before.) This is true also for male scent and bodily fluids. The perfect elixir is said to be sweet smelling like the finest honey, and is the closest human equivalent to the emanations that pour from one sphere to the next on the Tree of Life in the creative process. This has particular relevance to the 14th Path which, joining as it does Chockmah and Binah, can be considered the primary holding force of the universe. Treat your breathing, smelling, and tasting with the same significance, and come to your senses!

Article first appeared in Phantasmagora Journal, 2000

An “Occult Blind” is the concealment of hidden and symbolic meanings of secret arcane knowledge within couched terms of a “Secret Language”. Occult Blinds are used to satisfy those who might be idly curious or seeking power and influence over others and in seeking Occult Secrets will read advanced magical manuals but who will be tricked by believing the surface meaning of the carefully written text and will then leave satisfied thinking they have gained high level powerful knowledge and believing also that they understand the secrets of practical occultism. In this way through the use of the Secret Language the true meaning behind the Occult Blind is cunningly concealed and protected so that only the most devoted occult student or genuine seeker of inner truth will spot the hidden meanings for they have as it is said “Eyes to See” and “Ears to Hear” for they can “Read Between the Lines”. In this way a whole sub system of high level spiritual knowledge and wisdom is carefully preserved but available to all who have done the necessary preceding groundwork. The beginner can read the most advanced manual yet they will only pick up the surface meaning, whereas the Initiate or Adept will get quite a different meaning and interpretation depending upon their own level, previous experience and knowledge. It is however said that the real secrets of Higher Occult Knowledge cannot be simply learnt from books for they have to be tasted through experience and digested over long periods of time and accordingly the knowledge will gestate Within and reveal deep mysteries for the seeker in the future. Occult Knowledge and Secrets are accumulate in their net effect and gradually the pieces of a massive mystery puzzle will come together for those devotees who persist upon the Quest for Higher Spiritual Knowledge.

For example the Spiritual Quests for the Holy Grail, the Elixir of Life and Alchemy and the Gold or the Philosopher’s Stone are all not literal quests to be taken as they stand, in order to be understood properly it must be realised that they are allegorical and full of metaphores. The real meaning of these Mystical and Magical Quests is carefully hidden and concealed for they represent Magical Initiatory Systems and Paths that are Inner Journeys whose results will be Life Changing and may bring about a total transformation in terms of our consciousness and in how we live our daily lives. Therein is of course a clue to the key for the fact that these Spiritual Quests exist suggests that since the dawn of time the average human being does not live truthfully nor in alignment with the principles of the Absolute Divinity. These Quest are all about coming to know the Reality and Truth behind and about the very existence of man and woman upon the Earth in relation to the smallest DNA molecule through to the entire Cosmos itself. These High level Secrets will eventually reveal the Inner Revelation of “As Above So Below” and the Lightning Flash of personal Enlightenment will bring Unity and a connectedness to ALL THINGS within. Life is amazing but how much better it is when you “Come to Know” what it is all about for then you can begin “Truly Living”.

Occult Blinds are employed to convey Higher Knowledge and Wisdom to the Initiates without revealing these Secrets to the uninitiated who might profane the Mysteries or do harm to themselves or to others. For this reason the Spiritual Path also unfolds in stages through a series of minor Inner Initiations that will eventually lead to the Initiation Proper and eventually to Advanced Adeptship for some. Also no one else can Initiate you for the Initiation takes place within – it is an internal process of personal empowerment. Much garbage is talked about with regard to Initiation and the Blind Seeker of Truth would think it was the formal Ceremony of Ritual Initiation that conferred power to them, however this is not the case as a Ceremonial Initiation is simply a formal gesture that suggests Initiation may or may not have already occurred. There are many Initiated people who have not really got a clue about Higher Knowledge as equally there are extremely Advanced Adepts who have never been through a formal Initiation Ceremony. Initiation can only ever take place Within us it is not conferred or given to us by others. As the acclaimed Occultist and writer Dion Fortune once said “There is One Initiator” and by this she meant YOURSELF for she also was employing an Occult Blind as this fact was also once a High level Occult Secret. Even today there is a gross misunderstanding about the processes of Initiation particularly in what is termed as “The Craft of the Wise” a misnomer indeed in many instances that I have seen across the years.

Nostradamus for example had to conceal his Occult activities or he would have been tried for Sorcery by the Inquisition under their so called “Divine Authority” conferred upon them by the then all powerful exoteric church authorities. The Prophecies of Nostradamus, or Quatrains as he termed them, were all cleverly written, encoded and encrypted into anagrams and further they were written in mixed languages including French, Portuguese, Greek, Latin and Qabalistic Hebrew. Yet even in these more enlightened times there is still a disturbingly unenlightened tendency for people to attempt to read and interpret the prophecies and work of Nostradamus as it stands. The Prophecies of Nostradamus cannot be taken at value but must be read “Between the Lines” so as to speak for they are a clever and intriguing puzzle indeed. This same practice of reading between the lines has to be applied to Hermetic Texts, Gnostic Literature and all quality Esoteric, Mystical and Occult Literature for there are “None so Blind as Those who Cannot See”. It might be added also that there are those who cannot see and also those who will not see and this is something worth gently reflecting upon.

Occult Language and terms are in a somewhat perilous condition today with regards to the existing terminology that they employ. Modern Occult Language or parlance is an idiom composed of Ancient Sanskrit terminology that has been through Western processing through the application of Theosophist Wisdom, this also has been merged with archaic or barbarous jargon that has it’s origins in the Ancient Mystery Traditions of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea, Qabalistic Hebrew, Mediaeval Alchemy and bastardised Latin. Added to this adventurous esoteric language melting pot is also terminology from modernist Christian Mystical literature, psychological terms, the principles of Cosmogony, and increasingly new terms from physics and metaphysics. Thus Occult Language, terminology and parlance is pretty much a complex study in it’s own right even with the matter of Occult Blinds put to one side. It is no wonder that the Adepts say even today that “The Mysteries are well guarded and protected”. The Occult Language in it’s own right is a kaleidoscope philosophy which requires much sorting out before it will even reveal the beginnings of a coherent and meaningful pattern. When Kenneth Grant for example wrote that “the Alchemists Metals were living substances” he refers to the erotic secretions especially those of women, this in turn is a pointer to the Mysteries of Tantra or The Yoga of the West. Whilst Kenneth Grant’s late mentor Aleister Crowley referred to the Elixir of Life in his book Magick In Theory and Practice as “The highest form of the Eucharist is that in which the Element consecrated is One. It is one substance and not two, not living and not dead, neither liquid nor solid, neither hot nor cold, neither male or female. So Crowley was referring to the Eucharist or Christian Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ as the united sexual fluids and secretions of man and woman during sexual intercourse.  Yet how many Christians that attend the conventional church would realise what exactly they were religious celebrants of and how many of the clergy would also know the significance that they were celebrants of the reproductive life force. Odd then that prudishness has often ruled unrivalled within the Christian Church for it’s celebrants perhaps do not practice that which they are preached as a belief system.

The Secret Occult Language has many names such as the Green Language (Langue Vert), the Language of the Birds, the Twilight Language, Closed Language. Twilight in Sanskrit is “Sandhyabhasa” and this too is a secret name for the Twilight Language of esoteric terminology in which Tantric Knowledge and Sacred Texts are recorded, it is also sometimes termed as “Intentional Language” as it can often lead to several different interpretations. Sandhyabhasa” itself is said to be an “amalgam of Sanskrit and Bengali language”. Very similar Hidden Language as already alluded to is included within the Bible and can be interpreted and made use of through the Qabalistic System of the Tree of Life. Alchemists, Occultists, Tantrics, Gnostics, Hermetic Heretics and the like have long written down their mysterious secrets in carefully couched and veiled terms that may only be grasped by those understand the symbolic hints, prompts and guarded explanations – this being the reason why Initiation Rituals are or at least should be guarded and secretive. In the East menstrual fluid is spoken of as “Red Wine” and the Lingam and Yoni are called “Thunderbolts” in Tibet (the “Bell Ghanta”). Many advanced occult secrets are hidden within Gematria or numbers. Also in Taoist Wisdoms the Uterus becomes the “Deep Veil” and the Vagina becomes “The Mysterious Gate” and other terms such as “Union of Skilful Means and Profound Cognition” may offer esoteric insights – this being a secret codified term about the transmission of secret techniques and images that are based upon sexual energy or Kundalini – it is a way of referring to the sexual union between a Man (Means) and a Woman (Cognition) who are Adepts, all very highly secret stuff whose real significance is known only to Initiates of a certain calibre and degree. This being much the emphasis of the point of the Secret Language for nothing can be taken to mean exactly what it says at a surface level – it has to be regarded at a far deeper level and then the inner truth of the matter will be revealed and the Higher Mysteries may begin to become clear over a longer period of time.

The Twilight Language is especially constructed and structured language that works upon more than one level or indeed many levels, indeed it is fascinating to think that Magicians and Occultists throughout the ages have formed their own Mystical Language. It is an obscure language with a set of surface meanings as well as a possible whole series of concealed or hidden meanings. It is the concisely structured language which teaches the Mysteries of All things and Unveils the Most Hidden Truths if you can interpret it aright. The Twilight Language is pretty much universal in it’s scope and it is said to be the “Most Spiritual of all the languages”.

The writer David Ovason suggested that this Secret Language also known as Green Language can be translated into French to read as the “Langue Vert”. Now in French he suggested that as “Ouvert” means “Open” if you convert “Ouvert” to “Vert” then you get the opposite meaning which can be interpreted as “The Closed Language”. Thus we might conclude that this Secret Language is an overt way of offering something concealed and couched within innuendo or inference. The Occult Secrets are cleverly concealed within their own meaning. Nothing then in written Occult Sacred Texts and Magical Instruction Manuals should ever be taken solely at face value. The more malicious of the Occultists such as Aleister Crowley for example actually used the Twilight Language in a very misleading manner. Crowley firstly used filthy and lewd metaphores to scare away the weak and the prudish from Magical work, also he put in extremely dangerous pitfalls for the unwary on the basis the Adept would spot the Occult Danger whereas the Inept would get into very serious trouble quite quickly! However, Crowley saw these Dangerous Blinds and misuse of the Twilight Language as quite legitimate as ultimately in his view people got the form of Enlightenment that in his opinion they most deserved. That is the real importance of being aware of Occult Blinds and the Twilight Language – to use a legal term “Let the Buyer Beware”!

How then might this Twilight Language be structured? Well I myself for example use capitalisation where a CAPITAL LETTER would not usually be appropriate for I am giving a particular word enhanced EMPHASIS!!!  Anagrams can also be used such as AMORC which means The Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rose Cross which holds the secrets of Ancient Magical Orders going back to Hiram’s time in Ancient Egypt, the Ankh or Key to Life, the Rose and the Cross, the Rose with 32 petals representing the 32 Secret Paths of the Tree of Life – a Rosicrucian is “Born Again” or an Initiate. 32 Paths is a Qabalistic Blind for there are 22 Paths and 10 Spheres upon the Tree of Life. A word or phrase may also be Reversed for example “Am I to find God in a DOG?”. Logical words can be substituted for illogical words thus the odd sound of the written text would alert the reader that something secret was being said or implied. Anything out of context in an Occult Book is noteworthy and worth deeper consideration. Missing letters or extra letters in words are also significant for the esoteric writer is emphasising a point – they are giving Know-Ledge about Dis-Ease if you get MY ddrr-iifftt. The real meaning of Twilight Language can be extremely complex indeed. A very subtle trick was to use a word that either sounds like or mimics another word e.g. “Reading this article could bring you a real PAIN” meaning “Reading this article could bring you a real GAIN”. Old or outdated phraseology can also be Twilight Language for example “The modern Briton would read this article” would be immediately noticeable to an Adept’s Eagle Eye. Qualifying words can also be important for example “The Eagle Eyed Mage realised the significance of the Eye on the Tarot Fool’s leather satchel”. If the lower case where used where you would expect to see upper case lettering then again someone is perhaps emphasising a point. Unusual abbreviations might also be pointing the way to arcane knowledge.

This Twilight Language might seem to be a real pain to the seeker of Occult Secrets but it can also be really helpful once you learn and grasp how to spot and interpret an Occult Blind. When you can spot a Blind straight off then Higher Knowledge is immediately highlighted and available to you to use or discard in accordance with your own Taste, Discernment and Discretion. MY ARTICLE IS FULL OF LIES THAT ARE TRUE.

After Word : -

“MY ARTICLE IS FULL OF LIES THAT ARE TRUE.” might have been appreciated by Crowley who once wrote a “Book of Lies” it of course means that nothing on the Physical Plane can be an Absolute Truth for so much lies behind it upon the Inner Planes that even explanations of the Truth here on Earth would ultimately be Lies upon a Higher non physical Plane. To present your own version of the Truth you have to produce an approximation in language, archetype or symbol that other people might possibly be able to relate to themselves, but ultimately what is presented can never really be the real whole truth of the Matter. Truth is “Experiential” and at best we can only ever present an approximation of it. When we find these “Experiential Truths” we also find that ordinary language cannot accommodate them adequately and we cannot simply write down the Truth for others, so Experiential Truths have to be “couched in terms”. Intuition is a higher ability than psychism and Intuition is simply put JUST KNOWING - the “Inner Tuition” as Adepts might say in the terms of the lavishly rich and avante garde Twilight Language.

This article originally appeared in the Inner Light Journal, Vol. 23 No. 3, published by The Society of the Inner Light.

Most cultures throughout history have described beings, some angelic and some demonic in nature, that exist in other realities or dimensions parallel with and sometimes interpenetrating our world. Some mainstream psychologists claim these ‘extra-dimensional’ beings are the impersonal forces of nature which we personalize in an attempt to gain control over them. According to some more far-sighted psychologists and those aware of the new physics, however, these beings are representational of real forces. Behind our everyday perception, when we enter the world of sub-atomic particles, there is a level of existence where different laws apply, but which is no less real because invisible on a mundane level. The same applies to all ‘levels of existence’ which we cannot perceive with our usual senses.

The question arises why anyone would want to make contact with any of these other ‘beings’, particularly the demonic ones! If we are to be whole, to include rather than exclude all of ourselves, one way of achieving this is through making contact with all the forces within our universe. We are usually quite willing to include the ‘good guys’ – if I suggest that you talk to your Guardian Angel you would probably have little resistance (assuming you believed it possible). On the other hand, once we discuss communicating with demons we are entering the realm of the shadow which includes those parts of ourselves that we would rather not face.

Any aspect of our being that we exclude from our awareness becomes part of our shadow which has been usefully described as being like a big bag we drag round behind us. The more shadow we have, the heavier our bag becomes and the more it restricts our free movement. Conversely, the more material from this ‘shadow bag’ we can dredge out, face, and integrate, the lighter the bag becomes and the more energy we have available to fulfil our life functions, from the loftiest sense of Divine Purpose through to everyday functions that help us survive in the world.

If we do not face our anger over, say, a poor work situation, this suppressed anger and the associated anxiety will become part of our shadow. If we find ways of expressing the anger, we will no longer be pulled down by the weight of it, and will free our energies, perhaps to make a life-enhancing decision about the work. On the other hand, if we do not express our anger, it is pushed deeper down into the shadow bag until we are no longer even aware of its existence. As a result there will be tension and holding patterns in our body which will cause pain and disease later in life. We might start smoking tobacco to alleviate the stress from denying the anger; we might over-eat in an attempt to suppress the attendant feelings.

We can then say that our behaviour opens us up to the influence of the corresponding demonic force. For instance, a demon whose presence brings ‘cancerous mis-growth of cells’ might be allowed a foothold in the body which then leads to illness or death. We do not have to believe in demons to understand the process of what is happening. Perhaps what we are dealing with is a personification of the suppressed material in an individual’s subconscious. Whatever we believe, however, what we can do is to start communicating with the demons or ‘suppressed energies’, find what they need to express, and through various appropriate actions, dispel the demons through releasing the pent-up anger.

On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the sphere called Daath is the access point to the reverse side of the Tree where all the demons that bring ‘dis-ease’ into our lives exist. Whether these demons represent aspects of our own shadow nature or whether they are actual entities with a life of their own is irrelevant as we can communicate and affect our relationship with them as if they are real. Thus we can affect a healing through communicating with demons as much as through contacting our Guardian Angel. Kabbalistic healing includes work with both spirit and shadow, bringing us closer to a wholeness that heals not just ourselves but all the extra-dimensional beings in our world.

Article first appeared in Watkins Review, Summer 2006