My Santa Fe Adventure - Part 2

This is part two of a three part biography about the time when I lived in Santa Fe. Continuing with my discussion about the New Age community and its foibles that I encountered back in 1990's.

New Age groups and perspectives were very dominant within the limited population of occultists in town. As a witch and ritual magician, I couldn’t have been more unusual or scary if I tried. My perspectives would either be misconstrued or treated as if I were some kind of perversely evil person. Two events that I remember seemed to really highlight the contrast between myself, a very serious insular occult practitioner with years of experience, and the fluffy, arrogant, naive, and superficial adherents of the New Age that seemed to flourish in that town.

A friend of mine who belonged to the Albuquerque Golden Dawn temple (and had to travel the 130 miles round trip to attend meetings) decided that he would sponsor a group discussion on angels and angelology in town to see if he could identify any interesting local individuals or groups. The discussion group was to last several sessions, but it only occurred once. I was invited to attend this group discussion, but others learned about it through the local occult book store. Those who attended were quite a mix of different spiritual perspectives, but I was probably the truly black sheep in attendance, or more accurately, the wolf in sheep’s clothing. My friend started the discussion and then requested that each individual sequentially in the circle of attendees talk about their experiences with angels and state what they believed about them. Since I was sitting on the left side of my friend, I was the last one to speak. However, what I heard everyone talking about was the most fuzzy, warm and diluted sort of religious nonsense that I have ever heard. It was the very sort of insipid things that many were reading and raving about in various New Age circles at the time. According to these folks, angels were beautiful, wholly good, friendly, helpful, guiding, child-like and sweet, as if the folks there were describing the chubby baby-like cherubs seen in various paintings and sculptures of the 18th and 19th centuries.

It was all much too sweet and cute for my tastes, and I found myself disgusted, bored and brooding about how I was wasting my time listening to these people. Almost all of the attendees were middle aged or older women, and all of them were obviously very proper Christians with some minor New Age leanings. When the discussion finally came to me, I stunned everyone by talking about how frightful, awesome and terrible many angels were to human sensibilities. I regaled them about the fierce Seraphim and Kerubim, armed with swords and spears, and that they fought wars, killed enemies and warded the Hebrew God from the profane. I also said that if anyone ever had a real encounter with a supernatural being like an angel, that they would probably shit their pants unless they were properly prepared. Of course, what I had to say was highly objectionable to all (except my friend, who was holding himself from laughing out loud), and they looked at me with loathing and outrage as if I had crawled out of some crypt from the bowels of Hell itself. Needless to say, they hurriedly left soon after I had said my piece, giving me pitying and hurt looks, and I am sure that I was the talk of their social circle for a long while, though I doubt if any of it was positive.

Another strange situation showed me how the New Age community was ravenously appropriating Native American shamanism into their practices, although without the usual care and sensitivity that such appropriations should require.

There was a household of women who had put together a supposed “pagan” New Age temple of the Goddess, and it was run by a matronly woman who had moved to Santa Fe from Dallas, Texas. She kind of reminded me of a Tammy Fey of the New Age community, overly made up and highly pretentious. She and her adult daughter (who was something of a hottie) espoused supposedly pagan sentiments about the Earth Mother and the Great Goddess, and they had gathered together a large social group, consisting mostly of women and couples, to practice a kind of New Age shamanism. I found her and her group to be mostly unschooled and spiritually superficial, but they seemed an earnest and nice enough group of people. Since there was little else that was going on in this vein in Santa Fe, I decided to accept their invitation to one of their gatherings. I should have known in advance what was really going on, because in order to attend this gathering, I had to pay $120 to help defray the expenses. The money collected was used to purchase a quantity of ground up magick mushrooms and XTC tablets, which were taken together to simulate the experience of mushrooms and ayahuasca. Of course, it wasn’t at all the same, and also, none of the important Native American practices and beliefs were incorporated into this event. It was, in a word, a New Age drug party, using some pretty powerful drugs to facilitate the breaking of social boundaries and inducing some kind of ecstatic release.

I had fancied maybe getting to have sex with the matron’s calmly daughter, but of course, that didn’t happen because there were too many people there (and she wasn’t interested). I brought my flute and entertained everyone with my music, but after a time, I found myself more interested in going deep within myself to fully experience the powerful influences of the drugs. Supposedly, that kind of antisocial behavior went against other people’s interest in taking combined baths, naked massages, getting “touchy and feely” and invading each other’s space. (The daughter managed to evade most of these attentions as well, but with better grace than I was allotted.) I endured the long session of being drugged out of my mind, which lasted the whole evening, and then in the early morning, without any apologies to those who acted so concerned about my social reticence (even though they didn’t know me), I got into my car and made my way carefully home to crash and reflect. I had a much better time once I was home and alone with my drug addled thoughts and feelings.

Afterwards, I politely told the matron that I wasn’t interested in any future gatherings and quickly disconnected from her and her group. I later heard that one of her sessions had ended in disaster when a young woman who was attending had passed out and died from taking the combination of drugs. She supposedly had an allergic reaction to the XTC and it killed her. Her death may have occurred because she was taking other medications and forgot to tell anyone, or perhaps due to some preexisting health condition - who knows. That event not only terminated the group’s activities, but likely put the matron and her drug procurer (and others) into jail for awhile.

I wasn’t surprised by anything that had happened because I felt that they were too inclusive, unknowledgeable of what they were doing, and that sooner or later, someone would have an adverse reaction to the combination of drugs. It proved to me that what you don’t know can kill you, and that a loose amalgamation of New Age naivety, illicit spiritual appropriation and a lack of spiritual discipline can be highly disastrous.  My periodic loneliness made me reach out to groups and individuals that I wouldn’t have normally bothered to contact, and such attempts only showed me that I, like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh, was the only one of my kind in town. However, unlike Tigger, I wasn’t happy about that fact.    

As a single man, I also made many attempts to find a lover, but they usually fell short, too. The one girlfriend that I did acquire (after living in Santa Fe for over two years) was also living with a flamingo guitar player who had been one of the local town drunks, now rehabilitated. He had the reputation of being quite a jealous and violent man, so we had to engage in our clandestine relationship at times when he was otherwise disposed. (This duplicity went on for a year or so until her lover finally got angry at her reticence to marry him, and left her when he found a suitable Trust Fund Brat.) She was one of the better known local belly dancers in town and was introduced to me by some mutual friends. She lived many miles north of town on a small ranch (exemplifying the term ‘land rich and money poor’), and we would discretely meet up at my place in town. 

We seldom went out, since too many knew her and would ask questions about me, so our relationship had some pretty severe boundaries. I taught her some rudimentary magick and initiated her into witchcraft, while she entertained our more carnal interests. She was quite a beautiful woman, but was also high strung, willful, emotionally volatile, stubborn and independently minded, even though she sought and did receive some financial support from me. That relationship lasted until I moved away from town some years later, although she never seemed interested in making me her primary relationship. I was always, and conveniently, the “other” man in her life. I later found out that this situation is rather typical of Santa Fe since there is a dearth of potential mates outside of the Hispanic and gay communities.

As for my career, I had the wonderful opportunity to work for a woman named Jo who ultimately guided and helped me to change the entire direction of my career. Through her I got the training I needed to transform myself from a mainframe programer and business analyst to a decision support analyst, UNIX programmer and database administrator. I learned the arcane art of data warehousing and I have continued to expand on that knowledge and capability all of the years since that time. It was a brilliant career move for me, since it meant that I wouldn’t likely experience any kind of downsizing or employment interruption due to the later fad of off-shoring technology jobs, which started to happen only a few years later. 

My area of expertise was in government health services (such as Medicaid and Medicare) in combination with my knowledge of developing, building and maintaining data warehouses that served as the source systems for all credible reporting, analytics, fraud and abuse detection, and policy management. This was obviously a level of expertise that couldn’t be exported to some DBA in India or China, since such policies didn’t exist anywhere in the world except in this country. Therefore, I had a certain amount of job security because of what my boss did to push my career in a certain direction.

Jo also was something of an occultist, and was steeped in the study of the Fourth Way, which consisted of the writings and practices of Gurdjieff and his followers (such as Bennet and Ouspensky). She managed to find a very important group in Santa Fe that actually practiced what the Fourth Way followers called the “Work,” so her move was spiritually fortuitous. Having a boss who was also an occultist was also very helpful, and I relaxed my typical discretion and reticence concerning my own studies and practices. This would come back to haunt me later on, but luckily it never caused me to lose a job promotion or get terminated. Later on, I would resume that discretion, but that single period of relaxing my boundaries did cost me something of my anonymity for a while.

(To be continued..)

Frater Barrabbas

My Santa Fe Adventure - Part 1

 Santa Fe is a very strange place to live and function as a magician and a witch - I know because I lived there for five years. While the New Age, Eastern traditions and Native American shamanism (as well as Native American religions) are well represented in this tiny town, the wiccan and pagan communities are barely in existence. There were only around 67,000 people living in Santa Fe when I lived there, and most of them were either Catholic, New Thought or Protestant Christians. Tibetan Buddhism had a large presence there as well, but paganism had probably a population of less than 50 individuals. I am speaking about Santa Fe in 1994, when I moved there, but it hasn’t changed very much in regards to paganism and witchcraft since I last visited (November 2011). It’s also a tough place to live if you are single and heterosexual, not to mention untenable if you happen to be a witch and sorcerer. Hispanic and Native American women that I met there found my involvement in the occult to be disturbing and highly off-putting.

Odd is a word that pretty much describes Santa Fe. All of its buildings are made of adobe and limited to four stories, so there are no large glass office buildings there, even though it is the state capitol. It’s also a very old town (est. 1610), probably rivaling St. Augustine, FL for the oldest town in the U.S. The original town consisted of two or three blocks on either side of the central plaza, bordered on the south by a small creek (Agua Fria), which is dry most of the year.

Santa Fe is located on a flat rocky plane just below the Sangre de Cristo mountains with an elevation of seven thousand feet; its altitude poses problems to visitors and newcomers alike. Cooking becomes more difficult and so does the consumption of alcohol. It was not unusual for a lady tourist to pass out at a restaurant or bar after drinking only two of her usual margarita cocktails. Doing anything physical was also much more taxing to someone not acclimated to the high elevation. It was also dry and hot in the summer (with cool mountain breezes in the shade), and somewhat damp and cold in the winter time; but overall, the temperatures were quite mild when compared to my birthplace (Wisconsin). One thing that I can say is that the quality of light during the day was quite remarkable, having a kind of a startling brilliant yellowish or amber hue offset by the bluest of skies. Sunsets and sunrises were also unusually remarkable due to the constant dusty atmosphere. I also found that the smell of the place was quite remarkable, too. The combination of sage, juniper and mesquite made the breezes off of the high chaparral foothills after a brief afternoon rainstorm smell like a romantic incense concoction, as if someone lit incense in preparation for some southwestern religious liturgy.

Traveling to Santa Fe by air usually required that the traveler land in Albuquerque and then travel the seventy miles north over three large escarpments to finally arrive in Santa Fe. This is because the airport in Santa Fe is quite small and ill-equipped to handle large airlines. The journey up and over these escarpments makes the drive quite scenic, since the traveler has to drive not only the geographic distance between these two points, but the journey also increases the altitude by two thousand feet. The last escarpment is the tallest and most intimidating (especially when it snows), and coming over the ridge and into the valley where the town is located illustrates to the traveler how well adobe blends into the rest of the landscape. Adobe buildings make Santa Fe fairly invisible from the heights during the day, and it only begins to reveal itself when the traveler exits the turnpike and drives into town. All of the buildings in the town and the surrounding area consist of various shades of tan, brown, beige and dun, which matches the color of the surrounding earth and rock. 

There are patches of green, but these are interrupted by sun baked boulders, red clay and rocky tables. While there are trees in the areas where there is water (such as around arroyos, wells or creeks), the greater share of vegetation consists of stunted and twisted juniper and mesquite bushes, along with an abundance of sage, jimson, and various other kinds of hardy thorn bushes. All of these plants are quite tough and able to withstand the periodic droughts that plague the area. Most of the water comes from the mountain runoff of melting snow, which tumbles down the creeks and arroyos and seeps into the sparse aquifers. Santa Fe is often a dry and dusty location, except during the winter and the monsoon season in June.

My reasons for moving to this exotic place was two-fold: I had an opportunity to advance my career by joining the team that would work as the front line for the company’s fiscal agency contract with the State of New Mexico, and it seemed like a really cool place to move. I knew next to nothing about Santa Fe other than it’s reputation for being weird, and New Mexico was called (in tourist books) the Land of Enchantment. Perhaps if I had known a lot more about what Santa Fe was like (and what life was going to be like living in that sparse pagan community), I might have decided not to move there. However, the opportunity was too good to pass up, and as it turned out, the move profoundly changed my career in a very positive way. As for my magickal career, it began a long period of spiritual isolation that continued even when I moved from that place five years later.

I got the news that I had been selected to be part of the team in May of 1994, and took a trip out there with my fellow teammates to meet with the client in June, and also to begin looking for a place to live. I discovered that houses were very expensive, the rents were high and the apartments small, due in large part to the fact that the standard of living was much higher in Santa Fe than in Tallahassee, and that Indian reservations surrounded the city, making available living space a premium expense. I settled for an apartment in the Zia Vista apartment complex off of Zia Road, which was both smaller and more expensive than my lovely townhouse in Tallahassee. The only saving grace was that my small apartment had a large master bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. There were mirrored closet doors on either side of the short hallway between the bathroom and the bedroom, so I had, in effect, a built-in system to trap and thwart spirits from entering the room where I would perform my ablutions. The room was large enough to accommodate my magickal needs, but the rest of the apartment was small. I had a futon couch in the tiny second bedroom, and the living room and dining room were crowded around the kitchen. This place became my humble home for the next five years.

Perhaps I could have found a better place to live if I had spent more time looking, and the particular irony is that many people have lived in the Zia Vista apartments as their first temporary residence. It was located on the southeast side of town, and was conveniently close to the road into town and that most of the stores I would need in order to live were nearby. Unlike Tallahassee, having a vehicle was very important, since nearly everything was distant and spread out, requiring a car to get around. There was also no effective transit system in the town, other than taxis and tour buses.

In July, I packed my things up in my Tallahassee townhouse, with some hired help, and everything was put on a truck and carted away. The Tallahassee pagan community must have finally found some value in me, since they even gave me a large going away party. (Or maybe they were just happy that I was finally leaving.) It would be the last community connection that I would experience and enjoy for years to come. What faced me now was a kind of hermetic based isolation, where I would have little or no contact with the pagan community where I lived. I rationalized that this new kind of lifestyle was necessary because I thought that it would better suit the kind of magick that I was now working. This new magick was deeper and much more intense than what I had been working in the past, and it monopolized my time away from work. I found that I had only a small amount of free time and less interest in what was going on in the occult community. In Santa Fe this attitude was probably defensible, but later, it seemed more of a trap than an important regimen of my magickal practice.

However, I felt that I had enough of living in the south for time being, but ironically, I would return there again several years later. While I lived in Santa Fe I would seek to develop my new system of magick based on Archeomancy and also attempt to develop my skills as a writer. I was still in the process of writing my first book on magick, called “Pyramid of Powers,” and actually, I had made a lot of progress on that writing project. A year after I moved to Santa Fe, I would complete the three volume book project that I started in Tallahassee and seek to find someone who could help me edit it. My objective was to publish this book so I could advertise the magickal order that I had helped to found.

Another odd thing about Santa Fe is the larger than usual population of artists, musicians, New Age spiritual leaders and others who are living in that town. When I did go to some social gatherings, which was rare, I was amazed that I found myself to be one of the few individuals who had a regular job and a real career. Many of the rest of those whom I met had odd jobs to help them survive, but were pursuing their true vocation as artists, which evidently didn’t pay very much. I did meet some very creative people, and even some world class artists, musicians, dancers, writers and many various New Age prophets and teachers. I also met a breed of people that I had never met before, and that was the “Trust Fund Brat.” This is the kind of person who has far more spending power than the average working stiff (such as myself), but who has no sense of the practical value of money or its singular importance, having gotten it without having worked for it.

Of all the people that I have ever met, the Trust Fund Brat seemed like the least practical or down to earth person on the planet. They were filled up with their own personal importance and had grand visions of what they were going to do. They also had the bad habit of always insisting on getting their way and knew that money could help them achieve that objective. Since there were many artists and others in town who just scraped by, these same folks availed themselves to be bought by those who had money. I saw a number of bizarre and dysfunctional relationships between Trust Fund Brats and their human pets. That pampered human pet was often some pretentious and mediocre starving artist who, through his or her moneyed significant other, gave the false impression of success and artistic savvy. These rude couples would ultimately make nearly any social affair tedious and poisonous. I also met some very eccentric and ostentatiously wealthy people whose origin was from California or the East Coast. They had decided to move to Santa Fe because of its supposed charming ambiance. These rich folks would build an expensive adobe mansion outside of town and reside there periodically during the summer months. Some of them were kind, generous and genteel, others were just rich, rude and totally obnoxious.

I also ran into self-made men and women who were the salt of the earth, and whose tenacious drive to survive and thrive in an inhospitable economic climate was a wonder to behold. I truly admired these rugged individuals, who seemed to possess the qualities that the first settlers might have had when they came to this part of the country as wanderers, traders, hunters or explorers. I had many interesting conversations with these earthy, rugged individuals, and they were far more interesting and fascinating to me than the puffed up Trust Fund Brats or the condescending and ostentatious wealthy expatriates. Yet I was an odd addition to this population, and didn’t seem to fit in wherever I traveled. I loved the country, but I was distinctly separate from it, as if in a permanent state of being a visitor or observer. I was intoxicated by the ambiance of Santa Fe, but found myself unable to relate to most of the people that I met. That is how I lived my life for five years in Santa Fe, but it was not without its charming qualities, captivating scenic vistas or moments of pure mystical awe. The land around this town was incredibly beautiful, but I found most of the people to be at odds with that beauty, except those who were really connected to the earth.

After discovering the local pagan community, or what little of it there was in Santa Fe, I met an odd middle aged women named Shann. We became friends because we both didn’t fit in the local pagan community. I found that community to be stunted and weak, sort of like the Juniper trees that grew in abundance out in the hills. There were a couple of individuals that I liked, but mostly I found them to be at the beginning stages of learning their craft, which meant that I was too advanced to function as any kind of teacher or spiritual leader. I suppose I could have tried to organize a group, but it seemed like it would require a lot of work, and I wasn’t interested in pursuing that path.

Shann was an outcast because she had problems with the inherent hierarchy of a traditional witchcraft coven and had spoken her mind far too often. So Shann had gotten kicked out of the only functioning coven in the area, but I liked her wit and her wicked sense of humor. She was a competent seamstress, artisan and purveyor of oddities, but I suppose that her real income was derived by selling pot and magic mushrooms to the local hippy population. She was also involved in the local middle eastern dancing community, and provided some of them with their costumes. I hired her to sew up some new robes for myself, and also through her, met most of my friends. She lived a sparse and economically precarious existence, and I suspect that she was disappointed that I wasn’t interested in her romantically.

The local occult book store was the Ark, located in an alley that was so narrow that it could barely support parking on one side of the road and traffic on the other (it was, therefore, a torturously one-way road, one of many in that town). The Ark was in many ways a weather vane on the alternative spiritual community in the town. Eastern systems of spirituality, as well as those based on the New Age or Native American spirituality were well represented with all kinds of stock. As for paganism, witchcraft, magick or the many forms of Western spirituality, there were some books and materials, but not very much. However, the Ark did sponsor some interesting events and was a center for anyone who wanted to contact individuals of like mind.

(During my most recent trip to Santa Fe, I visited the Ark and found it be slowly falling into decay, and the stock was of a poorer quality and greatly diminished. So it would seem that most forms of alternative spirituality have hit some hard times in that town. All traces of pagan or wiccan based books or materials were completely missing, perhaps representing that such interests had reached a new low point. One might speculate that the decline of the Ark might be due to the recent recession, but I found that other shops and stores doing quite well, representing that the buying power of the 1% had not diminished at all during this time. There had even been quite a bit of recent building in the area, showing that the recession had affected some, but not others.)

I can recall attending a lecture that the Ark sponsored at a large public auditorium presented by Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi, the author of several books on the Qabalah. That was back in October 1994, during a bitterly cold autumn rainy evening in Santa Fe. I don’t remember much of Halevi’s lecture, other than he was a strong proponent of the exclusively Jewish reclamation of that discipline. I also distinguished myself by asking him a question at the end of the lecture based on what Gershom Scholem had written about the Qabalah; that forms of gnosticism and magic were very much a part of its practices and discipline and were excluded only much later on. Halevi sternly denied that any occultism or magic ever had anything to do with the true Qabalah, a statement which would have astonished many of the academics of the time, including Scholem, had he been alive to hear it. As a good attendee, I didn’t contradict Mr. Halevi or argue with him, but it did unfortunately turn me off to his teachings and remained in my mind as a bitter experience. I came to the conclusion that Halevi was very biased and sectarian, which I found to be remarkable for anyone who was supposedly mystically inclined.

While living in Santa Fe, I attended some remarkable concerts, dance exhibitions and other interesting presentations. There was always something going on to suit the pallet of the afficionado of the obscure and the exotic. Shann and a few of her friends made certain that I knew about these social venues, and there were also some large block parties, effete gatherings at someone’s mansion or other events that I was able to secure an invitation. I was always seeking to connect with someone or to find new friends. Most of my attempts at expanding my social world met with dismal failure. I was just too different and set in my insular ways to be able to connect with any groups.

While some folks I have met have always raved about the Burning Man gathering that occurs in the southwest, there is another similar festival that is held right in Santa Fe, and has been going on since the 1920's. In September, the tourist season abates somewhat before the ski season begins, so the town’s temporary population drops down considerably, and local folks can actually find a parking place or go out to eat without having to deal with the crowds of tourists. In a sense, the local population gets their town back for a few months, and to celebrate this event, they hold an annual fiesta. September is also the month supposedly when the town was re-colonized by the Spanish conquistadors in 1692, after having been temporarily kicked out by the native inhabitants for 12 years.

So the town has two events to celebrate, and this celebration is called the Fiesta de Santa Fe. I imagine if you were an Indian, the parade of horse mounted conquistadors dressed in Spanish colonial outfits is rather offensive, but no one seems to mind. The highlight of that fiesta is when the town gathers at Ft. Marcy park to burn a giant effigy of old man gloom, called El Zozobra, a fifty foot spooky looking marionette. The event is marked by a whole retinue of odd costumed characters, such as the fire witch, the gloomies (children dressed up like ghosts), who dance before the moaning and menacing effigy. At the climax of the ritual, the marionette (who has movable arms and glowing eyes), is put to the torch of the fire witch along with scraps of paper and other items collected to represent town members' personal gloom. It is a very magical theatric event, and one that I have personally experienced more than once while I lived there.

(To be continued..)

Frater Barrabbas

Secret History of the Nephilim - Part 3

This is the third and final part to the Secret History of the Nephilim series. This part discusses the alternate formula that assisted me in determine the descending fortunes of the followers of the Nephilim, their ultimate fate, and the legacy that they have left behind for us to realize.

The application of the Temurah cipher of AThBSh to the Pentagrammic Formula of the Nephilim substitutes ZYDChR for OMQSG (where the O is actually the letter Ain). This formula represents the fall of the Nephilim and the consequential retaliation against their illicit joining with humanity. It is critically important that we disregard the mythic trope that Yahweh cursed and punished the errant angels who deserted their heavenly posts and profaned themselves with women. It should instead be interpreted as the allied forces of progressive spirituality encountering terrible foes in the forces of orthodoxy, as it always does. The establishment of the spiritual and political power of an organized religion has always invested its leadership with a powerful desire to maintain the status-quo.

This conservatism has the compelling force to maintain the beliefs of a religion as a doctrine and a dogma, which blocks all possible change while enveloping its followers in a static social organism. The powers of progressive spirituality liberate the individual so that one can engage in a natural processes of social and spiritual evolution. It is the very nature of the descent of the Absolute Spirit, disguised as incarnated divine beings (avatars), to cause the ascent of liberated humanity. These two processes join together to form part of a larger pattern. Yet the forces that directly oppose this process of natural spiritual evolution do little more than give it greater power, endowing it with a greater facility and more clever stratagems for success. So, even the rigid adherents of orthodoxy actually play a part in the greater plan of spiritual evolution.

To clarify this point even further, it’s necessary to fully interpret the five new letters that were derived from the process of Temurah, thereby describing the struggle that the establishment of the Nephilim precipitated.

Ain - The Devil, Atu XV: The Promethean descent of the Nephilim violated the spiritual status-quo of human-based religious institutions, unleashing upon spirit and human alike, a contagion of inner plane contacts. Although the contact between human and spiritual agencies, as fostered by the Nephilim, was strictly controlled through the transformational process of initiation, it was only a matter of time before this process became abused by unauthorized individual use. Any system that is devised and used by humans will eventually fail unless it is continually regenerated. The spiritual intelligence who promotes spiritual evolution require that the instrument of progressive indoctrination be in a constant state of modification and growth. However, religions tend to become ruled by the powers of inertia. As the magickal system of the Nephilim became more vulgarized, its vibrant creative core slowly became inert. Magickal systems should retain a certain degree of secrecy and limited access so that their unique individuality and the purity of their inner plane contacts remain inviolate, otherwise they will be unable to survive intact.

Mim - The Hanged Man, Atu XII: The new system, which the Nephilim had established, allowed for a limitless degree of personal freedom and personal power; but this quality could also become chaotic and anarchic. Early societies required a greater amount of social cohesion than later cultures, even though later cultures appeared to demand far more cohesiveness of its peoples. The freedom of the village gave way to the tyranny of the city state. So the positive impact that a divinely born individual could bring to bear upon earlier societies was markedly less in later and more complex city states. It became necessary for the existence of an avatar (manifested godhead) to be realized through miracles in life and transformation within death.

The Nephilim could no longer live among humans without profoundly impacting them and powerfully influencing their free will. So they retreated to the abysmal nether worlds (a form of hyperspace) that lies between all time and space, emerging only at times of paramount need, otherwise existing in their guarded solitude. Those great spirits who had sacrificed their spirituality to partake in humanity could neither return to their formal existence nor remain in perpetuity in their human role. There was no place for them to finally reside except in a world that consisted of both spirit and physical matter, yet was neither. After their transition, the secret knowledge that they had built up was slowly lost and dissipated, until now, only echoes of it exist in the world. Yet this knowledge is still fully possessed by them and can be revitalized in our world, if only a way could be found to enter into their world and receive it.

Samek - Art, Atu XIV: The occult knowledge, myths and esoteric philosophies that the Nephilim founded managed to continue in some form or another, as time passed, and the various fragments of this lore was added to other occult philosophies. The Nephilim attempted to engage in a limited and indirect means of influencing humanity from their place of solitude, but this avenue became completely closed off. Only in dreams and in visionary magick did the potential of their teachings seem to survive. In time, through the methods of ritual and ceremonial magick, the knowledge of the Nephilim became more known and partially revealed (witness the skrying sessions of John Dee). Only echoes of this distant and isolated knowledge, in its pure and empowered form, still lingered in the world. Enochian magick, as unwittingly revealed by Dee, brought some of these themes forward, but still there was more mystery and an incomplete system of occult lore that confronted those who pored over his magickal diaries. 

What is required to unleash the true knowledge and power of this lineage is for seekers to pass through a special transformative initiatory process that will reveal the manner of gaining access to the hidden domains of the Enochian lineage. In this manner, the Nephilim will eventually become rediscovered and perhaps even reincarnate into new forms, leading humanity as they did in the ancient times of myth and legend. Their occult knowledge will be restored and updated to the modern age, making it far more useful than the current fragments of their knowledge spread through many disciplines and cultures.

What this means is that the power of magickal creativity will directly determine the outcome of the manifestations of events, so magick, philosophy, science and art will once again become united and distinctly relevant in the post modern world, after a long slumber through the ages.

Gimmel - The Priestess, Atu II: Two important things need to be revealed before the heralding of the New Age of Magick and Mystery. The first is the ascendancy of the Feminine Spirit and the realization of the critical importance of women in spirituality. The Nephilim succeeded in merging the two polarities of ancient culture, which were the Patriarchate and the Matriarchate. We have come to a time where the absolute rule of the old patriarchy has ended, but what remains is neither a reintegration with nor a re-emphasis on the feminine. Where there is fear and chaos due to the fears of uncertainty associated with social change and spiritual transformation, then the time for change is long overdue.

Whatever conservative political forces and orthodox religious societies seek to achieve in their attempt to guarantee power and stability, nothing can keep the status-quo from changing, whether by false assurances (propaganda) or draconian social controls. Those who are open to change, accepting both the positive and negative forces of our future heritage, will gracefully achieve their own self-apotheosis. Those who align themselves with reactionary ideals will ultimately reap the rewards of backing the wrong course. An incapability to change in changing times has its own eventual curse. The power of the Feminine Deity as the Great Goddess is already awakened in our world. Soon it will act as the symbolic transformer of all Western Culture.

The second event concerns the spiritual crisis that is occurring particularly in the West, where the old religions are dying and new ones are arising in their place. The institutions of orthodoxy are failing to promote the kind of group significance and destiny that has seemingly satisfied the ranks of individual believers for centuries. In the past it sufficed that religions dictated the meaningfulness of life and its ultimate purpose through the societal group as a whole. Now, the breakdown of mass religion has caused individuals to uniquely seek their own personal salvation and destiny. This individual search will lead people away from the mainstream religions of the prior age and herald the coming of the New Age.

An answer to our collective problems lies not in orthodoxy, which actually has assisted in fostering them, but in the individual syncretistic approach to spirituality that evolves into a custom methodology of personal ascendancy and spiritual growth. A fully spiritualized person will have a tremendous impact upon those who are family, friends or associates. Although this process will begin with very few individuals, it will become contagious, spreading throughout the social fabric of the Western World.

This is the beginning of a social spiritual revolution that will fulfill the secret destiny of the Enochian system of Magick. It  began with the descent of the Nephilim in the dim mists of the mythic morning of humanity and it will end in the ascendency of the human race as a unified godhead.

Frater Barrabbas

Secret History of the Nephilim - Part 2

This is part two of a three part series that explains how I determined the importance and role of the Nephilim in the Enochian system of magick. This part uses the five letter formulas that I determined to tell the story of the rise and fall of the Nephilim and their followers.

Ascendency and Decline of the Nephilim and Their Followers - A New Age Legacy

The Pentagrammic formula of the Nephilim has been revealed as Z, Y, D, Ch and R, (pronounced Zidecher). I have created a Tarot card reading that tells the story of the ascending fortunes of the Nephilim, associating each phase of that story with the corresponding Tarot Trumps.

Zain - The Lovers, Atu VI: What prompted the Nephilim to manifest on Earth and take wives of the Daughters of Men was the choice, rather Promethean, of whether or not to assist in the spiritualization of humanity. Of course, they were also smitten by the fair features and natural wiles of human women, and desired to ground themselves completely within the flesh of these women. Their choice represented the noble and even prescient sacrifice of their static but eternal spiritual state of existence, ultimately but not unwittingly, for the sake of Human spiritual evolution. This explains the bond established between them and their combined intention through the means of mutual oaths, and the joining that they initiated with women. We are told that the love of the Deity for humanity causes its ennobling, and perhaps this was just another example. The product of this joining is known as the nature and the cycle of the Avatar (Magus), those divine humans who have shaped the course of history and influenced the creation of cults and religions. These avatars, or divine humans, have nurtured and shaped the spiritual dimension of human nature since earliest times. In this context, the card of the Lovers symbolizes the powerful spiritual process of involution, which it turn sets up the necessary stage for the corresponding evolution of spirit.

Yod - The Hermit, Atu IX: This card indicates the solitary path of the Hermit, representing an alternative to the usual path of the family clan and its leadership. I felt that this card represented Enoch as someone who branched off from the clan of early mythic humanity and forged a new path of esoteric and mystical practices, to be performed by the solitary seeker. 

From the perspective of our post modern age, the patriarchate lineage of Enoch (as leader and independent seeker) represents an alternative magickal lineage to the Masonic initiatory line and its predecessor, the secret guild or society. This lineage would have originally been associated with the ancient and archaic priesthood of the Nomadic Bedouin, handed down from father to son (or mother to daughter) typically without any measure of worthiness, but necessarily dictated by family survival. Such a lineage gave the leader personal freedom and autonomy once the old line had passed to him, but it also included responsibilities for guiding the clan or cult. It also forced the other members of the clan into strict obedience. However, such a close knit clan or cult allowed for certain checks and balances against the leadership, forcing him to be generous and compassionate towards his followers. The leader was guided by the grace, understanding and also the tolerance of those ruled. For those who were ruled could justifiably overthrow a bad leader, and from their ranks, choose a new one. This alternative path branched off of the Magician Priesthood of Melchisadek, Abraham and Moses. Eventually, the rule became very loose and was associated specifically with an egalitarian Star Group organization and a series of measurable transformative initiations.

The Catholic Church has continued the progression of this lineage supposedly through Jesus Christ, from Peter and Paul, establishing for itself and the church, the Apostolic Succession.  However, certain Bishops broke with the solidarity and spiritual monopoly of Rome, (and some, like the Eastern Orthodox Priesthood and certain Gnostic sects, were never really part of it) and turned their pursuits to more occult orientated endeavors.  Presently, through the Old Catholic Church, and its scion, the Liberal Catholic Church, the availability of this lineage has become more pronounced as occultists seek to undertake the disciplines of the Magician Priesthood to expand their base of knowledge and initiation.

The Hermit card, therefore, represents the institution of the Magian Priesthood, which once held great prestige and authority, then was lost, and in the present age, it has been rediscovered. 

Daleth - The Empress, Atu III: The third component of this process of spiritual integration (Nephilim, Enoch, and the Daughters of Men) was the independent lineage of the Priestesses and the crafts that they received from their union with the Nephilim. These crafts represented the facets of the new occult knowledge established by the translation of the wisdom received via the Inner Planes or Worlds of the Spirit through the Nephilim. Also, the marriage of the Daughters of Men can be interpreted as the forming of alliances and the importance placed upon the power of the Feminine Spirit as the Goddess physically represented by her priestesses. The birth of children, also considered the Nephilim, (here interpreted as giants or great “Men of Names”) represents the establishing of tribes or sub-organizations that contained the physical lineage of kinship (either spiritual or congenital). It also represents the fusion of the genetic heritage of humanity with that of the Sons of God, thus producing divine off-spring or Avatars. These groups became the possessors and preservers of priestesses dedicated to the secret spiritual arts.

Chet - The Chariot VII: What was derived from the joining of the lineages of the Patriarchate of Enoch and the Matriarchate of the Daughters of Men, with the blessing of the initiation of humanity through the descendant avatarship of the Nephilim, was the creation of the first Magickal Order of progressive spirituality. Within this new union could be found the resolution of the age old conflict between Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (hunting and gathering), which symbolized the polarity between Village dwellers and Nomads, and their resultant natural animosity. Also, there was resolved the differences between feminine based spirituality and masculine based spirituality. However, the actual focus became orientated towards the achievement of complete liberation of the individual from all limitations; this freed humanity from its bondage to traditional ways of life and elevated their souls to an exclusively esoteric perspective.

The scion of the union of supernatural beings and mortals created a race of spiritual nobility that established all legitimacy through its creation of a physical lineage (the Sang Real or Blood Royal) realized through both physical and spiritual techniques. It endowed its followers with special powers and prerogatives. The family of the Nephilim became an anointed and revered lineage whose mythic symbolism and mystic power was distantly echoed in the much later lineages of the exoteric church and the divine rule of kings - but these are considered degraded imitations. Equality and egalitarianism associated with this secret lineage also manifested within the Pagan Mystery Traditions, whose secret members existed in respectful equality regardless of caste or life station, and who held positions of responsibility based upon merit rather than heritage.

Resh - The Sun, Atu XIX: The efficacy of the resultant synthesis or heterodoxy of these three lines established the ultimate structural basis for a new spiritual order, which ultimately became a variant of the occult wisdom known as the Perennial Philosophy. This underground bastion of secret wisdom would continue to exert its influence in many exoteric institutions, but would never be under the control of any one person or group. It would span the boundaries of nations and eras, and bridge the differences of language and custom, building a universal consensus consisting of many and often contradictory doctrines. The occultism of the individual seeker frees one from the narrowness of secular and sacred institutions and establishes a precedent for the derivation of personal significance and direction. This world of equality and unanimity was kept to a large degree both secret and inaccessible to the larger masses of humanity, therefore it remained an elite cadre of selected initiates. However, in the advent of the New Age, this lineage will avail itself to all who desire membership and will fulfil its destiny by being one of several possible paths for true spiritual enlightenment in the West.

(To be continued..)

Frater Barrabbas

Non-Duality, Magick and the Qabbalah

 

I recently read a book review that Allogenes wrote up on his blog, “The Magical Messiah,” which examined a book entitled “Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction” by Eliot Deutsch. I have some knowledge of the Indian mystical philosophy called Vendanta, but I couldn’t define what the specific sect of Advaita was and how it related to the essential tradition. In order to sensibly read over Allogenes article, I had to research what Advaita Vendanta was, and that research helped me to resolve a long term issue that I have been mulling over for many years. 

 

Since Advaita Vendanta is a “living” tradition, that is, it is still being taught and practiced in India, I found the whole concept of reconstructing it, or better yet, mutating it so that it better corresponds to a Western philosophic perspective, was problematic at best, or clearly misguided at worst. I am glad that Allogenes found this proposition to be somewhat dubious as well, since in order to master a tradition, one must become an adherent and be completely immersed in it. Attempting to de-construct a living tradition would be a formidable task even for a master of that tradition, not to mention a “fools” errand for one outside of it. Needless to say, I lost interest in Eliot Deutsch’s book due to its basic premise, but I found myself interested in knowing more about Advaita Vendanta. That interest led me to examining some webpages where I discovered something that completely amazed me. 

Prior to making this search, I had learned years ago that Vendanta was an Indian mystical philosophical system of some antiquity that sought to comprehend the nature of deity directly through the intellect. The intellectual basis of Vendanta is founded upon the holy scriptures of the Upanishads, Bhadavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras. Vendanta literally means in Sanscrit, the “goal of the Vedas.” Vendanta requires the assistance and discipline of a guru, and uses the mechanisms of mental discipline, ascetism, and the techniques of meditation and contemplation. The source of all wisdom and intellectual illumination are to be found in the proper interpretation and realization of specific passages in the above named sacred texts.

Vendanta is a very intellectual approach to realizing the Godhead, but it relies far more on an intuitive and a subjective understanding of the nature of that cosmic deity, known as Brahman. The methodology used to gain that understanding was to reduce what is known about the Godhead by a process of intellectual reductionism. Vendanta can be summed up as the mechanism of knowing and realizing God through the elimination of what it isn’t as opposed to what it is. This is exemplified through the “neti neti Brahman” (not this, not that, is Brahman) approach to the Godhead. In this manner, Vendanta is similar to Mahayana Buddhism and also Taoism. In fact, some have said that the inspiration for Vendanta came from the impact of Mahayana Buddhim on Indians who sought to propose a counter philosophy that was fully grounded in traditional Indian religious culture.

Advaita is a specific subsect of Vendanta, and probably the oldest and best known. It was founded by Shankara Bhagavadpada (Adi Shankara) sometime around the first half of the 9th century CE. Advaita means “non-duality,” so this form of Vendanta was concerned with a fundamental philosophical question, which is whether or not there is a difference between the Cosmic Godhead (Brahman) and the individual godhead (Atman). According to the tenets of Advaita Vendanta, there was no difference between Brahma and Atman. To state otherwise (that the cosmic and individual godhead are distinct) is to commit the error of duality. Therefore, the principle philosophical tenet can be stated simply as “Atman doesn’t dissolve into the unity of Brahman - it is always directly equivalent, since Brahman must be non-dual and without attributes.” Brahman is therefore the supreme cosmic spirit - the One, the whole and the only reality. It is the undefined source of everything spiritual, mental and material. It is the source of consciousness itself. Perhaps the most succinct and comprehensive article that I have found on this topic is in Wikkipedia. You can read that article for yourself, here.

What completely astonished me while I was reading this article is the statement “Atman doesn’t dissolve into the unity of Brahman.” I was so startled by this statement because it was clearly the opposite to a statement that I have made myself many times when talking about an individual’s Higher Self or God/dess Within and the Cosmic Godhead. I have said or implied that the Higher Self dissolves into the unity of the Godhead, or exists in a state of separation for the sake of the being of individualized incarnation. This, I suddenly realized, was questionable. If I were a proponent of non-duality as the ultimate state of being (and I suspect that am), then it would have to be true that there is no difference between the Higher Self and the ultimate Godhead. They are one and the same, thus making each and every one of us a direct participant in the nature and being of the Godhead.

This realization also makes a lot of sense in regards to the Qabbalah, since the highest attributes on the Tree of Life are the negative veils, representing that aspect of the Deity which is the unknowable and absolute Godhead from which all things have their origin, and I might say, their return. It is the One that is the None, and this would agree with Advaita Vendanta, as well as Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, Qabbalah, and other mystical traditions which have sought to realize and teach the nature of non-duality.

The key to this conundrum is the statement that the Atman doesn’t dissolve into Brahman, or, the Higher Self doesn’t blend into the Absolute Godhead. There are no differences between them; but the Absolute Godhead functions as the absolute reality, where everything else is just a temporary illusion, or what the adherents of Vendanta call Maya. Since according to their philosophy, the absolute reality must, by definition, be non-dual and non-material, then the Godhead must, by definition, be the ground basis for all reality, whether spiritual, mental or material. The true nature of that non-dual source must be hidden and unintelligible to all conscious beings, which is analogous to what Plato said in his dialogues - that we only perceive the shadows and play of light on the walls of the cave (and not the true reality outside of the cave). This premise is also found in the Qabbalah as well. (You can look over my article about the mysteries of creation espoused in the Qabbalah, which is found here.)

Human beings derive and build up the attributes for the Deity, or perceive it grounded in mental models or divine images, even though it actually has no attributes whatsoever. This human propensity for creating illusions for spiritual phenomena becomes organized and intelligible to us as the domain of symbols, myths, spirits, deities and demigods; but it doesn’t have any reality beyond our own limited perceptions. It is a human creation that masks the real truth, yet it is also important, compelling and useful, too. Also, if we reside in a fashion within the Absolute Godhead, then all of our perceptions of that Being arises from within us as a manifestation of that individual godhead called the Higher Self or Atman. It is through that mechanism that such beliefs that “God is watching everything I do and judging me,” or that certain (or even all) “events in my life are caused by the hand of God” can be explained. This perspective is uniquely human, since it indicates that all of humanity is capable of sensing the Deity in a very intimate and direct manner. Yet such statements would otherwise be absurd without the stipulation that the Absolute Godhead is non-dual.

We are, therefore, a direct and dynamic part of the Deity, whether we can either mentally perceive that union, intuit it through our emotions in some manner, or else it remains to us wholly unrealized. If we loose the context that the deity that we are relating to is through our internal god aspect, then we can assume a kind of privileged association with what we believe is the Cosmic Godhead. Monotheism can foster the egoic illusion (through a misinterpretation of its own theology) that the immanent experience of the internal godhead is synonymous with the greater Godhead. This causes a kind reversal that amplifies the importance of the individual or the religious sect, and it has led to all sorts of terrible religious persecutions and conflicts. The actual truth is just the opposite, since we partake of the cosmic Godhead and interpret it through our own individual and internal connection.  We are the created illusion of this unified, singular and non-dual expression of Godhead, and not the other way around. Disengaging the ego from religious or mystical experiences is very important, and represents the first step to gaining any form of spiritual union. (All of the saints in every form or sect of monotheism have made this perspective abundantly clear by promoting humility and selfless devotion.)

What this means is that the Cosmic Godhead is the greatest and only magician, engaging in pure creation (and destruction) for its own sake; but the true reality is grounded completely into its own being, and is found nowhere else. This might seem a bit confusing or that it somehow negates the importance and priority of the spiritual, conscious and material universe of the individual, yet this is not true. What is created by the Cosmic Godhead is done through love (unity) and a corresponding reverence for all of the facets of that creation. We are, therefore, not a meaningless expression of an exalted Deity who is beyond our realization. Our destiny is to realize this Cosmic Godhead through our own internal godhead. The methodology of achieving this destiny plays an important part in the conceptual frame work of Theurgy, Ritual Magick and Mysticism, and rules how these elements work together to give meaning and significance to the world that we live in. If the Cosmic Godhead is the magician creating (and destroying) the universe, then we are (though our individual inner godhead) simultaneously creating and destroying the universe. When we practice ritual or ceremonial magick, we are emulating that process through our own microcosmic attribute of creation and dissolution - the natural cycle of everything.

Another concept that is fundamental to magick and non-duality is that the joining of polarities, the merging through the artifice of spiritual love of the archetypal masculine and feminine within ourselves, emulates the essential union of all being, and triggers, through ecstasy, the realization of our internal godhead, which is the Higher Self or Atman. We approach this ultimate resolution of selfhood in stages and in phases, but the final act is where we discover the One within ourselves. This is the foundation for working magick through a process of spiritual alignment that leads to spiritual union. Theurgic magick promotes this objective, and so do various forms of religious mysticism. They begin with the process of mastering the multiple layers of manifestation, and ultimately end with the perfect realization of union with the Godhead.

These concepts that I have attempted to explain in my own limited way appear to be somewhat contrary to the writings of Neoplatonism and of Western religious philosophy. Christian theology maintains a powerful distinction between the Absolute Godhead (as the trinity) and the individual souls of humanity, and this can also be found in Judaism and Islam as well. In my recent readings of the philosophical tenets of Iamblichus, it would seem that even he maintains a distinction between the classes of spiritual beings, stating that human souls cannot evolve or reach to the level of the Gods, but could only perhaps rarely ascend to the next level, that of angels. 

 

However, my own experiences within the context of magickal phenomena would seem to agree with the Indian masters, that within humanity appears to be an aspect of deity operating, and through which the spiritual domain, as well as divinity, can become realized. In assuming the Godhead in the practice and work of ritual magick, I am, over time, activating my own Atman or Higher Self, which causes direct and permanent spiritual transformations. That is how I define theurgic forms of magick, and that does appear to differ from how Iamblichus has defined theurgy. What was missing in my speculation (which is far from complete) was to define this process in a manner that would eliminate the duality of the Absolute Godhead, and the God/dess Within.   

So the key is that there is no difference between the internal godhead and the greater Cosmic Godhead. They are one and the same! That is a profound paradox, and one that can never be resolved so long as we live in a state of duality and multiplicity. Only by resolving everything into the One that is None will we truly realize the non-dual truth, that all is Godhead, and nothing else is either real or true. At that moment of realization, though, our individual selves will cease to exist, and the true reality will be finally revealed. Until that time, we are given the task of completing the Great Work, however long that takes.

Frater Barrabbas

Secret History of the Nephilim - Part 1

While I was going through my various notes and unpublished tracts on Enochian magick, I came across this piece which, I felt, explained the way in which I see the connection of the Nephilim with the practice and spirit lists of Enochian magick. How I managed to pull all of the threads together occurred through some spontaneous divination, and an apparent spiritual communication from an unknown source. Looking over the content of the communication, I later realized that it was a brief manifestation of my inner spiritual connections showing me a new pathway through the published Enochian lore. Therefore, it became a key part of the unpublished manuscript “Sepher ha-Nephilim,” which I hope to complete and publish some day in the future.

I essentially wrote this tract in the spirit of mythopoetry, and it was not to be taken as either an historical analysis of the socio-religious world, nor does it fit in with any known spiritual literature. I would recommend that you not take this writing as any kind of literal truth, but as a powerful and compelling allegory. Think of it as a magickal and occultic form of mythology and metaphysics. A type of secret history of the Nephilim, woven together like some arcane initiatory lore, and shared only with the newly initiated adept. So, as you read through this article, let your imagination run wild, since by doing this, something of the greater esoteric truth will be revealed.

The extracted text used in this article is also biographical, since the events it describes occurred in 1990 when I was on temporary assignment to Dallas, Texas. While I was there, I had a lot of free time when I wasn’t at work. That period of living away from my home base and sequestered in my furnished apartment turned out to be quite fortuitous, as can be determined by the importance of what I discovered.


Mystery of the Five-fold Formula of the Nephilim

In the Winter of 1990, while I was on temporary assignment in Dallas and away from my home in Atlanta, something really amazing happened to me. I had in my possession a few of my treasured occult books, some blank pads of note paper, my favorite pens and a lot of free time. I began to alternatively meditate and study during the evenings and weekends when I was alone and mostly idle. It was a time of great internal discovery and new insights into established occult lore, since my studies had little distraction from friends and social obligations.

At one of those  times, while I meditated on the mythology of the Nephilim (as found in the Bible and the first Book of Enoch) and pondered their apparent “Promethean” descent and integration with common humanity, I heard a voice from within my mind speak very clearly to me, “The secret of the Nephilim shall be revealed through the chance drawing of five Trump cards of fortune. This drawing shall be like unto their fate, a fortune to which they desired and bound themselves onto with sworn oaths upon a mountain top.”

I was quite amazed when I heard this pronouncement, which was unprovoked by me and seemed without any physical source, since I was quite alone. It was spoken in an archaic manner and with a deep melodious voice with which I was unfamiliar. The awestruck silence that followed in the midst of my perplexity seemed only to mock and taunt me. Then, I noticed my Tarot deck laying before me upon the table, and it seemed to beckon to me. This particular deck was the Voyager Tarot, a favorite of mine and one that I had recently learned to use with much skill and insight. I picked up these cards and began the process of separating out the Trump cards. When this was completed, I took the deck of Trump cards and thoroughly shuffled it, randomizing them as I concentrated on deriving this most secret formula of the Nephilim. I then randomly selected five cards out of the deck and laid them before me. In this manner I was able to depict, by means of the archetypal nature of the Trump cards, the destined mythopoetic rise and fall of the Nephilim. I then began to carefully study the cards that were selected in this fashion.

The first card was “The Lovers,” Atu VI, and I immediately saw an image of the Nephilim admiring the daughters of men and desiring them. I deduced that this card represented the necessity of free choice and free will.  It was this factor, along with their powerful infatuation, that motivated the Nephilim to pursue their earth bound quest, which was integrating with human nature and thereby ennobling it.

The next two cards were “The Hermit,” Atu IX, and “The Empress,” Atu III, respectively. These two cards represented the personages of Enoch Ben Yared and the Daughters of Men who became partners with the Nephilim in all that subsequently transpired. The illicit marriage of the Nephilim or Fallen Watchers with the Daughters of Men produced children, beginning a spiritual dynasty that was also linked to the patriarchate lineage of Enoch.

The fourth card was “The Chariot,” Atu VII, indicating both the process of integration and the power it transferred throughout the newly founded union of Enoch, the Daughters of Men and the Nephilim. The creation of a new spiritual lineage is indicated by this card, with an emphasis on the mystical Grail as its inner-most symbol. The Grail represented the holy containers that each of these exalted women had become, since through them all manner of knowledge and wisdom was revealed. Those who were properly prepared through the occult training of this new tradition were exposed to the guarded secret sexual and alchemical techniques that had become part of this magickal tradition.

The final card, completing the Pentagrammic Formula, was “The Sun,” Atu XIX, which represented the creative freedom and independence that the Nephilim and their associates enjoyed through the careful exercise of their newly revealed occult knowledge.

The complete formula consists of the five associated Hebrew letters, which were Zain, Daleth, Yod, Chet, and Resh, respectively. These five letters and trumps of the Tarot became the reading of the ascending fortunes of the Nephilim. Of course, the missing part would explain the ultimate destiny of these three parties and their offspring, which would be the corresponding descending or falling fortunes of the Nephilim. Everything that rises, must, unfortunately, fall as well.

Additionally, I was able to determine this final outcome of the descent of the Nephilim through the crafty use of the AThBSh cipher, which gave me an alternate five letter formula to examine. Ostensibly, I produced this new formula through a process of letter substitution (Temurah). This formula informed me about the consequences that occurred due to the founding of this new magickal lineage. So I was able to extract the following five additional letters, which were Ain, Mim, Qoph, Samek and Gimmel. These five new letters were taken from the transposition of the cipher applied to the original formula. I performed this operation to determine the reverse of the original formula, capturing a symbolic narrative that described the consequences associated with the actions of the Nephilim. In this manner I was able to realize their ultimate destiny.

What I deduced while analyzing these five new letters was that certain forces had became arrayed against the progressive spiritual philosophies and practices of the followers of the Nephilim, and this conflict caused their ultimate demise. I also saw the subsequent rediscovery and ascendancy of their knowledge at a much later age.

This influx of new material was very thought provoking and required a thorough examination. So in the weeks following this discovery, I was able to make complete sense out of these two formulas. Curiously, I completed what became the story of the Nephilim, their actions and their destiny, in only twenty-one days following that fateful revelation. This is a story that is not at all represented by history, source texts, archaeology or even accepted theology. It is pure mythopoetry, based as it is on the occult thread of the Nephilim. I could even say that perhaps it was directly inspired by them through some kind of inner plane contact. All of this occurred before I had built up the rituals to finally invoke them and hear their stories first hand.  

(To be continued...)

Frater Barrabbas

Beginning a New Year 2012

So here we are in the new year, and I have several little comments to make so far. A more engaging article is in the works and should be posted over the next week and a half. Before that article goes into my future post queue, I wanted to discuss a few minor things that I have been noticing on the blog scene, as well as talk a little bit about some topics that I am currently thinking about.

 

Heptarchia Mystica

First off, I received a copy of Scott Stenwick’s newest book “Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy,” (Pendraig Publishing 2011) and I have looked it over. This looks like a really interesting and useful book, which will give the Enochian magician an important complete system of planetary magick to add to the already existing and well documented systems of Elemental and Talismanic Elemental magick. Scott takes two approaches to this more obscure Enochian material, and these two paths will satisfy the adherent using the Golden Dawn methodology of magick as well as the grimoire afficionado who wants to work magick as it would have been worked by Dee himself. 

I can say that both approaches are satisfactorily documented, making this book a lot more valuable than it might be if one approach was chosen over the other. Scott is an excellent writer and has made this book quite accessible to the average occultist, so it shouldn’t be difficult for anyone who seeks to master this system of magick to be able to do so. As a friend and magickal associate, Scott is one of those remarkable men that I have had the honor to know and talk with from time to time. So I am recommending that if you have any interest in Enochian magick, this book is an important addition to your library of magickal books. Also, you can find his book on Amazon here, and his blog, here.

Not very many magicians have worked with the Heptarchia Mystica, those mysterious 49 spirits who are also called the Bonarum, or “Good Spirits.” These entities are divided into three groups, which include seven kings, seven princes and thirty-five ministers. The seven kings are used to produce a high level type of magick (visions, knowledge and illumination), and the seven princes are used for more practical or earth-based endeavors. The groups of seven kings and seven princes each have a controlling or ruling spirit (Carmara and Hagonel), which brings the number to eight spirits in each group. The rest of the 35 spirits are supernumerary ministers who are invoked through the hierarchy of king and prince. Like most forms of planetary magick, the magician must use both the planetary ruler of the day and the hour to “tune” the working to the specific planet. Scott has been careful to ensure that the use of these spirits are in agreement with the text found in the diaries and writings of John Dee, thus establishing the boundaries of what would be considered the accepted Enochian tradition of magick.

I have also worked extensively with the Heptarchia Mystica, but unlike Scott, I approached this system in a manner that completely ignored what Dee wrote and established in his diaries. To me, a matrix of 49 spirits would obviously represent a symbolic table consisting of a base planet that is qualified by a second planet. In other words, I saw these spirits as a kind of binary planetary intelligence. Even their names begin with a “B” - representing to me that each spirit is a “Beta” or binary entity. Invoking one of these spirits would produce a complex whose basic meaning and value would oscillate between the qualities of the two planets; where the base planet would anchor the focus and the qualifier would add an additional dimension or even a conflicting polarity. 

Having two planets banging against each other might seem strange or even counter productive, but such a mechanism can be found if one examines the dynamics of astrological planetary aspects in a natal, progressed or transit chart. The planets are in an angular aspect to each other, producing good and negative combinations in a natal chart, and this represents the dynamic planetary nature of a human psyche according to astrology. Using the spirits of the Heptarchia Mystica in this fashion will emulate the astrological dynamic interaction of two planets, which would unleash the power of that dynamic in the personality of the magician and all who are exposed to it. This produces a kind of magick that is not particularly useful for making probability changes in the physical world, but is truly amazing in the kind of powerful magickal internal effect that it manifests in the psyche of the magician. Thus, from the standpoint of the kind of magick that the 49 Bonarum would produce using my model, this type of magick would be purely theurgic. In other words, it would represent a process that I have referred to as a magickal “ordeal.”

Just so you understand what I am saying when I talk about engaging in ordeals as part of my magickal regimen, I am not discussing how difficult or intense the working is when performed. What I am referring to is a theurgic process that is analogous to the transformative initiatory cycle (which I have previously discussed), so that would mean that an ordeal is a kind of mini-initiation which advances the mind and spirit of the practitioner through an ultimate process of ascension. When I performed a series of seven invocations of these Bonarum, I did them every weekend for seven weeks, and ended the process through invoking the ruling spirit Carmara, therefore pulling the whole construct together into union with a ritual that I called the Septagramic Vortex Gate. The combination of all these invocations, performed in a tight and contiguous period of time, produced within my mind a profoundly illuminating process, which I have called an ordeal. It was also like going through a few years of psycho-therapy in just under two months.

Each of the distinct invocations of one of the seven Bonarum spirits produced a correspondingly powerful psychic effect. Some of them amplified internal psychic issues and complexes within me, producing disturbing and intensely difficult mental processes. Others exalted what could be considered my internal psychic virtues. Each spirit communicated directly with me, and gave me an important piece of my overall spiritual and magickal puzzle. I have written up each of these experiences and have analyzed them over the years. I can say that they greatly helped to advance my knowledge of magick and to evolve me as a person. Since I subscribe to the belief that magick should have an overall transformative effect on the practitioner, ascribing the Heptarchia Mystica to this kind of role makes sense to me. By opening the magician to the dynamics of his or her own internal psychic processes, the element of undergoing a kind of personal mystery seems to justify how I ended up developing this system of magick.

Looking over Scott’s book, I am fairly certain that what I have done with the Heptarchia Mystica is completely unwarranted and unsupported by the traditional Enochian lore as set down by Dee. Yet this is how I approached this obscure system of magick, and I had the assistance and advise of spirits that Dee himself had invoked and encountered many centuries ago. If those spirits sent me in a completely different direction than Dee himself went with these spirits, then I can only say that it is likely just one of many different resolutions that are available to a magician who is practicing magick in an inventive and creative manner. What that means is that there isn’t one correct or right way to work magick, which makes the practice of magick more like an art than a science.


Golden Dawn Issues (Still and Yet Again)

Morgan Drake Eckstein has been furiously writing up some interesting blog articles as of late. For those who are interested in the ongoing discussion between traditionalists, reconstructionists and revisionists in the Golden Dawn blogsphere, you can find his blog postings here. One thing that Morgan has recently discussed involves how to have a constructive discussion within the intra-Golden Dawn community instead of a flame war. He seems to be concerned that his comments and statements of belief will be misconstrued as a flame war by the other side of the Golden Dawn divide, namely the traditionalists headed by David Griffin of HOGD. Another point that he has discussed is the synthetic nature of the original Golden Dawn as shown in the contents of the Cipher Manuscripts, and that Mathers lost his connection to the Third Order due to his illicit mixing of various systems in the second order workings, and having that issue revealed by Aleister Crowley in the Equinox. This has brought up the issue of mixing unlike systems together, and whether or not you have to be a “master” in order to rightly perform this task.

First off, a flame war, in my opinion is where someone deliberately engages in defaming another individual or organization. Discussing differences of opinion is one thing, which if unresolvable, becomes nothing more than two people or parties agreeing to not agree. That isn’t a flame war. However, to declare that important beliefs and foundational ideals of a person or group are actually fraudulent, is, in my definition of the term, a form of flame war, especially if it isn't true.

You can agree or disagree that secret chiefs and a third order is relevant to your particular Golden Dawn organization, but to say that anyone who says that they have contact with such individuals or organization is a liar amounts to defaming their entire organization. This seems to be crux of the ongoing argument between certain Golden Dawn reconstructionists, who say that the secret chiefs never really existed, or that the founding of the Golden Dawn was fraudulent, or that Mathers was a liar, pervert or somehow demented, and the traditionalists, who truly believe in the secret chiefs, the third order and that the Golden Dawn was founded by individuals who were trustworthy and sound. This doesn’t mean that the founders of the Golden Dawn were perfect, but it does represent the fact that in order to accept the Golden Dawn teachings, you have to accept many of the inherent beliefs. 

To attack the foundation is to destroy the organization, so why some reconstructionists feel it necessary to completely defame the Golden Dawn is beyond my understanding. I find that I don’t agree with anyone who seeks to destroy the foundation on which the Golden Dawn was based, so I have been in a natural harmonious agreement with those who revere the Golden Dawn and believe in its tenets. 

In my opinion to push these various toxic talking points is to promote a flame war, since all it does is anger folks (some of whom are not even in the GD Order) and create extreme polarization within the community. However, to disagree and state one’s opinion, but to respect that others might hold a different or opposite belief (even passionately), is the basis of a constructive dialogue - one that I feel would be beneficial to the GD community.  Name calling and defamation are not part of a dispassionate and constructive discourse. I hope that this simple contrast makes that difference quite clear.

Also, I suspect that the real reason that the third order cut its ties with Mathers had a lot more to do with his emerging instability, stubbornness and his poor choices in who to trust, such as the Horos scandal, the London lodge rebellion and the subsequent order schism, which occurred in 1900. Crowley didn’t publish the second order material in the Equinox (Liber O) until 1909, which was nearly a decade after all of these events had already occurred. So I truly doubt that the breaking of the relationship between Mathers and the secret chiefs was due to any inappropriate syncretism, despite what David Griffin has reported.  When that severing of relationships occurred is anyone’s guess, but the early 1890's were times of remarkable growth and expansion in the GD community.

This brings me to the issue of syncretism and the fusion of incompatible lore. There are two schools of thought on this issue, and one is that whatever works is OK. Then there is another opinion that seeks to apply a certain amount of esthetics to the development and practice of magick and the occult. I think that a beginner or a careless dilettante doesn’t concern themselves about the esthetics of their rituals or even the congruency of their beliefs. Yet those who have had years of experience will discover by trial and error, and later, through  a refined sensibility, what combination produces an elegant resolution and what combination produces occult garbage. Esthetics are, of course, subjective, but I think that one rule of thumb is to establish boundaries between different cultures, systems and methodologies that could produce disharmonious combinations or unworkable structures when mindlessly joined together.

Simplicity, consistency, orderliness and a certain intrinsic and intuitive harmonious blending of elements makes for an esthetically derived ritual or ceremony. To produce a manual on how one would do this could result in quite a large volume of writing, and its usefulness and relevancy would be hotly debated. I think that this is not a particularly useful topic, so I think that the prime rule is functionality. 

If the early Golden Dawn seems to be highly syncretistic, then I think that state is analogous to most systems of occultism, both ancient and modern. As a witch, revisionist and ritual developer, I have no problems with experimentation and attempting to combine various systems together to discover new possibilities. By doing this I have, in my time, produced some unworkable junk, but also some truly astonishingly elegant systems and techniques - knowing the difference requires judgement, experience and making lots of mistakes. 

Frater Barrabbas