The Golden Dawn Read online

  The element offered for the work of transmutation in the grade of Zelator is the earthy part of the candidate. The ritual symbolically admits him to the first rung of that mighty ladder whose heights are obscured in the light above. This first rung is the lowest sphere of the conventional Tree of Life, Malkuth, the Sanctum Regnum. To it are ascribed the first grade of Zelator, and the element of earth. Herein, after the earth elementals are invoked, the candidate is ceremonially brought to three stations, the first two being those of evil and the presence divine. At each of these stations the Guardians reject him at the point of the sword, urging him in his unprepared state to return. His third attempt to go forward places him in a balanced position, the path of equilibrium, the Middle Way, where he is received. And a way is cleared for him by the Hierophant, who again represents the celestial soul of things. During his journey along that path, the stability of earth is established within him, that eventually it may prove an enduring temple of the Holy Spirit.

  Some have criticized these elemental grades a little harshly and severely; others have rejected them entirely. In a letter sent to me from a former Praemonstrator of one G.D. temple, these rituals too were condemned in that they were said to be simply a parade, redundant and verbose, of the occult knowledge that one of the Chiefs possessed at that time. In one sense, of course, what those critics claim is perfectly true. The principal formulae and teaching are concealed in the preliminary Neophyte grade and that of Adeptus Minor. It is the development of the ideas in these ceremonies that constitutes the Great Work—the disclosure of the essence of mind, the invocation of the higher genius. These, however, are the high ends and the final goals of the mystic term. Notwithstanding his limitations these are ultimates to which every man must work. Meanwhile, in order to render that attainment possible in its fullest sense, several important matters require attention. The personality must be harmonized. Every element therein demands equilibration in order that illumination ensuing from the magical work may not produce fanaticism and pathology instead of adeptship and integrity. Balance is required for the accomplishment of the Great Work. “Equilibrium is the basis of the soul.” Therefore, the four grades of earth, air, water, and fire plant the seeds of the microcosmic pentagram, and above them is placed, in the Portal ceremony, the crown of the spirit, the quintessence, added so that the elemental vehemence may be tempered, to the end that all may work together in balanced disposition. These grades are therefore an important and integral part of the work, despite shortsighted hostile criticism. To compare them, however, with those that precede and follow, is symptomatic of an intellectual confusion of function. It is rather as if one said that milk is more virtuous than Friday—which, naturally, is absurd. Yet similar comparisons in magical matters are constantly being made without exciting ridicule. It is obvious that different categories may not be so compared. The purpose of the Neophyte ritual is quite distinct from that of Zelator, and it is mistaken policy to compare them. What rightly could be asked is whether the Zelator and the other elemental grades accomplish what they purport to do. That is another matter. The consensus of experienced opinion is on the whole that they do, and I am content for the time being to accept that authority.

  The candidate by these grades is duly prepared, so it is argued, to enter the immeasurable region, to begin to analyze and comprehend the nature of the light which has been vouchsafed him. The first three elemental grades could be taken just as quickly as the candidate, at the discretion of the Chiefs, desired. There were no requirements other than to indicate by examination that the appropriate meditations had been performed and certain items of Qabalistic knowledge necessary to the magical routine committed to memory.

  Before proceeding further in the analysis of the grades, there is one rather fine prose passage in the Zelator grade that must be given here—a passage of beauty, high eloquence, and lofty significance. “And Tetragrammaton placed Kerubim at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the path of the Tree of Life, for He has created nature that man being cast out of Eden may not fall into the void. He has bound man with the stars as with a chain. He allures him with scattered fragments of the divine body in bird and beast and flower. And He laments over him in the wind and in the sea and in the birds. And when the times are ended, He will call the Kerubim from the east of the garden, and all shall be consumed and become infinite and holy.”

  It would be a happy task, were it advisable, to devote several pages of this introduction to praising the excellence of what are called the four elemental prayers. Each one of the elemental initiation ceremonies closes with a long prayer of invocation which issues, as it were, from the heart of the elements themselves. These must be silently read, continuously meditated upon, and frequently heard fully to be appreciated, when the reader will find his own personal reactions crystallizing. Recited by the Hierophant at the end of the ceremony, these prayers voice the inherent aspiration of the elements towards the goal they are striving in their own way to reach, for here they are conceived as blind dumb forces both within and without the personal sphere of man. They are given assistance by the human beings who, having invoked them and used their power, strive to repay in some way the debt owed to these other struggling lives.

  The grade after the earth ceremony is that of Theoricus. It is referred to the Ninth Sephirah on the Tree of Life, Yesod, the Foundation, and to it are attributed the sphere of the operation of Luna and the element air. Here the candidate is conducted to the stations of the four Kerubim, the angelic choir of Yesod. The Kerubim are defined in that ritual as the presidents of the elemental forces, the vivified powers of the letters of Tetragrammaton operating in the elements. Over each of these rules one of the four letters of the mirific word and the Kerubim. It is always through the power and authority and symbol of the Kerub that the elemental spirits and their rulers are invoked. In this ritual, as in all the others, important practical formulae of ceremonial magic are concealed.

  At this juncture of the ceremony, with the airy elements vibrating about him and through him, the Zelator is urged to be “prompt and active as the sylphs, but avoid frivolity and caprice. Be energetic and strong as the salamanders but avoid irritability and ferocity. Be flexible and attentive to images, like the undines, but avoid idleness and changeability. Be laborious and patient like the gnomes, but avoid grossness and avarice. So shalt thou gradually develop the powers of thy soul and fit thyself to command the spirits of the elements.”

  In each of the grades, several drawings and diagrams are exhibited, each one conveying useful knowledge and information required in the upward quest. The tarot keys are also dealt with, as indicating pictorially the stages of that journey, and depicting the story of the soul. It may not be possible because of the exigencies of space to reproduce in these volumes a pack of tarot cards based upon esoteric descriptions—though I should very much liked to have done so. But by using the Waite and the available French and Italian packs, and by comparing them with the accounts given in the rituals, the imagination of the reader will render this omission unimportant.

  The third grade is that of Practicus referred to the Sephirah Hod, the Splendour, the lowest of the Sephiroth on the left hand side of the Tree, the pillar of Severity. Its attributions refer to the sphere of the operation of Mercury, but more especially to the element of water, which in this ceremony is invoked to power and presence. As I have previously remarked, and it bears constant reiteration, the Tree of Life and the Qabalistic scheme as a whole should be carefully studied so that the aptness of the attributions both to the Sephiroth and the Paths may be fully appreciated. Two Paths lead to the sphere of Splendour—the Path of Fire from Malkuth and the Path of the reflection of the sphere of the Sun from Yesod. Water is germinative and maternal, whilst fire is paternal and fructifying. It is from their interior stimulation and union, the alchemical trituration, that the higher life is born, even as has been said, “Except ye be baptized with water and the Spirit ye c
annot enter the Kingdom of heaven.”

  Therefore in this grade, the candidate is led to the sphere of stagnant water, which by the presence of solar and fiery elements is vitalized and rendered a perfect creative base. Most of the speeches in this ritual are depicted as issuing from the Samothracian Kabiri, the deluge gods, though the main body of the ritual consists of the sonorous and resonant versicles of the Chaldaean Oracles, the translation, I believe, of Dr. Westcott, with a few modifications authorized by Mathers.

  Briefly, the entire symbolism of the Practicus grade is summarized by the position on the altar of the principal Golden Dawn emblems so arranged that “the cross above the Triangle represents the power of the spirit rising above the triangle of the waters.” That also indicates the immediate task of the candidate. At this juncture, too, the diagrams displayed begin to take on especial significance, and though their theme apparently is biblical in nature, accompanied by explanations in a curious phraseology consonant therewith, they are nevertheless highly suggestive, as containing the elements of a profound psychology. After this grade follows an automatic wait of three months, referred to as the regimen of the elements, a period as it were of silent incubation, during which time the rituals were given to the candidate that he may make copies for his own private use and study.

  The fourth grade of Philosophus carries the candidate one step further. The Sephirah involved is Netzach, Victory, to which is referred the operation of the planet Venus and the element of fire, while the paths that connect to the lower rungs of the ladder are principally of a watery nature. Thus the elements encountered are of an identical nature with those of the preceding grade, but their order and power is quite reversed. Previously the water was predominant. Now the fire rages and whirls in lurid storm, with water only as the complementary element whereon it may manifest, and in order that due equilibrium may be maintained, as it is written: “The Ruach Elohim moved upon the face of the waters.” These two are the primary terrestrial elements which, intelligently controlled and creatively employed, may lead eventually to the restoration of the Golden Age. By their transmutation a new paradise may be recreated from the darkness and chaos into which formerly it had fallen. For the light may not legitimately be called forth upon man, nor dwell within him, until chaos has been turned into equilibrium of complete realization and enlightenment. Not until order has been restored to the lower elements of his earthy kingdom, neither peace nor inner security may be his rightful lot.

  The symbols depicted while traversing the Path of Peh, which joins the spheres of fire and water, indicate the results as it were of the first stages of the Path, for the tarot card shown demonstrates the destruction of a tower by lightning. The three holes blasted in the walls symbolize the supernal Triad, the establishment of the divine through and following the destruction of the outer self. Though fire and water, warmth and moisture, are essentially creative, their stimulation within the being of the Neophyte draws his attention, perhaps for the first time, to the chaotic condition of his natural existence, and the complete psychic muddle into which his ignorance and spiritual impotence have stranded him. Evocative of the highest within his soul, these elements equally call forth that which is base and low. The result of the first step is analytical, an unbalancing, the leveling down of all that man formerly held true and holy—the chaos, the darkness, and the gates of the land of night. An unhappy state, but a very necessary one if progress is to be made and if the preliminary chaos is to be transcended. From these ruins may be erected the new temple of light, for it is always from the rubbish heap that are selected the materials for the manifestation of godhead. These symbols have a dual reference. Not only do they refer to the epochs of creative evolution whose memory has long since faded even from the visible memory of nature, but also to the recapitulations of these periods within personal progress on the Path. “The Aspirant on the threshold of Initiation,” observes Crowley very aptly, “finds himself assailed by the ‘complexes’ which have corrupted him, their externalization excruciating him, and his agonized reluctance to their elimination plunging him into such ordeals that he seems (both to himself and to others) to have turned from a noble and upright man into an unutterable scoundrel.” These are the experiences and events that occur to every aspirant when initiation forces the realization upon him that “all is sorrow.” In fact, it is my belief that the criterion or hallmark of successful initiation is the occurrence of these or similar experiences. The whole universe, under the stimulation of the magical elements and inward analysis, seems to tumble like a pack of cards crazily about one’s feet. This is the solve half of the alchemical solve et coagula formula.

  Analysis must precede synthesis. Corruption is the primitive base from which the pure gold of the spirit is drawn. Moreover the alchemical treatises are eloquent in their description of the poisonous nature of this condition, which, though extremely unpleasant, is a highly necessary one, and success in its production is at least one symptom of good working. It is held that the highest results may not be obtained until this particular type of change has occurred. So far as the nature of the environment and the creative power of the personal self permits, the task implied by the coagula formula is to assemble them and remould them nearer to the heart’s desire. And here again, the alchemists are adamant in their insistence upon the aphorism that “Nature unaided fails.” For the alchemist, so the tradition asserts, commences his work where nature has left off. And were this solve phenomenon to occur spontaneously in the course of nature, the result and the outcome—the coagulation of previously dissolved elements—would not be very dissimilar to that which previously existed. But with the technique of initiation, the chaos is lifted up and fermented so to speak, that from it, with the aid of the invoked white light of the divine spirit, a higher species of being, illumined and enlightened, may develop.

  In two altar diagrams—one called the Garden of Eden, shown in the Practicus grade, and the other called The Fall shown in the Philosophus grade—all these ideas are expanded and synthesized. They should be carefully studied and receive long meditation, for in them are many clues to the spiritual and psychological problems which beset the traveler on the Path, and they resume the entire philosophy of magic. Many hints, moreover, which may be found useful as assisting meditation are contained in The ‘Curse’ from a Philosophical Point of View in the second volume of Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine in connection with the Prometheus myth and the awakening of Manas, mind.

  Since both of these diagrams may be found reproduced in the color insert (see color insert page 1 and 2) very little by way of prolonged explanation need here be said. The first depicts a personified representation of the three fundamental principles in man. Each of these is apparently separate, functioning independently on its own plane without cooperation with, because apparently unaware of, either the higher or the lower. Principally, it represents man in the now departed morning of the race, in the primal rounds of evolutionary effort when self-consciousness had not yet been won by self-induced and self-devised efforts, and when peace and harmony prevailed both within and without by right of heritage rather than through personal labor. The diagram appears in the water grade of Practicus, since water is a fitting representation of this placid peace. At the summit of the diagram stands the Apocalyptic woman clothed with the sun of glory, crowned with the twelve stars, and the moon lying at her feet. Her symbolism pertains to the supernal essence of mind, representing thus the type and symbol of the glittering Augoeides, the neschamah.

  Speaking of an analogous psychological conception in his commentary to The Secret of the Golden Flower, Dr. C.G. Jung remarks that this figure represents “a line or principle of life that strives after superhuman, shining heights.” At the base of the tree stands Eve, the nephesch or unconscious who, in opposition to this divine genius, stands for the dark, “earthborn, feminine principle with its emotionality and instinctiveness reaching far back into the depths of time, and into the roots of physiological continuity.�
�� Between the two stands Adam, supported by the fundamental strength of Eve, the ruach or ego not yet awakened to a realization of its innate power and possibility. From the larger point of view, he represents the race as a whole and “is the personified symbol of the collective Logos, the ‘Host,’ and of the Lords of Wisdom or the Heavenly Man, who incarnated in humanity.” Otherwise he represents the individual candidate on the Path, prior to the awakening of the “sleeping dogs” within his being, to use Blavatsky’s apt expression.

  Beneath these three figures sleeps a coiled dragon, silent, unawakened. None, it would seem, is aware of that latent power, titanic and Promethean, coiled beneath—the active magical power centered in man, his libido, neutral, of vast potentialities but neither good nor evil in itself.