Scrying versus Immersion

Lately I have seen a number of beautifully constructed scrying stands called variously Trithemius table of workings or watchtower scrying stands. I recall that Alex Sanders possessed one of these devices and they appear to be a popular tool amongst ceremonial magicians today, especially those espousing a more traditional approach to grimoire magic. As impressive and beautiful as these devices are, they rely on an age-old approach to interacting with the domain of Spirit, or the Inner Planes, and that is to activate one’s clairvoyant abilities and summon spirits, opening a “gateway” within the scrying stone to see and relate what the spirits say, or to receive symbolic and visionary imagery, or a combination.

While this might seem like a very impressive and powerful mechanism to communicate with entities and to gain a visionary insight into the domain of Spirit, and it has now become a very popular methodology, it is not the only method of communication and visual entry into that domain. It also relies on the abilities and attuned senses of the scryer, and I believe that clairvoyance is something that is neither consistent nor reliable. There are methods of astral projection, spirit vision, and a system that I have developed, which is what I call immersion. First, let’s look at scrying and see what it is like.

If we look back at the history of this technique or approach to magical operations, the most famous scrying sessions were those that were performed by Edward Kelly for Dr. John Dee. While Edward Kelly functioned as the scryer, what was passed by him to John Dee was carefully examined and given a coherent context, so that it was actually the two of them working together who brought forth the Enochian system of magic. Edward Kelly, by himself, could not have produced such an ordered and sensible system, and without him, John Dee could not have penetrated the unseen world of angels and good spirits. 

Yet Edward Kelly was sporadic, moody, and not always able to produce results, and it is likely that some of what Kelly passed to Dee was not particularly significant, coherent, or informative. While the Enochian system itself is nearly peerless, much of what the angels and spirits passed to Dee through Kelly was deceptive, erroneous or even somewhat delusional. Promises were made by the various spirits and angels of wealth and fame, but failed to have any practical application or basis in reality. Kelly went off on one of his escapades seeking to exploit the secret of alchemically producing gold, and Dee succumbed to poverty and defamation after returning home. Without Kelly, Dee was never able to produce the results that he had previously.

This example of scrying is probably one of the greatest and best known, but other examples show an inconsistency in producing results that might otherwise be a potential occult breakthrough, like what Dee managed to produce, and instead have a tendency toward triviality and irrelevancy. Even Dee passed on a lot of communications in his diaries that are mostly irrelevant and trivial, making them particularly meaningless today to modern occultists. This tendency toward irrelevant communications was also what happened during mediumistic trance sessions in the 19th century Spiritualism movement. I believe that indirectly contacting the domain of Spirit either through a trance medium or a scrying session loses a lot of context and meaning by being displaced from the place where the spirits actually reside, which is a domain ruled by symbols and analogues, much like the place of lucid dreaming. 

I think a better example of what is required for a closer, direct, and intimate communication are the mystery cults of the dead and death, where the candidate was expected to journey to a place or sacred location and experience the mystery physically and mentally immersed. This is true regarding the Eleusinian Mysteries, or others, like the Oracle of Trophonius with the famous grave passage, or the Oracle at Delphi, found in a remote cave. However, since I live in the U.S., I lack any such famous historically sacred place or location that could be considered a gateway into the underworld. However, the idea of a location where a gateway to the underworld could be found or even forced is a compelling example of what I have come to know as immersion.

Crowley, in his masterful ordeal, performing the 30 invocations of the Aethyrs and fully realizing their powerful and transformative visions, was done in the backdrop of the sacred space of the great Algerian Saharan desert. Crowley performed these rites in a physically sacred space, intoning the 19th Enochian key, and did not use any kind magic circle to protect himself or his accomplice. There also wasn’t any scrying stone or other kind of device. Crowley's experiences was direct and without any boundary or obstacle, so his magical experience was through immersion. I believe that the magical process of immersion made his book, “Vision and the Voice” containing these experiences far more potent than they would have been had he employed a system of scrying.

Unlike Crowley, I couldn’t travel to some far away land to perform my magic in some sacred place. Lacking any sacred terrain to make this kind of underworld egress, I did find two powerful and useful tools in my regimen of ritual structures. That is the triangular gateway ritual structure and the cross-roads negative vortex ritual structure. These are patently new ritual structures that I have not found in any other system of ritual magic. They work with the symbology of entering the underworld, and generate the appropriate energy fields that simulate entry into another domain, and combined together, produce a potent analogue of the underworld entrance that is a key to acquiring an immersion within the energized symbology of the underworld and all that it contains. 

This magically defined domain that the magician has entered is highly suggestible, allowing the magician to define and establish a specific domain associated with a spirit that they would seek to summon. A magician then uses the symbols of correspondences associated with a specific spirit to build an imagos or image body for the spirit, and to define its home or domain. A spirit body is generated through an elemental or energy construct, and its intelligence is defined through the planets. A spirit’s name is its symbolic key, used to generate a sigil or seal, as well as lending symbolic clues to its essential nature. 

Typically, a spirit also has a location within the Tree of Life (or below it), and has other symbolic qualifiers, such as the four elements, seven planets, twelve astrological signs, and also symbolic numbers and gematria word associations. All these symbols blend together to define a spirit and the place where it resides. When merging this symbology with the cross-roads vortex and the gateway underworld passage, it opens up the symbolic location where the spirit resides and allows for a direct exposure to this entity without a protective magic circle or triangle of evocation getting in the way. Using such a technique to gain a direct encounter with a conjured spirit makes such practices as scrying or evoking through a triangle seem anaemic and too displaced to have the kind of affect of a naked exposure. 

Of course, my critics in the magical practitioner’s world would claim that such a direct exposure would be dangerous, and that it is critically important to shield oneself from potentially hostile spirits and the affects of their mind bending and twisted domain, whether associated with heaven or hell. Because I learned to perform conjurations as a Witch, I did not need to use any kind of protective magic circle to experience a form of immersion with the Gods and Goddesses of Witchcraft. Our magic circle was used to establish a boundary between the sacred realm of our Deities warded by the Dread Lords to fashion a world within a world. We did not need to be protected in our magic circle because it was populated with our powerful Deities and protective guardians. All we needed to perform invocations and evocations was to fortify ourselves to be able to experience such encounters, and to erect within that sacred precinct, a gateway and a cross-road vortex that open it up to the greater domain of the underworld. All magic and liturgy were performed in the same space, so the need for a magic circle of protection and an evocation gateway, as well as use of a scrying stone were for all practical purposes, unnecessary. Using that approach, I have build an advanced magical system based on a Witchcraft magical foundation.

To fortify oneself to perform this kind of magic without boundaries or protective areas, I have developed a methodology based on the Drawing Down rite, which I have renamed as godhead assumption. Since this is also a part of Witchcraft practices, to use it to empower and protect oneself seemed intuitively obvious to me. I made it an integral part of the magic that I perform very early on in my magical development, and it has me and many others quite well in the performance of this kind of ritual magic. Modern Witches and Pagans have always approached engaging with their Deities in a direct manner, and based on the structure of their magic circle and the rites of charging and empowering it, it would seem that ancillary rites to conjure spirits would be performed in a similar manner. Add to that set of liturgical and magical rites a godhead assumption and communion, and what you have is so sacralized environment that functions as the magical and spiritual base for all subsequent magical workings. These practices fuse the liturgical rites and magical rites to formulate a Witchcraft magical system that is entirely theurgic, and channels the Godhead into all the workings that Witches and Pagans might perform.

It is for this reason that I seldom use a scrying stone to gain any kind of magical contact with a spirit. I have no need for this kind of magical operation since I can just go and talk to the spirits first hand in their world. I can use spirit vision to travel with the spirits so they can show me places and give me visions, and I can use incubation, to peaceful sleep in their domain and to dream the answers to my questions. To me spirit vision or astral projection are similar, and sleeping in the activated symbolic domain of the spirit is similar to sleeping in the sacred space of a temple or grove in some faraway place. Additionally, directly engaging with conjured spirits in their domain produces a powerful transformative experience, which can trigger initiations and even brief forms of illumination. It would seem that what I have developed is, in my opinion, superior to the methodology of ceremonial magic that requires boundaries and obstacles so that spirits can only remotely engage with magicians.

My method of immersion is just another technique for gaining access to conjured spirits, and it is certainly not the only one. Scrying is a tried and true practice, and one that is guaranteed to be protected and safe. It also keeps the magician from having spiritual transformations and more direct communications such as might be produced if these boundaries were eliminated. Of course eliminating the boundaries requires fortifying the self through the agency of a Deity, and these kind of practices are specific to the ritual magic performed by Witches and Pagans, so they are not capable of being used by adherents of monotheistic faiths, who lack the agency of godhead assumption. There are possible exceptions, such as when a priest performs a mass rite and briefly becomes the Christ, but that mechanism has not been incorporated into magical workings as far as I know, and extending the mass rite in this manner might be considered blasphemous.

I offer the technique of magical immersion as another method, but I believe that is the best approach for Modern Witches and Pagans to practice the art of spirit conjuration.

Frater Barrabbas

Further Thoughts About Witchcraft

For many years now I have been a lineage head and an elder of my specific branch and line of Alexandrian witchcraft. This role has given me quite a bit of latitude in developing and establishing a set of witchcraft lore that I felt was true to spirit of what my old coven had been attempting to forge all those years ago when I was under the leadership of Christopher and Alexandria, our coven leaders. Of course, as the story goes, these two individuals left witchcraft and paganism to become leaders of an ersatz fundamentalism and to pen a notorious book (“Wicca: Satan’s Little White Lie” by Bill Schnoebelen), which left me as the defacto head of that initiatic line. Some have commented that such a schism would (or should) have nullified my line altogether, and others have said that what I have as a tradition is of questionable value, considering what my teachers later achieved.

As a result, my line has the dubious distinction of being not only considered fraudulent, but all my practices and opinions are also said to be spurious and automatically disqualified. I have certainly annoyed some individuals with my overly liberal viewpoints and my belief that witchcraft has a long period of change and development ahead of it before it can become a truly deep and profound spiritual path. Those who seek a comfortable orthodoxy and stasis within witchcraft are actually doing that tradition far more harm than good. Thus I am perceived as a gad-fly to traditionalists, or worse, as a borderline apostate.  

However, I have always made the point that we shouldn’t be isolated practitioners and that we should receive, from time to time, some kind of peer review from others who are qualified to make a proper judgement of our work. This kind of objective examination should apply to everything that a witch or pagan believes or does in their practice and within their spiritual discipline. I have found such a one to examine my work as a witch and a lineage holder, and perhaps this opinion, which I intend to share with my readers, will at least silence the pundits who think that I have produced a variant of Alexandrian witchcraft that is spurious, deviant and invalid.

Over the years I had assembled, refined and produced a written document containing not only my biography, but also the specific additions and refinements I found necessary to run a well established coven and lineage. This document is extremely confidential, and I only share it with individuals who are part of my line, which until recently, has been those women and men (via an acting High Priestess) who were initiated into my line. I am proud of what I have been able to assemble, and all of the rituals included have been used and refined over many years. I can’t discuss any of the contents of this document, but if someone were to judge my work and my line, this document would be the source for that examination.

Recently, I have been in communication with an individual who would be considered the actual head of my overall lineage, although he is no longer practicing the craft. I shared my lineage document with him and requested his opinion and input about what I had established as my particular line and its associated practices. I got his permission to share with my readers his judgement on my work, although he has asked to remain anonymous and wished to be referred to by his old craft name “Summanus.” Here is what he had to say about my lineage document.

“I very much enjoyed your account, especially the way in which you’ve fleshed out the bare bones of the original Alexandrian BoS - that has always needed to be done. The very paucity of the initial material (‘is this all there is?’) naturally spurred a great many initiates wanting something more than initiations and short seasonal rites to try their hand at extended development - Alex included - which generally had regrettable results, as they usually left the original Wiccan spirit behind and flew off into ever more complex and idiosyncratic fantasies.

You have done an admirable job of keeping to the script and reinforcing the tropes that attracted people to Wicca in the first place, while offering what appears to be a far more multifaceted ritual system for those initiates that desire that sort of thing. I also found your occult life trajectory interesting and familiar as well - the fixed reality of nearly everyone’s esoteric career are the occurrence of internecine disputes, group founding and dissolution (coagula and solve?), disappointment and re-energizing, but many drop out.. without achieving what you have done - congratulations!”

Summanus 08/08/2013

As you can see by the above comments, my lineage document and work has been validated by someone who has the knowledge, objectivity, and experience to properly judge me. Hopefully, his comments will put to rest any opinions, whether within my line or outside of it, that I have somehow egregiously deviated from the foundation of my tradition. While I have built up an entire system of magic from that foundation, my Book of Shadows and my lineage document are what I pass on to others who initiate into my line. I have faithfully kept all of this material properly accounted for and distinguished from the basic Alexandrian tradition and the elements that were added to it. That is all that I am expected to do, and that knowledge is passed on to those who I choose to initiate (or those who are initiated by High Priestesses in my line). What I don’t do, nor do I advocate for others to do, is to just stop there and merely perform the same rites and the same workings year in and year out. I have a foundational tradition, but what I normally do is well above and beyond it, even though it is the point of origin for everything that I do today.

Wicca vs. Witchcraft

This brings me to my second topic as I think about witchcraft, and that is the troubling split between the craft part of witchcraft and Wicca as a pagan based religion. Witchcraft is a tradition consisting of techniques and methods of working magic as well as an immersion within the modern revival of paganism. Some might link up the magical practices of bush-craft or cunning craft with that of modern witchcraft, and they wouldn’t be wrong to do so. What saddens me is to encounter those who are adherents of Wicca who eschew any form of magic. I was taught that in order to be a witch you had to practice witchcraft, and that meant that you had to know and practice magic. To me, Wicca is just a variety of witchcraft, yet without the practice of magic, it becomes something of a milk-toast or watered down version of a harmless neopagan religion. If you consider yourself a witch, then you need to know and practice witchcraft magic - it’s as simple as that. 

As you might know from what I have written in the past, I believe that a witch is someone who is both an adherent of modern paganism (Wicca) and also a knowledgeable practitioner of ritual magick. I am not talking about ceremonial magick, of course, although that could be part of what one might know or even practice. I am talking about both high and low magic that is based on the foundation of modern paganism and the crafty part of witchcraft. Low magic is aptly represented these days by hoodoo, which I find acceptable as long as the more obvious Christian elements are removed or better yet, replaced with pagan deities. Earthy witchcraft practitioners would include the Gods in their magical workings, even though some forms of Hoodoo don’t involve any religious elements at all, or do so in a very oblique manner. Followers of Wicca have the dispensation to produce charged items and certain sacraments, and these can be powerfully employed in a very effective form of low magic.

Gardner, in his fictional work, “High Magic’s Aid” gives the witch the all important role and function of being the wielder of a consecrated blade, and it is to be assumed from that story that witches could consecrate other items as well to be used in a high magic working. We can assume that opinion is what Gardner held regarding Wicca and high magic. Grimoires from the Renaissance and later periods directed the magician to get his vestments and tools consecrated by an ordained priest, but of course, such an individual would hardly engage in performing such a dubious without asking a lot of questions. A witch, on the other hand (if we use this logic) would have no such qualms, being herself a practitioner of low or earth-based magic. According to the logic presented by Gardner, a witch would be in the perfect position to master high magic as well as perform low magic.

Now, when I differentiate between low and high magic, I make no condescending judgement upon what I define as low or earth-based magic while behaving like a snob and elevating what I call high magic. If a witch is not disposed toward high magic and doesn’t want to engage in conjurations or walking the “other” world, then that is quite acceptable and completely within the domain of what I call witchcraft. Obviously, high magic is a special calling, requiring a certain proclivity for complexity and a more intensive regimen and discipline. Even so, a witch who is an exclusive practitioner of low magic should be able to perform various types of elemental magic (not to be confused with the four elemental creatures) as well as generating a planetary or Deity-blessed talisman. Modern witches should know how to perform these two operations and also how to create and employ sigils. These types of magic are fairly simple and fundamental to any magical practice, high or low. Yet I am amazed at how many adherents of witchcraft don’t know how to perform these tasks, or even worse, feel that such forms of magic are somehow harmful or bad.    

As I have said, if you call yourself a witch, then you should be able to formulate and practice magic as your form of “witchcraft.” Otherwise, you are just a harmless neopagan trying very hard (and failing) to be acceptable to your Christian neighbors. There are a lot of materials available for any witch who aspires to be proficient with witchcraft, and in fact you can find many of those techniques discussed on this blog at various times in the past.

My particular proclivity is to help witches master a form of high ritual magick that is based on the way that they learned to perform magic when going through their initial training. The system of ritual magick that I developed is particularly relevant to either witchcraft or magical forms of neopaganism. The two books that I have written on ritual magick represent a specific system that uses the witchcraft magic circle as its base, and therefore performs all of the operations using a technique of immersion. This means that the witch is not shielded from the various conjurations that he or she might perform because everything that is done is accomplished within the magic circle. What is outside of the circle is part of the mundane or profane world, and yet what is within the circle is part of the domain of spirits, ancestors and deities. All that protects a witch performing these kinds of workings is her own special and individual alignment to her personal Godhead, to which she has assumed and internalized as part of the basic regimen of magical preparation. She performs this work as a temporary representative of the Goddess, and so whatever spirits she evokes will comply with her desires and perceive her as a greater authority over them - and for that moment, so she is.

I have written a number of articles in the past that talk about this methodology, and I would like renew my readers acquaintance with them so that my perspective regarding high ritual magick is made abundantly clear. As witches we are the receivers of the legacy of sorcery and forms of conjuration and necromancy. We are the walkers between worlds, and so we should also be the mediators of Gods, spirits and ancestors. To start off this review of my past articles, let us first examine the difference between ceremonial magic (Golden Dawn) and witchcraft high magic, and you can find that article here. Then we should examine how I define immersion when I talk about witches performing high magic, and you can find that article here. Then I have a couple of articles that examine the basic theories of magic, particularly the energy theory of magic, which is most apt for witchcraft high magical workings, and you can find those two articles here and here. I would also like to share my thoughts about practical magic in an article here, and then examine the nature of pagan deity, here. These articles were written back in 2009 and many of my readers will probably have missed out on the useful material that they contain, since looking for them can be a frustrating hit or miss process.

This is a theme that I am pursuing in my present series of articles, so you should stay aware of my newest postings. I also regret that I haven’t been posting as frequently as I have done in the past, but I have been grappling with my regular job and trying (successfully, so far) to reinvent myself, and I have also been having issues with sleeping again. I will probably have to go to a sleep clinic in the near future to resolve this malady, since it has become obvious to me that getting a good night’s sleep is valuable for having the focus and energy to do lots of other things. Hopefully, I will be able to resolve this problem soon.

Enjoy the review articles and hopefully I will  have more interesting things to share with you in the future.

Frater Barrabbas

Triangle as the Magickal Gateway of the Mysteries

“The gates of Hell  are open night and day; 

smooth the descent, and easy is the way: 

but, to return, and view the cheerful skies; 

in this, the task and mighty labor lies.”

Virgil

I have previously discussed how the Cycle of the Hero is also the transformative process of transcendental initiation, and you can find it here. The fact that the twenty-two stages which Joseph Campbell assembled to illustrate this worldwide mythic template also matches the twenty-two trumps of the Major Arcana of the Tarot was a major revelation for me. As you can imagine, I have found all sorts of uses for that comparative analogy. However, my next objective is to show how this process can be integrated into one’s magickal workings, thereby acquiring the ability to trigger the process of transformation.

Keep in mind that transformation is not something that can be thoroughly controlled or contained. One can unleash it, but then it finds its own resolution. Transformation is still something that occurs practically unbidden, but often happens to the candidate when he or she has surpassed and outstripped what was known and accepted, and enters into the domain of the unknown and the unexpected.

Yet if we are to ritualize this process of transformative initiation, won’t the twenty-two stages be kind of cumbersome to use in a working? Yes, it would be quite cumbersome, plus it has the simple shape of a circle that represents a cyclic process, but not necessarily a gateway threshold. What must be done to reduce this process down to its most basic expression is to make it into an effective operational ritual technique, and this is what I have already done.

There are four major stages to the Hero’s Journey, and these are: Call to Adventure, Underworld Trials, the Cosmogonic Cycle, and the Return. If we remove the Cosmogonic Cycle from this process, since it is more concerned with the world at large and not the individual, then we have just three stages. These three stages could be condensed down to three animated aspects - the Guide, the Guardian, and the Ordeal itself. Implicit in the Ordeal are the various trials, including the final trial, which is the Return. The Guardian can represent both the threshold guardian of the entrance and the exit gates of the Underworld. The Guide represents the various helpers who assist the hero in achieving his object, both before and even within the Underworld.

So the entire cycle of twenty-two stages can be reduced down to just three aspects - the Guide, Guardian and the Ordeal. Having three aspects is not a coincidence, since they are arranged to form an equilateral triangle, which I call a trigon. A trigon has many qualities, but chief among them is that it symbolizes a doorway. If we draw a triangle and use it in the context of a magick circle, then we are defining a symbolic doorway between worlds. This is why the ceremonial magickal focus for a Goetic evocation is a triangle, always placed just outside the protective sanctity of a magick circle.

However, because witches and pagans use a system of immersion for the basis of their magick, then a triangle of evocation couldn’t be placed outside of the magick circle. This is because of the fact that anything outside of the circle is part of the mundane world, not a gateway to the spirit world. A witch or pagan either has to adopt a ceremonial magickal system so such a tool can be used, or drop its use altogether. Yet a third possibility arises when the trigon is made a part of the magick circle, and this is the solution that I choose to use.

How would this be done? That depends on the direction and destination of the gateway. If we stand in the South and face the North, then to our left hand is the West, and to the right is the East. It would be intuitively obvious to have the underworld gate reside in the West, because that’s where the sun sets, and conversely, the exit gate resides in the East. I refer to the exit gate as the “gateway of ascension.”

The passage from the West to the East represents the passage that the sun makes during the night, when it disappears from view. In truth, the earth is spinning on its axis, but from the perspective of apparent motion, it seems as if the sun is traveling around the earth. Some ancient people, like the Egyptians, believed that the sun actually traveled through an underground passage under the earth in order to appear in the East at the next morning.

If we can accept this as a mythic structure, then the passage from darkness to light symbolizes the passage from sleep and dreams to wakefulness that human beings (and nearly all animals) seem to experience. It’s called the diurnal cycle, also, the circadian rhythm. It functions as the entire basis of both the transformative cycle of the individual and cosmogonic cycle of the material universe.

That leaves the question about the other two cardinal directions. What would a gateway aligned to the North or South produce? After some experimentation, I have deduced that these two directions represent the two extreme points of seasonal changes rather than the diurnal cycle of night and day. The Southern gateway would be the gate of summer, or the summer solstice, and the Northern gateway would be the gate of winter, or the winder solstice. These twin gateways could be construed as having to do with the powerful processes of life and death, so they would be important in some workings as well. For instance, I would imagine that the Northern gateway would be important for workings involving necromancy.

We translate the West to East passage in the magick circle by establishing a trigon within the magick circle, incorporating the Western Watchtower and the Eastern Watchtower as central foci for both gateways. That leaves the four Angles for determining the other two points of the triangle. The Western and Eastern gateways would have the following structure:

Western Gateway Trigon - Underworld Gate

Facing the West from the East -
Northeast - Ordeal
West - Guardian
Southeast - Guide

The guide is to the magician’s left hand, his most vulnerable place, giving him aid and protection. The ordeal is at the magician’s right, where he may face its threats and challenges from a position of strength. The magician stands before the guardian (his opponent), with his back to East, the place of light, so he may better face the revelation of his greatest flaw and weakness.

The three points are drawn together to form the gateway trigon of the underworld, with the actual gate threshold located in the West, warded by the guardian who must be overcome. Once the three points are defined and established, the magician proceeds to the Western watchtower from the East, and before it performs the opening portal gesture. Once the portal is open, he then turns on his axis and proceeds in a descending passage to the center of the circle, where the nadir is achieved in the underworld passage and the mystery of the ordeal revealed. That mystery invariably involves joining the darkness and the light together within the deep soul of the magician. (You can find this information explained in greater detail in my latest book, Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick - Greater Key, p. 79 - 81)

There is also a fourth point in the threefold structure of the gateway. This fourth point can be placed in either the nadir (infra-point) or the zenith (ultra-point), making the gateway a three dimensional structure or a tetrahedron (inverted or obverse). The fourth point in the gateway structure is where the process of the ordeal is resolved in a higher dimension of the self, which is achieved at the conclusion of the transformative process.

Eastern Gateway Trigon - Gate of Ascension

Facing the East from the West -
Southwest - Guide
East - Guardian
Northwest - Ordeal

Here the structure is reversed from the underworld gate, where the guide is at the right hand side of the magician and the ordeal is on the left hand, and the guardian is placed before one as before. In this scenario, the guide represents the powerful and transcendent helper who aids the magician in coming up out of the underworld. The guardian stands before him and blocks his exit because the underworld experience and its processes is incongruent with the normal waking world. It represents the greater challenge that the magician must translate the underworld experience so that it is intelligible to his waking mind as well as the world at large. The ordeal is behind him, so it occupies the place at his left hand, representing the menacing forces that he must leave behind in order to achieve the ascent out of the underworld and into the world of light.

After these three points are defined and established, the magician proceeds to the Eastern Watchtower from the West, and before it performs the opening portal gesture. Once the portal is open, he turns on his axis and proceeds to the center of the circle, ascending along the way until a great summit is achieved, where the light of a new dawn floods his being and symbolizes his awakening and total realization. The mystery has been absorbed and translated, bestowing upon the magician a powerful tool that gives renewed meaning and significance to life. (You can find this information explained in greater detail in my latest book, Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick - Greater Key, p. 81 - 84)

The Western and Eastern gateways represent a complete cycle; the passage down into the darkness of the underworld and then the ascension up into the world of light. A complete cycle incorporates both gateways, representing the fact that transformative initiation requires two gateways, or a double gateway.

The three or four points in the gateway ritual structure are ritually defined by specific ritual actions, consisting of a number of symbolic expressions and declarations. These can be as simple as making an invoking spiral at that point and a verbal declaration. More complex operations can use a handy device called a trapezoidal cross (skewed diamond), special talismanic gate keys, as well as a formula letter, word and one of the twenty-two Trump cards of the Tarot to act as a powerful qualifier. The declaration is often an expression of what that gate node means in the context of the ritual where it is executed.

Forming a gateway ritual structure in a magickal circle while using various layers of vortex based ritual structures has a particular affect. All of the preceding ritual structures and their intrinsic energy fields are pulled together and fused into union, where the expression of the gateway represents a resolution to a higher and unified magickal expression. The gateway, when it is incorporated, formulates a unified expression of all previous ritual structures, energies and any spirit that happens to be summoned within those energies.

This is a very important feature in the system of magick that I teach, because it is instrumental in the operation of invocation and evocation. Uniting all of the previous elements of a magickal working would pull together the energies (defined through four concurrent Elementals) and the qualities of intelligence (defined through all seven of the Planetary Intelligences) to formulate, generate and manifest the targeted spirit of a given operation. This is why the third and the penultimate tier in an invocation or evocation in my system is presided over by a grand gateway, known as the Gate of Revealing.

(I also use the sacrament from a magickal mass to quicken and assist in the process of manifesting the spirit, but that’s another topic altogether.)

In addition to formulating a unified expression of all previous ritual structures, energies and entities (if any), the gateway opens up and reveals the domain associated within those fused elements. In entering into the underworld gateway, for instance, the magician also enters into the underworld domain of the associated forces and entities that are encapsulated by that work.

What this means is that the magician magickally and symbolically fully enters into the magickal world of spirits and forces, experiencing it as a form of total immersion. So whatever is invoked or evoked must be dealt with fully and completely, since there is no safety zone or place of protection where the magician can avoid being exposed to an entity or forces and manipulate it at a distance. Therefore, a magician had better be prepared for whatever he or she generates in a magick circle, since the only defense or recourse is the godhead that is assumed as part of the preparation of the magick - the ultimate guide.

So the operational use and methodology associated with the Eastern and Western gateways is integral to the system of magick that I teach and work. It functions as a technique to unify the previous elements of a magickal working, and to acquire a higher level of immersion as it opens the magician to the actual domain of the spirit or energies generated. The gateways, when used together, can facilitate a form of internalized transformative initiation, depending on the mystery presentation that is expressed and activated in the center of the magick circle.

A gateway can be a trigon structure or a three dimensional tetrahedron, producing either an inverted tetrahedron or an obverse one, depending on whether the ultra-point or infra-point are used. Each of these tetrahedral gateways have a diametrically opposed function. The obverse tetrahedral gateway could be construed as the gateway to heaven, and the inverted tetrahedral gateway would be the very gateway to hell itself. This is, of course, something important to consider when working with these prismatic energy shapes.

Frater Barrabbas