CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
2003 – 2017
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE POSITION STATEMENT
1.
Everything is grounded in the immediate experience of now. We are here and not elsewhere, and we act from where we are. The immediate experience of now reasserts itself as reality no matter how often it is denied.
2.
There is no secret wisdom. Everything is provisional. Nothing is certain. There are no reliable authorities. All systems are arbitrary and only acquire meaning if their constituent elements are accepted as if they were true. All supposedly valid systems can be invalidated by the simple expedient of refusing their premises.
3.
What people tell me I am is a fiction. I am beyond any definition given by the other. I am beyond any definition given by myself. I am beyond what I'm told I am. I begin nowhere. I end nowhere. I occupy a space between beginning and end, which is constant but seems to change. The mortal and corruptible body is absolutely linked to any notion of super sensible being with which it is associated. We have the necessary resources within us and we do not need instruction from elsewhere.
4.
Form is a treatment of unfettered imagination. The limited is a manifestation of the limitless. Limitless being exists in the context of finite being; the endless is known by that which knows a beginning and end. The end is in the beginning and the beginning is in the end. The beginning and the end differ by virtue of that which has passed between them.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
CROSS OF LIGHT
I am lost in the woods, I am lost in the town
I am lost in the woods. I am looking for a tree that resembles Christ crucified. A white moth lands on my shirt. I admire its beauty. The moth takes flight and I follow it. I encounter the Demon of the Woods. The demon wears a necklace of crow skulls; his belly is a sack of blood. The moth protects me from the demon and leads me to the tree.
At the side of the tree there is a bush. I pluck a berry from the bush and press it between my fingers. A being arises from the juice stain and relates the tale of how the bush came to be.
The Spirit of the Woods decreed that two lights should rule the sky and hold the earth in dominion. He placed a portion of his brightness in one part of the sky and a portion of his brightness in another. Rays of light from these bodies of brightness penetrated the canopy to illuminate the forest floor. A seed was planted at the point where the rays converged. The sky grew dark for a season; the woods grew darker still. The brightness reappeared in the sky and the seed flourished all at once, becoming a succulent bush, heavy with blood red berries.
I leave the woods and walk seven miles into town. I make my way to the market cross, near the spire of the great cathedral. There I meet a friendly tramp and a charming, well-dressed old man, who speaks in a fake Scottish accent. The tramp and the old man are me. The three of us drink and talk together. The old man leaves the gathering to test his charm on the ghost of an old woman who drifts through the streets, dressed in 19th century clothing.
The tramp departs and the old man rejoins me. We walk to the old man’s home. I am full of dread. I look through a window of the old man’s house and see his library. In pride of place on the library shelves stands a volume entitled ‘Evil Mythologies’. Devilish artefacts are ranged about the room. The sight of the library and the furnishings paralyses me. The old man guides me across the threshold.
Temple
Seven four petalled black flowers. Each petal of each flower shares the same dimensions. The petals are of different shades, from deepest black to charcoal grey. In the centre of each flower is a representation of the world in different stages of development. A cold wind blows and the petals of the flowers are scattered. The representations of the world fall to the ground, crack, and are rent asunder. Darkness reigns.
The darkness parts, allowing a sliver of brightness to be seen. The brightness reveals a path leading through the darkness. The path is entered upon. The darkness closes around me. The path leads on, unseen, but clearly determined. Thought moves along its invisible stretch. The unseen light grows stronger in accordance with my mind’s attraction to its source. The source of all light is eternal light. The source of darkness is the absence of light. The path is forgotten, but travelled unerringly. The darkness will pass.
An angel flies at great speed to rid heaven of its demons. The fleshless spectres howl and seem to explode with the brightness of suddenly appearing stars. From these stars that mark the passing of evil further angels come. The angels guide me to a stream.
I follow the stream into a forest. A great fire burns in a circular clearing. A figure rises from the flames; black robed, hooded, blind and hairless, bound by the chains of a hopeless wisdom. The fire burns out. The figure dissolves. Encroaching trees fill the clearing, allowing one road of departure. I run swiftly down this road through leaves that are circling and dancing. I come to a garden. I enter the garden at a slow and stately pace. I see a sandy pathway in the form of a cross. I follow the path in a clockwise direction, returning to my point of departure. Land has been replaced by sea. I plunge into the sea and rise after touching the bottom of the ocean. I find myself on a mountain range in the middle of a newly formed island.
Beyond the mountains there is a deep grey lake of still water. A yellow sun glows in the centre of the sky of uniform blueness above the lake. The sky is not reflected in the water. A single ray of light emanates from the sun and penetrates the lake’s surface. The point of connection between light and water prompts the birth of these visions. The visions incite a kind of explosion deep in my mind. The energy from the explosion courses through my conscious awareness, brightening all it touches.
White Robe
The bright jewel of creation, the silver heavens, the gentle rain, the path of green leaf and white plant, the purple flowers, the red flowers in the grass, the beech tree approaching full bloom, the yellow blossom, the rainfall increasing, the limbs of the tall trees embracing and the bird song reigning clear. A white flower unfolds. I am tied to the motion of the flower.
I walk through deep heather to the top of a hill. I discover a place of sacrifice to the gods of sun and cloud. I purify the altar, shifting its power to the service of a god of love.
I look directly into the setting sun. I look away from the sun and close my eyes. I see a creature of light formed of seven suns moving to the west. The creature of light then moves towards the east, dissolving in stages. The creature’s disappearance allows me to see the stars in bright daylight. I open my eyes and the sun has set. I sleep in a cave.
Calm flowing breath gives birth to a being in the pit of my stomach. This being stirs and stretches outwards, tickling my insides. The being seeps through my skin and adventures in the world outside. It transforms everything it touches. It changes everything into an image of itself. It becomes the foundation of a New World.
I come to a temple. The roof of the temple is made of clouds, bright clouds layered on top of each other, further than the eye can see. The floor of the temple is made of earth. The temple could accommodate a hundred thousand people but few are allowed to enter the place of worship. Spirit
forms fly beneath the roof of clouds. They travel in air bound chariots, hurling spears at the floor. The spears explode upon contact with the earth. A throne appears in the temple. A figure of dazzling brightness sits upon the throne.
I am wearing a white robe. My genitals are exposed. I am travelling through a beautiful valley. Gently sloping hills rise from the valley. A group of aged white robed figures travel in the opposite direction. To see them is to think wisdom. They are knowledge made flesh. I am on a pilgrimage to the place they come from.
The Church and the Holy Cross
The church of the holy cross is located at the top of a steep hill, which rises sharply from a valley. In the churchyard stands the holy cross, enclosed by iron railings. A stone tomb covering near the cross provides a bench for rest and meditation. From the bench can be seen a distant wood, high rising fields and rough trails.
Mystic sacred Saxon cross: the remains of the centuries old marker, gathering place of the ancient faithful, calling across the span of years from time of erection to this time now. A joining of minds: the simple Saxon hill dwelling preacher and the sophisticated inhabitant of the ugly and corrupt modern city holding each other’s hand, forming a circle and revolving.
A view of the land visible to the Saxon congregation is attempted, despite the rise and fall of dwellings, trees, solid rock, stony conglomerations, delicate shifting and changes in fashion. The eternal substance remains.
The spiritual splendour of the Saxon cross and other ancient artefacts calls me from my temporal concerns to a contemplation of the eternal. I come upon a fallen tree which centuries of blasting have shaped into the likeness of some unearthly animal. The wind roars and the tree cries with the voice of a demon. The wind shifts or softens and the tree sings angelic lullabies. A triumphant manifestation of the eternal prances above the tree.
Gnarled trees cast outlandish shadows through the grounds of the church. Well-leafed, smooth trunked specimens shed ordered darkness upon the earth, through the shining of the sun, through the agency of the sky. Abide in the blessed land of pure light.
The spire of the church of the ancient cross: its curious guardian thrust out at the side, carved from stone susceptible to tarnishing, twice winged, stroking its chin and saying: “If any evil comes, let it come to me, for I shall contain it.”
Pray that the spirit of love might arise in the hearts and souls Of all that are and will be. Pray for the salvation of the souls of the dead. The dead are of one nation.
A vision in the sky: the twelve petalled rose protecting the towering church, allowing it to flourish in its pleasant location, amidst rivers, above the foothills, beneath the mountains.
Farewell, fast flowing rivers, dark rooks roosting, sun falling below the shaded hills. Farewell to this place offering food for the soul. Farewell to its shining. Farewell to the day.
To the Gates of Death and Beyond
There is wisdom in these branches. Wisdom walks upon the water. It is easily found But hard to believe in.
Know you are a spirit existing in a spiritual world and live in spirit.
Two orbs of light appear in the sky. My eyes are drawn to this spectacle of brightness. The lights transfix me. The two lights become one light and brighten, forming a tunnel of light, a splendour, a straight path leading my soul to the place where it belongs. Birthless, deathless, home. The grained surface of an old wardrobe: the light of a candle is reflected in the wardrobe’s varnish, the brightness of the reflection fades to a vague outline, a shifting sunspot, animated by the slightest breeze. This is another gateway.
Last gasp. The movement is downwards, A timeless sinking As flesh dissolves. What is set free?
Another death. The liberator comes And is recognised. What has been lost?
I sit in a quiet place. I see the Gates of Death. I see the Gates of Death opening. I enter the land of the dead. The land of the dead is a pleasant land. I behold the Lord of the Dead. The Lord of the Dead is a sweet guardian. I leave the Lord and the land of the dead. I light a candle of remembrance and the gates of death close behind me.
The movement is upward and slight, As if nothing was happening, But something is. What has been gained?
Heaven is the place we reach when all our worries leave us, when mental and physical agitation ceases. In heaven, we can turn our eyes anywhere, marvel at what we see and feel our hearts enlivened.
The Fruit of the Dance of the Body of Light
Little man, invisible, Come and show the way. Expand yourself To the limits of infinity, Inhale the living air of eternity And speak…
Allow a new form of being to manifest itself by dancing wildly in a room beneath the sun. Remove your physical body from the dance and you will become aware of the life form I speak of; invisible, expanding, and liberated from the shackles of flesh.
The dancing room is filled with light. The light indicates the trace of what was your body in motion. The light writhes and waves in a kaleidoscopic brightness of many colours. Light waves rebound from the walls of the room, forming structures made of light, melting pyramids and cubes dissolving in the air.
Light penetrates the walls and makes its way into the world, forming another sun to illuminate what the sun of the sky also brightens. All that is touched by the light from within is taken up within. All that is touched by the sun of the sky remains outside the new being. Your body regains its former boundaries, but now your flesh is shining. The glory of your body indicates the meeting point of the inner and the outer stars. No barriers remain.
See the figure shrouded in sunlit robes the colour of stone. A limitless blue expanse of wind rush and bird song stretches out on either side of him. Move your hand towards this figure and your flesh will take hold of nothing. The glory of the figure is subtle and cannot be embraced by anything that does not partake of his substance.
Consider what was in your mind at the moment of beholding the figure. We search for the kingdom far away when it is always within and around us. Witness the transformation of the leafless branches of the smallest tree from solid wood into pure, soft light. This light is the life of the tree.
A transcendent vision is sacrificed that it might descend into matter and permeate the solidity of flesh and mind. All that comes into the world has always been in the world. The visible was once invisible and will be invisible again. The hidden will be revealed. The dead are with us and we are with the dead.
Be at peace. Be satisfied with peace. Take heed of the wisdom that proceeds from the source and the centre of all things and your life will be transformed.
Nemeton
The sun shines on a rain soaked road, transforming the road into a river of light. I focus on the river of light. Where does it come from? Where does it go?
The land falls quiet and springs to life beneath the rising and falling sun; from Knocknarea to Carrowmore, from bright Lough Gill to twilit Glencar, from the holy well to the holy wood above it. I enter the mouth of a cave and travel towards the heart of a mountain. I offer up a sacrifice on the altar I find there.
I fill my eyes with the light of the slowly setting sun. The sky stands still. It turns red and divides itself. The separated sky begins to move. I see the skies revolving. I see a strange country. I see shifting sands and bright cloth blazing. I see a city born of the sun’s descent. I see the moon rising like a skull. A triangle of stars forms above the city. One of the stars is reflected in a muddy pool of water. Beneath the starlit sky, the valley of vision shines.
I see the great bird that changes colour to ensure it can always be seen. By studying the bird at rest in a tree, by transcending the bird and the tree, I am able to enter the essence of the bird, to blink and fly as the bird does.
Clouds enter my body and are exhaled through my nostrils. My outstretched wings uphold the sun and the moon. I travel by means of the source of light towards the source of light.
A sweet fragrance arises from nowhere to delight me. The moment of Christ’s death on the cross
represents the central point in world spiritual history. Salvation emanates from the outstretched arms of the Saviour, extending to the beginning of time on one side and reaching out to the end of time on the other. The beginning and the end are one. Everything is redeemed in the sphere of the one time living. The sky receives its reward through the limitless extension of the upper axis of the instrument of slaughter. The blood that falls from the Saviour’s wounds nourishes the earth. Sky and earth are purified, resurrected and made new.
Christ is no restriction in love. There is an untouched goodness and purity at the heart of our being that remains forever united with God. This aspect of our being precedes our birth and survives our death; it remains intimately connected with us throughout our lives; human failing does not touch it.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
NOTES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE CROSS OF LIGHT SIX-PART RITE
First stage
1. Direct your awareness to what is known as the third eye – a point between and slightly above the central point between your left and right eyes. 2. Imagine a pillar of light descending from third eye to navel. 3. Imagine a pillar of light ascending diagonally from navel to left breast (nipple). 4. Imagine a pillar of light travelling from left breast to right breast. 5. Seal the sign by imagining a circle superimposed on the site of the fourth or Heart chakra, which is situated in the centre of left breast and right breast. You are superimposing a circle on a form of the cross, which results in an equal armed cross in a circle.
This stage forms the sign of light in motion. Steps 1 – 4 form what is sometimes called the sign of the Hanged Man, or descent of Adonai. Step 5 forms what is sometimes called the Solar Cross or Gnostic Cross.
Second stage
This stage consists of inwardly or outwardly vocalised engagement with and reflection on a religious or magical text that has personal resonance. The vocalisation consists of call and response. Call consists of the text and response consists of reflection. Imagine call coming from what is known as the third eye and response coming from the centre of the equal armed cross associated with the Heart chakra. Call is linked to in-breath and response is linked to out-breath.
Using the example of the Lord's Prayer – call in normal type and response in italics:
Our Father We have a father Who art in heaven He lives in heaven Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come The kingdom of heaven Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven The kingdom of heaven is within
Give us this day our daily bread Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us I forgive all who have sinned against me And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil I renounce the devil and all his works
For thine is the kingdom The kingdom of heaven The power and the glory Forever and ever
Amen
– the ‘Amen’ is both call and response at the same time.
Third stage
This stage balances the force invoked in the second stage.
In the example given above, the divine masculine is invoked, so this stage balances this with an invocation of the divine feminine in the form of the Hail Mary.
Focus attention on a point that is level to what is known as the third eye and above the left breast (nipple).
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Fourth stage
1. Focus attention on what is known as the third eye. Imagine the generation of light – greater light – light beyond light in the third eye. The generation of light – greater light – light beyond light is linked to in-breath and out-breath (one cycle of breath for light, one for greater light, one for light beyond light). 2. Focus attention on navel and repeat step 1. 3. Focus attention on left breast and repeat step 1. 4. Focus attention on right breast and repeat step 1.
Third eye, navel, left breast and right breast are known as the stations of light.
Fifth stage
Form the cross of light by joining the generated light – greater light – light beyond light of the third
eye to the navel, and the generated light – greater light – light beyond light of left breast to right breast.
‘Communion is celebrated at the centre of the cross...’ - focus attention on the centre of the cross of light and commune with what is found there.
Sixth stage
Repeat stage 1.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
FROM THE NURSERY An encounter at Crookes TOPY Station, 1987
The recent publication of the revised version of ‘Thee Psychick Bible’ (Feral House 2009) encouraged us to revisit the Cross of Light Temple archive, where we discovered a lengthy account of the proceedings of a meeting of TOPY Individuals at the TOPY Station in Crookes, Sheffield in 1987.
We are happy to present the following account of an encounter between a Ratio Four and a Ratio Three Individual, which could be viewed as a test to determine the Ratio Three Individual’s suitability to take on greater responsibility within the organisation.
The question and answer session took place in the Nursery of the Crookes TOPY Station. The ‘candidate’ was asked to respond immediately to the questions without prior knowledge of what would be asked. He was informed that there were no right or wrong answers and that his response would not be considered binding. He was encouraged to answer honestly and openly and to the best of his ability in Present Time.
This excerpt from the encounter is adapted from a transcript of the interview, which was recorded in the darkened cellar that constituted the Nursery of the Station.
Cari Saluti, Frater Non Serviam Spring Equinox 2010
What is the significance of the experiences that are related in the Temple record?
The Temple record is a record of first-hand psychick experience, based on the repeated performance of a ritual devised without instruction from pre-existing religious/occult/esoteric organisations, in accordance with the mission statement of the Temple, which is clearly stated in its publications. Each and every part of the ritual has been tried and tested and found fit for purpose, and the several parts fit together to form a harmonious whole. The gradual unfolding and development of the system enables one to access information that would otherwise remain inaccessible and this information provides the foundation for new ways of understanding the world. The full significance of the record will not be revealed until the record is complete and the record will not be complete before its compilers die.
What are the common themes of Temple works?
The core texts of the Temple are as follows:
[A list of seven core texts, deleted by F.N.S., Spring Equinox 2010]
All of these works are based on first-hand psychick experience. They are all concerned with metaphysical themes. Taken as a whole, the Temple can be seen as a research project, which aims to establish a method of engaging with the world through the development of a system based on linking a particular kind of experience. Temple works refute commercialism, materialism, mystification, established authority, challenge the notion of expertise, refuse to accept self-serving hierarchies, implicitly accept the possibility of going beyond, and value transcendence as something worthy in itself whilst recognising transcendence not as an end but as a beginning. Most of the core texts blend scorn and compassion, mockery and respect. The works of the Temple can be viewed as the result of applying a filter (as defined in the mission statement) to the subjects they address.
What are the differences between core Temple themes and concerns?
Beyond the general point of metaphysical endeavour lie considerations of genesis or origin. Investigations proceed from principles arrived at through personal experience or engagement with the defined, treated and published experience of others. There are differences related to form of expression, although these become less and less important as unsatisfactory methods are gradually and as it were naturally discarded during the process of the work. There are differences related to underlying attitudes towards what is being considered and the dichotomies of scorn and compassion, humour and seriousness, deep and shallow, still and moving, fiction and non-fiction, although the tendency to harmonise these disparate elements is characteristic of the work. For example, there is an apparently obvious difference between the works of Crowley, Norse cosmogony and the art of Austin Osman Spare but there is an underlying connection that renders the differences superficial. The underlying themes are revealed through differences as well as similarities.
To what extent can you think for yourself and successfully express the results of your thinking?
I’m not in the habit of thinking clearly. I can find it difficult to think things through. When attempting to engage with the work of others my attention is apt to wander due to inward rush. I’m subject to interference caused by the actions of others and my own fear of intrusion. Much of what constitutes thought is a vague paraphrase of thoughts expressed by others. And yet, through force of will or serendipity, I am sometimes able to think satisfactorily for myself and once I arrive at this stage my experience as a writer and artist gives me a good chance to successfully express what I think. Of course, I don’t always find successful expression easy but the method of first draft – revision – ‘final’ version serves me well enough when producing texts and diligent pursuit of trial and error frequently produces pleasing images. Generally speaking, texts are more reflective of predetermined intention than images are. Different thought processes are involved in these different forms of expression but I’m convinced that by and large they complement each other and work well together.
What precedes distraction?
Concentration emerges from a distracted state, so distraction is preceded by concentration, which is preceded by distraction. This suggests a loop but it’s not an inevitable cycle and it doesn’t naturally occur. A state of concentration is achieved through an effort of will. It might arise as a consequence of performing a predetermined series of actions (a kind of ritual process) or it might be accomplished by degrees through gradual immersion in the object that is chosen as the focus of attention. Concentration is apt to wander. True concentration is not conscious of itself as concentration, whereas distraction can be perceived by a part of the mind as the absence of concentration.
What lies within your control and what remains beyond it?
Theoretically, we control our own actions. We are the masters of our bodies and we can think what we want. In reality, our bodies age and are subject to disease and death and these inevitable consequences of being have nothing to do with self-determination at all (notwithstanding the proven idea that performing or refraining from certain activities has a direct influence on health and disease). As for thought, that impostor faculty seems to generate a stream of barely connected hallucinations that bear little relationship to the will of the mind. And yet there is no particular external agency controlling our physical actions or thoughts, save for in particular circumstances that need not concern us here. We seem to approach the idea that control is an illusion, because thought and action are illusions too. Nevertheless, one can conceive of plans and instruct oneself to perform the actions that are necessary to fulfil them. The field of endeavour might be arbitrary but in pragmatic terms it lies within one’s control to define it, as long as it remains within the range of one’s accomplishments.
What do you offer to the world?
In general terms, nothing of any real consequence. Our actions are either so self-centred that it’s hard to see that they have relevance to anyone else, or their scope is so limited and dependent on closed systems that it makes very little difference whether or not they are performed. This is not a peculiarly notable personal or group failing but an unremarkable example of the consequences of being in advanced Western capitalist society at what is commonly accepted to be this time. ‘There is little in the world of cheapened substance to recommend it’. And so, we turn to the construction and development of the Temple, which offers the world the results of the unfolding of a metaphysical system based on personal experience, which is not dependent on the acceptance of the super temporal authority of pre-existing metaphysical texts, organisations or systems. We see the value of this enterprise but ‘the world’ does not seem to share our estimation of its value.
What happens to joy, misery and other states of being when they are no longer being experienced?
They are subsumed in the great lie of memory, which presents itself as truth and the creator of reality. We say that we transcend memory and realise that the states were never really experienced to begin with. We consider the idea that the states are eternal (something like a paraphrase of William Blake). We recognise the falsehood of the tyrannical notion that joy, misery etc. are experienced as fixed states after death. We conclude that joy, misery and other states do not endure after earthly existence. We struggle to comprehend the great extinguishment, the comfort of oblivion. ‘What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue’. ‘Surely, we are living in a dream’.
Does knowing the light will not last make the light less bright?
‘Ritual engagement with Present Time’ suggests that while the light shines, it shines ‘forever’. The time to deal with the absence of light is when the light no longer shines. We don’t know that the light won’t last. We suspect, expect or assume it will fail. The suspicion, expectation or assumption is intimately connected to the extinguishment of the light.
Is the end in everything that precedes the end?
It has been said that everything that has a beginning has an end but the truth of this saying resides in the acceptance of logic, observation and supposition that has no basis in the experienced reality of Present Time. Present Time knows neither beginning nor end. What is known as ‘the end’ is generally a resting place that allows Present Time to be controlled or comprehended by a pseudo-
logical convention that represents itself as truth. And what we take as the beginning is nothing more than a passing point in Present Time.
Is death consciousness futile consciousness?
We are not conscious of death. We are conscious of what we imagine death might be. Frequently, what we refer to as ‘consciousness’ is fantasy, based on desire or fear. ‘Consciousness’ of death is no more futile than ‘consciousness’ of anything else. Through observing the fate of others, we conclude that we will die. Surely our imaginings regarding death can bear no relationship to death’s reality. Death cannot be experienced more than once. We can’t become familiar enough with death to know what to expect from it. And our observations of the deaths of others are experiences of life, rather than experiences of death. We don’t fear death. We fear what we imagine death will be. We fear pain. We fear what we conceive of as oblivion, extinguishment, being no more. We fear the lurid fantasies of others concerning what might await us after death.
What do you have to do if you want to be heard?
You have to identify an audience and address it through the appropriate media. You have to maximise the possibility that the audience will respond by pitching the message correctly. You have to overcome any inhibitions you have, which might stand in the way of conveying your message clearly and directly. It’s probably a good idea to act as if you respect your audience and it’s likely that assessing the characters of the individuals that make up the audience will help you to do this. You need to develop proficiency in the use of technology, skills and other techniques that you use to address your audience (this doesn’t mean traditionally accepted ‘expertise’; indeed the notion of ‘expertise’ might prove to be a stumbling block or impediment to you being heard – refuse the unprofitable tyrannical standards of others).
Who might be interested in the work of the Temple?
People with an interest in first-hand psychick experience.
What kind of things do these people do?
Read books and specialist magazines, visit specialist shops, join and form obscure organisations.
Where do they congregate?
At local meetings, at occasional festivals, arts and music events.
When is the best time to approach them?
When they are physically gathered together, at the times of congregation previously indicated. We should take action to identify meetings and events and distribute information on a one to one basis after confirming the appropriateness of what’s going on.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ON ‘BEYOND BRECONEX’
John Grey from Omega meets Helgi Pedarsson of Cross of Light Temple in advance of the publication of ‘Beyond Breconex: Selected Trash from the Ruins of Society’...
O: What is the meaning of ‘Beyond Breconex’?
COLT: ‘Breconex’ represents the basic or most fundamental human condition, which consists of breathing, consuming and excreting. It seems to be commonly accepted that the desire to procreate is also fundamental, but this is obvious nonsense. You can deliberately refrain from sexual activity and still survive, but you can't elect not to breathe and carry on living, and you need to take nourishment and eliminate waste products or you die. Some people have claimed to go without food for years, to have attained a kind of yogic mastery that enables them to sustain themselves on air, but they're obviously lying. To go beyond breconex is to go beyond these fundamental conditions. It doesn't mean engagement with normal social activities, which are nothing more than a development of breconex, but rather a metaphysical investigation of the nature of reality, which in our case is grounded in the experience of trauma, incarceration in metaphorical but fully operational mental prisons (the ‘mind forg'd manacles’ of Blake), the impulse towards distraction and the longing for escape.
O: And why the reference to 'trash' and 'the ruins of society' in the subtitle?
COLT: The attempt to go beyond breconex in a meaningful way that communicates to others is probably destined to fail. From time to time you come across a fitting expression of the experience of going beyond but they tend to be rare and fleeting. The experience is more common than the expression, although the experience is still very rare, such is the ubiquity and power of the forces that are ranged against it. So, although you can come up with superficially impressive treatments of religious, magical or metaphysical themes, and although some artists deploy impressive technical mastery to the point of genius in their chosen fields, this work is generally groundless – or contextually limited – and should ultimately be considered as trash. And make no mistake about it, we are living in the ruins of society, a society characterised by lies, hatred and absurdity, and we always have been, and always will be. The very notion of 'society' is inextricably and inevitably linked to its ruin.
O: The collection begins with the Cross of Light Temple Position Statement. How did you arrive at this position and what does it signify?
COLT: The statement was produced following reflection upon the collected writings of Cross of Light Temple. It's the end result of something resembling a sculptural process, whereby all
extraneous detail is removed to reveal the core experience that informs our beliefs, processes, methods of production and ultimately our experience of reality. A lot of COLT work employs religious or magical language, which has meaning for COLT practitioners, but which doesn't necessarily translate in a meaningful way to other people. The problem with God talk and associated expressions is that they're not grounded in universally accepted definitions, which means that the people who transmit and receive them are almost certainly confounded by misunderstanding, which ultimately results in total failure to communicate with each other.
The statement is a summary of the way in which we seek to go beyond breconex. The propositions have been tested and their validity has been confirmed by the reality of our experience. This is the grounding from which we proceed. This is our understanding of reality. I'm happy to stand by everything that's contained in the statement and I'd welcome any challenge to it. The challenge for me, for us, for anyone associated with Cross of Light Temple, is to live in the light of the truth of the statement, to treat it as more than words, to implement what it says in day to day living. The extent to which we succeed in doing this is a matter of debate. And the issue becomes, what prevents us from living in accordance with that which we know, or claim, to be true?
Reviewing the statement now, I'm struck by its positivity, which is encapsulated in the saying, “We have the necessary resources within us and we do not need instruction from elsewhere.” Despite our own limitations and failings, and despite the implacable, remorseless and merciless forces that are ranged against us, we are fundamentally sufficient – we do not lack anything that is necessary, regardless of what we've been told.
O: ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ seems to have been a difficult piece to pin down. Alternative versions of the work appear in previous Cross of Light Temple collections...
COLT: The main sources for ‘Transfiguration’ are the works of Crowley, the King James Version of the Gospels, and the music of Coil and Current 93, and it's proved difficult to marry them together. It's been an ongoing source of trouble, springing from inward looking discontent regarding the suitability of the expression of themes arising from the sources with a fairly straightforward idea or programme, namely the continuing adventures of Jabez the Stupid and Japheth the Last Laugh, the main figures in the lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, which was conceived around 2006, given expression in ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’, which was published in 2008, and which we wanted to develop through ‘Transfiguration...’. For some reason, we found it impossible to rest easy with the first version of the work, which was completed in 2009, and we've returned to it on numerous occasions since then, adopting the sculptural approach outlined earlier, until we've arrived at the version included here. And we're still not entirely pleased with this version, although we're more or less convinced that it contains sufficient virtue to indicate what we were after when we first addressed it, and we have no intention of returning to the text in the future.
O: And ‘Jabez Lives!’ continues the story started in 2006?
COLT: Yes, it does. Jabez lives primarily in the mind of his creator but he is not always alive there. Jabez was most noticeably alive when he was modelled on the streets of Sheffield, filtering and transforming real life experience. Generally speaking, we have little idea of who we are or what we're doing. We make marks in space and time and then forget them.
The following notes from 2011 relate to the initial conception of ‘Jabez Lives!’ (which subsequently changed considerably) but I only know that because they're recorded under that heading:
I don't know what I've been doing for the past two and a half years...I won best in class at the Barnsley Beltane Beard Bash...I wandered around Sheffield, city of prize winning car
parks...Photography isn't permitted in Weston Park museum but I don't consider that to be an enforceable restriction...grave goods, Neolithic burials, north Derbyshire...The supposedly abstract markings on the cremation urns are clearly landscapes, tribal markings saying, ‘This person is of this land’, and it's fitting that the landscapes are constructed from geometric symbols, because the land is metaphysical as well as physical. These grave goods are evidence of a transcendent reality...There's a band called The Magi playing at the Shakespeare tomorrow... postmodern Zoroastrians? The spirit of Crowley on bass? A discarnate Austin Osman Spare on guitar?
I was walking towards town, manufacturing hostility through assumptions about how people will react to me, realising that despite deliberately adopting them, people act as if they're not responsible for their facial expressions, when I had the mixed fortune to encounter Albert Supercool, who almost walked past me, so intent was he on his muttering - “David Toop?...a genius!...the Flying Lizards?...cultural revolutionaries for sure! And the wit of the man! And the charm!...a colossus!”
We must have been reading Louis Ferdinand Celine at the time. And this is from 2012:
I make a few notes outlining the idea of ‘Jabez Lives’. The renunciation of magic from ‘The Tempest’. The conclusion: to explore the richness of the immediate experience of now. Between the renunciation and the conclusion: the aim of investigating reality and maximising potential, contrasted with actions taken from diaries dating from the conclusion of ‘SOAB’. Note in particular the failure to communicate in a way that generates a meaningful response.
In the version of ‘Jabez Lives!’ that appears in ‘Beyond Breconex’, the three main characters are Jabez, Belial and Cross of Light Temple, or COLT (in the sense of a group portrayed as a single entity). Jabez represents a certain element of the author's experience, Belial represents the world, and COLT represents transcendence and transformation. Belial is the embodiment of that which is deemed to be worthless. In a sense, he's the spirit of the deficiency of the age, which infects everyone who comes into contact with it (more or less everyone). Belial is an embodiment or representation of disappointment. Although it could be argued that COLT has little impact on what is known as the objective world, it represents hope and the possibility of discovering deeper meaning.
The figure of Belial comes to be based on an infamous Neo-Nazi who claims to have abandoned violence and the absurdities of extreme nationalism in favour of a search for the numinous based on empathy for all living things, and yet continues to recount his former exploits in the fields of street fighting and marginal paramilitary activity with such relish that it's impossible to think of his conversion as anything other than a cynical game. And a significant portion of the text represents an application of core teachings gleaned from Dianetics and Scientology as a sickening black magical working against this manifestation of Belial.
Another way of relating to ‘Jabez Lives!’ is to consider it as the record of the morphine sulphate dreams that Jabez experienced following his assault by the children of NOS in ‘Transfiguration...’.
O: You revisit the sayings contained in the COLT Position Statement in ‘Beyond Breconex: On the COLT Position Statement’.
COLT: That's right. It could be considered a form of reality testing. The title of the text is self- explanatory. We discussed going beyond breconex earlier. The text consists of reflections on the sayings contained in the statement over a period of several months, when we were learning it off by heart. It also contains a few pertinent observations gleaned from the writings of other people and outlines further work on the project that might or might not be taken on in future.
O: The Cross of Light Temple Sampler presents a collection of texts from previous COLT works dating from 2006 to 2013. What's the rationale behind the choice of texts?
COLT: It's a more or less representative sample of the kind of work we produce. ‘Cross of Light’ is a foundation text, the first piece of writing we ever presented, and arguably still the most relevant. It's an indication of what lies at the heart of what we do. We'll be revisiting it again next year, going deeper in our exploration of the themes it addresses. ‘On Selected Sayings from Cross of Light Temple’ is a reflective piece, similar to ‘Beyond Breconex’, and can be read as the first stage of the work that led to the production of the Position Statement. ‘The Abominable Dr. D’ is a humorous piece, based on our understanding that magic/k should be viewed as a specialised form of comedy. And ‘NOS: An Exercise in Power and Control’ is an examination of a fascinating religious subcultural phenomenon, which can be likened to our consideration of other magical and religious organisations, such as TOPY, the A.'. A.'. and The Process, or individuals like Dion Fortune or Crowley, or genres such as Chaos Magic.
O: The COLT Sampler is followed by the Cracked Fuck Trilogy. Why a trilogy?
COLT: A cracked fuck is a person who does not think right. The trilogy starts with ‘COLT presents Cracked Fucks’, which illustrates some of the qualities possessed by people who either passively accept or blindly attempt to escape the limitations of popular culture and societal norms. It's important to remember that this generalised condemnation is written by a cracked fuck as well. ‘I, Cracked Fuck’ reveals that the author of the preceding piece is none other than Jabez the Stupid, Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, and hero of ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ and ‘Jabez Lives!’. Jabez waxes lyrical on a range of magical and religious themes before passing judgement on the practices of magicians and religious systems, contrasting these judgements with data taken directly from a version of the Cross of Light Temple record, being the record of the Temple which he co-founded with Japheth the Last Laugh at the end of ‘Transfiguration...’. Finally, Cross of Light Temple as transformed by the thoughts and actions of a cracked fuck becomes Cracked Fuck Temple, and Cracked Fuck Temple presents the Online Oracle as a money making scheme. This might strike you as the kind of enterprise that could have been dreamed up by Celine's Herve Sosthene de Rodiencourt, the ‘Certified Mining-Prospector, Explorer of Occult Hearths and Initiated Engineer’ of ‘Guignol's Band’, if he was around today, but there are actually quite a large number of snake oil salesmen plying their wares as online tarot readers and such like, advertising their dubious services as interpreters of the wondrous signs at 40 quid a go. The question becomes who is the cracked fuck in these transactions – the fraudulent merchant, the grossly material supernaturalist, or the person who is foolish enough to pay money to engage with them? ‘We are all cracked fucks but some fucks are more cracked than others’. Obviously, this applies as much to the reader as the people described in the writings and the characters to whom the writings are ascribed.
O: And the collection is concluded by extracts from TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS followed by a short Q and A session about the aims and objectives of COLT.
COLT: That's right. TMESL dates from the early 1990s and can be seen as a precursor of COLT. Earlier this year, we discovered a long lost archive of extracts from TMESL publications dating from 1991 and we thought it would be a good idea to present some representative extracts. It should also be noted that ‘TMESL’ is the title of the COLT text published in 2013, where it acquires the additional meaning of ‘time moves, everything stops living’. The short Q and A is included because it gives an indication of some of the work we intend to undertake in 2014.
O: And what will this work consist of?
COLT: We'll be focusing on COLT fundamentals and a COLT recordings project to begin with. The fundamentals comprise of the Cross of Light text mentioned earlier, the COLT Position Statement and the performance of the COLT six-part rite. The recordings project basically consists of selecting, sequencing and presenting a collection of mainly spoken word pieces from 2013, entitled ‘Esoteric Psychedelia’. We'll also be studying a number of texts produced by other people, which will probably include the King James Version of the Gospels (yet again) and might involve revisiting ‘Liber Null' and 'Psychonaut’, ‘Bright from the Well’ by David Lee, and ‘The Gnostic’ journal. We fully expect a number of presently unforeseen concerns or obsessions to develop during the course of the year, and we're conscious that the COLT Supplementary Record 2012-13 contains numerous ideas that might be developed into full scale projects.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
XTUL MEDITATION
What am I beyond what people tell me I am?
What people tell me I am is a fiction. I am beyond any definition given by the other. I am beyond any definition given by myself. I have nothing to do with any of it. I lurk beyond outward show. I inhabit the unreachable depths. I am everything beyond what I'm told I am. Put no trust in these vile pronouncements; don't take the passing for the fixed.
What am I beyond the socially conditioned roles I occupy?
I occupy these roles through choice, albeit choice between ultimately worthless things. You could take them as indicators. I wilt like a flower, even though I'm given to soft work. I work for the socially mediated construct of good despite the cynicism I bring to the task. I scowl at the burden and the roles barely touch me. They are outward show. They are guides. They are the foundation of some vague image that I project into the world.
Where do I begin and where do I end?
At last, a proper question. I begin nowhere. I end nowhere. I occupy a space between beginning and end, which is constant but seems to change. I expand and contract. I fill all space. I am nowhere. I'm told that I have a history but the sorry fiction related to me is grounded in the fictions of others and their manifestation as personifications of socially conditioned roles.
Where is flesh located and what does it consist of?
It's nowhere. It's an arbitrary appropriation of space. It's like a zephyr of breeze passing some barely determining receptor. It's a form of solidified thought, a convention of pleasure and pain. It's a peculiar manifestation of being. It's an ultimately invisible conception taken as the whole. It can be viewed as a baffling divider.
Is this a conclusion or a resting place on the way?
There is neither conclusion nor resting place. There is onward flow, which concludes and rests as it passes. So, it is neither one nor the other, despite being both at the same time.
Is this body of flesh constructed on top of a pre-existent body of light underlying it or is the body of light dependent on the prior existence of a body of flesh?
As the body of flesh does not exist as a coherent identity and the body of light is more nebulous still, it is difficult to speak with certainty of the relationship between them. A body of light as the foundation of a body of flesh is a profitable thought, and so is the idea of the precedence of the fleshly vehicle. What are here termed ‘the body of flesh’ and ‘the body of light’ co-exist and are intimately related. I venture to say that one could not exist without the other.
Which comes first and which takes precedence?
If I'm forced to choose, I would have to say the body of light takes precedence, because the body of flesh is commonly held to arise and fade, and has been observed to be subject to death, whereas the body of light is not subject to such limitations. I reserve the right to reverse this judgement if the body of light is found to be a worthless fantasy.
[The recording of the interview is faulty and interrupted...It resumes...]
What can you do for Cross of Light Temple?
I can perform the rituals of the Temple, which constitute its inner work. I can produce work for the Temple and publish it, which is the outer work of the Temple. I can cultivate allies for practical purposes, primarily related to the distribution of public works.
How can Cross of Light Temple stand against or be harmonised with urgent so-called objective realities?
Cross of Light Temple experience becomes the urgent all filling reality when we reside in it. It produces a particular method of engagement with the world that lasts for as long as it is present. In this sense, Cross of Light Temple is always harmonised with the outside environment, because it brings the outside in, or transcends the difference between inside and outside altogether. There is nothing to be harmonised in this realisation. When so-called objective reality becomes discordant, it is a sign that we are not in the Temple. It is also generally a sign that we should not remain, that we should change our environment, or remove ourselves from it.
[Another break...]
Where is thought located?
Thought does not inhabit the objective material world. Its association with the brain is purely mechanical. It seems to exist somewhere in the no-man's land between the individual and what resides beyond him or her. It seems more dependent on its association with the individual than it does with what resides beyond on the grounds that thought does not transmit directly from thinker to thinker but is transmitted in mediated form. This is figurative, of course. Strictly speaking, thought is located nowhere, or in a place that cannot be named.
What does it consist of?
It doesn't possess material substance. It shares some of the properties of light. It's a catalyst for action. It attaches itself to objects and it emerges from the objects it suffuses like feedback. It is swift moving and can't be pinned down to be examined. It is not approached directly but it is measured by its product. The product is not the thought that bore it. And the systems for measuring and classifying thought come after the event and are products of thought. They can imprison but they can't explain.
Where and what are the limits of being?
Being as it is experienced is limitless. It knows neither beginning nor end. It is not contained by space. It is beyond time. Let's say it simply is, for the sake of convenience. You could deny it, but it would reassert itself as that which is. However, from observation we know that people are born and die, and that they possess independent being as far as we can tell. So limitless being exists in the context of finite being; the endless is known by that which knows a beginning and end. So, the limits of being are birth and death; the limits of being are uncertain; and being is limitless.
Behold the vast array of clearly discerned figures perceived in the state between sleep and waking. Where do these images come from?
These particular images arise as a consequence of a form of meditation and letting go. To some extent, they depend on the will of the person who occupies this state, which is not as crude as the usual mental will, but which is appropriate and effective in its sphere. They can also be interpreted as the product of creative imagination applied to a developing awareness of archetypes. Perhaps they are beings that possess objective reality without possessing material substance. Or perhaps they are manifestations of states, or symbols.
How are they possessed of such clarity?
The degree of clarity they possess is related to the skill of the seer, which is developed through the study of the figures perceived in the state that enables them to be seen. Also, they are composite beings and each of their elements possesses meaning, which is translated in visual terms into something that seems to shine, and is therefore more acutely seen. Further, the person who sees them is in a somewhat passive state, which allows them to flower into deeper and deeper clarity. It's possible to travel through them to something astonishingly beautiful and moving. They're gateways to a state of being, and it's that state of being that counts.
What do they signify?
As previously stated, they're full of meaning in their elements but their primary significance resides in the fact they prove the viability of a way of being that is not dependent on the controlled external environment we are subject to. They signify the limitations of flesh and the inefficacy of prisons. They are heralds of the next stage of the work and they help in the endeavour. They signify strength. They signify beauty. They signify transcendence. They are also reminders of impermanence, although they suggest something abiding beneath all change. They signify that the individual is aligned with a group.
Are they anything more than heralds of sleep?
Their function as heralds of sleep is a semi-material function, useful in that it enables them to be fixed for observation in the physical world. They are the guardians between different types of consciousness, although they do not guard, but rather facilitate the transition from one mode of perception and understanding to another. They are guides more than they are guards.
Are particular meanings associated with individual figures?
Particular meanings associated with individual figures arise as a consequence of growing familiarity with individual figures. Certain figures emerge from the generalised mass, aspects of the whole that are appropriate to circumstances pertaining to the current concerns of the seer. They acquire meaning as they are focused on. Eventually, they can take on a kind of mental substance that means they are no longer what they were; rather than being fleeting figures, they become beings replete with forms of personality that can be returned to again and again, to the extent that they seem to
develop on their own. They emerge from formlessness, take on nebulous form, then are fixed by thought and perform actions in the world that they abide in, which stretches beyond the realm of thought.
Is there meaning in the succession?
The meaning of the succession is the meaning associated with narrative flow translated to awareness of timeless being. The meaning lies in the separation of individual figures from the undifferentiated mass, to be examined and imbued with meaning in excess of the meaning initially discovered. There is meaning in every stage of the process and there is meaning in the process itself. Also, during the course of the succession, certain individual figures arise as a consequence of the prior appearance of others.
Do they possess any substance?
They do not possess material substance but their existence is such that one has to concede that they possess substance of a different order, which we must term immaterial substance (implying something more than form without substance).
Would there be any value in cataloguing the details of their appearance?
There is value in the enterprise of examining and recording the details of their appearance as an aid to future understanding of their meaning. It has been previously noted that each element of their being possesses significance enabling it to shine, so the cataloguing is an aid to particular understanding, but it is also useful in revealing correspondences between the elements and the individual figures that might not be immediately apparent in the unfiltered experience that allows them to rise.
Would the focus necessary to describe one prevent the others from appearing?
It doesn't prevent them from appearing, although it might well prevent them from being perceived in the time that one's focus is elsewhere, but to focus on one is not to focus on something that is separate, but something that is joined and akin, so that it becomes possible to suggest that focusing on one of the figures allows others to appear in the most appropriate form.
Why haven’t they always been there, or accessible to perception?
I think they've probably always been there but their existence is revealed through a particular form of perception that is not always in operation; if it were, it would be this succession of figures that provided the earthly ground from which to proceed to the other through some different method appropriate to circumstance. They are always accessible to perception, provided that the method of perception is appropriate to them being revealed. Growing familiarity facilitates an increased ability to perceive them through an act of will moving us from one state of being to another. When it's right to see them, they're seen.
Why is the procession generally positive and somehow comforting rather than disturbing or frightening?
There must be an underlying positive tendency influencing the procession. That this is possible is learned through experience. It has not always been so. There have been rare occasions when the procession was disturbing and frightening, but it was found to be possible to alter the direction in which the flow of thought related images was travelling. The implication is that despite the apparent
passivity and attitude of non-interference that generally accompanies their appearance, there is a particular mission that relates to the positive flow and depends on it for its unfolding. You could say it's a kind of wish fulfilment, but even if that’s so, where does the desire stem from, and what purpose does it serve? Things are as they are for a reason, and reason is related to emotion, and it's through emotional investment that the reason becomes apparent.
Do they possess any measure of objective existence?
The figures that are focused on come to be definable by a set of characteristics and properties that are more or less constant, and certainly associated with particular figures. This constancy represents a measure of objective existence. The movement is from the subjective to the objective, the undifferentiated to the particular, the immeasurable to something that becomes available for study.
Do they possess height, width and depth, or can they be otherwise measured?
Not height, width and depth as they are perceived in mundane reality, but they do possess a form of size that becomes apparent through the relationship between each other. This size is subject to change, in part dependent on the level of awareness of the person who perceives it. It is possible for an individual figure to fill the consciousness of the person who perceives it, or for the figure to diminish to a rumour at the periphery of one's attention.
Do the individual images appear more than once?
It's only necessary for an individual image to appear once. The reiterations of the images are merely reminders of their first appearance. It's not necessarily the case that frequently appearing images are more important than those that appear less frequently, beyond this being an indication of particular obsessions, which thereby offer themselves up for further study.
Do they possess greater significance than the disconnected ‘flow’ of everyday thought?
They are indicators of a harmony underlying the apparently disconnected flow. They are not wholly different in nature to the products of everyday thought, they just possess a greater degree of certainty during the time of the meditation, which allows them to be remembered, reflected on, and to form part of the superficially disconnected flow, which can be guided by them, so that the flow of everyday thought becomes less disconnected, as it were elevated by the connection.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
OUT AUDITING
Where can God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the devil or any other divine or supernatural being be found ...?
Descriptions of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the devil and other divine or supernatural beings can be found in religious and magical texts, folklore and fairy stories. How these descriptions relate to the immediate lived experience that we call reality is a matter of conjecture. Numerous descriptions of personal encounters with divine or supernatural beings can be found in literature and the degree of credence one gives to them is based on subjective judgement arising as a consequence of cultural conditioning.
Will we be held responsible for the consequences of our dreamlike actions in an unreal world?
In a sense, we are held responsible for the consequences of our actions regardless of their nature or the substance of the world they are performed in. Our responsibility is worked out immediately in the here and now and in the future that they are constantly becoming. The responsibility is as dreamlike and unreal as the world it stems from. It can be conceived of as a mechanical process that looks after itself and is not worthy of any particular attention.
Will the day of judgement resemble the selection process at the Nazi death camps?
There would seem to be some parallels if the day of judgement were to happen as it is described, or conceived of. The nature of the elect and the damned might be different but the underlying process seems quite similar. Then again, objectively the day of judgement is speculative, a description of an idea, whereas the Nazi death camps actually existed. And the arbitrary authority that oversees the day of judgement is the divine creator judging what he has created, which apparently removes the event from normal considerations of cruelty, whereas the arbitrary authority invested in the Nazis was human, earthly and materialistic.
1. Review texts of Austin Osman Spare (AOS) to extract the limited number of phrases that are clearly expressed. 2. What do these unambiguous statements signify?
This sounds like a major project, which presently holds little appeal. I've immersed myself in the work of AOS on a number of occasions in the past and I feel no real desire to return there. But I take 'The Focus of Life' and 'Ethos' from my library for future reading as a gesture towards the fulfilment of the programme suggested by the idea.
What do the questions that the Society of the Inner Light chooses to ask in its study course questionnaire reveal about the organisation?
I don't have the questionnaire before me but from memory I suggest that it indicates that the organisation is careful about who it admits to its ranks. The supervised study course represents the first stage of a progressive engagement with the group that is monitored by group authorities every step of the way. The questionnaire aims to elicit not only the reason for the potential student's interest in the Society of the Inner Light, but also to learn about their experience of religion, magic and metaphysics in general, their social standing and the nature of their primary human relationships. It's even concerned with a person's national or 'racial' heritage. You're asked to provide these intimate details and then you're judged on whether or not they'll accept you for study. Imagine the database of religious nuts and magic obsessed madmen they could develop if they chose to. Of course, you don't have to fill in the questionnaire, and you don't have to apply for the course of study, but there's no way around it if you want to access the mysteriously attractive information they purport to be in possession of.
What virtue is there in Evelyn Underhill's argument that ranks the corporate mystic above the individual mystic (that is, one who operates within an established religious group as opposed to one who does not)?
It opens up a field of enquiry. Her argument suggests that established religion has greater intrinsic value than non-denominational or non-sectarian religious or metaphysical experience, which is obviously open to question. But there is no intrinsic value in unorthodox experience in and of itself. It might seek to equate itself with freedom and liberty but upon examination it can prove to be nothing more than a form of self-aggrandisement. Conversely, to automatically assume that the orthodox establishment is inherently valid and trustworthy is to prove oneself concerned with hierarchy as an emanation of truth, which is one of the most harmful of the manifold errors that have been foisted upon oppressed humanity. In truth, the corporate mystic does not outrank the individual mystic, and the individual mystic has no more value than the corporate mystic, but more importantly, no fixed value can be attached to either the corporate or individual mystic unless the experiences they relate prompt a reaction in those who learn of them.
Is it possible to develop a successful cult (secret society, alternative religion) without an authoritarian leadership and rigid hierarchy?
You could argue that a successful cult develops into a world religion that inevitably becomes a bureaucratic nightmare and degenerates into a specialised form of the general oppression that ends in death. Or you could view success in terms of longevity, not necessarily related to popularity, and observe that these long lived organisations place great store in the notion of traditional leadership structures that mirror, for example, the British armed forces. The rebellion is a mirror image of that which it supposedly opposes. But generally, if they're not forgotten beyond the possibility of resurrection, successful cults transpose themselves into myths that invest the vague subcultural collective unconsciousness with a sign that can be interpreted in numerous ways related to the notion of FURTHUR...
...the seer perceives the spiritual nature of 'other people'...how can this be possible?
Leaving aside the problematic relationship between the so-called self and so-called other people, the validity of the perception is dependent on a willingness to accept the authority of the seer. I can say that a swift glance at the physical appearance of the people I walk past in the street tells me all I need to know about their 'spiritual nature' but I don't expect you to believe me. I would suggest that my claims might be tested by your observations of the people to whom these value judgements are applied but I wouldn't expect you to engage in this exercise on my say so. And the judgements are not meant to be fast and binding but loose and temporary and easily broken, and they do not apply
to the core of the people to whom they are applied but to the outward masks and false appearances that my brothers and sisters seem forced to take on as they make their way through the world from which they are estranged through acceptance of the common but groundless assumption that it somehow belongs to someone else more than it does to them.
What would be the consequences of acting on the realisation (or assumption) that the same life (or life force) inhabits all living things?
There would be a movement from identification with the ego as the reality of self to immersion in a wider and more comprehensive understanding of the primary ground of animation. There would be a concomitant movement from a lesser to a greater reality. There would be a check on a common death tending absurdity. There would be a strengthening of the realisation that dawned upon witnessing the death of that wasp about ten years ago, a deeper understanding of its struggle, a growing awareness of what empathy – agape – caritas really mean.
I am the only person I know who has developed a personal religious/metaphysical system based on personal religious/metaphysical experience. The question becomes, 'So what?'
That's not a proper question. It's more of a cynical gesture. Nevertheless, the 'what' that is questioned is answered by the further development of the system, a further accumulation of experience, an ever deepening metaphysical engagement. The suggestion that there's no definite objective or destination in mind doesn't devalue the enterprise. We learn something about where we are going by embarking on what might seem like a meaningless journey.
I study, engage and interact with the Gospel According to Saint John. Where does this engagement and interaction take place? How deep is it?
It takes place in what appears to be an individual mind expanded through immersion in the text. It takes place in the transcendent eternity that study of the Gospel makes of time. It takes place in the ground of the senses, the ground of the mind, and the ground of being that gives mind and senses some semblance of meaning. The depth of the engagement is directly related to the abandonment of the ego-bound so-called self.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
OUT AUDITING 2
Think about the middle pillar and ask where is the centre of being? Is it associated with the third eye, Heart chakra, or navel?
The centre of being is nowhere and everywhere. The term 'the middle pillar' as deployed here refers to an imaginary, but not unreal, axis of light connecting the so-called third eye, Heart chakra and navel. In terms of this axis of light and the uses it is put to, the centre of being is usually located in the Heart chakra, less frequently in the so-called third eye and rarely in the navel.
A question to address before engaging in any action is, Where is the light in it?
Light in this context means that which works towards illumination. The underlying principle is that the actions we engage in should be grounded in metaphysical experimentation aimed at fostering illumination.
Questioning fundamental practice: – Is it just more data and novel experience? – If not, what lies beyond it?
The fundamental practice referred to is the Cross of Light six-part rite. Recording the results of the performance of the rite generates data that reflects a related body of experience but this is not 'just more data' and it does not relate to meaningless novelty. Underlying the performance of the rite lies an awareness that it leads to a state of being that is sufficient in itself and an assumption that experimental metaphysics is a tool that can be purposefully employed as a means of investigating the realities of being that suffocating materialist world views care not to acknowledge; it also generates material for further reflection and forms the foundation of many Cross of Light Temple texts.
Why does COLT activity manifest in the form it does?
The Cross of Light six-part rite evolved over a period of time and is based on an inspired consideration of the necessary constituent parts of a method of metaphysical exploration. Each stage of the rite possesses significance in itself and the separate parts acquire further significance through being linked to the other parts and through the order in which they are performed. Other forms of metaphysical practice and experimentation are grounded in or secondary to the six-part rite.
Cross of Light Temple produces texts to give form to experience and to convey the meaning of that experience to others. COLT produces artwork, primarily to illustrate COLT texts, and COLT produces recordings, which are verbalised texts, or renditions of writings which work better when read aloud than they do when confined to the page.
Generally speaking, COLT should be concerned with the process unfettered imagination – creative idea – outward form, rather than critical engagement with outward form. What implications does this have for future COLT publications?
Unfettered imagination is something of a whimsical notion. Imagination is informed by past experience and creativity is similarly constrained, or guided. COLT has a good idea of what works and does not work for COLT and the process of making judgements on this basis, which are not infallible, will continue to operate. And yet it is true that COLT's concern with the transcendent widens the field in which imagination plays before consolidating into ideas and this process might result in the production of new and hitherto unconsidered forms of work. Pragmatically, or mundanely, extended written criticisms of the works of other people seem less likely to appear in future.
What are the sources that inform the work published by Cross of Light Temple?
The primary source is the experience related in the Cross of Light Temple record, the Cross of Light Temple supplementary record and the previously published and unpublished writings of COLT.
See the end of 'Returning the Light to its Source' in 'Theopathy' for a list of influences, 1985 – 2004, which gives an indication of the pseudo-intellectual mindset from which COLT emerged.
...how does the most pressing absurd reality of the day relate to the metaphysical grandeur of Cross of Light Temple?
Both the absurd reality of the day and the metaphysical grandeur are to be found in the immediate experience of now.
What is Liberty without Universal Toleration? - William Blake
Blake implies that liberty can be used as a pre-requisite for exploitation by oppressors. Perhaps on a mundane level, he had the French Revolution in mind.
Universal Toleration can be seen as one of Blake's core tenets, alongside ‘Every Thing that Lives is Holy’ and ‘Every Thing is Eternal’.
Where is the Existence Out of Mind or Thought? - Blake
The idea is to engage in the search for existence outside of mind and thought and to report back if and when it is found. Blake suggests that exterior existence is not objectively real.
“Is Gnosis simply a way of separating from the ego everything that one does not like?”
The kind of inverted egomania questioned here can be ascribed to false or shallow allegiance to many causes and Gnosis, or the pretension to Gnosis, would not be first amongst them. If Gnosis was just a method of transcending or ennobling dislike, then it would not really be Gnosis.
My Soul, My Soul, where are You?
Somewhere between the earthly body and what might be termed the universal spirit. Somewhere associated with a certain kind of elevated thought. Somewhere that is passing out of existence and
somewhere that will always remain. The soul is yearning for its creator and its creator resides within it. It's where it's always been, but seemingly hidden from perception by the machinations of the divided mind.
Is developing a programme dependent technique sufficient in itself?
A programme dependent technique might be sufficient to accomplish certain plans of a mundane or mechanical nature. Skills and techniques have many applications, so the development of a narrow proficiency might assist you in larger or more ambitious tasks. But ultimately, metaphysically and mystically, such a technique is not sufficient in itself.
What's the rationale for the story?
Cross of Light Temple writings promote the mission of Cross of Light Temple. Sometimes that mission is clarified through the act of writing. The mission is metaphysical, mystical, religious. The treatment of the mission is historical, fictional, speculative and exact.
Is it clear?
The basic COLT position is to be as clear as possible. Questions have been raised about the clarity of COLT texts. At times, these questions strike us as adolescent whining, which is not to be disdained in adolescents, but which becomes tiresome when it comes from the mouths or pens of adults.
Is it true?
As it is said, everything that is written is true; but generally, we are concerned with a truth beyond this, and the writing should be primarily concerned with the truth beyond the truth that is written.
Has it been experienced?
The basic COLT position is the deeper the experience, the better. The experience is the ground of the truth beyond truth referred to above.
Does it communicate to others?
Generally speaking, feedback indicates that COLT texts communicate to others, finding approval and disapproval according to the tastes and vanities of those who read them.
Can it be expressed in terms of who, what, where, when (how and why)?
This is a reminder of a basic narrative structure which people have internalised through learning. It's often an easy and effective way of addressing a subject. People like it, because they're immersed in it, whether they know it consciously or not.
Is it the process, or the results, or both that counts, and if both, or more than one, which is most important?
It's both the process and the results that count, but the process is more important.
What's the value of choice when the choice is between things that have no real value?
Things that have no real value are not necessarily equally valueless and vain. The choice is between better and worse.
Are arbitrarily constructed programmes a neurotic response to feelings of discomfort?
They most certainly can be. They can be seen as an attempt to fill the void with time and emptiness with space, upon which to construct cities of refuge, or citadels, or temples. “Your glorious palaces are hospitals set amidst cemeteries.”
What proportion of our thoughts are not the recycled thoughts of others?
Some thoughts are direct repetitions of the thoughts of others, other thoughts are paraphrases, some have the mark of originality about them, and others can claim to be original as far as the restrictions of language and non-verbal mental processes allow. The proportion of thought that can be aligned with each of these categories is constantly shifting. And these categories are named for the sake of making that point.
Where is the original thought located?
It cannot be located in space or time. It is located in the place of its arising.
Whose interests are served by the universal acceptance of unreality (called objectivity) as reality (wholly grounded in subjective experience if it can be said to be anywhere at all)?
The interests of those who benefit in their own terms from the promotion of the idea; those who wield the greatest power in the so-called objective material world.
Is hypocrisy essential to so-called social cohesion?
Most certainly, without a shadow of a doubt.
What's the value of outside contact?
Is there any such thing as outside contact? Outside of what? Beyond that, the question is too general to give a meaningful specific answer to.
Do the actions you take result in the objectives you hope to achieve, or do they serve some other purpose?
This question acquires value only when applied to particular projects with predetermined objectives. It is not universally applicable. It does not take proper account of the desirability of adventure and experiment for their own sake. It does not properly recognise that actions taken without reference to predetermined objectives serve a potentially greater purpose.
...to what extent do my actions serve a worthwhile purpose?
The value of actions in this context should be judged by the purpose you have in mind; if there is no firm objective to which the question might be referred, it becomes a vain spur, more correctly a form of internalised oppression.
Do I approve of their ends or do I merely act to fill time with a semblance of purpose and meaning?
We're conscious of the reality of acting to fill time with a semblance of purpose and meaning and we're aware of the frustrations that might arise from such recognition but we can also see the value of such actions in terms of the reality of the immediate experience of now, which is the ground we seek to occupy and work from.
Do people want to do anything but live forever, doing nothing?
Yes. They want this void listlessness to be acknowledged as the reality upon which the idea of a meaningful life is based.
Is there greater value in what is remembered or in what is forgotten?
For all pragmatic purposes, what is remembered possesses greater value than what is forgotten. But the remembered and the forgotten are not final categories; what is remembered is forgotten and what was forgotten is remembered.
To what extent are supposedly involuntary acts intentional?
Assuming that there is motive underlying action, involuntary acts can be understood as acts that are performed without the involvement of conscious will. Accidents might well be accidents but they are often grounded in a lack of awareness of what is going on around us.
Why bother to express an opinion unless you're a decision maker?
There is such a thing as corporate endeavour, which is worthy to engage in, where the position of decision maker is fluid, a function rather than an office. It is good to speak from the overflowing of the heart and it is good to speak to those who listen with understanding. And it is necessary to express opinions en route to becoming a decision maker as that position is commonly understood.
Are thought and feeling the proper foundations for action?
Directed thought and examined feeling are useful foundations for purposeful action; mundane thought flow and rash emotionalism are not.
How does the agitated mind relate to the lazy body?
The mind is intimately related to the body but the mind and the body also operate independently in their own spheres. Agitation of mind can be associated with physical indolence but it can also drive the body on to great and purposeless wandering through the world.
Did the event appear as significant in the receiving mind? How intense was the vision?
These are questions to be answered when assessing the value of visionary experience. Intense visionary experience that appears to be significant is worthy of further study.
How long does the certainty of the vision endure?
The length of the actual or visible vision can be momentary, and yet the impact of that moment might last forever as certainty; or the vision might be of long duration, a veritable wonder, and yet its delight might dissipate into apparent nothingness. And the forgotten vision can be recalled, recast and remodelled. The certainty of the vision is not measured in time.
What do you do when it fades?
You can wait for its intensification, its reappearance, or the next vision. You can occupy yourself with other things, so that the waiting does not appear to be waiting.
Do you continue to pursue the vision in its absence?
You can pursue the vision through study and reflection, which can become your dominant living experience. You can choose to leave it alone.
What do you do when you realise that it is more or less useless in the world, and that the world would judge it as madness if it knew of its existence?
You 'inhabit another world because this world of cheapened substance has little to recommend it'. Vision is not utilitarian. The world judges many things as mad, which are nothing of the sort (unless you consider the idea of madness to be justified because it is affirmed by the decision makers of the world).
Do you seek to restore it, although you come to doubt its validity and it seems like you've been warned against it?
The task of restoration in this case smacks of vanity, or an exercise in discipline and an attempt to overcome fear. The question to answer is, why is it invalid?
Why write (in the light of immediate experience based concerns)?
Write to keep a record of the experience, which facilitates further study. You are not only guiding yourself but you are contributing to a history, which others are keen to learn from. As it is said, you are writing for your brothers and sisters.
Am I in the work at all or do the words just pass through me, leaving me untouched?
I assure you that you're in the work, and that if the words seem to pass through you, that's because you're immersed in a different level of functioning, or merely failing to concentrate. It stands to reason that what passes through you (can anything really do that?) touches you most intimately.
Do we sacrifice the immediate reality of individual experience willingly or are we forced to do so by others?
We don't sacrifice the immediate reality of individual experience under any circumstances. We might sacrifice its potential for joy, or depth, or the acknowledgement of meaning, by seemingly turning our attention elsewhere, but the turning of attention does not remove us from the immediate reality referred to.
If you can't explain what you're doing, then why are you doing it?
Because what is done does not necessarily call for explanation. Because we recognise the value of action in itself, on its own terms. Because we arrive at explanations en route, and they shift and change, because nothing is certain and everything is provisional. The question acquires meaning only when applied to particular concepts that require purposeful communication to others, or to ourselves.
Why are you doing what you're doing instead of something else?
The question would not be answered by doing something else. The reasons for action can be found in thought, will, perception and what other people have called subconscious impulses. We are doing this because we have set ourselves this task. We'll do something else as we pause and when we've finished.
“Where are you?” is a question addressed to the Self. Where are you, really?
Really, we don't have the slightest idea but we can say we're not where we're commonly thought to be.
How do the useless mind and body relate to the grand conception of the eternal core, the divine spark, the transcendental wonder that we're supposed to abide in?
The mind and body are not fundamentally useless and they are both invested with the eternal core that is spoken of here. It is not the fault of the mind or the body that we fail to recognise where we are. The tyrant who oppresses them and calls them useless is a thought that is not our own.
Why are you concerned with the subjects that concern you?
My concerns are dictated by my history. Lasting concerns are reflective of character and inclination. I have a strong liking for the metaphysical, the mystical, the religious experience, which fills my subtle body with inward delight.
“How frightened are you of chaos? And how happy are you with order?” – Philip K. Dick
I can't say I've ever experienced unalloyed chaos and there's no such thing as order beyond the realm of fiction (or political indoctrination). I suppose I'm somewhat fearful of the ill-defined idea of chaos because it focuses the monkey mind's energy on lack of control and I suppose I'm unhappy with the idea of order because it threatens totalitarian oppression, which also presupposes lack of control. So, control is the issue, not chaos or order.
What are you beyond what people tell you you are?
I am the perception of the reality of the immediate experience of now.
What are you beyond the socially conditioned roles you occupy?
I am nothing to do with these roles, beyond being a prisoner in these prisons.
Where do you begin and where do you end?
I begin nowhere and I do not end.
Are you doing what you want to do?
Well, I'm doing what I want to do right now but I'm conscious that I don't always do what I want to do, for a variety of reasons.
If not, then why not?
At times, I have no idea what I want to do. To choose to act in a particular way rather than in some other way seems arbitrary or meaningless. At times, I seem to act in a way that might enable me to act with greater freedom at some imagined point in the future. At times, the options for action available to me seem to be dictated by others rather than by myself.
What prevents you from doing what you want to do?
The relentless onslaught of 21st century Western post-industrial culture, which is grounded in money based materialism and relationships that are dictated by capitalist power structures that are controlled by untouchable individuals and organisations who serve their own interests. So, it appears that I have to go to work whether or not I want to and my ears are infected with the sound of traffic and the noise of the neighbours whether or not I choose to hear it. But everyone who has ever existed has lived under constraint and in comparative terms my life is easier than most. I do not have to toil in the fields or struggle for food, water, clothes and shelter. I sell my labour for three days a week and work in a job that brings some sense of accomplishment and has equipped me with skills that have been useful for the furtherance of the COLT mission. My income is sufficient not only to meet my immediate needs but also to indulge in some degree of luxury and I have managed to acquire sufficient savings to enable me to set up home wherever I might want to, whether or not I remain employed. Then again, you could say comparisons are meaningless in this context because the circumstances of others do not really impact directly on me for good or ill, regardless of the sorrow I feel at witnessing their poverty or the resentment I feel at witnessing their obscene wealth. Ultimately, there is always freedom to act, even if that freedom is limited, and the responsibility for how I act within these parameters is mine. So, what prevents me from doing what I want to do is me.
Was there ever a time when you did what you wanted to do?
The conditions outlined above have always applied. Often, the levels of external and internalised oppression I have been subject to have seemed to be greater than they are now. I can construct two golden ages of self-actualisation from the experiences of my youth. The first relates to my discovery of the work of Jack Kerouac and associated writers and the revolutionary impact this had on my approach to daily living and dates to 1979/80, when I was 17 and 18. The second relates to the sense of liberation I experienced when I left Stoke-on-Trent for Chichester, an external movement from a grim post-industrial environment to a land of gilded beauty born of wealth and privilege which was accompanied by a more significant internal movement from a state of flatness to one of lively self-assertion and involved a notable increase in my consumption of hallucinogenic drugs. This liberation lasted throughout the summer of 1986. My engagement with Cross of Light Temple can be seen as the most grounded, substantial and enduring example of doing what I want to do. I have been vitally involved with Cross of Light Temple from its inception in January 2003 but engagement with the Temple is not constant.
What stopped you from pursuing that course?
Internal and external conditions change. The allure of the new fades or is digested. Kerouac is for adolescents or young men. The desire to take LSD does not endure.
Where do you want to go?
The kingdom of heaven. Or on a journey for the sake of adventure, leaving the front door, walking to Fox House and on to Hathersage, from Hathersage to Bakewell, from Bakewell to a place between Bakewell and Buxton, from Buxton through Flash, then on to Leek, before concluding the
journey in Hanley, which has usurped the position of the centre of Stoke-on-Trent from the town after which the city is named.
What do you want to do?
Inherit what I find there.
What are you really interested in?
Something beyond the apparent interests I pursue, which are mediated and dictated by what is or appears to be available to flitting conscious awareness.
What are you pretending to be interested in, and why?
It can be hard to determine until the interest is pursued. The impact of pursuing the interest is the surest guide to its authenticity. I seek to acquire knowledge. I search for delight. I strive to keep the appearance of futility at bay. I act for the sake of doing something. I make the most of a bad job. I flaunt myself.
To what extent are your actions in harmony with your thoughts and feelings?
Are thought and feeling the best foundations for action? Thought and feeling shift and actions that are dictated by them are unlikely to be harmonious if thought and feeling lack harmony. To what extent are my thoughts in harmony with my feelings and actions?...
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
RETURNING THE LIGHT TO ITS SOURCE
1985
When I was five years old, I wept at the thought that I was going to die at the age of a hundred. I also had a nightmare about being trapped on a burning galleon with no possible means of escape. In 1985, I dreamed of a character named Kohl, an old man mouthing empty words through a window at a perfect likeness of himself, casting a spell that resulted in the death of a small bird, admired by all, which was suddenly pierced by an arrow and instantly forgotten.
I was conflicted. On one hand I boldly stated ‘I don’t believe in God’ and made a point of rolling cigarettes with pages from the Bible; on the other I recalled giving a tramp 15 pence in Hanley bus station in 1978 in the belief that he was a manifestation of God; I was impressed by the sight of a man rocking frantically to and fro before a religious artefact in a public exhibition gallery in Sheffield; and I made a sculpture of a cross from wood gathered on Wolstanton Marsh, which I collected when I was returning home from Hanley on magic mushrooms.
I defined my mission in these terms:
“I travel through the streets and towns which surround my home in search of something that I cannot name. I can no longer call it joy. I can no longer call it happiness. I have experienced these sensations. They have not lasted. The thing that I search for will endure. I cannot call it peace. I cannot call it deliverance. What is peace? Deliverance from what? I cannot say that it cannot be defined by words. I have grown sick of that tired and easy excuse. I cannot say that I search for nothing. I cannot say that I search for myself. I cannot say that I search for meaning. I begin to wonder if I search at all. And yet somehow, I still believe that the thing I search for will be found. Does this belief have any foundation?”
I recognised a threefold division of being, consisting of body, mind and ‘soul’. As continually departing time remains, it followed that what I once experienced I continued to experience, that scenes and moments were frozen and eternal. I took delight in harmonious movement. I believed it was possible for the living to assimilate the life force of the dead and I was able to conceive of the reality of non-human entities that shared the powers of human speech and movement.
I conceived of the mask of deliverance adorning faceless eternity but I was not fully aware what the mask represented and I was not sure who was wearing it. I was troubled by:
“A sinister figure of indeterminate sex With steely knife dripping human blood
Slurring forgotten lines from an ancient text From a brain overfull with emptiness…” and its shadowy, mask wearing followers, who communicated indecipherable messages by means of the patterns they produced when they vomited on the snow in the graveyard.
I was given to a form of pseudo-Buddhist meditation, which did not lead to enlightenment but to a heightened awareness of the ‘mystery of one mind’, from which I expressed the wish that I had been born without a body or a mind, as their presence in the world disturbed me.
I maintained my interest in Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, which had arisen at the time of the foundation of the organisation, and I noted with pleasure the presence of the Psychick Cross whenever I encountered it during my casual surveys of the graffiti of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent.
I engaged with German Expressionist art, William Burroughs and Samuel Beckett. My longstanding interest in Jack Kerouac manifested in the chopped up, spontaneous prose method I used to produce fragmentary autobiographical fiction when pissed and drugged.
I was isolated and lacking in self-confidence. I was hypersensitive, uncertain of everyone and everything and consequently anxious. This anxiety, combined with my fondness for intoxicants, caused me to faint in the bathroom of a friend’s house as the year approached its end.
I was very poor:
“I lay me down in piss stained beds Fully clothed for a fortnight In shapeless rags nose covered By ugly blanket in vain attempt To escape from cold of harsh Uncertain mind unwashed and Hair uncombed…”
I suffered from the cold:
“Winter nights freeze the troubled agitation of my lust Add a hint of cruelty to my dumb and gentle eyes Cause my fingers’ red revolt from gentler seasons’ whiteness Pierce my ears with constant pain to match the sounds they hear…”
My shoes were falling apart and I was denied entry to a nightclub in Newcastle because I was too scruffy.
1986
“I have talked to a crow, which was perched on a stone pillar on a road in Shelton, near the Leek Road site of North Staffordshire Polytechnic. I have stared at a cat sheltering beneath a bench on Wolstanton Marsh and witnessed its transformation into other forms (tiger, lizard, unearthly creature) before it ran away. One night in Bradwell I awoke in my bed to see a spectral being grinning over me. I recall seeing a series of flashing blazing letters or hieroglyphs of an unknown but familiar language passing before my eyes. I believed that this inexplicable text contained all the knowledge and wisdom that could ever be and earnestly dedicated myself to the task of deciphering
the code. I once resolved to walk a thousand miles to absolve myself from sin. The thousand miles did not have to be covered in a single journey. I kept no record of the distance I had walked but one day I concluded that my target had been reached. I went through a phase when I could not see two pieces of wood, concrete or anything else arranged like a T without thinking of the cross on which Christ was crucified. This ability to see geometric symbols has persisted to this day. Only yesterday, whilst travelling through rough farmland, I saw a Star of David, or Seal of Solomon, shining from a common farm gate. Easter of my 15th year saw me wearing a bright white sheet, standing before the window in my father’s unlit bedroom, claiming to be Christ resurrected. Afterwards, I doubtlessly feared God’s terrible retribution. I was obsessed with the question of whether or not God existed as a super sentient being. I would pray for signs and when I tired of waiting for them to appear, I would attempt to force the issue by challenging the Supreme Being to prove itself by setting tests that had to be responded to immediately. When nothing happened, I would curse God as a non-existent bastard and feel a sense of release. The issue would return, however, to haunt me over and over again.”
The concerns of the previous year persisted. I conceived of angels shitting flowers and saints ejaculating poison and holding onto their noses, gasping in praise of the ultimate void. I conceived of gods and demons arising from ancient and eccentric interpretations of natural phenomena; if a stone can be mistaken for a cat, then what might be made of a mountain? I perceived God in the form of a baggily dressed male belly dancer. I searched for the Abode of the Most High but I could not find it. I looked within myself, or pretended to look within. I asked myself if I could see it there. If I could not see it there, then where might it be found?
I saw a so-called living saint floating serenely through the sinful city of Stoke-on-Trent on the back seat of an orange car with his head half covered by an orange chiffon scarf and I immediately thought, “Don’t be beguiled, don’t let your eyes be blinkered; deny darkness and don’t let the false light blind you; it doesn’t take a rumoured saint to advise look within and discover.” I transcended the notion of retribution for sin and awaited the appearance of angels to instruct me in higher wisdom.
I had a dream in which Jesus of Nazareth was revealed as the saviour of mankind, a manifestation of the Sun, the sum and total of all that is, and I started to read St. Matthew’s Gospel. Prompted by the sight of a beautiful collared dove taking flight from a lane in Sidlesham, West Sussex, and vaguely remembering a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, I instantly composed a long and somewhat feverish verse extolling the wisdom, wide ranging influence, beauty and transformative compassion of Christ (a work which delighted me for many years to come, serving as a reminder of the experience that bore it). And when the poem was finished, I sat down serenely, aware of the spirit that dwells within me.
“The worms of confusion Crawl through my mind, Messing up its workings, Making circles of straight lines…”
I conceived of the mind as formless and limitless, born of chaos, and I thought about the damage that is done by limiting its scope in order to deal with consensus reality. As conscious thoughts and actions shape the totality of our consciousness, I considered thought in time as the foundation of all things and wondered if thoughts arise in the mind couched in verbal terms, or if there is a thought impulse giving rise to thoughts that are translated into language, thereby enabling the thinker to rationalise and understand thought arising from mind. If so, what is the speed of the translation process? Further, as the development of qualities that are divorced from body and mind still depend on the workings of physical and mental being for their continued existence, so body, mind and
‘spirit’ are three in one.
Truth bled through my eyes, escaped from my eyes, and was diffused in sickly mind seas of indifference. I couldn’t ignore the scowling faces of the citizens of time, the rain cursers and sun worshippers around me. I couldn’t ignore the fact that the bus can’t escape the earth and the earth can’t escape the sun. My problem was how to reconcile the vision of the life I would choose to lead with what was going on around me. I observed that calmness and equilibrium can be found in the midst of the wildest passion. I knew that my most faithful guide was an inner voice, for want of a better expression. I didn’t know where it came from or how and why it came into being because it had never troubled itself to inform me.
I was greatly enamoured of trees; my deepening awareness of their feather like branches and dazzling, contrasting shades served as the prelude to a body possessing vision whereby the trees became ciphers, hieroglyphs or runes inscribed on the shimmering night sky. Birds had their virtues, particularly crows, which performed the function of messengers, but their main purpose was to serve as ornaments drawing one’s attention to the earth transforming glory of trees.
My pseudo-Buddhist reveries (primarily based on a personal response to the first of the so-called Four Noble Truths), which might more properly be termed Transcendental Subjectivity, were underpinned by a desultory examination of the scriptures, particularly the Hridaya Sutra, which ends:
“Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all hail!”
I noted a Psychick Cross carved into the wood surrounding a mirror in the Bull’s Head, Newcastle- under-Lyme and related the symbol to ‘my shady past’. I inscribed a Psychick Cross in my notebook alongside the TOPY PO Box address, which indicates that my engagement with the organisation continued throughout the year.
I saw Kenneth Anger’s ‘Scorpio Rising’ at Stoke Film Theatre in Shelton and I was deeply unimpressed. I was elevated by the sight of reproductions of Raphael’s ‘Transfiguration of Christ’ and performances of the Requiems of Mozart and Faure at Birmingham Town Hall. I examined Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ in some depth and felt that I had come to a deep understanding of Joy Division. I was introduced to the work of Rudolf Steiner and through Steiner I became aware of Raymond Lully.
Kevin Leyland’s paraphrase of Heidegger’s conclusion that the public world is alienating and the private world is not important, so neither is fulfilling or allows us true expression or understanding, had great resonance for me in light of the feelings of acute isolation and alienation from society that began to plague me in earnest shortly before leaving school in 1978. I often felt like I was a thousand miles from everything, waiting to come closer. I walked through the world in a state of drugged feverishness, afraid of dogs, and weighing 9 stone 12 ounces.
I produced publications called ‘The Bridge’ and ‘What It Is or Seems to Be’ (12 pages, A4, one black and white drawing) and short fiction entitled ‘The Breathless Creation’, ‘The Evolution of Consciousness’ and ‘The City of Infinite Light’. I produced a drawing entitled ‘The Terrible Spirits of the Woods’ and re-examined my article ‘The Modernist State’, which appeared in issue 2 of ‘Notes from Underground’ towards the end of 1980.
Having become aware of the obscure wisdom of the practitioners of magic, I adopted the name Aleph Zero and performed banishing rituals to rid myself of hostile spirits. In time the ridiculous ceremonies took on a semblance of significance. I praised Pan and set a motionless body in motion.
I externalised myself through the performance of accidental finger magic. I learned that anything that might conceivably manifest itself will most assuredly do so. I adorned my skull with a headdress of roses, recognised my genitals as the centre of my awareness and slept with succubae.
I recognised 11 as a magical number without recording why I did so. I noted with interest the Austin Osman Spare exhibition at the Obelisk Gallery on Crawford Street in London but I didn’t pursue my interest in Spare at this time. I developed a theory of movement based on Eurhythmy, which led to a heightened awareness of my thoughts as they were reflected in action and gesture in and through the space around me.
I observed that the cardinal points of the visible world were connected by patterns of light. I saw a pillar consisting of four triangles topped with a Seal of Solomon, with smaller seals of Solomon to the left and right of the top triangle.
I saw constellations of stars forming an outer and an inner circle, both revolving. The outer circle consisted of twelve stars and the inner circle of seven. They revolved in opposite directions and the outer circle moved more swiftly than the inner. Associated constellations exploded and the earth was transformed by the stellar destruction.
I saw a toad devouring a brightly coloured lizard and a three headed snake. I found a still beating heart and other internal organs buried in a field near the place where the toad feasted. I met an old woman and her 30 year old daughter, who lived in the luxurious interior of a tree that occupied the centre of the field.
There was a screen in the tree, upon which the following geometric figures were projected: a cross formed of red rectangles with blue boundaries on a circular green background; a lime green square with uneven bright red surrounding; two yellow rectangles, one on top of the other, with a black dividing line between them, forming a square on a black background; a royal blue inverted triangle (the blue shone inwards) succeeded by a larger lime green square; and an ever expanding circle.
I turned away from the darkness and I turned towards the light.
I defined the constituent parts of the mantra I chanted on the darkened streets of Newcastle-under- Lyme, c.1983:
IAMANI: influenced by Old Testament god names, a simple combination of the words in the phrase ‘I am an I’ and therefore the product of conscious reasoning.
ARISATSA: an inexplicable term, its origin forgotten, and therefore an embodiment of mystery.
RANA BREINER: the last in a long series of dream names written in a book that was rescued from a dream, later interpreted as ‘Lord of Light’.
And so, the whole speaks of the relationship between reason, mystery and identity.
I was generally content to think of my thoughts and actions as grounded in a form of Transcendental Subjectivity (see above), which I explained as follows:
“What I have been doing at times for as long as I can remember, since 1980 in particular, could be described as striving to escape the boundaries of conditioned reality through the achievement of transcendence. My head is alive with visions of unreachable heavens. I have seriously considered myself to be a prophet, a redeemer and the spirit of evil incarnate. I have consciously lived as if I
were these characters.”
I suppose it’s common for people to attempt to ennoble what they do, as they strive to give their lives meaning.
The record of the year indicates the first glimmerings of Cross of Light Temple, ‘the source of all light’ that ‘will never fade or fail’. We read frequent references to the ‘glorious radiance’ and the ‘inward light’, ‘the light at the source, the lake of light…’ formed by the ‘quick god of lightning fortune’. I believed that everyone possessed a luminescent core at the centre of their being and that everyone shares in the source and sum of brightness.
I left Newcastle-under-Lyme for Chichester in June 1986, which can be viewed as a journey from darkness to light (more properly, a journey to softness from hardness). I laboured on a rose nursery in Sidlesham before moving to Terminus Road in late August. I stood against authority and artifice and considered communism and socialism as viable responses to the evils of capitalism. I noted the term ‘embourgeoisement’.
1987
“All is limitless feeling. The inescapable enormity of the mind Colliding with the abstract concept Of the enormity of the moment Become reality, Ungraspable, experienced nonetheless. All is limitless feeling.”
Relatively little information survives from 1987. I described myself as travelling towards the source of light by means of the source of light and called upon the Light of the World to release us from our bondage.
I realised that the dream name Rana Breiner related more closely to the reality of my being than the name that was given to me after my birth. I recalled the dream of the White Robed Ancients and the vision of the fiery hieroglyphic script and I linked the name, the WRA and the script together (indeed, they can be viewed as primary indicators of significant pre-Cross of Light Temple experience).
I maintained that not only should the body be the vessel of the soul but that the body was the vessel of the soul. Nevertheless, I argued in favour of the superiority of the mind to the body on the ground that bodies reflect minds but minds reflect the all containing all. I arrived at a definition of meditation that gave fresh impetus to my pseudo-Buddhist practice.
Three of the four main literary works that I produced during the year took their titles from Rudolf Steiner and the fourth was the product of a dream. I noted the idea of a story about a man trying to become God, which is something he didn’t believe in, but I didn’t get around to writing it.
I thought about the death of Ian Curtis and read ‘A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism’ by Gareth Knight. I produced lists of literary influences (including Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Aragon and Jacques Prevert) and more esoteric or philosophical guides (including Crowley, Israel Regardie, H.P. Blavatsky and Nietzsche).
1988
“Truth is manifest within me And truth resides in the outer sphere Of the one great unity…”
I developed the faculty of Far Sight. I balanced chaos and order…
I remembered walking home from Hayes in the summer of 1981 or 82; when the four mile journey was half done, all aspects of my incorporeal being (mind, soul and spirit) left my physical body and hovered overhead for a timeless eternity of several seconds. I perceived the world from the height of a building and I saw that it was good.
Around the same time, I saw a ghost. I was on a landing, looking into a mirror as I pulled on my coat. There was a flight of stairs directly behind me. In the mirror, I saw the reflection of a woman in 19th century clothing stoop to pick up something from the floor. The source of the mirror image was behind me, where no person could have been.
In St. Marie’s Cathedral, Sheffield, I was unified with a spiritual force, an invisible presence, a manifestation of eternal love, easing my sadness, reassuring me, convincing me that my dearly beloved and departed sister was well, changed, going on her way. I remembered that something announced my grandfather’s death despite our separation. I became uncommonly aware of him shortly before he died.
I experienced awareness of limitless being, unconstrained by space and time, through reading the opening of John’s Gospel (1, 1-5 and 14), which forms a bridge from the Earth to another world where Christ exists as truth and love personified in eternity.
Rapt by a vision of swirling chaos and the balancing of seemingly opposing forces through the sublime intervention of harmony, waiting at Chichester station for a train to Bosham, I knew Christ as an invisible reality, appearing in substantial form at certain times, in certain places. I realised that the New Testament is a record of one such manifestation, an allegorical tale concerning the actual meaning of the Eternal Christ.
Truth was made flesh. I saw the Holy Ghost as a tall and silver bright figure, all but the face of most excellent beauty shrouded in stone grey robes, which glowed with a subtle and delightful light and blew in the wind to prove the being’s present reality.
I knew that everything proceeds from a common source. I knew that there is one all-inclusive field of action, residing both within and outside me. As the first and the last are one in terms of the eternally present, our purpose and our duty is to grasp the eternal now.
“Whilst Earth has been turning I have been sleeping The Sun now arisen I wake to the dawn…”
I saw stone like structures forming a magnificent henge; the stone looked soft, it probably was soft, being a mineral form from another age, when different material conditions prevailed. I saw a glorious sunrise; the colour and light seemed to belong to another planet, but they pertained to Earth at the time of the henge. The spiritual form of Christ was ever present in this time and place. I saw a flowering bush, with green leathery leaves and white flowers. The flowers were wingless and white robed angels. The Christ force covered the bush like an atmospheric mist. I saw a ladder crossing
the abyss and leading to a palace of angels. One of the problems with being a visionary is that it can lead to a fascination with obscure things, and the love of the obscure leads us into obscurity.
I worked from the premise that heaven, earth and hell are symbols of states of mind. I concluded that we do not travel to other worlds; we travel deeper into this one, discovering new things and trying to give them names.
The core of our being is constant and immovable. I experienced the senses as gateways to the spirit and knew that the world of spirit is alive in the world of the senses, that matter is filled with spirit, and that manifestations of form indicate spiritual workings on the material plane.
I urged myself to follow no instruction or doctrine unless it could be found within and refused all would be teachers who sank like gods into their complacency. I was concerned with the reality of self rather than the self-created myth of self.
I engaged in prayer as the reverence and celebration of what is true. I remembered with a smile that I once perceived church spires as rockets to and receivers from heaven. I stood before the Icon of the Divine Light in Chichester Cathedral (Cecil Collins, 1973) and read the inscription:
BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW. Rev XXI, 5.
I took a passing interest in the Russian Orthodox Church.
I devised a dance to invoke light. I reflected that the sun shining into one’s eyes is reflected into the world, which guides the sun back to itself. The spirit of the sun sustains the earth and becomes the spirit of the earth. The light of the spirit that is Christ is greater than the light and life of the sun.
I pursued an interest in the German mystics (Jacob Boehme, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Valentine Weigel and Meister Eckhart), assorted alchemists and metaphysicians (H. Cornelius Agrippa, Thomas and Henry Vaughan).
I read 4 chapters of the Bible for 94 days followed by 3 chapters of the Bible for 271 days and produced an inspired commentary, taking the text alone for inspiration, and following that inspiration wherever it might lead.
Although I corresponded briefly with the Buddhist Society on Eccleston Square in London, my days of pseudo-Buddhist meditation had largely given way to a more occidental reverie of freedom.
I read the core texts of Rudolf Steiner, including ‘Christianity as Mystical Fact’, ‘Theosophy’, ‘Occult Science – an Outline’ and ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds’, as well as Steiner’s spiritual autobiography. I was a member of the library at the Rudolf Steiner Centre in Sheffield, which involved submitting to an interview with the spiritual director, and I thought seriously and dreamily about visiting Dornach in Switzerland.
I produced a number of stories and what might be termed prose poems, including ‘Remembering the Death of Slim’, which was about my grandfather, ‘Cider Brain’, ‘The Book of Opening the Mouth’, ‘The Days of Rana Breiner’ and ‘The Merry Gardener’. I also made first drafts of material that can be found in the text ‘Cross of Light’ from ‘Balm of Gilead’ (published by F.L.A. Press in 2006).
If the purpose of art is to make the invisible visible, to reveal the hidden truth, to embody spirit, to praise creation, to glorify God, then the so-called poetry I produced was not real art, but rather a
random succession of images plucked from the frantic activity of a mind in a state of high and unnatural excitement, possessed of accidental merit at best, and often not even that. For example, ‘Cider Brain’ was a failed experiment. It lacked direction. It was poorly structured. Its purpose and meaning were ill-defined. The separate elements that comprised the whole were not designed to be pieced together. These criticisms could also be applied to earlier work like ‘The Sun Behold at the Midnight Hour’, ‘Build with Stones in Lifeless Ground’, ‘In Darkness Dwelling Create a Sun’ and ‘Any Time Not Evil Now’. I also concluded that I was seldom able to express order, truth and meaning through painting. Reflecting on this experience, I decided to tailor my future artistic production in accordance with my response to the following questions:
1. Is it true? 2. What truth is expressed? 3. Does the truth communicate to others?
The memory of attending a William Blake exhibition c. 1980 or 81 was succeeded by attendance at a William Blake exhibition at the Graves Gallery in Sheffield 7 or 8 years later. Blake travels well. After attending the exhibition in Sheffield, I acquired a copy of The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus from Oxfam, which I proceeded to study with interest throughout the rest of the year.
I researched an article on bands with overtly religious, mystical or occult interests, including Psychic TV, Dead Can Dance (with particular reference to ‘The Serpent’s Egg’) and Death in June. I made the following preliminary note on ‘Come Before Christ and Murder Love’ by Death in June:
“Ice cutting through steel in a cold land, shivering with frost. The dark man comes. His voice is slow and dark. His words are heavy. He ceases for a bell to chime. He is obvious. He has nothing to hide, despite the strangeness of his voice and the strangeness of his words. In the land of ice and steel, the snows are melting.”
I listened very closely to ‘Closer’ and my interest in Ian Curtis as the heart and soul of Joy Division persisted:
“Ian Curtis travelled inwards and encountered his spirit of inspiration. He gained strength from the spirit but it eventually destroyed him. A half-man on the way, Curtis travelled for just a short distance along the path that called him:
“ I never realised the lengths I’d have to go All the darkest corners of a sense I didn’t know Just for one moment I heard somebody call Look beyond the day in hand, there’s nothing there at all...”
The spiritual experience of Ian Curtis led him away from the banalities of material existence into the wilderness of self-imposed exile. He removed himself from the captivity that his previous experience represented but he could not cross the desert of loneliness and isolation that this removal inevitably leads to. He did not come to the light. Earthly life no longer appealed to him but he had not developed the inner strength and power to transform the lifeless matter around him into paradise now. And so, he must come again, regain lost feeling, pay once more, balance joy and suffering, encounter nothing new beneath the sun, and embark on a new adventure. When everything has been lost, what must be found will be found. He has not yet reached his resting place.”
I recalled the 21 places I had lived in during my first 25 years. My poverty continued, so I could not afford to see Psychic TV in December. I was greatly troubled by my hate and I recognised that reading prompted my creative impulse, rather than developing my rational intellect.
1989
“I have been searching in many places for an answer but I have found none.”
“Helgi has a halo as gold as any gleam, His head is firm and strong, his heart is pure and clean…”
Deep in what might be termed Panphilia, I was treated to an out of body experience in the lift of Sheffield Central Library. After leaving the library, I became aware of a body of light emerging from the light at the centre of my being and I beheld a vision of my beloved sister hand in hand with Christ in St. Marie’s Cathedral. I realised that Rana Breiner and Helgi P were the same person at different times.
I looked for mushrooms in Bakewell and I looked for mushrooms in Fox House. I found the mushrooms I was looking for in Lodge Moor. I composed a hymn of celebration in memory of my search, in which the mushroom ground spoke to me, and in which I gave praise to the ground, the maker of the ground and myself, with particular reference to my skills as a mushroom gatherer. The Lodge Moor field was a bountiful repository; I noted a collection of 282 mushrooms on one day at the height of the season. I recorded six daily trips as the basis for an article submitted to ‘Encyclopaedia Psychedelica’. My consumption of mushrooms, fresh and dried, took place from September to December (and passed into the following year).
“He who has always been here is coming. His sign appears in the sky to call us to remembrance…”
I conceived of Christ’s death on the cross as the central point of world spiritual history. I experienced Christ as eternity in time. I saw that Christ is the reality of the moment.
I explained to anyone who would listen that God is alive and creating through your eyes. I defined God as the cause of the effect that is the world. I thought of the Father as unreachable, the Son as living history and the Holy Ghost as the present guide and comforter. I interpreted Noah’s flood as a representation of the baptism of the world.
I thought of time as an abstraction from eternity. Immediate and apparent reality convinced me that the moment of experience is eternal. It therefore seemed logical to assume that all non-physical aspects of being continue to exist after the dissolution of the body, although the questions of where and how they exist are matters beyond human comprehension. I wondered if the assumption of continuing non-physical existence was a conception of the afterlife.
Proceeding along similar lines, I thought of man as possessing a temporal and an eternal body, enabling man to occupy time in time and eternity and to occupy eternity in time. Time is in eternity and contained by eternity but time cannot lead beyond time and therefore leads to death; eternity is in time but is not contained by time. Thoughts of or in time proceed from the mind and thoughts of or in eternity proceed from the soul. There is only now but that now keeps changing. Everything will return to the source.
I tested the theory that all things are met in mind, come to be in mind, receive their form in mind, and do not leave mind at all. I thought that I do not think but I am thought through and that thought passes through me into the world. I attempted to let all thoughts be of the present in God.
I remembered painting a geometric figure in red nail varnish on my black leather trousers in 1983. It became a man, a woman, a fiend and an angel, and then it flew away. I wandered through a forest
with a magic wand in my bag and a magic leaf in my pocket. The red eyes of the watchers were alert to the possibility of any neophyte or gnarled and straying magus who stumbled into the vicinity of their woodland temple. I sat on a bench next to a strange hierophant, a stinking madman, a wino with a weird voice and a taste for Carlsberg Special Brew. I showed him photographs and explained their magical significance. I ate digestible gold and performed rituals of psychic suicide and bloodless rebirth. I corresponded with TOPY on the theme of order as one element of chaos and chaos as one element of order.
I studied Meister Eckhart, Paracelsus, Plotinus and Augustine. I thought of pagans as a society of powerless kings and queens.
I continued to be concerned with Ian Curtis as a master of isolation and I listened extensively to Country Blues from the 1920s and 30s and John Lee Hooker.
I noted that issue 2 of ‘Notes from Underground’ (‘the official publication of the New Existentialist Order’), which featured my first published work, appeared in August 1980.
I deployed overt humour in my writing. For example, I produced a work entitled ‘Bastard!’ and included the following lines in poems produced this year:
“Your honoured heroes Articulate pass before my eyes In snake locked procession, Talking about sex and the devil…”
(‘Lines in Honour of Thee Heavy Metal Tribe’)
“O slaphead With but few hairs Rising heavenwards From else bald crown, You remind me of a chicken…”
(‘Turn and Embrace Thee Lord’)
But not everything was humorous, as indicated by the following:
“The subject matter of ‘Of the Acts of Prime Mover Received’ includes:
Visionary and other body experience; elevation and transcendence; the veil being lifted; the awareness of Christ; past world conditions; consciousness of the Holy Spirit; prophetic dreams and interpretations; and an understanding of the expanded self as a vessel of the pure light of life.
I visit places beyond the material world and report my findings in the world of flesh and blood. I celebrate the wonder of creation and the spirit of life. I invent myths of salvation, resurrection and redemption. I overcome evil. I decipher symbols. I tell of the reign of darkness and its fall. I invoke the magical elements of nature. I commune with beings of pure spirit. I go beyond time…”
1990
I beheld a vision of the city of light when I visited Cissbury Ring in the small hours of the morning. I entered the city in the body of light accompanying my earthly body. Sol de stella…Simper
clara…I observed that everything is based on the rising and setting sun. I performed a ritual to reintegrate my scattered selves that ended with me planting a stick into a high moorland hill and partaking of mystical communion.
My weekly search for mushrooms commenced on 14 September and the season began two weeks later. My record of the season started on 5 October, with a reference to this being the 6th brew of the season. I made a note after the 9th brew:
“Know that bliss will follow the panic And sup…”
I ingested my 11th brew on 15 October and my 15th brew two days later. I discontinued the numbered record but frequent ingestion went on. The last dated reference to mushrooms was made on 28 November but I’m sure that the season continued after that.
I saw that mouth comes from mind, mind comes from spirit, and spirit comes from God. I knew that the image is not the reality and that what is seen is not the essence of what is seen. Still, it was necessary to define the unknown in terms of the known, so I conceived of God as the totality of objective consciousness.
I considered Christ as wisdom:
“There is wisdom in these branches, Wisdom walks upon the water; It is easily found But hard to believe in…”
I was aware that my usual method of literary composition was to ingest drugs and alcohol and set down what passed through my mind at the time of writing. The strong musical rhythm of the sentences suggested the work would work well if read aloud, but the ‘books’ became tedious as straight text. I noted the antisocial content of much of my work and a pronounced tendency to hide rather than reveal through writing.
I was staggered by the broad expansive genius of ‘Paradise Lost’. I listened to Woody Guthrie and made copious notes on the life and times of Blind Lemon Jefferson for a fictional piece that never proceeded beyond the draft stage.
1991
I watched the sun. A shaft of eternal light passed through me. I took my first steps into the land of light. The light was not visible to the eyes of the body but were it not for the light, the body could not be.
“The light! The inextinguishable light! The temple of the inextinguishable light! The servant of that temple!”
I turned away from the works of the flesh to the works of the spirit, the first creation, the dissemination of substance that is not removed from its source.
I participated in events that were of this world but not of this world. I penetrated the mystery of certain symbols and was profoundly moved by what I experienced. I saw a multicoloured spiral with a red circle at its centre; yellow and red predominated in the spiral, which moved, or seemed to
move. I saw a roaring cat, a roaring lion and a roaring black panther. The elements of the vision repeated themselves. The individual images were displaced by psychic exertion. I saw that the golden thread running through all things meant that it wasn’t really possible to go astray.
I gave myself up to a vision arising through meditation without method, which seemed to respond to the following questions:
What is the source of all trouble, all sorrow and all pain? What pours through me and performs my actions?
I saw a yellow sun symbol, a central circle with extending rays triangular; dark yellow, perhaps bronze. The symbol seemed to dwell behind my face or in my head: the centre corresponded to the point above my nose, between my eyes. I noted that the connection between the symbol and the image of my physical body externalised the sun.
My consciousness of the concrete realities of the room I was in was replaced by symbol awareness. The beams of the sun passed across my eyes. My being was united with the sun. I was wholly enclosed by the sun, which also extended beyond me. The rays of the sun shuffled towards infinity, a kind of eternal and continual movement, resulting in the blending of all things.
I was still trapped by the senses’ singular perception; this was just a tiny portion of the magnitude of merging, but it was very important because it was conceivable. The whole host of souls of all times and spaces shone radiant and softly embracing.
“I see a strange country I see moving sands And bright cloth blazing Beneath the sun…”
I prayed for the grace to interpret the symbols that arose to greet me and their meaning was made known, so that beauty became beauty of being. I remembered that as a child, a cup of cunning and gorgeous device was placed in my hands and the clay of the vessel was engraved with perplexing inscriptions. I recalled that my first task was to interpret the inscriptions and my second task was to broadcast their meaning. I dreamed of the Great Living Altar.
I danced, shouted and sang as forms of exorcism. I communed with the incorporeal. I purified the world in thought through rituals performed in my mind. I bathed in fresh spring water and clothed myself in shining vestments. I purified a pagan altar on Dore Moor through the use of the first five verses of the Gospel According to St. John.
I sought the stillness. I kept my heart still and fixed on the final object of desire underlying the shifting shades. I meditated on the growth and development of a bush, from the planting of a seed to the death of the plant. I entered a state of prayer that removed me from the turnings of time. The prayer was attached to the inflow and outflow of my breath. The belief that a recipient would be found bred the receiver of prayer and its resolution vitally experienced in the heart of the petitioner and the receiver of prayer become one.
The foundation of TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS (The Temple of the Great Splendid Light) was succeeded three months later by a vision of a cross of light that led me to conclude that the temple is all. The temple refused external authority and insisted that personal experience is the only trustworthy guide.
I conceived of Jesus Christ as Truth and Love personified and saw that everything that is not Truth and Love turned against and condemned itself. I saw beyond creation to a greater prompting force and mover, which was present in the moment. Everything moved swiftly, nothing ever ended, all conceivable cores and sources expanded and joined, and everything was finally (and arbitrarily) subject to the great light’s dawning.
I quoted Isaiah. I interpreted the tale of Lot and his wife. I kept away from the church of the modern day Pharisees. I was a messenger and servant of the gods who serve the one great God, who is the cause of cause and effect and what lies beyond them. I praised the source’s creator, holy, impeccable and blameless, all knowing and seeing, both certain and strange. The prophet Arthur Prescott saw a chariot in the sky and advised me to read Matthew 24. I was close to religious mania.
There were times when the physical and non-physical elements of my being joined and became a unity gliding through time become timeless. To be alive in the moment was no less strange than it was to be born or to die. I communed with higher powers and was taught that wisdom lies in the part and the whole, in the clay of the vessel and in that which it contains; all things sing the praises and perform the functions of their maker.
I moved from earthly paradise to earthly torment through the shifting of my body. I entered another world through transcending muscle and bone. Here, actions were performed and interpreted in a non-organic centre of seemingly limitless scope, capable of creation without physical effort. It was a wide ranging world. I entered another world through transcending the flow of thought. I entered the heart of the master and shed tears at the sight of the mother of all sorrow, who wept along with me. I entered the heart of a teaching and I asked for the grace and reward of the transformation of now. I encountered the first world again through eyes that had known an ascent and gloried in the heights, to change all they might see. I experienced ecstasy through surrender and transcendence.
Having roamed the world of the senses and the subtle true splendours beyond, I knew that truth lies beyond the eye, that earthly love is the shadow of a greater love, that something is always with us, something more than the earth and the sun, something that is beyond weight and measure and comparison and speaks of the incorporeal essence.
“The knowledge of your mother Making her way to the temple Beneath the tide pulling moon, Proclaiming limited salvation Well worth the having, Hard won…”
I drank a pint of the everlasting ale. I knew that I was me through an exercise of will. I ascended through the air and descended into the earth. I saw comely witches racing over the moorlands of drugged parlour. I was stroked out of doors to survey the beauty of the land and went for a walk through the magical woods. I made notes on cult caves, peak sanctuaries, tree sanctuaries and temples. I dreamed of astronomical phenomena as symbols. I railed against the folly of alchemy. I was strongly anti-pagan.
I knew that temporal things are not eternal but they dwell in eternity, so we are in eternity now.
In the 30th year of my association with myself, I came once more to the realisation that there was no self to be concerned with. I-not-I travelled to the County Sligo and delighted in the cairns and dolmens, the round tower and the high cross, the ring forts and ruins of buildings that added to the magic of the natural landscape. Invisible gatherings marked my tread, the ancient and disembodied,
the spirits of the saints and the embodied myths of the land. I travelled to Glencar, Strandhill, Carrowmore and Drumcliff. I wandered by the banks of the River Garavogue and climbed Knocknarea to survey the world from the top of Maeve’s Cairn. I looked upon Lough Gill and made my way through Cairns Hill Forest until I came to Tobernalt, once an ‘important Celtic assembly site of Lughnasa festivities in honour of the God Lug…’, now a site of Christianised pagan pilgrimage. A man told me he had been cured of blindness at station X of the XIV Stations of the Cross at Tobernalt Holy Well.
I was impressed by the paintings of Jack B. Yeats and made extensive notes on his work in Sligo County Art Gallery and the National Gallery, Dublin, where I also noted ‘The Opening of the Sixth Seal (Apocalypse)’ by Francis Danby, 1793 – 1861. I read W.B. Yeats, translations of Gaelic poetry and Patrick Kavanagh, particularly ‘The Great Hunger’. I listened to Irish traditional music and attended an exhibition of William Blake’s illustrations from the Book of Job. I studied Euripides’ ‘The Bacchae’.
“I am tripping through eternity, through a land of rock, petrified water, wind sculpted trees, and fierce wild cats grown fat on a feast of springtime fledglings…”
My writing style was less feverish than it had been. My work was notable for its treatment of religious, mystical and magical themes. There was a definite change from what had gone before it, a definite improvement.
And yet a somewhat melancholy or pessimistic awareness of transience and impermanence remained:
The darkened hills’ slow movement, Crumblings and uprisings, Rock shifts, plant spray, Slaughtered and thriving Forest and man play: You are young by the measure of this, And none of it endures.
High sparkling brightness, Radiant star and its kindred, Majestic diamonds, ancient lights, Great glory: The hills are young by the measure of this, And none of it endures…
I saw subjective indifference masquerading as objective observation. I saw that everything was full of trouble and nonsense and hardship.
1992
“Creeping through the night time To the rising of the sun, Recently hidden…”
I experienced visions of the ground where being and non-being merge. I felt outgoing channels of feeling proceeding from a feeling centre, which was located nowhere. At first my body was rendered motionless by the vision of beauty and terror; the golden chain that led me into heaven
became a leaden weight dragging me into hell.
In a dream, I was asked the meaning of life. At first, I replied, ‘I do not know’, and then, ‘The pursuit of happiness’. Finally, I said, ‘The attainment of everlasting bliss’. And then I saw a blue orb and I stood on the summit of the Holy Mountain. I saw a white branch with equally spaced thick green leaves. I saw a stone wall surrounding a small green mound. The wall was made of chalk, rough blocks held together with sand based cement. The mound was covered by grass. Be still and the beloved dead arise before you. I proceeded to the altars in the forest and engaged in wordless prayer at a woodland shrine. I was treated to cruciform visions arising from the centre of the sun.
I returned the light to its source through TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUSIC. I meditated on a certain passage from scripture as a prelude to initiation into the inner order of the temple, where I was privileged to partake in the communion of the second degree.
I transcended the calling of the called. The elements of my physical and non-physical being merged to form a unity which merged with the physical and non-physical elements of being around me. I could see that Eden is present in all environments. I knew that the body of purity endures and the body of corruption meets its end. I also knew that the unreal proceeds from the real and that the quest for meaning leads us to consider unearthly problems, or to consider earthly things as elevated and supernatural.
“I act as if I am. I try to be But I am not. I suffer through not being Through being as I am…”
I conceived of Christ as Love personified, ever present, and removed from dogma, hierarchies, church authorities and structures, meaning that the priest of bureaucratic orthodoxy is no nearer to Christ than the unbeliever.
I conceived of God as the unity upholding all things, meaning that it is impossible to go where God is not.
“Author of the living waters, Revealer of the fitting way, Guide my steps now and forever. Let the work be done.”
I had been reading the Bible on an almost daily basis for the past few years. I was particularly interested in Melchisedec.
I felt that the world of the senses and the world of the spirit were linked. The world of the spirit was the originator of the world of the senses. Spirit was the greater principle and the senses the lesser. The lesser principle was more liable to corruption. The inextinguishable light was not perceived through the earthly eye but the perception of the light of sun, moon and stars could lead to a meditation that made the true light accessible.
The lie that the past and the future existed had become a truth stealing the now from the day. Time was the shadow of eternity. Eternity was in time. All there was is being now.
I regained the centre and stayed true. The centre expanded to contain everything. True knowledge
arose instantly, was instantly apprehended, filled everything completely, recognised no boundaries, changed being, and was irrefutable.
Mushroom season began on 21 September and helped me to formulate a magical thought that extended itself to all things. I experimented with casting curses through mirror magic but I did not continue with the practice.
I described TOPY as followers of Aleister Crowley, producers of high class esoteric literature, and liberators of dolphins. I saw a photograph of Crowley advertising the forthcoming appearance of a band named The Hallowed.
I praised Greek tragedy and renounced my notebooks.
1993
“By the fire of the holy text, by the tramp and the ancient, by the meeting of the trinity, by the miracle of the Holy Ghost, by the timeless passing, by the leaving of the body, by the head of the grinning demon, by the ghostly woman, by the strange joining and the miracle of the dancing hand, by the changes of the cat, by the might of the reality of the burial place of the tragic hero, before the altar of the heavenly icon, as sure as my name is Rana Breiner, I declare this to be true…”
I saw seven stars and a crescent moon and three suns in a line, all shining. I saw a vision of the cross illuminated in the featureless darkness and approached it from a great distance.
“One day walking down the road feeling like a wreck I was blessed to encounter a priest forever after The order of Melchisedec…”
I purified thought, word and deed and communed with the sun at sunset. I set off on a pilgrimage and I never returned. My aim was to live in a Jerusalem of the mind. I refreshed myself with draughts of Diamond Tea, which is made of magic mushrooms boiled in water. I knew that the living never die; that they live beyond death, having gone beyond mortality.
“Remember the memory plays tricks on the mind As you search for the past in your wandering; The blind come to see and the seeing are blind In the turning of darkness and brightening…”
My use of the term ‘I and I’ became habitual and led me to ask, “Where do I end and where do I begin?”
I realised that reading Holy Scripture grants God’s mercy to the reader through the shining of the text. All things are to be found there but all things are not revealed with equal force at once. In the strength of reaction, in the calling, in the affinity, in the understanding lies the reality of the operation of mercy.
I was surprised by my positive response to the work of William Wordsworth. During the course of my regular journeys from Sheffield to Barnsley I was invariably struck by the sight of the Aethurius Church in Birdwell.
I was gripped by the pessimism that is born of oppression. I moaned about the oppressor’s folly, the hardness and ugliness of everyone about me, the dullness of eyes grown sore through weeping.
“If I should die before the morn No fucker would weep, no fucker would moan, Brief would be the sorrow of mourn, No tears to bleach or bless my bones Come the time of the bleak or the radiant dawn…”
I felt close to inglorious death, to the low truths of crawling to fall down and bones reduced to dust. I refused language as a route to meaning.
“I am the Best and my name is Mucky Arthur…”
1994
“Beneath the starless sky The valley of vision shone Through the whirlwind a truth For the living and dead…”
I witnessed the anointing of the King of Kings and was granted a vision of the still waters. I received the bread of life and the water of life from the hand of my saviour and took this communion as proof of reality. The city of light and the city of darkness were formed of the same streets and the earth rose to meet the down tending heavens to form a unity.
I understood that the temple of the Lord God of Israel built by the will of Solomon in Jerusalem was an outward manifestation of the temple of the True and Living God inhabited by the Spirit abiding at the heart of being. I knew that the Garden of Eden, the Temple of Solomon, the abode of the spirit and heaven were one. I saw that the succession of the good and evil reigns of the Kings of Israel and Judah were echoed by our feelings of closeness to and distance from God. I took Behemoth and Leviathan as representations of the pride and vanity of Man. I perceived that Zion, Eden and their contraries represent states of the soul and that the gods that are the work of men’s hands included not only money but also social, political and economic systems. I understood that the five loaves and the two fishes are the senses, the soul and the spirit and that the chosen people are chosen through spirit, not flesh.
“Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and threescore and six talents of gold…” II Chronicles 9, 13
I read the Old Testament during the period December 1993 – April 1994 and reflected on my reading in May. I recorded extensive Old Testament quotes and referred to the following longer Old Testament readings:
Judges 13 II Samuel 22 I Kings 8, 12 – 61; 17 – 19; 21, 17 – 29 II Kings 1 – 2, 15; 13, 14 – 21 I Chronicles 16, 7 – 36 II Chronicles 6, 12 – 42 Job 3; 28; 37 – 38; 40, 15 – 41 Psalms 22; 45; 49; 68; 72; 91; 107, 23 – 31; 110; 121; 139 Ecclesiastes 9; 12 Isaiah 24 – 26; 29, 18 – 24; 40, 1 – 8 and 28 – 31; 42; 43; 49; 53; 54, 11 – 17; 55
Jeremiah 23, 1 – 8; 31, 31 – 34 The Lamentations of Jeremiah Ezekiel 16; 34; 37, 1 – 10 Jonah 2 Zechariah 11, 10 – 14; 14, 4 – 9
I delighted in the tale of Elijah as recounted in I Kings 17 – 19; 21, 17 – 29; II Kings 1 – 2, 15.
I knew that God was immanent and transcendent, a marvel beyond the minds of men that yet can be known in those minds. I realised that the blessed man returns the blessing to the author of the blessing and that this process creates a shining, which is entered as a consequence of its creation. The living spirit is accessible to everyone. The spirit worships God in the temple of the spirit at the heart of being. Flesh cannot enter the temple of the spirit, although it was born there and depends on the operations of the temple for its continuing existence. The stilling of passion born of vanity allows the core to be known through direct experience. This is what is known as the spirit entering the temple of God. This is the apprehension of living reality. The soul yearns for its creator, no matter the depths to which it has fallen, and the creator is aware of the yearning of the creature. Being is sustained by the operations of mercy and truth.
I saw that earth, water and sun reign in the world of the senses and all abstractions derived from sensory perception and that the significance of stone, flesh and being survives earthly corruption.
1995
“TUTTO SACRO”
I began to write directly to computer; consequently, I possess fewer notebooks, which generally contain comparatively briefer entries, from March 1995 on. I also began to make greater use of diaries.
Nevertheless, I recorded notes on my visionary interpretation of Westminster Cathedral as follows:
“Summer Solstice:
Turn left on entering - 1. The Blood of Christ 2. The Lamb of God (who takes away the sins of the world) 3. Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end 4. The Redeeming Cross 5. overcomes the world 6. and lends authority to the altar (and meaning to the world) Then travel from 6 back to 1.”
I also experienced transcendent realisation of supra-mundane significance standing before El Greco’s ‘The Saviour of the World’ in Room IV of the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.
I felt that faith was in action when I went to church to pray. Faith transported me as I addressed my prayer to Mary, as I knelt before the image of Christ crucified, as I praised the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as I framed the words addressed from mind to God, as I gave myself through voiceless spiritual groaning. Faith was in action when I knelt before the image of Christ taken down from the cross and placed in the arms of his mother. It was faith in action that elevated me when reading Holy Scripture. Faith was in action as I returned to the inwardly visible images born of meditation:
the drops of water falling into the pool; the red rose; the beckoning figure of Christ clad in white raiment; the embrace of the glorified Christ. Faith in action allowed me to feel these images as well as see them. And the feelings and the vision were real. It was faith in action that allowed me to feel the reality beyond the symbol when I stood enraptured before El Greco’s ‘The Saviour of the World’. The fruits of faith are goodly, full of love and wisdom. Faith in action gained me a priceless treasure store.
I defined God as the supreme power in the universe and the source of all existence. I defined God as the controller of history. I stated that God was eternal, immortal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, unchanging and invisible. God was spirit. God was perfect. God was one and God was wise. God was holy, good, faithful, just, truthful, gracious, electing and saving. God was patient and compassionate, the loving Father, known by his acts and fully revealed through Jesus Christ. God was a God of mercy, and Christ took away the sins of the world.
I saw that the crescent moon and the first star to appear in the evening sky are full of meaning. I noted similarities between Neolithic or early Bronze Age stone markings and the decorations around Bakewell Parish Church.
I believed that there is more of substance in the recovered past than there is in the imagined future and that living things are separated by image and form but constitute a unity through the life giving spirit.
I read and performed exercises from the Roman Catholic missal and came to dismiss the absurdities of Rudolf Steiner on the grounds that Anthroposophists are generally middle-class and unfriendly.
I was impressed by Pasolini’s ‘Medea’.
1996
I perceived Christ as a living spirit with a definite redeeming purpose and an exemplar of truth. Christ came from a place above being into being, moving without effort (indeed, moving without motion), always moving, always remaining, for the benefit of all things.
I noted Shaun O’ Riordan’s report of attending a Neanderthal religious ceremony. He looked asleep to outside observers but inwardly he experienced something transcending dogma and going straight to God given bliss. I saw that he had visited the spiritual Mount Zion, established by God before the beginning of time to stand throughout eternity. The fire that he witnessed was the being of God and the mountain that Shaun ascended and everything around it contained God as well.
I refused the scribes and Pharisees and removed myself further from death dealing orthodoxy. I dreamed of sacred stones inscribed with heavenly symbols, which I could easily decipher and understand. I tarried in the Valley of Vision and I rested in the House of the Forest, reading the Song of Solomon.
I reviewed the ‘Out of Mind, Out of Sight’ exhibition at the Mappin Gallery, Sheffield, paying particular attention to the work of John Martin, Louis Wain and Richard Dadd. I transcribed ‘Grace Marks’ and ‘The Lambs on the Green Hills’. I read Sufi poetry. I adopted ‘Know Thyself’ as a general standard.
1997
I experienced the inward vision of Christ in Westminster Cathedral. He said, ‘Enter into my peace.
Do good works’. He stated that peace can be entered at any time. During wordless prayer in St. Marie’s Cathedral I received the instruction: Love your brothers and sisters, and the explanation that all men were my brothers and all women were my sisters.
I noted correspondences between Yeats’ ‘A Vision’ and personal experience. I planned a penitential pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
I studied Psalms, Habakkuk, Romans and Job. I realised that the history of Israel is the history of the individual human soul. Or Israel represented the mind, Jerusalem the soul and Mount Zion the spirit of Man.
I knew that the soul pertains to the individual, whereas the spirit is a collective entity; therefore, the spirit is superior to the soul. The spirit is God in man. The soul is the faculty enabling man to be aware of God.
I wrote a metaphysical fiction entitled ‘100 – 7 =?’ I praised Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as a master of Qawwali and Antonin Artaud as a degenerate enigma. A crass but accurate assessment of Terence McKenna enabled me to think of DMT as a development of the magic mushroom trip.
1998
I developed a method of relating experience which consisted of describing where you are; your sensory impressions; what you are doing; and how you are feeling. I breathed with ritual slowness in the Helgi P Centre for Transcendental Meditation, also known as the pub.
I saw Christ’s face in the sun. I saw that Satan does not possess creative force. Nothing comes into the world through the will of Satan. Everything is created by God. Satan aims to pervert creation. Satan is of time and God is of eternity.
I saw that the medieval torture of heretics and the burning of witches, although not as common as supposed in the popular imagination, served both to impress the populace by its show of authority and to provide a spectacle for general entertainment.
I clearly perceived that the rites of the so-called pagan religions practised in England today are modern inventions, goonish aberrations, bound to fail, for they contain nothing of substance to sustain them. What was true in the ways of worship (or rough equivalent) of pre-Christian times has been integrated into and changed by the progress and diversification of the Christian church. The church has gained precedence through the well-founded focus and awareness of the scholars and followers of the Christian religion.
I clearly perceived that the laughable inventions incorporated into the rites of the neo-pagans do a grave disservice to those who engaged in religion before the coming of Christianity. The truth attained by worshippers in the pre-Christian ages cannot be known by people living in a Christ dominated (if Christ diluted) world. One can still experience a deep apprehension of the splendour of the sun but the sun is no longer what it once was in the minds of men of former times.
I discerned that the religions and philosophies of the east have struggled to develop in incompatible places, divorced as they are from the understanding of the people of the west by climate, language, culture, history, differing fundamental principles and perceptions; they can be translated, but the translations are bound to go astray.
I defined the shaman of the parish in England as a piss poor joker who takes drugs and spouts
claptrap had from a book by one of his kind, or conjured from his own mind after a couple of spliffs. He demonstrates no quality control. His ramblings are subject to no external authority. His discipline is random and irrational (if it exists at all). In truth this fellow, who presents himself as something of a renaissance man – mystic, poet, priest, dancer, and magician – is an incompetent artist, whatever field he operates in. His wisdom is garbled ephemeral show. He has more in common with the self-ordained True Christian Evangelist Minister of the Deep South of America than he does with those he claims as his forebears.
I concluded that the predominance of Christian ideals, however debased, through the medium of law, through the prejudice of popular morality, has not been achieved by the actions of a cruel and oppressive elite (as the false pagans, amongst others, might claim) but by virtue of the fitness of the Christian revelation for the people.
I studied Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. I saw that bureaucratic Christians love your body and hate your soul.
I communed with the god of the rock, the god of the forest and the gods of the trees, so that the trees took on significance as a god’s symbolic and mystical ciphers. I communed with the spirit of the air, who taught me that what is self-willed is not Godly.
I looked upon the statue of the Druid like saint adorning a church at Holyhead and thought ‘a Druid Sees Further, a Druid Sees Close’. I remembered that the faeries, or the Sidhe, are the old gods, spirits and heroes of Ireland.
I asked myself ‘where is truth?’ and began to answer:
“It is not there in the saints, although the saints seem worthy of praise. It is their mercy that renders them worthy of praise. It is not there in the tortured blindness that raised the prophets in order to stone them. It escapes the orthodoxies with greater reluctance than it shuns the reactive unorthodoxy and misguided throwbacks that seek to supplant them.
It is not there in the flesh, the soul, the spirit of others. In truth, it barely perceives the flesh; it shuns it despite the quick strong desire to possess or to be dominated by touching. It is blind in this world to the invisible soul, the thought store, the accumulator of random and significant experience. It assumes like nature with the universal spirit form that upholds, sustains and animates all being, all that can be perceived by and through being.
It is not there in the false starts of former times, time present, times to come. It is potentially present in them all…”
I connected now to the distant past by looking into the winter sun and knew that eternity is ever present and accessible in time.
I reflected on the limitations of the mind, which are primarily due to its relationship with earthly time. I was deeply moved by witnessing the death struggle of a wasp.
I listened to The Residents, Swans and Qawwali. I admired ‘The Plains of Heaven’ and ‘The Fall of Babylon’ by John Martin and ‘God Creating Evil’ by Jack Nettleship.
I produced music reviews, a text based artwork entitled ‘£ S D / £ s d’, an indictment of the mental health system called ‘Redundant’ (which I later suppressed on account of its evil), ‘The City of God against Ian Paisley’ and a revised version of ‘The Great Shining’.
I feared death and hell and experienced tension and release raised to the level of spiritual struggle. I drank drugged milk and sought trance to avoid pain. I was an absence in search of a vacuum.
1999
I suffered greatly. I continued to work on ‘Redundant’. I produced ‘Say No to Sally Strychnine’ and ‘Space Age Recordings’.
2002
I continued to suffer greatly. No notebooks survive from 2000 or 2001. The record resumes in September 2002.
“The valley of vision is good at bedtime Clearly formed thought is good for the day…”
I recorded a performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite on 2 December 2002. I remembered suffering an unexpected nosebleed in the grounds of St. Giles Church, Newcastle-under-Lyme some 20 years earlier. I counselled myself not to write about God, the soul, the spirit, eternity, the people, or ‘us’; I thought it would be a good idea not to employ abstract terms.
I encountered Current 93 and Coil for the first time in October.
I made extensive notes on a documentary about Jonestown; the entry was undated and I think the notes might have been made in 1998, around the 20th anniversary of the mass suicide of more than 900 Peoples Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana, rather than in 2002.
I completed a photography project entitled ‘493’. I arrived at the title by dividing the number of steps taken from my home to my workplace by 6 and proceeded to take a photograph every 493 steps from hip level with random focus. I produced a collection of writings called ‘befreiter’, which means ‘liberated man’.
I experienced general bodily discomfort, particularly back pain, throughout the course of the year.
2003
Cross of Light Temple was established on 16 January 2003. I celebrated at Summer Solstice by immersing myself in the realisation that the light at the core of my being is the same as the light from which the world springs.
I made extensive notes on William Blake and listened deeply to Current 93. I compiled extensive lists of photographs and photo locations. I wrote a metaphysical narrative called ‘Gone’.
2004
I worked to establish Cross of Light Temple. I celebrated the Spring Equinox at the Temple of Silenus, which I constructed in Ecclesall Woods, Sheffield. I visualised the images from ‘Magnetic North’ by Coil.
I wondered, ‘If Christ is with us always unto the end of the world, then how can he come again?’ I saw that in every grain of wheat there lies hidden the soul of a star.
I was deeply impressed by Bosch’s painting ‘Christ Mocked (The Crowning with Thorns)’, in which Christ’s tormentors are a magician, a drunkard, a jailer and a man of war, and a crescent moon and a bursting star can be seen on the head dress of the magician. I saluted El Greco as a painter of the Holy Spirit. I read ‘The Temple’ by George Herbert and took numerous photographs in the British Museum (including an antler headdress, c. 7500 BC).
I took refuge in Cross of Light Temple.
WORKS, 1980 – 2004
The following list is not comprehensive. It is confined to works that are mentioned in the notebooks that informed the production of ‘Returning the Light to its Source’.
1980 ‘The Modernist State’ - in issue 2 of ‘Notes from Underground: The Official Publication of the New Existentialist Order’
1986 The Bridge (magazine) The Breathless Creation What It Is or Seems to Be The Evolution of Consciousness The City of Infinite Light The Terrible Spirits of the Woods (drawing)
1987 Any Time Not Evil Now In Darkness Dwelling Create a Sun Build with Stones in Lifeless Ground The Sun Behold at the Midnight Hour
1988 Remembering the Death of Slim Cider Brain Book of Opening the Mouth The Days of Rana Breiner The Merry Gardener The Great Shining
1989 Mushroom Song (song lyric) Bastard! Madman’s Creed The Happy Wanderer The Great Shining Song of Potent Hatred and Fury Be With Me The Returning Of the Acts of Prime Mover Received Lines in Honour of Thee Heavy Metal Tribe (poem) Turn and Embrace Thee Lord (poem)
1990 Dreams of Betrayal Come True Eidolons Electrification The Days of Rana Breiner
1991 Captain Merrydown The Book of Mystical Experience The Benediction of the Beauty of the Communion of Souls Christmas Eve (poem)
1992 The Pain of the Birth of a Vision A Vision of Holy Splendour
1993 The Tale of Mucky Arthur
1997 100 – 7 =?
1998 £ S D / £ s d (artwork) The City of God against Ian Paisley The Great Shining (revised)
1999 Redundant Say No to Sally Strychnine Space Age Recordings
2002 493 (photography) befreiter (selected works)
2003 Gone
2004 The Temple of Silenus (landscape sculpture)
INFLUENCES, 1985 – 2004
The following influences are found in notebooks dated 1985 – 2004; individual works mentioned in the notebooks are listed beneath the relevant source or author.
Agrippa, H. Cornelius Anger, Kenneth ‘Scorpio Rising’ Aragon, Louis
‘Paris Peasant’ Artaud, Antonin Augustine
Beckett, Samuel Bible Ecclesiastes Ephesians Genesis Habakkuk Hebrews Isaiah Job John Luke Matthew Proverbs Psalms Romans Song of Solomon Blake, William ‘Illustrations from the Book of Job’ Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna Boehme, Jacob Bosch, Hieronymous ‘Christ Mocked (The Crowning with Thorns)’ Burroughs, William ‘The Naked Lunch’
Camus, Albert Coil ‘Magnetic North’ Collins, Cecil ‘The Icon of the Divine Light’ Crowley, Aleister Current 93 Curtis, Ian
Dadd, Richard Danby, Francis ‘The Opening of the Sixth Seal (Apocalypse)’ Dead Can Dance ‘The Serpent’s Egg’ Death in June ‘Come Before Christ and Murder Love’ Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus DMT
Eckhart, Meister El Greco ‘Saviour of the World’ Encyclopaedia Psychedelica
Euripides ‘The Bacchae’
Faure Requiem Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
Gaelic poetry German Expressionist art Ginsberg, Allen ‘Grace Marks’ (ballad) Guthrie, Woody
Herbert, George ‘The Temple’ Hesse, Hermann Hooker, John Lee Hridaya Sutra
Irish traditional music
Jefferson, Blind Lemon Jones, Jim Jonestown Joy Division ‘Closer’
Kavanagh, Patrick ‘The Great Hunger’ Kerouac, Jack Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Knight, Gareth ‘A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Volume 1’,
‘The Lambs on the Green Hills’ (ballad) Lawrence, D.H. ‘The Virgin and the Gypsy’ Leyland, Kevin Lully, Raymond
Magic mushrooms Martin, John ‘The Plains of Heaven’ ‘The Fall of Babylon’ McKenna, Terence Melchisedec – Hebrews 7 and 8 (esp. 10 – 12); Genesis 14, 18 – 20. Milton, John ‘Paradise Lost’ Mozart Requiem
Nettleship, Jack
‘God Creating Evil’ Nietzsche, Friedrich ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’
Paracelsus, Theophrastus Pasolini, Pier Paolo ‘Medea’ Peoples Temple Plotinus Prajna Parmita Sutra – trans. Edward Conze Prevert, Jacques ‘Paroles’ Psychic TV
Raphael ‘Transfiguration of Christ’, 1518 – 1520 Regardie, Francis Israel Residents, The
Sartre, Jean-Paul Scriabin, Alexander Steiner, Rudolf ‘Christianity as Mystical Fact’ ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds’ ‘Occult Science – an Outline’ ‘Philosophy of Spiritual Activity’ ‘The Story of My Life’ ‘Theosophy’ Sufi poetry Swans
Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth
Vaughan, Henry Vaughan, Thomas
Wain, Louis Watts, Alan Weigel, Valentine
Yeats, Jack B. Yeats, William Butler
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – comp. Paul Reps Zola, Emil ‘Therese Raquin’
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
LICHTKREUZ
I sing Psalm 23 as I walk through Ecclesall Woods near Abbeydale Road in Sheffield. My song possesses Shamanic resonance and the woods I walk through are somewhat Bosch like. I am a being devoid of material substance arising from vegetable matter. I am a spirit formed of the supramundane or transcendent sun and moon; a bright transcendent spirit become the spirit of the woods. Emanation of light, light in motion, light beyond light. The earthly, physical or material emerging from the celestial, the non-physical, the immaterial. The miraculous growth and instant manifestation.
I walk from Uxbridge to Ealing. I occupy the centre of Chichester, having come from the village of Sidlesham after partaking of a substantial quantity of dried out magic mushrooms in summer 1986. I abide in linked visionary experience of light beyond light. In the pseudo-apocalyptic conflict, the forces of good always triumph.
I walk to the little park near the Newcastle end of Keele Road, Newcastle-under-Lyme to check that it’s still there. The sacred everyday, or the sacramentalisation of everyday reality. The tall trees embrace near the bottom of the small road that leads down from the gap between Hillsborough Electricals and the Indian Chef on Crookes.
I walk on Dore Moor, above the road from Dore to Fox House. I descend from the moorland path between Ringinglow and Fox House to an ancient habitation. I occupy the rock seat on the Bole Hills, Crookes and the cave associated with Cairns Forest, Co. Sligo and behold a form of Christ in a sacred foundation dream in the small graveyard surrounding the Saxon Cross outside Bakewell Parish Church. I climb the rising fields and encounter Pan on the footpath to Beeley, a short distance from a tree stump that resembles a mythical Celtic boar.
I see the horse of victory sculpted in stone beside the River Wye at Bakewell. I see the fascinating rookery at Lavant, which Blake passed en route from Felpham. I see the Blue Gates of Death fashioned from the branches of the tree of life. I feel the resonance of Jesus walking on the water, or the sea.
I walk along a path of light from Hanbridge Avenue, Bradwell in the early 1980s, thinking about portals, thresholds, points that facilitate movement from one world to another, thinking that earthly death sets the spirit free, that the death of the former life is a birth into something new, that nothing of abiding significance is lost and much of significance is gained.
I experience a vision of Christ before the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in St. Marie's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sheffield. We are living in heaven already. Heaven and earth are not separate but linked. I engage in a form of perception that blends the inwardly seen with the outwardly
observed. I see the Holy Ghost whilst waiting for a train at Chichester station in 1987.
The kingdom of heaven is within and the source and the centre of all things is occupied by and embodied in Christ. I know this in the Celtic sanctuary in the vicinity of Tobernalt Holy Well, by Lough Gill, beneath Cairns Forest in Co. Sligo in March 1991. I know this on Northumberland Road in Crookes and I know it as I walk from Wyming Brook to Lodge Moor. I know it as I inhale a heavenly fragrance as I pass through the gateway of light opened by a candle flame reflected in a wardrobe. I know this when I trace the Cross of Light of limitless extension during the six-part rite. I know this with certainty.
Would that the knowledge were with me at all times.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS
TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS was the title of a small scale publication I produced and distributed around Sheffield in the early 1990s, before the establishment of Cross of Light Temple...
I was on a community enterprise scheme, developing as a creative writer, getting an extra £10 a week on top of my dole money, having my expenses paid for research trips to the British Museum, and qualifying for a cash bonus upon successful completion of the programme. 'The Great Shining' was one of the projects I was working on during this period; it was followed by works entitled 'Be With Me', 'The Returning' and 'Eidolons'. I thought they were literary masterpieces for a time but eventually I came to view them as verging on unreadable (an opinion shared by the publishers I sent them out to).
When the scheme came to an end, I started to publish extracts from 'The Great Shining' and associated works in a series of heavily illustrated A5 size pamphlets, which I called TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS (TMESL). I left these anonymous art objects in libraries, churches, Rudolf Steiner centres and other resonant locations, adopting a similar strategy to that deployed around 10 years earlier, when I abandoned unique handwritten manuscripts in telephone boxes around Stoke-on-Trent.
My intention in abandoning the work in the telephone boxes was to provide the texts for a new world religion. I had something similar in mind with the first series of TMESL. The fact that these works were anonymous can be taken as an indication that I did not look for personal glory. They were offered up as a sacrifice for the enlightenment and liberation of the people. Upon reflection, I don't think the documents I distributed (or abandoned) were fit for purpose...
– from 'TMESL' (Cross of Light Temple, 2013)
I have not retained any copies of the work referred to above but in May 2013 I discovered a computer disc containing extracts from the A5 pamphlets, which was created in October and December 2001 from material originally published in 1991. The following selections are characteristic of the texts contained in this rediscovered archive.
TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS
1. All things that know a beginning must come to know an end. This is one of the laws of time, to which all things that make their being in time are subject. The beginning and the end are one. This is the work of a mind that encompasses the whole span of time in its workings.
All things are eternal. Everything that happens endures forever. Past events can be returned to through exertion of will. The journey from now into past times is achieved in the presently existing mind.
Hail the mind! Fertile ground of possibility! Curse the mind! Creator of all folly and pain! The two in one. The many in one. Worthy of condemnation and praise. The all achieving, the doing nothing. The impenetrable, the soft yielding. The never exhausted. The easily left. The returning.
2. God is alive and creating through your eyes. How else could you read these words?
Everything that enables you to live and think and be proceeds from God. God enlivens the eye and invests the mind to which it is attached with its capacity for understanding.
Imagination soars, thereby attaining to that which was previously inconceivable. The denial of God is the denial of existence. God is the prime cause of all being. All is at rest and in God; what appears to be without is truly within, but does not recognise it belongs there.
All things proceed from God. The works of creatures are the works of God once removed, although nothing can be removed from God, for God contains all things. All is in God and equal in God.
God acts and creates. God's creatures act and create. All of this happens in God. God is the force behind action and the place from which power is granted.
Let all thoughts be of the present in God.
There is nothing but now at any time, and a mind existing in that now. All thoughts are of the present in God; it is a question of being aware of this ever-present reality.
The effect of which God is the cause is the world. 'The world' means all activity in the world; all that is conceived of the world; and all that objectively is the world.
Humanity is created and sustained by God. God is present in, and wholly fills, the spirit that dwells in every person. This spirit animates the mind and flesh of the being in which it dwells.
3. The Word contains time and is contained in time, but the Word is not contained by time. The Word contains man and is contained in man, but the Word is not contained by man. The Word is eternal. The revelation of the Word is eternal. The body through which the Word is revealed is eternal.
4. Man possesses two bodies. Man possesses a temporal body and is possessed by an eternal body. Man occupies time and eternity. Man occupies time in time and eternity. Man occupies eternity in time and eternity. And eternity occupies time.
Arisatsa
1. I see fear shining from face to face. I see confederacies joined, to stave off the fear of the faces. I lead a perfect half-moon from its station above a tall and ugly building through dense woods, to rest upon the surface of a lake. It dissolves through the movement of water. Crowds are gathering in anticipation of the spectacle to come. They will have to make their own excitement, for none will
arise of its own volition.
2. The beauty of the frost enlivens the beauty of the land. The beauty of warmth allows us to appreciate the beauty of frost. Graceful crows flap and glide. They are omens, they are birds in flight, life manifest in the skies above us, the clear blue heavens, they are shining. The fog of last night has lifted, the mysterious shroud, creator of shades and roads become rivers, with ghostly ships sailing to the isles of the dead and the young, beyond the limits of our vision, sacrificed that this day might come.
3. As a child, a cup of cunning and gorgeous device was placed into my hands. The clay of the vessel was engraved with perplexing inscriptions. My first task was to interpret the inscriptions, and my second was to make known their meaning.
4. I pass through the gateway separating two ancient kingdoms. The high wood's resplendent bird life gives way to dark tunnels and the woods come again, through a straight line's turning. Across the dividing spine of the north of the nation, foothills rising to colourful mountains, dwarfed by other structures, real and imagined, but not of this world. To climb the mountains and behold scenes from the past, the mysterious centuries of a false dark age, for the people of that time looked to the stars and saw the light beyond them.
5. Supporter of time, grant me the grace to flee from the loathsome thought, the vile uprising, the racing mind, fearful and loathing, full of hatred, for what does that hatred serve? Light in darkness, flee these lusts from me, that would wholly devour the sweetness of flesh, and leave the soul reeling, and the spirit sickened, and the penitent kneeling and imploring forgiveness, forever unsure, for what does that confusion stir into motion? Your sun warmed the earth before I was born. It shines in the time of my wanderings. Onwards it will shine, until the end of time. This is but a portion of your creation. I could not be without you. Sustainer, cut down the evil root at source, before it blossoms and comes to full bloom, for what purpose serves the growth? And what does the strife and tribulation of the struggle and cessation invite into your world?
6. I move from earthly paradise to earthly torment through the shifting of my body. I enter another world through transcending muscle and bone. Actions are performed and interpreted in a non- organic centre of seemingly limitless scope, capable of creation without physical effort, a wide ranging world. I enter another world through transcending the flow of thought. I enter the heart of the master and shed tears at the sight of the mother of all sorrow, who weeps along with me. I enter the heart of a teaching and ask for the reward of the transformation of now. I encounter the known worlds again through eyes that have ascended and glorified in the heights, to change all that they see.
I close my eyes and worship by means of silent incantation, request and praise in one, each phrase of prayer attached to inflow and outflow of breath. The shifting sights around me are brighter and livelier when I open my eyes.
I pass through the light and enter the light of the darkness. I pass through the light of the darkness and enter the light of the light. I abide in the greater light, the light of the second degree. I am awe- struck, full of wonder. I pay due homage and pass on, in similar fashion, through many degrees, towards the heart and source of the inextinguishable light. Pausing on the journey, signalling my
presence in space and time, escaping the snares of space and time, entering peace, entering the stillness and drifting, full of purpose, with sure aim. Investing time and space with meaning.
7. Their corruption is unfathomable, and so is mine. They are lacking in wisdom, and so am I. Some claim possession of high truth and set themselves apart through subtle falsehood. Some take up arms and go slicing and thrashing and turn against themselves and turn away. Some pace swiftly with inelegant tread. Some conjure wild rhymes or the suggestion of time in the passing. The eye casts forth its own sights for delectation, for sorrow, and the mind images thought through the world, fills the void with itself and searches out others. Like invokes like and disregards the rest. Dreams fade, are rendered invisible, and are given new life through returning. Much is left unsaid when all has been said, lost in the shifting, ignoring the now.
8. The greatest wisdom in the world is the knowledge of perfect liberty. But more than one world exists.
I am I, Son of the Most High
I acknowledge God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I acknowledge the saints, the holy and righteous men and women, the livers of the good life. I recognise the equality of the fellowship of sinners; all who have dwelt upon the face of the earth have sinned through temptation, save one, Jesus Christ, to whom be all glory and praise. Our entrance into eternity, our movement towards repentance, our lamentation, our burden, our sorrow, our prayer for their removal, through infinite mercy, patience, long-suffering, and tears of contrition, at the foot of the cross, God forgive us.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
The aim of existence is to attain union with God. To attain union with God, a belief in God is indispensable. This belief must be grounded in experience. The experience is grounded in belief and strengthens belief. The belief paves the way for experience. The necessity of the experience makes belief possible. Faith in experience and belief.
Scripture provides us with an inexhaustible wealth of material to fit us for the ascent. Blessed is the man whose belief and experience has enabled him to appreciate some degree of the profundity of scripture, written, translated, spread abroad, published throughout the centuries from the beginning until the end of time by the author of all in eternity.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being...
God is infinite mercy. God is spirit. Flesh and the makings of flesh must pass away. The mind of flesh must pass. The mind must pass away. The soul must undertake its adventurous journey, that spirit might reign. God is spirit and should be worshipped in spirit.
God is ever-present as creator and sustainer. Seek to behold God in all things and times. The witness of truth can be transformed in the time of beholding and beyond the time of the seeing of the seen. The memory of the experience can allow future experience of a similar type to be apprehended in greater depth. The whole is shown time and time again; aspects of the vision should be concentrated upon, lest consideration of the boundless enormity perplex and overwhelm us. The parts share the nature of the whole.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
I am so far advanced in the habitual evils of a way of thinking that I find it difficult to translate an abstract love of humanity into a love of the reality of tarnished human beings encountered in the course of my limited wanderings upon the face of the earth.
All evil is born of my evil. Therefore, it can be understood and acted against, as the opposite of the good within and beyond me, named by conscience, never escaped from.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Saint Paul was an example of the love of God alive and present in the hearts of the people of the earth, his life a manifestation of the Holy Ghost in action. Paul the man should not be revered, but the ultimate author of Paul's acts is worthy of all praise. Any act of goodness, performed at any time, by anyone, links the person who performed the act of goodness to the saints and to the sustainer and redeemer who sanctified the saints, and all goodness.
Word upon word, wisdom upon wisdom, Paul creates a tabernacle for the living God through his writings, inspired by the creator and sustainer, that his presence might be made known, for the edification of those who read and reflect upon the words of wisdom, and come to some degree of knowledge. Faith in the power of Paul’s words leads to faith in something altogether greater. Faith blesses the seat of understanding through its presence. Understanding strengthens belief; the truth of that believed sets out upon its workings. We call for mercy and transformation. The ways in which our request might be granted are clearly set forth in scripture, in conscience, in the inner and the outer worlds, in their blending, everywhere.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Marooned
1. The world is full of falsehood masquerading as truth. The world is full of painful truths suppressed for a multitude of reasons. The world is full of confusion, bewilderment, doubt and invented science. Where is freedom? It lies beyond these things; it upholds and leads through them.
The light is not visible to the eyes of the body, but were it not for the light, the body could not be. The mind that abides with the body is capable of a dim apprehension of the light. The soul, associated with both mind and body, is capable of a superior, timeless comprehension of the light,
inaccessible to the coarser elements of being. If the soul is allowed to instigate its natural reign over the lower faculties, the activities of mind and body rest in the invisible light. If the soul is subdued in favour of immersion in the confused mental ramblings and transient sensations of everyday passing, the eye of the soul is darkened and turns away from the light. When the eye of the soul is darkened the eye of the mind and the eye of the body are also afflicted by darkness.
The living die. The living and the dead are close kindred. Forgive the dead their inability to turn lamentation into the quarrel quit. Recognise their response as belonging to a different order, or do not hear it. Forgive the living their lusts and vanity, looming to haunt the works of their making, flung into the void of brick praising the sky.
2. We are what we come to. The living walk in the valley of the shadow of death. The unborn possess the ability to generate. The dead continue in more than one place. Let us cast our eyes upon the beauty of the land. Let us perform the fitting act as far as we are able to. Let us know what is fitting.
The stillness seeks the soul and instructs it to be at peace. The soul seeks the memory of the stillness and takes heed of its wisdom. The soul knows other urges and inclinations. It has formed attachments incompatible with the stillness. The residue of these intimacies seeks out the soul, attempting to gain entry. The soul seeks the stillness and dwells therein. It seeks to fortify its dwelling, to turn aside the onslaught.
The bird in flight could not be invented. The flock of birds could not be conjured into existence. The glory of the sky and its receiving eye could not be created, save by a greater prompting force and mover present in this day. A journey, an always and never done, a sinking into the multitudes of cores and sources, an expansion and a joining. The rising sun tomorrow morning comes as an echo or a whisper of the great light's dawning.
Drink from the chalice, from the fountain, from the eternal river, coursing through the polluted waterways of this super industrial century. The fish is dead; all who feed on its flesh are destined to follow it down. But the pure river pulses - a shaft of light at water's base, it glows and turns the wetness to flame.
The moment of Christ's death on the cross represents the central point in world spiritual history. Salvation streams from the Saviour's outstretched arms, extending to the beginning of time and reaching out to the final point of the future. The beginning and the end are one. All is redeemed in the sphere of the one time living. The skies receive their reward by virtue of the continuation of the upper axis of the instrument of torture. The blood that flows from His dreadful wounds nourishes the earth. Sky and earth are purified, resurrected, clothed anew. Christ is no restriction in love.
* * *
"There are times when the physical and non-physical elements of my being join and become a unity gliding through time become timeless."
*
The sun, the sustainer of earth, And the moon, the glory of sky, Form manifest in the void As a sure guide of being, Sing brightness known through the shadowed.
Between the rising of the moon And the setting of the sun: Dark omens of foreboding, Bright images of glory In the same sky, of the one mind.
I depart not from the Most High. A white dove flies before me And guides me to still waters.
* They are waiting for me with their shadows. They are wearing lifeless masks. They say: I love you, I hate you, and seem distressingly inescapable.
And I wait for you with my shadow.
Lip and tongue become uncertain. Malodorous treachery infiltrates all nostrils. People are sick in the graveyard, leaving patterns in the snow which defy interpretation.
Shadows dependent on light.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
A PROVISIONAL HISTORY OF CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
Before the Establishment of the Temple
Cross of Light Temple was founded in 2003 but my interest in religion, magic and esoteric experience preceded this by many years. I remember being a child in Ruislip Gardens, c.1970, lying on my back in a field, looking at the stars, “and their meaning was made known to me.” I remember painting the symbol that became the Cross of Light sign in Chichester in 1986. I am content to view this experience as necessary and formative, fulfilled in the establishment of the Temple that succeeded it.
My contributions to ‘Notes from Underground’ (1980 – 1982) and the cycle of poems that appeared in ‘Stride’ a few years later were marked by a youthful and unfocused exploration of themes that were clarified and expounded in ‘TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS’ and related works, which appeared throughout the 1980s and 90s. Distribution of these works suffered by virtue of my poverty, which made it difficult for me to access effective means of production.
I began to make diary entries in 1992 but I did not take up the practice on a daily basis until the beginning of 2003. Often, the earlier entries consist of short phrases, as if they were notes to be returned to, or slogans to be fixed in the mind. On occasion, the entries are longer and more substantial and therefore give a clearer indication of my concerns at the time of making them.
One of these longer entries was made in spring 1992. I am struck by the attention it gives to notions of good and evil. Perhaps it can be seen as a form of wish fulfilment, an excuse or apologia. The quality of mystic feverishness combined with supposition to produce a kind of abstract dogma is typical of a certain manner of expression that was present in my writing from the mid-1980s on. Obviously, the piece is informed by my engagement with core texts of Christian orthodoxy.
“The aim of human existence is to attain union with God. A belief in God is indispensable to the achievement of this aim. The belief must be grounded in experience. The experience is grounded in belief and strengthens belief. The belief paves the way for experience. The necessity of the experience makes the belief possible. Faith in experience and belief.
The truth of Holy Scripture cannot be quoted out of context. It provides us with an inexhaustible wealth of material to fit us for the ascent. Blessed is the man or woman whose belief and experience has enabled them to appreciate the profundity of the matter expressed in scripture; written,
translated, spread abroad, published throughout the centuries from the beginning until the end of time by the ultimate author of all in eternity.
The church of the modern day scribes and Pharisees cannot possibly stand. It is necessary for all that has gone astray to be returned to knowledge of the true path. God is infinite mercy. God is spirit. Flesh and the making of flesh must pass away. The mind of flesh must pass. The mind must pass. The soul must make its journey that spirit might reign. God is spirit and should be worshipped in spirit.
The great wide ranging. God is ever-present, the ultimate creator and sustainer. Seek to behold God in all things and times. The witness of the sublime truth is transformed in the time of beholding and beyond the time of the seeing of the seen. The memory of the unspeakable details of the experience allows future experience of a similar nature to be appreciated in greater depth. The whole is shown time and time again. Aspects of the vision are concentrated upon, lest the consideration of the boundless enormity confound, perplex or overwhelm us. The parts share the essential nature of the whole.
An awareness of the reality of God’s presence in all things allows the possibility of union with God at any time. There are many degrees of union but all partake of the fullness of the whole.
The inward good encounters its like in the outside realm. The evil outside is echoed by the evil within. Evil opposed by self-righteousness is evil magnified. Transgression unforgiven is further transgression. The observation that good and evil are mixed in all human beings and therefore the manifestation of evil accords with human nature can be both comfort and condemnation. Avoid evil; avoid misplaced loftiness; seek to forgive; avoid transgression.
All evil is born of my evil; therefore, it can be understood and reacted against as the opposite of the good within and outside me, which is named in conscience, wide-ranging and never forsaken. One should stand proud in the truth of being, pride here indicating the unfolding of spiritually enlightened being, which is not pride to be condemned. Be kind to yourself, know thyself, and be kind to all things.”
As the entry proceeds, I am somewhat surprised to discover praise for St. Paul unalloyed with disappointment at his stern inflexibility:
“Word upon word, wisdom upon wisdom, Paul builds a tabernacle unto the living God through his writings, inspired by the creator and sustainer who blesses them, that his presence might be made known, for the edification of those who read and reflect on the words of his servant, and come to some degree of knowledge. Faith in the power of these words leads to faith in the altogether greater power of their ultimate author. Faith blesses the seat of understanding through its presence. Understanding strengthens belief; the truth of what is believed sets out upon its workings. The possessor of a penitent heart calls for mercy and transformation. The ways in which his request might be granted are clearly set forth in Holy Scripture, in conscience, in the inner and the outer worlds, in their blending, everywhere.”
In 1993, I produced a bound edition of all the issues of ‘TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS’ and a work entitled ‘I am I, Son of the Most High’, a phrase borrowed from Burning Spear. In 1994, I reviewed work entitled ‘The Great Shining’, ‘Be with Me’ and ‘Eidolons’ and concluded that only ‘Eidolons’ was worthy of publication. In 1995, I dreamed of ‘an annotated Bible not Bible’, in which references to Christ had been crossed out and replaced by the word ‘sin’. Also in 1995, I defined ‘the magical self’ in these terms:
“There are times when I have been aware of a calm core or source of continuous being underlying the disparate elements of experience and reflection on experience. Rather than being attained through striving, this core or source seems to have been granted.”
In 1997, I reported visions of beings that later came to occupy important positions within Cross of Light Temple. I also encountered a woman who claimed familiarity with spirits:
“I meet a psychic artist from Huddersfield on the train from Sheffield to Barnsley. Her father tells her that she’s been psychic from the age of 3 or 4. She can’t remember back that far. She paints both as herself and as other people, who paint through her. Sometimes the paintings are quite disturbing. Sometimes other people invade her works. She talks about a lion in a cave and a drowned woman, half in and half out of a stream. She will be exhibiting three of her psychic paintings at an exhibition in London.
Other people speak through her. Once, her friend’s mother spoke through her, to the astonishment of her friend, for her mother was dead. The psychic artist says that someone who has attained to the third level of self-hypnotism is as receptive to the spirit world as she usually is. A person who has attained the fifth level can be inhabited by another spirit, but only if they are a willing receiver. When the psychic artist’s body is inhabited, her spirit goes elsewhere, although she does not say where.”
In 1998, I dreamed of a battle between my spiritual yearning and my bodily appetites. In 1999, I conceived of a shop called ANATHEMA. In 2000, I voiced my concern about the so-called shamans of England:
“There are no shamans in England. It is given to anyone to call himself a shaman, and that is what these modern day so-called shamans do. The self-styled shaman of England characterises himself as an initiate, as one who walks in the presence of the gods. This heroic self-image is based on arrogance and self-deceit. His shamanic rites are based on fancy, of his own devising, or conceits of recent provenance. In places where shamans do exist, it is similarly given to anyone to call himself a shaman, but only the shaman does.”
Also in 2000, I returned to production of ‘TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS’ in a new form and described a celebration of the Summer Solstice festivities in ‘Midsummer Festival’. Further, I meditated on the spiritual and the mundane:
“Perhaps the spiritual can only become apparent through contrast with the mundane. Thus, the mundane becomes necessary to reveal the spiritual. In this sense, the mundane becomes transcendent. Theoretically, this ‘transcendent mundane’ should be open to comprehension at any time (the transcendent moves towards a loosening of the bonds of time) but the theory cannot be perpetually applied, for if it were it would be the transcendent that was perceived and not the mundane. Spiritual realities are related to transcendent realities as the transcendent is related to the mundane. The mundane exerts a strong (to the point of irresistible) pull earthwards. The spiritual flies heavenward (beyond time and space) in greater freedom. But the transcendent is not a middle point between the mundane and the spiritual. An awareness of the transcendent does not necessarily lead to an apprehension of the spiritual.”
In 2001, I explored the realisation that man was not forbidden by God to eat of the tree of life and I ventured another definition of ‘the magical self’ in ‘TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS’:
“There are times when the physical and non-physical elements of my being join and become a unity
gliding through time become timeless.”
These definitions are scattered throughout my work, and really, they should not be considered separately but as a whole. Individually, they are indicators. Collectively, they represent an ongoing summary of a vital principle.
In 2002, I thought about the importance of thought:
“All thought takes part in the creation of the universe. The universe is a process of becoming, perpetually realised. This thought is a singular thought; it is the thought of the creator of thought. The creator of thought is met in thought. The creator of matter is met in matter. The creator of spirit is met in spirit. And they are all met in thought. Thought partakes in the communion of all things that meet.”
I proceeded to summarise the relationship between the body and the mind, the mind and the soul, the soul and the spirit, and the spirit and God. I engaged with the radiant spiritual body beneath the earthly body and I endeavoured to cast off the body of darkness and put on the body of light. I counselled myself that I should attempt to relate to the immortal soul of others, rather than their minds or bodies, or the evil they appear to do. I described a form of the meditative space in Cross of Light and I gave shape to what I found there. This was the final impetus behind the foundation of Cross of Light Temple, which was established on 16 January 2003 and flourishes to this day.
The Temple of Ing and the Satellite Temple at the Mound of Krekja: Manifestations of Cross of Light Temple in Malkuth
How to Build a Temple in the Woods:
Ingredients: 1. A remarkable tree, large enough to support a cairn of three large stones at its base. The tree should have had one of its major branches removed at some stage during its history, preferably as a consequence of the operation of natural forces. 2. Eleven large stones. 3. Nine sticks or cones of incense. 4. A large stick, preferably a small branch from the tree that has been naturally discarded. 5. A twig about the size of a pen, preferably from the tree (and naturally discarded).
Method: 1. Build a cairn of three stones at the base of the tree. 2. Take a long but natural stride from the cairn and place the first stone of the circle. 3. Proceeding in a clockwise direction, take a large stride and place the second stone of the circle. Proceed in this manner until you have constructed a stone circle consisting of eight large stones. 4. Use the large stick to sweep leaves and other detritus out of the circle. 5. Light a stick or cone of incense and place it on top of the cairn. 6. Light sticks or cones of incense and place them on top of the stones forming the circle. Follow the same order as the construction of the circle. 7. Inscribe a Rune or other appropriate sign on the moss that grows where the major branch has been removed. 8. Take a seat a short distance away, look at your work and reflect on your actions.
Application:
The Temple of Ing was established in Ecclesall Woods, Sheffield on 13 April 2004. It has been restored on eleven occasions since then. The last restoration took place on 22 September 2007. For the first seven months of its existence, the construction was named the Temple of Silenus, after the wood spirit who announced, “The Great God Pan is dead.” The site was renamed the Temple of Ing on 20 November 2004 before the performance of a rite to mark the passing of Jhonn Balance, formerly of the band Coil, who died in tragic circumstances one week before. The Temple is named after the Rune inscribed on the plaque like surface left following branch removal (see point 7 of ‘Method’ above). Ing is an Anglo-Saxon Rune, which has been enigmatically translated as ‘a god’. Meditation on the symbol reveals a far deeper and more significant meaning, which is left to be discovered by anyone who cares to do so.
The three of the triple goddess, then the greater trinity beyond that. The eight for the eight fold year. One year representing all time. The trinity at the heart of time. This deliberately viewed from a stone seat by a smaller tree outside the circle. The viewer occupies a position outside of time and all that it contains, including the threefold divinity at its heart. The cairn is a form of altar. The smoke of the incense rises to cloud the Rune beneath which it burns. The smoke of the incense blown by the wind through the woods clouds the circle. It is a significant sight in objective reality and a notable feature in the landscape.
The Temple of Ing is perfect after its kind. We learn from ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ that it gave rise to a satellite temple, situated at the Mound of Krekja in Crookes, which used to be known as the Mound of the Heroes. The satellite temple is a tree with a notable hollow, in which is constructed a cairn of three small stones, which serves as a place of offerings of vegetation gathered from the approach to the satellite temple, offered up eight times a year, around the times of the notable festivals.
Cross of Light May 2006
I. Beneath a copper coloured sun in an indigo blue sky, figures dressed in purple and blue ushered me towards this series of visions:
II. 1. The Sun in the region of the Heart chakra. 2. A four-rayed Sun, the rays in the form of a cross. 3. An eight-rayed Sun, illuminating the body and the world outside. 4. The gesture of a hierophant. 5. A White Horse. 6. A blue painted four storey building in Hastings. 7. An upward pointing triangle on the breast of the figure of Temperance. 8. The magical configuration above and beside the church spire. 9. A group of white robed ancients with their genitals exposed. 10. The sun as the centre of the Cross of Light. 11. The black symbol painted on yellow card (from another world, from Sidlesham). 12. Light rushing from the centre of the Cross of Light. 13. A female figure dressed in a green robe. 14. A gold triangle on a ground of deep sea blue. 15. A gold circle on a ground of deep sea blue. 16. A Cross of Light as inward glow (LUX INTERNA). 17. Mary, Mother of God, dressed in gold and red, wearing a crown of gold. 18. Eyes of sapphire blue. 19. Lips of scarlet.
20. A pillar of light (passing through the Sacred Heart of Jesus). 21. The energetic light forms behind the body of flesh. 22. Swift flowing energy surrounding everything solid (resembling rain in wind). 23. The light surrounding all solid things. 24. A lilac cloud emanating from a TV set. 25. A red rose inside a skull. 26. A rose of deepest crimson. 27. A white rose between the teeth of the skull. 28. The triangle formed by the hands, which becomes a pyramid by the raising of thumbs. 29. The body as earth. 30. The spirit as heaven. 31. The embracing breeze is Mary’s robe. 32. The presence of the Holy Spirit. 33. The Lion and the Lamb in the Sun. 34. Warrior priests wearing a Sun disc emblem on their white robes. 35. Warrior priests wearing a Red Cross emblem. 36. A red cross on a sun disc ground. 37. Blue triangle. 38. Red triangle. 39. A black triangle decked with gold. 40. A triangle of gold within a black triangle. 41. The central pillar of the Lord’s Prayer. Earth – the Kingdom of Heaven within – Heaven. Malkuth – Tiphereth – Kether. 42. A constellation of four stars in the form of a Y. 43. The Y constellation combined with a central pillar. 44. An Anglo-Saxon cross resembling a double-headed axe on a central vertical axis. 45. Flesh beyond flesh. 46. Beyond flesh beyond flesh. 47. A triangle formed of two rays emanating from the third eye, passing through the eyes and reaching the ground. 48. An equal armed cross, terminating in circles. 49. An equal armed cross – the arms continue forever. 50. The sea against a rocky coastline.
III. I classified the nature of the visions and meditated on the significance of the classes thus:
Landscapes Figures The Sun Symbols Light Sensation
IV. It was work of this nature that laid the foundations for the development of Cross of Light Astral and Solar Temples.
Cross of Light Astral Temple
There is a faculty of being that is not disturbed by the agitation of the body or the mind. This faculty of being constructs the Temple.
The Temple is a real place, inhabited by real beings, furnishings and forces, none of which possess material substance.
The Temple is strengthened by frequent visits. It is so firmly established that it can be entered at will. It is the will to enter the Temple that facilitates entry.
This is the order in which we encounter the inhabitants, furnishings and forces of the Temple: We travel North, East, South and West.
S: She appears dressed in white and black. Sometimes she wears a white robe. Her hair is blonde and generally worn up. She wears it down when she wears her robe. She is modest and warm. She represents consciousness and her function is to order the contents of consciousness. She was born alongside Ga and Gu.
Ga: She wears a green robe. Her hair is red and she wears it loose. She is generally friendly but disposed to jealousy. She represents a form of creativity and her function is to create from the contents of consciousness. She also represents the forces of nature. She was called to the service of the Temple with S and Gu.
Gu: He wears a scarlet robe. His head is shaved. He is of a somewhat stern and imperious aspect but he does not share the arrogance of earthly rulers. He represents a form of creativity and his function is to create from forces residing outside the sphere of consciousness. He is a link. He occupies a central position. He came into the Temple alongside S and Ga. He can be seen as their leader.
Olanziel wears a robe of white and green. His hair is blond and curly. He is unceasingly warm and friendly and his friendliness is pleasant and melting warmth. Despite his pleasant nature, he possesses great dignity and majesty. He is a covering of something hidden. His function is to invest the Temple with a religious sensibility. He came into being by degrees through the same process that witnessed the appearance of Seraphiel. He came before Seraphiel.
Seraphiel wears a robe of blue darkening to black, adorned with gold stars in its lower portion. His face is rarely seen. He stands like a rock or a tower. He is unmoved by the play of inferior forces. He represents mystery and his function is to invest the Temple with a magical sensibility. He came into being by degrees, first materialising as a wanderer through the wilderness. He has found his fitting home. He is associated with Olanziel. He followed Olanziel.
These five beings are associated and stand on one side of the Temple. Opposite them we find:
The W.R.A.: Four white robed beings of indeterminate age, standing directly opposite S, Ga, Olanziel and Seraphiel. Sometimes their robes are girdled with red cord. Sometimes they rest their hands on the hilts of swords, the points of which touch the ground. They are a guiding force. They are four in one. They are angels of light and their function is to ensure that the activities of S, Ga, Gu, Olanziel and Seraphiel are guided by wisdom.
The leader of the W.R.A. stands opposite Gu. He is ancient and he wears a white robe, which is never girdled. He never carries a sword. He is a guiding force and a representative of the W.R.A. who stand behind him. His function is to ensure that the activities of the Temple are guided by wisdom.
The W.R.A. also represent generative potential. They arose in a dream. They were encountered on a journey. They were one of the objects of the journey. They came before the other inhabitants of the
Temple. And Olanziel and Seraphiel came after S, Ga and Gu.
An altar, which is also a tomb, stands towards the South of the Temple. It is made of sandstone. It possesses an inward light. North of the altar is the sign of the blue triangle surrounded by gold, which is a gateway through which we travel towards the Cross of Light sign beyond it. The blue triangle represents the virtue of prayer and the Cross of Light sign represents the certainty of eternity. The Cross of Light sign was painted by my hand in 1986.
From the Cross of Light sign there shines the light that is not the light of the sun, moon or stars. This light fills the Temple.
Who are the inhabitants? What are the signs and forces? What do they represent? Where do they come from?
Supplementary Record, 2003 – 2008
Following the establishment of Cross of Light Temple in 2003, my primary focus became the performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite and the recording of what arose from this practice. The main Cross of Light record will be addressed elsewhere. The following material is based on a supplementary record, which consists of phrases and short passages taken from diary entries made between 2003 and 2008, ordered by theme under different headings. Some of these notes are pertinent to the abiding interests of Cross of Light Temple, whereas others reflect more passing concerns or areas of study that have yet to be meaningfully explored.
1. In the guise of Rana Breiner, a dream name meaning ‘Lord of Light’, I come to an awareness that the sun shining through the fork of a tree brings good fortune to the person it lights upon. The light from the sun enlivens the tomb. I accept the light into my body – my spirit body, dream body or body of light. The light at the core of my being and the light from which the world springs are one and the same. The Inmost Light is the Soul of the Sun. This is the light that fills Cross of Light Temple.
2. The triangle is an inwardly adjusted constellation of stars. One star becomes three stars in the form of a downward pointing equilateral triangle. White light becomes blue light, blue light becomes green light, and green light becomes green - blue light. The blue absorbs the green. I see a blue equilateral triangle inside or superimposed on a white isosceles triangle. The triangle is the same colour as the sky in Piero della Francesca’s ‘The Baptism of Christ’. A jay lands on the wall at the bottom of the garden and reminds me that the blue of the triangle is the blue of the jay’s wing. It is an upward pointing triangle of deep sky blue. It is a triangle of lapis lazuli roughly bordered by gold. It is a triangle of darkest blue, so dark it is almost black. The blue triangle is from the stars and it cannot be transcended. It is both a gateway and a mirror of vision. I cast the triangle of deep sky blue between my mind and the world. The blue triangle surrounded by gold is one of the symbols of Cross of Light Temple. We travel through the framed triangle and arrive at the Cross of Light sign, which emanates the light that fills the temple.
It is profitable to engage in aimless meditation on a metaphysical sun and moon and on the jay blue triangle. The sun and the moon are of equal size. The sun is fully visible. The moon is full. The light of the sun and the moon shines inwardly. They cast no external ray. The sun and the moon are small in comparison to the jay blue triangle - they orbit around it. Their orbit is regular and eternal. This is
happening now. The line of orbit forms a visible circle.
The sun, the moon and the blue triangle are foundation elements to focus on and work with. Many things proceed from them, such as the triple circle, which is much more than the triple sun. The triple circle is not an evil or averse sign, contrary to the claim made by Crowley in Liber CCCCXVIII (XXX Aerum) ‘The Vision and the Voice’. As indicated above, the triangle can be lapis lazuli as well as deep sky blue. When the triangle is bordered with gold, the gold is for the sun. The sun is always a disc. The silver moon is always a disc, even if its phases overlay the silver with darkness. There is no difference between the brightness of the moon and the brightness of the sun. Sun, blue triangle and Moon stand for something beyond Sun, Triangle and Moon. This transcendent force inhabits Cross of Light Temple.
There is a glowing circle behind my left eye. I make the Sun Cross and the Moon Cross in honour of the living water and the mother of clay. I form a cross in a circle ‘beneath the forehead, between the eyes’, followed by a blue triangle surrounded by gold. I see the four lesser representatives of the W.R.A. They say:
“Time is not linear but circular. Time does not run in years but in seasons. The year consists of eight parts and the eight parts are marked by the solstices, equinoxes and cross quarter days. The eight- fold division of the year is a revolving circle. The four-fold division is a linear nonsense and a Roman lie.
The eight of the circle of the year (the solstices, the equinoxes and the cross quarter days) plus the three of the triple goddess, or the trinity, plus the one of the unity comprised of the circle of the year and the goddess or trinity equals twelve, which equals three, the goddess or trinity.
The conjoined symbols of the triple circle, the equal armed cross and the diagonal cross (cross of St. Andrew) represent the triple goddess containing the circle of the seasons, or the circle of the seasons contained by the trinity.”
In Bakewell, there’s a stone inscribed with a circle surrounding a cross and a diagonal arrangement of tear shaped emanations. The cross represents the solstices and equinoxes, and the diagonal arrangement represents the cross quarter days. The surrounding circle signifies the unity beyond them.
3. It is important to remember that Truth is simple, and has depth and meaning. It is important to question the purpose and motivation of what you are doing. What do you want to achieve? How might you achieve it? Are your actions purposeful in the light of these questions? It is important not to act as a follower or a fan.
I consider the possibility that Chaos Magic has no meaning because it has no system. The practices of individual magicians should not be recognised and built upon as a foundation. Systems that enslave should be avoided. The systems developed by institutions are more trustworthy than the systems of individual practitioners because institutions are better equipped to acknowledge and rectify errors.
Magick does not act on the world save through the agency of the practitioner. Magick brings about change in the mind of the practitioner and the practitioner acts in the world from this changed mind.
I consider the notion of threefold mind. It is interesting to note the title of Throbbing Gristle’s 2009 release ‘The Third Mind Movements’ in the light of this conception. 1. The rapidly moving dart at
the surface. 2. The faculty of self-willed thought. 3. The unmoving depth. 1 should not rule. 1 appears to overwhelm 2 and 3 unless 2 or 3 are deliberately focused on. These attributes of mind can be symbolised as follows: 1 = upward pointing arrow. 2 = equal armed cross. 3 = circle. Combining 2 and 3 makes sense: equal armed cross in circle. It is hard to fit 1 into this scheme.
By listening to the version of ‘Tam Lin’ I have constructed in my mind I am able to transport myself to the fairy tree in the field of horses above Wire Mill Dam. By the fairy tree there is an entrance to the underworld. I follow a path through the underworld to the Tomb of Hannah Courtoy in Brampton Cemetery. Meditation at the tomb enables me to travel back in time. I acquire knowledge of a collection of Assyrian religious texts called ‘The Camel’. I attain a vision of the lapis lazuli triangle. The apex of the triangle has been stretched away from the equilateral.
With the crescent moon in my left eye and the setting sun in my right, I sing, “Hail bright Luna, mother of the sky!” A strong, dark, heavy force on the verge of manifestation threatens to separate from my body. I am aware of a cross of light behind my head, which rises from the top of my neck. From Ishtar’s Beere I glimpse a woman in silken robes begin her flight around the moon. A star circles the moon as if an invisible thread connected it.
I see a vision of a woman in heavy olive green robes trimmed with gold embracing the Green Man. The Green Man is a folk memory of the transition from plant life to animal life and the embrace is a symbol of how this transition was accomplished.
I place the skin of a dead animal on a fallen branch of a red barked tree, which I erect in Bowcroft Cemetery, an ancient Quaker burial ground in Stannington. I recognise that the world is a temple. I travel to Ecclesall Woods for the dedication of the Temple of Ing. I reform the circle of stones surrounding the tree. I light incense cones and place them on the stones and on the branches of the tree. I photograph the ritual.
It is not a temple of Silenus or a temple of Ing. It is not an earthly temple, demanding rites and dedication. The announcement of Silenus concerning the death of Pan has resonance and Ing is a symbol of my interest in Anglo-Saxon attachment through blood to the soul of the land. The tree speaks to me. The circle of stones marks the fact that the tree speaks to me. The incense burns to honour the fact that the tree speaks. This is sufficient. Silenus and Ing move me away from the core experience and it is the core experience that counts.
I read ‘The Wanderings of Oisin’ and it reminds me of my encounter with the sidhe in Cairns Forest, which reminds me of my encounter with Pan in the hills above Bakewell. I fled from these encounters, for they filled me with fear, and the fear was of a different nature to the fear of earthly things.
I stand before the so-called ‘Head of a goddess’, a Romano-British sculpture, 200 – 300 AD, modestly displayed in Weston Park Museum. The right eye of the sculpture represents the moon and the left eye represents the sun. A star is depicted above the creature’s mouth, which is an empty tomb. The left ear of the head is closed and the right ear is open.
4. I inhabit a wilderness. I see Pagan magical symbols inscribed on unworked stone by the distant ancestors of the Nordic people. I attain a vision of a bird of prey of unknown species, resembling a grey speckled hawk. The journey to Yggdrasil is accomplished. The ‘birth’ of Helgi Pedarsson is accompanied by an indistinct dull grey vision of the Rune Algiz. Algiz brightens.
Geometries of light give rise to sacred alphabets, which explain the Runic Y and give meaning to
artefacts brought from other worlds to this world. The Runic Y is a representation of an angel in flight. The Runic Y is a sign of victory. The Runic Y is a symbol of the Trinity, a proclamation of its power. Later, I learn from reading ‘The Hermetic Tradition’ by Julius Evola (a paean to obscurity, which I in no way recommend) that Y = ‘cosmic man with upraised arms’, or the Rune of Life.
5. I recognise the moon as a symbol of Christ. This is not commonly recognised or understood but it’s simple to grasp as light in darkness. The religion symbolised by the full moon behind a winter tree contains Christ and Christ contains the religion of the moon and the tree. The moon and the tree contain Christ as a seed and Christ contains the moon and the tree in their fullness.
Christ is ‘every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’. I see the diamond body of Christ in spirit, in vision. I see Christ by the side of a river of light. I question him and he answers. “When I sin, do I worsen your wounds? When I sin, do I sin mortally?” “When you sin, you make my wounds worse, but your sin does not harm me. When you turn from sin, you are forgiven.”
I ask myself the following questions: what was in the minds of the people who crucified Christ? This does not call for a definitive answer; rather, it’s a spur for reflection. If Christ is with us always unto the end of the world, how can he come again? What is the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God? The Holy Ghost is immanent and the Spirit of God is transcendent. The divine is not a personification of the eternal. What fills your soul when you give yourself to the divine? Again, this does not call for a definitive answer; again, this is a gateway to transcendental experience.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
WAVES OF FEAR
“We know what happened to those who chanced to meet the Great God Pan, and those who are wise know that all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing.” - Arthur Machen, 'The Great God Pan'
It was a long time ago and truth moves with the now, covering the past so that it can only be retrieved as fiction, but I'm convinced that everything was basically okay as I made my way from Sheffield to Brighton on that sunlit autumn day. I'd successfully removed myself from the oppression and indignity of the benefit system. I worked for an income, and yet I retained the leisure time necessary to pursue my deeper interests (the accumulation of mystical experience, deepening awareness of religious truth, the penetration of the mysteries...) Let's say I was happy to travel to Brighton, because it was a bright town, and it's always good to see the sea.
In Brighton he gained invisibility by dissolving himself into light...
I'd been to the place before, heeding a TOPY summons, travelling through the soft South Downs at a leisurely pace to get there, popping into the photo booth on arrival to engage in ritual performance, thinking of a god as the flash fired four times, sending the resulting images into the world, giving the recipients extra reasons for living. That set the tone, and the brick built church down the hill looking left out of the station was the eidolon of my engagement. I saw it, and it was not there, a consummation of deeper reality. I went into a café and asked the people who worked there to play the tape I had with me, and they complied because there was no reason not to. And I walked along the streets of the town and made everything mine in passing.
I still can't say for sure why dread hit me so hard on the pebble beach beneath the sun drenched sky. Perhaps it had something to do with an uninvited identification with the broad expanse of ye vasty briny ocean, which stretched before me without end. Perhaps the disorienting effect of the size and luxury of the hotel room I was staying in played a part. Perhaps the air of the conference hall I'd come from had been poisoned by the profusion of purple clad psychotherapists and other oppressive phantoms that ranged about the place replete with sickening self-regard (these mugwumps were certainly not my droogs). Perhaps there was something in my past experience that had primed me for panic and lurked within me just waiting for the opportunity to manifest. I'd swooned and shivered for months on end without knowing why after leaving home and moving to London at the age of 16. I vividly recall an out of body experience that came out of nowhere as I walked down a nondescript street of the capital city, in which all elements of my non-physical being suddenly left my corporeal shell to behold my body from a great height for a timeless eternity of I don't know how many seconds. Whatever the cause, I'd somehow entered another world. It wasn't just a question of perceiving space and time in a different way; everything outside and within me had been hideously transformed.
I left Brighton for Sheffield the following day. I endured an agonising train journey of fantastic duration (and the fantastic was in league against me). I tried to take comfort in the inwardly vocalised thought that home would provide a refuge but this desperate incantation could not prevent the growing intensity of the existential crisis I was subject to. As pain is the stimulus of pain, so fear is the stimulus of fear. My condition did not improve. I had embarked on a nightmare pilgrimage, which can be summarised by saying that I lived in continual fear of death, and knew with certainty that death would be just the beginning of my troubles.
I started to feel a bit better the following year but I was still very fragile. Somehow, I managed not only to attend a job interview the following spring but also to land the job. I found it somehow comforting to reflect that the inward desolation I was experiencing was not immediately apparent to others. The fact that “it does not necessarily show” has remained with me ever since. My new job involved a lot of travelling and I managed to battle through the agony as I explored the U.K.'s railway network. You could say that each individual journey, each night in a modestly comfortable hotel, each work related event I managed to push myself through represented a small victory.
About a year after my experience in Brighton, I found myself smiling as I read 'Head On', the Dionysian autobiography of the musician Julian Cope, on the train from Sheffield to Birmingham. This was a real breakthrough. Since freaking out on that pebbled shore, I'd been unable to concentrate for long enough to read a book (through the necessity of devoting most of the power of my mind to the certainty of imminent catastrophe). Whatever his failings, and you could argue he has many, I've felt a fondness for Cope ever since.
A fellow by the name of Thighpaulsandra played keyboards in Julian Cope's band and he was also a member of the group of explorers of the psychedelic multiverse that went by the name of Coil. Jhonn Balance (may he be bathed in perpetual light) was the singer in Coil, and he was also a renowned collector of the art of Austin Osman Spare. Spare is commonly identified as the progenitor of Chaos Magic, and the foundation texts of Chaos Magic are 'Liber Null' and 'Psychonaut' by Peter Carroll. In 'Liber Null', Carroll states that altered states are the key to magical powers and that sensory overload in the form of fear can result in one pointed consciousness, or gnosis. I certainly didn't associate my time of tribulation with gnosis, or anything remotely positive, but Carroll's remarks offer a means of attributing positive value to what had previously been fixed as negative experience. There is great value in any work that enables the possibility of re- evaluation. I'm particularly interested in the idea that the most striking experiences that one might encounter during the course of a lifetime do not possess fixed meaning and can be seen in a radically different light as a result of encountering information many years later.
Of course, there was a diagnosis attached to my experience, and treatment followed diagnosis as surely and relentlessly as day follows night. To my mind, the diagnosis does nothing to clarify the meaning of what I went through but rather diminishes it, and I remain entirely unconvinced that the medication I was prescribed did anything to ease my plight. William Blake described his condition as 'Nervous Fear', and this makes more sense to me than any modern diagnostic category, although the somewhat comical resonance of Blake's term is at odds with the horror I knew.
All of the stories we tell ourselves in our attempts to make sense of our experience have to end somewhere. When all's said and done, I'm glad that I went through what I went through (admittedly, this sense of gladness can only exist because I'm no longer in that state). It wasn't a breakdown, or an illness, or the result of a chemical imbalance in my brain; rather, it was a revelation. It's necessary to realise that you're confined in an arid desert before you can ever hope to find your way out.
IO PAN! Percy Perdurabo
'Waves of Fear' is the standout track from 'The Blue Mask' by Lou Reed. The lyrics of the song, and the spiky guitar lines courtesy of Robert Quine, provide a fair approximation of the panic experience for those with an ear for avant-garde popular music.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ON CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
Why was COLT developed?
COLT was developed in response to the unsatisfactory nature of mundane existence. It was developed as a vehicle for exploration of the linked themes of magic, religion, music and art (music and art as they relate to religion and magic). It was developed as a vehicle for the expression of the Cross of Light text, which distils writings from a 17 or 18 year period predating the establishment of the Temple in January 2003. It was developed as a formal expression of the practice of the COLT six-part rite.
What came before it?
COLT has its roots in the religious, magical or mystical experience that preceded it. This experience has been expressed in more or less finished texts and art works and notes of works in progress. This body of work constitutes the foundation from which COLT proceeds.
What were its original aims?
The original aim of COLT was the self-conscious attainment of mystical union with God. This aim was translated into the pragmatic pursuit of an interest in magic, religion, music and art (as explained above), the production of work on these themes, the development of a personal magical or religious system and the expression of this system through whatever means lie at my disposal.
To what extent have these aims been fulfilled?
I have not attained self-conscious mystical union with God. One could say that I am neither nearer to nor further from the attainment of this aim than I have ever been. Subsequent experience has rendered the expression of this fundamental aim invalid on the grounds that the idea of attaining mystical union with God is so vague and indefinable as to be meaningless for practical purposes. I have pursued my interest in magic, religion, music and art, but I have not pursued it systematically, and I have not pursued it to the exclusion of other distracting interests, influences, impositions or oppressive intrusions. I have developed a personal system, primarily based on the performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite, but the merits, efficacy and relevance of this system are debatable.
What has been gained?
I have produced and published a range of work through the auspices of COLT. The core works have been made available through the COLT website and minor works and other expressions (e.g. recordings) have been produced and made available through a limited range of other sources. So, I have gained authorship of a substantial body of work that would not have existed without COLT.
And this body of work represents a resource which can be returned to and further explored.
What’s the core from which to proceed?
The core could be defined as the COLT Position Statement, or the COLT Position Statement and the Cross of Light text. The core could be defined as the resource encapsulated in the COLT core texts but that’s probably going too far – the COLT Position Statement was derived from a two stage examination of these core texts (the first stage yielded a body of core propositions relating to COLT and the second stage refined the core propositions identified during the first stage).
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE PRESENTS LUMINARIES OF THE LODGE OF MIDDLE-AGED MEDIUMS
This work contains extracts from the extended interview featured in volume 1 of the 23 volume 'Luminaries of the Lodge of Middle-Aged Mediums' series (Daft Bastard Verlag, 2011), in which I: = the interviewer and COLT: = a representative of Cross of Light Temple.
BALM OF GILEAD
I: Can you describe 'Balm of Gilead'?
COLT: It's a collection of articles, short fiction and other texts about mysticism, TOPY, magic in traditional music and song, Austin Osman Spare, the Death Metal Neo-Nazi underground, Coil and more. In Sheffield, we marketed the elements of the book that relate to the city as the story of a previously hidden and secret Sheffield, recounting the history of the infamous Nine O’ Clock Service (NOS), a Christian evangelical cult that terrorised the students of Walkley and Crookes in the late 1980s. It details the activities of the Sheffield branch of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, which joined spiritual battle with NOS (and outlived it). ‘Balm of Gilead’ speaks of Crookes based musicians Cross of Light and their links with the pseudo-Masonic Sons of Amos Brearley, which has located its Grand Lodge near the Primitive Baptist Church on South Road, Walkley. The Head of the Lodge follows Violet Firth to London, where she becomes Dion Fortune, world renowned occultist and founder of the Society of the Inner Light. Remaining in London for encounters with Austin Osman Spare and Coil, the hero of ‘Balm of Gilead’ returns to Sheffield to frolic in the woods with Tam Lin and travel over the moors in the company of Reynardine before walking back into town to expose the existence of a city wide Neo-Nazi Death Metal underground.
I: Walkley? Crookes?
COLT: It's not hard to locate these places these days, if you have a mind to. To make it even easier for the lazy reader, Walkley and Crookes are suburbs of Sheffield. South Road is the main road that runs through Walkley and the shell of the Primitive Methodist Church that once met there (in a kind of vast stone outhouse) now provides student accommodation.
I: Can you say a little more about the text 'Cross of Light', which opens 'Balm of Gilead'?
COLT: Cross of Light Temple aims to transcend space and time but the practitioners of Cross of Light Temple acknowledge that movement from the natural to the super celestial is founded on the body establishing threefold being in particularly resonant places. The 'Cross of Light' text in ‘Balm of Gilead’ identifies the following places associated with such movement:
The narrator of 'Cross of Light' is lost in Ecclesall Woods in Sheffield. It's a big wood, but not really big enough to get physically lost in for long. Years later, he establishes the Temple of Ing a short distance from where he was lost. He meets two older embodiments of himself at the Market Cross in the centre of Chichester, a place where all roads meet. The sandy cross he walks around is in the heart of a little park in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the violence capital of North Staffordshire. He purifies a limestone altar on Dore Moor, on the border between South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. The first of the two caves he explores is a mushroom cave in Bradwell, a suburb of Newcastle- under-Lyme, which did not possess physical substance (the cave, not Bradwell – although one could argue the point). The Church of the Holy Cross he mentions is All Saints Church in Bakewell and the Holy Cross is the ruins of the Saxon cross that stands in the church grounds. His journey ‘To the Gates of Death and Beyond’ took place in St. Marie’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Sheffield. His ‘dance of the body of light’ was performed on Western Road in Crookes. The road that becomes a river of light is Northumberland Road, a short distance from the sacred ground upon which the dance of the body of light was performed. The second of the two caves he enters can be found in Cairns Forest, near Tobernalt Holy Well, Co. Sligo, a place of disconcerting magic and Republican dog walkers, replete with hounds and guns. He sees the sky revolving from his rock seat on the Bole Hills, which stand at the heights of Crookes, the beginning of open land, a poor man's Swiss Alps, or Sheffield’s Premier Dog Safari park as the Outsider Philip Hutchinson would have it. He sees a triangle of stars and a star reflected in a pool of water near Lodge Moor, on the edge of Sheffield, and he first perceived ‘the sweet fragrance’ that indicates a holy presence in Bradwell.
All of these places are real and most of them are not very well known. Many of them are small areas of places that would be considered obscure. We make an implicit comment on the glamour of place. London and New York have a pronounced public image and are seen as places to go to because they're inherently interesting. In fact, they don't exist in the sense that they're thought of at all. Bradwell is treated as London and New York might be treated. It exists, just as they exist. Things happen there, as they happen in London and New York. And yet the fame of Bradwell does not extend beyond Newcastle-under-Lyme and parts of Stoke-on-Trent, and the accuracy of the perception of the suburb diminishes as one travels away from it, so that from twenty miles away, it's as if Bradwell doesn't exist. So, all of the places are real, and all of them are known to the narrator. And there's a significance in the text's treatment of place but 'Cross of Light' is also the story of a pilgrimage, and the development of a mystical system involving the performance of a variety of rituals, which is clearly indicated in the description just given.
'Cross of Light' is spiritual autobiography. It's the foundation myth of Cross of Light Temple. It's the funeral oration for Temple practitioners, proclaimed as we envision them entering the realm of perpetual light...
I: Who is the Outsider Philip Hutchinson?
COLT: An artist and writer, author of 'Sicknote from Scapegoat Hill' and 'Get Alkaloudi', an independent man with a healthy contempt for authority, or a work shy layabout who can't summon the energy to put a stamp in the vicinity of the right hand upper corner of an envelope, who refers to Cross of Light Temple as “weird shit”, a materialist, or an anti-religious psychic. He's painted the Bole Hills, and Lodge Moor, and Walkley. He haunted the derelict ruins of post-industrial Sheffield like a ghost, getting it all down in paint, crayons and mud before it disappeared beneath the rising 'waterfront apartments' and gated communities resembling the guards’ barracks at Auschwitz.
I: Can you explain the motivation for writing 'TOPY vs. NOS'?
COLT: We were interested in the contrast in the way the organisations were presented. The Nine
O'Clock Service was heaped with praise by the Church of England and it received a lot of positive media attention, which presented it as a vehicle for making Christianity relevant to young people. And of course, there was nothing in it that accorded with real Christian virtues. It didn't feed the poor. It didn't love its neighbours. It was solipsistic, elitist, self-regarding. And when it became clear that its leader had used his position to gain sexual favours, the establishment that had heaped it with praise was quick to abandon it, to pretend it had never praised it to high heaven, to claim that it didn't know what was going on, to present the movement as an aberration. The story of the rise and fall of NOS is fundamentally an indictment of the Church of England, a laying bare of its redundancy, an exposure of the flabby corruption that lies at its heart.
The popular image of TOPY was a gang of Satanic child abusers, and the jackal media were happy to peddle this view, dredging up the testimony of deeply disturbed so-called Christian evangelicals to support their groundless claims (people that might well have been involved with NOS if they had been hanging around Crookes at the time). And yet TOPY performed countless good works; liberated dolphins, installed water supplies in poor villages in Nepal, literally fed the poor, offered development opportunities to people who were absolutely despised.
So, the good, wholesome, Christian NOS was a nest of vipers spitting poison at everyone who wasn't committed to its cause, and the evil, unseemly anti-Christian TOPY went out of its way to help people.
We were also interested in the issue of charisma. Chris Brain, the leader of NOS, was presented as a charismatic figure on the grounds that he wore black clothes, had slightly long hair, and introduced a form of lumpen rock music, succeeded by second rate dance music, into church services. This super cool Jesus freak act wouldn't have been hailed as charismatic in TOPY. TOPY acolytes needed a far more convincing type to keep their interest, and they got what they needed in the form of the rock and art world charisma of Genesis P-Orridge, the rebel, the cultural engineer, the questioner of all things. Genesis is often depicted as some kind of Machiavellian imp of the perverse, but his virtue for Cross of Light Temple lies in his tenderness, exemplified by his memories of Ian Curtis in the essay (rather than the song) 'I.C. Water', in the Psychic TV (PTV3) high point 'I Don't Think So', and in his devotion to his beloved other half, Lady Jaye, as demonstrated in public proclamations and private communications.
So, there are differences between TOPY and NOS but there are also similarities. Both groups were concerned with going beyond the limitations of contemporary Western capitalist post-industrial society. They both attracted fanatical adherents, who could be identified by their manner of dress and behaviour. They were both dependent on the vision of strong leaders, and they both operated in accordance with a leadership structure that was not visible to casual observers.
The following account from a Cross of Light Temple practitioner is an indication of the mindset that produced 'TOPY vs. NOS':
Why I Hate NOS
I had the misfortune to look upon the leaders and congregation of the Nine O’ Clock Service when it was based at St. Thomas’s Church in Crookes. I saw them on the streets and I saw them in the pubs of my neighbourhood. I lived a few yards away from a NOS house. There was something deeply and immediately unattractive about the look of them all. Their manners were unappealing. I became aware of the arrogance of the inner circle through talking to several people who had been excluded from the hierarchy. I was sickened by the news coverage of the movement, which portrayed it as a new and exciting development of the Church of England and I was appalled by the support of the church for what was clearly a fascist cult based on the worship of its leader, Chris Brain.
I wasn’t surprised to learn of the abuse and manipulation that took place within NOS. I was disgusted by the way the leaders and congregation closed ranks and failed to respond to the charges laid against them. I was equally disgusted, and similarly unsurprised, that the Church of England failed to take responsibility for the abominations of NOS, although it was happy to share the credit when the movement was positively regarded.
In short, NOS and the Church of England are models of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. They are modern day Pharisees. They bring religion into disrepute. And the people responsible for the actions of NOS blithely continue their careers within the reformed St. Thomas’s and the wider church as if nothing ever happened.
Chris Brain, NOS and their supporters in the Church of England serve as models of evil in ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ and more so in ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’, especially in the chapter entitled ‘Of SOAB and the Children of NOS’.
It was also important that the abomination of NOS was born in Crookes. Its place of birth enabled its observation. And its observation gave birth to a form of obsession that led us to return to its contemplation time and time again over a period of five or six years before finding definitive (provisional) expression in 'The Nine O'Clock Service: An Exercise in Power and Control' (in 'Theopathy: Selected Writings from Cross of Light Temple 2010'), which concludes:
“It’s interesting to speculate on how the group might have developed had it not been brought to a premature end. The signs are that NOS would have prospered in America and that Brain would have moved closer to integrating with the archetype of the mysterious hidden prophet. It’s interesting to think about the form of practice that the new NOS might have invented; evidence suggests it would have been spectacular, neo-pagan and cosmic, constituting a radical new conception of Christ at least, and perhaps even a new world religion.”
There's also an element of humour in the story. The intrepid reporter places an ad in the Fortean Times and contacts a NOS 'victim'. It's a satire on freelance journalism and it also suggests that Fortean Times and NOS are somehow on a level, intellectual or spiritual equivalents. There's not enough deliberate humour in magic – although Crowley raises a smile in his lectures on yoga – and that's because magicians are such pompous egomaniacs, which of course means that their pseudo- grimoires and other immortal masterpieces are rife with unintentionally humorous content.
And the questionnaire at the end is based on the application for the supervised course of study offered by the Society of the Inner Light – the Secretary of the group somehow got hold of a copy of 'TOPY vs. NOS' and sent us an email, which seemed a bit defensive about the old fashioned tone of the questionnaire, although we hadn't consciously mentioned anything about its relationship to modernity in the story. TOPY and NOS didn't ask these specific questions but they did employ methods of interrogation in their contacts with potential members, so definite parallels can be made between how these organisations operate.
'TOPY vs. NOS' is fiction in the sense that 'Castle to Castle', 'North' and 'Rigadoon' by Louis- Ferdinand Celine are fiction. The genre's been described as 'fact fiction' and this term could be applied to a lot of Cross of Light Temple texts.
I: Who are the Sons of Amos Brearley (SOAB)?
COLT: SOAB make their first appearance in ‘Balm of Gilead'. They really took off. A case of literary characters taking on existence in the outside world. Here's a report on their genesis and
development, given by a COLT practitioner:
Several years ago, I went into the Indian Chef in Crookes to collect some food. Upon seeing my luxuriant growth of beard, the young man who served me immediately exclaimed ‘Amos Brearley!’ I did not take offence but rather stored the incident in my memory.
In January 2006 I conceived of the Sons of Amos Brearley as a band consisting of a bowed bass guitar player and a manipulator of electronic sound generators. They listened to the works of The Fall before embarking on a series of performances in Sheffield and North Derbyshire. I submitted an article about the band to a Fall fanzine and I was assured it would be published, although I have yet to see it in print.
‘Five from the Lodge’ reproduces the lyrics of songs from ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Sing Songs That Will Never Be Sung’. They were recorded by the Outsider Philip Hutchinson, the Boston Fen Hopper, in summer 2006. Jabez the Stupid is named for the first time on ‘Head of the Lodge’.
In 'Balm of Gilead', ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ reproduces the article submitted to the Fall fanzine. The band presents SOAB as a hate filled anti-Masonry, a secret society operating from branches of a Lodge located in the suburbs of what was once the artisan quarter of Sheffield. The piece ends with the members of the Lodge turning their attention to ‘a work of similar scope to their first project but more focused on their mystical visionary appreciation of Light.’
This ‘mystical visionary appreciation of Light’ is given form in ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ and ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Take a Trip to Dion Fortune Land’. These are magical works, which utterly transform the nature of SOAB and lead on to the work that became ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’, which was published in January 2008.
The sun in the region of the Heart chakra A four-rayed sun in the form of a cross An eight-rayed sun illuminating the body and the world outside The sun in the centre of the Cross of Light...
'SOAB Take a Trip...' was written in a pub called The Star, near the site of Dion Fortune’s former temple, which is fully described in her posthumously published novel ‘Moon Magic’. The Star also features in the later work also entitled ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’. It possesses considerable magical resonance and sells excellent ESB.
The Indian Chef is a restaurant and takeaway, specialising in a Westernised version of Bengali cuisine. Amos Brearly (note the slightly different spelling) was a character from the Yorkshire TV soap opera 'Emmerdale' in the days when it was known as 'Emmerdale Farm'. He didn't actually have a beard but he was renowned for his luxuriant Victorian style side whiskers and he was an Egg Nut to boot, like the COLT practitioner who went to pick up the food.
The Fall are a rockabilly – Gary Glitter – Stooges – Can cover band. They've released more than 300 albums in the past 40 years. Actually, Mark E. Smith, who is The Fall in the same sense that David Tibet is Current 93, and who once said, “I used to be psychic but I drank my way out of it,” is a student of the mysteries, as is plainly shown by the lyrics of 'Wings', 'Spectre vs. Rector', 'Impression of J Temperance', 'Elves' and numerous other songs. He's a kind of Lovecraftian Chaos magician. We've been thinking of writing about the fantastic trend in The Fall for a long time now but we've never got around to it.
The Sons of Amos Brearley band is partly inspired by Uriel 157, a little known group of Sheffield
based experimental musicians, and the character of Karl Kasprowicz is modelled on the bass player from that band.
So, we have this entity called the Sons of Amos Brearley. It starts off as a band and it becomes a pseudo-masonic magical organisation, the name of which is deliberately chosen to contrast with the fancy names of other renowned magical groups, the pompous sounding Argenteum Astrum (or Argon Astron), the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Society of the Inner Light and so on, and the magical name of the leader of SOAB – Jabez the Stupid - is chosen in deliberate contrast to the pretentious self-appellations of the Master Therion, Frater Perdurabo, Deo Non Fortuna, and the rest of those megalomaniac clowns. Owd Jabez was a character from the Evening Sentinel, the local paper in Stoke, renowned for dispensing earthy wisdom in broad Potteries dialect, a kind of embodiment of what Arnold Bennett called the Five Towns (it should be six – Stoke, Hanley, Fenton, Longton, Burslem and Tunstall – and you could even call it seven if you were to include Newcastle-under- Lyme, which borders Stoke town at least as closely as all the other towns just mentioned).
'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' is the title of a song by Pink Floyd, from the days when it was possible to argue that the band had something of interest to offer, even if it couldn't really transcend the fashionable psychedelic claptrap of its day. And what a horrible gang they proved to be, perfectly defined by the eagerness with which they abandoned Syd Barrett when he became a bit difficult to deal with, and happy to build a career on their bland treatment of his supposed madness. 'Wish You Were Here' is commonly held to be a fabulous record but it's really a horrible, cynical work, exploitative and treacherous. The moral of the story is never trust a public schoolboy.
The temple that Dion Fortune describes in 'Moon Magic' is located on West Halkin Street in Belgravia. The building, a former church, now houses a private club called The Belfry. It looks both picturesque and imposing when it's floodlit at night. The Star is situated almost directly opposite The Belfry, at the head of Belgrave Mews West. The Star seems a fitting name for a pub in Dion Fortune land (although no more fitting than The Green Man, perhaps). The opulence of the surroundings suggests a wealthy clientele but the ambience of the place is pleasantly relaxed and free from snobbishness. And it sells Fuller's ESB (Extra Special Bitter), the best beer from the best brewery in the land, the finest ale conceivable throughout the three worlds. We wonder if the brewery would sponsor us? “The experimental metaphysicians of Cross of Light Temple explore the psychedelic multiverse with the aid of ESB.” It's interesting to walk from Victoria station to West Halkin Street and to notice the indicators of poverty and deprivation next to the outward signs of wealth and luxury. It's hard to pinpoint exactly but the transition from poverty to wealth becomes suddenly apparent on the same main road.
I: So, who are the Sons of Amos Brearley?
COLT: In short, they're the working out of an idle wisecrack from a piss taking waiter. We'll have more to say about them later.
I: In 'Balm of Gilead', the hallucinatory narratives (or pseudo-surrealist claptrap) of 'The Sons of Amos Brearley Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' and 'The Sons of Amos Brearley Take a Trip to Dion Fortune Land' are succeeded by 'F.L.A.' Can you tell us a bit more about 'F.L.A.'?
COLT: 'F.L.A.' stands for FIAT LUX AETERNAM, which means 'let there be eternal light'. Or so we're told by a Roman hating scholar who was denied the opportunity to take his 'O' level Latin exam on the grounds that he only managed 6% in the mock. We say that 'SOAB Set the Controls...' and 'SOAB Take a Trip...' are vehicles for the transcription of visions arising from the performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite, and that this trend is continued in 'F.L.A.' but discontinued thereafter in recognition of the need or desire for the reader to engage in more or less traditionally
accepted literary forms.
I: 'Free Art Free People' reads like a manifesto...
COLT: In part, it is a manifesto. It's one of the oldest pieces in 'Balm of Gilead'. It's a satire on the modern art world and a condemnation of the shallow concerns of the celebrity artists of today, or of 2005, whose primary concern is art world approved commercial glamour. They labour to bring forth abominations. They sweat over the depiction of halfwitteries that could be summed up in a phrase of disdainful text. These days ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS can be translated as ‘you've got a fat arse and you won't live long’. The central argument is that professional artists are primarily engaged in gross commercial activity and that the relationship between art and commerce is in direct proportion to art’s retreat from meaning. Of course, art has been tied up with commerce for thousands of years but the commercial imperative was less important in former times, and you can even posit a time when art transcended commerce altogether.
The introduction to 'Free Art Free People' is a manifesto and an immediate annulment of that manifesto. Section 1 is a description of performance art and conceptual art pieces on the theme of the arbitrary adoption and misuse of power. Section 2 describes works on the theme of fraudulent genius. Section 3 lists magickal works. Section 4 treats of music. Section 5 is concerned with the deployment of slogans. Section 6 describes adventures in photography and film born of a desire to escape the mundane and enter the benign and fascinating transcendent. Section 7 is a critique of fashion and the style industry. The conclusion is a description of a dream starring Genesis P-Orridge that takes place in Brighton. It links in with section 3 on magick. It was the first in a series of linked dreams that has continued to the present – the incident by the roadside...the Grey House...the former TOPY dwelling with fascinating stone carvings cut directly into the porch, including representations of Isis and Hermes or Mercury, and a frieze, a panoply of the gods...
I: What about 'Watch Out for Your Head, Sonny Jim'?
COLT: The subtitle of this piece is 'Behemoth and Leviathan – A Death Metal Nightmare'. It's based on a real Death Metal band that played around Sheffield and is now defunct. I had to change the name of the band because they took exception to my conclusion, which condemns them for being Nazi saluting homophobes. I took an interest in Metal for a few years and at first, I had trouble with the various sub-genres, but then I realised that Death Metal bands drink piss whereas Black Metal bands eat babies.
Although it eventually develops into a fictionalised account of a Death Metal band playing in 2005 and 2006, 'Watch Out for Your Head' starts out with descriptions of minor Northern Soul and Heavy Metal scenes in the mid to late 1970s. It's fascinating to reflect on the similarities between the dancing styles of young women at Northern Soul all dayers and Turkish Sufi brotherhoods. It also describes a number of relatively small towns in the late 70s and early 80s, including Newcastle- under-Lyme and Uxbridge in Middlesex. The Sheffield Metal scene surrounding the pseudonymous band Behemoth and Leviathan is personified by Varg Vaporub, a confused Burzum fanatic, and a supporting crowd of half-witted heathens longing for the development of a populist Odin Brotherhood to sustain them. They are driven mad by their folly but their madness does not register with anyone in the group.
I: And the musical theme continues with 'Magic in Traditional Music and Song'...
COLT: The truth of nations resides in their folklore. This piece presents Reynardine as a Celtic demigod, or a presence in eternity manifest in time, and interprets 'Tam Lin' as the story of a god of the underworld becoming a god of the sun. It comments on the general lack of explicit magical
themes in Irish traditional music, although earlier today it occurred to us that the female protagonists of Irish song, even when associated with named individuals, tend to be archetypes or emanations from the collective unconscious, often linked to mythological creatures, or symbols of the goddess – contrast this with the shallow treatment of American cinema, for example, which seeks to present individuals as the embodiment of the feminine principle. 'The Star of the County Down' has one foot in the world of faery but Marilyn Monroe was a kind of robot designed to incite frustrated mechanical desire. 'Magic in Traditional Music and Song' concludes by rescuing gems from the embourgeoisement of a rural tradition that characterised English folk music in the 1960s and 70s, suggesting for example that Shirley Collins embodied the magical trend in traditional music in the way that she sang rather than in what she sang. We could go on to say that she devalued her earlier work by her later refusal to sing when she felt that her voice had gone; she didn't embody anything magical, it was just a phase in her ego bound journey, a temporary widening out of a narrow conceit, the act of a professional musician with nothing more to offer than any other minstrel who sings for their supper deluxe. She can be accounted a coward when compared to Walter Pardon, who didn't get around to being properly recorded until he'd been singing for 50 years; he didn't pass up the chance on the grounds that his tone might not be quite what it was at the so-called height of his powers.
I: You return to more familiar occult matters with your commentary on Austin Osman Spare's 'Anathema of Zos'...
COLT: If it wasn't for Kenneth Grant's creation of the fundamentally mythological entity Austin Osman Spare, then Spare would probably be languishing in the obscurity that his written work deserves. But thanks to Grant and the books by Spare that were published by TOPY's Temple Press in the 1980s, and to a growing host of others that have followed in their wake, there's now a thriving AOS cottage industry. Of course, Spare did possess some skill as a painter and draughtsman, although we'd argue that his most effective works were the more or less straight portraits of the post-war London poor rather than his deranged supposedly magical allegories. And Spare's texts appeal to a peculiarity in the mindset of many occultists, in that they allow for numerous speculative interpretations, and there's nothing more that this type enjoys than engaging in speculative treatments of things that are unclear, or even irreducibly meaningless. They love to try and rescue meaning from the meaningless, and they pride themselves on possessing the knowledge of symbols and correspondences that enables them to do it. But despite the efforts of these fine minds, these celestial intelligences and numinous scholars of the ineffable, there's no agreement on the meaning of Spare's key concepts, and nothing that they say can be confirmed by examination of Spare's actual texts. So, in a sense, we decided to join in the game. And we decided to focus on 'Anathema of Zos' because it's the least obscure of his writings; indeed, you could argue that it (almost) attains to clarity nearly all the way through.
So, 'Austin Osman Spare: Anathema of Zos' is our attempt to penetrate the obscurity of AOS by analysing the character of the hero of his most accessible prose work. Despite our humorous assertion that 'Anathema of Zos' is a Protestant Christian work, we recognise that the mission of Zos is to transcend the ego, 'the sorry righteousness called I', in the knowledge that until this transcendence is achieved, a man is not truly a man, but rather a base and ridiculous creature, a worthless selfhood and an enemy of truth.
I: And 'Balm of Gilead' concludes with an article on Coil...
COLT: Yeah. We went to see Coil in London in 2004. It was a wonderful performance. It had a real, unforced ritual feel to it, despite the cavernous warehouse nature of the venue. It was very well considered and excellently executed. The fragrance of the incense was heady. The light show was fantastic. The projections behind the band were hypnotic. Jhonn Balance engaged in a form of
spiritualised movement, a kind of personally developed super-Eurhythmy. The volume was what is known as overwhelming (really, perfectly judged). The marimba playing was fabulous. It was a magical experience, a total artwork inviting the participant audience to attain altered states of consciousness. It exceeded our expectations, which were very high to begin with. It's possible for a sympathetic viewer to gain some understanding of the virtues of Coil live by watching the 'Colour Sound Oblivion' DVD box set but the televisual experience is a pale imitation of the act of witnessing them in person. 'Colour Sound Oblivion' is really a kind of magical talisman, a fetish or quasi-religious object. Since it's now impossible to see the group in the flesh, the closest approximation to the ultimate Coil experience it's now possible to achieve probably lies in listening to the four volume CD set of live recordings from the early years of this century at high volume. Coil were the most significant exponents of magical themes in music during the late 20th and early 21st centuries and that show at the Ocean in Hackney was a perfect demonstration of this fact.
THE SONS OF AMOS BREARLEY
I: After publishing 'Balm of Gilead' at the end of 2006, you turned your attention to 'The Sons of Amos Brearley'. 'The Sons of Amos Brearley' is the title of an article about a band that appears in 'Balm of Gilead' and the further adventures of SOAB are related in other pieces contained in 'Balm of Gilead'. How do the pieces contained in 'Balm of Gilead' relate to the later work known as 'The Sons of Amos Brearley'?
COLT: We've already related the story of the foundation and development of SOAB as it pertains to 'Balm of Gilead'. What started as a response to an idle remark made by a waiter in an Indian restaurant became a band, and the band became an esoteric group, and the earliest enterprise of this esoteric group is related in 'SOAB Set the Controls...' and 'SOAB Take a Trip...'. 'The Sons of Amos Brearley' that we're talking about here is a work of occult literary fiction describing the activities of a post-modern pseudo-Masonic magical order. This is how the book was advertised at the time of its publication:
Heil dir, Sonne! Heil dir, Licht! Heil dir, Sons of Amos Brearley! Take a trip with Jabez the Stupid and Japheth the Last Laugh as they leave the Lodge to celebrate the Festivals of the Year of The Sons of Amos Brearley… Discover the link between Jabez and Psychic TV… Read a commentary on ‘The Book of the Law’… Speculate on the identity of the Old Man who taught Japheth the Last Laugh…Thrill at the appearance of the vision of Olanziel…Know what to call someone who demonstrates the qualities of Odin, Thor and Loki in one person… Treat the work as a text book on sacred geometry…
One thing we haven't mentioned before is the similarity between the title of the Laurel and Hardy film 'Sons of the Desert' and the Sons of Amos Brearley. The Sons of the Desert is a form of debased Masonic lodge, and Stan Laurel possesses remarkable magical abilities, which are clearly demonstrated in the films he appears in. For example, he's able to generate fire by striking his thumb against his fingers and he's able to manipulate shadows as if they possessed material substance. He's a more accomplished sorcerer than any Chaos magician I've ever met or read about...
Jabez the Stupid is named as the Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley in 'Balm of Gilead' but it's the long version of 'The Sons of Amos Brearley' that introduces the equally important character of Japheth the Last Laugh for the first time.
I: I think I can follow what you mean but to make things clearer, perhaps you could comment on the following synopsis, which outlines the contents of the book published in early 2008?
COLT: It wasn't merely or accidentally published in early 2008, it was published deliberately and purposefully on 16 January 2008, the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Cross of Light Temple...
SYNOPSIS OF 'THE SONS OF AMOS BREARLEY'
Jabez the Stupid and Japheth the Last Laugh plan their year in the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley on South Road, Walkley. They remember the birth of Japheth, who was found fully grown by Jabez in a field of magic mushrooms.
COLT: Once, a local student of the mysteries, who features in 'The Sons of Amos Brearley' as a fictional character, carried out a diligent search for the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, following the clues contained in the book, thus further blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction.
The birth of Japheth the Last Laugh, despite the mushroom references, was inspired by the song 'Tam Lin', which was considered as part of 'Magic in traditional music and song', which appeared in 'Balm of Gilead'.
Jabez and Japheth travel to Sussex, where Japheth meets his mysterious teacher, ‘The Old Man’.
COLT: 'The Old Man' is a composite figure, the memory of someone who used to knock around the Market Cross in Chichester, who appears in the 'Cross of Light' text from 'Balm of Gilead', and Aleister Crowley. Eventually, the Crowley element dominates, so that by the end of 'The Sons of Amos Brearley', the Old Man is practically a cipher for the famous magician.
Jabez remembers his involvement with Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth and early Psychic TV. SOAB and TOPY share some common interests but there has been no contact between them since 1989.
COLT: TOPY and to a lesser extent Psychic TV have proved of great interest to Cross of Light Temple over the years. We're done with them for the time being but we might return to them at some time in the future - a kind of family reunion. See 'Theopathy' for the definitive COLT position statements on TOPY and PTV so far. 'Theopathy' also marks the end of what might be termed an obsession with the Nine O'Clock Service, an organisation presented as TOPY's polar opposite, notwithstanding the structural and operational similarities between them.
Jabez and Japheth celebrate the first of the festivals of the cross quarter days. They travel to the moors above Bakewell and see a snake emerge from a hole.
COLT: Much of the detail pertaining to the so-called traditional Celtic pagan festivals is sourced from Frazer's 'Golden Bough'.
At Spring Equinox, the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley meditate on the sun centred Anglo- Saxons. The Lodge attains the vision of the Black Sun. Jabez carries a bag containing three dead rabbits stuffed with magic mushrooms. They learn how Crookes received its name.
COLT: There's a world class collection of Anglo-Saxon artefacts from Benty Grange in Derbyshire on display at Weston Park Museum in Sheffield, although you could say they're not much to write home about. They're modestly displayed and not imaginatively interpreted but they retain their fascination for us just the same...beautiful symbols in gold and garnet, mysterious shape shifting boars cum serpents...a heritage we're so familiar with we can picture these objects with our eyes closed.
The Black Sun is a common symbol frequently associated with Chaos magic. We probably had a Coil song in mind when we introduced it to the story.
Q: What have you got in your bag? A: Three dead rabbits, stuffed with magic mushrooms... is a long standing COLT joke.
The story of how Crookes received its name was inspired by our engagement with the character Krekja in the Icelandic saga 'Bard the Snowfell God'.
Jabez and Japheth celebrate a fire festival above Satan Town. They encounter the Boston Fen Hopper on his way from modifying the tombstones at Bowcroft Cemetery, an ancient Quaker burial ground. Japheth acquires a robe from the Turkmen Institute, near Victoria Station. The Sons of Amos Brearley meditate on the significance of the endless knot.
COLT: Satan Town is Stannington. Not too long ago, Stannington would have been a moorland village, and before that a settlement of widely separated farms, but it's been swallowed up by the expansion of Sheffield and become an uninspiring sprawl of social and private housing estates. The place has retained something of its former character, and was famous for its celebrations of Beltane and Samhain into the early years of the 21st century. This nonconformist heritage is reinforced by the presence of Bowcroft Cemetery, which indicates that Stannington was an early Quaker stronghold. The Boston Fen Hopper is the Outsider Philip Hutchinson; the nickname indicates the place of his birth and upbringing and the nature of his youthful occupation. The Turkmen Institute robe was a beautiful garment, a model of simplicity and elegance. The easiest way of describing the significance of the endless knot is that it neither begins nor ends, and yet it is plainly and objectively visible (just like life itself).
The Sons of Amos Brearley travel to the underworld via Tam Lin’s portal. They restore the Temple of Ing as a focus for their Summer Solstice celebration. They restore the satellite temple by the Mound of Krekja. They decipher the mysterious symbols in the vicinity of St. Marie’s Cathedral before embarking on a period of study in the Lodge. Japheth produces a commentary on ‘The Book of the Law’. Jabez focuses on the books of Daniel and Jonah and The Gospel According to Saint John.
COLT: Tam Lin's Portal is the name given to a limestone configuration in the vicinity of the old trading route between Ringinglow and Fox House on the way from Sheffield to Hathersage. The Temple of Ing was constructed in the ancient deer park that devolved into Ecclesall Woods and the satellite temple of the Mound ov Krekja lies on the edge of the heights of Crookes. St. Marie's is the Roman Catholic cathedral in Sheffield, nothing more than a glorified parish church. Japheth's commentary on 'The Book of the Law' is more of a summary of a text rendered insignificant when compared to the glories of the Gospel of John. Jabez definitely gets the better deal; witness this wonder from the second best of the three books of the Bible he gives his attention to:
“And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” – Daniel 3, 23-25
Jabez and Japheth adjourn to a clearing in the forest where they perform a rite of recognition, refusal and transformation. The moon rises as they occupy their seats of vision. They perform the Cross of Light six-part rite. They encounter the spirit of Dion Fortune. They contact the Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide. They stage a commercially unsuccessful art exhibition in Ecclesall Woods.
COLT: The mundane inspiration for the encounter with the spirit of Dion Fortune was a phone call to a Chinese takeaway that seemed to go astray and led to a conversation with what might well have been an older woman suffering from some form of dementia.
Jabez takes the oath of a Master of the Temple. He descends to the underworld beneath the Mound of Krekja and returns with a system of knowledge indicated by the Runic Y, which is a sign of SOAB. Jabez’ reverie is disturbed by an uncouth farmer.
COLT: The oath of a Master of the Temple as given by Crowley. The journey of Jabez conflates the journeys of Orpheus and Odin (and a host of metaphysical otherworld explorers to boot). The system of knowledge indicated by the Runic Y strengthens the link to Odin. The uncouth farmer is a real person, modelled on the owner of Clough Farm Stables, which is overlooked by the Mound of Krekja.
Jabez and Japheth observe the Eternal Sun in splendour over a pint of Jaipur IPA outside the Devonshire Cat. They are repulsed by the presence of a rat’s nest of psychotherapists.
COLT: 'The Eternal Sun in splendour' is a loose paraphrase of the title of an artwork to be found in Chichester Cathedral. Jaipur IPA is a beer that comes close to approaching Fuller's ESB in fineness. The Devonshire Cat is a pub on the edge of Sheffield city centre, which doesn't really have a lot to recommend it. 'A rat's nest of psychotherapists' is the correct term for a gathering of these individuals, like 'a murder of crows' or 'a bastard of police officers'.
Jabez travels to Stoke-on-Trent. He spies Japheth from the train at Blyth Bridge station. He encounters himself in the Roebuck Tavern. He photographs the union of industry and corruption in St. Peter’s churchyard, opposite Stoke Town Hall.
COLT: Blyth Bridge is a settlement between Uttoxeter and Kidsgrove. It's hard to say if it's a town or a village. It's hard to make out a case for it being much more than a train station. You could say much the same for Kidsgrove. Uttoxeter has acquired an identity by virtue of its second class racecourse. The Roebuck was a pub in Shelton, which lies between Hanley and Stoke. It's been demolished to make way for some vapid inanity, a supermarket or a seat of learning associated with the University of North Staffordshire, or whatever the Poly is called these days. Shelton used to be the bohemian quarter of Stoke-on-Trent, a sprawling mass of brick built terraced houses with green and red interiors. 'The union of industry and corruption' is the name we gave to a tombstone carving depicting two cherubs joined at the head, metaphysical Siamese twins depicted in aged granite. St. Peter's churchyard also houses the paltry stump of a Saxon cross, degraded to the point of not really being worth seeing.
Japheth travels from the grounds of the former Staffordshire County Lunatic Asylum to the grounds of the former Middlewood Hospital in Sheffield through the law of correspondences. Japheth reveals the address of the ‘head of the O.T.O. in Europe’.
COLT: The former Staffordshire County Asylum was a dreary mansion of despair on the edge of the town of Stafford, later joined by outlying buildings and pre-fab monstrosities, later still converted
into a so-called luxury housing development, retaining many of the original features (the clock tower, the landscaped gardens...). Middlewood was the equivalent for Sheffield and South Yorkshire. It's interesting to note the fashion for turning mental hospitals into bourgeois dream homes. It happened at Stanley Royd in Wakefield and at countless other locations besides. And I think they all went through a period of being the subject of community arts projects before the property developers moved in. Ghostly places, haunted by misery.
'The head of the O.T.O. in Europe' has a meaning that has nothing to do with the O.T.O., which we won't make explicit here.
The Sons of Amos Brearley submit a funding application to the Arts Council. They publicise their activities in ‘Notes from Underground’. They sing the Heart Sutra alongside Horace Knapworth of the celebrated band Flamethrow Square Revellers.
COLT: The real as opposed to quasi-fictional 'Notes from Underground' was the self-proclaimed 'Official Publication of the New Existentialist Order' and flourished from 1979 – 1982 under the editorship of the cold fish Kevin Leyland of Earby, near Colne. A COLT practitioner contributed to the journal many years before the formal establishment of Cross of Light Temple -
Enter now the Twilight Zone, the brooding realm of melancholy, the land where everyone fears. And through the Zone there comes a lie and the lie is labelled 'thought' and throws up empty imagery...
Not bad for a 17 year old...not bad for anyone of any age, come to think of it.
Cross of Light Temple does not hesitate to recommend Dostoyevsky's 'Notes from Underground' as a work of comedy - “I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I think there is something wrong with my liver...” Nor do we refrain from acknowledging the virtues of that author's commonly heralded literary masterpieces, 'Crime and Punishment', 'The Brothers Karamazov' and 'Demons' in particular. Generally speaking, you'll gain more from reading Dostoyevsky than you will from reading the collected works of Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare and Dion Fortune put together.
Everything of value we've learned from Buddhism can be reduced to the following paraphrase of the central tenet of the Heart Sutra:
Gone, gone, gone beyond, Gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all hail!
Jabez and Japheth visit the Atlantis Bookshop to check on sales of ‘Balm of Gilead’. They travel through the eye of a goddess in the British Museum. They state that the Aeon of Osiris is not abruptly succeeded by the Aeon of Horus. They know that one age gradually becomes another.
COLT: The Atlantis Bookshop on Museum Street in London kindly agreed to stock 'Balm of Gilead' (and later 'The Sons of Amos Brearley'). We dedicated copies of the book to the proprietors in honour of their acceptance. 'Balm of Gilead' was placed in the Chaos magic section of the shop's well used shelves, to the right, above head height as you enter, presumably on the grounds that we
discussed the Austin Osman Spare article it contained before finalising the transaction. The main proprietor was due to deliver a talk on Spare shortly after our discussion. And 'The Sons of Amos Brearley' flew off the shelves, and the shop was happy to pay cash upfront, rather than cash on delivery, and the proprietors proved honourable in all of their dealings.
The reference to the Aeons of Osiris and Horus refers to the Aeons as conceived by Crowley.
The Arts Council application is successful, enabling SOAB to stage a performance called ‘Living Cultural Artefacts’ at the Eagle in Buxton. After the show, SOAB and the audience struggle through Grin Low woods to climb the winding staircase of the Temple of Solomon.
COLT: The Temple of Solomon is an architectural folly built on top of a Neolithic burial ground at Grin Low, which towers above the Derbyshire spa town of Buxton, which is renowned for its Opera House, its Pavilion Gardens, and its general air of gentility. Thankfully, you wouldn't be able to erect a permanent stone built structure on top of a heritage burial site these days...we suppose most of them have been built over already.
Jabez and Japheth attain the vision of Olanziel. Olanziel resembles St. Jude. Olanziel embodies the characteristics of the Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide in one person. It has been said that whoever reads ‘Balm of Gilead’ is prepared for the blessing of Olanziel and whoever reads ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ receives Seraphiel’s blessing.
COLT: Olanziel represents religious consciousness. The Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide order the contents of consciousness, create from the contents of consciousness and introduce new ideas into consciousness. Seraphiel represents magical consciousness. They are written about at length in the Cross of Light Temple publications 'Ephphatha' and 'Theopathy'.
The Sons of Amos Brearley reveal what you call someone who demonstrates the qualities of Odin, Thor and Loki in one person. They visit Lough Gill in Co. Sligo and travel from Malkuth to Kether.
COLT: It's another joke -
Q: What do you call someone who demonstrates the qualities of Odin, Thor and Loki in one person? A: A one eyed transvestite junkie.
'Gill', from the Irish 'gile', meaning 'beauty', a name applied to a goddess, whose tears formed the lake.
The journey from Malkuth to Kether follows the path of the arrow, the middle pillar, passing through Tiphereth.
Jabez and Japheth are back in the Lodge at Winter Solstice. They celebrate the end of the year. It is rumoured that they have not moved at all. Jabez resolves to study the Gospels. Japheth vows to follow the teachings of the Old Man.
COLT: We'll leave it to the reader to decide how far Jabez and Japheth have moved throughout the course of the year. Once again, Jabez gets the better deal. By 'the teachings of the Old Man', we mean the books of Crowley.
We did actually continue the story along the lines suggested here in 'Transfiguration of SOAB'. Not only does Jabez study the Gospels, he also immerses himself in the music of Current 93. Not only
does Japheth open himself to the influence of Crowley, he also follows the music of Coil. The process involved in the production of 'Transfiguration...' was fascinating but the text that we produced was deemed unsuitable for general distribution. Extracts from 'Transfiguration of SOAB' are included in 'Theopathy'.
I: How did you distribute 'Balm of Gilead' and 'The Sons of Amos Brearley'?
COLT: As mentioned above, the books were stocked by The Atlantis Bookshop. We also sold copies through Rare and Racy in Sheffield. 'The Sons of Amos Brearley' was actually launched at Rare and Racy. We're very grateful for their support. We recommend the shop unreservedly; it's the best shop in Sheffield by far, a treasure trove of rare and cheap books, experimental music and artwork. We placed the book on a sale or return basis with other alternative bookshops in the north of England, which presumably sold the books without making us any payment. We sweet talked the owner of a psychic junk shop on South Road, Walkley into buying a copy for herself. We sold some at a mental health book launch and packed some copies off to an alternative market in Hull. The books were advertised via Compulsion Online, which generally reviews music by artists like Current 93 and Coil. We posted details on a website, which resulted in us being mobbed at our workplace by what looked like refugees from a joke shop. In many ways, it's a drag trying to hawk your wares; you have to identify possible outlets, negotiate terms with those who don't refuse you, and take financial dealings on trust.
I: Are the books still available?
COLT: There are some copies remaining for sale. You can buy them by sending a cheque for £5 per item made payable to SUST along with your name and address to SUST, The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield S1 4FW. Or you can donate a fiver to the poor and let us know which title you require by emailing us at [email protected]
I: Thank you for your time.
COLT: You're welcome. It's not our time. It's not anyone's time. Time does not exist.
“To this secret order every wise and spiritually enlightened person belongs by right of his or her nature; because they all, even if they are personally unknown to each other, are one in their purpose and object, and they all work under the guidance of the one light of truth. Into this sacred society no one can be admitted by another, unless he has the power to enter it himself by virtue of his own interior illumination: neither can any one, after he has once entered, be expelled, unless he should expel himself by becoming unfaithful to his principles, and forget again the truths which he has learned by his own experience…
As a matter of course, those persons who are already sufficiently spiritually developed to enter into conscious communion with the great spiritual brotherhood will be taught directly by the spirit of wisdom…
Our community has existed ever since the first day of creation when the gods spoke the divine command: Let there be light! And it will continue to exist till the end of time. It is the Society of the Children of Light, who live in the light and have attained immortality therein…Our place of meeting is the Temple of the Holy Spirit pervading the universe.”
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
CROSS OF LIGHT AS EXPERIMENTAL METAPHYSICS
Our desire to trace connections is prompted by recognition of unity. We enter altered states of consciousness and perform rituals in the Temple.
1. The first stage opens the stations of light, and the greater light at the centre.
2. The second stage establishes the celebrant in the light at the centre. It confirms the identity between the light in which we abide and the kingdom of heaven. It teaches that we have the necessary resources within us and that we do not need instruction from elsewhere.
3. The third stage establishes contact between the light at the centre and the light beyond and unifies them as light beyond light.
4. The fourth stage concentrates the power of the first three stages. It is a period of reflection and sealing. It is more than the sum of its parts. The light at the centre represents life, and the stations of light represent the elements that are enlivened thereby.
5. The fifth stage is a dedication and a further consolidation of the celebrant’s position at the centre.
6. The sixth and final stage is an indication of how far we have travelled through performance of the rite. It speaks to the condition of change.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ON CERTAIN SIGNS AND SYMBOLS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SIX-PART RITE
What is the significance of the three fingers of the right hand?
The Three in One, representative of harmony through balancing opposing forces. Three – the Holy Trinity; past, present and future; creation, preservation and destruction; birth, life and death; the Triple Goddess; the triangle of the Temple (blue triangle surrounded by gold), which is a gateway. The right hand of willed justice and truth.
What is the nature of the light in the stations of light?
If we concede the idea that the body is spirit in material conditions, then the light of the stations relates to normal light as spirit relates to the body. The light is not the light of the sun, moon and stars, although the light of sun, moon and stars could not be without it. The light of the stations is ‘light beyond light’. It is the light that is the life of men.
What is the significance of the stations?
They indicate the cardinal points and are suggestive of the totality of space. They indicate the elements and are suggestive of substance. They form a cross and suggest that the cross is of infinite extension, although it remains centred on the centre of the stations. And despite the suggestion of limitlessness, they mark the extent of the ritual ground and indicate key points on the body of light.
How does a greater light arise in the Heart chakra?
The light of the stations seems drawn towards the centre, which corresponds with the Heart chakra (of the body of light). The light of the Heart chakra is equal to the sum of the light in each of the stations, although the light beyond light in each of the stations shines with infinite brightness (perhaps seeming or near infinite brightness) and the light in each station is in no way diminished, although it can be seen as part of the light associated with the Heart chakra.
What is the significance of the Heart chakra?
The Heart chakra is the centre of the cross formed by the joining of third eye, navel, left breast and right breast. It is the main focal point of the body of light, equating to Tiphereth on the Tree of Life. It is the part of the earthly body and the body of light that corresponds most closely to the sun. It is the centre out of which the solar body is born (the Heart chakra of the body of light is the womb of the solar body).
Why is there call and response?
Call and response is a method of focusing attention on the matter in hand. It results in a doubling of attention on the individual elements of the process and thereby serves to bring the message home. It fosters communal enterprise. At first sight, it might appear that the ‘leader’, who generates the call, occupies a privileged position but in reality, the ‘leader’ performs a function that is dependent on the response for its fulfilment. Both call and response are necessary. Call without response and response without call are specialised forms of futility.
Where is the call and response located?
Strictly speaking, call and response are located nowhere. However, despite it being impossible to locate them accurately in space, it would be correct to say that they are located in the Heart chakra as described above and the stations surrounding it. The Heart chakra becomes a platform upon which the ‘leader’ stands and the stations house the respondents. Although they are not to be found in space, ‘leader’ and respondents invariably occupy the same positions in the house of light.
What is the significance of gold surrounded by silver?
There is something of incredible value at the core of our being. The gold is the incorruptible gold of the solar body and the silver is the incorruptible silver of the lunar or astral body. The gold is not surrounded by silver but rather contained within it, although neither the solar nor the lunar body is subject to constraint. The incorruptible gold and silver are associated with the Heart chakra as described above. The desire of men for earthly riches is a consequence of a debased awareness of the gold and silver at the core of being, a misguided attempt to manifest it in earthly conditions, where it can be seen by the eye.
What does the silver crescent signify?
The silver crescent forms a scythe which is deployed to separate us from evil, which is error. After this, the scythe is placed outside the ritual ground and protects it, so that no error can enter into the ritual performance. The crescent can be associated with Islam as the cross formed by the stations can be associated with Christianity but neither symbol is indicative of orthodoxy. This relationship seems worthy of further consideration.
Why does the archetypal image always arise in the same place?
It’s not only the archetypal image that arises in the same place, it’s all the symbols and associated images that arise during the course of the rite. The archetypal image referred to in the question arises to inculcate the performance with a specialised form of the light without, which exists primarily to join with the light within in a demonstration of unity.
Where is that place located?
See observations on the location of call and response above. Further, the particular image is located outside the limits of the core of the body of light and cannot be associated with any point related to the physical body but rather lies in close proximity to the body, coincidentally reinforcing the association of without and within.
What does the pillar of light represent?
The pillar of light is the means by which connections are traced between the stations of light. The
pillar of light passes through third eye, Heart chakra and navel; it is particularly related to these points but it is of infinite extension. There are other pillars of light that connect the archetypal image with the third eye and the Heart chakra and there is a column of light that passes through left breast, Heart chakra and right breast (and is also of infinite extension).
Why are the stations of light revisited in turn?
Revisiting the stations offers an opportunity to explore their properties more fully. The act of revisiting also grounds the fourth (or central) stage of the rite in a predetermined form, which prevents this stage from being characterised by formlessness. The return is a willed return, a stage on the journey, an indication of the cyclical encountered during the course of the linear. In a sense, it provides a measure of progress; what has changed since the opening? It’s a development tool or process, and a surety of grounding. It’s an unfolding of the potential of the opening.
What is the significance of focused breathing in these locations?
Focused breathing fosters depth. It’s tied to the three. It allows first thought, reflection, confirmation (or revision). It echoes birth, life and death. On a so-called mundane level, it promotes calmness. It slows things down to see them better. It provides a vivid illustration of how the mortal and corruptible body is absolutely linked to the super sensible loci of being with which it is associated (the earthly body is the lunar or astral body is the solar body). It takes us beyond time. It pulsates. It reminds us of the rhythm of life. It is a form of definite and deliberate marking.
What is the significance of three in the context of this exercise?
See above for identification with the three and further above re: associations with the three. In addition, note the unity underlying tripartite or changing identity. Also, three (being more than one) signifies endurance and the possibility of a leisurely response rather than forced, willed or predetermined revelation, although it is not insignificant that the three relates to the one through being located in the same place (which is not to be found in space).
What is the significance of the vertical and horizontal lines?
The vertical line represents descent from on high, anointing, libation. It is a figure of eternity, envisaged as the blood of Christ. The horizontal line represents linear time (albeit abstracted from eternity, which is most simply recalled through remembrance that the visible line is just a portion of a line without beginning or end, most of which is invisible). The horizontal line is envisaged as the body of Christ.
What is the significance of the cross?
The cross represents the grounding of the forces inherent in the vertical and horizontal lines. The place at which the vertical and horizontal meet forms the ground upon which the ritual reaches fulfilment and the visible cross, which is often a cross of light, corresponds with the stations. The figure represents balance. It also represents the being of Christ beyond the body and blood. The implied cross suggested by the extension of the vertical and horizontal indicates that it’s an equal armed cross; amongst other things, this suggests that the elements are a manifestation of the spiritual body and blood of Christ.
Why revisit the stations of light again?
It’s a kind of final reminder. It’s a seal of each of the elements. It’s a final deepening and
preliminary leave taking. It’s a return to the first stage, the implication being that it continues perpetually. As this is the third time the stations of light are deliberately visited, it further links the ritual with the three and all of the three’s recognised associations.
What is the significance of the sign of the Hanged Man, the descent of Adonai, and the equal armed cross in a circle?
The sign of the Hanged Man is a glyph of the direction of travel. It represents descent, ascent and equilibrium and everything associated with these movements. It can be taken to mean that we integrate what we learn from the process into our being. Adonai descends to guide us. Also, the expression serves as a reminder that the ritual can be linked to a magical world view that places great store in the descent of Adonai. The cross is the cross of light formed by joining the stations and the circle coincides with the ritual ground and passes through the stations of light. The cross in the circle also relates to the elements and quintessence (and views the combination as a unity).
What is the significance of the seal?
As the revisiting of the stations has been described as a preliminary leave taking, so the seal represents a kind of final leave taking (the seal of the seal succeeds it but the seal is a willed action, whereas the seal of the seal arises of its own volition). The seal formally ends the performance of the ritual and marks it as a single event, sufficient unto itself. The seal captures the experience and returns the performers to what are commonly termed normal space-time conditions. The seal is another form of revisiting, relating to the sealing of individual elements as referred to above.
What is meant by the seal of the seal?
The seal of the seal is the equal armed cross in a circle formed by the conjunction of the Cross of Light and/or the sign of the Hanged Man or descent of Adonai and the station of light associated with the supra-mundane Heart chakra. The seal of the seal is the sign that links each individual performance of the rite with all of the others. One could say that to recall this sign is to recall the totality of the Cross of Light experience in condensed form. As mentioned above, the seal of the seal seems to arise of its own volition, although further consideration clearly shows that its appearance is dependent on everything that precedes it, and this fact speaks of the relationship between the ‘seen’ and the ‘unseen’ etc.
Why keep a record?
The record allows the development of the six-part rite to be traced as a whole and in each of its separate elements. The signs and symbols considered above have emerged gradually through continuing practice; they were not necessarily available to consciousness when the rite was first performed. The record allows us to determine the degree to which the fruits of the rite have remained constant and the extent to which they have changed. It also allows us to consider correspondences between superficially diverse kinds of experience and the different ways in which core meanings can be expressed. Although the record has not been made public (mainly on the grounds that we remain unconvinced of its relevance to people who do not perform the rite), it informs the production of texts and artwork that are published by Cross of Light Temple.
Finally, we state that it’s possible to perform the six-part rite without reference to its text by focusing on the succession of the symbols alluded to above. To focus on the signs and symbols is to get the meaning of the rite without recourse to internal or external verbalisation.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE OPENED AND SEALED
Prologue
We aim for balance. It is our first willed action of the morning. It is our preliminary intention. We aim to embody the Temple.
We breathe in deeply. We exhale with equal vigour. We raise roofed stone structures in the hollow of a tree. We intone 'Be far from me, ye profane' as we walk on the path that leads to the Temple.
We enter altered states of consciousness. We recollect the symbols and we recollect the signs. We move three fingers through the twilit fog rising from the valley. We begin to open the gateway that leads to higher mind.
1.
The light descends. The light is settled, willed into motion and directed. We are dressed in white and yellow. The sun is clearly visible behind thin clouds in the stations of light and the unveiled sun shines at the centre.
The stations of light are located in the cardinal points of the body and the light at the centre is a gateway from the body to the body of light beyond it. So where is flesh located and what does it consist of? Silver light, gold light, white light, crosses and circles, all searching for and signs of the centre.
We see one light moving, a white light with a golden radiance at the centre. It represents movement from the dark void space of origin. If it fades, it fades to arise, and if it sinks away again, it seals.
2.
The heart of this stage is call and response. The call comes from the centre and the response comes from the stations of light. We make the sign of the crescent moon; it is a sign to banish evil.
The centre is a representation of the kingdom of heaven within. We perceive it as a sun. We read the text inscribed on the sun, and we do what it instructs us to do, for we have written what we find there.
We learn that Christ is every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We learn that evil is error. We learn that any of the stations of light could represent the centre of the Temple. We learn that connections between the stations of light form pillars, paths and gateways.
The call comes from heaven and the response comes from the kingdom of heaven within. Call and response become fluid; it becomes impossible to distinguish between them.
Our eyes are open and we look within. We explore the link between breath and mind. We engage with the celestial, the solar and the earthly. We abide in the head and the heart and the navel.
The call comes from the light of the moon and the response comes from the light of the sun; call and response are joined in the centre of the glory of God.
The call comes from a floor of compacted earth and the response comes from the Temple that towers above it. The Temple Lux Interna is located at the centre of the kingdom of heaven, which is outside space and time.
We are established in the light at the centre. We abide in the kingdom of heaven. We have the necessary resources within us. We do not rely on external forces.
Defeat is followed by victory. We make the banishing sign. Forgiveness manifests through us. A star crowned celebrant leads the rite. He hovers above a lake, raising his arms in a gesture of salutation and victory.
We see a white light. We see a silver crescent outside the ground of the stations of light. We see a red equal armed cross travelling towards the white light. The centre is a platform and the stations of light are a boundary.
The centre revolves slowly. There are swift revolving globes in the stations of light, casting light in all directions. There is a white robed embodiment of light at the centre and there are white robed embodiments of light in the stations.
We see letters of fire at the centre of the kingdom of heaven; at the centre of the cross; at the centre of the Temple.
3.
She is crowned, and her crown is an emanation of light. She is bejewelled, and her jewels are stars. She is the personification of compassion and mercy. Her moonlit blue robe is lighter at the bottom and grows darker towards the top.
She wears a white garment beneath the blue robe. She is veiled behind a web of text, which reads 'the mouth is the womb of the word.' She is an image of verdant fertility. She is surrender and adoration. She is an archetype from the collective unconscious. She is easily accessible. She is the spirit of the late spring sky.
She dissolves into formless light. She emerges gold winged from a field of blue. She is the mother of all things. She is the mother of the earth and the mother of the gods. She looks over the world. She is a young woman garlanded by wild spring flowers. She is a star reflected in melting snow.
4.
We are beyond mind, beyond flesh, beyond servitude and adoration. We enter, we abide and we depart. We invoke, we sustain and we secure. We construct centres of light. We form an equal armed cross of limitless extension. The kingdom of heaven is located at the centre of the cross. The sun is located at the centre of the kingdom of heaven. The Temple is located at the centre of the sun.
We reflect on birth, endurance and death. We conclude that birth – endurance – death is one thing not three.
We see a white triangle pointing north, a white triangle pointing south, a white triangle pointing west and a white triangle pointing east. We see a yellow circle at the centre of the triangles thus arranged.
We see the moon and the sun and the light beyond them in the stations of light, which are fed from the light at the centre. The light at the centre represents life and the stations of light represent the elements that are enlivened.
We construct a triple circle in each station of light, constructing them circle by circle. There is a cross of light between them. We travel deeper and deeper into the centre of the cross, a journey from light to light beyond light.
We fuse the earthly body with the body of light and we seal the composite body with these signs: a triangle, a crescent, an equal armed cross in a circle.
We see a bright silver disc inscribed with an inverted V. We see a brightening gold disc with three horizontal black lines passing through it. We see a black disc surrounded by a white band, with a white disc at its centre.
We are conscious of our bodies and conscious of our breath. We feel breath on our fingers. We feel our bellies rising and falling. We feel the warmth of flesh on flesh. We make slits in the fabric of space and time. We are at peace. We seal the light.
5.
The body and blood of Christ form an equal armed cross. The equal armed cross in a circle is the symbolic representation of this stage of the rite. The vertical axis of the cross forms a gateway and the horizontal axis signifies generation and endurance in time. Everything takes place at the centre of the cross.
The body of Christ is the sun and the blood of Christ is the light of the sun. The body and blood of Christ form the cross of the elements and the sign of the sun. The body and blood of Christ are received at the centre of the cross.
The body of Christ is life and the blood of Christ is light. The body and blood of Christ form the cross of light that is apparent to earthly vision. The body and blood of Christ lead to the centre of the cross in a circle.
The body of Christ is earthly and the blood of Christ is the body of light. We trace the lines of the cross with three fingers. The body and blood of Christ are an offering and a libation.
6.
As it opens, so it closes. The sign of the Hanged Man or descent of Adonai is the symbolic representation of this stage of the rite. It represents descent, ascent, balance and endurance. It represents a direction of travel. It illuminates the inhabitants of the Temple in their stations.
This stage indicates how far we have travelled through the performance of the rite and so speaks to
the condition of change. We place the sign behind our foreheads, between our eyes. It focuses our attention on the connections between the centres. We see four lights in the stations of light with a greater light at the centre.
Epilogue
We engage in a rite of mystical communion. We enter the Temple, white robes covering bodies of light. The darkness of the threshold leads to a light within. Incorporeal beings hover on the verge of manifestation. We see flashes of white, green and red. We see gold stars on a field of blue. We behold the altar tomb. We pass through a gateway. We bathe in the light beyond light emanating from the sign of the Temple. The Temple abides at the centre of the equal armed cross of light.
Is this a conclusion or a resting place on the way? It's a resting place on the way. It begins in flesh and ends in spirit. We know that life and death is one thing. We know that the physical and the metaphysical merge. We know that the body of light begins where the earthly body ends.
We close our eyes and focus on symbols. We project the sun. We raise our arms. We stand upon small wooden platforms. We see an equal armed cross in the sun. We recognise the unity of the lunar and the solar in the light beyond light from whence they come.
We see the cross, the circle and the outgoing light. The recollection of these signs indicates a level of understanding of the process that equips us with the faculty to receive the 'higher wisdom'. The signs arise, remain, dissolve and pulse with connected change. The centre of the cross is the threshold of the Temple.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
A RITE OF MYSTICAL COMMUNION
We are gathered together in Cross of Light Temple to give thanks and to celebrate the fruits of our labour.
We honour the body and blood of Christ.
The body of Christ is the earth and the blood of Christ is the waters of the earth. Earth and its waters are transcended. The body of Christ is the church not built with hands and the blood of Christ is the spirit that enlivens the church. The body of Christ is the Sun and the blood of Christ is living water. The body of Christ is the universe and the blood of Christ is eternity.
We pass through a golden gate and we come to a fertile land. We receive the body and blood of Christ from Christ himself.
Sign: with our right hands we draw a circle. We trace a vertical line, then a horizontal line, to form an equal armed cross in a circle.
Amen.
We honour Christ as Light.
We recognise Christ as the brightness at the centre of the Sun. We recognise Christ as Light in darkness, rising like the Sun beyond the Sun. We recognise Christ as Light beyond light.
We contemplate the vision of sacrifice.
We reflect on the mystery of the glory of God as Christ on the cross. We are crucified with Christ by means of our journey through the world.
We celebrate the humanity of Christ and the divinity of man.
We recognise man in Christ and Christ in man. Christ was embodied in Jesus and Christ is the soul of man.
It is the humanity of Christ and the divinity of man that enables Christ and man to merge.
We honour Christ as every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Christ is the kingdom of heaven. The coming of Christ allowed the kingdom of heaven within. We partake of communion in the kingdom of heaven within.
Sign: we raise our right hands above our heads and trace a vertical line, representing a pillar of light.
Amen.
We honour the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We see Jesus in a high place offered dominion over earthly kingdoms. We see Jesus walking on the sea. The sea represents man’s troubled and passionate nature.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the mystical knowledge that Christ died to save mankind from sin. A pillar of light passes through the Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the centre of the world. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a revolving sun wheel. Universal compassion, eternal rest and pity for the dead reside within the Sacred Heart.
We honour the Son.
We honour the Son proceeding from the Mother. We honour the Son for opening access to the Father. We honour the Son as the Father. We honour the Son as the Son. We honour the Son as the Holy Spirit. We honour the Son in our flesh.
We honour the Holy Spirit as comforter.
We see a figure in stone grey robes, beckoning at the threshold. The Holy Spirit surrounds and circles the hearts of men.
Sign: with our right hands we trace an upward pointing equilateral triangle.
We honour Mary.
She is dressed in gold and red. She wears a crown of gold. She fills the field of vision. Her eyes are sapphire blue. Her lips are scarlet. She gazes mildly on the world from heaven. The sky is her mantle. The gentle breeze is her rippling robe.
We honour Mary as a manifestation of mercy and compassion.
We honour Mary as the apple goddess, carrying a wand of white apple blossom. We honour Mary as the new Eve.
Mary is the goddess of the earth and the goddess of the moon. Her womb resembles Christ’s sepulchre. Her womb is the kingdom of heaven. Mary inhabits the temple.
Amen.
We honour the vision of the Mother.
The queen of earth is the mother of heaven. On her breast she wears this sign:
Sign: with our right hands we draw a circle. We trace a vertical line, then a horizontal line, to form an equal armed cross in a circle.
The mother of earth is the queen of heaven. We remember the glory of the mother of the stars.
The Mother precedes the Father. Our Mother is Earth, the mother of clay. The body is from the Mother and the blood is from the Father.
We honour the Father in the kingdom of heaven.
The Father lives in the kingdom. The kingdom is within. The kingdom is the Father’s. The kingdom is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is within. The Father is in heaven.
The Father is within because the kingdom is the Father’s and the kingdom is within.
There is one Father. We are with our Father. Our Father dwells within us.
Sign: with our right hand we trace a circle, then a smaller circle within this circle.
We honour the Father of the Sun. We honour the Father in the head of the body of light.
We honour the word of God.
The word of God is all that upholds life, including matter, but separate from matter. The word proceeding from the mouth of God is everything that allows life to be. The word of God is life.
God produces God through the agency of God.
The blood of God flows to God from God.
It is right that we should praise God for the wonders of creation. We feed on the fruits of the earth. The fruits of the earth are from God.
The living and the dead are one in God.
We honour God through Cross of Light.
Cross of Light is A vision of swift flowing energy Surrounding everything solid Resembling swift falling rain Blown in a strong wind (no moisture no disturbance) Emanating from God The word of God Cross of Light is worshipping God in spirit.
Leave taking.
In taking our leave let us keep in mind the Sun, the spiritual Sun, and God, the maker of the Sun, and the person of Christ, manifest in the Sun, and Man and Woman, as it were splinters of the Sun.
The Lion and the Lamb are balanced in the heart of the Sun.
Christ prays God’s prayer. We are with him.
Amen.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE: INHABITANTS, SIGNS AND SYMBOLS
This is a five-part work:
1. Olanziel and Seraphiel 2. The Three and The Five 3. Earth and Heaven 4. The Circle, the Triangle and the Cross 5. The Sun and the Moon
Olanziel
The Cross of Light record states that Olanziel wears a white robe with a green sleeveless covering. He sometimes wears a golden crown. He is known through his relationships with the other inhabitants of Cross of Light Astral Temple. He is an amalgam of two other Temple inhabitants, one of whom performs the function of ordering the contents of consciousness, the other of whom creates from the contents of consciousness. This conception is confirmed and expanded by the record of meditation on the 26 associations and 4 signs of Cross of Light Temple, which reveals:
“Olanziel can be seen as a composite figure, an embodiment of the attributes of the Three…namely consciousness, creation from the contents of consciousness, and the ability to create entering consciousness from outside of consciousness. Olanziel can be envisioned wearing a white robe, a sleeveless green covering, and carrying a redwood staff. Through his connection with the Three, he is related to the triangle, which is a gateway. Through his connection with the Three, he is related to the Triple Trinity (Father-Christ-Holy Spirit; Birth-Life-Death; and the Triple Goddess).”
From ‘A Provisional History of Cross of Light Temple’:
”Olanziel wears a robe of white and green. His hair is blond and curly. He is unceasingly warm and friendly and his friendliness is pleasant and melting warmth. Despite his pleasant nature, he possesses great dignity and majesty. He is a covering of something hidden. His function is to invest the Temple with a religious sensibility. He came into being by degrees through the same process that witnessed the appearance of Seraphiel. He came before Seraphiel.”
In a letter from Geoffrey Basil Smith in the guise of Dr. (Japheth) G. dated 27 January 2008 we ‘learn’:
”In Sufism (and I am a member of a Naqshbandi Turkish tariqat) ‘Olanziel’ is khidr. So what?”
The Naqshbandi take on al-Khidr can be found here: http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/10.htm
Other links relating to al-Khidr can be accessed here: http://khidr.org/khidr-links.htm
Awareness of these resources does not necessarily imply approval of their contents.
Certain forum controllers, self-appointed masters of logic and arbiters of reality, have suggested that Olanziel is absurd, entirely fictitious, and a figment of the imagination. I used to think that secret societies kept secrets because to reveal them would reveal how ridiculous they are but this ignorant and unenlightened response to Olanziel almost persuades me that there is virtue in concealing transcendent realities from the profane.
Seraphiel
He is not clearly seen. He changes in outward appearance.
Seraphiel is a spirit born of Cross of Light. He comes from beyond. The appearance of Light beyond light announces his coming. I am presently unable to define ‘spirit’ and ‘beyond’ in this context with greater clarity.
Seraphiel is shrouded. His robe changes colour. He wears a medallion. His robe and his emblem are signs. I am currently unable to indicate what they signify with certainty.
He wears a white hooded inner robe. He has been known to wear a square headdress decorated with gold, resembling the headgear of an Orthodox priest.
The black robe of Seraphiel becomes a robe of deep sky blue. The blue robe becomes a deep green robe, which darkens to grey. (I think of the quarters of the day – night; dawning; fullness; descent). Whatever its colour, the robe of Seraphiel is adorned with gold stars, especially in its lower portion. It has been said that Seraphiel’s robe covers the sun but the sun should be seen as one of the many stars that shine on the robe of Seraphiel.
The medallion of Seraphiel is made of light born silver and represents a cross in a circle (a sign that many people interpret as Earth, which is one of its lesser meanings). The medallion waxes red (stained by the blood of T.I.M.E.). It is stored beneath a limestone cairn inscribed with the name of its owner and the sign of the cross in a circle. The cairn has been raised in the hollow of a tree.
Two companions, who serve him as lord of the stars, attend Seraphiel. This is a fragment of the outward form of a secret rite:
Through the servants of Seraphiel We commune with the stars. The stars invest us with light. We do with that light what we will.
In ‘A Provisional History of Cross of Light Temple’ we read:
“Seraphiel wears a robe of blue darkening to black, adorned with gold stars in its lower portion. His face is rarely seen. He stands like a rock or a tower. He is unmoved by the play of inferior forces.
He represents mystery and his function is to invest the Temple with a magical sensibility. He came into being by degrees, first materialising as a wanderer through the wilderness. He has found his fitting home. He is associated with Olanziel. He followed Olanziel.”
Seraphiel appears in ‘The Book of the Black Serpent’ (but I don’t think this is the same Seraphiel):
The Seraphim
“The Seraphim is four in number and is ruled by SERAPHIEL; he is a prince, wonderful, noble, great, honourable, mighty, terrible, a chief and leader and a swift scribe. His body is like that of an eagle and he wears a crown. He is accompanied by Satan, Samael and Dubbiel. These are the accusers. It is through the spirit Samael in which the absolution of the Seven Deadly Sins is accomplished, through the bidding of GOD.”
‘The Book of the Black Serpent’ can be found here: http://arcaneadvisors.com/archives/GD/Book_of_Black_Serpent.pdf
'THE THREE’ AND ‘THE FIVE’
There are other inhabitants of the Temple besides Olanziel and Seraphiel. They are not known by name but by function or symbol. There is a group of three and another group of five. The group of three has a special connection to Olanziel and Seraphiel.
The Three
The Three are met in a land of gentle rolling hills on a warm bright day in autumn, in a stone built cottage with a red wooden door, which leads to a surprisingly spacious hall with a floor of polished obsidian.
The Three are associated with the colours white, green and red. There is a white robed guide beyond them, and a bright eyed angel beyond the guide. Conceive of an extension to the three colours: white – green – red – light – light beyond light. The Bright Angel (of light beyond light) is an angel of victory.
The Three represent organisation, creativity and leadership or self-guidance. They are heralds of freedom. They form a triangle, which revolves clockwise. The Three can be pictured as one – a white robed, green-coated figure with a staff of red wood. This composite figure attains separate and distinct being and can be seen as a form of Olanziel.
In ‘A Provisional History of Cross of Light Temple’ the Three are referred to as S, Ga and Gu. We read:
“S: She appears dressed in white and black. Sometimes she wears a white robe. Her hair is blonde and generally worn up. She wears it down when she wears her robe. She is modest and warm. She represents consciousness and her function is to order the contents of consciousness. She was born alongside Ga and Gu.
Ga: She wears a green robe. Her hair is red and she wears it loose. She is generally friendly but disposed to jealousy. She represents a form of creativity and her function is to create from the contents of consciousness. She also represents the forces of nature. She was called to the service of the Temple with S and Gu.
Gu: He wears a scarlet robe. His head is shaved. He is of a somewhat stern and imperious aspect but he does not share the arrogance of earthly rulers. He represents a form of creativity and his function is to create from forces residing outside the sphere of consciousness. He is a link. He occupies a central position. He came into the Temple alongside S and Ga. He can be seen as their leader.”
The Five
The first time the Five were encountered they were wearing white robes with their genitals exposed. Their robes indicate purity and their genitals represent generative potential. It has been said that the Five are manifestations and masters of wisdom, aspects of the self or future selves. They are adepts and teachers. They were met in a realm of spiritual substance, in Tiphereth, in the sphere of the sun, which is the centre of the Cross of Light. They were met beyond time, once and forever. They were travelling in a band, returning from a pilgrimage. Their leader’s head was sealed with a star; it was not possible to determine if this was a five-pointed star or a Seal of Solomon.
In ‘A Provisional History of Cross of Light Temple’ the Five are referred to as the W.R.A. We read:
“The W.R.A.: Four white robed beings of indeterminate age, standing directly opposite S, Ga, Olanziel and Seraphiel. Sometimes their robes are girdled with red cord. Sometimes they rest their hands on the hilts of swords, the points of which touch the ground. They are a guiding force. They are four in one. They are angels of light and their function is to ensure that the activities of S, Ga, Gu, Olanziel and Seraphiel are guided by wisdom.
The leader of the W.R.A. stands opposite Gu. He is ancient and he wears a white robe, which is never girdled. He never carries a sword. He is a guiding force and a representative of the W.R.A. who stand behind him. His function is to ensure that the activities of the Temple are guided by wisdom.
The W.R.A. also represent generative potential. They arose in a dream. They were encountered on a journey. They were one of the objects of the journey. They came before the other inhabitants of the Temple. And Olanziel and Seraphiel came after S, Ga and Gu.”
The Five can be likened to John Dee’s Filij Lucis, although Dee’s Sons of Light were seven in number and appeared as ‘yong men’:
“The 7 Filij Lucis, appeared, like 7 yong men, all with bright countenances, white appareled: with white silk on theyr heds, pendant behinde with a wreth down to the ground. all apparayled of one sort.”
De Heptarchia Mystica of Dr. John Dee can be found here: http://www.esotericarchives.com/dee/hm.htm
Earth
Earth carries the yearning to transcend itself within itself. We marvel at fixed points and infinite expansion and realise that they share the same nature. We recognise Malkuth as a spiritual reality. We trace the relationship between earth, moon and sun, between our bodies, Mary and Christ (remembering ‘the body of Christ is the earth’ from ‘A Rite of Mystical Communion’).
Water is a kind of liberated or volatile earth, a form of earth primed for action. Pure crystal clear water descends from the Crown Point just above the centre of our heads and flows slowly down to our feet and into the earth. The water covers our bodies completely. We follow a river that runs out
of earth and feed on the fruits that it waters.
Earth is related to heaven as the body is related to spirit. We are urged to create heaven on earth so that earth becomes the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven can be defined as an emanation of earth. Earth can be understood as a manifestation of the kingdom of heaven. It is the light of the kingdom of heaven that enlightens the earth. This is how earth becomes as heaven.
We give you this sign: the equal armed cross in a circle transformed into three concentric circles.
Heaven
The kingdom of heaven is not separate from this world. The kingdom of heaven is within. We work to establish the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven within. We are living in heaven already.
Kether – Tiphereth – Malkuth. The kingdom of heaven contains everything from Malkuth to Kether. The kingdom of heaven is Malkuth and Kether joined in Tiphereth but also connected through ceaseless elliptical motion. The kingdom of heaven is Malkuth in Kether.
We give you these signs: a circle within a circle, and three concentric circles. Really, the circles are the same size.
‘Geometric Symbols’
“My master had a great book with great circles in it.”
I apologise in advance for the obscurity of what follows. Sometimes I question my sanity; more often I question my purpose.
The main geometric symbols of Cross of Light Temple are the circle, the cross and the triangle. Generally speaking, this treatment of these symbols describes their formation, outlines their various forms, indicates what they represent, and summarises any peculiar qualities that are associated with them (e.g. the triangle represents transformation and a gateway).
The Circle or The Circle and the Cross
A super solar brightness abides at the centre of the cross. This configuration indicates eternal life and wisdom. There is also a cross formed of circles; here the disc of brightness at the centre possesses a force equal to the combined force of the outer orbs. To illustrate: let the outer circles be understood as storehouses of wisdom; then the inner circle is the sum total of wisdom, or something else that can be accessed beyond the sum of wisdom.
At this point, readers are invited to insert a 200-word passage defining the significance of the symbol of the cross in a circle, relating this symbol to the sun and waxing lyrical about the ‘cross of limitless expansion’ and ‘the breath that set the world in motion’. Be assured that this exercise is likely to produce work of equal value to what was here before it was deleted.
The circle is the Father. The circle is a seal. The circle is a gateway. The circle is Amen.
These are the attributes of the four circles and these are the attributes of the one. These are the wonders locked in the form of the medallion of Seraphiel.
At this point, readers are invited to produce 150 words defining the meaning of the Triple Circle with reference to the Father, the Father in heaven and the kingdom of heaven within before proceeding to offer proof that the equal armed cross in a circle represents the body and blood of Christ.
Finally, the reader is urged to meditate on the relationship of these signs to the meaning of the cross of limitless extension.
The Cross
The formation of the Cross of Light is an essential element of the Cross of Light six-part rite. The Cross of Light at the beginning of the rite sends light and energy outwards and the Cross of Light at the end calls light and energy within.
At this point, the reader is invited to produce 150 words linking the Sword of St. Michael with the body of light that forms the cross at the end of the rite.
The points of the cross represent mind, generative force, the beginning of time, and the end of time. The cross embraces the universe: the North, the South, the West, and the East. The vertical axis of the cross is space and the horizontal axis is time. The cross is a symbol linking above and below.
Qabalistically speaking, the cross in a circle signifies Kether in Malkuth, Malkuth in Kether, and Kether and Malkuth in Tiphereth.
Here, the reader is invited to reflect on the relationship of this symbol to Chesed, or mercy.
The Triangle
The reader is invited to describe the formation of the triangle in 70 words exactly.
The reader is invited to describe how a gold triangle within a black triangle becomes a blue triangle decked with gold.
The reader is asked to explain how the blue triangle decked with gold is the Sun, the spiritual Sun, and God, the maker of the Sun, and the person of Christ, manifest in the Sun, and Man and Woman, as it were splinters of the Sun.
The blue and gold triangle is a gateway to pass through. We travel through the gateway to paradise, or to the homeland of the Three.
The triangle is associated with transformation. I rest on a bench and make a Cross of Light from the triangle of deep sky blue. The base of the triangle passes through my eyes. The apex of the triangle is located in the body of light beyond my forehead. The apex of the triangle is projected downwards beyond the base to form the vertical axis of the cross.
The Sun and the Moon
The sun and the moon are the prime manifestations of creation, perceived realities that become
symbols of the transcendent sun and moon beyond them. The figure of the horned god is a conjunction of sun and moon, whereas the relationship between the transcendent sun and crescent moon speaks of Christ.
The Sun
Circular breathing produces the sun within. An invocation of the sun in the region of the Heart chakra; a four rayed sun, the rays in the form of a cross; an eight rayed sun, illuminating the body of light; the centre of the sun established in the heart. The sun revolves on its inner axis, moving internally and energising the region behind the torso.
It has been said that the body of Christ is the sun. It has been said that there is a greater brightness at the centre of the sun, and that Christ is this greater brightness.
Christ rises like the sun beyond the sun and the Lion and the Lamb are balanced in this sun of greater rising.
The Moon
The sun is situated above the blue triangle decked with gold and the crescent moon abides beneath it. The crescent moon is formed by the banishing gesture of a downward sweeping arm. This cleansing gives rise to the Qabalistic key of a mystery residing within the attribution of Yesod as the moon to Mary.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE PRACTICE METHOD OF PERFORMANCE AND RECORDING
I undertook two major experiments regarding COLT ritual in 2011. One of them related to the addition of extra elements to core practice and the other was concerned with the method of recording, meaning that the experience of the six-part rite was summarised at the end, rather than being registered stage by stage.
On Cross of Light Temple Day 2011 (16 January), I described the six stages of the six-part rite as follows:
1. Opening the stations of light and the light at the centre. 2. From the centre to the stations. A field of light. Crescent beneath the navel. 3. From the third eye (bringing the outside inside). 4. Merging with the light in the stations. 5. A cross of light. 6. Joining the stations to form a seal with the light at the centre as the seal of the seal.
Later in the year, I stated the order of the signs constructed in the six-part rite thus:
1. The sign known as the Hanged Man or descent of Adonai 2. Equal armed cross in a circle (known as the Gnostic or Solar Cross) 3. Double circle 4. Triple circle 5. (the minute particulars of the spiritual form of Mary) 6. Four circles, cruciform 7. The cross of light 8. The sign known as the Hanged Man or descent of Adonai 9. Equal armed cross in a circle
In February, I noted the relationship between breath and light in the six-part rite. In March, I tested the efficacy of the method of uninterrupted practice followed by recording and having concluded that it was worthy of further exploration I began to implement this approach in earnest in late April and continued with it until the end of May. I reverted to this method on a number of occasions from August to November. It should be noted that this style of performance and recording is not new. It was the original COLT practice and it has been resorted to on a number of occasions for particular purposes since then, in memory of the dead, for example, or for particular intentions, such as the cultivation of peace.
The main theme of this part of the COLT record is movement towards the centre associated with the
generation and directed guidance of light to find that the centre is a gateway to be travelled through. And this journey to the centre is accompanied by visions, which are light born signs. Sometimes these visions take on recognisable religious form:
“I walk through a darkened wilderness, seeking the solace of moonlit limpid pools. In the first pool I see Mary weeping bitterly at the foot of the cross upon which Jesus is crucified. In the second I behold the disciple whom Jesus loved distraught in a similar fashion. In the third I see the pure white light of a perfectly reflected moon.”
It's about merging one state of being with another, then constructing a bridge to cross over into other worlds. It can be described as travelling towards and occupying the centre, and participating in mystical communion. 'The kingdom of heaven is within', the temple is at the centre of the kingdom, and the rite performed there is efficacious.
The visions sometimes lead to the construction of a body of light, which engages in independent movement. It is formed of being bathing in light in darkness. It kneels before the cross of light. It rises and stretches out its arms. It merges with the cross. The light that being bathes in is at the centre of the cross, where it learns that the place we come from in birth is the place we return to in death.
The following examples of COLT experience were recorded in the COLT record in accordance with the method outlined above. Entries are numbered and dated – '417' means the 417th performance of the six-part rite since the record commenced in 2003.
I, Jabez the Stupid, the Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, deleted several entries from this treatment of the Cross of Light record in the 10th year of the Temple.
417. 14/10/11
Light in darkness: by 'darkness' we mean void and without form. An evocation of heaven: the kingdom of heaven we pray for is earth transformed – from a rock seat of the Bole Hills, Satan Town becomes a vision of Eden – for the kingdom of heaven is within. Christ is the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
The Bole Hills are situated on the edge of Crookes, a suburb of Sheffield. Satan Town is an alternative name for Stannington, which is visible from the Bole Hills.
“Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." – The Gospel of Thomas
In June and July, I added two extra elements to the core COLT rite, namely the entering of the Inward Temple and the rite of mystical communion. Typically, this tripartite ritual was performed over three successive days, although on occasion there was a gap of a day between two of the stages, or two elements were staged on the same day.
This experience taught me that crossing the threshold is the most important step you can take. The overall theme of this part of the record relates to crossing the threshold for a purpose, moving from the limited to the limitless, the earth to the universe, time to eternity, light to light beyond light, crossing the threshold to enter the kingdom of heaven within in the knowledge that the soul of man is not only eternal but also universal.
Full descriptions of the appearance and function of the inhabitants of the Inward Temple can be found in previously published COLT work (see, for example, 'Cross of Light Temple: Inhabitants, Signs and Symbols' in 'Ephphatha' and 'The Word, The Light and The Sign'). In terms of what follows, it might be helpful to keep in mind the following:
Secretary – orders the contents of consciousness Gardener – creates from the contents of consciousness Guide – introduces new ideas into consciousness from outside consciousness Olanziel – invests the Temple with a religious sensibility Seraphiel – invests the Temple with a magical sensibility The WRA – ensure that the inhabitants and activities of the Temple are guided by wisdom
And the COLT conception, understanding and experience of Christ and Mary is not necessarily orthodox. For example, as indicated below, Christ is seen as the centre, a bridge, the enabler of transcendence, the conduit of heavenly grace, spirit descending into matter and matter ascending to spirit, and Mary is an archetype of the universal Mother, mother of God, mother of Earth, mother of us all. Mary is not only reminiscent of a pagan goddess, but also reminiscent of a goddess preceding the pagan pantheons. She can be considered the new Eve as Christ can be conceived of as the new Adam. And we can think of Eve from Adam and Christ from Mary as a form of super celestial balance, and in terms of function we can understand Mary as temporal mercy and compassion and Christ as the eternal embodiment of these qualities.
402. 02/06/11 Six-Part Rite
An invocation of light. Transforming the light that is taken within. Constructing a path of light that leads to the Inward Temple. We encounter the inhabitants and signs of the rite as markers on the way. The circle, the cross and the crescent form the glyph of the wand that the mother of earth and queen of heaven holds in her raised right hand. Pausing before the heavenly queen at the threshold of the Inward Temple on completion of the final stage. She lowers her arm, steps aside and bids us enter.
03/06/11 The Inward Temple
I cross the threshold of the Temple. I kneel before the altar. I rise to greet the Secretary, Gardener, Guide, Olanziel and Seraphiel. I gaze upon the Cross of Light symbol, which hangs on the far wall, directly opposite the altar. I greet each of the WRA, thinking about their relationships and function in the Temple. I return to the altar and kneel. I lay my hands on the altar stone and I realise it's a tomb as well as an altar. The altar tomb is filled with light. The light passes through a blue triangle surrounded by gold and illuminates the Cross of Light symbol. Light beyond light shines from the symbol and fills the Temple. I travel with light beyond light. I rise from the altar, turn and pass over the threshold. I am carrying an equal armed cross of light. I give it to Mary, mother of earth, queen of heaven. She leads me to the Rite of Mystical Communion.
The visit to the Inward Temple on 11 June revisits this exploration and adds further detail:
The Inward Temple is dimly lit. Where is the source of the warm glowing light? I kneel before the altar and place my hands upon it. It appears to be made of sandstone. I rise and move forward. What am I wearing? A white robe with red and green sashes about my middle and a fringe of golden stars
at the hem. I embrace the inhabitants ranged against the west side of the Temple: the blonde haired Secretary wearing a black skirt and white blouse; the red haired Gardener wearing a loose fitting green robe; the pale faced, shaven headed, scarlet robed Guide; the blond curly locked Olanziel, dressed in white and green; hooded Seraphiel, whose features cannot be clearly determined, wearing a cloak of midnight blue embroidered with gold stars. Why do I embrace them? To join myself with what they represent through the functions they perform. I look upon the Cross of Light sign, which is made of exceedingly dark wood mounted on the wall opposite the altar. I turn and embrace the WRA on the east side of the Temple, all of them white robed, white haired and white bearded, and with the exception of the Leader of the WRA so similar as to be almost identical. I return to the altar, kneel, and lay my hands upon it. Light emanates from the altar, which is also a tomb, and passes through a blue triangle surrounded by gold to illuminate the Cross of Light sign. The Cross of Light sign becomes an embodiment of light. It emanates light beyond light, which fills the Temple completely. This is a light of perfect clarity, utterly without harshness, like perfected sunlight, and it casts no shadow. I rise from the altar, turn, and cross the threshold, carrying an equal armed cross of light in my right hand.
04/06/11 Rite of Mystical Communion
It is Christ who fills the Inward Temple with light beyond light. Christ is the centre, the bridge, the conduit of heavenly grace, spirit descending into matter, and matter ascending to spirit. The kingdom of heaven is the Alpha and Omega and everything between them. The pillar of light joins above and below as a single entity. The Sacred Heart is associated with the Heart chakra (as per six-part rite). Christ is the fulfilment of mother and father, progenitor of spirit, the outside taken in. Christ is the centre of the trinity. The sign of the mother is the sign of the Christ. There is a body of light. And the body of light is Christ. And the word of God is Christ.
I, Jabez the Stupid, have deleted a recording of the tripartite rite, which was previously here.
Neither experiment relating to the form or recording of COLT ritual failed. Both yielded interesting information. Both contributed to the record. And yet in August, I reverted to the established form of the rite as my default position, realising that this is all that is necessary, and that it is the most efficient form. The nature of the performance in the experiments did not change the fundamental nature of Cross of Light experience, although you could argue that the experiments focused on different aspects of that experience, or brought depth to practice. Ultimately, all forms of Cross of Light activity are a response to the question, 'Why be bound by the doctrine of man?'
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
REFLECTIONS ON CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
I counsel myself to consider the impact that engagement with Cross of Light Temple has on everyday reality. I ask myself how the pressing absurd realities of the day relate to the metaphysical grandeur of the Temple. How does the agitated mind relate to the lazy body? And how do the useless mind and body relate to the grand conception of the eternal core, the divine spark, the transcendental wonder that we're supposed to abide in?
I reflect on the experience of the Cross of Light six-part rite, the Inward Temple and the rite of mystical communion. I note experiments with form and wonder if this signifies restless dissatisfaction or a commitment to moving things on (motivating factors that are not necessarily opposed to each other). I question fundamental Temple practices and ask if they constitute anything more than an accumulation of data about novel experience; if anything lies beyond the accumulation of data, then what is it? And if nothing more lies beyond the process of accumulation, then what can be said about the nature of the data that is recorded and the experience it is based on?
The Cross of Light six-part rite opens and closes with the construction of a sign that has been identified as the sign of the Hanged Man or descent of Adonai. The following quotation from 'La- Bas' by J-K. Huysmans suggests what this symbol might signify:
“Yes, this reversed cross, like the Hanging Man in the Tarot, signifies that a priest of Melchizedek must die as a man and live in Christ, so as to be powerful with the power of the Word made flesh that died for us.”
Non-material beings are perceived in the third part of the Cross of Light six-part rite and inhabit what is called the Inward Temple. They possess consistency of form and function and can therefore be considered in the light of the following extract from William Blake's 'A Descriptive Catalogue':
“The Prophets describe what they saw in Vision as real and existing men, whom they saw with their imaginative and immortal organs, the Apostles the same; the clearer the organ, the more distinct the object. A Spirit and a Vision are not, as the modern philosophy supposes, a cloudy vapour, or a nothing; they are organized and minutely articulated beyond all that the mortal and perishing nature can produce...Spirits are organized men.”
Of course, there is no particular merit associated with the perception of visionary beings, unless we take this widening of the field of vision to be positive in itself on the grounds that to see more is to see better. The 'real and existing men' that the prophets saw in vision appeared for particular purposes, as the ordained messengers of God. The organised spirits seen by Blake were also embodiments of ideas, which Blake attempted to describe in a series of prophetic books that tend towards obscurity by virtue of their dependence on the singular experience of their author. There's little doubt that Blake gained greatly from his visionary capacity, although perhaps he paid for it in terms of the 'Nervous Fear' that he also experienced, and there's a kind of calm, blissful emotion that is associated with the perception of certain types of non-material beings and the landscapes, or mindscapes, they abide in, but the question remains, of what value is a personal record of these adventures to anyone other than its recorder?
Seraphiel, the Guide, the Secretary and the WRA are names given to some of the non-material beings associated with the Inward Temple and something described as the light beyond light can be explained as the ultimate force that is generated there. It's familiarity with the non-material beings, signs and symbols encountered during Cross of Light Temple practice that enables me to compare the blue robe of Mithras covering the stars with the star adorned blue robe of Seraphiel, to suggest that the Guide represents all of the inhabitants from the Secretary to Seraphiel, that the leader of the WRA represents all of the WRA, and to relate the hyper cosmic sun of the Chaldaean Oracles to the light beyond light of the Temple.
It's not just the nature of the beings encountered in Cross of Light Temple practice that remains constant but the signs and symbols and the stations of the rites are also encountered within fixed parameters. It's this relative consistency that allows one to reflect on the totality of the experience and make generalised statements about what it means. Broadly speaking, visualising the opening of the stations of light associated with the six-part rite, and then occupying them, strengthens the body of light, which is associated with the body of flesh, but extends beyond it. Strengthening the body of light generates an inward light, which consists of the lights in the stations of light shining all at once. And this light shines outward.
There are times become timeless when the phrase “Everything is the work of the Temple” is not just a saying but a feeling, and not just a feeling but a realisation. I don't necessarily need to engage in outwardly apparent Temple work; I can adopt a 'Temple attitude', which is compatible with all manner of external environments, which might not seem immediately sympathetic. 'The calm source of continuous being' mentioned in 'A Provisional History of Cross of Light Temple' and obsessed about elsewhere indicates the importance of the task of locating my identity but ultimately the Cross of Light Temple mission is not to do with physical locations, mental constructs, insubstantial beings or abstract ideas, but with what lies beyond them.
Generally speaking, work that proceeds from unfettered imagination towards creative idea and on to outward form brings a greater sense of accomplishment than work that proceeds from outward form (pre-existing notes, texts and art work produced by other people) because this kind of work engages one more deeply than work that begins with a consideration of outward form. Although Cross of Light Temple frequently examines existing rituals and methods of metaphysical experimentation, this work is based on the previous exertion of imagination and application of idea. The Temple is primarily concerned with the process unfettered imagination – creative idea – outward form, rather than critical engagement with outward form. Priority is given to explorations of the meaning and significance of Temple practice, whilst continuing to regard 'Cross of Light' from 'Balm of Gilead' as the primary, or foundation, text of the movement.
What are the sources that inform the work published by the Temple? The primary source is the experience underlying the Cross of Light record, which commenced in 2003 and details the performance of the six-part rite, visits to the Inward Temple and the rite of mystical communion. Secondary sources (the work of other people) are clearly indicated in the various COLT publications. I can sometimes feel a deep resentment when addressing the work of other people based on a profound awareness that their output possesses far less value than the work and practices of COLT. Of course, this is a shifting and subjective judgement, an arbitrary pronouncement similar in kind to the expressions and tone adopted by the authors of the work I find so objectionable.
In 2011, I conjectured that Cross of Light Temple is an emanation of VALIS, which shows the impact that reading Philip K. Dick, particularly his later work, had on me. I also read through 'A Gnostic Catechism' prepared by The Most Reverend Stephan A. Hoeller for Ecclesia Gnostica in 1988, which initially struck me as one of the most spiritually enlivening religious/esoteric texts I had encountered in years, although its stance on apostolic succession, hierarchy and priesthood are problematic and ultimately the work does not live up to its promise. Broadly speaking, the text confirms and strengthens a certain order of personal experience that can be defined as gnosis, and seems to confirm the saying that 'Cross of Light Temple is a Gnostic Christian Temple'. I conclude that it might be worth going through the Gnostic Catechism point by point and relating it to Cross of Light Temple experience, and that this exercise could form the foundation of TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS, the posited new title for the quarterly Cross of Light Temple bulletin.
TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS was the title of a small scale publication I produced and half-heartedly distributed around Sheffield in the early 1990s, before the establishment of Cross of Light Temple. However, in the light of Blake's observation that “The Greek & Roman Classics is the Antichrist.”, my long standing distrust of Roman culture and my previously expressed disdain for the tendency of occultists to adopt pompous Latin magical names, I don't know whether the title will actually be used. TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS = TMESL = time moves, everything stops living. I conceive of the idea of using the Cross of Light Supplementary Record 2011 to produce unique editions of TMESL addressed to individual recipients, illustrated by ‘Images from COLT 2012’, and sent as PDFs to selected others.
I habitually note down ideas that might develop into COLT projects. For 2012, I've considered presenting the Magical Diary of Cross of Light Temple in the form of daily entries consisting of text and image direct to computer and constantly reviewed, and completing the Society of the Inner Light study course application and presenting it as a COLT work. Neither of these ideas seems particularly appealing at the moment. In fact, they sound like prisons.
I think about taking photographs showing the signs of the six-part rite on the body and individual photographs showing the following inhabitants and signs of the Inward Temple:
Third eye – Cross of Light sign Navel – altar/tomb (rectangle) Left breast – Guide (red circle) Right breast – leader of WRA (white circle) Heart chakra – blue triangle surrounded by gold
I consider using 'The Word, the Light and the Sign: Selected Writings from Cross of Light Temple, 2011' as the basis for a work of fiction and I'm attracted by the idea of writing an article on Cross of Light Temple as a symptom of mental disturbance. I'm also interested in focusing on the idea of experimental metaphysics given narrative form, which would involve a consideration of the rationale for the story (or piece of writing), the development of an outline, or overall theme, and specific elements related to the rationale and theme. It's also worth considering who the work is aimed at and where it sits in the context of an overarching programme.
During my customary walks around Crookes I reflect on the history, work and publications of Cross of Light Temple and I conclude that they are good. The Cross of Light Temple mission is valid. There are no problems with generation of material grounded in experience. There might be problems with transmission and dissemination. In terms of COLT product, there could be a better fit between production, marketing and distribution (remembering that there doesn't have to be any COLT product at all). 'Capability, not limitation' is the new guiding slogan. I'll go away and think.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
SELECTED SAYINGS FROM CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
Cross of Light Temple is concerned with the grace given balance associated with the experience of immediate reality.
We acknowledge that charges of obscurity can be laid against us and we respond to these charges thus:
1.
1.A. 1. Everything is provisional. Nothing is certain. There are no reliable authorities. 2. We have the necessary resources within us and we do not need instruction from elsewhere. 3. Nothing possesses inherent super temporal authority.
1.B. 1. We aim for balance.
1.C. 1. The living know nothing about death.
1.D. 1. There is no need to rush to conclusions, although one must work from the evidence that one possesses, and choose between sound proposition and error if disharmony persists.
1.E. 1. All of the stories we tell ourselves in our attempts to make sense of our experience have to end somewhere. 2. The immediate experience of now reasserts itself as reality no matter how often it is denied. 3. It is the core experience that counts.
1.F. 1. What people tell me I am is a fiction. I am beyond any definition given by the other. I am beyond any definition given by myself. I am beyond what I'm told I am.
1.G. 1. Leadership is a function that is not tied to one person.
1.H. 1. We are here and not elsewhere, and we act from where we are.
1.I. 1. There is meaning in every stage of the process and there is meaning in the process itself.
1.J. 1. Similar does not mean identical. 2. Don't take the passing for the fixed.
1.K. 1. First-hand experience is superior to received systems. 2. The value of systems is dependent on the extent to which they accord with immediate experience. 3. All supposedly valid systems can be invalidated by the simple expedient of refusing their premises. 4. All systems are arbitrary and only acquire meaning if their constituent elements are accepted as if they were true. 5. Experience clearly indicates explicit and implicit connections between various systems, which represents a form of harmony. 6. Systems that enslave should be avoided.
1.L. 1. There is no secret wisdom.
2.
2.A. 1. Religious/esoteric/occult texts, practices and organisations possess no fixed objective value or super temporal authority.
2.B. 1. There is neither conclusion nor resting place. There is onward flow, which concludes and rests as it passes. 2. The beginning and the end are one.
2.C. 1. Existence resides beyond matter. 2. The limits of being are birth and death; the limits of being are uncertain; and being is limitless. 3. I begin nowhere. I end nowhere. I occupy a space between beginning and end, which is constant but seems to change. 4. Being as it is experienced is limitless. You could deny it, but it would reassert itself as that which is. 5. There is a way of being that is not dependent on the controlled external environments we are subject to.
2.D. 1. Where is flesh located and what does it consist of?
2.E. 1. The systems developed by institutions are more trustworthy than the systems of individuals because institutions are better equipped to acknowledge and rectify error.
2.F. 1. The product of thought is not the thought that bore it. And the systems for measuring and classifying thought come after the event and are products of thought. They can imprison but they can't explain. 2. Thought does not inhabit the objective material world. Its association with the brain is purely mechanical. Strictly speaking, thought is located nowhere, or somewhere that cannot be named.
2.G. 1. Time is not linear but circular. Time does not run in years but in seasons.
2.H. 1. Truth moves with the now, covering the past so that it can only be retrieved as fiction.
2.I. 1. The value of texts, practices and organisations should be determined by the extent to which they encourage and enable individuals to experience profitable and authentic 'higher' states of consciousness.
2.J. 1. Enlivening wisdom is found in a particular form of personal experience rather than conformity to doctrine.
3.
3.A. 1. If two points arise through conjecture, then a third point rises to balance them.
3.B. 1. The end is in the beginning and the beginning is in the end, and yet the beginning and the end differ by virtue of that which has passed between them.
3.C. 1. There are times when the physical and non-physical elements of being join and become a unity gliding through time become timeless.
3.D. 1. The heights lie at the centre. 2. If you occupy the centre, you possess everything around you.
3.E. 1. There is something of great value at the core of our being. 2. There are times when I have been aware of a calm core or source of continuous being underlying the disparate elements of experience and reflection on experience. Rather than being attained through striving, this core or source seems to have been granted.
3.F. 1. Evil is error.
3.G. 1. Form is a treatment of unfettered imagination. 2. Outward form arises as a consequence of the implementation of creative ideas concerned
with the manipulation of matter.
3.H. 1. Illumination arises through embracing qualities and faculties that are present within.
3.I. 1. Without and within are one. 2. The heights and the depths are synonymous. 3. The centre and circumference of the circle are the same. 4. We enter, we abide and we depart. 5. We invoke, we sustain and we secure. 6. Arising, remaining, departing; birth, life, death; past, present, future. 7. The going out and the returning meet and become one. 8. The physical and the metaphysical merge. 9. We are beyond mind, beyond flesh, beyond servitude and adoration. 10. The life of all living things is one life. 11. Birth – endurance – death is one thing, not three. 12. The limited is a particular manifestation of the limitless. 13. The eternal and endless are experienced despite temporal limitations.
3.J. 1. The movement is from the subjective to the objective, the undifferentiated to the particular, the immeasurable to something that becomes available for study.
3.K. 1. The truth of nations resides in their folklore.
3.L. 1. The creator of thought is met in thought. The creator of matter is met in matter. The creator of spirit is met in spirit. And they are all met in thought. Thought partakes in the communion of all things that meet.
3.M. 1. We recognise an underlying unity.
4.
4.A. 1. The beginning is an invocation and the end is a seal.
4.B. 1. Being is sustained by the operations of mercy and truth. 2. Life and death is one thing. 3. Limitless being exists in the context of finite being; the endless is known by that which knows a beginning and end. 4. The mortal and corruptible body is absolutely linked to the super sensible loci of being with which it is associated. 5. Movement from the natural to the super celestial is founded on the body establishing itself in resonant places.
4.C. 1. Images emerge from formlessness, take on nebulous form, then are fixed by thought and
perform actions in the world that they abide in, which stretches beyond the realm of thought. A cosmic entity is an incorporeal being of vast scope, generally tied to an image or archetype that has a particular symbolic resonance. An incorporeal being is a protean form that usually has less obvious fixed meaning. 2. Some texts, archetypes and non-material beings have greater power and resonance than others.
4.D. 1. We occupy a circle of infinite extension.
4.E. 1. The cross is a symbol linking above and below. 2. The vertical axis of the cross is space and the horizontal axis is time. 3. The points of the cross represent mind, generative force, the beginning of time, and the end of time. 4. The cross embraces the universe: the North, the South, the West, and the East. 5. The cross is a universal sign of protection.
4.F. 1. Earth carries the yearning to transcend itself within itself. 2. Earth can be understood as a manifestation of the kingdom of heaven. 3. Earth is related to heaven as the body is related to spirit.
4.G. 1. We search for the kingdom far away when it is always within and around us.
4.H. 1. Knowledge and progress are within, they pertain to inner being and are not concerned with external things.
4.I. 1. I travel by means of the source of light towards the source of light. 2. The light at the core of my being and the light from which the world springs are one and the same. 3. The source of all light is eternal light. 4. This light is not the light of the sun, moon and stars, although the light of sun, moon and stars could not be without it. 5. Light is linked to light beyond light as mortality is linked to immortality. 6. Light beyond light relates to normal light as the spirit relates to the body. 7. The light proceeding from light beyond light eventually appears as light conceivable, and this idea of light inevitably manifests as light that can be perceived by the eyes (indeed it invests the eyes with the potential for its perception). 8. Light beyond light relates to light as light relates to darkness. 9. The source of darkness is the absence of light.
4.J. 1. Fixed points and infinite extension share the same nature. 2. One world is the foundation of the other world and there is no higher and lower in what is connected. 3. The movement is from the limited to the limitless, from the earth to the universe, from time to eternity.
4.K. 1. A transcendent vision is sacrificed that it might descend into matter and permeate the solidity of flesh and mind. All that comes into the world has always been in the world. The visible was once invisible and will be invisible again. The hidden will be revealed. The dead are with us and we are with the dead.
4.L. 1. Magic does not act on the world save through the agency of the practitioner. 2. Magic brings about change in the mind of the practitioner and the practitioner acts in the world from changed mind. 3. The practices of individual magicians should not be recognised and built upon as a foundation.
4.M. 1. The living spirit is accessible to everyone.
4.N. 1. An awareness of the transcendent does not necessarily lead to an apprehension of the spiritual. 2. Spiritual realities are related to transcendent realities as the transcendent is related to the mundane.
4.O. 1. The attempt to lay out a metaphysical system that is worthy of attention is an elitist enterprise characterised by pride at what seems to be more or less satisfactory expression of things that lie beyond the knowledge and experience of the mass of humanity.
4.P. 1. Crossing the threshold is the most important step you can take. 2. We pass through the gateway. 3. We travel through the gateway to paradise, or to the homeland of the Three.
4.Q. 1. Sin is the error of the universal and eternal identifying with the spatial and temporal. 2. The universal and eternal manifesting in earth conditions does not find fulfilment in the spatial and temporal. 3. The universe and eternity suffer as they manifest in earth (or space) and time. 4. We aim to inhabit a universe filled with compassion and eternity filled with rest.
4.R. 1. There is wisdom in these branches. Wisdom walks upon the water. It is easily found, but hard to believe in. 2. Take heed of the wisdom that proceeds from the source and the centre of all things and your life will be transformed.
4.S. 1. The mouth is the womb of the word.
5.
5.A. 1. The dead are of one nation.
5.B. 1. The soul is the faculty of being that lies between the earthly body and the universal spirit and can be seen as a combination of body and spirit. The soul relates to individual being and the unity of the universal spirit, and enables individual being to attain union with God, as it is phrased in mystical terms. The soul is related to thought, although not identical with thought, because thought passes away whereas part of the soul endures. The soul is deathless and dies. That part of soul identified with the earthly body dies. That part of soul identified with universal spirit remains (and has been always).
6.
6.A. 1. The divine is not a personification of the eternal.
6.B. 1. There is a sun at the centre of the kingdom of heaven, which is the source of light beyond light. 2. The kingdom of heaven is not separate from this world.
6.C. 1. The mother of earth is the queen of heaven.
6.D. 1. We honour the Son in our flesh.
7.
7.A. 1. Christ is a location, a destination, a person, a state of awareness, a thought, an idea and a state of being. 2. Christ is the centre, the bridge, the conduit of heavenly grace, spirit descending into matter, and matter ascending to spirit. 3. Christ is the brightness at the centre of the sun. 4. Christ is every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 5. The body of Christ is infinite and universal, and the blood of Christ likewise. 6. We partake of the mystical, or cosmic, or super-sensible body and blood of Christ. 7. When we contemplate the vision of Christ on the cross, we look upon ourselves. 8. We are crucified with Christ by means of our journey through the world. 9. The moment of Christ’s death on the cross represents the central point in world spiritual history. 10. If Christ is with us always unto the end of the world, how can he come again?
7.B. 1. There is an untouched goodness and purity at the heart of our being that remains forever united with God. This aspect of our being precedes our birth and survives our death; it remains intimately connected with us throughout our lives; human failing does not touch it.
7.C. 1. The Father is within because the kingdom is the Father’s and the kingdom is within.
7.D.
1. Heaven is the place we reach when agitation ceases. 2. We are living in heaven already. 3. In heaven, we can turn our eyes anywhere, marvel at what we see and feel our hearts enlivened.
7.E. 1. The opening verses of The Gospel According to Saint John are a summary of the truth that lies at the heart of religion and the vital metaphysical experience that is associated with it.
7.F. 1. We work to establish the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven within. 2. The kingdom of heaven is within.
7.G. 1. Man was not forbidden by God to eat of the tree of life.
7.H. 1. We honour Mary as a manifestation of mercy and compassion.
7.I. 1. God is spirit and should be worshipped in spirit. 2. Know you are a spirit existing in a spiritual world and live in spirit.
7.J. 1. The living and the dead are one in God.
8.
8.A. 1. We aim to embody the Temple.
8.B. 1. Cross of Light Temple refuses arbitrary authority and the hierarchical systems that arise from its exercise. 2. The ultimate authority in matters pertaining to the Temple is the Temple itself, and more particularly that element of the Temple that emphasises realistic self-evaluation.
8.C. 1. There is a faculty of being that is not disturbed by the agitation of the body or the mind. This faculty of being constructs the Temple.
8.D. 1. Cross of Light Temple places particular emphasis on the necessity of first hand personal experience.
8.E. 1. The Temple is a real place, inhabited by real beings, furnishings and forces, none of which possess material substance. 2. The Temple is everywhere. The Temple is everyone. The Temple is everything. 3. The world is a temple. 4. The Inward Temple resides anywhere it is thought of.
8.F. 1. Cross of Light Temple experience becomes the urgent all filling reality when we reside in it.
8.G. 1. The church not built with hands can be compared to the Inward Temple and the spirit that enlivens the church not built with hands can be compared to the light that is generated in the Inward Temple.
8.H. 1. Cross of Light Temple is not religion, witchcraft or magic. 2. Cross of Light Temple is concerned with first hand religious/esoteric/occult experience and personal spiritual development.
8.I. 1. In terms of ritual, Cross of Light Temple performs a series of actions in a particular order with a general predetermined purpose. Consistent meaning is associated with each of these actions and the relationships between them. 2. The performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite evokes and strengthens the Body of Light as mediator between universal spirit and individual soul.
8.J. 1. It is the will to enter the Temple that facilitates entry.
8.K. 1. Cross of Light Temple aims to transcend space and time. 2. Cross of Light Temple works refute commercialism, materialism, mystification, established authority, challenge the notion of expertise, refuse to accept self-serving hierarchies, implicitly accept the possibility of going beyond, and value transcendence as something worthy in itself whilst recognising that transcendence is not an end but a beginning. 3. The transcendent is accessed through thought, which lies midway between earth and transcendent realm, providing a link between one and the other. One can say that the Temple lies in this transcendent realm. 4. The Temple is a place that provides evidence in favour of the existence of a world beyond the so-called world we habitually abide in.
9.
9.A. 1. There is a correspondence between the light beyond light that fills the Temple and the kingdom of heaven within.
9.B. 1. To focus on the signs and symbols is to get the meaning of the rite without recourse to internal or external verbalisation.
10.
10.A. 1. Cross of Light is worshipping God in spirit.
11.
11.A. 1. The Temple Lux Interna is located at the centre of the kingdom of heaven, which is outside space and time.
APOCRYPHAL SAYINGS
I, Jabez the Stupid, Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, have deleted a number of these apocryphal sayings:
12.
12.A. 1. Sometimes I question my sanity; more often I question my purpose.
13.
13.B. 1. We identify the self with the object of contemplation.
13.C. 1. All things are met in mind, come to be in mind, receive their form in mind, and do not leave mind at all.
13.D. 1. If it can't be pictured, it is not real.
13.E. 1. It's necessary to realise that you're confined in an arid desert before you can ever hope to find your way out.
14.
14.A. 1. To be a being in a physical body also means to possess an astral form, an intellectual vehicle and a divine soul. Despite this unity, each faculty adventures in its appropriate sphere. To be aware of the various elements of being, it is necessary to locate oneself in their spheres of activity. 2. Men cannot hurt themselves permanently, even though they wander ignorantly in the labyrinth of self. 3. Only the lower soul dissolves into unconsciousness and nothing of continuing value is lost thereby. 4. Only the lower body dies, and it is barely worth mentioning, for consciousness of being resides elsewhere.
14.B. 1. The bliss does not last but the awareness of bliss remains.
14.D. 1. The core of all worlds consists of the same substance, albeit perceived in different ways, and commonly held to be not only insubstantial but also non-existent.
14.E.
1. In death man lives again, and lives for ever.
14.F. 1. The Green Man is a folk memory of the transition from plant life to animal life.
14.G. 1. We arise as a consequence of light beyond light travelling through a gateway.
14.H. 1. The body of flesh and the body of light co-exist and are intimately related. 2. The body of light begins where the earthly body ends. 3. We explore the link between breath and mind. We engage with the celestial, the solar and the earthly. We abide in the head and the heart and the navel. 4. We recognise the unity of the lunar and the solar in the light beyond light from whence they come. 5. The earth is an holy mountain. 6. Beneath the starless sky the valley of vision shines. 7. The city of darkness and the city of light struggle for mastery of the same streets.
14.I. 1. Chaos magicians don’t inhabit Temples of Light. They pass through wastelands.
14.J. 1. The soul yearns for its creator, no matter the depths to which it has fallen, and the creator is aware of the yearning of the creature.
14.K. 1. We begin to open the gateway that leads to higher mind.
15.
15.A. 1. Mouth comes from mind, mind comes from spirit, and spirit comes from God.
16.
16.A. 1. The kingdom of heaven is Malkuth in Kether.
16.B. 1. The terms ‘the kingdom of heaven’, ‘the Holy Spirit’, ‘Mary’, ‘the Holy Ghost’, ‘Jesus’, ‘Father’ and ‘Christ’ are indicative of ‘beings’ and states that are known by different names in different systems.
17.
17.A. 1. The Nine O' Clock Service and the Church of England are models of hypocrisy and self- righteousness; they are modern day Pharisees, bringing religion into disrepute.
18.
18.A. 1. The five loaves and the two fishes are the senses, the soul and the spirit.
18.B. 1. God is immanent and transcendent. 2. The temple of the Lord God of Israel built by the will of Solomon in Jerusalem was an outward manifestation of the temple of the True and Living God inhabited by the Spirit abiding at the heart of being. 3. The temple of the living God abides at the heart of being. 4. The spirit is God in man and the soul is the faculty enabling man to be aware of God. 5. Satan is of time and God is of eternity. 6. Let all things be of the present in God.
18.C. 1. The Garden of Eden, the Temple of Solomon, the abode of the spirit and heaven are one.
19.
19.A. 1. Difficulties are encountered in the fulfilment of the Cross of Light mission as a death conscious middle-aged man living in the wreckage of the idle luxury of 21st century Western society.
19.B. 1. “The Arms of the Cross that spanneth all-embracing Space” is a description of the equal- armed cross of Cross of Light Temple. 2. The centre of the cross is the threshold of the Temple.
19.C. 1. Embodying Cross of Light Temple means receiving, storing and radiating light. 2. Cross of Light forms “The Gateway of the Word of Light.” 3. The light of Cross of Light is “LVX, the redeeming light.” 4. The altar of Cross of Light Temple is also a tomb, albeit a tomb filled with light. 5. We bathe in the light beyond light emanating from the sign of the Temple. The Temple abides at the centre of the equal armed cross of light.
19.D. 1. Cross of Light Temple operates in the ground where foundation and pinnacle meet.
19.E. 1. The Temple is housed in one of the mansions of the Father.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
COMMENTS ON SELECTED SAYINGS FROM CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
“A man carried a monkey about for a shew, & because he was a little wiser than the monkey, grew vain, and conceiv'd himself as much wiser than seven men.” – William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'
I, Jabez the Stupid, Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, report the following response to the sayings above from the recently retired Nabob of the New Order of Western Templars (who diligently searched for our meeting place several years ago, but whose search was confounded):
I wish I didn’t still have to write negative replies to people (anybody!) but...
You accused me of preparing a ‘dog’s dinner’!!!
Yours is both jumbled & muddle-headed (but at least, this time, it’s sane).
Logic & coherence, however, are largely missing in parts of the work, especially the on-going structure (which I presume you are also referring to).
I prefer Axioms: allegedly self-evident truths which build on & lead on to one another. None of that here!
The fact is it’s all philosophically naive. All that you say has already been said so many times before. There are shades of Hegel in particular, Blake & - particularly – Gnosticism (‘as old as the hills’) etc. etc., et al. I am a Gnostic myself, of course.
The trouble is you are so intent on finding your ‘own’ existential (& decidedly un-original) truths that you again relinquish what has already been more than adequately provided in the very sources you always decry (without any apparent spade work on your part to familiarise yourself with even the basic classical spiritual/philosophic bases).
Ditto: your reluctance to go through any of dozens of occult/esoteric schools which could have given you all this - & more – in their first half-dozen lessons.
When will you ever learn that all Buddhas stand on the shoulders of those who went before them? Which is not to say that personal experience is not the only guarantor of authenticity (one reaches the signposts oneself – often, sometimes before one knows they are there – but they invariably are).
The spiritual Quest is a limited vocabulary in a language already fluently in use.
Having said that.... the fact that anyone takes the trouble to try & think such things out – although yours is riddled with contradictions and sloppy phraseology – in this Kali-yuga & dirty dunga is commendable. At least you’re not just watching TV or getting pissed.
But I think you are the one who is intent on being a (totally non-group oriented) elitist, with your very own C. of L. Shame but that’s the solipsist you are.
I haven’t the time or energy – at 75 – to criticise/comment on the myriad points you raise.
The Nabob of N.O.W.T.
COLT RESPONSE TO THE NABOB OF NOWT
There is living experience and there are dead systems... There are living texts and there are dead words...
Order
The sayings are ordered by category and theme. The basic categories are as follows:
1. Straightforward sayings 2. Metaphysical sayings 3. Sayings expressed using religious language 4. Sayings that pertain to Cross of Light Temple
Themes that are addressed in relation to several categories include:
• Authority • Balance • Light • Ritual • Systems • Transcendence • Wisdom
It is possible to order the sayings by theme rather than by category and theme. This method of ordering is currently being explored by Cross of Light Temple.
Hegel
COLT experience refutes Hegel's insistence on the primacy of the State as the highest revelation of the world spirit, comprising the moral universe and the actuality of the ethical idea, and is vehemently opposed to Hegel's assertion that the State “has the supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State . . . for the right of the world spirit is above all special privileges . . . ”. COLT also stands in opposition to Hegel's view that the “will of the world spirit” is carried out by “world-historical individuals.”
Blake
Readers of COLT publications will be aware of the Temple's engagement with Blake – see, for
example, 'Annotations to Blake's Prose Works' in TMESL Spring Equinox 2012 and 'Lucid Master: William Blake' in 'The Word, the Light and the Sign' (Cross of Light Temple, 2012).
Gnosticism
COLT is aware of certain parallels between COLT experience and some treatments of Gnosticism provided by scholars and commentators. The similarities between COLT experience and original Gnostic texts, such as those contained in the Nag Hammadi codices, is less apparent.
COLT saying re: elitist enterprise
The characterisation of metaphysical systems as elitist enterprises applies as much to COLT as it does to any other system.
I, Jabez the Stupid, Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, former colonel in the SAS, declare that the sayings derided by the Nabob of NOWT were praised by M.R. of O.I. and prompted a somewhat disengaged and mixed response from D.L. of Sheffield and London.
M.R. remarks, “I don't feel comfortable commenting on these words, for I feel they come from a higher source than human and should be left as they are, with no-one else’s additions.” His reading of the text brought up the conundrum that if all conceptual givens cannot be trusted, how can we do anything with certainty and also raised the question that if we can't rely on anything, why bother to act at all? He further comments that nothing counts more than anything else, as all is transitory and impermanent, so therefore everything is equally important, from childish mind games to lies to experience of the so-called true Self. He points out that the early Christians demonstrated their genius by adopting the cross as the symbol of their religion, for the cross can be formed easily from items in most rooms, or from trees, etc. outside, or by the arms and/or fingers. He quotes the unsourced saying, “There is another world, but it is in this one,” and engages in speculative reasoning, which concludes that Christ is the Druglord Supreme and His religion is the opium of the masses. Opium can be very helpful in stopping pain, and widening the consciousness, but care should be taken against addiction. He reasons, “The Temple begins with the Tau Cross (T) of the Lord crucified yet risen. The Temple ends with the fifth letter of the English Alphabet (e), the Five- pointed Pentagram Star of the most-fully-realised-as-possible Man or Woman. The Cross is the X- Factor. The Star is Everyone,” and maintains that all magicians ‘should’ eventually question why they want all the things they perform magic for, and transcend the desire for mere material objects. They already have everything they need. He says that “soul” is another way of saying “sol” (Latin: ‘sun’), that it anagrams to “u sol” and that the soul is the central sun. He argues that the purpose of organised mass religion is to concentrate on the flesh, not the spirit, and concludes his commentary by pointing out that the centre of the equal-armed cross (X) is where the downwards (v) and upwards (^) forces that are Heaven and Earth meet.
D.L. explains that he finds Christianity, even in its mystical form, so profoundly tainted that he can't be bothered to spend any time immersing himself in what are perhaps its better dimensions. He agrees that everything is provisional, nothing is certain and that there are no reliable authorities and recognises the significance of making this the first of the selected sayings. He also agrees that we have the necessary resources within us, although he recognises the potential value of instruction in the sense of suggestions from a person more experienced than you in the arts of higher consciousness - for example, you read a book on yoga or breathwork or ritual magic, take up some of the suggestions that are made and achieve personally worthwhile shifts of consciousness. He agrees that nothing possesses inherent super temporal authority, although this agreement is dependent on the assumption of a shared definition of 'super temporal'. He suggests that the stories
we tell ourselves in order to make sense of our experience end in illumination or death and speculates that the failure of the immediate experience of now to assert itself as reality might represent his greatest fear. He seems to agree that the recognition that being extends beyond the limitations of definitions given by self or other is the only starting point for highest consciousness. And he concludes his commentary with an exploratory treatment of the idea of leadership, in response to the saying, “Leadership is a function that is not tied to one person.”
“In time/synchronically, it usually is, for short periods of time. A certain person will focus the will of the group instantaneously, and the group responds to the authentic presence of the leader. Across time, diachronically, leaders hang around too long, almost invariably. The biological way of dealing with this tendency is lethal or non-lethal combat when the alpha animal starts weakening. This is not the best model for human communities, because our coordination is fluid, the learning curves which make us what we are at any moment are immensely longer than what makes a wolf or an elephant seal the 'best' of its generation: our hierarchies need to respond to the best intelligence in any given moment.
Rigid leadership hierarchies are not only anathematic to optimum collective human responsiveness but have so far inevitably resulted in the accumulation of privilege, which is actually inappropriate to the functional value of that 'alpha' in that community. The future is therefore in the direction of fluid leadership according to current needs.”
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE THEMES
AUTHORITY
Everything is provisional. Nothing is certain. There are no reliable authorities. We refuse arbitrary authority and the hierarchical systems that arise from its exercise. We have the necessary resources within us and we do not need instruction from elsewhere. The ultimate authority in matters pertaining to the Temple is the Temple itself, and more particularly that element of the Temple that emphasises realistic self-evaluation.
BEGINNING AND END
The beginning and the end are one. The end is in the beginning and the beginning is in the end, and yet the beginning and the end differ by virtue of that which has passed between them. The beginning is an invocation and the end is a seal.
BEING
We begin nowhere. We end nowhere. We occupy a space between beginning and end, which is constant but seems to change. The limits of being are birth and death; the limits of being are uncertain; and being is limitless.
Limitless being exists in the context of finite being; the endless is known by that which knows a beginning and end. The mortal and corruptible body is absolutely linked to the super sensible loci of being with which it is associated. Movement from the natural to the super celestial is founded on the body establishing being in resonant places.
We are here and not elsewhere, and we act from where we are. Difficulties are encountered in the fulfilment of the Cross of Light Temple mission as a death conscious middle-aged man living in the wreckage of the idle luxury of 21st century Western society but there is a faculty of being that is not disturbed by the agitation of the body or the mind and this faculty of being constructs the Temple. Only the lower soul dissolves into unconsciousness and nothing of continuing value is lost thereby. Only the lower body dies, and it is barely worth mentioning, for consciousness of being resides elsewhere.
CENTRE
The height lies at the centre. Everything takes places at the centre of the cross (see below for treatments of the meaning of the cross). If you occupy the centre, you possess everything around
you.
CHRIST
If Christ is with us always unto the end of the world, how can he come again? Christ is a location, a destination, a person, a state of awareness, a thought, an idea and a state of being. Christ is the centre, the bridge, the conduit of heavenly grace, spirit descending into matter, and matter ascending to spirit. Christ is the brightness at the centre of the sun. Christ is every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The body of Christ is infinite and universal, and the blood of Christ likewise. We partake of the mystical, or cosmic, or super-sensible body and blood of Christ.
The moment of Christ’s death on the cross represents the central point in world spiritual history. When we contemplate the vision of Christ on the cross, we look upon ourselves. We are crucified with Christ by means of our journey through the world.
CROSS
The cross is a symbol linking above and below. The vertical axis of the cross is space and the horizontal axis is time. The points of the cross represent mind, generative force, the beginning of time, and the end of time. The cross embraces the universe: the North, the South, the West, and the East. The cross is a universal sign of protection. The centre of the cross is the threshold of the Temple.
LIGHT
We travel by means of the source of light towards the source of light. The light at the core of being and the light from which the world springs are one and the same. The source of all light is eternal light. This light is not the light of the sun, moon and stars, although the light of sun, moon and stars could not be without it. Light is linked to light beyond light as mortality is linked to immortality. Light beyond light relates to normal light as the spirit relates to the body.
The light proceeding from light beyond light eventually appears as light conceivable, and this idea of light inevitably manifests as light that can be perceived by the eyes (indeed it invests the eyes with the potential for its perception). Light beyond light relates to light as light relates to darkness.
We arise as a consequence of light beyond light travelling through a gateway. As it is said, there is a correspondence between the light beyond light that fills the Temple and the kingdom of heaven within. We bathe in the light beyond light emanating from the sign of the Temple. The Temple abides at the centre of an equal armed cross of light.
LINKED
Arising, remaining, departing; birth, life, death; past, present, future. Without and within are one. We enter, we abide and we depart. We invoke, we sustain and we secure. The going out and the returning meet and become as one. The physical and the metaphysical merge. The heights and the depths are synonymous. The centre and circumference of the circle are the same.
The life of all living things is one life. Birth – endurance – death is one thing, not three. The limited is a particular manifestation of the limitless. The eternal and endless are experienced despite temporal limitations. The movement is from the limited to the limitless, from the earth to the universe, from time to eternity.
We explore the link between breath and mind. We engage with the celestial, the solar and the earthly. We abide in the head and the heart and the navel. We recognise the unity of the lunar and the solar in the light beyond light from whence they come.
The earth is an holy mountain. The city of darkness and the city of light struggle for mastery of the same streets. Beneath the starless sky the valley of vision shines.
The terms ‘the kingdom of heaven’, ‘the Holy Spirit’, ‘Mary’, ‘the Holy Ghost’, ‘Jesus’, ‘Father’ and ‘Christ’ are indicative of ‘beings’ and states that are known by different names in different systems. The Garden of Eden, the Temple of Solomon, the abode of the spirit and heaven are one.
Cross of Light Temple operates in the ground where foundation and pinnacle meet. One world is the foundation of the other and there is no higher or lower in what is connected. The body of flesh and the body of light co-exist and are intimately related. The body of light begins where the earthly body ends. Mouth comes from mind, mind comes from spirit, and spirit comes from God.
LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE
The Temple is everywhere. The Temple is everyone. The Temple is everything. The Temple is a real place, inhabited by real beings, furnishings and forces, none of which possess material substance. The Temple is housed in one of the mansions of the father. The Temple resides anywhere it is thought of.
MAGIC
Magic does not act on the world save through the agency of the practitioner. Magic brings about change in the mind of the practitioner and the practitioner acts in the world from changed mind. Magicians don’t inhabit Temples of Light. They pass through wastelands. The practices of individual magicians should not be recognised and built upon as a foundation.
RITUAL
In terms of ritual, Cross of Light Temple performs a series of actions in a particular order with a general predetermined purpose. Consistent meaning is associated with each of these actions and the relationships between them. The performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite evokes and strengthens the body of light as mediator between universal spirit and individual soul. To focus on the signs and symbols is to get the meaning of the rite without recourse to internal or external verbalisation.
SOUL
The soul is the faculty of being that lies between the earthly body and the universal spirit and can be seen as a mixture of both. The soul relates to individual being and the unity of the universal spirit, and enables individual being to attain union with God, as it is phrased in mystical terms. The soul is related to thought, although not identical with thought, because thought passes away whereas part of the soul endures. The soul is deathless and dies. That part of soul identified with the earthly body dies. That part of soul identified with universal spirit remains (and has been always). The soul yearns for its creator, no matter the depths to which it has fallen, and the creator is aware of the yearning of the creature.
SYSTEMS
First-hand experience is superior to received systems. The value of systems is dependent on the extent to which they accord with immediate lived experience.
The attempt to lay out a metaphysical system that is worthy of attention is an elitist enterprise characterised by pride at what seems to be more or less satisfactory expression of things that lie beyond the knowledge and experience of the mass of humanity.
All systems are arbitrary and only acquire meaning if their constituent elements are accepted as if they were true. All supposedly valid systems can be invalidated by the simple expedient of refusing their premises.
Experience clearly indicates explicit and implicit connections between various systems, which represent a form of harmony. The systems developed by institutions are more trustworthy than the systems of individual practitioners because institutions are better equipped to acknowledge and rectify error. Systems that enslave should be avoided.
THOUGHT AND MIND
All things are met in mind, come to be in mind, receive their form in mind, and do not leave mind at all. The creator of thought is met in thought. The creator of matter is met in matter. The creator of spirit is met in spirit. And they are all met in thought. Thought partakes in the communion of all things that meet.
Thought does not inhabit the objective material world. Its association with the brain is purely mechanical. Strictly speaking, thought is located nowhere, or somewhere that cannot be named. The product of thought is not the thought that bore it. And the systems for measuring and classifying thought come after the event and are products of thought. They can imprison but they can't explain.
TRANSCENDENCE
Cross of Light Temple aims to transcend space and time. It's necessary to realise that you're confined in an arid desert before you can ever hope to find your way out. Cross of Light Temple works refute commercialism, materialism, mystification, established authority, challenge the notion of expertise, refuse to accept self-serving hierarchies, implicitly accept the possibility of going beyond, and value transcendence as something worthy in itself whilst recognising that transcendence is not an end but a beginning.
The transcendent is accessed through thought, which lies midway between earth and transcendent realm, providing a link between one and the other. As it is said, the Temple lies in this transcendent realm. The Temple is a place that provides evidence in favour of the existence of a world beyond the so-called world we habitually abide in.
WISDOM
There is wisdom in these branches. Wisdom walks upon the water. It is easily found, but hard to believe in. Enlivening wisdom is found in a particular form of personal experience rather than conformity to doctrine. There is no secret wisdom. Take heed of the wisdom that proceeds from the source and the centre of all things and your life will be transformed.
HELGI P: RESPONSE TO COLT THEMES
Authority
Your ground is shifting and uncertain. How can anything prosper without leadership? Is everything in the world self-sufficient? If there are no reliable authorities, then how can the Temple be an ultimate authority? Is it an ultimately unreliable authority? Is self-evaluation more valuable than external validation?
Beginning and End
I’m somehow reminded of the journey of Wilbur Mercer in the fictional constructions of Philip K. Dick. If the beginning and the end are one, does that necessarily mean that beginning and end do not exist? And if they are one, then how can anything pass between them? Are we talking about the conflation of a process?
Being
“The only thing that does not change is the will to change…” – not that change is necessarily willed, despite being an evident reality. So, we don’t begin with birth and end with death, but rather being is uncertain and therefore beyond limitation…and then this limitlessness is confined. I think about a rumour of light…I think about ease, or a state of pleasant and fitful anxiety, somewhat akin to the workings of speed. I suppose you encountered difficulties as a child, as an adolescent and as a young man, and I imagine you’ll continue to experience them as your age advances. Do you find that the weight of these difficulties increases or decreases with age? Are you suggesting that being exists beyond body and mind? That stuff about the lower soul and the lower body gently fading into nothingness strikes me as wishful thinking.
Centre
If the height lies at the centre, then the centre becomes the height, and you could argue that you might see far and wide from the centre that is the height. As for possessing what you see, let alone owning everything around you, and as for everything taking place at the centre of the cross – these are propositions of a different nature.
Christ
Maybe there is a difference between the ever present Christ and the Christ that will come again. Is it the Son of the Father you honour, or the Son of the Mother? If Christ is infinite and universal, then everything that is happening, has happened, or will happen can be seen as Christ in some sense.
Cross
So, the cross is space and time, distance and endurance, but how does it follow that this has anything to do with protection? Crossing the threshold in the manner you speak of seems to open up a different kind of space (and time, and distance and endurance).
Light
So, we are altogether subsumed in light, and light is our birth right and inheritance. Is this what is meant by ‘enlightenment’, not a state achieved, but a realisation? I know that there’s a traditional link between spirit and body, and that it’s often mediated by the idea of the soul, but where is the link visible in any meaningful sense? And I follow your reasoning regarding the difference between light and light beyond light but does it justify your suggestion that the kingdom of heaven is light beyond light and is your interpretation of the signs at the end of this saying figurative or definitive?
Linked
Do we arise to remain and depart? Can everything be connected given the chance? Time is commonly accepted, easily defined and recognised, but eternity is somewhat more speculative. Could you say that mind is beyond flesh? What have servitude and adoration to do with anything here? Is the identification with what lies beyond merely a verbal gesture, or a case of wishful thinking? What’s the default setting for consciousness to be altered? Thy symbol and thy sign is not our living reality. The breath is of the body that you say you have gone beyond. The stars, the sun, and the earth are another three in one. And then you wax poetical! Those terms and beings and places are locked into religious orthodoxy. I’ve seen many bodies of flesh and imagined many bodies of light. I’ve seen mouths open and received what they’ve said. And they say that mind, spirit and God are conceptions of mind.
Location of the Temple
Everywhere, everyone and everything suggests that the Temple is where, who and what it is not as well as what it is…Immaterial realities! And a kind of heavenly orthodoxy! Is the Temple anything more than the product of thought?
Magic
So magic is a form of mental exertion, and thought is seen as the prelude to action. Thought leading to action doesn’t necessarily sound like magic to me. How about a Temple in the wasteland? And the reality of the practice of individuals forms the foundation of corporate enterprise based upon, and validated, by a kind of peer review.
Ritual
Order, purpose, consistency, predictable relationships and meaning therefore permeate the actions and purpose of the Temple. A ritual of light, spirit and soul – this all sounds somewhat vague. I’ve seen many a body of flesh but I’ve never seen a body of light walking down the street, although it’s quite easy to imagine one. Are you saying that ‘objective’ signs and symbols possess superior meaning to interior dialogue or sounded words?
Soul
It can be seen that earthly substances mix in certain circumstances and give rise to new forms and substances but the idea that this material can join with ‘universal spirit’ is speculative in the extreme. I’ve witnessed dead bodies, but I’ve never witnessed dead souls (or dead portions of souls). And I’ve never witnessed immaterial ideas yearning or being responded to in any fashion whatsoever, although the fiction that this might happen permeates vast swathes of culture (the Mothership and the Fatherland…).
Systems
Properly functioning systems are superior to individual experience because functioning systems relate to collective experience, which has greater value than the experience of one person. A worthy metaphysical system is a guide to the perplexed. Reality does not disappear if you choose to ignore it. There are true and false premises; true premises are valid and false premises are invalid. The conclusion that institutions are more trustworthy than individual practitioners seems to contradict your opening premise regarding the primacy of first-hand experience. There is a difference between
a system that enslaves and a system that provides useful guidance.
Thought and Mind
Only what might be called the things of mind are met in mind. Physical objects possess material substance that is not dependent on thought or mind for its existence. The creator is not met in thought or matter and the idea of a creator of spirit is based on speculation that cannot be confirmed using objective standards. Whatever the actual relationship between thought and the brain, thought does not exist where the human brain is not. Properly functioning systems may not necessarily explain everything about thought (or anything else) but they lead us closer to understanding than our failure or neglect to deploy them.
Transcendence
How is it possible to transcend space and time in space and time? I don’t experience space and time as a desert but as a vast, rich resource, full of interest and the potential for wonder. A properly functioning hierarchy is more or less linked to expertise, with the people occupying the higher echelons of the hierarchy possessing greater expert knowledge than those in lower positions. Is the idea of transcendence a mental trick? Earth is apparent to the senses but the ‘transcendent realm’ you speak of is not. So, the Temple cannot be seen, just thought about - how and why should we accept its existence? Do you really think there is more than one world?
Wisdom
You end by waxing pseudo-poetical. Doctrine is collective experience. Is there anything that can be universally recognised as wisdom? The source and the centre cannot be identified with certainty, so how can they be identified as the ground of potential transformation?
COLT RESPONSE TO HELGI P
Thank you for replying, Brother H.P. You present a more or less coherent world view, which raises a number of interesting questions for the Experimental Metaphysicians of COLT. We reply to particular comments under their individual headings below, but we thought it was worth making a general response as well.
The material presented in ‘COLT Themes’ is based on the direct experience of COLT practitioners, in the form of the performance of established COLT ritual and the study of COLT texts, which are grounded in that practice. In this sense, ‘COLT Themes’ is a practical, rather than a theoretical document; a description of that which is, or has been, or a corporate record of COLT experience.
This record is of primary importance to COLT but we do not insist on its importance to others, who can assess that for themselves. COLT does not propound dogma and COLT is not a teaching order, unless to describe it to teach.
We note that you are concerned with the spatial and the temporal, which we respond to as follows:
The Spatial and the Temporal
We suggest that there is something beyond space and time, which is accessed through space and time...
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Authority
Leadership should be grounded in the promulgation of ideas rather than invested in individuals. The Temple's authority does not extend beyond the Temple and its reality is assessed within those confines – but consider this in the light of the saying, 'The Temple is everywhere'.
Beginning and End
We're aware of Wilbur Mercer and the work of PKD. We note that similar does not mean identical. Beginning and end are temporal phenomena and we observe their operations in time and space. The idea is that there is something beyond time and space, where beginning and end no longer apply.
Being
Birth and death are events in time and we conceive of something beyond space and time without denying the facts of spatial and temporal reality. The process of ageing relates to birth and death and difficulties are attendant on any state of worldly being wrapped up in this process. We do suggest that being exists beyond body and mind and we acknowledge that it is difficult to express the nature of this being.
Centre
To envision the height at the centre, picture a mountain on the plain, somewhat resembling The Cloud on the Staffordshire/Cheshire border. The possession by sight is temporary and ownership is not permanent, but we can return to the height and the sight and the possession through moving towards the centre of the cross that we conceive in imagination.
Christ
Christ is ever present and will come again, and this is to say nothing of the other aspects of Christ's established history. The Son is not of the Father and Mother alone, but also in them, so that it becomes possible to say that Father, Mother and Son are one. We are acquainted with the infinite and universal vision of Christ manifest in all particulars.
Cross
The cross forms a kind of talisman, the effectiveness of which lies in the sign pointing towards something lying beyond space and time, the twin instruments of mortality. Here, in this transcendence, lies protection. And it is true that the method of crossing the threshold discussed here opens new space, and time, and distance, and endurance...
Light
This is what we understand from the saying from the Gospel According to Saint John - “In him was light, and the light was the life of men.” And the profitable realisation is that this light will not be extinguished under any circumstances ever. It's this realisation that leads us on to the perception of the light beyond light that illuminates what comes to be known as the kingdom of heaven.
Linked
It seems possible that everything is connected and that apparent gaps or gulfs represent a fault in
perception, or failures to understand. Eternity is encountered as a consequence of going beyond space and time, as alluded to earlier. Experience indicates that the products of mind are not confined by flesh. The identification with what lies beyond is a consequence of experience. The body of flesh remains in its appropriate sphere and its functions continue. If mind, spirit and God are conceptions of mind, then what is mind?
Location of the Temple
The Temple is what it is. We suppose it might become what it is not. The Temple possesses clear, objective existence, which is apparent in COLT practice, COLT texts and COLT interactions that take place beyond the scope of the published work.
Magic
We suggest that magic can be viewed as a particular kind of thought leading to action. You could call it a method of practical or applied psychology. We know that it's possible to cause fear to arise in a person by using this method, and that this could look like bringing about change in the objective world through force of will. What it actually is can be described as tapping into primal fear through the use of drama. There are temples in the wasteland and they can shelter or imprison us. The practice of individuals only becomes potentially productive corporate enterprise when they work to a common aim.
Ritual
Order, purpose, consistency, predictable relationships and meaning do indeed permeate the Temple. They build its foundations and they sustain it. The ritual might sound vague but its light is visible (you might say it is perceived by the soul through the spiritual eye). The body of light is imaginary, meaning that it is an image perceived in the imagination, but the fact that it is imaginary does not mean it is unreal, and its reality is affirmed by the observation that it maintains consistent form. And we're tempted to say that it's possible to get a glimpse of the body of light through the externally unfocused physical eye. Objective signs and symbols do not possess superior meaning to inwardly sounded words but they are more readily accessible.
Soul
What is it that enables earthly substances to mix? What is the ground upon which this plainly observable action takes place? What has happened to the former vitality of those dead bodies you have witnessed? We suggest that the immaterial, or non-material, has greater force than the shifting substance (ghostly fantasy) you posit as reality. Fiction has an integrity that does not extend to mediated fact.
Systems
Collective experience is based on individual experience with a particular aim and the collective could not exist without the individual. All functioning systems offer guidance to the perplexed but guidance does not necessarily lead to experience grounded in living reality. Systems are not sufficient in themselves. Reality does not disappear but what is called reality is not constant. True premises are the foundation of a process that needs to prove itself every step of the way to demonstrate continuing validity and false premises can be corrected. Institutions that comprise of individuals working to a similar aim are likely to be trustworthy with regard to their propositions (regardless of whether or not one agrees with them). And we agree that there is at least a qualitative difference between guidance and enslavement.
Thought and Mind
Physical objects and what are known as spiritual realities can be conceived in mind. Despite their undeniable substance, physical objects remain mental constructs in large measure. For example, we see a house, we pass through its rooms, but the mind determines its function. Perhaps 'creative force' would be a better term than 'creator' (but doesn't the former presuppose the latter?). We don't necessarily deny the link between the brain and thought but simple observation shows that thought operates beyond the brain of the originator in the unfolding of the idea. See above for further elucidation of our current position on systems.
Transcendence
As previously stated, there is something beyond space and time that is accessed through space and time; the things of space and time possess the potential for wonder, although wonder is by no means certain; and hierarchies are always questionable because authority resides within ideas, rather than with persons. Transcendence is not primarily a mental trick and its effects can be felt in the body and other faculties of being as well as the mind. The transcendent realm is not always apparent through physical feeling but it is apparent through other means. Only COLT affiliates need to accept the existence of the Temple and be concerned with its form. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if there is one world or many – the issue is always what is experienced there (or in them).
Wisdom
Doctrine is collective experience presented in a particular way for a particular end. Nothing can be universally recognised as wisdom. The source can be recognised in everything that proceeds from the source and the centre can be identified with at least pragmatic certainty, so both source and centre become viable material to work with in the task of bringing about transformation.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
NAG HAMMADI TEXTS ON COLT THEMES
AUTHORITY
Worldly authority is not grounded in the One Who Is but proceeds from the archons or false rulers of this world. Those who call themselves bishops and deacons, like the Pharisees and scribes before them, act as if they have received authority from God but in reality, they are subject to worldly leaders and the archons who sustain them. All mortal creatures are subject to the authority of death but those who possess knowledge of the eternal God will not perish.
BEGINNING AND END
Whoever has a beginning has an end and where the beginning is the end will be. Christ is the beginning and end of everyone, and the Son, like the Father, is without beginning and end, unchangeable in his eternal being. The current age will end and give way to the beginning of another age, which will not change.
BEING
The Father is the source of being. The True God and Father brings the All into existence but those who come into being do not recognise the Father as their source. Christ is the hand of the Father and fashions all things. The highest level of being is immaterial and applies to the Unbegotten God. The second level is the domain of the pure and imperishable star gods. The lowest level is the dwelling place of earthly gods, who abide in temples.
We come into being from Unity. Individual humans consist of body, soul and mind and acquire access to spiritual being because the Saviour took on physical existence. There are three types of human – the spiritual, the psychical and the earthly. It has been said that the human being is an inn inhabited by demons. It has been said that the body originates from darkness and fire, that the soul arises from the winds and demons, and that part of the mind was originally possessed by darkness but has been rescued by the spirit and enlightened by faith.
CHRIST
All is all in Christ, who is Spirit, the advocate of truth, the son of humanity, Lord of lords and eternal king; the beginning and end, the hand of the Father, Son of God and indescribable wonder; ever present, everlasting, the bringer of truth; not partial, indwelling, the fruit of the first one. Christ is the shining stone and the fulfilment of the promise of Seth.
Christ redeems the good and the bad. He displaces sin and vanquishes misleading, misguided and
self-deluded powers. He is the purification of the temple and the sure guide. He reveals God through virtue, majesty and forgiveness; he is the fullness of mind and the light of light forever.
Christ is from us and in us, the light and sun of life, the image of the Father, the way of the sun, all receiving, all giving, the tree of life and the wisdom of God. We are in Christ and Christ is in us through the infinite light of the Father.
I, Jabez the Stupid, Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, neither King of Kings nor Lord of Lords, nor the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, say that Satan is the reminder and embodiment of our weakness.
LOCATION OF THE TEMPLE
We worship hope in the temple within, which has become a tomb but will be a temple again.
RITUAL
Earthly ritual is a sacred kiss and a sacred meal.
TRANSCENDENCE
Knowledge involves becoming aware of transcendent truth by crossing a threshold and inheriting what lies beyond it by degrees. Ultimately, the source of being, or the One Who Is, transcends all things – transcends mind, voice, words and silence.
WISDOM
Wisdom arises through encounters with insight. It discerns between things beyond measure and unknowable things. It comes from mind and proceeds to knowledge and doctrine. The One Who Is is present in the wisdom of those he has made wise. Our father is God and our mother is wisdom and Christ is the wisdom of God.
Sources:
Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles Prayer of Thanksgiving Allogenes the Stranger Prayer of the Apostle Paul Authoritative Discourse Revelation of Adam Eugnostos the Blessed Revelation of Peter Excerpt from the Perfect Discourse Second Discourse of Great Seth Gospel of Judas Teachings of Silvanus Gospel of Philip Testimony of Truth Gospel of Thomas Three Forms of First Thought Gospel of Truth Three Steles of Seth Interpretation of Knowledge Treatise on Resurrection Letter of Peter to Philip Tripartite Tractate On the Origin of the World Zostrianos Paraphrase of Shem
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
TIDE Trauma-Imprisonment-Distraction-Escape
We don't know anything about God, the soul or the spirit. We're able to conceive of God through the writings of other people, who don't know anything about God.
Nothing that anyone has said about God is true. And yet the idea of God possesses a power that is greater than truth and compels men to action, and competing ideas about God have shaped the world for thousands of years.
Soul and spirit are terms applied to operations of mind. They arise when the mind seeks to go beyond itself.
Our actions are motivated by factors that are so complex that it's impossible to understand them. But this complexity is a distraction. There's an underlying simplicity, which is easy to grasp.
We sleep and wake. We walk on two legs. We hallucinate individuality from formless being. We abide in absurdity and yearn for transcendence. We move with invented purpose.
The depths exhibit no body, no mind, no soul, no spirit, no feeling, no emotion, no truth.
TRAUMA
We're born. We live for a few years and then we fade away. We're dead by the time we're 12 or 13 and we remain dead unless we can restore ourselves to life.
What do we think? Nothing that can be described as meaningful thought. A random collection of inwardly voiced and disconnected phrases. What do we feel? Something so slight that it barely deserves to be called numbed indifference.
We occupy a state of shocked self-loathing, feeling tense, holding on, fearing the worst, not fit for society, inferior, unable to relate to other people, uncomfortable in their presence.
We are observed by a harsh, judgemental, all seeing and unsympathetic eye and we consist of unresolved terror looking for an opportunity to manifest.
We walk through nothingness and engage in conversations with shadows. It's safe here, in this joyless place, doing what we're told to do by people who have no interest in our welfare.
We're forced to act in a way that we would not choose to act in order to preserve our lives. The actions we perform mean that our lives are not worth living, and the life that we're granted amounts to a few days of fearful insecurity.
Somehow, one in a thousand of us manages to survive, and the cruel and implacable authority is deposed by forces over which we have no control, and we become objects of scorn to people who have not suffered as we have suffered, and they seek to kill us on the grounds that we're traitors to our nation, or their cause.
IMPRISONMENT
Life is infinite and eternal. It cannot be located in space and time and it does not know beginning, end or duration. And yet life is treated as if it were confined by space and time. Why do we confine what is limitless, and then conform to self-imposed limitation?
Thought presents illusion as reality and words are used to tell lies.
What are we beyond what we're told we are? What are we beyond the socially conditioned roles we occupy? Where do we begin and where do we end?
A false identity construct is a person or organisation that represents itself as something it is not through adopting a predetermined, systematic world view that is not congruent with the immediate experience of now, and treating the role that it occupies as reality.
False identity constructs present pale imitations of hypnotically effective constructions of glamour to remove themselves still further from anything that might be persuasively presented as themselves.
Hatred arises from identification with the false self, or denial of the false self, or the representation of the false self as the true self.
The choices we make are arbitrary and meaningless.
We choose between making arbitrary and meaningless choices and being subject to the consequences of the arbitrary and meaningless choices of others.
Our thoughts and feelings are phantoms. The words that we use mislead us. Choice, will, thought and feeling are departures from the reality of experience.
We don't choose to be here. If we're lucky, we occupy positions in an environment that's not too oppressive and affords a level of self-direction. But we're still only here because we have to be somewhere to earn a living.
Everything we do is accompanied by fear of failure. We're driven by fear and compelled to succeed at something we don't really want to do in a place we don't really want to be, and we're judged by this activity for as long as we live.
We work for the landlord. We work for the government. We work for the profiteering merchants. We work to be exploited by the agents of control.
We can't rest until we've convinced ourselves that we're special.
Opportunities to wield power are inaccessible and not many of us possess athletic prowess or artistic ability, so we turn to self-identification with illusory notions of beauty, or intelligence, or
being hard, or honest, or kind, or a great adventurer in China, or a student on an MA course in creative writing, or even a hopeless case, not a common or garden failure, not a little below the average but the lowest of the low.
This carnival of egomania is a prison from which there is no escape.
We are engaged in a pursuit of pleasure that is bound to end in frustration, camouflaged by a pseudo-spiritual vision that cannot be adhered to.
We're not liked. We're not lauded for our beauty or our genius. We're unknown and obscure. We're mired in falsehood. We're failures. We're worthless frauds. We're unaware of any truth that might save us.
Our wealth is meagre. We can't walk uphill with ease. Our eyes are fading. Our self-sufficiency is no guarantee against the rigours that are laid against us. We have not fulfilled our promise. We are not happy people.
We investigate religious, magical and spiritual systems. We discover folly presented as wisdom and lies presented as truth. We discover materialism presented as spiritual discourse.
God has never told us anything about God. Men and women have told us about God, and men and women pursue their own interests.
The church is a temporal authority which presents itself as a repository of spiritual power.
The foundation of the church of England is the propagation of lies in the service of warlords and kings.
DISTRACTION
If we journey in the ideal, we become lost upon our return to the false reality.
Sleep is not a cure for exhaustion. Wishful thinking is no match for impending death. Temporary elevation is not a cure for flatness.
ESCAPE
We are taught by two successive thoughts:
1. Rid yourself of false identities. 2. Refrain from false representations of self.
The most important thing we can do is to stop lying to ourselves. And if we find that it's possible to live without lying to ourselves, then we can investigate why we think and act as we do.
And we can examine our environment to discover meaning based on what we encounter.
Intelligence, skills and abilities have no value in themselves. Their value lies in their application.
If the person who professes that all is futile differentiates between the less futile and more futile, then their profession is an acknowledgement of the common scale that operates in the field of individual endeavour.
Such people should abandon their proclamations and pursue the less futile over the more futile.
If we don't like where we are, then we should move. We should not resent the effort that is attendant upon moving.
We're not going to achieve what we want to achieve by failing to act, abdicating responsibility, or blaming others for our failings.
Coming up with reasons for not doing something is not a viable alternative to actually doing it.
We are self-sufficient entities. We have bodies and minds with which to act in space and time.
We're the judges of everything for ourselves and nothing for anyone else.
Everything should come from the centre. If we're not there, we should return. Returning is not something to talk about but something to do.
The mystery is that we're born, we live and we die. There's no truth in obscurity. Truth is simple and direct. Truth is not the preserve of the elect. Truth is common to all. Depth is grounded in clarity and directness.
It's not in anyone else. It's not in a programme of special moments. It's not in the revelation of falsehood. It's not in any existing system. It's not in affinity. It's not in memory. It's not in the inviting hole. It's not in the coming together. It's not in the lies that are said to be truth. It's not in the flashing eye. It's not in festivity. It's not in the speculation. It's not in the still, small voice. It's not in the artistry. It's not in the sanctity. It's not in the cool and disdainful eye. It's not in the dreams of the martyrs. It's not in the certainty of those who know where it is for sure.
The aim of religious and magical systems is the attainment of a state which cannot be experienced in day to day existence, but which is achieved through acting in the world.
We visualise the opening of the stations of light, and occupy them, thereby strengthening the body of light, which is associated with the body of flesh, but extends beyond it.
We experience the interior vision of the sepulchral altar in the early hours of the morning.
We are taught by the Holy Ghost. We are not taught by established authorities, or by sectarian dispute.
The Inmost Light is the Soul of the Sun. Our Mind is eternal and moves towards light.
Objective reality might exist but we'll never experience it. It's best to keep ourselves grounded in subjective experience, which enables us to experience the liberation of the immediate experience of now.
In Brighton we moved without seeming to move between iron railings and an ancient graveyard set on a grass mound, experiencing transcendence through negation of imprisoning inhibition.
In Chichester, we occupied the centre, possessing the floor of a pub and shining outwards, experiencing transcendence through annulling the numbness of everyday restriction.
We extinguish the outer darkness and manifest inward light.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
PROVISIONAL STATEMENTS ON MAGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
“The folly of mistaking a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself as an oracle, is inborn in us.” – Valery, quoted in ‘Fahrenheit 451’ by Ray Bradbury.
First Provisional Statement
Magical significance lies in process rather than products or things.
Magical significance resides in:
1. The recognition of the illusory nature of objective reality. 2. The recognition of the universe as it exists as a fantastic and magical place. 3. The externalisation of the self. 4. The journey into pre-material consciousness. 5. Transcending the false, culturally conditioned self and constructing a coherent identity beyond it. 6. The fictional self replaced by a self-constructed in response to immediately apprehended experience. 7. The recognition of a superior reality beyond apparent reality, which proceeds from apparent reality. 8. The attainment and consequences of magical consciousness. 9. Engagement in the ceaseless flow of transcendental magical experience. 10. The formulation of magical thought extended to the comprehension of all things. 11. The development of magical systems based on first hand personal experience. 12. The Nursery and the Temple, and to a lesser and greater degree in their records (lesser because the experience is diluted through recording; greater because the record is an entity in itself, a foundation).
Magical significance might reside in:
1. The apprehension of pure being without form or activity. 2. The realisation that everything is interconnected, inter-dimensional and integrated. 3. The manipulation of information to shape creative possibility transcending the limitations of alien and illusory reason. 4. The attainment of altered states of consciousness. 5. Familiarity with the potential and properties of mind altering substances. 6. Spiritual evolution to the greatest extent of one’s capabilities whilst housed in a body of flesh.
7. The joining of macrocosm and microcosm in individuated being. 8. The attainment of an enduring and positive state that can’t normally be experienced in day to day living. 9. What is known as the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. 10. The implications of the oath of a Master of the Temple as related by Crowley.
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This is the Magical History Of the Dawning of the Light Begun are the Whirling Motions Formulated is the Primal Fire Proclaimed is the Reign of the Gods of Light At the Threshold of the Infinite Worlds…
* * *
Magick: Systems of Madness
Magick is a profound exploration of nature. a vision of the celestial city bathed in the light of dreams. the quest to reveal the reality of spiritual being. spirit writing in flame on the air. blowing out an electric light. the end result of long training…
Magick takes place on the edge of possibility. The deeper the imperative, the deeper the magic is.
Magick is the recognition, consolidation and development of a strength we were born with. the knowledge that connections exist, even if they cannot be seen. the association of vaguely connected ideas. the manipulation of subtle energy. clear perception. the recognition and willed manipulation of force…
Magick knows that the same substance can possess several properties and perform a variety of different functions.
Magick is: the recognition that every thought has its impact. the recognition of what is. the impulse towards self-realisation.
Magick distinguishes the false from the real. Magick transcends hypocrisy…
Magick is the search for and confirmation of who one is, what one is and why one is.
the discovery of the Sanctuaries of Initiation. the thorough exploration of different orders of being and the recognition of connections between them…
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Second Provisional Statement
“Those lights you can see at the end of the tunnel are the flames from your burning brain.” – Jhonn Balance, Coil
Magical significance resides in:
1. The knowledge that magic brings about change in the mind of the practitioner and that the practitioner acts in the world from changed mind. 2. The Temples of Light. 3. Investing the Temple with a magical sensibility. 4. The performance of the works of the magic of light. 5. The awareness of a core source of continuous being underlying disparate experience. 6. The merging of the physical and the non-physical in the unity of time and timelessness. 7. The recognition of the mystery of what is around us and immediately apparent. 8. The experience defined as Gnosis. 9. The experience of illumination. 10. The refusal of hierarchies and authority.
Magical significance might reside in:
1. The recognition that every act is a magical act. 2. The passage through the wastelands. 3. What lies beyond symbol, belief and dogma. 4. The experience of unity. 5. Transcending space and time. 6. Acts of liberation. 7. Deconditioning. 8. Familiarity with the magical works of others. 9. The work of Coil. 10. ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’, being the magical record of Frater Perdurabo.
* * *
Third Provisional Statement
“And see not ye that bonny road Which winds about the fernie brae? That is the road to fair Elfland, Where you and I this night maun gae.” – from ‘Thomas Rymer’
Magical significance resides in:
1. The understanding and experience of Chichester as the centre of a metaphysical cross. 2. The carvings in the porch of All Saints Church in Bakewell.
3. Cairns Forest, Carrowmore, Lough Gill and Glencar in Co. Sligo. 4. The recognition of the Lord’s Prayer as a powerful incantation. 5. Working against the self-appointed arbiters of objective truth.
Magical significance might reside in:
1. The remembrance that every act is a magical act. 2. The priestess who communes with the old gods through magic. 3. The residue of magical workings a short distance from the Temple. 4. The folk music of Britain and the landscape of Ireland. 5. The Temple of Solomon on the outskirts of Buxton. 6. Kingley Vale. 7. Thee Mound of Krekja. 8. Thor’s Hammer glimpsed beneath the stone like folds of a dark brown robe. 9. Reading Crowley’s ‘Magick in Theory and Practice’ without understanding.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
TEMPLES OF LIGHT A COMPARISON BETWEEN CROSS OF LIGHT AND OTHER SYSTEMS
Part One
Cross of Light Temple is concerned with first hand religious/esoteric/occult experience and personal spiritual development. It believes that religious/esoteric/occult texts, practices and organisations possess no fixed objective value or super temporal authority. The value of texts, practices and organisations should be determined by the extent to which they encourage and enable individuals to experience authentic and profitable ‘higher’ states of consciousness. The primary aim of Temple affiliates is to develop their own workable systems and to present them to the world through whatever means lie at their disposal.
The first part of this article refers to the following sources: - ‘Magic without Tears’, Aleister Crowley - ‘Psychic Self-defence’, Dion Fortune - ‘The Book of the Black Serpent’ - ‘Art and Meaning of Magic’ and ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’, Israel Regardie
The sources are addressed in this order because that is the order in which they were read. It should not be assumed that Cross of Light Temple recommends this programme of reading, nor should it be supposed that these were all of the books we encountered during the course of our study.
Similar does not mean identical. Nevertheless, during our year long course of reading we noticed the following correspondences and indicators of Cross of Light in the sources mentioned above:
Magic without Tears: Crowley on the magical record
Crowley maintains that the magical record is of vital importance and outlines the ‘correct’ form that the record should take in frankly dogmatic terms:
“You should begin with your parents and the family traditions; the circumstances of your birth and education; your social position; your financial situation; your physique, health, illnesses; your vita sexualis; your hobbies and amusements; what you are good at, what not; how you came to be interested in the Great Work; what…has been "your previous condition of servitude;" how you found me, and decided to enlist my aid. That, by itself, helps you to understand yourself, and me to understand you.
From that point the keeping of the Record is quite easy. All you have to do is to put down what practices you mean to begin, how you get on with them from day to day, and (at intervals) what I have to say about your progress. Remember always that we have no use for piety, for vague chatter, for guesswork; we are as strictly scientific as biologists or chemists. We ban emotion from the start; we demand perception; and (as you will see later on) even perception is not acceptable until we have made sure of its bases by a study of what we call the 'tendencies'.”
It is interesting to note the similarities and differences between Crowley’s position here and the methods of interrogation of prospective candidates that were adopted by the Society of the Inner Light and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. Strictly speaking, TOPY was not an established hierarchical system with prospective candidates seeking entry but a form of magickal co-operative, although one could argue that its claims to egalitarianism were quickly confounded by the commonly accepted strength of will of a few obvious (if self-selected) leaders.
Cross of Light Temple accepts the importance of what might be termed the magical record. Indeed, it has maintained and developed such a record from the foundation of the Temple until now. Obviously, Crowley or the array of pseudo-Crowleyan societies claiming to have inherited his mantle are not the authorities to which such a record should be submitted. The ultimate authority in matters pertaining to the Temple record is the Temple itself, and more particularly that element of the Temple that emphasises realistic self-evaluation.
Psychic Self-defence is generally worthless nonsense, but the following passage throws helpful light on my experience of the burial mounds of Cairns Forest, Co. Sligeach, March 1991, which I previously conceived of as an encounter with the world of faery in the form of a meeting with the suitor and father of Gile, goddess of beauty, above the lake that bears her name, having been formed by her tears of sorrow.
“It is well known to all psychics that the sites of ancient temples where mystery-rituals have been worked, are always potently charged with psychic force. This force need not necessarily be evil, but it has a powerfully stimulating effect upon the psychic centres and stirs up the subconscious forces; and as the majority of civilized people suffer in a greater or lesser degree from what Freud calls 'repression,' such a stirring of the subliminal mind produces a feeling of profound disturbance. We should not unquestioningly attribute evil influences to a place or a person that causes us discomfort; it may merely be that psychic force at a greater tension than we are accustomed to is disturbing our equilibrium.”
The following relates to the Cross of Light conception of the Sun and the Moon:
“The Sphere of the Sun is represented by Raphael, the Sphere of the Moon by Gabriel…The Sphere of the Sun is also the point of manifestation of the Messiah or Saviour upon earth.”
The following exposition on the themes of action and intention relates to the construction, formation and opening of Cross of Light Astral Temple:
“Any act performed with intention becomes a rite. We can take a bath with no more in mind than physical cleanliness; in which case the bath will cleanse our bodies and no more. Or we can take a bath with a view to ritual cleanliness, in which case its efficacy will extend beyond the physical plane. We therefore perform certain physical actions not only as a means of clearing etheric conditions, but also as a means of definitely effecting astral ones through the imagination, a very potent weapon in all magical operations.”
In terms of ritual, Cross of Light Temple performs a series of actions in a particular order with a general predetermined purpose. Consistent meaning is associated with each of these actions and the relationship between them. Descriptions of this process can be found scattered throughout the writings of Cross of Light Temple. Broadly speaking, similar processes are employed by all workable ritual systems.
The following passage relates to the Cross of Light saying: “The body of Christ is a sword.”
“The operator next imagines himself to be clasping in his right hand a large, cross-handled sword, such as is depicted in pictures of Crusaders. He holds it point upright and says, 'In the Name of God I take in hand the Sword of Power for defence against evil and aggression,' and imagines himself to be towering up to twice his natural height, a tremendous armed and mailed figure, vibrating with the force of the Power of God with which he has been charged by his formulation of the Sword of Power…”
There are similarities between the banishing of evil in the Cross of Light six-part rite and the method outlined by Fortune in ‘Psychic Self-defence’.
The following instruction demonstrates similarities to the opening and closing of the Cross of Light six-part rite:
“Stand upright and cross yourself, by touching forehead, breast, right shoulder and left shoulder, saying, 'By the power of the Christ of God within me, whom I serve with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength… I encompass myself about with the Divine Circle of His protection, across which no mortal error dares to set its foot.' This is an old monkish formula. It is very effectual…”
The Book of the Black Serpent
A reference to Seraphiel, one of the inhabitants of Cross of Light Astral Temple, can be found in ‘The Book of the Black Serpent’, a confounding work of great obscurity:
“The Seraphim is four in number and is ruled by SERAPHIEL; he is a prince, wonderful, noble, great, honourable, mighty, terrible, a chief and leader and a swift scribe. His body is like that of an eagle and he wears a crown. He is accompanied by Satan, Samael and Dubbiel. These are the accusers. It is through the spirit Samael in which the absolution of the Seven Deadly Sins is accomplished, through the bidding of GOD.”
I don’t think this is the same Seraphiel we encounter in Cross of Light Astral Temple.
Art and Meaning of Magic
The following attributions relate to certain signs and symbols of Cross of Light Temple:
Earth is a yellow square. Air is a blue circle. Water is a silver crescent. Fire is a red triangle. Ether is a black egg.
The Philosopher’s Stone
“My Sol and my beams are most inward and secretly in me.” – From ‘The Golden Treatise of Hermes’; this relates to the evocation and identification with a primary force of the Temple. And as Regardie goes on to say, the Solar Body is deathless.
The ‘light beyond light’ that fills the Temple is suggested by Thomas Vaughn’s ‘Lumen de Lumine’, which is referred to in Regardie’s work.
The interpretation of the cave denoting an interior state or condition from which external things issue, or from which they are born, accords with the meaning of the cave in Cross of Light texts.
The performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite evokes and strengthens the Body of Light as mediator between universal spirit and individual soul.
The following is a more or less orthodox description of a fundamental Cross of Light experience:
“Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether, but after another manner.”
Generally speaking, the Temple is happy to conceive of matter as crystallised spirit and spirit as rarefied matter.
Let us conclude the first part of this article by quoting Regardie’s selection from ‘Revelation’, mindful of the Cross of Light association between the water of life, which is (as it were) bodily experienced, and the blood of Christ, which enables the water to flow:
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
Part Two
“Therefore, as hath already been said, Establish thyself firmly in the equilibrium of forces, in the centre of the Cross of the Elements, that Cross from whose centre the Creative Word issued in the birth of the Dawning Universe.”
In ‘The Equinox of Crowley – A Provocation’ (Cross of Light Temple, July 2009), we argue that ‘The Equinox’ is a repository of poor poetry, short stories of variable quality, sneering reviews of the work of others, and transcriptions of magical rites that possess neither sense nor efficacy and demonstrate the failure of the A.’.A.’.’s self-determined mission. Nevertheless, in the abundant pages of ‘The Equinox’ we find a number of points of similarity between the teachings contained in the so-called review of scientific illuminism and the practices and standpoint adopted by Cross of Light Temple.
Our purpose in making notes on ‘The Equinox’ was to highlight these points of similarity, rather than to provide correctly annotated notes for a pseudo-scholarly article. For this reason, the only reference to sources is the volume and number of the journal that stands at the head of each section.
Volume 1, Number 1
The following exhortations accord with the established Cross of Light Temple position, which is plainly stated in the first paragraph of the Temple’s mission statement: “[Cross of Light Temple] believes that religious/esoteric/occult texts, practices and organisations possess no fixed objective value or super temporal authority. The value of texts, practices and organisations should be
determined by the extent to which they encourage and enable individuals to experience authentic and profitable ‘higher’ states of consciousness.”
“The experimenter is encouraged to use his own intelligence, and not to rely upon any other person or persons, however distinguished, even among ourselves.”
“Let him further remember that he must in no wise rely upon, or believe in, that master. He must rely entirely upon himself, and credit nothing whatever but that which lies within his own knowledge and experience.”
“…the seeker is requested—nay, commanded— with all due solemnity by the Order of the A.’. A.’. to accept nothing as Truth until he has proved it so to be, to his own satisfaction and to his own honour.”
It could be said that Cross of Light Temple shares a similar nature to the Temple described towards the beginning of ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’:
“…a great light may shine forth through the darkness, and guide the toiling footsteps of man to that Temple which is built without hands…whose pillars are as columns of light, whose dome is as a crown of effulgence set betwixt the wings of Eternity, and upon whose altar flashes the mystic eucharist of God.”
The following exhortation and description also applies to Cross of Light Astral Temple:
“…build the Temple of God as set up by Solomon the King, which is placed between Time and Space; the pillars thereof are Eternity, and the walls Infinity, and the floor Immortality, and the Roof—but ye shall know of this hereafter!”
It is also interesting to note the following description of a Temple from ‘White Robe’, which was published by Cross of Light Temple in 2003:
“I come to a temple. The roof of the temple is made of clouds, bright clouds layered on top of each other, further than the eye can see. The floor of the temple is made of earth. The temple could accommodate a hundred thousand people but few are allowed to enter the house of worship. Spiritual beings fly beneath the roof of clouds. They travel in air bound chariots, hurling spears at the floor. The spears explode upon contact with the earth. A throne appears in the temple. A figure of dazzling brightness sits upon the throne.”
Cross of Light Temple places particular emphasis on the necessity of first hand personal experience. Once again, we quote from the first paragraph of the mission statement referred to above: “The Temple is concerned with first hand religious/esoteric/occult experience and personal spiritual development… The primary aim of Temple affiliates is to develop their own workable systems and to present them to the world through whatever means lie at their disposal.” This emphasis is echoed in the following passages from ‘The Equinox’:
“There is no revelation except thine own. There is no understanding except thine own. There is no consciousness apart from thee, but that it is held feodal to thee in the kingdom of thy Divinity. When thou knowest thou knowest, and there is none other beside thee, for all becometh as an armour around thee, and thou thyself as an invulnerable, invincible warrior of Light...”
“Open the book of Thyself in the cave under the cavern and read it by the light of thine own understanding, then presently thou shalt be born again, and be placed in the manger of the Moon in
the stable of the Sun.”
The following description of ‘The King’ relates to the Cross of Light Temple conception of Christ:
“The King is the undying One; he is the life and the master of life; he is the great living image of the Sun, the Sun, and the begetter of the Sun.”
And this brief description of quest and fulfilment – “The Unobtainable must be obtained, and in the obtaining of it is to be found the Golden Key of the Kingdom of Light.” – refers to the key that unlocks the gate of the Temple.
The following relates to the performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite, which is basically a ritual of self-initiation:
“May it be granted unto me in the daylight of this day to construct…a perfect ritual of self- initiation, so as to avoid the constant difficulty of assuming various God-forms. Then let that ritual be a constant and perfect link between Us . . . so that at all times I may be perfect in Thy Knowledge and Conversation, O mine Holy Guardian Angel! to whom I have aspired these ten years past.”
The sign of the Hanged Man, which frequently arises in the rituals of Cross of Light Temple, represents the descent of Adonai, another name for the Holy Guardian Angel. In ‘The Equinox’, Lord Adonai is conceived of as “a mighty angel glittering with infinite light.” This is the L.V.X., the Secret Light, the light that shineth in darkness, and the Light beyond light that fills the Temple.
The experience of the Corona of the Interior Sun and the Formless Ocean of White Brilliance reflected in the element of the Rosicrucian Formula of Reception that states “May thy heart be the Centre of Light!” relates to a core Cross of Light process, which leads to the awareness of wholeness “…in the Supra-Mundane Order; for there a Solar World and Boundless light subsist”, as mentioned in ‘The Book of Zoroaster’.
Finally, from this number, “The Arms of the Cross that spanneth all-embracing Space” is the equal- armed cross of Cross of Light Temple.
Volume 1, Number 2
“This is the Magical History Of the Dawning of the Light. Begun are the Whirling Motions; Formulated is the Primal Fire; Proclaimed is the Reign of the Gods of Light At the Threshold of the Infinite Worlds!”
The body is the locus for experience that seeks to transcend the body; this is the foundation of the Body of Light, which is formed of radiance “not of the Sun, nor of the Moon, nor of the Stars”; it is a similar radiance that transmutes into the Light beyond light that fills the Temple.
The diamond of SOAB adorning the robe of Japheth the Last Laugh in ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ bears comparison to the Hexagram of Air, which is formed in the shape of a diamond consisting of upward and downward pointing triangles, sharing the same base.
The Cross of Light Temple experience of non-duality is hinted at by the idea expressed in ‘The
Equinox’ that “the Ego and non-Ego unite explosively, their product having none of the qualities of either.”
“All time is filled; all space is filled; the phenomenon is infinite and eternal.” This summarises the attainment of a peak experience of Cross of Light Temple. Furthermore, “This is true even [if] its singleness makes the duration of the phenomenon but one minimum cogitabile. In short, it is experienced in some other kind of time, some other kind of space.”
There is much to recommend the definition of man’s sorry state in ‘The Pillar of Cloud’, with the proviso that if Crowley had really known the meaning of mercy and compassion, he would have chosen them over judgement:
“Obsessed by the chimera of his mind, lost in the labyrinth of his imagination, man wanders on through the shadowy dreamland he himself has begotten, slothfully accepting or eagerly rejecting, but ever seeking some unobtainable freedom, some power which will release him from those shackles he has in his studied folly and capricious ignorance welded to his thoughts…” The work continues to labour the point for several hundred words. And later in this number we find: “The truth is, it does not matter one rap by what name you christen the illusions of this life, call them substance, or ideas, or hallucinations, it makes not the slightest difference, for you are in them and they in you whatever you like to call them…”
Surely the account of Perdurabo’s awakening makes a mockery of those who would claim him as Antichrist, although note that Crowley is compelled to modify the majesty of Christ with the interjection of an adjective:
“And then an amber light surged round him, the fearful tapestry of torturing thought was rent asunder, the voices of many angels sang to him. “Master! Master!” he cried, “I have found Thee . . . O silver Christ . . ..”
Note in passing the loose connection between this ‘silver Christ’ and the legend of the birth of Japheth the Last Laugh, which is recounted in ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’.
The following passage is notable because it explicitly mentions a Cross of Light:
“In agony and joy he sought to fix the volatile, and transmute the formless human race into the dual child of the mystic Cross of Light, that is to say, to solve the problem of the Perfect Man.”
To further confound those who claim him as Antichrist, Crowley is happy to quote Augustine in support of his argument:
“I, Lord, went wandering like a strayed sheep, seeking Thee with anxious Reasoning without, whilst Thou wast within me. I wearied myself much in looking for Thee without, and yet Thou hast Thy habitation within me, if only I desire Thee and pant after Thee. I went round the Streets and Squares of the City of this World seeking Thee; and I found Thee not, because in vain I sought without for Him who was within myself.”
Cross of Light Temple is prepared to acknowledge the following sign of an initiate, not only of the Order that Crowley refers to, but also of other systems that share similar foundations:
“…the red Calvary Cross is astrally formulated above the astral White Triangle of the Three upon his forehead; so that so long as he belongeth unto the Order he may have that potent and sublime symbol as a link with his Higher Self, and as an aid in his search for the Forces of the Light Divine
for ever, if he only will it.”
Cross of Light Temple concurs with Crowley’s assessment of the absurd obscurities of the Golden Dawn rituals but we would argue that he did not exceed them in terms of clarity and directness.
Cross of Light Temple agrees with Crowley’s conclusion regarding the object of rituals:
“…they should bring the seeker step by step nearer to his quest, that is to say, to perfect him in the tongue he one day hopes to speak. Each Ritual, be it a letter, a word, a sentence, or a volume, should contain a lesson clear and precise, it should leave behind it so bright and dazzling a picture that the very thought of it will at once conjure up the power dressed in its simple yet luminous symbols.”
The following passage relates to the nature of the perception of the visionary beings that populate Cross of Light Astral Temple:
“…by a vision we mean… as certain and actual a fact to the mental eye, as the view of a landscape is considered to be to the physical eye itself.”
The following saying adds further weight to the emphasis that Cross of Light Temple places on first hand personal experience:
“The Seer is therefore the only judge of his visions, for they belong to a world in which he is absolute King…”
From the description of this visionary world we learn of encounters with beings that share marked (or less marked) similarities with the inhabitants of Cross of Light Astral Temple:
Firstly, the leader of the W.R.A:
“I found myself standing before an ancient man with snow-white beard, whose countenance was a- fired with benevolence.”
Secondly, an experience that brings to mind an outward characteristic of one of the Three, sometimes referred to as Gu in the Cross of Light Temple record:
“I found that I was robed in red garments in place of the white in which I had dressed myself.”
Thirdly, and finally in this context, an experience that resonates with the ‘outward’ form of Ga, another of the Three:
“…an angel descended with a green garment and gave it me…”
Volume 1, Number 3
“I abide as a River of Light between the Night of Chaos and the Day of Creation.”
The correspondence between the Light beyond light that fills the Temple and the kingdom of heaven within, represented by a circle within a circle, is summarised by the journal’s mention of “a sun within a sun.”
Once again, the importance of self-reliance and self-determination stressed by Cross of Light
Temple is stated in ‘The Equinox’:
“Be not satisfied with what we tell you; and act for yourself.”
Later in this number we find:
“… Nothing can be accepted on mere authority... no hard and fast rule of life can be universally applicable.”
Like Crowley, Cross of Light Temple recognises the importance of Tiphereth translating the influence of Kether.
The following represents a clear summary of what is attained through the performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite:
“Be thy Mind open unto the Higher! Be thy Heart the Centre of Light!... Let the White Brilliance of the divine Spirit descend.”
These lines relate to the sign of the Hanged Man and the descent of Adonai.
In this number, we find another specific mention of the Cross of Light:
“…the name of the Founder signifies the Rose and Cross of Christ, the fadeless Rose of Creation, the immortal Cross of Light.”
It is interesting to compare the next passage with the experience of the cave in Co. Sligeach, 1991, which follows it:
“It is situated in the centre of the Earth, in the Mountain of the Caverns, the Mystic Mountain of Abiegnus; which is the mountain of God in the Centre of the Universe, the sacred Rosicrucian Mountain of Initiation.”
“The land falls quiet and springs to life beneath the rising and falling sun; from Knocknarea to Carrowmore, from bright Lough Gill to twilit Glencar, from the holy well to the holy wood above it. I enter the mouth of a cave and travel towards the heart of a mountain. I offer up a sacrifice on the altar I find there.” (from ‘Nemeton’, included in ‘Balm of Gilead’, published by Cross of Light Temple in 2006).
Frater Non Serviam of Cross of Light Temple is pictured making the sign of the X of LVX by the River Porter in Sheffield in 2004.
The following is related to the altar of Cross of Light Astral Temple, which is also a tomb, and is filled with light:
“That which is alive is buried there: not that which is dead…”
The Equal Armed Cross is the sign of Light, the Light beyond light that fills the Temple, and the light brought into the Temple through the performance of the six-part rite, which shares a similar nature to the following:
“The Great Light dawns, The Flashing Brilliance of the All-Pervading Spirit of the Gods descends:
the Divine Spirit is upon him, and all bow in adoration of that White Glory.”
We discover further evidence to confound the notion of Crowley as Antichrist:
“I, P——, Frater Ordinis Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, a Lord of the Paths in the Portal of the Vault of the Adepts, a 5°=6° of the Order of the Golden Dawn; and an humble servant of the Christ of God...”
The following is an indicator of the consummation inherent in the opening and closing signs of the Cross of Light six-part rite:
“…let him lift up his heart unto that Light, and dwell therein, and aspire even unto that which is beyond.”
The following relates to the Cross of Light Temple experience of the kingdom of heaven without and within, Malkuth in Kether and Kether in Malkuth:
“The life that is within and the life that is without, are not these the heaven and the earth that the Truth created?”
“The truth in man is the light of the world. Thus we have known from the beginning, and we shall know it unto the end . . .”
Finally, in relation to this number, the following relates to the Cross of Light Temple conception of the blood of Christ as a shield, recorded in the Temple record and given poetical form in ‘The mouth is the womb of the word’:
“O Thou flashing shield of the sun, as a discus hurled by the hand of Space!”
Volume 1, Number 4
This number features a woman in a story described as “a poem in green and white”. We note in passing that these are the colours associated with the garments of Olanziel, an inhabitant of Cross of Light Astral Temple, whose function is to invest the Temple with a religious sensibility.
“…the Son of the Sun!” is a terse definition of Christ as conceived by Cross of Light Temple.
The “Lamp of Invisible Light” or L.I.L. mentioned in ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’ can be compared with the Light beyond light that fills the Temple at the conclusion of the ritual that is conducted in Cross of Light Astral Temple.
“Let my heart be the Centre of Light…” – and it is, through the construction of the opening and closing signs of the Cross of Light six-part rite.
“It is thy soul, which is within all.” Cross of Light Temple concurs, and would add that the all is within thy soul.
“…the Light which guides the aspirant is Himself, his Holy Guardian Angel, the Âtman—Adonai.” Once again, this Light is the Light beyond light that fills the Temple.
The following passage is an interesting development of the implications of there being nothing that possesses inherent super temporal authority, as stated in the first paragraph of the Cross of Light
Temple mission statement:
“Once and for all do not forget that nothing in this world is permanently good or evil; and, so long as it appears to be so, then remember that the fault is the seer's and not in the thing seen, and that the seer is still in an unbalanced state.”
“Tiphereth was surrounded by rays as of a sun.” This is experienced in the heart of the opening and closing sign of the Cross of Light six-part rite and again in the meditative space that represents the heart of the rite. Later we find: “In Tiphereth the aspirant attains to no less a state than that of conversation with his Holy Guardian Angel…”
The following corresponds to a core Cross of Light Temple experience:
“Ray of Divine White Brilliance descending… Let all things vanish in the Illimitable Light.”
And this could stand as a description of the W.R.A., inhabitants of Cross of Light Astral Temple:
“…amongst them stood Archangels of a pale silver which flashed forth rays of gold. Above all was the Formless Light.”
“…svastika wheels whirling, and again above this the Light ineffable.” This has been experienced in the meditative space of the six-part rite.
The following description can be seen as a conjunction of one of the Three, sometimes referred to as Gu, and the W.R.A., inhabitants of Cross of Light Astral Temple:
“Dressed in white and red Abramelin robes…”
Ain Soph Aur, or “the light of lights”, Illimitable Light, source of all light, “the light which shines there beyond the heaven behind all things, behind each in the highest worlds, the highest of all”, as it were “the Sun which is before all and beyond all Suns” is the Light beyond light of the Temple.
The following passage relates to the aim of the activities and system of Cross of Light Temple, although the Temple does not state things in these terms through modesty and correctly formulated caution:
“He has become a priest unto himself, his own Guardian; he may administer to himself the holy sacrament of God in Truth and in Right, he has become Exempt from the shackles of Earth. He is the Supreme Man, one step more he enters the Sanctuary of God and becomes one with the Brotherhood of Light.”
The Brotherhood of Light is illuminated by “the Splendour of the Inner Sun”, which relates to the conception of Ain Soph Aur outlined above. The Brother of Light is “Filled with the glory of the great light that had arisen in him…”
Yet again, we find echoes of the Cross of Light Temple insistence on self-reliance and personal experience:
“By discovery here we mean individual experiment resulting in personal discovery; another person’s discovery only begets illusion and comment. Individual discovery is the only true discovery worth consideration.”
Finally, for this number, another definition of a central Cross of Light Temple experience:
“…upon the Plane of Spirit, Subject and Object join to disappear, leaving a transcendent unity.”
Volume 1, Number 5
“But the reflection of the truth hath been shown in the lower Sephiroth. And its balance is in Beauty, and therefore have they who sought only beauty come nearest to the truth. For the beauty receiveth directly three rays from the supernals, and the others no more than one. So, therefore, they that have sought after majesty and power and victory and learning and happiness and gold, have been discomfited.”
In a sense, Cross of Light Temple performs “the Works of the Magic of Light.” We have often imagined “a ray of Love going out from one's heart, and embracing all beings…” We clearly remember engaging in this pastime in the crowded carriages of London Underground trains.
Generally speaking, Cross of Light Temple has little time for pseudo-Buddhist practice but we recognise the validity of the following method:
“…the meditation on the Four Sublime States --- on Love, and Pity, and Happiness, and Indifference. The meditation on love will overcome in you all hatred and wrath; the meditation on Pity will overcome your Sankháras of cruelty and unkindness; the meditation on Happiness will do away with all feelings of envy and malice; and the meditation on Indifference will take from you all sympathy with evil ways and thoughts.”
Cross of Light Astral Temple is located in the Yetziratic world, as described in ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’:
“The third is the Yetziratic world… Olahm ha-Yetzirah, or world of formation and of Angels, which proceeds from Briah, and though less refined in substance, is still without matter. It is in this angelic world where those intelligent and incorporeal beings reside who are wrapped in a luminous garment, and who assume a form when they appear to man.”
The following fragment sheds interesting light on the basic conception of the Cross of Light:
“…the word Lux, which itself is contained in the Cross.”
Cross of Light Solar Temple is founded on the recognition that:
“In the Sun (Osiris) is the Secret of the Spirit.”
The light of the Cross of Light is “LVX, the redeeming light.”
“Nine is the best symbol of the Unchangeable One, since by whatever number it is multiplied, the sum of the figures is always 9.”
Note the cover of ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’, the original artwork for which is reproduced here:
Cross of Light forms “The Gateway of the Word of Light.”
“In the brightness of the stone are three lights, brighter than all, which revolve ceaselessly.” Something like this has been witnessed as the revolution of light in the meditative space of the six- part rite.
The following relates to the Cross of Light Temple conception of the cross of infinite extension:
“My arms were out in the form of a cross, and that Cross was extended, blazing with light into infinity.”
“Now in the centre within me is a glowing sun.” This is achieved through the opening and closing signs and in the meditative space of the six-part rite.
The following can be compared to the sending out of light that is taken into the heart from above in the rituals of Cross of Light Temple:
“I send forth a shaft of my light, even as a ladder let down from the heaven upon the earth, and …I swear unto thee that the path shall be open henceforth for evermore.”
This relates to the understanding that the body of Christ is a sword, as expressed in the currently unpublished Cross of Light manuscript ‘The mouth is the womb of the word’:
“Hath he not the sword and the spear of the Warrior Lord of the Sun?”
“…the Cross is the Golden light of noon…” This phrase relates to both the appearance of the Cross of Light and to the light that fills the Temple.
In relation to “…the fifty gates of Understanding…” note the fifty visions of Cross of Light Temple recorded in May 2006 and ordered in ‘A Provisional History of Cross of Light Temple’.
The Equinox refers to “a Temple of Initiation. Verily also is it a tomb.” The altar of Cross of Light Astral Temple is also a tomb, albeit a tomb filled with light.
The following relates to the Body of Light taken on through performance of the six-part rite:
“…he hath no form because he is of the substance of light…”
This relates to the blue triangle surrounded by gold, which is a gateway and one of the signs of Cross of Light Astral Temple:
“…and the border thereof shall be blue and gold.”
“In this the gold is Kether, the blue is Chokmah, the green is Binah.” The gold and blue of the triangle referred to above. The green of the robe of one of the Three, known as Ga, and the outer robe of Olanziel, inhabitants of Cross of Light Astral Temple.
And finally, for this number:
“…the robe is spangled with golden stars…” as is the robe of Seraphiel, another inhabitant of Cross of Light Astral Temple, whose function is to invest the Temple with a magical sensibility.
Volume 1, Number 6
This issue of ‘The Equinox’ is greatly concerned with the so-called ‘Rites of Eleusis’, which are a stumbling block to anyone who would take Crowley seriously. The ‘Rites of Eleusis’ represent the heights of Crowley’s absurdity and folly. Here we are dealing with the contents of Crowley’s consciousness and the willingness of his followers to subject themselves to nonsense. I suppose the ‘Rites of Eleusis’ were designed for performance rather than reading, and that participating or witnessing them might have produced a different effect than reading does. Nevertheless, Crowley chooses to present them as a matter of urgency as a ‘special supplement’ to The Equinox, Volume 1, Number 6, where they stand as the epitome of the unprofitable gibberish that characterises the journal and makes a mockery of its mission statement, ‘The Method of Science – The Aim of Religion’.
There is relatively little in Volume 1, Numbers 6 to 9 that resonates with Cross of Light Temple.
With regard to Volume 1, Number 6, Cross of Light Temple approves of the saying:
“The Secret of the Father is in the Secret of the Son. And the Secret of the Son is in the Secret of the Holy Ghost.”
And recognises that:
“It is the Lord of Heaven that awakens the Children of the Light.”
And generally approves of the intention that is born from heeding the suggestion:
“To grow straight in the strength of thy spirit, and live out thy life as the light…”
Volume 1, Number 7
“…the Light that is beyond the Stars” is the Light beyond light of Cross of Light Astral Temple. As it says in ‘Liber Vel Legis’, this “Light is innermost, essential man.” Furthermore, “It being worshipped in the centre, the light also fills the circumference, so that all is light.”
The following relates to the construction of Cross of Light Astral Temple:
“…let him seek ever to bring inward the symbols, so that even in his well-ordered shrine the whole
ceremony revolve inwardly in his heart, that is to say in the temple of his body, of which the outer temple is but an image. For in the brain is the shrine, and there is no Image therein; and the breath of man is the incense and the libation.”
The following could be viewed as the heart of the Cross of Light six-part rite depicted as the result of evocation:
“O Bright One, O Sun of Glory! Thou hast called me— should I not then hasten to Thy Presence? …in Thy Words and Ways is Light.”
“…the wise perceive the golden stars in the vault of azure”, like the stars that adorn the robe of Seraphiel.
Cross of Light Temple approves of this ‘old mystical definition of God’: “He Whose centre is everywhere and Whose circumference nowhere.”
The following statement casts light on the Cross of Light Temple experience of non-duality:
“For so long as any knower remains, there is no thing known. Knowledge is the loss of the Knower in the Known.”
This next short extract highlights a difficulty encountered in the fulfilment of the Cross of Light Temple mission as a death conscious middle-aged man living in the wreckage of the idle luxury of 21st century Western society:
“…the petty thoughts and the qliphothic thoughts and the sad thoughts. These must be rooted out…”
The following statements relate to both the sign of the blue and gold triangle, which is also a gateway, and to the changing appearance of the robe of Seraphiel:
“My colour is black to the blind, but the blue and gold are seen of the seeing.”
“Blue am I and gold in the light of my bride…it is the light higher than eyesight.”
Volume 1, Number 8
There was a time when the fundamental principles and proclamations of the O.T.O. possessed depth and meaning:
“To this secret order every wise and spiritually enlightened person belongs by right of his or her nature; because they all, even if they are personally unknown to each other, are one in their purpose and object, and they all work under the guidance of the one light of truth. Into this sacred society no one can be admitted by another, unless he has the power to enter it himself by virtue of his own interior illumination: neither can any one, after he has once entered, be expelled, unless he should expel himself by becoming unfaithful to his principles, and forget again the truths which he has learned by his own experience…
As a matter of course, those persons who are already sufficiently spiritually developed to enter into conscious communion with the great spiritual brotherhood will be taught directly by the spirit of wisdom…
Our community has existed ever since the first day of creation when the gods spoke the divine command: Let there be light! and it will continue to exist till the end of time. It is the Society of the Children of Light, who live in the light and have attained immortality therein…Our place of meeting is the Temple of the Holy Spirit pervading the universe.”
This could stand as a description of many Western esoteric orders. It is not O.T.O. specific.
Once more ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’ becomes focused on, as it were, the Light beyond light of Cross of Light Temple:
“[I] went up in my Body of Light…” and encountered, merged with, or became “the Lord of the Triumph of Light.”
Further evidence in support of the novel idea of Crowley as a Christian, albeit a reactionary, non- conformist Christian, is provided by his production of ‘Hail, Mary!’ a collection of verse in praise of the Mother of God, formerly published anonymously as ‘Amphora’. The work was praised for its devotional treatment of its subject.
Volume 1, Number 9
“Am I an animal, and is the world without a purpose? Or am I a soul in a body? Or am I, one and indivisible in some incredible sense, a spark of the infinite light of God?”
This passage from ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’ is worthy of serious consideration:
“Should therefore the candidate hear the name of any God, let him not rashly assume that it refers to any known God, save only the God known to himself. Or should the ritual speak in terms (however vague) which seem to imply Egyptian, Taoist, Buddhist, Indian, Persian, Greek, Judaic, Christian, or Moslem philosophy, let him reflect that this is a defect of language.”
Again, we hear of the Cross of Light aligned “…operation of the Magic of Light.”
This gnomic cut off couplet speaks plainly of the heart of the Temple:
“The light is mine; its rays consume Me…”
And then:
“Send forth a spark of thine illimitable light and force, we beseech Thee…” The request is granted; and the spark lodges in the heart and spreads outwards.
Finally,
“If I am immortal, what is the difference between a long time and a short time? A thousand years and a day are obviously the same thing from the point of view of 'for ever'.”
Cross of Light Temple notes that in death man lives again, and lives for ever.
Volume 1, Number 10
“Our personal light specialized, brought forth, determined by our own overmastering affection, is
the germ of our paradise or of our Hell. Each one of us (in a sense) conceives, bears, and nourishes his good or evil angel. The conception of truth gives birth in us to the good genius; intentional untruth hatches and brings up nightmares and phantoms. Everyone must nourish his children; and our life consumes itself for the sake of our thoughts. Happy are those who find again immortality in the creations of their soul! Woe unto them who wear themselves out to nourish falsehood and to fatten death! For every one will reap the harvest of his own sowing.” - ‘The Key of the Mysteries’, Eliphas Levi
This number devotes considerable space to Crowley’s translation of Levi’s ‘Key of the Mysteries’. Strictly speaking, this work falls outside the scope of this comparison. Of what remains we note that “Porta Lucis, the Gate of Light, is one of the titles of Malkuth” and from ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’:
“Hail to the Lord of the Sun the sun-dawn of the world in his heart I bear upon my breast the golden sign Here shall be set the sigil of the sun…” these sayings having been harmoniously rearranged by Cross of Light Temple.
Volume 3, Number 1
“One single experience, in duration it may be but a few seconds of terrestrial time, is sufficient to destroy the belief in the reality of our vain life on earth.”
Cross of Light Temple is thankful that Volume 2 of ‘The Equinox’ consisted of Stainless Silence. The weight of a diligent reading of the publication becomes difficult to bear. Following the resumption of speech, we note:
Liber II, The Message of the Master Therion, is clear, purposeful and impressive.
LIBER DCCCXXXVII, THE LAW OF LIBERTY is good and worthy of further attention.
This passage relates to Cross of Light Temple’s meditation on the kingdom of God within, and the sun at the centre of the kingdom, which is the source of the Light beyond light:
“Behold! the Kingdom of God is within you, even as the Sun standeth eternal in the heavens, equal at midnight and at noon. He riseth not: he setteth not: it is but the shadow of the earth which concealeth him, or the clouds upon her face.”
We agree that “there is in us all, latent, that Light wherein no error may endure”.
We end this comparison by relating the following to the Cross of Light Temple experience of the whirling light at the centre, and the swift revolving cross:
“Dorje (the swastika) is the whirling power which throws off from itself every other influence.”
We take our leave from studying ‘The Equinox’ with the intention of strengthening the foundations of the Cross of Light Temple of Light.
Part Three
Chaos magicians don’t inhabit Temples of Light. They pass through wastelands.
There are many difficulties associated with comprehending the ‘system’ of Austin Osman Spare. Firstly, it is exceedingly obscure. This probably explains the fondness of speculative Chaos magicians (reactionary transgressors) for engaging with and interpreting the work of AOS. It is so obscure that it allows for numerous interpretations, the majority of which must be spurious in the light of the system’s dependence on the personality of its author, regardless of his penchant for abstract transcendence, as exemplified in his notion of Zos-Kia. Secondly, the system lacks internal logic. It is an act of individual will that binds together concepts such as Zos-Kia, Neither-Neither, sigils and the Death Posture. Thirdly, Spare’s eccentric forms of literary expression compound the difficulties outlined above. In truth, AOS was poorly educated (which should not be held against him, as it is not necessarily an impediment) and more or less semi-literate (which should, to the extent that he produced written work). Cross of Light Temple maintains that the virtue of AOS resides in his skill as a fine artist and that his obscure magical system survives by virtue of his excellence in that field. Furthermore, this excellence is not apparent in all of his art works but only in a portion, and then to varying degrees.
“To speak of I and Other, Ego and Subconscious, This and That, belies the fact that there is only the single continuum of Consciousness…Self has no past or future, it is eternal present, eternally recurring.”
At the heart of Gavin Semple’s ‘Zos-Kia: An Introductory Essay on the Art and Sorcery of Austin Osman Spare’, amidst the author’s flowery abstractions, lies a simple and clear definition:
“Simply put, that which is immediately present in consciousness as now is ‘I’ or Zos; all else is ‘Other’ or Kia…”
This is easy to grasp, and suggests a practice that is profitable to engage in. In this context, it is interesting to note Gu, an inhabitant of Cross of Light Astral Temple, whose function “is to create from forces residing outside the sphere of consciousness.” But is Semple’s definition true, or is it pertinent, and in what sense can it be depended upon as a key to understanding?
Spare’s definition of Kia is not as straightforward as Semple’s. Indeed, it does not accord with the essayist’s statement at all. One might say that Spare’s prose degenerates to the point of borderline meaningless nonsense when addressing this idea:
“The absolute freedom which being free is mighty enough to be ‘reality’ at any time: therefore is not potential or manifest (except as its instant possibility) by ideas of freedom or ‘means’, but by the Ego being free to receive it, by being free of ideas about it and not believing. The less said of it (Kia) the less obscure.” We wonder if there is something missing from Semple’s quote, which is taken from the definitions in ‘The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love)’ (1913). And what does Spare actually mean?
Semple highlights Spare’s refusal to accept arbitrary authority and the hierarchical systems arising from such acceptance, which is a viewpoint shared by Cross of Light Temple.
In treating of sigils, Semple explains that they might be received “in dreaming or trance or most effectively through automatic drawing.” The primary Cross of Light sign was received through a form of automatic mark making in a trance like state, as if ‘from another world’, but unlike the Spare sigil system, where the meaning or content of glyphs is not necessarily immediately apparent, the meaning of the Cross of Light symbol is easy to grasp and explain.
In the final analysis, and despite its failings, which are primarily attributable to the pseudo- intellectual vainglory of the author, Semple’s essay is to be welcomed as an interesting response to its subject. However, the system outlined in the essay has far more to do with Semple than it does with AOS.
Cross of Light Temple is familiar with the core magical works of AOS (see for example the essay on ‘Anathema of Zos’ included in ‘Balm of Gilead’) but our reading of original sources during the Temples of Light process was confined to ‘The Logomachy of Zos’.
“The dilemma facing those who search for the Unknown (Self and Truth) is that they will never know when they have found it.”
Semple often quotes ‘The Logomachy of Zos’. It lends itself to quotation because it’s a collection of aphorisms and other short sayings. It is not properly ordered or arranged. It is a hastily gathered collection, a form of self-aggrandising apologia or whining self-justification. Not only does it lack all semblance of narrative coherence, it is also devoid of anything approaching a satisfactory organising structure.
In many respects, the Logomachy (whatever that means) should not be viewed as a work on magic or anything related to magic, but rather as a mishmash of worthless drivel, exhortations to self- reliance, banal truisms, individualistic psychology, doggerel philosophy and occasional flashes of insight.
Two illustrations of what Cross of Light Temple means by ‘drivel’:
“Subject understanding object by 'as if' may become, with courage, an ingressive emotional experience giving mutual expression.”
“If all phenomena are a fluxing unabsoluteness and are Absoluteness manifest, then is it surprising that we manufacture our ego that is neither-either but a weirder autism?”
Rather than using the blanket pejorative term ‘drivel’, we could say that these are examples of obscure points, somewhat poorly expressed.
The following saying bears comparison with the idea expressed in the Cross of Light poem title ‘The mouth is the womb of the word’:
“Within the Alphabet lies all the arbitrary abracadabra of our knowledge.”
The following sentences relate to the Cross of Light insistence on the primacy of authentic, first- hand experience:
“We believe only as deeply as we have experienced of the believed.”
“Real belief is not taught but recollected: belief to be real must be profound— more even, a psychic experience, not lip-avowal.”
“You may delude your fore-consciousness, but not what is beneath.”
Cross of Light Temple can relate to these products of Spare’s tendency towards ecstatic, transcendent, light suffused mysticism:
“A mystic is one who experiences more of himself than he can articulate.”
“We do not live eternally yet seek knowledge of eternity.”
“Darkness is only a degree of light, imperceptible to us.”
Despite Spare’s vehement condemnation of academic psychology, he is happy to engage in psychological speculation himself:
“We have little knowledge of ourselves, and others appear more real than we are. We have little self-liking and hate our reflection in others, and we thereby become unreal. No man has seen himself at any time. There is great bathos in this search for our unknown self and our labour to create a permanent ‘I’. We invent selves, a façade hiding what we seek. We live in a maze of re- recollection and re-acting to the past, hence our dithering I.”
Finally, the following novel interpretation produced by Spare can be likened to the Cross of Light Temple experience of a circle becoming a square, or a diamond becoming a circle, as described more than once in the Cross of Light record:
“…square and circle are zero forms – the symbols of eternity as ‘time-space’; all shapes are their partition, combination, variation or asymmetry. The square is the rectified and utilitarian form of the circle: zero, the symbol of eternity as ‘time-space’.”
There can be something attractive about the playfulness of Chaos magic types. Phil Hine was acknowledged as a leader in the field, although there seems something curious about the notion of a leader in the field of Chaos magic, which prides itself on its refusal of hierarchies and denies the validity of the arbitrary authority that upholds more traditional magical orders. Again, we return to the notion of the reactionary transgressor; they go so far, sometimes not very far at all, but they can’t take the not so revolutionary step of doing entirely without leaders. During the Temples of Light process, Cross of Light Temple engaged with Hine’s ‘Oven-Ready Chaos’, ‘Permutations’ (a collection of four essays), ’Group Explorations in Ego Magick’ and ‘Running Magical Workshops: Notes for Facilitators’.
‘Oven-Ready Chaos’ is a very good introductory history and outline of the subject, although I don’t think that Joel Biroco and his followers would agree. Chaos magic as defined by Hine recognises the mystery of what is around us, immediately apparent. It does not take place in some mediated and specialised outside realm. Further, “All acts of personal/collective liberation are magical acts.”
Hine’s general definition of what magic can offer is benign to the point of reading like an extract from a manual of positive thinking and self-improvement that might be found in the self-help section of Waterstones:
“1. A means to disentangle yourself from the attitudes and restrictions you were brought up with and which define the limits of what you may become. 2. Ways to examine your life to look for, understand and modify behaviour, emotional and thought patterns which hinder learning and growth. 3. Increase of confidence and personal charisma. 4. A widening of your perception of just what is possible, once you set heart and mind on it. 5. To develop personal abilities, skills and perceptions – the more we see the world, the more we appreciate that it is alive. 6. To have fun. Magick should be enjoyed. 7. To bring about change - in accordance with will.”
We note the resemblance between this definition and the general issue TOPY communications from the early 1980s. Other lists by the list loving Hine are more interesting. He defines the principles of Chaos magick as:
− The avoidance of dogmatism − Personal experience is paramount (but note that the passage outlining this idea also acknowledges the existence of ‘true adepts’) − Technical excellence (the development of skills and abilities) − Deconditioning – from “the mesh of beliefs, attitudes and fictions about self, society, and the world.” − Diverse approaches – “Chaos Magicians are free to choose from any available magical system, themes from literature, television, religions, cults, parapsychology, etc.” − Gnosis - One of the keys to magical ability is the ability to enter Altered States of Consciousness at will.
He defines the characteristics of an experience of illumination as:
1. Unity - a fading of the self-other divide 2. Transcendence of space and time as barriers to experience 3. Positive sensations 4. A sense of the numinous
And he highlights the following effects of active engagement in the Chaos magic process:
1. Change 2. Crisis 3. Transcendence 4. Transformation 5. Predisposition to further change.
Your response to these lists can determine whether or not you have a real interest in Chaos magic, or Chaos magic as described by Hine. There are direct correspondences between many (but by no means all) of the items on these lists and the theory and practice of Cross of Light Temple.
Chaos magic as surveyed by Hine prided itself on simplicity over complexity, before the wide scale adoption and modification of Spare’s sigil method (note also TOPY in this context), path workings based on fantastic literature and an unchecked proliferation of magazines, tapes and books clamouring for the attention of a self-selected, self-serving elite and their followers (an incestuous and sorrowful scene).
Pete Carroll’s take on symbol systems, as related by Hine, reads like a paraphrase and clarification of AOS on belief and ‘magical’ work:
“Pete Carroll’s Liber Null…presented the bare bones of the magical techniques which can be employed to bring about change in one’s circumstances. Liber Null concentrated on techniques, saying that the actual methods of magic are basically shared by the different systems, despite the differing symbols, beliefs and dogmas. What symbol systems you wish to employ is a matter of choice, and the webs of belief which surround them are means to an end, rather than ends in themselves…”
‘Oven-Ready Chaos’ mentions AOS fairly frequently and is pro-sigilisation (so what of the
emphasis on self-reliance, as the sigil method is a ‘traditional’ or ‘System’ based exercise as described by Spare, and practised before him according to Gavin Semple?). At one point, Hine defines Kia as “the divine spark of consciousness”, a mystical conception, which has nothing to do with Kia as expressed by AOS (or glossed by Gavin Semple).
Cross of Light Temple agrees with Hine’s assertions that “A key to magical success is veracity of belief…” and “…one act that shows you that MAGICK WORKS is worth a thousand arguments”, and we would not argue with his assessment of the importance of the magical record.
‘Permutations’ is a fairly interesting diversion that makes some interesting points (e.g. “So much of what passes for ‘occult laws’ is just a ‘spiritualised’ justification of social conditioning and prejudice”) but there is little in the work that has any bearing on Cross of Light Temple beyond a few comments in relation to mysticism from ‘Stirring the Cauldron of Chaos’, the fourth and final essay in the collection.
Firstly, Cross of Light Temple does not share the viewpoint of the ‘advocates of the Chaos Current’ as stated in this quote:
“In attempting to disentangle contemporary magick from the trappings of religiosity or transcendentalism, advocates of the Chaos Current have taken up a pretty hard-line stand on the subject of Mysticism. They’re having none of it, basically.”
And secondly, we agree with the second sentence of the following extract, whilst viewing the first sentence as a device to enable the author to put forward enough contrasting speculations between WORK and PLAY to spin out the article to a satisfactory length:
“Magick is about WORK, whilst Mysticism is PLAY. These are not ‘opposite’ states, but complementary experiences.”
‘Group Explorations in Ego Magick’ is primarily an outline of group work exercises aimed at facilitating personal development in a supportive setting. It consists of standard group work techniques with little or no real magick-specific content (unless we take refuge in the correct but all embracing notion that every act is a magical act), where ‘ego magick’ can be translated as ‘self- awareness’. Cross of Light Temple concurs with the following points made in the introduction to the article:
“It is very easy to make a shift in belief content which does not actually change the process (the way the belief is enacted) - i.e. a shift from fanatical Christian to fanatical Pagan isn’t very challenging.”
And:
“We are really good at fooling ourselves as to what constitutes, for us, liberating behaviour, and we all seem to share a common human tendency that goes: “I am more liberated/alive/free because I am into magic/wear a bolt through my tongue/leather trousers, than those who don’t.”
‘Running Magical Workshops’ is a collection of basically sound general principles regarding workshop facilitation combined with a few pointers specifically related to magical training events, none of which are essential.
In ‘Oven-Ready Chaos’, Phil Hine says:
“By late ’87 one of the weirder Chaos groups, the Lincoln Order Of Neuromancers (L.O.O.N) had announced the ‘death’ of Chaos magic, asserting in their freely-circulated ‘chainbook’ ‘Apikorsus’, that:
“Chaos magic is already dead, and the only debate is between the vultures over who gets the biggest bones.”
To say that ‘Apikorsus’ is not to be taken seriously does not necessarily imply that it lacks value. ‘Apikorsus’ identifies a number of key concepts that are common to the “various systems / traditions/ paradigms of Magick.” It urges readers to test the validity of these concepts through personal experience.
We note with particular interest points 9 and 10 of the 10 point manifesto that introduces the chain book:
“9. The entities which may be encountered during our experience of those other realities are real within their own world. To question their relative existence is unimportant, since the universe behaves as if they do exist.”
“10. Magical ability is engendered through an inward, transformative journey.”
We also agree that: “Although there is much talk of 'magical secrets', the only 'true' secrets are those which can be personally discovered through the light of direct magical experience.”
‘Apikorsus’ demonstrates a clear grasp of the function of ritual:
“During ritual, the network of concepts, symbols and mental maps 'come alive' and the direct experience produces a change in consciousness.”
And later:
“Ritual creates… a sphere wherein everything… is an expression of will…We have found that generally, it is simply structured rituals which have the most effective result.”
Based on an experience in the White Horse pub in Chichester in 1986, we concur with the book’s assertion that: “In Magical Combat, projection of the bioaura can disrupt the field of another person, the 'push' resulting in psycho-physical trauma.” We achieved remarkable results in the field of magical projection along these lines but we did not choose to pursue the experiment because we had no interest in causing wide scale trauma.
Finally, the following project outlines can be compared to the brief project outlines contained in the Cross of Light manifesto ‘Free Art Free People’, which is contained in ‘Balm of Gilead’, although ‘Free Art Free People’ was an assault on the commercial art world (amongst other things) rather than a satire about Chaos magick:
“Experiment with fake radio news broadcasts. Make tapes announcing the weird and wacky then play them quietly in crowded trains and buses. Watch people thinking 'did I really hear that?'”
“Why buy books on Chaos Magick when you can write your own! It's simple, all you need is a load of paper, pens, glue, and the mind-altering substance of your choice. Go to the library and choose books at random, collect a pile of magazines from wherever you can get them free. Record bits of other people's conversations. Get all your bits together and place on the floor in a big pile. Ingest
the sacrament, throw the pile about and start cutting things (not the library books!) into clippings. When you enter gnosis (or just get bored) sweep the lot into a big cardboard box. Don't forget to insert the word 'chaos' into the text every 2 or three phrases.”
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
A SOLAR WORLD AND ENDLESS LIGHT SUBSIST!
This article is a response to the Preface (by Sapere Aude – meaning ‘dare to know’ or ‘dare to be wise’, i.e. William Wynn Westcott) and Introduction (by L.O., i.e. Percy Bullock) to the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster (1895).
The provenance of the Oracles is uncertain and explained in mythological terms. In his preface, Sapere Aude examines their attribution to Zoroaster, a name which he presents as a generic term open to numerous speculative treatments. Frater S.A. chooses to focus on the following interpretations of the name:
1. Fashioning images of hidden fire. 2. The image of secret things. 3. A contemplator of the stars.
And Cross of Light Temple says that by contemplating the stars, we learn to fashion images of hidden fire into the form or likeness of secret things.
The vitality of the Oracles is served by their evocative obscurity. S.A. quotes orthodox authorities in support of the idea that Plato was influenced by the work. He further links the religious expressions of the Chaldeans and the Greeks by claiming that the Chaldeans venerated an Oracle as the Greeks did at Delphi.
In his introduction, L.O. acknowledges the profound subtlety of the mystical system expounded in the Oracles. He suggests that the system was transmitted by Father to Son and that this hereditary ‘guild’ was occupied solely by the pursuit of philosophy, of which the Oracles formed but a part.
L.O. links the Oracles to the Kabalah and Egyptian cosmogony and to the Tarot by way of Kabalah. The Kabalah as interpreted by L.O. is an exposition of the emanation of the Illimitable Light, which is conceived as the source of all things. The worlds of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah correspond with the Cross of Light Temple stations of light, and the light beyond light of Cross of Light Temple corresponds with the Intelligible World of Supramundane Light in the Chaldean scheme outlined by L.O.
The World of Supramundane Light. The Paternal Depth in the First Mind. It descends without descending. The Images of the Second Mind Embodied in the Empyrean. Descending without descent.
The inflexible guides and implacable thunders Of the Third Mind in the Ethereal World Descending. The Flower of Fire That creates the Universe Of elementary matter congealed Into the enlivened Earth That gives rise to this utterance. We descend to rise.
The World of God is a boundless and radiant configuration of limitless light. It devolves force to intelligence and wisdom and to the crown that balances them. It descends through the idea of formation into material form and gives the shining to the substantial earth. And again, it falls in order to rise.
You archangels, unzoned gods and deities, You angels and higher demons, You rise by degrees to glorify The human soul. You elements of fire, air, earth and water, Given to baseness, evil, And flung out of the world; We see you as a mirror image Of that which is ranged against you.
There are Three things. The First is eternal, without beginning or end. The Second has a beginning but no end. The Third has a beginning in time and will end.
Cross of Light Temple recognises the validity of this scheme and COLT's mission can be interpreted as the attempt to realise the three in one, so that the eternal and endless are experienced despite temporal limitations. Cross of Light Temple maintains that the limited is a particular manifestation of the limitless. We also concede the increasing immateriality of the worlds encountered during the course of the inward journey.
Beyond the supramundane light, beyond any conception of light whatsoever, lies what Cross of Light Temple terms light beyond light, that it might be known by those who have experienced it (fugitive, shifting but certain, given a name of convenience). Light beyond light is beyond light and yet light proceeds from it, not darkness, and the light proceeding from light beyond light eventually appears as light conceivable, and this idea of light inevitably manifests as light that can be perceived by the eyes (indeed it invests the eyes with the potential for its perception).
One world is the foundation of the other and there is no higher and lower in what is connected.
The paths of the soul Are traced by fire Merged with earth To produce a warming glow. This enlivened earth Is the foundation Of the light that informs it.
“In every Word a Triad shineth, of which the Monad is the ruling principle.”
Cross of Light Temple says: beginning, end, endurance; bright, brighter, brighter still; the foundation, the light and the light beyond light. Cross of Light Temple constructs the variegated tripartite symbol in each of the four stations of the inward body of light, which correspond to the four worlds (the one we are in, and the three that are said to reign above it).
The core of all worlds consists of the same substance, albeit perceived in different ways, and commonly held to be not only insubstantial but also non-existent.
We agree that:
“There is a venerable name projected through the worlds with a sleepless revolution.”
We note in passing the Platonic scheme that places the intellect in the head, the soul and the higher passions in the heart, and the appetites of the soul in the area beneath the navel.
The divine soul The intellect The passions are not three things only, but also one, interpenetrating, interconnected, each informing the others. Only the lower body dies, and it is barely worth mentioning, for consciousness of being resides elsewhere. Only the lower soul dissolves into unconsciousness and nothing of continuing value is lost thereby.
“Things divine cannot be obtained by mortals whose intellect is directed to the body alone, but those only who are stripped of their garments arrive at the summit.”
We take these garments to mean the body of flesh, which we put off when we enter Cross of Light Temple.
To be a being in a physical body also means to possess an astral form, an intellectual vehicle and a divine soul. Despite this unity, each faculty adventures in its appropriate sphere. To be aware of the various elements of being, it is necessary to locate oneself in their spheres of activity. To habitually reside in the passions of the body is to realise:
“Thy vessel the beasts of the earth shall inherit.”
To balance this,
“Let the immortal depth of your Soul lead you, but earnestly raise your eyes upwards.”
- a formula of transcendence and elevation, which embraces the rational and divine souls, linking them via the passions with the mind of the earthly body that reflects upon them.
Thomas Taylor in ‘The Chaldaean Oracles’ (1806) comments:
“By the eyes are to be understood all the Gnostic powers of the Soul, for when these are extended the Soul becomes replete with a more excellent life and divine illumination; and is, as it were, raised above itself.”
L.O. writes that the Chaldean Magi, were “...attentive to images and fired with mystic fervours...”
and that “...they were something more than mere theorists, but were also practical exemplars of the philosophy they taught,” which links them after a fashion to the experimental metaphysicians of Cross of Light Temple, who attempt to embody the Temple in their daily lives through the manifestation of what they learn through the performance of ritual and mystic reverie.
L.O. suggests that the Chaldean method of contemplation was to identify the self with the object of contemplation, a method also practised by Cross of Light Temple.
“He assimilates the images to himself, casting them around his own form.”
Beyond all, the Oracles venerated the Divine Light of ‘the more true Sun’, of which the Sun we see is but the physical vessel. As the Oracle says:
“A solar world and endless light subsist,” a world and light known by Cross of Light Temple, which expresses the same principle in terms of light and light beyond light. They are linked as foundation and development; light is linked to light beyond light as mortality is linked to immortality.
Like the Chaldeans portrayed by L.O., Cross of Light Temple realises that existence resides beyond matter, and does “...not hasten to the Outer in the thirst for sensation...” but recognises “the true Utopia to be within.”
To conceive of the foundation as the pinnacle is error. To conceive of foundation and pinnacle as separate is folly. In a sense, the foundation is elevated by the pinnacle, and the pinnacle grounded by the foundation. Cross of Light Temple operates in the ground where foundation and pinnacle meet.
“The Higher powers build up the body of the holy man,” and they do this in the ground just referred to.
According to Ficinus (Marsilio Ficino):
“The Soul perpetually runs and passes through all things in a certain space of time, which being performed it is presently compelled to pass back again through all things and unfold a similar web of generation on the World...”
The Oracles urge us to:
“Explore the River of the Soul, so that although you have become a servant to body, you may again rise to the Order from which you descended, joining works to sacred reason.” and advises us to:
“Understand the intelligible with the extended flame of an extended intellect.”
We are reminded that “...who knows himself knows all things in himself” because “The Paternal Mind has sowed symbols in the Soul,” which are illuminated by the light beyond light of Cross of Light Temple.
Clouds obscure the sun.
Progress is imperfect. The impulse is vain And the paths are dark... but dressed in white raiment and intent on the fulfilment of their mission, the experimental metaphysicians of Cross of Light Temple maintain:
“Believe yourself to be above body, and you are.”
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ON LIBER NULL AND PSYCHONAUT
Some people have suggested that ‘Liber Null’ and ‘Psychonaut’ are the most significant works on magic to have appeared in the past 40 years. Not only do they contain material of interest to beginners, they also contain enough of substance to demand a response from established practising magicians.
Despite occasional lapses into fantastic supernaturalism and pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo, ‘Liber Null’ has much to recommend it. It presents a coherent and apparently workable system in a way that is relatively easy to follow. It provides generally satisfactory definitions of the specialist terms it employs. It provides space for the reader to respond to the arguments it presents and it is more or less free of the megalomaniac posturing that can be such a stumbling block to engagement with the work of many magicians. Notwithstanding its many virtues, ‘Liber Null’ is not revolutionary, nor is it the herald of a new paradigm, but rather a development of views and practices expressed and employed by pre-existing individuals and organisations.
‘Liber Null’ contains examples of the dire warnings, insistence on secrecy and general obfuscation associated with supposedly ancient and maleficent grimoires – see for example the author’s note and the end of the passage relating to ‘The Black Rite’ of reincarnation, which melodramatically proclaims: “Of this rite I have been advised to say no more….” It also supports the idea of the magician’s work as a Romantic, heroic quest, beset by dangers. Calling the constituent elements of the text ‘Liber’ and recognising a grade system (admittedly the IOT system is fairly rudimentary) are practices employed by most Western orders. Peter Carroll acknowledges links with older traditions, although it seems that his acknowledgement is designed to bolster the credentials of the IOT by associating it with widely accepted authorities in the field. Many of the core concepts treated in ‘Liber Null’ are also addressed by illustrious antecedents – there is nothing new about gnosis, evocation, invocation etc. Carroll’s work also contains familiar treatments of aeons, reincarnation, aethers and so on. As well as the explicit influences from the Western esoteric/occult tradition, ‘Liber Null’ also suggests that its author is familiar with the work of William Burroughs and Luke Rhinehart.
Perhaps the reason behind the similarities between ‘Liber Null’ and the work of others lies in Carroll’s recognition that: “When stripped of local symbolism and terminology, all systems show a remarkable uniformity of method.”
Magical Inheritance and Tradition
Carroll states: “The Illuminates of Thanateros are the magical heirs to the Zos Kia Cultus and the A.’. A.’…”
There is no satisfactory definition of the ‘Zos Kia Cultus’. Does Carroll use the term to denote anyone with a practical interest in the theory and methods of Austin Osman Spare or does he have something more specific in mind? How are the IOT the heirs of the A.’. A.’.? What is the relationship? Is Carroll referring to the historical A.’. A.’. as conceived by Crowley, or to the alleged A.’. A.’s that developed after Crowley’s promotion of the organisation ceased? Why does Carroll make this reference to pre-existing authorities? It’s interesting to note the (Crowley invented) A.’. A.’.’s solipsistic claims regarding its inheritance, which would have us believe that the A.’. A.’. has in some sense always existed. Carroll goes on to claim:
“…the IOT continues a tradition perhaps seven thousand years old…” but how does it do this, and where is the evidence for such a tradition?
Liber MMM – The Exercises
Liber MMM is a practical manual outlining simple exercises that resemble basic practices outlined by Crowley, and (again like Crowley and many others) it stresses the necessity of keeping a magical record.
Why should anyone follow this course of instruction rather than any other course of instruction? Is following the course of instruction subjecting oneself to Peter Carroll’s will, or is Carroll merely the vessel for a description of ‘the way that works’?
Shamanism
Carroll states that all magical systems “ultimately derive from the tradition of Shamanism.” He seems to employ the term to indicate something that can’t be properly defined but which has a peculiar resonance – ‘In the beginning there was Shamanism…’
Gnosticism, or Altered States of Consciousness
Carroll states that “Altered states of consciousness are the key to magical powers.” He claims that strong inhibition or strong excitation – sensory deprivation or sensory overload - can result in ‘the one pointed consciousness, or gnosis.’ He speaks of fear as a means of inducing this type of consciousness.
For a period of two years around the beginning of this millennium I experienced a form of extreme existential angst which can be summarised by saying that I was convinced that I was about to die and that death would be just the beginning of my troubles. It’s true that this state can be attributed to an altered state of consciousness but the horror was such that I would have done anything to escape it. I certainly didn’t associate this time of tribulation with gnosis, or anything remotely positive. Do experiences of this nature have any value in terms of personal ‘spiritual development’? When I emerged from this living nightmare, I felt like I was wandering through a desert but I did not remain there. By degrees, I found myself able to re-engage with the world in a positive sense. Eventually, I developed a magical system based on first-hand personal experience, which has sustained my interest and provided my primary focus throughout the years that followed.
Carroll’s remarks on fear in relation to gnosis offer a means of attributing positive value to what had previously been fixed as negative experience. There is great value in any work that enables the possibility of re-evaluation. I’m particularly interested in the idea that the most striking experiences that one might encounter during the course of a lifetime do not possess fixed meaning and can be seen in a radically different light as a result of encountering new information later on. I look forward to reviewing my record of the time in question to see how I react to it with the benefit of
hindsight.
Evocation
The entities that Carroll claims can be drawn from clairvoyance, grimoires or self-creation are of questionable significance. How ‘real’ are these beings? Where do they exist? What does their being consist of?
Invocation
Carroll implies that the magician is aware of the contents of his psyche but he does not say what the elements of the magician’s psyche consist of.
Liberation
Carroll implies that liberation is an infinite quest proceeding from what is apparent in present time.
Augoeides
Carroll recognises the traditionally accepted quest of the magician, namely the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, thus reinforcing the link he makes between the IOT and illustrious forebears, a move that coincidentally reinforces the conservative element of his approach. He paraphrases the magician’s vow in terms directly relating to the oath of a Master of the Temple as related by Crowley.
Divination
Carroll claims that all events send ripples throughout creation, particularly events involving the human mind, but he does not illustrate how this happens, nor does he have anything notable to say about its significance.
Self = God
Carroll waxes dogmatic about the identity of Self (note the capital ‘S’) and God but his assertion says nothing about creation or origins. ‘Self’ and ‘God’ seem to relate to pre-existent being; so, where (for example) does ‘the Self’ come from?
Sorcery
Carroll defines sorcery as the manipulation of material forces to effect magical change but he does not indicate where these transformations occur. What has ‘material’ to do with it? Why not use material forces to effect material change? What’s the point of transcending the laws of science to produce novel or fantastic effects? What’s the need for sorcery? What purpose does it serve?
The Double
Carroll writes of the tendency of The Double to take on animal forms (a shamanic notion). In this context, note Jhonn Balance invoking the animal double on Coil recordings, most notably ‘What Kind of Animal Are You?’ from Coil Live 2, where he sings (more correctly screams), ‘I am a dog that leaps between worlds’ and ‘I am a burning, burning salamander’, amongst other things.
Ecstasy, Sex Magic
Carroll’s treatment of ecstasy contains a short exposition of sex magic techniques. Generally speaking, claims regarding the efficacy of sex magic overreach themselves. For example, is consciousness really transcended or extinguished in orgasm?
Random Belief
Carroll provides instructions to engage in ‘various stages in the belief cycle in the self’ for an equal period of time in succession without acknowledging that belief has to be sincere to be belief. Playing at belief or pretending to believe is not the same as really believing.
Carroll outlines a six-point scheme to which belief should be related:
1. Paganism 2. Monotheism 3. Atheism 4. Nihilism (Late Atheism) 5. Chaoism 6. Superstition (Low Chaoism)
This six-point scheme differs from a later six-point scheme he propounds, which starts with shamanism and sees shamanism as the origin of religion, magic and mysticism.
Reincarnation or Repeated Incarnation
Liber Null recognises the supposed reality of reincarnation or repeated incarnation, although Carroll doesn’t outline any method of recalling past lives. See the end of Liber AOM in this context.
Laughter
Laughter is central to Carroll’s scheme. He argues that laughter is the only condition that does not have its opposite. But if ‘fear’ is the opposite of ‘desire’, why isn’t ‘weeping’ the opposite of ‘laughter’? Carroll’s take on duality is arbitrary – contrary to his assertion that ‘laughter’ is its own opposite, there are obviously other possibilities.
The Millennium, and Shamanism
Carroll states that humanity has lived through four aeons and is about to enter a fifth. He says that the first aeon was characterised by shamanism and magic. The aeon of shamanism and magic was succeeded by the pagan, monotheist and atheist aeons. The purpose of the artefacts of what Carroll calls ‘shamanism’ is unclear; speculation regarding meaning in pre-literate cultures is bound to go astray. There are, of course, present day broadly shamanic cultures, which could be studied and explained (although there is nothing to guarantee that they relate to the prehistoric pseudo-shamanic cultures posited by Carroll). But what would be the point? By ‘shamanism’ does Carroll actually mean ‘not pagan, not monotheist, not atheist’?
The Transition of Aeons
In announcing the advent of the Aeon of Horus, Crowley suggests the abrupt passing of the Aeon of Osiris, which is contrary to the view expressed by Carroll and others, which recognises that one aeon is not suddenly supplanted by another. Carroll suggests that the procession of aeons can be represented by a form of upward tending spiral.
‘Apocalyptic Prophecy’
Carroll foresees the violent end of the age of secular humanism and consumerism. Is this apocalyptic concern common to all magical, religious, and ‘spiritual’ world views (e.g. the Last Judgement, Ragnarok, the extinguishment of individual ego bound consciousness associated with the attainment of nirvana)? Does apocalypse represent individual death on a cosmic scale? Is it intimately associated with the individual’s inability to conceive of the world without him – if I die, if I end, then everything must be obliterated?
Secrecy
Carroll does not stand against the secrecy associated with the higher degrees of magical attainment. Secrecy is a tool of mystification. Why should anything be secret? Secrecy is the shroud of shame, or a tool to oppress the masses employed by a self-selected, self-serving elite.
The Ability to Work Magic
There is no true objective measure of this ability; the measure is dependent on subjective analysis and self-evaluation.
A Chaos Magic Creation Myth?
Carroll acknowledges the existence of a Light power and a Dark power arising from Chaos; this is a dogmatic statement that could be interpreted as a creation myth.
Aetherics, and Magicians as Miracle Workers
Carroll implies that the aethers are substantial. He also maintains that magicians can work miracles, but what ‘miracles’ have ever been accomplished, outside the realm of mythical, religious or metaphysical reportage? Are magicians really miracle workers? What miracles have they worked, or experienced?
Carroll’s exercises in relation to aetherics are generally to be found in the works of Crowley. Crowley related his exercises to older traditions, usually without providing convincing evidence to support his associations. The ‘aetherics’ of Crowley had little in common with the ‘aetherics’ of John Dee and Edward Kelley. Similar does not mean identical.
Transubstantiation
In the short free verse that comprises this section, Carroll defines transubstantiation as “the achievement / of constant magical consciousness.” This suggests a division between magical and non-magical consciousness, contrary to the view that Carroll expresses elsewhere.
Aeonics as ‘Jihad’
Carroll describes the heroic struggle of the Illuminati, defining and contrasting positive and negative polarities and setting up a kind of metaphysical duality as a form of ‘holy war’.
Reincarnation
Carroll suggests that the accomplished magician is capable of carrying his spirit into a new body
after death. At a stretch, this proposition could be viewed as sound, but Carroll’s application of the principle is fanciful and absurd. Carroll outlines three methods of achieving ‘integral reincarnation’.
In the Red Rite, a male adept whose body is aged or damaged forms a love bond with a young woman, impregnates her and ends his present existence in the early stages of the pregnancy. This is a crass male fantasy. How many young women would enter into relationships of this kind?
Carroll’s description of the Black Rite presents metaphysical fancy as if it were the manipulation of physical reality, a tendency which is also apparent in his observations of the White Rite, where he claims that “…an integral reincarnation is achieved, but the receiving body is a foetus randomly selected by the escaping spirit in astral flight.”
* * *
'Psychonaut’ contains an excellent outline of social structure as it pertains to religious institutions, magical organisations and cults; the histories of the Nine O’Clock Service, The Process Church of the Final Judgment and TOPY support the validity of Carroll’s model in every important respect.
In his treatment of Choronzon, Carroll, the Scourge of the Mystics, issues a challenge not only to God focused transcendentalists but also to traditional magicians engaged in orthodox magical practice. He questions the validity of most of the work published by occult practitioners since records began and usually finds it wanting.
Advanced Minds
Carroll implies that Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie were not advanced minds. On the grounds that it takes one to know one, he implies that he does possess an advanced mind.
Aspects of Magical Work
Carroll identifies the two most important aspects of how magic is done. The first relates to magical technique, that is making the methods of magic work. The second relates to the evolution of a spirituality of magic. Chaos magic has focused on the first aspect to the detriment of the second.
The Grosser Magical Powers and the Psychic Powers
Carroll states that the grosser magical powers – the manipulation of physical objects – are of less importance than the development of psychic powers. This implies a shift in the ground of magical accomplishment, from the visible outside world to the psyche. Carroll claims that telepathy, clairvoyance, and astral travel are effective techniques, but can anyone provide convincing examples of the fruits of telepathy, clairvoyance and astral travel (meaning experience that is of relevance to other people)?
Magic Opposed to Religion
Generally speaking, Carroll takes a vehemently anti-religious stance throughout ‘Liber Null and Psychonaut’, failing to recognise that it is not adherence to religion that has caused madness and violent death, as Carroll maintains, but rather a mockery of religious observance used as a tool of oppression by self-selected, self-serving elites. Carroll’s criticism is a criticism of politics or political enterprise rather than a criticism of religion.
Levels of Consciousness – the Link between Awareness and Intelligence
Carroll proclaims that there are five states of consciousness:
- Gnosis - Awareness - Robotic - Dreaming - Unconsciousness
Despite suggesting that the five states of consciousness each possess particular virtues, Carroll presents them as a hierarchy, with gnosis at the top and unconsciousness at the bottom. Of awareness, which he ranks as the second most elevated state, he makes the contentious claim that it is inseparably linked to intelligence. But is awareness really dependent on intelligence, and if so, what trustworthy method of assessing intelligence can be employed?
Gnosis
Whilst allowing that the gnostic level is the foundation of mystic states of consciousness (as well as magical powers), Carroll informs his readers that gnosis can lead mystics into the errors of illusion, erroneous belief and misguided obsession.
Magical Elitism
Confirming the elitist trend underlying his comments regarding awareness, Carroll suggests that the magician should strive to elevate the common flux from the unconscious-robotic levels to the dreaming-awareness levels “with occasional excursions into the robotic and gnostic levels for specific purposes.”
The Rites of Chaos – Foundation
Carroll claims that the Rites of Chaos are based on the principles of Gnostic New Aeon Shamanism but these principles do not exist outside the realm of evocative fancy.
The Rites of Chaos – Adepts and Masters
Anyone can claim adepthood or mastery (or is it any initiate?) but their claim will be checked by the judgement of their peers.
The Mass of Chaos – “The supreme animadversion of Chaos…”
There is no provenance for the barbarous tongue presented by Carroll as “The supreme animadversion...” Frankly, it’s meaningless glossolalia and the translation into English is a joke, the punch line of which is Carroll’s conclusion: ‘This last line cannot be translated.’ There is ample scope for someone to present a convincing argument that magic in general, and Chaos magic in particular, is a specialised form of comedy. Phil Hine’s invention of the Lincoln Order of Neuromancers could be seen as a product of this quest.
The Mass of Chaos – The Invocation of Baphomet
Carroll’s presentation of this invocation reveals the paucity of his aeon scheme, because there is no direct relationship between the ‘Great Spirit’, the Horned God, and the Devil etc. It’s important to
remember that ‘Similar does not mean identical’, and in places here, we’re not even dealing with similarity.
Ordination – Priests of Chaos
Carroll outlines the office of a priest of chaos with reference to a range of accomplishments, which he gives shortly thereafter, but surely the office of priest pertains to the godly ages, the pagan and monotheist aeons of Carroll’s scheme; if by ‘priest’ we mean ‘servant’ then why not say servant? Because it’s an affront to the will of the magician?
Ordinary Men and Magicians
Carroll suggests there is a profound gulf between ‘ordinary men’ and magicians. I suggest that the important division is not between ordinary men and magicians but between solipsistic brats hawking their monstrous conceits and the rest of suffering humanity.
Chemognosis – Chemical Agents, Shamanism and Magic
Carroll maintains that mind altering substances have made a vital contribution to the development of shamanism, magic and religion. To quote from ‘Free Art Free People’ in ‘Balm of Gilead’ (Cross of Light Temple, 2006): “We are against witches and pagans for they have had their wisdom from New Age peddlers. Similarly, we are against dope smoking, acid toting, so called shamans.” And a little later: “It is folly to confuse drug inspired experiences with the fruits of religious devotion.” (I realise that Carroll might well sneer at the phrase ‘the fruits of religious devotion’ but nevertheless the relevance of the quote remains).
Baphomet
The idea that ‘Baphomet’ is a Western/Knights Templar mishearing or misrepresentation of ‘Mohammed’ is hilarious in the context of Carroll’s treatment of Baphomet in ‘Liber Null’ and ‘Psychonaut’.
Carroll identifies Baphomet as an extra quality, a form of universal psychic field. The simplest and most direct definition of this ‘extra quality’ is ‘life’. And the simplest and most direct definition of Baphomet in this context is ‘life’ as well.
In relation to Carroll’s assertion that life and death are a single phenomenon, we note that accomplishments in life might survive after death (not that it matters necessarily) but the accomplishments of the dead (if there are any) are not known to the living.
The Psychic Censor
Carroll presents the psychic censor as a near psychotic bullying friend. It’s possible to relate this notion to what’s commonly known as ‘severe mental illness’ and to think about psychotic experience as an altered state of consciousness. Carroll makes a number of comments about psychiatry and madness in ‘Liber Null’ and ‘Psychonaut’, which are addressed below.
The Demon Choronzon
Contrary to Carroll’s fanciful notion that there is nothing about oneself which cannot be taken away or changed, we say there is nothing about oneself that is not controlled by external forces. Although one is changeable and uncertain, the relationship between mind and body lies within fairly obvious
experiential limits.
Carroll defines Kia in negative terms (neither this nor that etc). We could also say on the evidence he provides that Kia is not-ego (which doesn’t have to be located in ‘the beyond’, which – counter intuitively - Carroll’s definition tends to do).
As mentioned above, in writing about Choronzon, Carroll issues a number of substantial challenges to mystics, religiously oriented magicians and others who attempt to invoke their Holy Guardian Angel. I strongly recommend that anyone with a serious interest in these subjects reflects on what he has to say as a prelude to formulating a response to the challenge presented.
Carroll suggests perhaps only two things can be done to invoke the real HGA or Kia. One involves deliberately seeking union with anything one has rejected - this implies that Carroll should engage with monotheistic religion and error-strewn mysticism, amongst other things.
Shamanism
Contrary to Carroll’s claim that shamanic knowledge survived in European witchcraft, there is nothing that can accurately be called ‘European witchcraft’ that could justify his claim.
Gnosticism – Christianity
Carroll characterises hierarchical Christianity as a black order but goes on to point out that you cannot blame Jesus for the religion practised in his name. Historical Gnosticism recognised Jesus as a true messenger of the infinite. From this, we can surmise that Carroll concedes the notion of a profitable or sound form of Christianity.
Gnosticism – the Vital Spark Reincarnated
Carroll talks about the Gnostic view of an immortal vital spark that will be reincarnated until it achieves union with the infinite. What relationship is there between this reincarnated vital spark and consciousness? Carroll’s comments on reincarnation suggest a rare and tenuous link at best.
Gnosticism – against power structures
Gnostics viewed adherents of religion as encouraging enslavement to priesthoods and secular powers. It is interesting to note that these oppressive power structures are replicated in all magical organisations that adopt a form of grade system, for example.
Gnosticism – Barbarous Names
Carroll’s suggestion that many of the words of power employed in contemporary magic have their origin in gnostic incantations is a deliberate attempt at the ennoblement of nonsense (see also the ‘Supreme Animadversion of Chaos’).
Gnosticism – Necronomicon
Carroll’s claim that the fictional Necronomicon of Lovecraft can be linked to gnosticism is the foundation of the ludicrous adoption of the Cthullu mythos as the basis for a supposedly valid and workable magical system.
Occult Priestcraft – Meaning
It’s interesting to contrast Carroll’s acknowledgement of a continuum between spirit and matter with his earlier modes of stratification, with particular regard to the hierarchy of consciousness.
The recognition of the universe as it exists as a fantastic and magical place is a core concept, often overlooked in the magician’s quest for fabulous experience as ‘proof’ of exalted so-called higher states of being.
Occult Priestcraft – Death
Carroll says that beliefs about death are mostly “devices to create emotional effects in life”, which corresponds with the fact that the living know nothing about death (but they fear it). Sadly, he departs from good sense when he goes on to claim that it is possible to speak to the dead, because no one outside the realms of myth or fiction has seen or spoken to the dead. He compounds this nonsense by remarking that the experience of leaving the body is a useful preparation for death, ignoring the fact that the person who has left his body in this sense has not died.
Occult Priestcraft – Social Structure
This short section is an excellent analysis of the way in which religious institutions, magical organisations and cults tend to operate.
Magical Weapons
The five magical weapons identified and described by Carroll are the weapons of magical tradition, although his attribution of their primary existence to the ‘aetheric or astral level’ is not always so frankly recognised.
Magical Paradigms – the Observer Created Universe
Carroll implies acceptance of the pre-eminence of the Observer Created Universe paradigm, which he summarises as follows:
- Everything we perceive is real. - Anything we cannot perceive does not exist. - Anything we will that does not come into our perception was not will but merely a failed wish. - Will And Perception Are The Same Thing.
Catastrophe Theory and Magic
Carroll applies pseudo-mathematics to magic and mysticism. Can anyone explain these concepts in accessible language (preferably in words of one syllable)?
* * *
Against Absurdity
Contrary to statements and suggestions made by Peter Carroll in ‘Liber Null’ and ‘Psychonaut’, we maintain:
1. The Illuminates of Thanateros are not the magical heirs to the ‘Zos Kia Cultus’ and the A.’.
A.’. 2. The magical tradition is not seven thousand years old. 3. All magical systems do not ultimately derive from the tradition of Shamanism. 4. Ego consciousness is not transcended in orgasm. 5. Laughter is not its own opposite. 6. Magicians do not work miracles. 7. There is no secret wisdom. 8. The Red Rite does not result in reincarnation in a developing foetus. 9. The Black Rite does not result in the entry of a spirit into an already inhabited being. 10. The White Rite does not result in integral reincarnation. 11. Mindless adherence to religion is not responsible for at least half the madness and violent deaths of history. 12. Awareness is not inseparably linked to intelligence. 13. The Rites of Chaos are not based on Gnostic New Aeon Shamanism. 14. The barbarous words presented by Carroll as ‘The supreme animadversion to Chaos…’ possess no real meaning. 15. There is no direct relationship between the Great Spirit, the Horned God, ‘the Devil’ and the Hidden One. 16. There has never been a meaningful connection between the exhibition of mental distress and the full moon. 17. There is nothing about oneself that is not influenced by external forces. 18. The mind is not just an extension of the body. 19. There is no such thing as European witchcraft in the sense in which Carroll uses the term. 20. Hierarchical Christianity does not constitute a black order. 21. Gnosticism would not be the best source for the attempt to discover or invent the Necronomicon. 22. No-one has directly seen or spoken to the dead in the sense in which ‘seen’ and ‘spoken’ are commonly understood. 23. The experience of leaving one’s body is not a useful preparation for death.
* * *
Psychiatry and madness
Carroll’s analysis of the mental health system as fundamentally oppressive and unhelpful is basically sound but his florid pseudo-Romantic illustrations of the experience of madness are ill informed and depend on his underlying conformity with the traditionally accepted notion of the madman as the debased and faulty other. His anecdote regarding his contact with ‘Ron’ casts Carroll in the role of skilled and knowledgeable (albeit somewhat unorthodox) helper and Ron in the role of an almost subhuman entity, desperately in need of the superman’s help. The dynamics of this relationship are so wrong from Ron’s perspective that it’s entirely unsurprising that nothing of lasting value comes of the contact. Ron was right to depart as he did; Carroll offered him nothing better than the mental health system he so rightly disdains.
Interview – Phil Hine and Peter Carroll
An interview between Phil Hine and Peter Carroll, which can be downloaded at http://www.philhine.org.uk/writings/ess_petecint.html, contains information that clarifies ideas expressed in ‘Liber Null and Psychonaut’ re: the magical tradition, Augoeides, Random Belief and other core concepts outlined in Carroll’s work.
* * *
Crowley, Shamanism and gnosis lie at the heart of ‘Liber Null’ and ‘Psychonaut’, and Chaos magic would not have prospered as it has without them. The Illuminates of Thanateros presents itself as something new, although it is clearly an arch comment on the magical orders that preceded it.
Whatever their failings, ‘Liber Null and Psychonaut’ stand alongside Crowley’s ‘Magick in Theory and Practice’ and Dion Fortune’s ‘The Mystical Qabalah’ as essential texts of 20th century English magic. ‘Magick in Theory and Practice’ and ‘The Mystical Qabalah’ contain numerous absurdities after their fashion but like ‘Liber Null and Psychonaut’ they also outline coherent systems that can be used as keys to investing immediate lived experience with an energy or charge that is superior to the ennui attendant on immersion in mundane reality.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE EQUINOX OF CROWLEY: A PROVOCATION
The following article is based on a method of textual engagement approved of by the Argon Astron, outlined thus in the first volume of ‘The Equinox’: “The experimenter is encouraged to use his own intelligence, and not to rely upon any other person or persons, however distinguished, even among ourselves…He must rely entirely upon himself, and credit nothing whatever but that which lies within his own knowledge and experience.”
There is a tendency for cultural entrepreneurs to engage in the phenomenon of elevation through association, which can involve them, for example, in colluding with the mythical construct that ‘The Equinox’ is a fountain head of impressive arcane wisdom. It’s true that the mission statement of ‘The Equinox’ was “The Method of Science – The Aim of Religion”, but a cursory examination of the contents of the publication reveals this to be an empty slogan. ‘The Equinox’ is a repository of poor poetry, short stories of variable quality, sneering reviews of the work of others, and transcriptions of magical rites that possess neither sense nor efficacy. One could argue that it does contain some work of substance (e.g. ‘The Temple of Solomon the King’, being the magical biography of Frater Perdurabo) but even this suffers from the megalomaniac self-aggrandisement that characterises nearly all of Crowley’s allegedly serious work. Readers of this article who would like to see how bad ‘The Equinox’ really is can download the journal for themselves at http://www.asiya.org/article.php/thelema
As an illustration of the vainglorious nonsense highlighted in the journal, in LIBER RV VEL SPIRITVS SVB FIGVRÂ CCVI we read in relation to the results of Pranayama: “The state of automatic rigidity will develop into a state characterised by violent spasmodic movements of which the Practitioner is unconscious, but of whose result he is aware. This result is that the body hops gently from place to place…The body appears (on another theory) to have lost its weight almost completely, and to be moved by an unknown force.” And following this: “As a development of this stage, the body rises into the air, and remains there for an appreciably long period, from a second to an hour or more.” Crowley makes similar claims in his other writings on Pranayama and related practices.
I contend that Crowley’s assertions regarding body hopping and levitation are patent absurdities and that what is presented as objective reality brought about through the actions of the Practitioner is figurative fancy at best, if not a blatant and ridiculous lie. In seeking to wrestle meaning from this drivel, we could conclude that Crowley is referring to a body other than the physical body but there is no evidence to support such an assertion. We may choose to interpret these passages as evidence of Crowley’s humour and thus pass over them as somehow peripheral, possessing little significance when we come to assess their author’s authenticity, integrity and authority as a guide. If we were to adopt such an approach to Crowley’s work in its entirety, what would we be left with beyond a handful of resonant slogans?
But let us suppose for a moment that body hopping and levitation really do result from the practices outlined in the text. Are we to conclude that the aim of Magick is to transcend the laws of physics for no apparent reason? What is the value of such an aim?
Action can result in novel concrete effects that are devoid of real significance, whereas thought can result in revolutionary new ways of being. I maintain that Magick does not act on the world save through the agency of the practitioner. Magick brings about change in the mind of the practitioner and the practitioner acts in the world from this changed mind.
In passing, I should note that it is not just Crowley amongst the so-called masters of the Western Esoteric Tradition who is guilty of passing off lies or fantasy as magical fact. The story ‘At the Fork of the Road’ in ‘The Equinox’ Vol. 1, No. 1 contains a mention of an infestation of black cats, which is later reported as fact in Dion Fortune’s ‘Psychic Self-Defence’, which was published several decades later.
“Considerations of the Christian Trinity are of a nature suited only to Initiates of the IX Degree of O.T.O., as they enclose the final secret of all practical Magick.” – from ‘Magick in Theory and Practice’
Crowley posed as a committed anti-Christ, boldly proclaiming: “There is no single feature in Christianity which has not been taken bodily from the worship of Isis, or of Mithras, or of Bacchus, or of Adonis, or of Osiris.” This is blatantly false. Firstly, ‘similar’ should not be mistaken for ‘identical’. More importantly, the gods that Crowley so blithely mentions possess none of the central determining characteristics or functions of the Christ he equates them with. Furthermore, contrary to Crowley’s groundless assertion that Eliphas Levi’s avowed Christianity was grounded in irony, Levi’s ‘Key to the Mysteries’ as reproduced in ‘The Equinox’ clearly indicates that its author was a conservative apologist for the established Catholic church and a confirmed supporter of its structure and authority in both spiritual and earthly matters.
Crowley’s pathological hatred of Christianity stemmed from the oppression he experienced as a child of the Plymouth Brethren. It was his rebellion against the constraints of this limited and limiting sect that provided the main impetus for his invention of the Law of Thelema. Unsurprisingly, and contrary to his intermittent proclamation of the virtues of individual freedom, his rebellion mirrored the restraints and restrictions of the authority he sought to transcend. Fundamentally, Crowley was and remained a nonconformist protestant. He has more in common with Ian Paisley than he does with a bone fide prophet of a New Aeon (if such a concept can be deemed worthy of serious consideration).
Unsurprisingly, Crowley was happy to drop the rebellious front whenever it served his interests to do so. He was content to refer to himself in the following terms: “I, P——, Frater Ordinis Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, a Lord of the Paths in the Portal of the Vault of the Adepts, a 5°=6° of the Order of the Golden Dawn; and an humble servant of the Christ of God…” and he also produced ‘Hail, Mary!’ a collection of verse in praise of the Mother of God, formerly published anonymously as ‘Amphora’, which was praised for its devotional treatment of its subject.
The so-called ‘Rites of Eleusis’ represent the heights of Crowley’s folly and clearly show that the central mission of ‘The Equinox’ and the organisations it serves are entirely dependent on the contents of Crowley’s consciousness and the willingness of his followers to subject themselves to its pointless vagaries. I suppose the Rites were designed for performance rather than reading, and that participating or witnessing them might have produced a different effect than reading does. Nevertheless, he chose to present them as a matter of urgency as a ‘special supplement’ to ‘The Equinox’, Volume 1, Number 6, where they stand as the epitome of the unprofitable gibberish that
characterises the journal and makes a mockery of its high-sounding mission statement.
People respond to Crowley as if what he says possesses a priore significance. They are happy to accept his opinions of himself as if they were equivalent to the praise of respected experts. Crowley maintained that he was a superior poet to Yeats, which is a clear illustration of his lack of self- awareness. And why be content with being the ‘genius’ behind one false name when you can add another three or four without any difficulty? “Of V.V.V.V.V. we have no information. We do not know, and it is of no importance that we should know, whether he is an actual person or a magical projection of Frater P., or identical with Aiwass, or anything else.” If V.V.V.V.V., Frater P. and Aiwass were present in one room, I doubt that we would see anything save for a glint in Crowley’s eye. Nevertheless, the truly non-existent V.V.V.V.V. worked wonders in the cause of the Crowned and Conquering Child: “During this year 1907, therefore, we find a number of such books dictated by him to Frater P. Of the sublimity of these books no words can give expression. It will be noticed that they are totally different in style from Liber Legis, just as both of them are different from any of the writings of Frater P.” Of course, if you actually read them, you instantly discover that the style is the same and that the same phrases and terminology are repeated throughout these ‘sublime’ books.
It’s important to remember that no one before Crowley proclaimed the existence of the A.’. A.’. and that no one apart from Crowley and his followers has suggested that the A.’. A.’. existed before the foundation of his order. The teachings of the A.’. A.’. lack internal consistency and are scattered with ridiculous claims, which render them unreliable. They provide evidence in favour of the theory that the A.’. A.’. is an extended and generally unfunny joke. The rites of the A.’. A.’. are of Crowley’s invention, albeit informed by his assumed knowledge of a range of other religious and magical systems. Generally speaking, the rites and teachings of the A.’. A.’. possess little sense, less power and produce still less of any value.
There are a couple of startling examples in the writing of Crowley where he reveals the true nature of his enterprise and the organisations he invented. The following is presented as irony or humour but why choose this particular issue to comment on and why use these terms, unless the statement contains underlying truth? “It is of course common knowledge that the A.’. A.’. and the Equinox and all the rest of it are a stupid joke of Aleister Crowley’s. He merely wished to see if any one were fool enough to take him seriously. Several have done so, and he does not regret the few thousand pounds it has cost him… It may be a relief to some to learn that there is no such person as Aleister Crowley. He is probably a sun-myth.” Of course, strictly speaking, there was no such person as Aleister Crowley, since he took on that name to replace his birth name, as an act of petty rebellion and sleight of hand. Presenting ‘himself’ as a sun-myth is another example of Crowley’s megalomania.
I do not doubt that there are sincere aspirants who engage in personally authentic occult careers along lines suggested by Crowley and I concede that it is possible to outline a more or less coherent programme by cherry picking Thelemic texts and exercises and presenting them as if they comprised a unity – see, for example, ‘The Mystical and Magical System of the A.’.A.’.’ by James A. Eshelman - but I don’t think that such a system can be justified to anyone who has undertaken a more or less objective perusal of the body of work from which it has been taken.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE WINGED BULL Dion Fortune
SIL Trading Ltd (The Society of the Inner Light), 1998 First published 1935
'The Winged Bull' conforms to the template commonly employed by Dion Fortune in her magical fiction, in which an initially dissatisfied protagonist comes under the influence of a guide who initiates them into the mysteries, thereby enabling them to find a sense of fulfilment and self- reliance that would have been impossible for them to achieve had they continued on the path they were on before they encountered their teacher.
The characters in Fortune's novels tend to be one dimensional stock types rather than multifaceted individuals. In 'The Winged Bull', Murchison is the man of action with hidden depths; Brangwyn is the cultivated and noble initiate; Ursula is the troubled but alluring female; Astley is the fiendish Black Magician and Fouldes is the impressionable dupe. Fortune's stories lack depth, serving as backdrops for the observations on occult themes and magical set pieces that form the substance of her work. 'The Winged Bull' resorts to clunky cliff-hangers, melodrama and dependence on outlandish coincidence that would be dismissed as absurd if they appeared in a more conventional literary novel.
The Outward Story
Ted Murchison is a 33 year old man living unhappily with his brother, who is a vicar in Acton. After serving as an officer in the First World War under the command of a colonel named Brangwyn, whom he greatly admired, he has failed to prosper in civilian life. One day he enters the British Museum, where he is deeply impressed by a statue of a winged bull. After leaving the museum, he is moved to utter an invocation of Pan, which is answered by Brangwyn.
Brangwyn is a cultivated 53 year old man of independent means. He invites Murchison to tea and suggests that he stays at his bachelor quarters, which are situated in a run-down area in or near Bloomsbury. The unremarkable exterior of Brangwyn's place conceals an interior that is notable for its comfort and fastidious attention to detail. The living quarters are built over shops that are inhabited by Brangwyn's tenants, including a bookshop and an Italian restaurant, which provides the Brangwyn household with food as part of the rental agreement.
Brangwyn offers Murchison a well-paid position as occasional chauffeur, secretary and general aid. He mentions that he has a sister, who sometimes stays with him. After returning from a trip to Acton to collect his things, Murchison is surprised to meet the woman he dreamed of the previous night, who turns out to be Brangwyn's half-sister, Ursula.
Ursula and Murchison feel ill at ease in each other's company; this discomfort and antipathy persists in various forms throughout most of the story. Murchison is shocked by the sight of Ursula's winged bull pendant, which leads to a conversation that reveals that Brangwyn has been looking for someone to help him with an experiment that has been tried before and failed and that he thinks Murchison might be the man for the job.
Brangwyn reflects on the man who was involved in the experiment before Murchison, which had ended badly, with Ursula wounded and the man in a state worse than death. He likens this man to a stag, in contrast to Murchison, who resembles a bull. Having established that Murchison's character is suitable for the task, Brangwyn asks Murchison if he would be willing to participate in the project. He explains that Murchison's initial duties will be to familiarise himself with relevant literature and to keep a record of his dreams, for analysis by Brangwyn. Murchison readily agrees, on the grounds that he trusts his employer.
Brangwyn encourages Murchison and Ursula to don green robes and dance. The tunes that Brangwyn plays on his violin cause Murchison to remember his war days and he begins to sing loudly and unselfconsciously, revealing a previously hidden side of himself to Ursula, who responds sympathetically.
Murchison goes to bed feeling better than he has in years. The following day, he accompanies Ursula to the train station as she is due to return to a remote farmhouse in Wales. Ursula is accosted by a man who exerts a strong fascination upon her. Murchison is aware of the man's personal magnetism but he feels a strong antipathy towards him. He rescues Ursula from the man's attentions and they return home.
Shortly after their return, a stranger enters using a key, accompanied by Fouldes (the man at the station). This causes Ursula some consternation. Acting on instructions previously issued by Brangwyn, Murchison orders them to leave and when they refuse, he throws them out by force. They are encountered by a passing policeman, who informs Murchison that the stranger is Hugo Astley, a notorious black magician whose antics have been reported in the Sunday papers.
Later, Brangwyn and Murchison discuss the events of the day and conclude that Astley is Fouldes' leader and that their ability to gain entry to the flat indicates that they might have received inside assistance. Brangwyn provides Murchison with further information about Ursula and a clearer definition of what his task will be.
Brangwyn explains that some years ago he had returned from travelling in the east to inherit an estate and discovered that he had a previously unknown 17 year old half-sister, who was on the verge of entering a convent; Brangwyn prevented this and took charge of Ursula. Fouldes had been an admirer of Brangwyn, which led to him meeting Ursula, and they had become engaged. Fouldes was extremely impressionable and he had turned to Astley after being frustrated by his lack of progress under Brangwyn. Astley had reached Ursula through Fouldes, and this had resulted in her breakdown. Astley intends to use Ursula as the altar in a Black Mass, and Brangwyn is intent on engaging in magical combat to prevent this from happening. Brangwyn briefly outlines what he means by magic and contrasts the aims of White Magic and Black Magic. Murchison agrees to help Brangwyn as far as he is able to and Brangwyn advises him to use the emotion of feeling sorry for Ursula as a means of developing rapport with her, which she will return as a result of feeling protected.
The Brangwyn household is subjected to a telepathic attack aimed at Ursula. The evil force rises, is withstood and renews. It has no power to influence Brangwyn but it exerts a hypnotic hold on
Ursula, putting her into a state resembling that of a sleepwalker. Murchison summons all of his resources to withstand the evil influence and finally it shatters and disperses and the room returns to normal.
Murchison feels extremely fatigued the following morning. He heads for the roof garden in search of the sun and falls asleep. Ursula follows sometime later and compares the sleeping Murchison to Fouldes, much to Murchison's discredit, although she recognises that he possesses a martial quality that would have enabled Fouldes to stand up better to Astley. Murchison wakes and Ursula informs him that if her brother's plan works out as it should, then she and Murchison will be bound together by a deep bond. The experiment is already well under way and they cannot withdraw from it without paying a considerable cost. Ursula joins hands with Murchison and he feels energy pulsing through him, which restores him to good health.
Murchison reflects on what has happened so far. He looks at a picture of the winged bull and acknowledges his animal body and human head and sees that he – Murchison - has had wings on rare occasions, when he was going over the top in the war or withstanding Astley's attack, for example. Brangwyn and Ursula return from a shopping trip and at Murchison's insistence Brangwyn reveals more details about what is going on. The experiment he is conducting should break the bond between Ursula and Fouldes by establishing Murchison in his predecessor's place. Murchison points out Ursula's distaste for him but Brangwyn urges him to continue; if the experiment fails, then his sister is almost certain to end up in an asylum. He suggests that if the circuit can be made between them, then it might result in marriage, a notion that Murchison is vehemently opposed to. Brangwyn informs Murchison that he intends to conduct a ritual involving Ursula and Murchison, which will test the possibility of establishing the circuit. He describes this ritual as a form of acted psychoanalysis.
Before the ritual takes place, Murchison outlines his feelings towards Ursula, which leads to them feeling temporarily at ease with each other. They descend to Brangwyn's basement temple, where they perform the rite of the earth in spring. Murchison feels transformed by the ritual. He discusses the experience with Brangwyn the following day. Ursula has been sent back to Wales because Brangwyn believes that she will prove a distraction in the next stage of Murchison's development.
Murchison discovers that Monks, the manager of the bookshop, is in league with Astley. Murchison surmises that Astley intends to launch an attack on Brangwyn and they take measures to prevent Monks from spying on them without revealing that they are on to him. Murchison is concerned for Ursula's safety but he's assured that she is being well protected by a family of God fearing Welsh farmers.
Murchison is accosted by Astley in Regent's Park and over drinks in a nearby pub he pretends that he is willing to betray his employer. He reveals Astley's intentions to Brangwyn, who immediately rewards him with a cheque for £75, which he uses to buy good quality clothes from a tailor.
Time passes. Murchison encounters Astley again, who reveals that he knows Ursula's whereabouts and says that Fouldes is on to her. Brangwyn and Murchison compose a letter to Astley, suggesting that Murchison should be able to steal some papers that Astley wants when his employer goes away, and then they drive to Wales to protect Ursula from danger.
Ursula is accosted by Fouldes as she goes for a walk in the mountains. Fouldes begins to work his hypnotic fascination upon her but she screams and one of the farmer's dogs comes to her rescue. She returns to the farmhouse, where she is tended to by Mrs. Davies, the farmer's wife. She reflects on the continued fascination that Fouldes holds for her.
Murchison and Brangwyn arrive at the farm after nightfall. Mrs. Davies informs them that Ursula has been attacked. They find Ursula sitting before the fire, as if she had not moved since returning. Initially, Ursula is unaware of Murchison's presence and she makes a disparaging remark about having to accept him as there is no alternative. She notices the change that has come over Murchison through a simple change of clothing and her feelings towards him grow more tender but she becomes resentful again when she notices he has fallen asleep.
Murchison wakes feeling resentful towards Ursula. After a conversation with Brangwyn, Murchison and Ursula drive into town, where they argue. Fouldes appears from nowhere and suggests that Ursula should leave with him. Murchison removes Ursula bodily from the company of Fouldes and starts to drive away from the scene of the confrontation at high speed. They arrive at the sea, where Murchison talks bitterly about his former life and prospects. They become lost and Murchison drives the car into a ditch. Murchison resolves to use Ursula for his own ends and proposes that he will marry her temporarily in return for being put through a university course funded by her or her brother. Ursula is appalled by his cynicism. Murchison seals the engagement with a forced kiss and in that moment his desire to be cruel to her vanishes. They return to Llandudno with a breakdown gang. Ursula takes a room in which to rest while Murchison relays a message to the farmhouse.
Ursula feels miserable. She reflects on what has passed between her and Murchison and realises that she has taken from him and given nothing in return. She resolves to stage another rite of the earth in spring, in which she will give herself fully. Brangwyn, Ursula and Murchison return to London by train. Ursula succumbs to a headache and goes to sleep. Murchison tells Brangwyn that he and Ursula have had a serious argument.
The treacherous Monks enables Astley to confront Ursula in the bookshop beneath Brangwyn's flat. Astley suggests that she should rejoin Fouldes and finish what they have started by performing the Mass of the Bull. Ursula is opposed to the idea but Astley produces the letter he received from Murchison and exerts a strong hypnotic influence upon her and they leave the shop together.
Murchison senses there is something wrong with Ursula. After discovering that she is not in her room, he suggests visiting Astley, who might know something about her whereabouts. Astley's house is characterised by run-down grandeur and decadent luxury. Murchison pretends that he is still willing to betray his employer. Astley reveals that Ursula is in his house. He asks Murchison to help him with some carpentry in his temple. Murchison helps Astley to construct a cross large enough for a six foot man to be crucified on. When Astley leaves the room, he takes the opportunity to investigate his surroundings and locates a hidden escape route. Astley invites Murchison to participate in a rite which he will stage in a few days, which Ursula and Fouldes will also take part in.
As he is leaving the house, Murchison is shocked to discover Ursula cleaning the steps that lead to Astley's front door. He urges her to leave with him but she refuses, believing him to be a traitor. She informs him that she has decided to take up with Fouldes again. She enters the house and Murchison completes the cleaning of the steps before leaving. Ursula re-emerges to find the steps clean. She returns to her meanly furnished room and reflects on who the real Murchison might be. She realises that Murchison's letter to Astley had been dictated by her brother and resolves to take up with Murchison again but she is prevented from leaving the house by Astley's servant.
Brangwyn views Astley's invitation to Murchison to participate in the rite as suspicious on the grounds that Murchison is not an initiate. They conclude that Ursula will be safe until the rite takes place and Murchison is resolved to use his participation as an opportunity to rescue her. Brangwyn outlines the situation informally to a senior police contact but they want to avoid police involvement if possible, for the sake of Ursula's good name.
Murchison arrives at Astley's house on the day of the rite. His presence is kept secret for some reason. He takes stock of his surroundings and manages to hide away a torch and a chisel, although all he is wearing is a loin cloth. The impressive but dreadful ritual begins. Murchison is rendered temporarily unconscious by Astley but he regains his senses and Ursula uses the cover of darkness to free Murchison from the cross on which he hangs. They head for the escape route previously identified by Murchison but they find their way out blocked. They hide but it becomes apparent that they will be discovered before the prearranged time for Brangwyn to come to the rescue if necessary. Murchison and Astley negotiate through a closed door and Astley is persuaded to let Murchison and Ursula go when he learns that police attention will follow if they do not appear in timely fashion.
Fouldes, under the influence of drink and drugs, attacks Murchison in the now empty temple. Murchison pursues his assailant in a Berserker rage and Ursula's awareness of Fouldes' fear causes the link between them to break irrevocably. Murchison gets Fouldes in a headlock and pummels his face before throwing him with all his force at one of the makeshift pillars in the temple, which threatens to bring the house down. Alarmed at the prospect, Astley orders a taxi to be called and Murchison and Ursula drive home in silence.
Ursula is despatched to a nursing home to recover from her ordeal. Murchison resolves to leave his employer and manages to secure a well-paid position with a disreputable merchant. During his period of notice, Brangwyn asks Murchison to find a new country retreat to replace the tainted domicile in Wales. Murchison returns to his native East Yorkshire and locates a farmhouse that he knew as a boy, which is now in a state of superficial disrepair. He makes the place habitable and orders it in accordance with instructions contained in letters from Ursula.
Ursula is distraught at the prospect of Murchison leaving and Brangwyn tells her that she should tell him how she feels. They travel to Yorkshire. Murchison is angry at Brangwyn for bringing his sister with him. Brangwyn pretends that he has to leave for an appointment with his solicitor. The atmosphere between Murchison and Ursula is strained but eventually she makes it clear that she doesn't want him to go. After further embarrassment and misunderstanding on both sides, it becomes clear that they love each other and that they should be married. They sit peacefully watching the fire “and the great bull spread his wings and took off as easily as a bird.” Murchison knows they have mated and that nothing remains but to ratify this fact outwardly.
Magical and Magic Related Content
Murchison's innate sensibility
Murchison possesses an innate magical sensibility. He communes with the statue of the winged bull and feels the force emanating from the Egyptian relics and Aboriginal fetishes in the British Museum. He has been able to visualise clearly since childhood. He remembers the invocation of Pan from his school days. In response to an enquiry from Brangwyn as to why he had invoked Pan, he replies that he had felt ready for anything and that he wanted to get in touch with a new kind of god. He had felt something similar once before, at an emotional church service staged before he and other young men departed for the war.
Brangwyn senses that Murchison's invocation of Pan was an attempt to reach beyond the veil. He recognises that Murchison is sensitive and psychic, as well as sturdy and earthy. Murchison is aware of Fouldes' personal magnetism and feels a strong sense of hostility towards him. When he first encounters Astley, who gives him the evil eye after being thrown downstairs, Murchison is impressed by the demonic force of the villain's look. He intuitively grasps that Astley is Fouldes'
leader. Murchison illustrates his belief in a reality beyond appearances by contrasting the German race soul with the British race soul, which he became aware of during the war. He is able to master panic fear through his resolve to face evil head on. He is able to withstand the psychic attack launched by Astley and Fouldes by entering the Berserker state he had put on during the war. Brangwyn pictures him wearing a winged helmet when he is in this state.
Psychology
In her first conversation with Murchison, Ursula describes what her brother is doing as conducting an investigation of the old pagan faiths from a psychological point of view. Brangwyn defines the core ritual described in 'The Winged Bull' as 'a kind of acted psychoanalysis' designed to bring targeted powers in the subconscious mind to the surface. There is a book by Jung on the psychology of the unconscious in Ursula's library, which contains an illustration of the winged bull.
Dreams
Murchison's preparatory training involves keeping a record of his dreams, to be analysed by Brangwyn. Murchison has an extraordinary dream, which concludes with a vision of a beautiful woman whose head is the size of an orange, and who bears a family resemblance to Brangwyn. The following day, the woman in the dream is encountered in the person of Ursula. He dreams of chasing a black cat, and Brangwyn interprets the dream in accordance with his knowledge that his sister's nickname is Kitten. Later, Murchison dreams of a black panther during an afternoon nap. After the rite of the earth in spring, Murchison dreams of riding a black horse, and when questioned by Brangwyn he likens the colour of the horse to the colour of Ursula's hair. Later, Brangwyn interprets Murchison's dreams of being attacked from behind as emblematic of Achilles, who pined at the absence of the object of his desire, as Murchison grows sulky at the absence of Ursula.
The gods
Murchison asks Brangwyn what it was that spoke through him during the rite of the earth in spring. Brangwyn suggests that it was a mixture of the subconscious, telepathic suggestion caused by visualisation and 'what it purported to be', or a great natural force dramatised to the subconscious mind. Although it cannot be fully understood, like electricity this force can be used.
Murchison asks what the gods are and Brangwyn replies that they're the lenses that men have made through which to focus the great natural forces, and that they're made out of 'thought-stuff'. By neglecting them, we lose the use of the subconscious mind. If we wake the old gods, we recover the use of the subconscious mind and contact the great natural forces from which civilisation has cut us off.
Murchison is immediately aware of the 'Keltic' atmosphere as he crosses the border into Wales during the long car journey prompted by his desire to protect Ursula. Brangwyn mentions that the area the farmhouse is situated in is traditionally associated with Keridwen, whom he identifies with Ceres; he says that her cauldron is a prototype of the Graal. Ursula sometimes identifies with Keridwen, although it is clear that she is not an earth-mother.
Murchison likens Ursula to a moon-goddess and says that her role of the earth in spring did not suit her. Murchison associates Isis with Luna and Diana, and reflects on the fate of Acteon (sic). He also wonders if he will be required to murder his predecessor, as was required of the priest of Diana in the Arician grove, who was always a person of low repute before taking on this office. Brangwyn replies that all that will be required of him is to put his predecessor's nose out of joint.
The symbol of the winged bull
Brangwyn compares Fouldes to a stag and Murchison to a bull. Ursula also likens Murchison to a bullock and Fouldes to a stag. Astley assumes that Murchison is being groomed for the Mass of the Bull, which he relates to the Minotaur legend.
Murchison notices that the winged bull has a man's head, an animal's body and an eagle's wings. To begin with, Murchison recognises that all humans have bodies like beasts but he is confounded by the meaning of the wings. Later, he realises that as well as possessing an animal body and a human head, he has also possessed wings on rare occasions (going over the top and withstanding Astley's psychic attack). He also wonders if the compassion he feels towards Ursula could represent the wings of the bull.
Brangwyn likens the animal gods to psychological formulae. He explains that the bull is a phallic symbol, representing sexual force; the eagle's wings are spiritual aspiration; and the human head is human intelligence - “The powerful bull form of the natural instincts soaring on eagle's wings of spiritual aspirations, with consciousness poised between them.” He also explains that the cow- goddess is Hathor, the lower form of Isis, the moon goddess, the all fertile Mother, or the earth in spring. Brangwyn does not want Murchison as the bull god Apis for Hathor, but as the winged bull of the sun for the moon goddess Isis, “in whom the cow horns have become the lunar crescent on her brow.”
Ritual
The dance involving Murchison and Ursula clad in green robes recounted in chapter 7 is a rehearsal for the later rite of the earth in spring. The music played by Brangwyn serves to evoke strong emotion on the part of Murchison, which is identified as a prerequisite for successful magical work.
Brangwyn describes the rite of the earth in spring as a spontaneous enactment that requires Murchison to act on instructions issued by Brangwyn based on a general plan that he carries in his head. The rite is described at length in chapter 13. Ursula dresses in a robe of palest green. Murchison dresses in gold and his robe has a golden sun-disc embroidered on the breast. In shedding his everyday clothes, Murchison also sheds his everyday personality. He realises that he is wearing the garments of a priest of Atlantis and that he had been such a priest in a previous life.
Ursula represents the earth in spring and Murchison the sun-god gaining strength as the days lengthen. Brangwyn's music and chanting cause images to rise in their imagination; they accept these images as if they were real and they live in imagination while the rite goes on. The temple consists of a spacious candlelit room in which everything has been painted gold, so that light is reflected from the floor, walls, ceilings and furniture until the whole space seems to glow with golden light.
Ursula sits on a throne like chair and Murchison sits opposite her. A small square altar forms an equilateral triangle with their seats. An earthenware pitcher containing pine boughs, a cup containing wine, a platter of bread and a dish of salt can be found on the altar. At the end of the room there is a raised and curtained platform which allows a person to reach a dais without being observed by anyone already in the room.
Ursula assumes the posture of the Egyptian gods and Murchison imitates her. A single bell note sounds and Brangwyn issues the warning cry of the Dionysiac (sic) mysteries, urging the profane to flee. Violin music succeeds the sounding of the bell and prompts Murchison's imagination to conceive of changing landscapes. Brangwyn appears in a golden cope shot through with salmon
pink and impressive Egyptian headdress with the Uraeus-serpent reared before it.
Brangwyn stretches out his hands, a gesture aimed at Ursula and Murchison. Ursula's eyes remain closed but she still responds to the cue. Brangwyn begins to chant and Murchison feels the misery and frustration of the world flowing over him. He feels that an unnamed god is being evoked through Brangwyn's recitation. He experiences a series of rising and falling visions and eventually he realises the key to the mystery of faith. “The gods of men's worship were not things in themselves but the creation of the created – the forms under which man represented to himself the ineffable Creator and Sustainer.” Gods were dramatizations and the real thing was behind all the gods. God was the Absolute, but that was no use to the average human brain, which needs images and a story. God was as many-sided as the soul of man.
At length, Murchison realises that he is participating in an invocation of the sun-god, featuring Brangwyn as Priest of the Sun and Murchison as servitor. The music resumes and Murchison begins to breathe deeply and rhythmically in time, feeling energy waxing and waning as he does so. The room becomes quiet and still. Murchison is enveloped by glowing warmth. He feels as if he is overshadowed by a vast hawk's wings and gives voice to the exclamation: “Ra! Ra! Ra!” There is a further period of silence and Murchison breaks out in perspiration. He realises that a god is speaking through him:
“I am Horus, god of the morning; I mount the sky on eagle's wings. I am Ra in mid-heaven; I am the sun in splendour. I am Toum of the downsetting. I am also Kephra at midnight. Thus spake the priest with the mask of Osiris.”
The power in the room slackens and Murchison finds himself returned to waking consciousness, although he has come back in possession of knowledge. He knows he is participating in the great sun rite which brings life and fertility to the earth and inspiration to the heart of man.
Brangwyn calls out 'Helios, Helios, Helios!' and Murchison rises and takes three steps towards the earth-priestess. She rises and takes three steps towards him. They dance together. They drink from the cup and eat bread dipped in salt from the altar. They inhale the fragrance of the pine. Inwardly, they become two forces, not two persons:
“He was the sun in heaven bringing life to the earth. She was the earth, absorbing it hungrily, drawing it from him to satisfy her crying needs. And the more she drew from him, the more flowed into him.”
The music slows and the dancing stops. The hands of blessing are extended and consciousness returns to normal. Ursula leaves. Brangwyn and Murchison face each other over the altar, which Murchison notes is exactly the height of the navel of a six-foot man. They leave and disrobe without saying a word. Murchison finds that it is not easy to return to civilisation.
After Murchison arrives at the farmhouse in Wales, Ursula reflects that the rite of the earth in spring has united them in the invisible kingdoms and that they should proceed to become one on the plane of earth.
Murchison describes Astley's intention as the performance of a Black Mass but Ursula does not see it this way. Astley's invitation to Murchison to participate in this rite is suspicious because Murchison is not an initiate. Astley's temple is situated below ground and held up by insubstantial pillars. It bears some resemblance to Brangwyn's temple but it's painted in Egyptian red and black and it also houses a goat. Murchison will hang on a black painted cross, representing the Saviour of the World, around whom the Sacred Virgins dance. Astley prescribes debasement in the form of
performing menial tasks and living in an uncomfortable environment as preparation for Ursula's part in his rite.
Astley's rite, which has been obliquely referred to as a Black Mass or Mass of the Bull, is described in chapter 25. Murchison is fastened tightly to a black painted six foot cross. There are 40 people present, an even mix of men and women, dressed in robes of primary colours. Organ music announces a procession consisting of Astley wearing gold and crimson and a towering headdress of scarlet feathers; Ursula wearing a white velvet cloak with a cowl over a silver tunic; Fouldes wearing a black cloak over a silver tunic; two young men carrying swords, one dressed in black and the other in white; and a billy-goat led by Astley's servant.
Astley sits on a throne with the two young men behind him. Fouldes faces the goat across the open space in the centre of the room. Ursula lies on the altar, her feet within a yard of Murchison's feet. Astley raps a gavel. The silence is shattered by Murchison asking for his straps to be slackened. Astley replies that it is by the sweat of the agony of the one bound as the Saviour on the Cross of Suffering that power is exuded for the rite.
Astley presses Murchison's neck in a ju-jitsu grip, which causes him to faint. He returns to his throne, gives a sign for the organ to resume and the ritual proper begins. A session of call and response is succeeded by Astley chanting translations of erotic Greek poetry. Monks carries a censer of foul smelling incense. Astley waves his arms and booms at intervals.
Everything becomes unreal to Murchison on the physical plane and real in some other dimension. He feels himself becoming a saviour by the power of his sacrifice and willing suffering for another 'who despised and rejected him' and for the first time glimpses the true significance of the Christian doctrine.
The alleged virgins dance in diaphanous robes. Astley strikes the pedestal. The organ blasts. The lights go out. Murchison realises they have come to business and tenses himself for what might follow but we do not learn what this might be because Ursula takes advantage of the darkness to free Murchison from the cross.
Atlantis
Brangwyn informs Murchison that the culture of ancient Egypt was a remnant of the culture of Atlantis and that the priests of Atlantis had practised selective human breeding. Brangwyn implies that he is a reincarnated priest-king from Atlantis. Brangwyn and Ursula accept reincarnation as a matter of course. Ursula is convinced that she knew Fouldes in at least one former life; she feels no such connection with Murchison. During the rite of the earth in spring, Murchison recalls honouring the sun god as a priest of Atlantis.
Definitions of magic etc.
Brangwyn leads Murchison to understand that the prime preparatory cause for going out of oneself is strong emotion and points out that strong emotion can be used to produce altered states of consciousness at will. He defines magic as 'the practical application of a knowledge of the little- understood powers of the human mind' and says that there are numerous societies throughout the world dedicated to the cultivation of these powers. He characterises positive magic as the setting up of an electrical current, which must be earthed to avoid danger. He defines the White Magic that he practices as an attempt to get in touch with the spiritual forces that build the universe in order to become part of evolving life, as opposed to the Black Magic practiced by Astley, which seeks to use these spiritual forces for selfish ends.
Murchison remarks on the mixture of worldliness and spirituality to be found in Brangwyn and Ursula explains that he does not believe that there is a dividing line between spirit and matter, that matter is solidified spirit, as it were. She says that the initiates worship God made manifest in nature. Ursula reports that she was persuaded not to become a nun by her brother's argument that it is no good to try and give yourself to Heaven until you've learned the lessons of earth.
Magnetism
Fouldes possesses a strong personal magnetism and is able to exert an influence that causes Ursula to enter a trance like state and be subject to his control. The aim of Brangwyn's experiment is to break the contact between Ursula and Fouldes by replacing Fouldes with Murchison.
Withstanding the telepathic attack launched by Astley and Fouldes leaves Murchison feeling extremely drained. Brangwyn explains that this is because he had not been in circuit with Ursula at the time. Eventually, Ursula provides Murchison with a restorative magnetic charge by joining hands with him; Murchison enters an altered state of consciousness at the joining of hands and loses all sense of time before returning to a normal healthy state.
Ursula realises that she has committed magical sin on the inner planes by taking all that Murchison has to give and giving nothing back in return. She has drawn out the magnetism in him and felt new life stir within her but there has been no return flow on the circuit, so Murchison has not benefited in a similar fashion.
Visualisation and meditation
As Murchison already has a grounding in psychology, the next stage of his training consists of familiarising himself with mythology and practising the visualisation of place along lines suggested by Loyola. Murchison feels a natural affinity for Odin and Thor, followed by the Egyptians. He feels less sympathy with the Greeks. He reveals his particular affinity for the winged bull, which is the formula that Brangwyn and Ursula have been working all along. Brangwyn instructs Murchison to engage in meditation on mythological scenes for half an hour twice daily, although Murchison finds that he is in a state of near constant daydream reverie. Later, Brangwyn says that the symbols you meditate on when making a formula invariably express themselves in your life, pointing out that meditation on the black Calvary cross of sacrifice always brings suffering and renunciation.
Christianity
Murchison is ill disposed towards Christianity and the spitefulness of the God his brother serves. He is sick of the one sided Christianity practised by his brother and he disdains Jehovah. During the rite of the earth in spring, he realises that Christianity has become lopsided and can no longer respond to the realities of experience after its original force had been diminished by Paul, Augustine and the heresy hunters.
Murchison and Brangwyn discuss Christianity after the rite of the earth in spring. Brangwyn states that it has its place as a contribution to spiritual thought. However, the idea that there is only one Name by which we might be saved is a latter day accretion to the earlier text of the Gospels, as are similar bigoted ideas. Brangwyn differentiates between churchianity and Christianity. He explains that the Bible is a collection of literature and folk-lore ranging over a thousand years. Its value is that it is great spiritual literature, it's part of our racial heritage and we need to learn what it has to teach us (as we need to learn what Buddha and Confucius have to teach us). Murchison gains an insight into the real meaning of Christianity when he hangs from the cross in Astley's ritual.
Conclusion
The marriage between Murchison and Ursula towards which everything in the book has been leading will work by bringing the Godhead down into manhood and taking manhood up into the Godhead. A real marriage has a spiritual side as well as a physical side and puts one in touch with the whole universe as you become a channel for the life of the race to go on; the gates of life should not be permanently closed against incoming souls.
Eugenics, Racism, Class Prejudice
Not only does Dion Fortune use Brangwyn as a mouthpiece to relate that the priests of Atlantis practised eugenics, but Brangwyn and Murchison agree that selective human breeding is a thoroughly good idea.
Hugo Astley, the primary villain, who resembles Aleister Crowley, is described as “a pockmarked mulatto.” His servant is described as “an enormous grinning negro.” In contrast, the heroic Murchison is praised for being of Viking stock and therefore suitable to participate in Brangwyn's experiment. After he decides to leave the Brangwyn household, Murchison secures a position with a 'Heinz' - “A mongrel Levantine from Alexandria, the world's very worst...a small, skinny, sallow- cheeked little man, with eyes like black currants and greasy ringlets all over his head...,” and the final chapter suggests that gypsies are intrinsically untrustworthy.
Brangwyn, who is presented as the model of what a person should be, has the voice of an educated man who has kept constant company with other educated men. His educated status is presented as evidence of his worth and Fortune almost invariably links a person's value to the place they occupy in the commonly accepted social hierarchy.
The accent of Luigi, the proprietor of the restaurant, is rendered in a patronising phonetic form. The Welsh accent of Mrs. Davies, the farmer's wife, is also ridiculously transcribed. The man who joins Brangwyn and Murchison during a train journey back to London is described as “a loquacious son of Erin travelling in bacon.” The treacherous Monks, the manager of the bookshop, is presented as an ill bred cockney. Fortune's disdain for working class people is further exemplified by her reference to Murchison downing his tools “as promptly as any trade unionist” the moment the door closes behind Astley during his first visit to the Black Magician's house.
Analysis and observations
It appears that Murchison is primed for communion with the winged bull before it occurs, and that it is the working out of an inward ability that enables it to happen, whether or not he is aware of the existence of this ability. The drama of the external atmospheric conditions (the darkness and the fog) also play a part and his disappointment with his mundane existence predisposes him to an appreciation of the unearthly.
Is the initial meeting between Murchison and Brangwyn due to outrageous coincidence or destiny? Murchison is open for something new by virtue of his disappointment at the way his life is going, and Brangwyn is looking for someone of Murchison's type to assist him in his endeavour, so the time is right, as well as the people being congenial to each other.
There is an immediate sympathy between Murchison and Brangwyn, which still reflects the division between follower and leader that characterised their former wartime relationship. Brangwyn's living quarters form a kind of hermetically sealed environment, somewhere out of the mundane world.
It doesn't take a lot for the weight to lift from Murchison. He begins to flower as soon as he's transported to a sympathetic environment, although a certain diffidence born of his years of frustration and disappointment remains.
The novel moves from the outer to the inner in chapter 5 and oscillates between the two from this point onwards. Brangwyn is the controlling intelligence at this stage, Ursula is a knowing accomplice, and Murchison has yet to fully grasp what is going on. The device of Brangwyn as the controller, the high initiate guiding and dictating the course of Ursula as lesser initiate and Murchison as neophyte, persists throughout much of the book. The initiate reveals the truth by degrees, in accordance with the growing capacity of the (initially unknowing) neophyte to receive it.
The dance between Murchison and Ursula described in chapter 7 is a form of ritual, enabling everyday consciousness to be transcended. Brangwyn takes pains to ensure that the symbolic resonance of the robes that his protégés wear relates to the activities they undertake.
One of the central propositions of the book is that it is possible to influence people by dint of personal magnetism. Black magicians possess the ability to operate from a distance and influence not only people but the objectively experienced atmosphere of a room. Psychic attack can result in a form of paralysis. Ursula seems particularly susceptible to the influence of Fouldes and Astley and the weakness of women is a theme that runs through the novel, although Fortune clearly indicates that women bring something valuable to magic that is different from the male perspective.
Accomplished magicians are not immune to the commonsense strategies adopted by shrewd non- adepts; perhaps their rarefied concerns render them susceptible to the machinations of the worldly wise.
Murchison is conscious of the non-material happenings around him although he can't logically grasp what they signify. He can spontaneously deploy magical capabilities that he possesses but is not consciously aware of.
In chapter 9, Fortune uses Brangwyn as her mouthpiece to express the view that White Magic is about the practical application of the knowledge of little understood mental powers to contact the spiritual forces that built the universe so that the practitioner can become part of evolving life. Fortune suggests that ritual magic opens access to forces that are as old as mankind and that advanced White Magicians of the current age are reincarnated priest-kings from Atlantis (reincarnation is treated as a simple matter of fact).
Magical conflict has a pronounced effect on the body but there are methods of self-defence that will protect the body from the rigours of such conflict. There is power in joining hands, palm to palm, if the exercise is invested with emotion. Strong emotion is identified as a necessary component of efficacious magical working.
The references to psychology and psychoanalysis in 'The Winged Bull' and elsewhere should be viewed in the light of Fortune's interest in and pretensions to psychological and psychoanalytic knowledge (she was a practitioner before the field was professionalised and regulated). Murchison's failings are related to his inferiority complex and his temporary hostility towards Ursula is ascribed to his subconscious awareness that he has given his all to her and received nothing in return. Fortune frequently stresses the primacy of the mind in magical workings, particularly the subconscious mind, which can be accessed and used for particular purposes (although she does not explicitly address the implications of the fact that the recovered subconscious mind is no longer
subconscious).
Fortune argues that an understanding of psychology and mythology are indispensable foundations for the working of magic. People have natural affinities for mythological types and some people have innate qualities that can aid them in meditation on mythological themes. Evidence of Murchison's suitability as a candidate for initiation is provided by the ease with which he exceeds the requirement to picture mythological scenes for an hour a day. It seems clear that he has inherent abilities that suit him to the task. Effective visualisation results in definite outward results (not necessarily ennobling). Astley's system of preparing people for ritual work is to force them to do things and endure environments that are alien to their nature, tastes and inclinations.
The description of the rite of the earth in spring that comprises the central episode of 'The Winged Bull' takes place about halfway through the book. The outward gestures are relatively easy to describe but it is their inward significance that counts. Man is the sun and woman is earth. We might question if the sun needs the earth but most assuredly the earth needs the sun. Earth is brought into the temple of the sun for the purpose of healing. Both Greek and Egyptian gods are mentioned in the rite but this is accounted for by the fact that the gods are representations of the thing that matters, which lies behind them, and the gods are also consistent in that they are sun gods. Fortune tends to adopt an eclectic, anti-dogmatic tone in her definitions and descriptions of the gods. The principle that similar does not mean identical does not seem to apply. Correspondences cut across discrete mythological systems and the incidents from myth she uses to illustrate points need not bear scrutiny. She attempts to harmonise this approach with what she suggests is the true essence of Christianity but it's arguable how successful she is in this respect. Murchison accesses knowledge that he already possesses from the time he was a priest in Atlantis.
Although the vestments are described in some detail, the outline of the dark ritual conducted by Astley in chapter 25 is far sketchier than Brangwyn's rite of the earth in spring. Ursula's deliverance of Murchison from the cross and their initial escape is highly unlikely. Murchison's Berserker rage is portrayed in a positive light – a virtue of the noble Nordic race, praiseworthy in comparison to the cowardice of the decadent Fouldes, whose face is pounded to a pulp by Murchison, who gets off with Ursula two chapters later, proving that nice girls like a violent brute when all is said and done.
Magic is the opium of the upper middle classes
Dion Fortune's approach to magic was fundamentally conservative. Indeed, one could argue that she promoted a kind of cosmic Darwinism. She was wedded to a hierarchical system that saw secret lore transmitted from student to pupil, with the aim of the pupil becoming sufficiently knowledgeable and skilled to transmit the teaching in turn. She extended this concern with hierarchy to the social sphere, where the function of the lower orders is to serve their masters and value is ascribed to representatives of the servant class in accordance with their willingness to serve loyally and without complaint; it's impossible to conceive of one of these chattels ever attaining enlightenment.
We do not turn to Dion Fortune to hear what she has to say about class politics. The virtues of her work reside in her treatment of esoteric themes. If one overlooks the unnecessary Atlantean trappings, the rite of the earth in spring is convincingly portrayed in 'The Winged Bull' and the definitions of magic and related endeavour she provides in the book are generally sound and worthy of further consideration, particularly her grounding of the gods in the mind, which is useful in making the forces and ideas they represent potentially accessible to consciousness.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
AUSTIN OSMAN SPARE: ‘ANATHEMA OF ZOS’
Austin Osman Spare (AOS) occupies a land of his own invention. He pays no heed to fashion. He stands against the dictates of time. He stands against society. He seeks to go beyond the limitations of space. The illustrations that accompany the text of 'Anathema of Zos’ resemble the work of a decadent symbolist from an earlier generation, although the designs of AOS transcend the morbid fantasies that characterise the art of the so-called Symbolist movement. If AOS were not beyond time, he would be 50 years behind the times. The teaching of AOS is that there is no teaching and no teacher worthy to teach. Despite this, AOS teaches hatred of life, hatred of civilisation and a (cynical?) transcendence that is based on feeling rather than reason.
‘Anathema of Zos: The Sermon to the Hypocrites’ purports to be an automatic writing, written in 1924 and published in 1927 in an edition of 100 copies. AOS was bound to produce his work in the form of obscure or special editions; such was the rarefied nature of his interests. Despite his profoundly anti-Christian proclamations, AOS demonstrates considerable knowledge of the books of the Old and New Testaments and his work should be seen as a contribution to the European Christian Tradition despite its opposition to orthodoxies, institutions and social and cultural norms.
AOS has a serious interest in religion. This interest informs his main task, which is to build an understanding of the beyond based on personal experience and the fundamental realities embedded within the bestial common man. ‘Anathema of Zos: A Sermon to the Hypocrites’ confirms that AOS recognises the existence of Heaven. ‘Anathema’ and ‘Sermon’ are well-defined religious concepts. ‘Anathema of Zos’ can be seen as a book from the dark Bible of AOS.
This is what we learn from ‘Anathema of Zos’:
We are born into a state of illusion. Despair and chaos define our experience. Life is a nightmare. We submit to the illusion of death. This process is circular. In a sense, birth and death are the same thing; they are products of the same illusion, which allows being as we understand it to arise.
A priest rubs his hands together as he looks upon a naked young woman. A symbol of the setting or rising sun is inscribed on his hand. Earth lies within the realm of the sun. Three rays emanate from the sun: the triple sun, the triple goddess, and the threefold state of illusory life (birth, being, death).
Zos is opposed to the vain practices of the self-appointed arbiters of conventional morality. He is wholly concerned with himself. He speaks to himself and is perturbed to find that others listen to
what he says. The crowd of hypocrites that presses upon him is a cause of great discomfort to Zos. They present themselves as respectable citizens, thirsting for knowledge, but Zos knows them as vain wanderers, fierce haters of each other, the maimed products of a contemptible but all pervading civilisation. They know that Zos is not like them, so they accord him the title of Master and ask to be taught religion. Their ignorance is so great that they beseech favours of one who despises them. This is their way in the world.
Zos offers no comfort to the people who call upon him to impart his wisdom. He is set against his followers. He castigates them because their future lies in the hands of others. He views them as blind worms, caught up in a hopeless cycle of bodily processes and urges. Zos presents himself as the saviour of himself. This is what sets him apart from the worms that call upon him for guidance.
The misguided auditors do not know what they think they know. They live in a world of abundance acquired through greed. They adorn the filth of the world they have created through their baseness with sparkling diversions and obscene luxury. A decadent Roman slouches on a throne, wearing a medallion depicting snake locked Medusa. The people of the world are self-absorbed in fear, intent on manufacturing hope to excuse the futility of their actions.
The mission of Zos is to transcend the ego, ‘the sorry righteousness called I’. Until this transcendence is accomplished, a man cannot truly be called a man but remains a base and ridiculous creature, a worthless selfhood and an enemy of truth. The followers of Zos exemplify this degraded worthlessness. They are liars, flatterers, thieves and dupes. They feed on corpses.
People are motivated by hatred and act from a foundation of hatred. They are fundamentally murderous. Their society is ‘a veneered barbarity’. Zos treats his listeners to a scornful and reactionary version of the Beatitudes. The merciful have departed. The pure in heart are no longer to be found. The meek are governed on earth and despised in Heaven for submitting to corrupt government.
A man casts the shadow of the Horned God with his raised right hand. He wears a medallion depicting a sleeping bird, or the head of a goat. The table before him provides evidence of his workings. The mask that hangs beneath the table is an indication of the nature of the work.
Zos has no respect for tradition. The vainglorious prophets are nauseating and deserve to be persecuted. He states firmly and plainly that love is cursed. He is given to psychedelic conundrums.
Zos promotes self-sufficiency for the self beyond self. He is concerned with the principle of self beyond all. His way is not the way of others. Anyone who follows Zos becomes his own enemy. He recognises that becoming oneself is a disgusting task. It might require cruelty. It is born of messy desire. It calls upon one’s reserve of courage in a very demanding way.
Some people delight in their bondage. The central tenet of Zos is that freedom lies in lawlessness. Necessity and time are conventional phenomena. Convention does not lead to freedom. One should neither resist nor exploit evil. This is the way to a true Heaven.
Human behaviour is supremely vicious. There is nothing in the world that is worse than human behaviour. Humanity cannot differentiate between the actual and the dream. As belief is confounded, one should believe symbolically or with caution. Desire cannot accomplish anything unless it is acted upon.
The lusts of the body should not be ignored or denied as shameful but enacted as a matter of course to allow being to pass beyond them. It is ‘better to communicate by the living act than by the word’.
The God of the Church of England is a mad and vain projection of the stupidity of the people. Self- love is an ultimate state or aim. AOS defines self-love in ‘The Book of Pleasure’: “A mental state, mood or condition caused by the emotion of laughter becoming the principle that allows the Ego appreciation or universal association in permitting inclusion before conception.”
Zos is opposed to the limiting nature of the word. The masked fool with a dripping pen is ungainly and can barely stand. The truth of the past is wisely forgotten. Zos exists beyond words, beyond time, beyond becoming. From puberty until death he is engaged on a mission to realise Self in all. There is a sacred alphabet of powerful symbols, which is beyond words, and Zos has knowledge of this alphabet.
Zos is a true outsider, a willing outcast from human society, living in the waste places, beyond civilisation, beyond reach of the corrupted and corrupting power of the word of law. His prayer, for those who pray, is translated from the Sacred Alphabet: “Hidden in the labyrinth of the Alphabet is my sacred name, the SIGIL of all things unknown… On Earth my kingdom is Eternity of DESIRE.” We see the head of a horned goat and a woman’s breast with a flaming nipple. Is this a devil or an embodiment of desire?
The prayer for those who pray becomes a form of inverted Lord’s Prayer with trills and flourishes. Zos prays for self-sufficiency. He prays for the death of his soul. He sees a pair of lovers rooted in the earth. Their arms transform into the branches and leaves of a tree. They are innocent and bestial. Their legs fuse into a tree trunk. The male has a small tail and a pointed ear.
Zos denounces the confusion and perplexity of the people. They believe one thing and desire another. They speak of things that have little to do with belief and desire. They do not act as they speak. From this ridiculous process, the people obtain the values by which they live their lives. Ecstasy transcends this process. Ecstasy transcends thought.
AOS is ill disposed towards ceremonial magic, because it is false in its supposed workings. He defines its practitioners as misguided and insane, and worthy of disgust and pity. We see an image representing ecstasy and death. The image contains symbolic devices reflected in a mirror; a form of architecture brought into this world from another world.
Zos salutes all suicides but remains uncertain: he does not know men from swine or dreams from reality. He knows that no man will follow him. He is not humanity's preservation. The crowd's interest in Zos does not last and it deserts him when he falls asleep.
Zos continues to speak to himself as he sleeps. He has not cast away the substance of his dreams. He knows that all debts have been paid. He longs for deeper rest.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
RESPONSE TO 'A GNOSTIC CATECHISM' Prepared by The Most Reverend Stephan A. Hoeller Ecclesia Gnostica, Los Angeles, 1998
I, Jabez the Stupid, Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, having ventured out to Meersbrook, and standing with one foot firmly placed in the kingdom of Northumbria and the other in the kingdom of Mercia, with the autumn sun shining in my eyes of Fra Aneglico blue, declare to the passing dog walkers that this Catechism represents a burden, being just another system invented by someone else, and that what appear to be correspondences at first glance prove to be the elucidation of general points relating to transcendence, merely similar to COLT experience, rather than more closely related.
The text reveals a hierarchical and authoritarian system, ultimately similar in nature and structure to that employed by many other religious institutions, secret societies and magical orders, which means it should be approached with caution. This recognition is valuable in itself, but in the sense of 'do not proceed', rather than 'go further'.
The author of the Catechism adopts a title of the orthodox churches (which he calls 'the exoteric church', implying that the Gnostic Church should be considered esoteric) and the church of which he is an officer engages in a skewed traditional form of classical nomenclature to describe itself. The author and the organisation ally themselves with the authority and hierarchy of the established church, seeking to dignify themselves through association, despite their professed distaste for its errors. There is also a suggestion of a secret inheritance; Ecclesia Gnostica being the true church, which the orthodox churches have forsaken. The true and the false share the same heritage, but only the true sustains the source. And the date on the title page of the document is given as A.D. 1998, demonstrating that the Gnostic Church recognises the validity of the Western Christian dating system.
Preface: Why a Gnostic Catechism?
The author argues that a catechism properly understood is a compendium of instructions arranged in question and answer form and that Gnosis outside of the context of the Gnostic Mythos, as presented in the Catechism, loses its potential for salvation. This Catechism is a manual grounded in the heritage of the whole Gnostic tradition, which includes the Nag Hammadi texts, certain writings of the Church Fathers, some Hermetic writings and the teachings of Mani. It follows that 'A Gnostic Catechism' is a synthetic work, bringing together elements from sources that had no contemporary affinity. The lessons of the Catechism are preceded by a section devoted to prayers and creeds.
Prayers and Creeds
The opening sign of the cross is the fundamental Christian sign affirming the Trinity. 'The Gnostic's Prayer' is modelled on the Lord's Prayer and the 'Hail Sophia' is even more closely linked with the Hail Mary, consisting largely of direct substitutions and slightly altered paraphrases of the text it is based on.
The linking passage of the creed glorifying the Father is commonly employed by the established churches and it leads into a central 'Act of Gnosis', which proclaims knowledge of the eternal thought, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Messengers (the capital letter indicating a recognised body of messengers), and aspires to the union of the self with the Fullness, which represents liberation.
The brief credo acknowledges the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which it characterises as the celestial Mother, and ends by referring to the joining of the sparks of light in the Fullness. 'A Prayer to the Supernal Parents' is addressed to the all-powerful Father and all-wise Mother, requesting wisdom and strength, and offering thanks for the grace that proceeds from them. It ends by asking for growth in knowledge, wisdom and understanding. The heart of the Act of Contrition is again taken from the Lord's Prayer, and relates to the theme of mutual forgiveness, which is the central point of the Christianity promoted by William Blake.
The Morning Prayer begins by glossing the Lord's Prayer in slightly altered form before moving on to a generalised psalm of thanksgiving and call for guidance. And the Evening Prayer takes the form of an examination of conscience within predetermined and arbitrary parameters that relate to conventional notions of the good and the true as intrinsically more valuable than their diametrically opposed opposites. It conflates confession with repentance, taking the form of an appeal to the Father of Light for protection.
Lesson I: Of God and the Universe
God is the infinite and eternal reality. The spiritual and material worlds emanate from God, but lesser gods can be conceived, most notably the Demiurge, who is the god of this world.
The lesson states that “the Gnostic tradition has always affirmed the existence of God as the Holy Trinity consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit”, and yet this is not true of the non-Christian Gnostic tradition, unless one substitutes non-Trinitarian terms for the persons of the Trinity, or insists that similar means identical through the law of correspondences. The Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies.
God is beyond gender, although the Holy Spirit is regarded as feminine. Names like God the Father and God the Son express mystical qualities and the divine names are words of power, which result in specific responses when they are uttered.
The universe emanated from God and will return to him. Evil originates in the Demiurge, the 'half- maker', and Archons, or 'false rulers', who fashion the substance of God into a universe, which eventually appears as material substance.
God is omnipresent but not omnipotent, as control of our universe is exercised by the Demiurge and Archons. God is immanent, forming the underlying essence of all things, but again this does not indicate control over the forms in which his essence abides. God is present in the human being as spirit, which contains God's presence, or “Christ in us.”
When the universe ends, part of it will return to the Fullness of God, or Pleroma, and another part will be left behind. Or the light will be taken up and the dark will not rise.
Lesson II: Of the Spiritual World and the Demiurge
Spiritual beings are deathless, immaterial, conscious and equipped with free will. The spirits and their realms are known as Aeons and they are divided into numerous categories, including divine beings, angels, elementals and nature spirits. Angels have been invested with purpose and meaning from God and a particularly important function they perform is to act as mediators between the Pleroma and the human world. Angels intercede on behalf of humans and act as guardian angels, protecting us from spiritual harm and inspiring us towards Gnosis.
As well as benign spiritual beings, there are evil spirits who have become estranged from God and they are responsible for the suffering that can be found in the material universe. The Demiurge has forgotten his origins and thinks that he is God. He is identified with Lucifer or Satan, the powers of the air. In addition to the flawed Demiurge and Archons, there are evil monstrosities, or demons, which populate hells associated with earth.
Lesson III: Of the Human Being
Humans consist of spirit combined with soul and body. Spirit descends from the Fullness and is part of God. The soul is non-material and dominated by thought and feeling. The body is temporarily living matter.
People tend to yield to the soul and the body rather than retaining allegiance to the spirit. The man of heaven becomes the man of earth; the Judeo-Christian tradition refers to this as the Fall. People can remember their true condition by recalling things that have been forgotten and coming to Gnosis, or knowledge, through dealing with the obstacle of ignorance, which has arisen as a consequence of forgetfulness.
Being trapped in a body and subject to the Archons is an unfortunate condition, which means that people are born as slaves to the Demiurge, who binds them to earth and the elements and subjects them to disease, pain, death and successive re-embodiment.
Lesson IV: Of Gnosis and Salvation
Gnosis reveals our true nature. Although it manifests in various forms, they have common features and share the same meaning. Gnosis is experience and doctrine. Human Gnosis is acquired through the teachings of the Messengers and the Gnostic tradition, whereas Divine Gnosis is acquired through grace in response to aspiration.
Some people, symbolically known as the Great Race of Seth, have been in possession of Gnosis since the beginning of humanity, and Jesus Christ was the latest great revealer of Gnosis. Messengers offer enlightenment and transformation but only people who possess the necessary qualities welcome their message; they will be saved from ignorance and earthly existence, which is characterised by suffering and exile.
Salvation is brought about through Gnosis, which results in a change in consciousness that renews the link between soul and spirit, and between soul and spirit and God. Salvation involves turning away from the attachments of life, inheriting God's friendship, and enjoying a good death and easy passage to God's presence in the Fullness.
Lesson V: Of the Lord Christ
Christ is the thought of God and possesses redemptive power. Jesus is the earthly manifestation of Christ, although Christ did not fully manifest in Jesus before his baptism by John. Christ departed from Jesus at his crucifixion but returned at the resurrection.
Jesus did not save mankind by his death on the cross. His true sacrifice was his willing entry into the limitations of embodiment. Christ sacrificed himself for us, but his sacrifice was spiritual in nature.
Christ's mission was to rescue us from the Demiurge and the Archons and to prompt our reunion with our original state; to enliven spiritual influences on earth; and to restore us to the Fullness. He fulfilled his mission by delivering teachings about love and bestowing mysteries on his disciples, which have been transmitted through the ages. The Catechism states that the Gnostic Church is the rightful inheritor of this tradition.
The sufferings of Christ show that earthly life is suffering for all spiritual beings. Christ's life serves as the supreme example of the life of the spirit in earth conditions. Not only did Christ descend into the hell that we call this world, after his death he also entered the underworld and liberated many spirits who dwelt there.
Christ returned to life after his death and burial, which signifies and prefigures our own resurrection, which takes place while we are still alive on earth. Christ remained on earth “to impart the Gnosis to certain disciples” before his glorious ascent into the Fullness. It is unlikely that Christ occupied a body like ours. Nevertheless, his embodiment was substantial, and this substance comprises his flesh.
Lesson VI: Of Our Lady Sophia
Sophia is a close associate or twin of Christ. Her name means 'wisdom' and as well as being known to the Gnostics, she was also known by the authors of the Biblical Wisdom literature and to some ancient philosophers and theologians. She is not the female counterpart of God, and she has not incarnated in human form.
Sophia goes out in search of Light and following a catastrophic fall endures torment in the lower Chaos. She gives birth to a being who becomes the Demiurge and to the elements from which the Demiurge makes the world. She continues to call out to the Light, which eventually sends Christ to comfort and rescue her, restoring her to her original dwelling place.
Despite being rescued, Sophia continues to be involved in creation, particularly by demonstrating concern for humans. She rebukes the Demiurge, gives higher life to his creation and “enters holy souls and makes them friends of God”.
Sophia is not the Virgin Mary; she is celestial rather than human. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Mary's role as mediator between God and humans can more properly be ascribed to Sophia. She continues to manifest to this day.
Lesson VII: Of the Holy Spirit and Grace
The Holy Spirit is God in the form of the Comforter and Spirit of Truth. Gnostics conceive of the Holy Spirit as feminine. She permeates the universe with benevolent purpose, forms the spiritual life of the Church, and sanctifies souls through the gift of grace.
Grace is the manifestation of the Life of God bestowed on us through Gnosis and by other means. It
is necessary for salvation and it cannot be achieved naturally. It brings about transcendence and provides stimuli that urge us towards salvation.
Sanctifying grace is permanent and flows from our own spiritual natures, although it is possible for us to resist it and for the soul to turn away from the spirit. Actual grace consists of help coming from God, which enables us to experience states of consciousness and perform acts that are beyond our normal powers.
Grace comes mainly through the Messengers of Light, through study of the teachings that proceed from them, by prayer, and through the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist.
Lesson VIII: Of the Church and the Communion of Saints
The Church is the assembly that attempts to join the soul to the spirit and to connect both of them with God. The Gnostic Church is Christian, although it is also of the eternal religion that has always been in the world.
Jesus Christ founded the Church just before his ascension, when he instructed his apostles to make disciples of all nations, with the purpose of freeing human beings from the shackles of the Archons and bringing them to the freedom of the glory of the Fullness.
The Church leads souls to salvation through the Holy Spirit, who gives the Church life. The extent to which the Holy Spirit is present in the Church varies greatly and depends on the amount of Gnosis present and the purity and holiness of its leaders and members. The leaders of the exoteric church cast out the Gnostics and thereby excluded the Holy Spirit from their assemblies. The Gnostic Church continued to function in secret within the exoteric church and through distinct and separate bodies such as the Manichaean and Cathar churches.
The Gnostic Church is universal and apostolic. All its members share the same sacraments and aspire to wholeness and integrity. It teaches and practices a faith not bound by space and time and its authority proceeds from the apostles and their successors.
The visible Church is joined to invisible assemblies to form the Communion of Saints. The earthly Church is the Church Militant, struggling against the evils of the world. The Church Triumphant consists of liberated souls in the Fullness and the Church Suffering is comprised of souls and spirits in purgatory.
Some Gnostic teachings conceive of re-embodiment as a form of hell or purgatorial suffering arising through attachment to a body of flesh and a turbulent mind, and therefore as a calamity to be overcome through liberation. Death can be the temporary release of the spirit, followed by further embodiment, or the means of entry into God's Kingdom of Light, there to dwell with the highest order of the Communion of Saints.
This lesson promotes the idea of the Gnostic Church as the One True Church, invested with the power of the Holy Spirit, and deriving authority from God through Jesus Christ and apostolic succession. It also stresses what might be termed a hierarchical spiritual world view. The Gnostic Church proves to be just as authoritarian as what it calls the exoteric church, but its authority resides in its avowed possession, treatment and interpretation of the mystery of Gnosis.
Lesson IX: Of the Sacraments or Mysteries
A sacrament is the visible sign of the invisible grace of God. Sacraments are always effective, and it
is necessary to prepare to receive them. A sacrament consists of an outward sign, a form of words and a predetermined intention.
There are five initiatory sacraments, two sustaining sacraments, and two secondary sacraments.
The five initiatory sacraments are: 1. Baptism 2. Confirmation 3. Holy Eucharist 4. Redemption 5. Bride-Chamber
The two sustaining sacraments are: 1. Holy Orders 2. Extreme Unction and Healing
The secondary sacrament of Penance has been substituted for the sacrament of the Redemption, and the secondary sacrament of Matrimony has been substituted for the sacrament of the Bride- Chamber. The exoteric churches have suppressed and forgotten the sacraments of the Redemption and the Bride-Chamber.
Jesus Christ instituted the sacraments and most of them have existed in some form since the beginning of creation. They confer grace and receive their power from God through Jesus Christ.
Baptism and Penance are referred to as sacraments of the dead and the other sacraments are referred to as sacraments of the living. Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders can usually be received only once because they imprint an indelible mark on those who receive them.
Lesson X: Of the Sacraments Considered Singly, Part I
Baptism with water should be received preferably after one has reached the age of reason. It liberates the body and soul from the dominion of the Archons, washes away faults, joins an angel to the baptised soul and enables the soul to depart from and return to the body. It is usually administered by a priest or deacon but in an emergency, anyone can minister Baptism. A baptised person should participate in sacred practices and study sacred literature.
Confirmation brings about the advent of the Holy Spirit and strengthens determination to persist in the Gnostic life. It is administered by a bishop, not before the time of adolescence. This sacrament symbolises the fire of the Holy Spirit, so it is also known as the Baptism of Fire.
In the Holy Eucharist, bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ, and their consumption unites those who receive them with Christ and through him with the Fullness. It is the spiritual body and blood of Christ that are received in the Eucharist, and the body and blood take on the appearance of bread and wine through Transubstantiation, which is brought about by the Holy Spirit. Both the ritual of the Mass and the substance of the bread and wine are referred to as the Holy Eucharist, and people should participate in it frequently.
The sacrament of the Redemption is one of the two greater sacraments practised by the Gnostics. It is mentioned in the Gospel of Philip and is known as the Renunciation or the Baptism of the Air. It aims to deliver a person from the Demiurge through remitting faults and equipping them with the strength not to commit serious offences. It perfects the change produced by the Baptism of Water. It also ensures liberation from the cycle of birth and death and the necessity of future embodiment on
earth. People over the age of 20, but who have preferably entered or past middle age, been baptised and confirmed, who are recognised as dedicated Gnostic practitioners, and do not wish to be re- embodied, are eligible for the sacrament of the Redemption.
The sacrament of the Bride-Chamber is the final and greatest of the sacraments. It is known as the Sacred Wedding. and completes and seals the results of the sacrament of the Redemption for all eternity. It unites the soul with God in the Fullness. It is necessary to have received the sacrament of the Redemption before receiving the sacrament of the Bride-Chamber. It is not received in earthly form, but by the soul in its realm, usually after bodily death.
So, we have a hierarchy of sacraments and operations, the lowest levels of which are recognisable, earthly, and elemental, and the higher levels of which become more rarefied and selective, and also less substantial. They begin with the body, proceed through the mind to the soul, and end with union with God in the Fullness. Perhaps uncharitably, one might say this is a fundamentally fascist organisational structure, which can be found in most religious systems and in many other forms of conservative group, secular and otherwise.
Lesson XI: Of the Sacraments Considered Singly, Part II
Through Holy Orders, people receive the power to perform the duties of the clergy of the Church. There are nine grades of Holy Orders but only the two highest grades, priest and bishop, are qualified to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. Deacons perform a lesser office in the ritual of the Mass and the lower grades assist the bishop, priests and deacons.
Ordination results in an everlasting imprint on the soul, and authority pertaining to the office of the appropriate order. A candidate for ordination should be of good character and in a state of grace, possess knowledge of the Gnostic Mythos, be prepared to devote his life to the ministry, resolved to teach and serve in accordance with the instructions and practices of the Gnostic Church, and be called inwardly of the spirit and outwardly by a bishop.
So ultimate authority resides with the bishop and the Gnostic Church can be called the bishop's tool. This point is reinforced by the Catechism's proclamation that the bishop confers the sacrament of Holy Orders in accordance with the doctrine of Apostolic Succession declared in the Gospel of Philip, “The Son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us.”
The sacrament of Extreme Unction and Healing brings strength to the dying and sick. Only deacons, priests and bishops can administer it. Gnostics also perform public healing services, for the benefit of those who are not in danger of death.
The secondary sacraments of Penance and Matrimony have not always been considered true sacraments. They are symbolic representations of the higher sacraments of the Redemption and the Bride-Chamber, which are not generally available. For the sacrament of Penance to be effective, it is necessary to conduct an examination of conscience, to be sorry for one's offences, and to resolve not to commit offences again. Offence is that which transgresses the supreme commandment given by Christ, namely, to love God with all of our being and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Marriage is an earthly representation of the mystery of the Bride-Chamber. The sacrament of Matrimony is administered by the marriage partners and solemnised by a priest.
Appendix A: Prayer
Prayer lifts up our minds and hearts to God. There is vocal prayer and mental prayer. Vocal prayer consists of prayers of petition and intercession, and prayers of adoration and praise. Mental prayer
takes the form of contemplation, or meditation. Both vocal and mental prayer are necessary, and can lead to grace and Gnosis.
Appendix B: The Gnostic in the World
Gnostics strive to improve the world through improving themselves through Gnosis. The world of the Archons cannot be perfected but it can be improved by the human spirit. Gnostics have no overriding concern with worldly causes; they neither uphold nor rebel against worldly systems, although they support freedom as the most fertile ground for the cultivation of Gnosis.
* * *
Following a short bibliography, the document ends with a seal consisting of the abbreviation AMDG, which stands for AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM, meaning “For the greater glory of God” - the motto of the Jesuits.
The theology of the Catechism is more complex than orthodox Christian theology, although it generally recognises the validity of orthodox Christian terms. Much of what is referred to in the Catechism as Gnostic scripture can be seen as an extension of canonical scripture and many of the tenets of the lessons are not echoed by immediate lived experience but grounded in an acceptance of theory that might be defined as faith in a supernaturally based system.
There are some parallels between the Rastafarian concept of Babylon as this world of exile and Zion as the true home in the Fullness and the Gnostic world view outlined in the Catechism. Like the Rastafarians and the Gnostics, the Sons of Amos Brearley recognise that we have been sold into captivity and have to set ourselves free. But despite their stated concern with liberation, and the clarity of the Catechism, which serves to strengthen its argument, we conclude that the Gnostic Church is unlikely to enable us to fulfil our quest.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ON PSYCHIC TV AND TOPY
In the beginning, Psychic TV was the public face of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth. PTV recordings were a form of TOPY action. ‘Force the Hand of Chance’ and ‘Dreams Less Sweet’ are the best records issued by PTV and they come from the beginning of the group’s career. Later recordings may be redeemed by the presence of individual songs of great quality but they lack the satisfying unity demonstrated on the first two LPs. And yet it’s difficult to treat the records of PTV as discrete, individual objects, because not only do they address similar themes, they also deploy reconfigured samples taken from throughout the group’s career.
Core PTV themes include sincerity; guiltless self-acceptance; the primacy of personal experience; and wholehearted engagement in the liberation quest, which involves the subversion of familiar cultural expressions in furtherance of the TOPY mission. Psychic TV are at their best in live performance, when sight, sound and feeling combine in the form of a Psychick Rally that cannot be captured on record, although “MEIN*GOeTT*IN*GEN” comes close to doing so.
Force the Hand of Chance
‘Force the Hand of Chance’ was originally released in 1982. Amongst other things, it demonstrates the tenderness and sentimentality of Genesis P-Orridge, which is often overlooked. At times, it is an evocation of an English pastoral idyll and the summoning of a daydream of a pleasant future. The album mixes reportage with advice and instruction relating to the attainment of joy as an eminently worthy enterprise in and of itself. It goes beyond the renunciation of guilt to proclaim that guilt should not exist.
The narrative of ‘Terminus-xtul’ owes an obvious debt to William Burroughs. It tells of a weary pilgrim, who is acutely aware of his surroundings but acts without lust of result. His actions are marked by disdain for the world created by others. He thinks about jumping from a railway bridge into a passing train. Maybe it’s a fantasy to pass the time on a journey (of crisis, mental turmoil, intensifying agony and frustration).
‘Message from Thee Temple’ (referred to as ‘Message from Thee Temple of Psychic Youth’ on the lyric sheet) reveals its author’s familiarity with the techniques of the OTO as regenerated by Crowley; indeed, this tract outlines a method of discovering one’s true Will along lines suggested by the famous magician. Written in 1980, the Message stands as a foundation text or mission statement. It’s delivered in a friendly but authoritative voice and stresses the virtues of personal experience as the guide for developing a magickal system to bring depth to the Individual’s exploration of Present Time.
In vision, we are travelling, affecting resignation, but conscious of what we will come to. We travel
in procession, walking serenely down the street, inwardly focused. We are suddenly attacked, necessitating a switch to a new way of being in response to the violence. We hear wolves harrying prey, and then feeding. We hear a despairing cry of triumph followed by generalised ecstasy. We invoke a great force, which is threatening, which surrounds us, and from which there is no escape.
‘Force the Hand of Chance’ holds considerable interest for lovers of double meaning and students of the mysteries. It remains one of the two or three crucial PTV recordings by virtue of its focus on the TOPY liberation quest.
Dreams Less Sweet
Whereas ‘Force the Hand of Chance’ can be seen as a general statement of core TOPY principles and an introduction to the mission of Thee Temple, ‘Dreams Less Sweet’ should be viewed as the result of engagement with a particular ritual strand.
The album was recorded in February and March 1983 (certain elements were captured in the Hell Fire Club caves of West Wycombe). As befits its title, the record possesses the quality of an uneasy dream.
‘Eleusis’ is a key PTV number. It consists of a wordless invocation underscored and strengthened by bells; its ritual power is demonstrated by the single minded focus of its performers. ‘Medmenham’ represents the next stage of the metaphysical journey through a combination of animal howl, OM chant, and enthusiastic speaking in tongues.
‘Ancient Lights’ is a drama about oppressive forces and surveillance techniques, which suggests that you have to be aware of their existence if you hope to overcome them.
“In this place of shadows… Time wasted is sleep…”
This is not a call to prayer but a call to what prayer should lead to. The wisdom propounded is beyond orthodoxy and altogether outside the law.
‘Black Moon’ distances calamity. It is profoundly present, an all embracing pastoral that strips everything of its capacity for horror. It is a rendition of repeating themes; the storm subsides before it gains strength. Everything is far away, as if seen through autumn sunlight.
‘The Nursery’ is the place where TOPY rituals and magickal investigations were staged. It’s celebrated as a place of transformation where depth is added to realisation. Darkness loses its darkness and time is transcended. The Nursery is a place of sanctuary, a repository of truth, and a kind of metaphysical nation. It’s a place entered to gain entry to no place. Or perhaps it’s a fantasy given substance through emotional engagement:
“Shield me from life In the Nursery…”
“MEIN*GOeTT*IN*GEN”
“MEIN*GOeTT*IN*GEN” is an improvisation consisting of two ‘mottos’ – ‘Motto One. Thee Lie’ and ‘Motto Two. Thee Truth’; there is a slight gap between them but there is little to separate them in reality.
This is a prime example of PTV sonic ritual. We feel the anticipation of the gathered TOPY acolytes and we hear the acclaim of the crowd as the group of shamanic explorers takes to the stage to a pre- recorded announcement, which refutes the validity of dogma and vested authority, argues against materialist conditioning, and stands against rootless supernaturalism. It dismisses religion as discredited by science whilst pretending to treat of the spirit. It states that we are not weak and incapable and we do not have to accept limitations imposed by fear. To be aware of conditioning is to place oneself in a position where conditioning might be challenged; and the challenge begins the moment we recognise the reality of the pre-eminence of personal experience.
Whirling feedback introduces the sampled voice of a TOPY associate repeatedly intoning: “We are that rule...We are that we are...”
The flesh obsessed corrupter will be corrupted by his corruption. PTV pass through Present Time, offering arbitrary but acceptable change. In the next stage of the ritual we hear a hammer pounding an anvil, urging the participants to come together, suggesting that joining a circular dance will afford entry to higher stages. And the singer screams from a fiery whirling maelstrom and the musicians create a circle moving within a circle, and the inner circle moves more rapidly. They create a space in which to move freely, which is yet confined to serve as an object of focus.
46 minutes of “MEIN*GOeTT*IN*GEN” is followed by a 17 minute excerpt from a performance recorded at Berlin Atonal Festival on 2 December 1983, consisting of ‘Papacy – Unclean – God’s Blood – New Will’, presented as a practical application of the TOPY saying “OUR INTENTION IS TO MUTATE ALL POPULAR CULTURE”.
A looped excerpt from ‘Dreams Less Sweet’ and a familiar sampled voice lead to a moaned invocation, which bears a striking resemblance to the invocations later deployed on numerous works by Coil. Then:
“Fuck it... There is no way out... You are wasting your fucking time / in this place...You should know better by now...”
A mechanical glitch prompts Genesis to exclaim: “You can’t even insult God without a bit of interference on the technical side”, but the disruption affords him the opportunity to improvise: “I’ve seen the destruction of God.”
A church is only sacred to its believers. Jesus is denounced as an obscene liar, which can be seen as an attempt to escape the limitations imposed by cultural conditioning, somewhat akin to Crowley’s adolescent antichristian whining, which is scattered throughout his work. Really, the God depicted and condemned by G P-O is no god at all, but a mockery of his own invention.
The beats give way to another excerpt from ‘Dreams Less Sweet’ and we enter the third part of the performance as Genesis intones: “The old lady starts to play with the genitals of her brethren...” A recording of stately 17th century English music reminds us of a strategy deployed on early Current 93 releases, and we recall that David Tibet was a notable TOPY Individual at this time, and an enthusiastic performer at PTV rallies in the early 1980s.
Shamanic barking and emotive speaking in tongues also link this music to the channelling of other worlds habitually attempted by Jhonn Balance and Coil.
* * *
The following is an extract from ‘Annihilating Reality’, an interview between Genesis P-Orridge
and Richard Metzger, November 10, 2002.
GP-O: It’s a curse and a blessing to have hindsight. When I read “Magick in Theory in Practice” and I looked at the picture of Crowley I realized it was someone I’d met and talked to when I was younger. And that really was confusing…
Richard Metzger: Someone you’d “met and talked to”?
GP-O: Yes
Richard Metzger: He died in…
GP-O: Yes
Richard Metzger: 1947
GP-O: Yes
Richard Metzger: And you were born in 1950?
GP-O: Exactly.
Richard Metzger: Huh?
GP-O: Well, I was living in Gatley in Cheshire, 1957, and I remember very distinctly walking along the road in a very ordinary suburban place in Cheshire, which is the dairy farming and the suburbs in Manchester combined. I started hearing footsteps and this old guy caught up with me and started talking to me. And I thought, oh, I’m not supposed to talk to strangers (laughs). He had a shaved baldhead and he was telling me stuff. And as he was talking to me all the streets started to change: the houses started to look like they were made of bread. That was how I remembered it at the time. And everything was very unreal and it was as if the street didn’t get any shorter or longer as I walked along with him. I was going fast but I wasn’t getting anywhere. And then he patted me on the shoulder and left. And I went home. It didn’t strike me as very odd and I had thought about it over the years, but it wasn’t until I read that book that I thought, “Fuck, this is that person I was speaking to.”
Richard Metzger: I don’t exactly follow what you are trying to convey…
GP-O: I’m not speculating. I’m saying that’s what happened. One could argue that he turned up, that he somehow interdimensionally turned up and spoke to me for his own reasons or could argue that having never seen a picture of him or heard his name ever, anywhere, somehow I hallucinated him anyway. That’s not very likely. Until I was 15 I’d never heard of him. Nor had anyone I knew. You couldn’t get his books anywhere. So what did it mean? I had the shock of recognition, from which I drew no conclusions except that it was interesting. And then I read the book and realized it was what he’d told me.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
MAGIC IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND SONG
The folk music of Britain and Ireland deserves our attention because it is about sex, death, magic and betrayal. It deserves our attention because it treats its themes with simplicity and depth and retains its authenticity, thereby enabling us to reconnect with the forces that shaped us and shape us still.
Sly Bold Reynardine
A number of traditional songs are storehouses of ancient wisdom. The disruptive actions of oppressive agencies might have worked some changes to them but the best of these songs possess a deep-rooted significance that cannot be wholly disguised by later accretions. The degree to which they have retained their meaning varies. One of the purest manifestations of ancient wisdom resides in the tale of the meeting between the mysterious Reynardine and the pretty fair maiden of a thousand songs.
Some authorities are content to report that Reynardine ‘was reputed to be able to turn into a fox, a sort of werewolf legend’ but a cursory examination of the lyrics reveals this to be an insufficient definition of the nature of the song’s hero. Reynardine is a form of Celtic demigod. The popular reference to Reynardine as ‘half man, half fox’ is an impudent joke designed to strip the Celtic pagan deity of his power. The significance of the fox lies in its colour. The fox is red, and in this context, red is the colour of the Celts.
Reynardine is encountered in the wilderness of the mountains, the refuge of the self-determining Celtic tribes displaced by the coming of the Anglo-Saxons. The beautiful young woman who encounters Reynardine can be taken as an embodiment of the people who remained under the yoke of their conquerors and a representation of the Roman church established in Britain at the behest of church authorities that were happy to encourage the vanity of kings. Heathen Anglo-Saxon Britain was confounded in its beliefs through the cunning of the Roman church.
The fate of the young woman can be taken as an indication of the appeal of ancient ways in a succeeding age and as a representation of the people’s abandonment of the church for a system of beliefs that was grounded in the wisdom of the perceivable realities of their homeland.
The fact that the meeting takes place on the high mountains is revealing. The mountains represent the refuge of the old people, the old ways, the old religion. The mountains separate the action from the everyday reality of settlement, of homestead, hamlet, village and town. The old gods were worshipped and encountered in high places. The mountains are a representation of the spirit land.
Reynardine recognises the beautiful young woman as one of his people. The young woman sees the demigod as a young man. She is somewhat wary of Reynardine’s company and she fears the reactions of her father and mother should they learn of the encounter. Perhaps the young woman is a priestess who communes with the old gods through magic. Her mother and father can be taken as the Roman church. Her parents are also the ‘judge’s men’ that seek the blood of Reynardine. The young woman might be fearful in the presence of the demigod but she does not fly.
Reynardine offers the young woman a place of refuge and she willingly accepts. This is representative of the union between a god and his people. The young woman is uncertain of the identity of her beloved. In revealing his name, Reynardine also reveals his great age. He has been in existence for longer than anyone can remember. In truth, Reynardine is a presence in eternity manifest in time. He can appear and disappear at will. His castle is a temple or a shrine.
The warning coda that is tacked on to some versions of the song can be taken as an illustration of the consequences of abandoning slavery for freedom, which include exclusion from the people of the homeland that has been left behind. Reynardine will do you no harm but if you embrace what Reynardine represents, your family will disown you. The young woman is fully confirmed as Reynardine’s consort and follower before the end of the story. Reynardine smiles in delight at possessing the qualities that have won another devotee to his cause.
The attributes of Tam Lin
Tam Lin is a spirit being from another world. He is said by his enemies to be a thief and a threat to sexual propriety. He is said to be untrustworthy. He occupies a wild place. He represents the old ways, the old religion, the remembrance of which poses a threat to the later community that has occupied or stolen the land. He is a memory in the collective mind of the people and a reality to be invoked by a priestess.
Tam Lin is a sacrifice to a goddess. He inhabits the land of the dead. He abides by the healing well. He longs for the water of life from the land of the dead, which is the world of fading memory. He is generative potential. He comes to the land of the living from the land of the dead. He enters the land of the living through the passion of the priestess, a passion born of purity. He is a god of love and a guardian of the land. He is a servant of the rose. He communes with the priestess in the form of a Green Man. He is ever young. The spirits of the other world are always ever young, even if they abide in the land of the dead. He is not confined. He roams freely in a bright land.
Tam Lin is marked by the pallor of death, a kind of glimmering insubstantiality. Elfin grey is a brightness like the brightness of the moon. His steed is the universe, the constellations, the sun and the moon. Tam Lin has entered the mystery of understanding through passing into the underworld. He adventures in a land that lacks the substance of the earth. He is a sun god, which is a man elevated through sacrifice to the goddess of the moon.
Tam Lin possesses foreknowledge. He knows that the priestess is pregnant with his child and that she seeks to destroy the unborn babe. He is no longer part of Christendom. The kingdom of the dead, the underworld and the elfin lands are lands set apart. He comes from ancient times. He was born without a father and without a mother. He is self-generating. He once occupied a place upon the common ground.
Tam Lin was hunting for knowledge when his strength and vitality failed him. He died in falling from his steed. He fell into the arms of the goddess of death to know that the goddess of death
brings renewal of life. He is happy in the land of the dead, which is a resting place and an indeterminate realm of existence. He knows that the journey from the realm of the senses to the land of memory can lead to oblivion.
Samhain provides an opportunity for eternity to merge with time. The people of the underworld enter the land of the living through the portal of Samhain. They take on a substance they do not usually possess. Tam Lin will become spiritualised matter through union with the goddess represented by the priestess; he is divorced from the other inhabitants of the underworld through his relationship with her.
Tam Lin comes from a land that has been lost to memory. He stands for death and obscurity. He is the first and oldest of the horsemen. Tam Lin comes from the time of the origins of the earth. He stands for mortality. He is the second of the horsemen, a passing along the way. Tam Lin rides in glory and honour. He stands for enlightenment and elevation. He is the third and final horseman, the summation and transformation of what has gone before. The riding of the horse represents the passing of time. There is one horse and one rider changing.
Tam Lin as the rider of the white horse rides nearest the town because he is nearer to the present time than the manifestations of eternity that ride upon the darker horses. He rides nearest the town because he remains in the memory of the people of the land. His right hand is gloved as a sign that he contains a mystery. His left hand is bare as a sign of his strength. His strength resolves that the mystery will be unveiled. He shows that a time of regeneration will come, a time of remembering. The union between the god of the underworld and the priestess as representation of the goddess will take place on the material plane. He has prepared himself for the ritual. He instructs the priestess. He prepares the priestess to receive him as he has received the goddess.
Tam Lin’s shape shifting journey through different orders of being represents the summoning of the god of the underworld through the ritual performed by the priestess. It is a journey from non-being into being and a journey from a land of spirit to a land of substance. It is a rite of purification, the casting off of beastly qualities, the casting off of earthly accomplishments, and the casting off of unnecessary encumbrances.
Tam Lin is a newt, which is the vanity of earthly wisdom. He is a bear, which is the vanity of earthly strength. He is a lion, which is the vanity of kings. He is iron, which is the vanity of earthly weapons. He is the father of the child of the priestess as goddess. He is gold, which is for purity. Burning gold is the product of purification.
Tam Lin’s journey of transformation is an alchemist’s journey. When Tam Lin as burning gold is immersed in the water of the healing well, his transformation will be sealed and his being will be sanctified. His immersion in holy water is the final act confirming the knowledge arising from his journey in the underworld, which is a rite of initiation.
Tam Lin is reflected as burning gold in the well as a lake reflects the sun. His transformation into burning gold takes place in the dark hours of early morning, so his brightness is all the more apparent. His brightness transforms the darkness completely and turns it into light. If one person passes from death into life, the whole world is transformed.
Tam Lin was less powerful than the Queen of the Fairies in the underworld. The Queen gave him life after he died. He is more powerful than the Queen in the land of the living. The Queen regrets that she did not replace Tam Lin’s eyes with eyes of wood. Tam Lin’s eyes are his resolve and his vitality. His eyes retained their light in the land of the dead. Their undimmed silver light is the light of the moon. His journey from death to life has turned him into a shining sun. The light of the moon
and the light of the sun are joined in him. Tam Lin is the sun and the moon.
The magic of Ireland does not reside in its songs
There are few tales of magic in the repertoire of Irish traditional song. The common themes of Irish folk music include the struggle against oppression, the sorrow of the oppressed and the plucky common man getting the better of those who would seek to exploit him. There is no Irish equivalent to the repository of ancient wisdom that can be found in ‘Reynardine’ or ‘Tam Lin’.
This apparent refusal of magic can be attributed to the influence of perfidious Rome and the bitter enmity of the Irish towards a mythical perfidious Albion. Ireland was a priest-ridden nation for centuries. The power of the clerics resembled the power of kings and their authority forbade the outward flourishing of pagan lore. The real and imagined indignities inflicted on the population of Ireland by the Saxon hordes turned the minds of the people from so-called flights of fancy to the stern stuff of the politics of opposition.
The reality of magic cannot be done away with. Magic has entered the political landscape of Ireland in sublimated form. The IRA in its 1970s /1980s heyday can be viewed as a Romantic death cult, with Bobby Sands as a hero like the heroes of old. England seen through the eyes of the Irish becomes an ogre, a kind of evil supernatural force intent on rapine and destruction. The legends of St. Patrick tell of the actions of an accomplished mage.
Perhaps the composers of Irish song were reluctant to reveal the secrets of the spirits that inhabit the land. The Irish rural landscape is littered with strange and sacred places and the qualities of these places are well known to the people who live in close proximity to them. The ancient sites of Ireland do not tend to be fenced off as they are in England; they are open to all. When everyone knows, there is no need to say.
Donal Og
The most commonly known version of ‘Donal Og’ is Lady Gregory’s English translation of an Irish song, versions of which are known from Ulster, Munster and Aran. The origins of the song are not known. Verses have been added and lost over the years. It is a tale of a young woman’s loss, ‘the grief of a girl’s heart’, her fury, humiliation and despair. Everything that she knows disappears with her lover and even God can offer no comfort. ‘Donal Og’ is a lament with an undercurrent of curse. It is a ballad and a prayer.
Lady Gregory’s version is modelled on the English speech patterns of a rural Irish peasantry, its syntax and grammar directly translated from the Irish. Lady Gregory subjects the Irish version of the song to a process of gentrification. She feels somewhat ill at ease with the sexual frankness of her model. She is socially removed from the manners of the people she steals the song from, like fairy hunting William Butler Yeats, who would talk to no-one he encountered during his outings in the countryside and was held to be mad by the workers of the land. Her opening verse is particularly prudish when seen in the light of later translations, which do not seek to detract our attention from the girl’s enthusiastic lustiness.
It does not do to credulously accept the interpretations of scholars, some of whom have suggested that Donal is a pirate. Neglecting to take account of the Irish tendency to florid overstatement, other commentators speculate on whether Donal is real or a fantasy figure, a model of the Fairy King who promises all to his lover. It is true that the young girl provides a description of Donal that evokes his beauty, but she does not play down her own physical attributes, likening herself to Helen, ‘the daughter of the King of Greece’, the epitome of female comeliness. Donal is not an impossible
object of desire. The couple are well matched.
There are many extant versions of ‘Donal Og’ in song form. They are linked by a sense of earthbound enchantment, mystery, and unity with the natural world. They contribute to the sense of the lyric serving as a ‘word hoard for future generations of poets.’ The journey of Donal Og continues, although he is nowhere to be seen.
The embourgeoisement of a rural tradition
The lust and violence inherent in the lyrics of some traditional songs is tempered by the false Puritanism and limiting moral virtues proclaimed by hypocritical societies, and by the cowardice of performers and record companies willing to comply with these constraints for misguided commercial reasons.
English folk music in the 1960s and 1970s was blighted by foolhardy musical settings. The tendency to introduce rock music instrumentation, particularly the electric bass guitar, worked to the ruination of much of Fairport Convention’s recorded output (although it wasn’t always a disaster – Fairport Convention’s version of ‘Tam Lin’ has much to recommend it).
Shirley and Dolly Collins provide evidence of an opposing tendency on ‘The Power of the True Love Knot’ and ‘Anthems in Eden’, which can result in music that sounds like it should accompany a children's TV programme. The notes to ‘Anthems in Eden’ state: “It was obvious that the sounds Dolly needed could not be found in either conventional orchestral or pop music voicings; it was the new young breed of professional players of pre-classical instruments who seemed to offer the most rewarding possibilities.” Unfortunately, the music does not seem timeless, but of its time, antique instruments in a 60s style. The first track on ‘Anthems in Eden’ is a 28-minute medley of 9 tunes and songs, another symptom of the era, although it must be allowed that medleys are common parlance in traditional music circles.
Despite these reservations, the voice of Shirley Collins transcends the limitations of time and fashion. She possesses an extraordinary ability to sound in tune and out of tune at the same time. She matches Sandy Denny for beauty of voice but arguably excels her by virtue of her singing style’s strangeness. Shirley Collins embodies the magical trend in traditional music in the way that she sings rather than what she sings.
Folk music deserves our attention because it speaks to us in voices that are simple and direct and yet possessed of richness and depth:
Young Polly she was a-walkin’ in a shower of rain And she hid by the bushes, her beauty to maintain. Young Jimmy he was a-fowlin’, a-fowlin’ all alone And he shot his own true love in the place of a swan.
I would have preferred ‘Johnny’ to ‘Jimmy’ but let’s not quibble over minor details. I smile despite the sadness of poor Polly’s fate. I smile with gratitude that such a dainty expression exists to enliven the consciousness of the world. At times like this it seems easy to remember that every act is a magical act and that magic arises from a longing for remembrance. Folk music deserves our attention because it helps us to remember.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
WATCH OUT FOR YOUR HEAD SONNY JIM
Behemoth and Leviathan A Death Metal Nightmare
In the early 1990s I watched an interesting and entertaining documentary about the origins and development of Heavy Metal music. This Channel 4 programme inspired me to write a poem called ‘Lines in Honour of the Heavy Metal Tribe’, which was characterised by the scorn and humour that can be noted in the majority of my non-religious works. The poem speaks of ‘snake locked musicians talking intelligently about sex and the devil’. I intended to start this article with a reproduction of the poem but I could not find it. The complete poem is not altogether necessary. From memory I recall the pertinent detail that made me want to search it out:
Watch out for your head, Sonny Jim, You will do yourself a mischief Shaking it about…
I went to school in Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town that borders the six towns that comprise the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the mid to late 1970s. My peers favoured two forms of music: Northern Soul and Heavy Metal. I attended my first Northern Soul all dayer on my 14th birthday. I recall the heavenly glow inspired by drinking a pint of cider. I recall the swirling skirts of the dancing girls, like the elegant robes of whirling dervishes. I recall the impressive acrobatics of their boyfriends, their swallow dives and backdrops. In truth I did not penetrate deeply into this impossibly glamorous world. I did my best to imitate the easiest moves of the dancers but I felt uncomfortable and self-conscious. I was a long way from perfecting my act and armour as a dispassionate observer. I went to a few events in the pubs and clubs of Stoke-on-Trent but I did not travel to Bristol or Manchester in the company of my friends (friends I despised, friends who despised me) to partake of speed and night long exposure to the chiming bell like tones and sweet vocals of the rare imported vinyl that defined the scene. At this time, Wigan was a legend celebrated on patches.
The Heavy Metal crowd were an ugly bunch. Gary ‘Snozza’ Tunstall was the epitome of the type; lank, greasy hair, greasy skin, an enormous and disfiguring boil adorning his nose (hence his nickname; he was also known as Rat). The ambition of these youngsters was to gain entry to the biker pubs around Newcastle and Stoke. These pubs were genuinely frightening places. Stoke is renowned for its citizens’ propensity for violence and the bikers of Stoke and Newcastle were particularly stalwart ruffians. From time to time the various factions of bikers, weekend rockers and
young disciples would gather in Stoke Town Hall to drink themselves stupid and shake their out thrust elbows in a rougher version of the celebrated dance popularised by the early 70s pop group Mud.
I left Newcastle for Uxbridge in Middlesex shortly before my 17th birthday. It was in Uxbridge that my interest in music really started to develop. The town’s proximity to London afforded me the opportunity to see countless live bands. The pseudo-intellectual ramblings of several staff writers from Sounds and the NME inspired me to widen the range of my cultural interests. Within 9 months of the move, Northern Soul had become a memory trace and the details of the Stoke Heavy Metal subculture in its basest form had been completely subdued in my mind. I started writing for ‘Notes from the Underground’. I took to wearing what I thought were stylish black clothes in imitation of John McKay after seeing him play guitar on ‘Metal Postcard’ by Siouxsie and the Banshees on The Old Grey Whistle Test. I took to sporting radical haircuts. I haunted the night-time streets of Uxbridge, Hillingdon and Hayes and the growing Skinhead faction of these dreary suburban outposts of the great Metropolis wanted to slaughter me for being a puff.
A few years ago, I watched an interesting and entertaining documentary about Norwegian Black Metal. This programme focused on the activities of Varg Vikernes in the fields of church burning and murder. I read the sensationalist but eminently readable book upon which the TV programme was based and my former passing acquaintance with Heavy Metal music began to resurface in my mind. I started to go to the Classic Rock Bar on Ecclesall Road because it was a short and generally pleasant walk from where I was living at the time, it sold good cheap beer and it did not charge an entrance fee. I concluded that the Sheffield Metal crowd was more likely to help out at a church fete than they were to burn a church down (I think this ‘softness’ is characteristic of the city. Sheffield Skinheads in the mid to late 1980s were certainly far less fierce than their counterparts in other towns and cities). I started to buy ‘Terrorizer’, which proved helpful in enabling me to differentiate between the plethora of sub-genres that had proliferated since I last paid any attention to this type of music.
The most striking events at the Classic Rock Bar were promoted by Steel City Music. The most striking bands to play at these events were Nyasiforte and Behemoth and Leviathan. Nyasiforte are a promising act, although I have not seen them since their first gig after recruiting a new singer in the latter part of 2005. Behemoth and Leviathan held a deeper attraction and I took to seeing them whenever I noticed they were playing around town.
One of the virtues of computers is that they store information in one easily reachable place. This means that one does not have to rummage forlornly through ancient boxes to achieve the objective of travelling through time. My engagement with the music of Behemoth and Leviathan in particular and Metal in general enabled me to write about the band for the first time in September 2005. I have seen the group twice since then and reported on what I witnessed on both occasions. These three reviews follow. The end of the final review has made the point I want to make about the band and it is a final review, for I shall not see them again. And the reason I shall not see them again is clearly stated in the final paragraph of this piece.
Behemoth and Leviathan The Boardwalk September 2005
We only live once. We are eternal. We are occupying eternity now. The woodlands and moors around Sheffield speak of the fundamentally pagan nature of the place. John Wesley preaching in Paradise Square does not gainsay this. The coming and going of heavy industry is just a covering of this fundamental nature. Ecclesall Woods is a forest of mystery in which I rebuild the Temple of
Ing. Notions of the left-hand path and the right hand path miss the point that all paths tend to join up.
I walk to the Boardwalk from Crookes. I see a man and a woman embracing in the brightly lit entrance of the cancer hospital. The man has no hair. He is attached to a travelling drip. Hail, bright Luna! Heil, bricht Licht!
Behemoth and Leviathan offer us a maelstrom born of fury. There is beauty in this music’s refusal of fear. These are the wild sounds of pagan Sheffield. A spike haired giant music promoter from Buxton now studying English in Aberystwyth proclaims this is a middling set. I say if this is middling then greatness awaits them.
I first saw the band at the Classic Rock Bar in the company of Varg Vaporub in his guise as resplendent corpse painted moody teenager. I saw the band for the second time at the top of the bill at a Boardwalk Metal Fest a couple of years ago but I had to leave before they really got going. As the singer announces, Behemoth and Leviathan are ‘a professional band now’ and it shows in the performance.
The band has retained its shambolic edge but it now exerts a degree of control over the expansive wildness of its sound. I consciously think: ‘This is the best I have seen since Coil Live Ocean Hackney July 2004’ and that Coil performance was so powerful it opened up doors to another world.
The singer possesses the nature of Loki, a trickster, a ruffian and a bringer of light. He butts long hairs. He rubs bald heads. He makes his ribs available for tickling as he embraces each member of the crowd. He leers at the girls at the front of the stage, out for fucking. The venerable bass player is the most likely candidate I have seen for the Odin Brotherhood since moving to this city almost 20 years ago. The guitarist is a blur of hair and Thor’s Hammer. The drummer is a dashing stylist.
I am a blank receiver so I know that this is music of perfect poise. I stand without moving. I am able to travel with the music, to experience where it separates and joins. Behemoth and Leviathan move from and regain the centre in accordance with the theory and doctrine of the music of the spheres. At the heart of their fury, they are still. You really need to see them.
Death Note Death Metal Thursday Behemoth and Leviathan D’n’R Live November 2005
Rare death note Sweet enduring harmonic Born of a screech owl At death metal show
Three quid in Some kind of Nordic Rastafari Born of a death note And a dead eye That mirror Will take you somewhere Beyond the ear
And out of the eye
Resistance and refusal Acclaimed non-futile By shaking heads By dreadlocks By the thick and oily Sweat of the work By fucking librarians Masquerading As Chaos Magickians Daughters of Lilith And sons of Amos Brearley In the new eye
Behold! In a vision I saw Five string bass player come before Last show to lurk down Sheffield dream streets Steep fantastic To be here Called by the death note And death hole Of death metal Thursday
Black Sun Fun from no fun Joy through denial of joy Gives rise to Raising serpent
The serpent thus raised Gives rise to phantom sound To join the main sound A darkness With darkness behind it A voice of one not there The birth and summary Of death note death metal Thursday
Behemoth and Leviathan The Boardwalk January 2006
The new housing project in Crookes has taken its final shape. The earth movers and ugly wire fences have departed and the buildings stand in mute oversight of the playing fields, awaiting their inhabitants. An inaccessible green space has been transformed into a small part of 21st century suburbia. The lane between Crookesmoor Road and Northumberland Road exhibits the beauty of lamp lit stone towers beckoning from a different time space zone. The proprietors of the Wig & Pen will be grateful when the apartment buildings opposite the pub throng with the presence of new buyers.
I arrive at the Boardwalk in time for the last half of the set by the band that precedes Behemoth and Leviathan. There are 35 people in attendance; the majority sitting at the tables that line the sides of the venue. A small gathering of the band’s friends moves semi-enthusiastically around the tall tables in front of the centre of the stage. The band produces some head-nodding, toe tapping riffs. They are a well-practiced group. They exhibit an energy typical of everyday MOR Metal bands. The music becomes tedious and the uninspired mannerisms of the singer become a source of irritation. I don’t take up the offer of a free demo and I’m not disappointed about missing the first half of their performance.
I first developed a casual interest in Behemoth and Leviathan because of the band’s name. I enjoyed a brief conversation with the bass player at the Classic Rock Bar at one of the Steel City Metal shows and went to see the band for the first time at the same venue a few weeks later. Something in the performance piqued my deeper interest, so I generally go to see them whenever they play around town. I know from experience that Behemoth and Leviathan are capable of transcending limiting Metal genres (they’re a self-styled Death Metal band) to produce music of great virtue, monolithic slabs of sound glimmering with light catching shards of something jewel like and enticing. They can reach great heights and it can be illuminating to behold the band members in performance, like emissaries from another world.
The crowd at the Boardwalk diminishes from 35 to 25. These events certainly aren’t notable commercial propositions. Everyone in the audience sits on a chair or leans their elbows against a tall standing table. No-one ventures in front of the stage until the final song of the evening, which sees a desultory gathering of long hairs emerge from their beer-induced ennui to shake their heads at the singer. Varg Vaporub, one of the small B.A.L Legion, sits on the table before me, looking across the room, refusing to look to the stage, wrapped up in the appearance of ‘thought’, waiting for the last song. A member of the band’s entourage films proceedings on a small DVD camera. I was looking forward to this but I witnessed what followed with a growing sense of dismay. The notes I took during the show give an indication of something going horribly wrong:
It is a rock show. It is 1970s rock style. It has three singers. It is improvised, or lacking practice. The serpent rises and has its head chopped off with a spade. It is swift and rapid, like gunfire. It improves when the Strongbow is supped. It is a deranged fairground ride in the quickening.
It is not together. It is the threat of dissolution. It is a battle between bass and guitar. It is a battle between the guitar and the rest. It is boredom showing. It is lack of focus. It falls apart. It is waste of talent. The waste lies in a lazy refusal to develop the riches of the [occasional] merging and blending.
It is ‘Viking’. It is anti-homosexual. It is anti-vegetarian. It is against the weak. It is anti-Semitic. It is goose stepping and Nazi salutes. Brendan the singer should know that an Irish Nazi is a contradiction in terms, although, as Christy Moore informs us:
“The bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Dun Laoghaire As they sailed beneath the swastika to Spain…”
It is worse to be a Jew than it is to be a queer.
There is no great problem with a band that plays poorly or fails to fulfil its potential. This can be seen as an intrinsic thrill as far as live music is concerned – will the band deliver, or won’t they? The problem with Behemoth and Leviathan lies in the attitudes expressed in-between songs and during the performance by Brendan. The singer uses the word ‘Jew’ as an insult. He goose steps on stage and makes Nazi salutes, smilingly turning the final salute into the sign of the Horned God. To
characterise these actions as a joke is the act of a wilful moron. These public proclamations of anti- Semitism are not acceptable. Sheffield’s Neo-Nazi Death Metal Underground is not a pleasant place to be.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
TOPY IS NOT-TOPY Fun and Games, Disenchantment and Pain in Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth
Thee Beginning
Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) was a magickal group that flourished from 1981 – 1991 under the leadership of the artist, musician and self-styled cultural engineer Genesis P-Orridge. It’s tempting to say that TOPY without G P-O isn’t worthy of attention. The primary virtue of the group did not reside in the works it produced but in the spirit which informed them. TOPY advocated freedom, self-reliance and productivity. As the later version of TOPY tended towards the construction of hierarchy and orthodoxy, so its virtue diminished. Any organisation that succumbs to schism and internecine conflict shows that it is not fit to stand, and all institutions are eventually compelled to dissolution after this fashion, be it the Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, the earthly church, or TOPY. Taking its questionable claims to commitment to communal enterprise at face value and downplaying the significance of P-Orridge’s leadership role, an American based organisation that calls itself TOPY persists to this day. Readers can go to http://www.ain23.com/topy.net/ for information on this dubious group. This article is concerned with the original manifestation, which we maintain constitutes TOPY proper.
TOPY was not inextricably linked to any locality, although TOPY Stations and Access Points operated throughout the UK, USA and Scandinavia. It is claimed that at its height TOPY consisted of a network of 10,000 Individuals, although this claim seems somewhat far-fetched.
Broadly speaking, TOPY promoted ever deepening Self-realisation; discipline and productivity; and the open sharing of information. It was existential, ‘pagan’ or ‘heathen’, and fiercely opposed to established, orthodox or bureaucratic religion. The organisation was associated with Aleister Crowley (P-Orridge claims to have ‘met’ Crowley in 1957, ten years after the magickian’s death) and with Austin Osman Spare; one could argue that TOPY’s promotion of Spare was essential to the spread of interest in the fascinating, if flawed, artist and writer of mind bending and obscure magical tracts. P-Orridge in particular is an astute social and cultural commentator and ultimately TOPY’s critique of Western society was more advanced than its attempts at providing solutions to the problems it defined.
Like many modern antichrists, TOPY’s critique of Christianity is based on stereotype and misinformation, so that what is being criticised is not Christianity in any real sense, and therefore the group’s engagement with the subject is of less value than it could have been. TOPY Individuals frequently depend on arbitrary and eccentric definitions to support their arguments. For example, their understanding of what is ‘pagan’, ‘heathen’ and what constitutes ‘magick’ would not necessarily be accepted by other ‘pagans’, ‘heathens’ and ‘magickians’, and the group’s assertions regarding the work and teachings of Spare are not to be taken seriously. Information was harder to come by in true TOPY days, which enabled TOPY Individuals to make crass assessments of their nominal subject matter that couldn’t really be checked out by the recipients of TOPY generated information. Despite TOPY’s avowed opposition to mystification, the group’s deliberate obfuscation means it can be difficult to determine its underlying message when Individuals depart from the well-wrought slogans that conveyed their world view to the general public.
Active involvement in the Temple was the preserve of Individuals. In a sense, anyone who was not a TOPY Individual was a ‘flat’ person. Despite public proclamations to the contrary, TOPY came to work in accordance with a hierarchical system consisting of five Ratios, which were associated with the degree of commitment that an Individual showed to the Temple.
The group’s primary ritual consisted of a form of sigil working, involving the act of adorning paper, card or some other background (upon which was depicted a representation of one’s true will) with the hair of the head and pubic hair (2) and spit, blood and ‘Ov’ (3). In TOPY parlance, ‘Ov’ was the name given to the sexual fluids produced by men and women. The two types of hair and three types of body fluid represent a cipher of 23, a number to which TOPY ascribed great significance.
TOPY can be credited with providing invaluable support to the careers of numerous fine artists and film makers but the most notable successes of one time TOPY Individuals can be seen in the field of what could be defined as post-Industrial music. Psychic TV is the group most closely aligned with TOPY, but Peter Christopherson and Jhonn Balance of Coil, David Tibet of Current 93, the Icelandic composer Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson and at least one member of Cross of Light were once involved with the group, as were lesser but still critically acclaimed performers like Andrew McKenzie of The Hafler Trio, Adi Newton of Clock DVA and the ritual percussionist Z’ev.
Thee Idea
‘Thee Idea’ is the final section of ‘Behavioural Cut-Ups and Magick’, written by Genesis P-Orridge in 1987. It encapsulates both P-Orridge’s approach to life and the heart of the TOPY mission. It speaks of the need to heal and re-integrate the human character, to take measures to negate control and to respond to phenomena that seem irrational. It speaks of the desirability of increasing one’s range of choices and promotes a holistic approach to being. It stresses the need to truly express one’s thoughts and feelings and the importance of developing skills. It urges people to care despite being aware of human frailties and futility. It advises people to pursue courses of action as far as they will go. It rails against complacency and promotes commitment to pursuing one’s ideas at all times. It rejects external authority. It suggests that one should encourage other people to repossess themselves and fulfil their unfolding potential. It supports the free exchange of information. It values feelings, emotions and sentiment as precious, and as the foundation for healthier relationships between people. It identifies the need for exploration of guiltless sexuality as a tool for liberation. It views change as something natural, which should be embraced, and not as contradiction or inconsistency. It identifies time as an uncertain resource that should never be wasted. It values self-improvement over self-gratification.
His Story
‘Thee Process is Thee Produckt’ contains a history of TOPY written by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in New York City in 2008. G P-O writes so persuasively that it’s difficult to present a viable alternative to the story he presents. He introduces the piece by dating his concern with reinvention
of the self to maximise potential to his teenage years in the mid-sixties. He also acknowledges the importance of the story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment as a guide in responding to the difficulties he experienced at the hands of establishment authorities.
Genesis and his friends eagerly embraced the late-sixties counterculture, selling copies of OZ and International Times as well as stolen books to finance their enthused engagement with alternative communities and lifestyles. Genesis vividly recalls first witnessing a Process acolyte whilst idling outside the clothes shop Granny Takes a Trip on the Kings Road during a weekend sojourn to central London from the suburbs of Essex. He was struck by the contrast between the dark clothes and well-groomed style of the Processean and the typical brightly clothed scruffy hippie types that were prevalent in these circles at the time. He would have liked to talk to the man in black but something held him back; he did, however, see that the man was selling a Process magazine, which fed his fascination and compelled him to see what he could discover about the group. He was particularly keen to learn what it was that led the widely divergent elements of the counterculture to join together in condemnation of The Process.
Genesis outlines his involvement with the Exploding Galaxy, a demanding commune in Islington dedicated to breaking down the barriers of stereotypical social roles and conditioned manners and behaviour, which was followed by his formation of the performance art group COUM Transmissions, which operated during the first half of the 1970s and had a particular focus on sexual taboos and limitations. COUM concluded with a retrospective called “PROSTITUTION” at the I.C.A. Gallery in London, which prompted a hysterical response from the media and led to the group being condemned by representatives of establishment endorsed governing powers. Interestingly, Genesis makes no mention of the career of Throbbing Gristle, which commenced at the exhibition and lasted for five years, popularising a previously unheard form of art-noise-music on the way, but chooses to recommence his narrative in 1981.
Inspired by spontaneous experiences during his more extreme art performances, Genesis began to explore altered states of consciousness and related phenomena in a more systematic manner in the early 1980s. He developed forms of private ritual, which he would perform in self constructed sacred spaces, using talismans, music, incense, sensory deprivation and psychedelics to heighten the experience. At the same time, he developed his interest in Western magic, Austin Osman Spare in particular, and his focus on The Process deepened. Following intensive discussion with Monte Cazazza, Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth was formed with the aim of creating a paramilitary occult organisation sharing demystified magickal techniques, replete with a predetermined cult aesthetic that embraced ideology, a simplified degree system linked in with a stratified series of revelations, symbols, regalia and uniforms, and an internal communication system.
Using his private researches and a personal mythology developed out of his obsessions at this time, Genesis designed the Psychick Cross (a form of inverted Papal Cross consisting of a vertical line with three horizontals) as a non-verbal logo to represent the sum total of all the activities to which it was applied. TOPY encouraged its followers to adopt not only a uniform dress style but also the same haircut, which proved effective in highlighting the presence of relatively small numbers of Psychick Youth in far larger crowds. The main protagonists’ experience in mail art was helpful in spreading the message of the organisation through the use of flyers and newsletters, intent on fully exploiting the reach of the subcultural networks that were open to it through these channels.
But it was mainly through the release of records and associated live performances by the band Psychic TV that the TOPY mission and message was taken up, particularly beyond the U.K. P- Orridge’s previous experience as a credible, innovative, controversial and intelligent producer of music with Throbbing Gristle meant that there were significant opportunities to popularise TOPY through the media shortly after the group’s inception, mainly through the British music press, which
combined a wide circulation with a general seriousness and desire to go beyond the surface of pop music glamour that is alien to popular music publications today.
Unsurprisingly, the populist nature of TOPY, combined with its proclamations in favour of non- hierarchical collective endeavour and espousal of a simple sex magick technique that could easily be performed by anyone, without any need for a supervised period of preparation before the practitioner was authorised to engage in practice, meant that the organisation lacked credibility as far as the elitist, tradition bound and authoritarian esoteric societies of the time were concerned (although there is evidence of communication and joint working between some of the early Chaos magicians and isolated gatherings of TOPY Individuals).
It became apparent that the openness of TOPY in its early days created problems for the group in terms of retaining its coherence as it began to grow more popular. A solution to this problem seemed to lie in a kind of peer enforced demand that people should devote themselves entirely to the cause of the group, which in turn led to the creation of the Ratio system based on the degree of commitment shown by Individuals, which was not publicised to the movement at large.
Demonstrating their commitment to the creation of an authentic TOPY community, Genesis and his family and a small number of other leading figures in the movement decided to sell their homes in London and move to Brighton. These pioneers were soon joined by other committed Individuals, so that eventually there were five houses in the town occupied by group devotees, which served as the basis for the development of a form of communal living involving a limited sharing of goods, a wholehearted sharing and discussion of ideas, and the development and establishment of systems and exercises that characterised this stage in the trajectory of TOPY.
The TOPY Life Story exercise involved weekly sessions in which one Individual would volunteer or be compelled to relate their personal history, complete in every humiliating and distressing detail. The stress associated with this exercise must have been considerable for some narrators and yet everyone was expected to express their vulnerability in front of the gatherings and to answer any questions that the audience might pose with forthright honesty. Genesis presents these sessions as an exercise in personal liberation and mutual trust but it’s easy to see how the programme could be used to undermine a person’s self-confidence and sense of identity, supposedly for the cause of the greater good of the group. TOPY railed against control but exerted control by means of creating a rigid notion of what it meant to be a proper, committed Individual. The TOPY Life Story as presented by P-Orridge was a method for generating compassion, dedication and loyalty but it doesn’t take much effort to see it as a trial of devotion to the leader(s) who conceived it, or as an act of breaking down the personality, the better to fill it with the reflected glory of those in charge.
Children were treated in the same way as other TOPY Individuals. They were subjected to TOPY constructed naming ceremonies and featured in films and on records. The wider TOPY family acted as carers and babysitters, which was seen as enabling wider opportunities for self-expression on the part of the children’s mothers in particular. The group was careful to ensure that children were properly educated and benefited from good quality, personalised health care.
The move to Brighton eventually gave rise to the formation of the autonomous women only Kali Circle in 1988. The Kali Circle was particularly concerned with exploring the links between creativity, magick and menstruation.
TOPY made attempts to share skills, property and other assets, which enabled some Individuals to access not only each other’s homes but also corporately held offices and recording facilities in several countries. A number of TOPY Individuals travelled the world, exchanging their labour and other skills for shelter in the TOPY network. The Psychick Cross could serve as a sign of
identification, somewhat akin to a Masonic handshake, that was a gateway to mutual assistance and support.
The TOPY community in Brighton conducted weekly Telepathy Raising sessions, the record of which claims increasing success as the practice evolved, although it says nothing about the significance of an exercise that resulted in a growing number of people seeing broadly similar images of inconsequential objects at the same time.
All TOPY houses contained a Nursery, which was devoted to magickal practice, thus occupying a position similar to the Temple as described by numerous Western magical orders. The TOPY belief was that magickal energy generated in the Nursery, combined with the power of directed orgasm, resulted in psychic healing, improved physical reactions and mental processing, heightened consciousness and positive reprogramming.
TOPY was an experimental community that applied magickal techniques to the problem of obsession with the false or culturally conditioned self, with the aim of breaking it down and thus liberating the Individual to consciously construct their own identity.
TOPY Access Points were established in response to growing interest in the group and acted as localised administration and information centres. The increased capacity provided by the Access Points led to greater visibility, which resulted in the recruitment of more Individuals and the creation of further Access Points. Increasing distribution costs were partly met by the sale of TOPY merchandise and TOPY also benefited from income generated by Psychic TV and the willingness of people to work as volunteers on behalf of the group. In the later 1980s, Access Points became more deeply involved in fund raising, which led to the creation of a range of small scale enterprises selling goods and services, including market stalls in Camden and Brighton.
In the interests of keeping the sigils that were sent to Access Points and Stations anonymous, Individuals were given a TOPY name and number. Males were known as Eden and females were known as Kali. In accordance with the common law of egomania, certain TOPY Individuals began to view their TOPY number as a source of pride. In response to this, the organisation decided to allocate numbers to Individuals by lot, changing them every year to reinforce the point. At the same time, TOPY began to acknowledge its hierarchy based on commitment and peer approval by moving towards an ever greater acceptance and formal recognition of the Ratio system. Despite gestures to the contrary, as exemplified by the mixing up of numbers, TOPY definitely valued higher over lower Ratio Individuals, and the fact that there was a direct relationship between social class and/or art world success and the higher Ratio positions went largely unremarked within the group.
Having consolidated the principles of self-development, redesign and magical engagement with the universe, TOPY came to stress the importance of engaging with the wider world as a catalyst for evolution. It was inevitable that this broader ambition would fail, despite its occasional successes, and it is not surprising that the increasing focus on the relationship between dedication and action on the part of the group and internal recognition would begin to cause discontent on the part of Individuals who thought they were not being properly recognised, or who were unable to rise to the challenge of producing work of sufficient quality to gain the approval of an increasingly rarefied elite, self-hypnotised into thinking that its espousal of the democratic ideal still equated with the actual day to day practices of the group. The self-selected elite, or the Ratio Five, condemned the lesser orders for their lack of commitment, and the lesser orders condemned the self-selected elite for greed, glory seeking, and their seemingly hypocritical authoritarian stance. The organisation could no longer stand. The manner of its dissolution became the question. The differences in opinion were compounded by a financial breakdown, which Genesis blames on the reckless if not
illegal actions of a number of Ratio Two Individuals in Brighton.
TOPY in general and Genesis in particular had been the subject of a negative article in the Sunday People newspaper in 1988, which presented Genesis as a power crazed megalomaniac and TOPY as a group of sadistic devil worshippers. For several years after this, Genesis was subject to surveillance and learned that his mail was being opened and copied. He was originally due to have been prosecuted as part of the so-called ‘Spanner’ case, which resulted in prison sentences being handed down to a number of gay men, whose ‘crimes’ consisted of consensual (if not conventional) sex, tattooing and genital piercing. Genesis believes he was removed from the list of those to be charged because the case depended on the prosecution representing the accused as a gay S&M porn ring, and Genesis was not gay. He also suggests that he was being saved for a more personal and focused persecution.
As he became convinced that a period of acute and damaging oppression at the hands of the establishment was inevitable, Genesis proposed a tightening of security with regard to TOPY meetings, records, rituals and publications. As his proposal implied that Ratio Three and above Individuals were inherently trustworthy, he was accused of being elitist and totalitarian by other members of the group. The fact that Genesis was bound to be the main target of media attention due to his position as the front man of a well-known band did little to silence opposition voices that claimed his actions were symptomatic of egomania. Mutual antagonism had reached such a critical level that TOPY had no alternative but to fall apart.
In an attempt to defuse the internal wrangling and promote a more positive image to the outside world, TOPY became active in the local community in Brighton. Influenced by contact with Timothy Wylie, a former leading member of The Process with an interest in studying dolphin intelligence, TOPY instigated a campaign to close down the Brighton Dolphinarium. For more than a year, peaceful pickets were held every weekend, attended by TOPY Individuals from all over Britain and Europe. Psychic TV and other bands staged benefit gigs and PTV issued the ‘Kondole’ (‘whale spirit’) CD to finance the campaign. Eventually, the Dolphinarium was shut down and the dolphins were rehabilitated to a suitable environment, courtesy of the Aga Khan.
In 1991, at the suggestion of his Tibetan Buddhist retreat master in Scotland, Genesis and his family went to Kathmandu, where alongside his Buddhist practice, Genesis co-ordinated the distribution of children’s clothes collected by TOPY Individuals and Psychic TV fans and set up a clean water supply and free meal kitchen out of his own savings. The good works of the P-Orridge family were rudely interrupted by an urgent fax message informing him of serious trouble and urging him to call home immediately.
P-Orridge’s Brighton home was raided by the police on 15 February 1992 and a large quantity of material was removed by representatives of the Obscene Publications Squad. (I’m not sure this squad exists in consensus reality). The media generated scandal began to unfold the following day with an article in ‘The Observer’, the authors of which claimed to have seen video material of a satanic ritual conducted in P-Orridge’s home. Excerpts from these videos were included in a Channel 4 ‘Dispatches’ documentary, supported by the testimony of a woman calling herself Jennifer, who alleged that she was forced to have an abortion, the foetus from which was used in the ritual. ‘The Independent on Sunday’ published on 23 February revealed that the videos in question were made for a Spanish documentary about Psychic TV screened many years earlier and a fictional film by Derek Jarman, that had previously been screened by Channel 4. In a story printed on 1 March, ‘The Mail on Sunday’ revealed the true identity of Jennifer, and suggested that she had been manipulated into making her spurious claims at the behest of the leaders of a Christian evangelical sect associated with the Ellel Grange healing centre in Lancaster. ‘Jennifer’ had never had any contact with TOPY, as the ‘Dispatches’ documentary makers eventually acknowledged three weeks
later.
Despite the falsehood of the allegations, Genesis was led to believe that returning to Britain from Nepal would lead to his arrest and his children being taken into custody as part of an investigation into child abuse. There was a strong possibility that the children would remain in care for years, regardless of whether there was any real foundation to the claim. No charges have arisen as a result of the investigation, but neither has the seized archive been returned; indeed, the police have implied that the material has been destroyed, without suggesting any legal justification for their actions. P-Orridge’s legal advisers counselled that he should not return to the U.K. and after taking advice from his contacts in Nepal, Genesis determined that he should relocate to America. After donating the last of his money to cover the costs of installing an electricity generator in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and relying on the kindness of strangers (or fellow travellers and record company executives), Genesis and his family sought refuge in the home of Timothy Leary associate Michael Horowitz. The TOPY network centred on Brighton disintegrated and little support for Genesis was forthcoming from the vast majority of TOPY Individuals, which was a cause for considerable disappointment on the part of the movement’s founder.
Burroughs and Gysin as Teachers and Practising Magicians
‘Magick Squares and Future Beats’ is an essay in four parts on the magickal process and methods of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin issued by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in 2006. It starts with a meditation on the untrustworthiness of memory as the foundation upon which subsequent experience is based. Our formative identity is shaped by the stories we are told about ourselves by others, which inevitably result in an unbalanced and ultimately groundless conception of who we are. The task of the magician is to replace these fictions with a self-constructed in response to the realities of existence.
Although it is easy to recognise that our histories are grounded in the fictions of others, it is difficult to question the self-image that arises from this process, for without it our earliest experiences would have little to ground them at all. If these second-hand stories have nothing to say about the essence of who or what we really are, if we are not who we are told we are, then how can we recover who it is that we are, or wish to be? What techniques can we practice that might enable us to understand ourselves?
There comes a critical point at which we can choose to accept or refuse more or less controlled and predictable existence along narrowly channelled lines. Acceptance can result in feelings of comfort and ease, the certainty of following paths that are well mapped out and have been travelled by many other people. Refusal might prove to be a gateway to nearly unbearable anxiety and confusion, a state passed through with difficulty, with only the uncertain promise of an ill-defined sense of personal liberation to sustain us on the journey.
Genesis says his time of crisis took place in 1967, when he became obsessed with discovering a system that would enable him to construct a true identity based on a changed conception of memory and ongoing commitment to the pursuit of life as art, which he portrays as a form of creatively developed applied magick. He benefited from his encounters with Burroughs and Gysin, whom he identifies as the most radical and advanced alchemists in the field of confronting word based control.
Genesis had been interested in Burroughs since reading about him in the novels of Jack Kerouac in 1965. He met Burroughs for the first time in 1971 after a brief period of correspondence and claims that his first question to the Beatnik legend was an enquiry about magick. After recalling the incidental details of the encounter in impressive detail, Genesis goes on to describe the fundamental
details of the meeting as if it were an encounter between a teacher and a disciple. Burroughs as guru waxed lyrical on the nature of reality, cutting up live television transmissions combined with extracts from cassette recordings and the conversation taking place to present a reconfigured version of what was happening in the moment. The lesson that Genesis took from Burroughs’ presentation was that everything is recorded, and that what is recorded can be edited. Further, if something can be edited, then it can be defined as arbitrary and subject to the agenda and control of the editor. Reality is real only until it is challenged; if the recordings underpinning reality are changed, then what is known as reality changes. This speculation resulted in the conclusion that cut- ups in themselves constitute a magical process.
Genesis proceeds to recount Burroughs’ experiments in using treated cassette recordings as a means of reshaping linear reality, which Burroughs described as a form of sorcery. He accepts Burroughs’ assertion that the application of this method led directly to the failure of a café, the proprietors of which had invoked his anger through their extreme bad manners towards him.
Genesis maintains that everyone is the centre of their own unique experiential world. When people gather together, they assume they become part of some greater or more objective world beyond this. Nonetheless, the primary reality of individual consciousness prevails, as witnessed by the propensity for people to describe the same event in sometimes widely divergent ways. Consensus reality is the result of a combination of personal recordings projected onto the equivalent of a film set. The material world is illusory and only seems to exist when our body is passing through it. The continuing solidity of the earth may just be the consequence of human beings believing what they see and hear. History is dependent on the subjective recordings of individuals and these are liable to be edited by numerous authoritarian and self-interested institutions.
Whilst acknowledging Burroughs and Gysin’s excellence in the fields of literature and art, Genesis proposes that they should be assessed as practising magicians embarked on a journey into pre- material consciousness, where nothing is fixed or permanent. This realm of consciousness equates to a magical universe where everything is connected at levels so subtle that conscious intention can act upon them, and this is the ground upon which magick is performed. And one of the consequences of this magick is the experience of the revelation of the illusory nature of objective reality, often accompanied by the lesser realisation that the world as it appears to be is the product of information accessed by our senses and transformed to be rendered compatible with linear time and space and the cultural conditioning that keeps this dominant mode of awareness in place.
Obviously influenced by Burroughs, Genesis identifies control as the central issue throughout the ages of recorded history. Control is maintained for its own sake through the editing of memory, which serves to isolate and separate us from each other, leaving us adrift in a world in which we become servants of a fundamentally worthless consumerism, which serves to further entrance us and leaves us easier to manipulate by the agents of control. Unfortunately, Genesis has nothing to say about the identity of the manipulators of control, and the assertion that control is maintained for its own sake is unsatisfactory and so sweeping as to be practically meaningless.
Both Genesis as a follower of Burroughs and Burroughs himself identify the mysterious agents of control as the enemy. Burroughs identifies the weaknesses of the enemy as their lack of a sense of humour, inability to understand magic, inability to appreciate unique phenomena, and insatiable appetite for data. Presumably, the most effective method of undermining control would be to perform magic with a sense of humour with the aim of producing unique phenomena and manipulating the data stored by control. Hopefully, this should free us from imprisonment in our enemies’ description of the universe. And consciousness of freedom in whatever measure allows us to examine the methods of the controllers with a view to deploying these strategies against them.
Magick can be defined as the attempt to change reality in conformity with will, or to make what we really desire happen, or as a systematic exercise for controlling matter and knowing space. As well as using cassette recordings in his practice, and in addition to the literary cut ups he is most renowned for, Burroughs also manipulated photographs and discussed silence as a desirable state for the investigation of non-body experience. Perhaps the ‘discussion of silence’ should be seen as a humorous act. Genesis suggests that Burroughs’ published and unpublished work can be viewed as a form of magical diary, the purpose of which is to demonstrate that everything is interconnected, inter-dimensional and integrated.
Genesis states that Burroughs believed in the possibility of communication with the soul after death, citing an experiment they jointly conducted in 1981 in support of his assertion. He relates another story about the recording of the Psychic TV song ‘Godstar’ in 1985, involving an inexplicable knocking that could be heard on track 23 of the 24 track recording, which he presents as evidence of the spectral presence of Brian Jones (the subject of the song) in support of Burroughs’ belief.
Genesis has been influenced by Burroughs and Gysin's demonstration that practising magicians have always employed the cutting edge technology and theories of their era, and that anything that is capable of recording and representing reality is a magical tool as well as a weapon of control.
Genesis says that Brion Gysin always felt a profound sense of displacement and dislocation, maintaining that he had been delivered on this earth by mistake. Burroughs said that his companion eventually came to paint from the viewpoint of timeless space. During conversations with Gysin, Genesis received confirmation that the work of the artist was a form of contemporary magick, rather than simple artistic and literary experimentation. Gysin believed that magick is passed on by direct transmission from master to student, and Genesis was happy to occupy the position of student in his dealings with the older man.
Alongside Ian Sommerville and Burroughs, Gysin developed the Dream Machine, a circular flickering light source designed to induce altered states of consciousness in the viewer. Both Gysin and Burroughs were fond of repeating the motto of Hassan i-Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountains, “Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted.” Gysin lived in Morocco for 23 years, at one time running a restaurant that featured regular performances by the Master Magicians of Jajouka. Gysin relates that the restaurant failed as the result of a magick spell.
Gysin frequently produced magick squares, reducing names and ideas to glyphs, which would be combined to form multi-dimensional grids, a technique which is suggestive of a development of the sigil method of Austin Osman Spare. Burroughs described Gysin’s work as dealing directly with the magical roots of art, stressing that all art is magical in origin.
In conclusion, Genesis praises both Burroughs and Gysin for their practical application of theories based on a magical vision of the universe, which have enabled us to access information that can be used in shaping a future of creative possibility that transcends the strictures of illusory reason as fostered by the agents of control. Having escaped the prisons of second-hand identity and the hypnotising energy emanated by the supporters of vested interests and the reductionist status quo, Burroughs and Gysin open the way for a future in which everything is possible.
Levels of Meaning in TOPY
Although TOPY can be seen as an extension of G P-O’s mind manifest in the world, other Individuals made interesting contributions to the work of the organisation. ‘Levels of Meaning in Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth’ is the work of Coyote 37, ‘Coyote’ being an alternative form of the TOPY name ‘Eden’, which was mainly adopted by Individuals in North America. The essay is
Coyote 37’s personal take on a number of core TOPY concepts. It follows the form of a heading followed by brief analysis of the subject indicated by the heading.
‘Demystification’ is defined as not taking anything for granted, including your living situation, philosophical viewpoint and state of mind. Coyote 37 points out that we don’t often question our motives when acting and that the majority of our beliefs operate more or less automatically. Most of what we are actually doing at any time lies outside our awareness. We forget the past, fail to consciously inhabit the present, and we’re ignorant about the future. We tend to be busy for no particular purpose. At the same time, we are generally lazy, and usually act only to secure apparent personal benefit. We act in a thoughtless and uncontrolled manner, although we claim that our aim is mindful control. Not only does demystification mean examining our thoughts, actions and awareness, it also involves examining how and why we are conducting our investigation. There is no particular external agency forcing us to live as we do. Our life as it is lived, despite its manifold imperfections, is the only material from which we can derive true inspiration. The process of demystification takes us towards acceptance of being what we are.
‘Individuality’ is defined as ‘timelessness in endless change’. It is contrasted with socially mediated constructed identity and found to be the superior reality. Inhabiting individuality involves no effort; it is merely a case of recognising its existence. The realisation of individuality is served by not dwelling on the mind and by giving up ‘the search’.
‘Intention’ is a state of continual accuracy in all of our actions. This stems from clear perception and lack of inhibition. Acting in this manner can be perceived as a threat to one’s sense of security but the discomfort that arises should be experienced rather than suppressed. The practice of intention ultimately leads to an appreciation of the groundlessness of existence. Intention does not attempt to gain control but indicates that the exertion of control isn’t necessary in the first place.
‘Ritual’ is vital to the existence of TOPY. Rather than being aligned to any specific practice, ritual involves a complete and coherent response to experience and provides a means for travelling from confusion towards certainty. It requires commitment and personal responsibility. TOPY ritual is divorced from the anticipation of pleasure or pain on any level of being; it involves giving up expectations and being open to experience. Profitable ritual technique involves willingness to surrender and a capacity for critical reflection. Ritual should permeate one’s whole life in a straightforward way, so that it becomes a method of engaging with experience that can be accessed immediately at any time and in any place.
‘Sigilisation and the Brain’ argues that sigil production can reorganise the structure of the brain and improve its functioning. It links the various elements deployed in the production of sigils to the autonomic brain, the limbic system and the cerebral cortex and states that the purpose of the sigil is to connect the cerebral cortex with the other areas of the brain.
Ultimately, magick in TOPY is a question of interpretation, which involves responding to the question, what do you believe you are doing?
‘Levels of Meaning in TOPY’ allows us to consider what active involvement in the group might have been like. Coyote 37’s approach bears similarities to the principle of ‘Not-Doing’, which Genesis defines in the sleeve notes to the 1984 Psychic TV recording, ‘Those who do not…’ as follows:
“Not-Doing is a means whereby things are made to happen and desires are made flesh without conscious striving towards this or any other end. It involves maximal psychick forces and minimal physical exertion for thee latter would inevitably blunt thee spontaneity and thus make thee
(apparently synchronistic) manifestation impossible…Not-Doing in its true formlessness is a path that mirrors every step of attainment and sincere, selfless aspiration, thee reclamation of self-choice, self-respect and faith in one’s own potential unfettered by guilt and fear, thee dual weapons of thee colluding forces of religion and politics that retain a desperately vested interest in all control.”
Incidentally, ‘Those who do not…’ includes excerpts from the ‘Astru’ Naming Ritual for Genesis’ daughter Caresse, which was performed in the wilderness of Iceland in 1983.
Thee End
Neil Megson did not meet Edward Alexander Crowley in 1957. There is no real magickal significance associated with the number 23. Neither William Burroughs nor Brion Gysin were primarily practising magicians, and they were certainly not formal teachers.
There was nothing revolutionary about TOPY. The adoption of uniforms and emblems as a means of reinforcing group identity is a familiar device and Genesis does not attempt to conceal his debt to the exoteric aesthetic appeal of The Process. The ‘teachings’ of the group are rehashed and simplified versions of the ‘teachings’ of Crowley and Spare, and a remodelling of the literary and artistic conceits of Burroughs, Gysin and Robert Anton Wilson; TOPY insists that these artists were serious practitioners of magick, when there is nothing in their work to support this claim.
TOPY consisted of a ten year mission developed in accordance with the predetermined plan of its main founder. The group’s obsessions were G P-O’s obsessions and these concerns were often identified by him many years before the organisation was conceived of. There were some opportunities for other people to influence the direction of travel, as shown by the consideration of ‘Levels of Meaning in TOPY’ by Coyote 37, but it’s obvious that TOPY would have prospered without the contribution made by Coyote 37 in a way that it couldn’t have done without Genesis. There is a close alignment between TOPY and other clearly stated influences, including The Process and William Burroughs as highlighted above and Charles Manson and the Family (an influence that has been downplayed by Genesis in recent years). G P-O is notable as a promoter of subculture heroes.
It’s tempting to see Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth as a performance art piece dreamed up by the former mail artist Genesis P-Orridge and his so-called friends, or as an experiment aimed at revealing just how gullible people can be when presented with a superficially attractive philosophy, an opportunity to identify with a picturesque group and maybe gain access to limited means of production, providing that you’re willing to demonstrate your commitment to the struggle.
P-Orridge’s pathological hatred for his wilfully misconstrued version of religion taken together with his frank, perhaps unguarded, explanation of his existential mission can be taken as an indication of his underlying contempt for non-materialist world views.
On one level, TOPY can be viewed as the next stage of an experiment in communal living, guided by its founder, and dependent on his energy, which started with the Exploding Galaxy, continued with COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle, and concluded with TOPY and Psychic TV.
And yet it’s possible for systems to transcend the absurdities propounded by their authors (e.g. Chaos magic as outlined by Peter Carroll in ‘Liber Null and Psychonaut’) and, providing they are presented in a suitable fashion, to attract a committed hardcore of followers who are willing to overlook the failings of the system, to the point of becoming utterly blind to them.
There is a material base to the majority of the group’s exercises, which could be viewed as proof of
TOPY’s elevation of concern with material substance over any abiding and coherent engagement with metaphysical concepts. At a magical level, TOPY can be seen as a satirical comment on the ceremonial magicians practising at the time the organisation was formed and throughout the years that it flourished. TOPY promoted the virtue of openness but they were not open about everything, which makes it difficult to determine the extent to which group practice related to the theories it promoted, and ultimately frustrates any conclusive attempt to define the virtues and failings of the group.
References and Resources
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, ‘Thee Psychick Bible: A New Testament’ (Feral House, 2009) – all that you could ever want to know about TOPY and more.
David Keenan, ‘England’s Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground’ (SAF Publishing, 2003) – particularly good on the history of the TOPY break-up.
Timothy Wylie, ‘Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment’ (Feral House, 2009) – for the relationship between TOPY and The Process.
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge website: http://www.genesisbreyerporridge.com/ – for the unfolding of the work.
Cross of Light Temple, ‘Balm of Gilead’ (FLA Press, 2006) – for the story ‘TOPY vs. NOS’.
Cross of Light Temple, ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ (FLA Press, 2008) - for the short chapter ‘SOAB and TOPY/PTV’, which includes an account of an extraordinary concert by Psychic TV in Paris in 1986, and other references throughout the book.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
TOPY vs. NOS
Heil, Loki, god of mischief!
What do you remember about TOPY? Its most famous symbol was a form of inverted papal cross. It engaged in strange spelling to deconstruct language. It kept an archive, and that archive remains complete today, despite its partial unfolding and application. Its aim was wakefulness and its enemy was dreamless sleep. It was damned as a dangerous sex cult. It flourished for a decade before issuing notice of CHANGED PRIORITIES AHEAD.
A Personal Message from thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth
We have reached a crisis point. We are aware that whole areas ov our experience ov life are missing. We are faced with a storm ov thee fiercest strength known. We are faced with thee debasement ov man to a creature without feelings, without knowledge and pride ov self. We are faced with dissolution far more coumplete than death. We have been conditioned, encouraged and blackmailed into self restriction, into a narrower and narrower perception ov ourselves, our importance and potential. All this constitutes a Psychick Attack ov thee highest magnitude. Acceptance is defeat. Resistance is dangerous and unpredictable but for those who realise thee totality ov defeat, resistance must be thee only option conceivable.
RIGHT NOW you have these alternatives: To remain forever part ov a sleeping world… To gradually abandon thee hopes and dreams ov childhood… To be permanently addicted to thee drug ov thee commonplace… Or, to fight alongside us in Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth!
Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth has been convened in order to act as a catalyst and focus for thee Individual development ov all those who wish to reach inwards and strike out. Maybe you are one ov these, already feeling different, dissatisfied, separate from thee mass around you, instinctive and alert? You are already one ov us. Thee fact that you have this message is a start in itself.
Don’t think we are going to tell you what to do, what to be. Thee world is full ov institutions that would be delighted if you thought and did exactly what they told you. Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth is not and NEVER WILL BE one ov them. We offer no dogmas, and no promises of coumfort or easy answers.
You are going to have to find out your Self, we offer only thee method ov survival as a True Being, we give you back to yourself, we support your Individuality in which thee Spirit and Will united burn with passion and pride, thee l-ov-e through which all is one in unity ov purpose.
Our function is to show thee way by our example, thee way we live, coumitted to our dream. Work that is needlessly repeated is simply wasteful. Accordingly we will be making public: books, manuscripts and other recordings ov our progress, in various formats, video and audio. These do not contain meaningless dogma, but are demonstrations ov our interests and beliefs in action. They are not made as entertainment, but as experience, not thee mundane experience ov day to day routine, but ov thee Spirit and Will triumphant.
Cross of Light
Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth was an international movement that promoted self-realisation through focusing on one’s true desires. There were three TOPY houses on Western Road in the Sheffield suburb of Crookes in the early to late 1980s. A statue of a black eagle marked one of the houses. A dog that looked like a jackal guarded the threshold of another. The third house stood crumbling at the end of a terrace. Various inhabitants of these three houses came together as Cross of Light, which engaged in the production of pamphlets and live musical performance. The following article is taken from the eighth and final issue of the obscure journal ‘Notes from Underground’:
Cross of Light insists on retaining anonymity in its contacts with the public. “The worlds of art and music have been debased by their concern with youth and glamour. The cult of personality stands in the way of direct communication between people. Artists are corrupted by their lust for fame and riches.”
The band engages with some arcane subject matter in its live work. “We were interested in some of the familiar outsider figures in our youth, Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, Madame Blavatsky and so on. We’ve concluded that the work of these people was nonsense. The whole neo-pagan trend consists of blind re-workings of obscurities dreamed up by a cast of late Victorian bourgeois misfits. We’ve performed the rites devised by these people just to show there’s nothing in them. There’s a lot to be said for Dion Fortune, though.” The group relates a tale of how they were enjoying the sunset at Nine Ladies Stone Circle on Stanton Moor on the day of the Spring equinox when their reveries were disturbed by the sudden arrival of a group of blue painted invaders. “I’ve no idea what they thought they were up to. It was like a pantomime. The most noticeable spiritual charge I’ve ever experienced came when I was sitting quietly in Westminster Cathedral.”
In the spacious black painted cellar of a large terraced house in a student ridden suburb of Sheffield, a gathering of some twenty souls has congregated to witness a performance by Cross of Light.
With solemn theatricality, a black hooded figure appears on a makeshift stage and begins to read from the Compendium Heptarchiae Mysticae of the 17th century alchemist Dr. John Dee. The audience listens attentively to the reading for half an hour. The reader punctures the air of mystery surrounding the performance by declaring at the end of the reading: “You have just received proof that alchemy is nonsense. Nothing has happened. It offers nothing for the soul to feed on.”
Following an interval, the band proceeds to test the ears of the audience with a forty-minute burst of electric guitar, feedback and drone. Parallels might be drawn between this music and the extended squall of the Velvet Underground’s Sister Ray. Time seems to be suspended as the monolithic juggernaut proceeds.
The music ends to wholehearted applause but the night is not over yet. The energised gathering leaves the house and walks through darkness to the site of a weather blasted hollow tree a mile or so from the building where photographs are taken and a portable cassette player disturbs the air with the sounds of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV.
The next performance by Cross of Light will take place in the vicinity of Bakewell Parish Church later this year. Look out for the flyers. Be prepared to come along.
NOS
The Nine O’Clock Service flourished from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. It commenced activities at the Parish Church of St. Thomas, Crookes before outgrowing these premises and moving elsewhere in Sheffield. NOS was hailed by Church of England authorities, including the Bishop of Sheffield, as a model for rejuvenating a staid organisation and bringing young people to the faith. Articles appeared in the national press commending NOS on its innovative, rave style acts of worship. It proved so successful that it was eventually recognised as the first Extra Parochial parish of the Anglican Church. It collapsed after being engulfed by a sex scandal and accusations of promoting hedonistic paganism on hallowed ground.
I had the misfortune to witness the public activities of the black clad squares of NOS in the pubs of Crookes at the height of their smug collective idiocy. In the kingdom of the stupid, the half-brained man is king. I knew stupid men who spoke of passing contact with the elite guard of the Service as if they had fallen in love. I picture one of these poltroons riding in the front passenger seat of a car, looking like a zombie. I was pursuing an interest in liquid LSD born of a kick in the eye courtesy of a disembodied Jhonn Balance from the future. We agreed that these hypocrites were worthy of condemnation on the grounds that their Yankee loving leader fell short of fucking his self-deluded acolytes. We agreed that he refrained from fucking them on the grounds of cowardice. We were disappointed that they did not come to a Jonestown.
Years after the passing disgrace of the church, I ventured to St. Thomas’s to take photographs of the birthplace of the abomination of NOS. I took further photographs around the township, exterior and interior shots of the Old Grindstone and the Cobden View, the places where NOS members demonstrated their presence to the local people. I took a photograph of the house where the leader lived and preyed upon his followers and a photograph of the house of one of his senior officers and I captioned the photos 'Rat Dens'.
I attempted to locate Chris Brain, the leader of the fascist cult, but his whereabouts are currently unknown. I attempted to interview NOS activists but they were fearful to approach the subject of their involvement. I attempted to interview people who had known of NOS but they were reluctant to engage with the subject. I attempted to interview current representatives of St. Thomas’s but they denied responsibility to the point of acting as if NOS had never been.
Guided by a dream, I placed an advertisement in Fortean Times asking for people who had been involved with NOS to contact me. Following tortuous negotiations, I managed to secure a brief interview with a nervous former acolyte. Bee is a woman in her mid to late thirties. She is the mother of two children. She lives in a council flat a mile or two from Crookes. She has an interest in Irish traditional music. She is currently not in paid employment. The interview took place on neutral
ground in a room of a private house in Crookes. The room was notable for its large mirror and the spray of hawthorn blossom placed on the mantelpiece upon which the mirror rested.
“I moved to Sheffield from Wolverhampton to take a teacher training course at the Poly. I was living in a shared student house in Crookes. I didn’t really get on with the other people in the house. I used to spend a lot of time on my own in the pubs around the place I lived in. I was in the Grindstone one Sunday evening when I noticed a group of young people come in. They looked really happy and together. One of the girls in the group smiled at me and eventually we got chatting.
I used to meet up with this girl quite a lot. She was a student as well and we seemed to have a lot in common. She was really nice. She started to talk about NOS and encouraged me to come along to the services. I put it off for quite a long time. I wasn’t really interested in religion but this girl was so nice that I began to think there might be something in it.
The services were amazing, nothing like I was expecting. There was a lot of music, not happy clappy stuff, more like dance music, really. The light show was fantastic. A lot of time and effort had been put in and the experience was really uplifting. The people at the church were lovely. I remember meeting a lad who told me that he’d been sniffing glue. As he was walking up the road, he felt drawn to go into St. Thomas’s. As soon as he entered the church, the effects of the glue sniffing left him and he felt the Spirit enter. He never touched glue again.
After a while I moved out of the house I was living in and moved into a house that was owned by one of the main NOS people and his wife. It was a really nice place, just off Barber Road. It was great to live in such a supportive environment. We used to do a lot of Bible study together and there were lots of people coming and going.
NOS was about making the Church relevant to young people. We were really keen on trying to understand the real meaning of the Bible and living as Christians in an imperfect world. I felt a real sense of belonging. I was encouraged to produce some art for the group and I was really pleased to see it displayed during services.
After a year or two, I started to see more and more of Chris. I was really involved in NOS by then. Most of my time was taken up with work on the services, painting banners and rehearsing music in the church hall and other stuff like that. Chris wasn’t really good looking but he was very charismatic. I felt flattered by his attention.
I used to go to Chris’s house on Parkers Road a lot. We became really close. Chris started to talk about the need for people to express themselves sexually. He said that sexuality was a gift from God and that it was wrong to deny it. The Bible forbids adultery but it didn’t say anything against touching. Physical embraces were an expression of God’s love. We never slept together but we did other stuff and it felt really good. It wasn’t like being with my other boyfriends.
It was really awful when the stories about NOS started to appear in the papers. Chris must have known what was going to happen because he went back to America before the stories came out. A lot of NOS people were saying that the stories weren’t true but I started talking to other girls and I was amazed at how many of them had been intimate with Chris. He used to talk about what we did as some kind of private communion so we didn’t really talk about it in the wider group.
The fallout from NOS was really hard to deal with. I felt betrayed and depressed. I had to go for counselling to begin dealing with my feelings. The friendships I made in the group didn’t last. I’ve had a lot of trouble with relationships since then. I lived with the father of my children for three years but we split up when my daughter was little. I don’t have anything to do with religion these
days. I don’t even read the Bible any more.”
It should be remembered that NOS was accepted as a parish of the Church of England. The absurdities of NOS could not have flourished without the support of the established church. NOS is a particular manifestation of a sick and sickly organisation.
Wonders of Bakewell
I have in my possession copies of a questionnaire distributed at a Cross of Light performance in Bakewell and a questionnaire distributed amongst its members by NOS. The questionnaires are remarkably similar. I recently discovered that they are based on a document that was first developed by the Society of the Inner Light, an esoteric organisation founded by Dion Fortune. The Inner Light questionnaire is three pages long. It asks about the respondent’s occupation, interests, domestic circumstances, religious practice, health and experience of esotericism.
How do you earn your living? Are you self-supporting? Have you any knowledge of mythology? Have you any special skills, such as carpentry, cooking, mathematics, music or writing? Will you be able to meditate at work or home without disturbance? Are those with whom you live supportive, antagonistic or neutrally disposed to your interests? Have you ever had any alcohol or drug problem? Have you received any treatment for psychiatric problems? Are you, or have you been, a member of an esoteric group? Have you attended any experiential esoteric workshops? What esoteric books have you read that have impressed you? Are you prepared to give up working with other Groups while working with this one?
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE NINE O’CLOCK SERVICE An Exercise in Power and Control
The Nine O’Clock Service (NOS) flourished from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. It commenced activities at the parish church of St. Thomas, Crookes before moving elsewhere in Sheffield. NOS was hailed by Church of England authorities as a model for rejuvenating a staid organisation and bringing young people to the Christian faith. Articles appeared in the national press commending the group on its innovative, rave style acts of worship. It collapsed after being engulfed by a sex scandal involving the abuse of at least 40 women by its leader, and was later accused of promoting hedonistic paganism on hallowed ground.
The failings of NOS are commonly attributed to its leader Chris Brain. In reality, NOS could not have prospered without the support of established church authorities and the vital contributions of its lesser leaders, general membership and enthusiastic congregation. The group also benefited from its willingness to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the environment in which it was located.
Chris Brain
Chris Brain, the universally acknowledged leader of NOS, was born in 1957. Although he attended Harrogate Grammar School, he was not academically gifted. During his period of study for the priesthood, which commenced in 1990, other NOS members wrote his essays. Brain occupied positions of leadership in various denominations of the Christian church from the age of 17 or 18.
Brain was focused and organised. He was active, driven and idealistic, well read, quick thinking and articulate. In many respects, he demonstrated the mentality of a businessman artist. His self- confidence and missionary fervour eventually degenerated into a messianic martyr complex. He was hypersensitive, paranoid and aggressive. His will to power was served by his happiness to tell lies, his deployment of secrecy and his ability to employ fear as a means of control.
Brain maintained his dominance by remaining distant from the NOS congregation. His grasp of timing and intuition served his exploitation of the vulnerabilities of others. He was a sexual predator who presented his contact with women as an aid to developing their wholeness through expression of sexuality (and other leaders within the organisation took a similar approach).
Around the time that Brain planned to transport NOS to San Francisco, he started to promote the virtues of mystical lunar experience. It comes as no surprise to learn of his fascination with David Koresh and Charles Manson.
Leaders
Fundamentally, and collectively, the other leaders of the group were willing collaborators in the experiment and they should take responsibility for their support of NOS. They were more than averagely intelligent and possessed considerable technical ability and attention to detail, and yet they were happy to act as agents of their leader. They were seekers of reflected glory, associates of success, puffed up by pride at belonging to what they believed was a superior group. It was their search for meaning that persuaded them to give up their old lives and their deferential attitudes that enabled them to believe that Brain was a prophet. They were trusting and committed and Brain made them aware of their personal faults and weaknesses. They were cruel and calculating servants. Some of the leaders complained about having responsibility without power, although they took advantage of opportunities to inspire fear amongst the members and congregation by their strict imposition of group standards. Many of the leaders were old friends of Brain, some of whom he knew before moving to Crookes in 1978, when his wife Winnie came to the University of Sheffield to study music. Several of the leaders were quite wealthy and donated large sums of money to the cause.
Members
The members of NOS responded to its generalised appeal to dissatisfaction. Typically, they were young and searching, easily controlled and concerned with transcendence as a key to belonging. They were generally middle class, educated, young professionals or disillusioned evangelicals. They liked the uniform. They were uncritical. They demonstrated active commitment to the group.
Membership structure
Prospective members were selected by recruiting agents who filtered the people who attended NOS services. Selected individuals were invited to fill in a visitor’s form, which was scrutinised to see if the visitor was worth a visit from the group’s welcome pastors, who established a relationship to determine whether the visitor was a worthy candidate for membership.
Once a member had been accepted, they were placed in a discipleship group of 12 members under the authority of a group leader. Pastoral leaders were in charge of several discipleship groups and they were responsible to the head of the pastoral department, a close associate of Brain. The head of the pastoral department and the pastoral leaders took instructions from Brain; discipleship group leaders took instruction from pastoral leaders; and discipleship group members took instruction from their leaders.
Although Brain formally stood down as leader of NOS in 1994, he continued to control the organisation despite the appointment of a new figurehead. The nominal leader appointed in 1994 can be seen as an addition to the hierarchy, adding to the power and mystique of Brain. The collective leadership of NOS referred to itself as the 12, and the broader membership was known as the 72, thereby reinforcing its identity with the missionary apostles of Christ.
Group identity
NOS was insular, close knit and defensive. It operated in accordance with a rigid, dogmatic structure characterised by unequal power relationships, secrecy and privilege. The Nairn Street Community, which morphed into NOS, stated explicitly: “There should be genuine submission to the authority of the leaders.” The strict bureaucracy of NOS contributed to undermining personality and reinforcing group dependence. It divided people into us and them, the saved and unsaved, and presented NOS as the legion of the saved on a holy mission from God. The intensive socialisation process within NOS was based on constant reinforcement through group activity, designed to result
in intense out of the ordinary experiences. Commitment to the group was also reinforced by the requirement that NOS members should make substantial financial donations in support of the organisation’s mission.
The public image of the group was carefully controlled by its leaders. The uniform black clothing and deliberate engagement with cutting edge subculture is reminiscent of tactics employed by The Process Church of the Final Judgment. Internally, Chris Brain – the priest – was presented as the ideal man and the mysterious Lori Camm, the unofficial priestess, was presented as the ideal woman, and by and large the lesser leaders, members and congregation were happy to aspire to these ideals.
The Homebase Team
The Homebase Team was formed in 1990. Initially, it consisted of six young women who were recruited to help with chores in the Brain household and told they were to be post-modern nuns. They were encouraged to sever outside ties and instructed to remain secretive, even with other NOS members. Although they were treated as servants, there was strong competition between individual members, and the Homebase Team was regarded as the highest status ministry in NOS. It is instructive that the special character of the ministry was sexual involvement with Brain.
Ritual
The fully developed NOS ritual consisted of dance music, samples and rapping and the execution of gestures that could be described as a form of Christianised yoga. There was an emphasis on style and design and the primary slogan of the group was ‘The posse is the priest’ (note the alliterative similarity between this and TOPY’s ‘Thee Process is Thee Product’). The Planetary Mass was the pinnacle of the group’s achievement. It was conducted by a ‘Techno Shaman’ rather than a vicar and to some people it seemed that the ritual was a form of Gnosticism rather than orthodox Christian worship. Charges of neo-paganism were brushed aside, allowing the group to perform the Planetary Mass to great acclaim in San Francisco in November 1994. Doubtlessly the group would have gone on to exploit this fertile territory had it not been torn apart by the scandal that finally came to light the following year courtesy of a media concerned with focusing on the picturesque as the simplest way of peddling copy.
Establishment support
The support of the Church of England establishment was vital in enabling NOS to flourish. Church authorities, desperate to engage with youth and to be seen as relevant, began to take notice when NOS became successful in attracting an ever increasing number of young people to its services. The parish church of St. Thomas, Crookes supported the NOS experiment and the Sheffield Diocese actively engaged in finding alternative premises when NOS outgrew St. Thomas’s in 1993. NOS became the first Extra Parochial Place in the Anglican communion, which could not have happened without official sanction at the highest levels of the church; Brain was invited to contribute to ‘Treasures of the Field’, the Church of England’s book for its Decade of Evangelism; senior clergy and theologians strongly approved of the Planetary Mass (despite its controversial nature); and eventually the NOS vision was embraced by Anglicans in America. Brain was ordained six months early in 1992 and the normal procedure of serving as curate under an experienced vicar was waived in his case.
More disturbingly, Church of England authorities ignored complaints about the abuse of power in NOS dating from 1992 and took no action in response to reports of sexual impropriety within the group that were made in 1994 and 1995. Even after the scandal broke, the church refuted allegations
that the group was a cult as part of a media strategy of minimising the significance of what had happened in NOS. The Church of England demonstrated loyalty to NOS every step of the way; it’s interesting to note that the Diocese refused to meet the costs of counselling and other support for ‘the victims’ of NOS by pleading poverty.
Environment and Timing
NOS liked to present itself as a meaningful response to urban poverty, in both a material and a spiritual sense, but in reality, it came to prominence in a suburb of Sheffield that was (and remains) notable for its high concentration of university students and would be bohemians. The group benefited from the ample leisure time enjoyed by students and prospered because not only is Sheffield a generally peaceful place but also the suburb of Crookes, where the urban meets the rural, is more liberal, friendly and accepting than the rougher parts of the city.
Financially, NOS benefited from the inheritances of close associates of Brain in the late 1970s, before the formal appearance of the group. NOS also exploited opportunities created by the success of a number of adventurous Sheffield bands in the early 1980s (Brain’s group Tense supported Cabaret Voltaire at Sheffield’s premier alternative venue The Limit in 1981) and the growth of the rave scene, which emerged a few years later and was particularly strong in the city. NOS was a contemporary of TOPY and was similarly, although less creatively, associated with developments in the field of performance art throughout the 1980s. Brain and the wider NOS leadership were also influenced by exposure to ‘signs and wonders’ Christianity and the later emergence of Creation Spirituality (viewed by many people as a form of neo-paganism).
Aftermath
No criminal charges were brought against anyone involved in NOS and Chris Brain resigned from the priesthood before the church authorities cared to move against him. Somewhat amusingly, he left England to become a rave promoter in San Francisco in 1996 and nothing has been heard of him since.
It’s interesting to speculate on how the group might have developed had it not been brought to a premature end. The signs are that NOS would have prospered in America and that Brain would have moved closer to integrating with the archetype of the mysterious hidden prophet. It’s interesting to think about the form of practice that the new NOS might have invented; evidence suggests it would have been spectacular, neo-pagan and cosmic, constituting a radical new conception of Christ at least, and perhaps even a new world religion.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ANNOTATIONS TO BLAKE'S PROSE WORKS in 'BLAKE: COMPLETE WRITINGS' Edited by Geoffrey Keynes
I see myself engaged in fervent, ecstatic, ill-disciplined study of Blake's work in Uxbridge library in 1979, at the age of 17. What led me there? I can't say with any degree of certainty but I can hazard a guess – the singing of the hymn 'Jerusalem' at school assemblies in childhood (the heritage of Albion unfolding in the innocent and receptive ear); references to the doors of perception, clear sight and infinity in the NME... The first art show I was ever really moved, or fulfilled, by was an exhibition of Blake's prints at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, which I attended as a result of my studies in Uxbridge... The fascination abides, and is returned to, and breeds further fascination.
My beloved J, whom I look upon as she sleeps and identify as the source of my life's happiness, was raised in the village of Lavant, near Chichester in West Sussex. And Blake was in Lavant too. On 22 November 1802, he wrote to Thomas Butts of “walking from Felpham to Lavant to meet my Sister...above a twelve-month ago...”. In the same letter, he includes a poem, which contains the lines:
“May God us keep From Single vision & Newton's sleep...”, which are directly quoted by Jhonn Balance in the Coil song 'The Dreamer is Still Asleep'.
Blake and his wife Catherine were fond of a certain Harriet Poole, a friend of Blake's Chichester born patron William Hayley, who lived in a villa in Lavant, and when his initial enthusiasm for his retreat in ten miles distant Felpham faded, Blake wrote to his brother James on 30 January 1803 of his intention “To take a house in some village further from the Sea, Perhaps Lavant...”. But as the history of Blake makes clear, this never happened. Nevertheless, the current keepers of the Earl of March pub, which rises above Lavant village green, are happy to suggest that the beginning of the poem known as 'Jerusalem' from the preface to 'Milton' was composed there, as Blake looked upon the rolling hills around him, and despite this being unlikely, it remains possible, because the countryside surrounding the village remains a perfect example of England's green and pleasant land.
In his introduction to the Complete Writings, Keynes writes: “Blake insisted that the sacred was located within humans, not fenced off and curated by the Church or other external institutions... In the Blakean cosmos, sense and sexuality, pleasure and pain, grace and sin are all part of the continuum of the diverse – none are considered transgressions.”
Blake was vehemently opposed to priests as officers of a State Religion, which had nothing to do with God (and to the State Religion of the Jews, which represented itself as an embodiment of the will of God, but which Christ opposed).
“...our Lord is the word of God & every thing on earth is the word of God & in its essence is God.” – 'Annotations to Lavater'
So, in God we live and move and have our being.
“The Religions of all Nations are derived from each Nation's different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is every where call'd the Spirit of Prophecy.” – 'All Religions are One'
All religions are particular expressions of the same underlying truth based reality, which enabled Blake to write approvingly of 'the Edda of Iceland'. This truth based reality is not to be found in what Blake termed 'State Religion', which emphasises 'State' to the detriment of 'Religion'.
“The Gospel is Forgiveness of Sins and has no Moral Precepts; these belong to Plato & Seneca & Nero.” – 'Annotations to Watson'
Forgiveness is an expression of expansive generosity. Moral precepts are grounded in oppression and restraint.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is the direct Negation of Earthly domination.” – 'Annotations to Bacon'
The kingdom of heaven is within. The aspiration towards earthly domination is grounded in the illusion of an extra-personal field of combat, wherein to quest and subdue.
“What is Liberty without Universal Toleration?” – 'Annotations to Boyd's Dante'
Liberty without toleration is the vain conquering impulse of directed armies.
“Man varies from Man more than Animal from Animal of different Species...”
Rudolf Steiner suggests that the wisdom experience of a whole animal species is roughly equivalent to the wisdom experience of a single human being. and
“...Man Brings All he has or can have into the World with him. Man is Born Like a Garden ready Planted & Sown. This World is too poor to produce one Seed.” – 'Annotations to Reynolds'
So 'Man' is superior to 'the World'.
“Visions of these eternal principles or characters of human life appear to poets in all ages; the Grecian gods were the ancient Cherubim of Phoenicia, but the Greeks, and since them the Moderns, have neglected to subdue the gods of Priam. These gods are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names, which, when erected into gods, become destructive to humanity. They ought to be the servants, and not the masters of man, or of society. They ought to be made to sacrifice to Man, and not man compelled to sacrifice to them; for when separated from man or humanity, who is Jesus the Saviour, the vine of eternity, they are thieves and rebels, they are destroyers.”
– 'A Descriptive Catalogue'
The 'gods' are visions of principles and attributes, which should not be separated from man or humanity, and should not be worshipped as divine beings. Blake directly equates 'man or humanity' with 'Jesus the Saviour, the vine of eternity'.
“The Prophets describe what they saw in Vision as real and existing men, whom they saw with their imaginative and immortal organs, the Apostles the same; the clearer the organ, the more distinct the object. A Spirit and a Vision are not, as the modern philosophy supposes, a cloudy vapour, or a nothing; they are organized and minutely articulated beyond all that the mortal and perishing nature can produce... Spirits are organized men.” – 'A Descriptive Catalogue'
So, there are organs of perception that enable certain individuals to clearly see spiritual beings that are not generally apparent. We may deduce that any non-material being that is seen repeatedly and maintains consistency of form is real.
There is no particular merit associated with the perception of visionary beings, unless we take this widening of the field of vision to be positive in itself on the grounds that to see more is to see better. The 'real and existing men' that the prophets saw in vision appeared for particular purposes, as the ordained messengers of God. The organised spirits seen by Blake were also embodiments of ideas, which he attempted to describe in a series of Prophetic Books that tend towards obscurity by virtue of their dependence on the experience of their author. There's little doubt that Blake gained greatly from his visionary capacity, although perhaps he paid for it in terms of the 'Nervous Fear' that he also experienced, and there's a kind of calm, blissful emotion that is associated with the perception of certain types of non-material beings and the landscapes, or mindscapes, they abide in, but the question remains, of what value is personal experience to anyone other than the person who experiences it?
“Every thing is Eternal.” – 'A Vision of the Last Judgement'
The living acceptance of this saying enables apprehension of the psychedelic multiverse.
“The Modern Church Crucifies Christ with the Head Downwards.” – 'A Vision of the Last Judgement'
Not only does 'the Modern Church' (the bureaucratic church, or State Religion) fail to understand the meaning of Christ, but it works cruelty and oppression through its deliberate perversion of doctrine.
“Mental Things are alone Real; what is call'd Corporeal, Nobody Knows of its Dwelling Place; it is in Fallacy, & Its Existence an Imposture. Where is the Existence Out of Mind or Thought?”
This is a succinct description of the moment to moment experience of immediate reality. Physical objects owe the substance they possess, or seem to possess, to the machinations of the mind. and
“I question not my Corporeal or Vegetable Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight. I look thro' it & not with it...” – 'A Vision of the Last Judgement'
“A Poet, a Painter, a Musician, an Architect: the Man Or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian.”
It is safe to assume that by 'a Christian', Blake means 'a servant of humanity', because 'man or humanity' is 'Jesus the Saviour...'
“All that we See is Vision, from Generated Organs gone as soon as come, Permanent in The Imagination, Consider'd as Nothing by the Natural Man.” – 'The Laocoon'
The Generated Organs of the Natural Man can be considered as blank screens, which reflect the repository of data from which the Imagination derives meaning.
“What Book is for Vengeance for Sin & whatever Book is Against the Forgiveness of Sins is not of the Father, but of Satan – the Accuser & Father of Hell.” – 'Notes on the Illustrations to Dante'
Who, then, is the ultimate author of the individual books of the Bible, or the author of the Koran, and how have these strange admixtures of mercy and vengeance come to be accepted as unities? The fundamental principles of the Gnostic world view explain the apparent inconsistency and contradiction.
“The Greek & Roman Classics is the Antichrist.”
Presumably because the Greeks and Romans were the fathers of the Moral Precepts that stand against the Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sins.
Blake's version of the Lord's Prayer, from 'Annotations to Thornton' suggests correspondences between his conception of Satan and the Demiurge of the Gnostics, and presents worldly authority in the guise of Caesar as being a function of Satan, the God of this World:
“Jesus, our Father, who art in thy heaven call'd by thy Name the Holy Ghost, Thy Kingdom on Earth is Not, nor thy Will done, but Satan's, who is God of this World, the Accuser. Let his Judgment be Forgiveness that he may be consum'd in his own shame. Give us This Eternal Day our own right Bread by taking away Money or debtor Tax & Value or Price, as we have all Things Common among us. Every thing has as much right to Eternal Life as God, who is the Servant of Man. His Judgment shall be Forgiveness that he may be consum'd in his own Shame. Leave us not in Parsimony, Satan's Kingdom; liberate us from the Natural Man & Kingdom. For thine is the Kingdom & the Power & the Glory & not Caesars or Satan's. Amen.”
“...every Mortal loss is an Immortal Gain.” – Letter to William Hayley, 6 May 1800
The implication is that Mortal gain is predicated on Immortal loss – what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?
“In my Brain are studies & Chambers fill'd with books & pictures of old, which I wrote & painted in ages of Eternity before my mortal life; & those works are the delight & Study of Archangels.” – Letter to John Flaxman, 21 September 1800
We exist as individual beings in Eternity before we are born into this world, and we engage in
individual work there. Do we return there after we die? If the reports of Blake's joy at the approach of death are to be trusted, he seemed to think so. And we shall find out for ourselves.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
LUCID MASTER “This world of Imagination is Infinite & Eternal”
Despite the difficulties of his prophetic books and the complexity of his vision, William Blake was capable of defining core principles in language that everyone might understand. Blake's primary concern was religion, and he promoted the Religion of Jesus, which he summarised as Forgiveness of Sin:
“Whatever Book is for Vengence for Sin & whatever Book is Against the Forgiveness of Sins is not of the Father but of Satan the Accuser & Father of Hell.”
As Joseph of Arimathea brought Christianity to England and built a Cathedral in Glastonbury within decades of Christ’s death, so Britain was the seat of the most ancient and eternal religion, and the home of the everlasting gospel.
And Blake's art works are replete with symbols that can be interpreted as representations of religious States and Ideas. Blake declares that the sun is not a disc of fire resembling a guinea but the dwelling place of a heavenly host praising its creator. He depicts material bodies as spiritual forms and represents spiritual forms through the physical media of colour and line. He produces allegories of human passions and treats thoughts as substantial things. He is constantly aware of the relationships of cause and effect connecting the material to the non-material. Thieves are punished by themselves. Our fundamental innocence is untouched by whatever we encounter as we gain experience, but experience tends towards petrification and diminution of energy; so, figures are chained, showing how spirits are bound to the earth, and would be comforters are frustrated in their missions, to the benefit of fear, resignation, and despair.
And the prophetic books are not just difficult. We turn to the illuminated manuscripts and find this:
To the Deists, from ‘Jerusalem’
He never can be a Friend to the Human Race who is the Preacher of Natural Morality or Natural Religion; he is a flatterer who means to betray, to perpetuate Tyrant Pride & the Laws of that Babylon which, he foresees, shall shortly be destroyed with the Spiritual and not the Natural Sword. He is in the State named Rahab; which State must be put off before he can be the Friend of Man.
You, O Deists, profess yourselves the Enemies of Christianity; and you are so: you are also the Enemies of the Human Race & of Universal Nature. Man is born a Spectre or Satan, & is altogether an Evil, & requires a New Selfhood continually, & must continually be changed into his direct Contrary. But your Greek Philosophy (which is a remnant of Druidism) teaches that Man is Righteous in his Vegetated Spectre, an Opinion of fatal & accursed consequence to Man, as the Ancients saw plainly by Revelation, to the entire abrogation of Experimental Theory: and many believed what they saw, and Prophesied of Jesus.
Man must & will have Some Religion: if he has not the Religion of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will erect the Synagogue of Satan, calling the Prince of this World, God, and destroying all who do not worship Satan under the Name of God. Will any one say: “Where are those who worship Satan under the name of God?” Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches Vengeance for Sin is the Religion of the Enemy and Avenger, and not of the Forgiver of Sin; and their God is Satan, named by the Divine Name. Your Religion, O Deists, Deism, is the worship of the God of this World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart. This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murder’d Jesus. Deism is the same & ends in the same.
Voltaire, Rousseau, Gibbon, Hume charge the Spiritually Religious with Hypocrisy; but how a Monk, or a Methodist either, can be a Hypocrite, I cannot Conceive. We are Men of like passions with others, & pretend not to be holier than others; therefore, when a Religious Man falls into Sin, he ought not to be called a Hypocrite; this title is more properly to be given to a Player who falls into Sin, whose profession is Virtue & Morality, & the making Men Self-Righteous. Foote, in calling Whitefield Hypocrite, was himself one; for Whitefield pretended not to be holier than others, but confessed his Sins before all the World. Voltaire! Rousseau! You cannot escape my charge that you are Pharisees & Hypocrites; for you are constantly talking of the Virtues of the Human Heart and particularly of your own, that you may accuse others, & especially the Religious, whose errors you, by this display of pretended Virtue, chiefly design to expose. Rousseau thought Men Good by Nature: he found them Evil & found no friend. Friendship cannot exist without Forgiveness of Sins continually. The Book written by Rousseau, call’d his Confessions, is an apology & Cloke for his sin, & not a confession.
But you also charge the poor Monks & Religious with being the causes of War, while you acquit & flatter the Alexanders & Caesars, the Lewis’s & Fredericks, who alone are its causes & its actors. But the Religion of Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, can never be the cause of a War, nor of a single Martyrdom. Those who Martyr others, or who cause War, are Deists, but never can be Forgivers of Sin. The Glory of Christianity is To Conquer by Forgiveness. All the Destruction, therefore, in Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, which is Natural Religion.
Artwork
'When the morning stars sang together' is a depiction of a Golden Age, in which the sun rides a chariot pulled by four horses and the moon a chariot pulled by two serpents or dragons. There is a representation of Creation filling the border, in which a cow and a sheep are at ease and go unmolested by a Lion. The text is “Let the Earth bring forth Cattle & Creeping thing & Beast”. And the scene is witnessed by stars grouped in configurations of seven and three, and by an angel crowned with stars, and a sorrowful Creator is illuminated by light beyond light, which is brighter than the sun.
In 'The Body of Abel Found by Adam & Eve', an anguished Cain has emerged from the grave he has prepared for his brother and gouged the mark on his own brow, a sign of self-knowledge and dread born of his sudden immersion in a state of living death. He deeply regrets what he has done. And Blake identifies Cain's primary error as a wilful descent into unprofitable earth, as witnessed by the gravedigger's shovel beginning to merge with the ground. Cain's act represents another fall into matter still more gross than that inherited by his parents after their expulsion from Eden. Cain is not condemned by Blake, but pitied in the light of the doctrine of Forgiveness of Sin.
Although 'David delivered out of Many Waters' is concerned with likening David to Christ through
echoed posture, and the bound David suggests the bound Jesus Christ to come, this generally orthodox message is contrasted with Blake's depiction of the accompanying angels, who grow progressively more mindless as they ascend in ranks towards the throne. For Blake, angels have no will of their own, save for rebellious Lucifer and his companions. Blake identifies servitude with self-dissolution and individual freedom as a creative state. And David is not an entirely elevated figure. In 'Bathsheba at the Bath' he is tiny compared to the vastness of Bathsheba, whose beauty is so great that it fills the world and can be appreciated by far distant men. David's earthbound lust diminishes his stature, as does his admiration for the physical beauty that prompts it.
In 'Judas Betrays Him', even the co-conspirators of Judas are horrified by his act of betrayal. They shrink back from the scene, and from the radiant form of Jesus. Judas is depicted as a Druid, a representative of the old religion of blood and vengeance that Blake despised. He clasps his hands in prayer and he is sorrowful and ashamed. Christ looks directly into the eyes of Judas and the traitor diverts his gaze upwards; but note that Christ’s open hand points downwards in answer, indicating the fate of his betrayer.
Blake accompanies 'Job's Sons & Daughters Rebuked by Satan' with the saying 'The Fire of God is fallen from Heaven', illustrating Satan's delight in destruction and showing that Satan's delight is man's dismay. The title of 'Job Rebuked by His Friends' links the supposed friends of Job to Satan by virtue of their function. In the border to the left, a bird triumphs over a serpent, and in the border to the right, the owl of wisdom triumphs over a rat. In the landscape beyond the three supposed friends there are three standing stones, identifying those who are concerned with the things of the earth with petrification. Job addresses a being beyond his false friends, and beyond the ultimate false friend, Satan, a being who
“...knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me I shall come forth like gold.”
But Job's proclamation smacks of earthly pride and vanity, and the question accompanying Blake's depiction of 'The Lord answering Job out of the Whirlwind' is “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge”.
'An Allegory of the Bible' presents a transcendent world view. A young girl is conducted by the kindly grace of an older companion to the figure of Christ, who will guide her to a gathering of people receiving instruction from blank books. She will become one of these students. The fiery volume that forms the centrepiece of the altar in the background contains no text, and like the books of instruction, it shows that the letter kills, but the spirit enlivens.
'Age Teaching Youth' shows an old man who has no more use for books, having digested their contents. His robes are stone like and resemble gravestones. He shows a book to a young girl, who has no interest in it. She indicates that her wisdom comes from the skies, or from nature. An older woman in the foreground (commonly identified as a youth, indicating that the gender of many of Blake's figures is indeterminate) is engrossed in a different text; this is what the girl will become. The gorgeous apparel of this earnest student is an indicator of her vanity. The two trees behind the figures represent the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; beyond them clouds merge like the entwined foliage of the trees. For Blake, enlivening wisdom is found in a particular form of personal experience rather than conformity to doctrine.
“Good & Evil are Riches & Poverty a Tree of Misery propagating Generation & Death.”
'The Good and Evil Angels' is one of Blake's better known paintings. The evil angel has no hope of taking possession of the child (representing the soul), for he is blind and tethered to the earth by a metal band attached to his ankle. But the good angel is also impotent in this matter; he looks alarmed despite the powerlessness of his adversary to gain the final victory. It is in the nature of what is commonly defined as good to fear what is commonly defined as evil. And so, both angels are possessed of good and evil despite initial appearances. The good in the 'evil' angel consists of energy and effort despite limitation and the evil in the 'good' angel is groundless fear.
Blake represents the soul as a child in 'Age Teaching Youth' and 'An Allegory of the Bible'. The soul will not submit to the wisdom of this world but it will embrace the teachings of the book of light that is life with interest and enthusiasm. The 'good' and 'evil' angels emanate from the child, and the fact that neither can gain final victory and that both are admixtures containing their polar opposites indicates the nature of the child's being.
Engaging with and arguably improving on Dante, 'The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies & the Suicides' shows figures enclosed in three of the five trees in the foreground, including an inverted figure in the second tree from the left, which also shows another figure in its major offshoot branch. The bleeding and broken branch of the central tree indicates that salvation is in the scene, recalling that Christ was crucified between two thieves. And the work relates to the common perception of trees, in which human forms can be observed (upside down figures predominant), as we take a walk through the woods.
'The Circle of the Lustful' is a work of pity and compassion. The soul of a dead man rises through the love of Christ and is made bright and eternal. The lovers in a containing circle ascend heavenwards to indicate that the dead will be raised incorruptible by virtue of their love for others.
Blake treats the Pastorals of Virgil as a foreshadowing of something greater to follow; suggestions of light beyond light rise above the figure of Colinet resting against a tree and the underlying theme of the work is confirmed by the addition of the motto “I am the good shepherd…”; cruciform constructions inform Colinet's arduous journey, with only the brilliance of the rising sun and the moon in its phases to sustain him as he travels.
The Frottage technique employed on 'Newton' and 'Nebuchadnezzar' precedes Max Ernst by almost two centuries. 'Nebuchadnezzar' illustrates the horror of man becoming beast and beast becoming man. It also shows the beast merging with stone. It is another illustration of the consequences of being over concerned with things of the earth, a process of petrification.
Somewhat contrary to expectations, 'Newton' is portrayed as a heroic (if Satanic) figure. His finger rests on the base of an equilateral triangle which he traverses with a semi-circle. He is engaged in a work in progress, drawing an alchemical diagram in accordance with the Theorem of John Dee:
“It is by the straight line and the circle that the first and most simple example and representation of all things may be demonstrated, whether such things be either non-existent or merely hidden under Nature’s veils.”
It is interesting to note that Christ holds a giant pair of compasses in ‘Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop: the Humility of the Saviour’.
William the Teacher
Blake disdains authority, and takes orthodoxy as a starting point for flights of fancy, and yet he
presents himself as a teacher by virtue of being one who knows and is “...under the direction of Messengers from Heaven, Daily and Nightly”.
He teaches that Satan is the product of an inverted crucifixion, that he delights in destruction and that his delight is man’s dismay.
He teaches that murderers emerge from the graves of those they slaughter and pass through the world in a state of anguish, wounding their own flesh before merging with the earth. He teaches that a beast with the hands of a man clutches its meal of human meat with a display of malevolent mirth and that the human characteristics of giants fade until they become stones. A beast emerges from the stone and eyes the sheltering cave beyond it.
He teaches that thieves and serpents are creatures of fire swimming in fire and that serpents emerge from the genitals of prone and falling thieves.
He teaches that the companions of an evil man are horrified by his actions and that his prayers are prayers of sorrow and shame. An evil man cannot withstand the gaze of Christ but shrinks back in horror from his radiance.
He teaches that the scientist is an alchemist dealing in circles and straight lines, engaged in work that is always in progress but fails to reach completion.
He teaches that the beauty of women fills the world of men and that the lust of men diminishes their stature and makes them afraid of what they desire. Winter is an old and sorrowful man, carrying a split staff, wrapping his arms around himself against the cold, many miles from his destination. Beneath Sol and Luna, the brightness of the moon in all its phases matching the brilliance of the rising sun (the sun might be rising or setting; it could be the sky of dawn or sunset), we see crosses erected by the roadside just beyond a milestone before encountering the cloven tree from which Winter cut his staff.
He teaches that spirits are bound to earth by fear, resignation and despair and that by transcending fear, resignation and despair the earthly might rise to spiritual realms. He teaches that everything has a soul and that some men possess the ability to render these souls visible, painting visions framed by stars. He teaches that the soul will not readily submit to the wisdom of this world (so poor and tired that even its masters disdain it) but that the soul will embrace the teachings of the book of light that is life with interest and enthusiasm. He teaches that the man of god resembles the Son of God, that the letter kills but the spirit enlivens.
He teaches that Christ has pity on the dead and approves of earthly love. Christ makes love bright and eternal and leads lovers to embrace in the heart of the sun. He teaches that the dead will be raised by their love for others.
He teaches that the sun rides a chariot pulled by four horses and the moon rides a chariot conveyed by two dragons and that stars align themselves in order. He teaches that the angels are crowned with stars and that the light behind the Creator is brighter than the sun.
In Beulah
Beulah is the land of vision, of soul and imagination, and the everlasting gospel sings of the soul and the imagination, not created for destruction, like the natural man, but a manifestation of the love and grace of eternity giving rise to the eternal body of man. And anything seen from the land of Beulah is touched by the land from whence it is seen:
“The characters of Chaucer’s Pilgrims are the characters which compose all ages and nations: as one age falls, another rises, different to mortal sight, but to immortals only the same; for we see the same characters repeated again and again, in animals, vegetables, minerals, and in men; nothing new occurs in identical existence; Accident ever varies, Substance can never suffer nor decay… Every age is a Canterbury Pilgrimage; we all pass on, each sustaining one or other of these characters; nor can a child be born, who is not of these characters of Chaucer.”
That sets the scene. Let's conclude:
From Blake’s description of his lost painting of The Last Judgement
The nature of Visionary Fancy, or Imagination, is very little known; and the Eternal nature and permanence of its ever-Existent Images is considered as less permanent than the things of Vegetative and Generative Nature. Yet the Oak dies, as well as the Lettuce; but its Eternal Image and Individuality never dies, but renews by its seed. Just so the Imaginative Image returns, by the seed of Contemplative Thought. The Writings of the Prophets illustrate these conceptions of the Visionary Fancy, by their various sublime and Divine Images, as seen in the Worlds of Vision.
This World of Imagination is the World of Eternity; it is the divine bosom into which we shall all go, after the death of the Vegetated body. This world of Imagination is Infinite and Eternal; whereas the World of Generation, or Vegetation, is Finite and Temporal. There Exists in that Eternal World the Permanent Realities of Everything which we see reflected in this Vegetable Glass of Nature. All Things are comprehended, in their Eternal Forms, in the divine body of the Saviour, the True Vine of Eternity, the Human Imagination; who appeared to me coming to Judgment among his Saints, and throwing off the Temporal that the Eternal might be established. Around him were seen the Images of Existences, according to a certain order, suited to my Imaginative Eye.
Around the Throne Heaven is opened, and the nature of Eternal Things displayed, all springing from the Divine Humanity. All beams from him. He is the Bread and the Wine; he is the Water of Life. Accordingly, on each side of the opening Heaven appears an Apostle. That on the right represents Baptism; that on the left represents the Lord’s Supper. All Life consists of these two, - throwing off Error and Knaves from our company continually; and receiving Truth, or Wise Men, into our company continually. He who is out of the Church, and opposes it, is no less an Agent of Religion than he who is in it; to be an Error and to be cast out is a part of God’s design. No man can embrace True Art till he has explored and cast out False Art, or he will be himself cast out by those who have already embraced True Art. Thus my picture is a history of Art and Science, the Foundation of Society, which is Humanity itself. What are all the Gifts of the Spirit but Mental Gifts? Whenever any Individual rejects Error and embraces Truth, a Last Judgment passes upon that Individual.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
DR G SPEAKS
The primary source for this biographical sketch is a series of letters sent by Geoffrey Basil Smith to Cross of Light Temple from January 2008 to February 2009.
According to his own testimony, Geoffrey Basil Smith speaks from the heights of “the A.A. its very self.” He is of the true Occult Order, which has devoted centuries to developing as an authoritative hierarchy, as opposed to the supposed or pretended ‘Chaos’ current, which being microcosmic is subsumed in the higher order of the macrocosm, just as sub-atomic quantum physics are subsumed in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Having benefited from 40 years of intense experience and training in the A.A. and related orders, which proves that they do lead to the goal of Magus, he presents himself as Dr. G, a Magus of the Great White Brotherhood, Hierophant and Hermit. The I AM of the 8degree-3square is the core of his survival. He frequently refers to himself as ‘I’ in inverted commas and often signs his letters Dr G 666.
Smith comes from a working class background. He was brought up in a Swedenborgian / Spiritualist household and his father taught him that thoughts are things. Graham Bond was an early mentor, in the heady days when Smith plied his trade as a rock journalist and interviewed all the superstars for the press. He is not fond of folk pop music. He believes that Black Sabbath and Deep Purple marked the beginning of the end for authentically soul-full heavy rock. He states that ‘Sister Ray’ was something else; and he points out that he knows the band that composed it.
His quest proper began in 1971/1972. Early influences included William Blake, Thomas Traherne, Richard Jeffries and associated nature mystics. He has found it necessary at times to work within the structure and framework of organisations to make progress on the Path. From the early 1970s until 1985, he engaged with Theosophy, Neo-Theosophy and Spritualism. After returning from an extended sojourn in Portugal in 1985, he embraced forms of Martinism and the like. Underlying all of these interests, he acknowledges the influence of the Order of the Silver/Shining Star (A.A), albeit generally without honouring Crowley’s ‘Book of the Law’. This period of research and experimentation culminated with the ‘Afterword’ of his book ‘Dark Knights of the Solar Cross’, published in 1997, which represents the Adeptus degree of the R.R. and A.C. or the 2nd Order of the Golden Dawn. Smith notes that only Crowley from the old G.D. crossed the abyss and became a true Magister Templi, after the manner of Blavatsky, and that Crowley has been followed by just a handful of others (including Smith), none of whom were G.D. per se but A.A.
Smith acknowledges the possibility of self-initiation but points out that ceremonial ritual provides additional benefits through the astral activation of temple ‘diagrammatic’ magical currents, such as those engineered by Moira Mathers and seen in unison by a host of Whare-Ra adepts. As a frequent guest on the Astral and higher Planes, he considers himself blessed in so far as most of his astral/spiritual experiences were only later found to be embodied in ritual symbolism and allegory,
which therefore precludes the possibility of being influenced by auto-suggestion.
He recognises that there is a far greater chance of pitfalls outside of organisational links (astral, inspirational or confirmatory), and therefore his individual work has been bolstered through access to world-ranking Grand Masters and elderly Adepts, to whom he was related as a brother, such as Desmond Burke, the Golden Dawn Praemonstrator and Arch-Druid, Sar Louis Bentin, head of the Martinist Order and Synarchy, and ‘Andrew Tomas’ who trained in the ‘Russian Martinism’ of the Gold and Rosy Cross. He maintained contact with these Elder Brothers as they reached advanced old age and suggests this contact remained after they passed on.
Smith has remained a faithful Old School initiate and possesses Grand Mastership of 28 renowned occult Orders (including all of the Orders in the O.T.O. – minus Crowley) thanks to Count Boyer– the duc de Palatine line.
He is a friend of the Marquis Philippe de Cherisey of the Prieure de Sion. He wrote the preface to translator David Wood’s ‘grotesque neo-Freudian book’ and underwent the 95 degrees of the Memphis Rite in his ‘infancy’. He saw the Hanged Man in a dream several decades ago, before he had seen a Tarot deck. He recognises the Hanged Man as the symbol for the 18th degree in Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry (Rose-Croix), which he possesses.
Smith was the Head of the O.T.O. in Europe and possesses the original charter given by Crowley to Gardner. His O.T.O. Europe was, in fact, anti-Crowley (see his books ‘Knights of the Solar Cross’ (1983) and ‘Dark Knights of the Solar Cross’ (1997). The organisation became defunct in 1985 following a disagreement with certain ‘greedy and untutored Americans’. The charter from Gardner is kept in a safe deposit box. Despite the retreat of the organisation from activity on the material plane, Smith retains the right to reactivate the group under his leadership at any time he should choose to do so.
He endured the 8degree-3square Magister Templi grade of the A.A. at the end of the last millennium. This experience is described in ‘The Black Pilgrimage’ (see below). He assures us that the trial led to the knowledge that “there was/is no light” in the higher realms, but the initiation did lead to ‘He’ who he now ‘is’: the MAGUS (9degree-2square) Dr. G. In his 40 years of occult experience, Smith believes that only three other people besides himself have crossed the Abyss, namely Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons and ‘G.M. Kelly’.
Informed by his decades of experience, and in particular by his Black Pilgrimage, Smith has grown to hate wholeheartedly the love and light New Age and Christian teachings, which are utterly unsuited to the Age of the Beast in which we currently live, where vitriol and bile are absolute necessities for survival and sanity, and usually deserved by their recipients.
Smith is particularly proud of his ‘Dark Knights of the Soul’, which defends the arcane Art of Alchemy. He feels that the work has been sufficiently circulated in Britain and in the U.S. In England, it so impressed the United Grand Lodge’s historian that he wished to re-print it and placed it in Societas Rosicruciana’s library. In America, it particularly excited OTO Caliphate historian Allen Greenfield and was cited in the chapter ‘Hermetic Brotherhood Revisited’ in ‘The Scarlet Letter’, published by the Scarlet Lady Lodge. Smith helped out Philip Heselton with his two part Capell Bann books on Gerald Gardner, and received numerous references in the second volume.
Smith’s garden is notable for the presence of a green tinted stone seat, which represents the perfect symbol for how he regards old school, as opposed to New Age, Wicca/Wica. He received under oath of secrecy Madeline Montalban’s ‘Book of Lumiel’, in which she equates Jesus with Lucifer.
As well as his accomplishments in the fields of magick, Freemasonry, and alchemy, Smith is also a member of a Naqshbandi Turkish Sufi tariqat. Aiming to strengthen and deepen his already considerable arcane knowledge, Smith announced his intention to embark on an extended magical retirement on 13th February 2009.
Smith believes that we live in an age of Post-Modernist fragmentation and surface gloss. Those who experience life as chaotic, discontinuous physicality do not share a holistic narrative of depth and continuity. We are in danger of losing the rich inner life which many of us were able to nurture and grow into until the end of the Seventies when Thatcherism, Reaganomics, the Gorbechev era and designer culture paved the way for the mechanistic behaviourism we witness today. He feels lucky to have been a hippie in the sixties before the brutal and barbaric cynicism of Punk, although he feels there is some spiritual hope to be found in a few alternative post-punk underground figures of the Eighties onward.
He abhors black and white since only grey matches real life. The A.A. is his order and he states that the syllabus of the A.A. represents oak and teak and deep dyed lasting stain. He believes that a Magus is of necessity ‘self-proclaimed’ and it cannot be otherwise by the very nature of the initiation into the Third (Inner) Order of the Silver Star (Argenteum Astrum).
Good or bad, Crowley has always delivered for Smith, and he concurs with Crowley’s view that Jesus is but Osiris resurrected – and a dozen slave gods before him too. Vicarious atonement stinks, as well as the hideous Christian eschatology, if taken literally. He points out that ‘Jesus’ was – in allegory – just another who was ‘Christed’ (i.e. anointed). He cannot see ‘Satan’ losing the battle since he thinks it is ‘Christ’ who is ‘against the ropes’. Having said this, he honours much of traditional Catholicism (and even, at times, Anglo-Catholicism) and sees no difference – at root – between these and the Golden Dawn temples when it comes to mystical approaches.
Smith proclaims that on the higher planes, works, per se, are invalid, indeed they are ‘not’ any more (which is not to say ‘works’ didn’t get you ‘there’ in the first place). The spiritual Alchemy of John Dee and many other masters of the art is an organic Path to 'expanded' Reality. Smith maintains that the true early forms of symbolic esoteric wisdom reside in all the rituals of the authentic lodges (and especially in the 95 degrees of the Memphis Rite).
He praises Gerald Gardner for founding the fastest growing religion in the world today – and the only one Britain (England) has ever given to the world, according to the academic experts. When Smith rested from Old Crow and the A.A., he immersed himself in Wicca, especially the training course of the Alexandrian variety. He singles out Maxine Sanders’ ‘Firechild’ for particular praise. He also admires the excellent historical work of his friend Philip Heselton. He believes meditational states can facilitate walking on water and states that Ernest Mason, a Rosicrucian and Co-mason and one of Gardner’s early witch acquaintances, could actually do this (much to the chagrin of his ‘teacher’ Dr Sullivan).
Smith states that there is nothing clearer than hypnogogic visions proper. He maintains that Dion Fortune’s ‘masters’ were Neo-Theosophical two dimensional cardboard imaginations and criticises her writings for being boringly pedantic and resembling a school marm’s letter. He doesn’t like her novels, nor does he like Crowley’s ‘Moonchild’ or the Great Beast’s alleged ‘poetry’ (even the verse included in some of the ‘Holy Books’, so-called).
Smith condemns Kenneth Grant in his early O.T.O. days for completely failing to see the wider ramifications of Crowley’s thought. He despises the Yankee kalifate boaster Heidrick who exemplifies idle, sloppy and vulgar Yankee scholarship, which always stinks and is always shallow, failing to go completely through any tunnel and hysterically obsessed with claiming ownership of
Crowley and Gardner etc.
Smith explains that the Magus who operates without ‘external opposition’ does so along the lines suggested by Austin Osman Spare (in his sigil workings) and William Burroughs and Brion Gysin (in their ‘cut-up’ spells). But one doesn’t just leap to being a Magus by calling one’s teenage self a Chaos Magician. Ultimately, he is convinced that Austin Osman Spare is a fascist and a form of poor man’s Nietzsche.
Smith is scornful of the work of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and points out that the TOPY pinpricks have long since had their day, particularly since Genesis P-Orridge left them. Generally speaking, he views practitioners of all forms of Chaos Magic (including the Illuminates of Thanateros) as adolescent wankers with no real knowledge whatsoever of the deep occult Tradition and its attendant Hierarchy, order and discipline, all three of which he views as necessities. He is certain that Orridge’s cult was just a bad joke when compared to Aleister Crowley’s still unsurpassed occult order and that Crowley’s canon will stand long after the plastic adolescent derivations of Genesis P. have been forgotten as the post-punks become a laughable teenage memory. Ultimately, TOPY should be viewed as latter day Teddy Boys – they are certainly just as thick.
Smith disdains Coil as generally evil, pretentious and boring; absolutely unethical, unfeeling, unthinking and unknowing. He also finds that Current 93 are very hard work and advises that someone really should kick David Tibet up his overly self-indulgent arse. Although Tibet has seen beyond the 93 current, there is next to nothing to say about the mealy mouthed pretentious posturing of the pseudo-Christian ‘Current 93’ offerings. Smith states that Tibet is increasingly out of touch with the Age (of the Beast) in which we – with the good god’s permission and indeed go- ahead – ‘live’ and that Tibet is also undoubtedly in the wrong part of the ‘seals’ of the Book of Revelation.
Smith’s letters do not contain a coherent account of his magical practice. The following passages by Dr. G imply that he is familiar with a form of working on the Tree of Life that pays particular attention to Sephirotic attributes and correspondences developed by the worker’s version of the A.A.
“The A.A. experience (8degree-3square) of ‘eternity’ has nothing (quite literally apart from pure consciousness) to do with the comic book scenario of (say) the Jehovah’s Witnesses. There are no numbers since there is nothing that can be counted. God is Not: AL-LA. And LA rules over the Abyss in Eternity. All that remains “there” (?) is Pure Being without any “material” (even semi- material/Astral) content. And that Pure Being is and looks out on 0. Naught (at all)! There is, I repeat, no time, no space and therefore – please read Einstein – no matter and, consequently, no number(s). Of course you may venture to suggest that number still “exists” in eternity since it remains part of the same source and on an Absolute level (which ‘we’ cannot attain) this would be true. The lapse into ‘I AM’ is preceded by an utterly mystical dissolution and ego disintegration which is Eternal indeed, and involves no, not even one, number. Numbers do not exist for the vacuous consciousness of the Master of the Temple. One is indeed tempted to surmise that the true ‘God’ sees naught of the ‘creation’ below the ‘Abyss’ and is therefore truly beyond good and evil (alas). Obviously, this completely cancels the Christian god in its exoteric form. The Judeo ‘I AM’ re-establishes itself since man is indeed made in the image of this god.
‘The flower in the heart’ (‘Jewel in the Lotus’, Sun of Tiphereth, call it what you will) is bang in the middle but ‘enlightenment’ has to start at LAM – the base chakra, the mutadara. This is where the Fire starts and the serpent is coiled: clichés again – and those of true kundalini Yoga – not the New Age/Neo-Theosophical (Toshosophical!) version which always sees ‘nectar’ falling from above. If
this were so, we would not have to strive to go ‘anywhere’. For me, ‘dark grey’ (today) can be good and I was a member of a Grey Lodge (disliking ‘black and white’ categorisation – and not believing the sun of Horus/Christ shines for any of us in this era, at any time, i.e. in full).
The ‘pillar of light’ – the central stem of the kabbalistic ‘Tree of Life’ – is always black and white up to the Triangle of the ‘Supernals’ above the ‘Abyss’ (Severity and Mercy, for example).
‘Crystal clear water’ actually ascends to the Crown chakra and this is the meaning of the Gnostic’s reversal of the waters of the ‘Jordan’. For this some of us have been celibate for many years (or practised ‘karezza’). The clarity of consciousness which ensues is the reward. It follows that the semen should never be ejaculated outwards (note the works of Krumm-Hiller, Samael Aun Wear, Peithmann and Kurtzahn).
It also follows – in the A.A. – that Kether the Crown (which is actually achieved in the 8degree- 3square before the bestowal of magical powers on the Magus or 9degree-2square) = ‘I Am That I Am’, ‘pure being without form…without activity’.
Finally, what I really wanted to say was that any awakening of the heart chakra (the ‘Hidden Man’ in the Core of the Heart, or the H.G.A.) is coupled with an overwhelming sense of compassion come tender love and can also result in a fusion of the individual ‘microcosm’ with the ‘macrocosm’ so that perfect Harmony between the two prevails (as if the ‘gold’ within was exactly matched – and resonated to – by the gold without). BLISS! (note A.A. 5degree-6square).
But any authentic experience of the awakening of the ‘Crown’ chakra (Sahastara) must be utterly overwhelming for the ‘individual’ concerned since All suddenly becomes stripped to…Nothing (as I have repeated ad-nauseam)! No man (Nemo) is left standing!! You cannot simply imagine this in a pleasant (fluffy?) meditation.”
Contributions to Cross of Light Temple Bulletin
The first series of the Cross of Light Temple Bulletin was produced in 2008. The main purpose of the Bulletin was to outline the work of the Temple that year, which culminated in the publication of ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ on the 6th anniversary of the establishment of Cross of Light Temple, 16th January 2009. From time to time, the Bulletin departed from this central mission to include contributions from non-Temple affiliates, which were presented unedited and without comment. In the following extracts, Smith replies to questions posed by Cross of Light Temple.
Extract from Cross of Light Temple Bulletin September 2008
What is the value of the AA grade system?
The value of the AA grade system is that it allows the student of occultism to know exactly where he or she’s at when it comes to progress. Astral – and higher – experiences are firmly pinpointed in a structure which is also absolutely linked with the kabbalistic Tree of Life, the best glyph we have for monitoring such progress. This is especially important when one gets to the supernals (the top triangle on the Tree). The system is particularly gratifying when, without full knowledge of the structure, one has experiences which are then found to parallel Adepts of other ages, often in well nigh exactly the same fashion.
Do the grades entail any responsibilities beyond proclaiming that one is of the claimed grade?
As and when one reaches the grade of Adeptus Exemptus, for example, one has to give out one’s
own learning / experiences in published form (depicting how one honestly sees things at this stage of development; obviously, it will change later). The responsibility is, of course, karmic and this is adequately expressed in some of the writings of Rudolf Steiner. One cannot escape the karmic consequences of incorrect or ill-advised teaching.
At the level of Magister Templi, one can act as ‘master’ for individuals or a group of ‘disciples’. There is no question of ego at this juncture since ego as mortal men know it no longer exists. Such a man is now Nemo – No Man!
Is it necessary to demonstrate magickal attainment to confirm that one has achieved the claimed grade?
Magical attainment is not – and never has been – the main objective of the AA (or its predecessor the Golden Dawn). Spiritual evaluation / development – in a somewhat mystic fashion – is the order of this Order. As an old Sufi sheikh of mine said: ‘Miracles are the menstruation of Wabis (saints)’, that is mere by-products of trying to achieve God-head.
How can one evaluate or measure magickal attainment?
This, almost paradoxically, particularly comes into play in the Magus degree (9 degree – 2 square). Acts of magic are plain to see when the intended result is in some way achieved. Again, paradoxically, the techniques of some ‘Chaos Magicians’ work well here – but they are not recommended for neophytes (beginners). If you have to ask how attainment is evaluated, you have clearly not attained.
Are there any indicators of skill with regard to magickal attainment other than what one may claim as an individual practitioner?
As above. The only indicator of skill is some clear proof of the achievement of one’s magical objective. The other parties involved can see it clearly too – with their own eyes. One cannot claim magical success. How could / would one get away with it?!
I AM, Dr G. 9 degree – 2 square
Postscript
Many currently voguish practitioners and others (Alan Richardson, Stephen Skinner, the late Andrew Chambley and the late Joe B. Wilson spring to mind) are / were eager to laud the virtues of pre-hierarchical / organisational magical abilities, especially in some cases those pertaining to so- called traditional (as opposed to Wiccan) witchcraft. For some, the strictures of the Kabbala are too restrictive – for them.
I have yet to be personally convinced of the supposed superior virtues of the magics these individuals extol.
However, efficacious magic there sometimes was! Even the trickster Robin Artisson rightly warns, in ‘deep red ink’, of the dangers of the world of Faery. As for malevolent witchcraft… not for nothing are the responses and immediate reactions positively medieval. And it is only a gossamer thread ‘twixt ourselves and the 7 Hells of the Qliphoth (our own earth being the first sphere)!! Fluffy New Age Bunnies and Light, Life and Love merchants – Be warned!!!
Extract from Cross of Light Temple Bulletin October 2008
Can you describe the aim of your magical or esoteric work in 200 words or less?
To spiritually evolve to the highest extent of my capabilities while in the (accursed) flesh. I have now achieved this – thanks to the A.A. – and am merely biding my time until I exit. The world per se, here and now, holds very, very little further interest for me.
Can you recommend accessible works that relate to your magical world view and mission?
The segment ‘One Star in Sight’, in Crowley’s ‘Magick in Theory and Practice’, is the only definitive text which applies – with the caveat that one disregards ‘His nibs’’ instructions regarding wholehearted adherence to his ‘Liber AL vel Legis: The Book of the Law’. Whereas he claims such a work is that of a Magus, this is utterly absurd since there are no words after Magister Templi – apart from … I AM.
What was your family’s attitude towards religion, magic, music and art? (Parents, siblings, grandparents)
My father was essentially a Swedenborgian spiritualist (whose best friend updated the Swedish seer’s visions according to Quantum Physics) but he was also widely learned in all religions and occult systems. He played under Sir Malcolm Sergeant and Sir Adrian Boult on the tenor horn at the Royal Albert Hall. He was a fine painter in oils, his works including Wuthering Heights and scenes of Romany Gypsy life (he had lived and worked with the gypsies from the age of 14 to 17).
My mother was a natural psychic (who experienced out-of-the-body states) yet a simple Christian in her soul (and daily life). My brother was/is non-religious. My grandfather was an alcoholic. My great grandfather was Scottish (and on first visiting Edinburgh where I later lived I had the feeling of ‘going home’).
Can you describe your first religious / magical experience?
On entering a crisis of acute conscience after a marriage breakdown I dreamed of a (partial) solar eclipse, followed by the falling of a star from ‘Heaven’ – all in magnificent colour – followed by a meeting with a mystery Master in a desert landscape. I have since realised that this dream was aptly related to an esoteric reading of the Apocalypse of St. John, the opened ‘seals’ of which we are living through now in the undoubted era – alas – of 666.
What is your most striking religious / magical experience?
The fusion of the macrocosm (‘outer’ universe in its astral form) and microcosm (‘inner’ universe) within my own being so that both were one, absolutely and pulsating jointly, harmoniously in utter union. In the A.A. this represents the kiss of the ‘Holy Guardian Angel’ (5 degree – 6 square). This beatific vision took place on an astral mountaintop and the veined gold within me resonated gloriously with that in the sky and rocks which surrounded me. On coming back-to-earth it was as if preternatural colour faded into sad monochrome.
How do you integrate your esoteric interests into daily life?
All the time. We live in the Kali Yuga/Age of Horus as my initial experience (1972) so clearly showed me. We continue to war against tyranny and superstition and I AM constantly strengthened
and protected in all my daily dealings (not usually black and white, but grey) by ‘allied powers’ as it were. The current world is a very soul-less place, full of unawakened walking ‘shells’.
How do you publish and distribute your work?
Usually privately (i.e. publication-wise). ‘Knights of the Solar Cross’ (1983), for example, had a print run of 1000 (now sold out), while ‘Dark Knights of the Solar Cross’ (1997) only ran to 100 since it was a more specialised work.
Do you know of any magically resonant places in Sheffield, elsewhere in England, further afield?
These tend to be associated with individuals with whom I work. R., for instance, a 24-year-old female witch, had a very haunted (spirit-infested) flat which I helped to exorcise (these things are always ‘medieval’). Even my own home has had malevolent visitations (from astral Satanists and witches) – and I was once shadowed – as R. – by my own ‘double’ (like me, all dressed in black!).
Have you made preparations for your funeral?
No. I do not intend to have one. I only honour the Spirit, not the ‘meat’ (even of my own parents).
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I have studied – and practised – literally hundreds of occult and religious systems during the past few decades and, obviously, one gains at least something of value from every one of them. However, the essence of all of these is, overall, subsumed within the A.A. structure.
One can take, for example, so-called Traditional Witchcraft. The most important (if highly distorted) ‘ceremony’ within this is the Toad Rite (also associated with the highly ‘secret’ Society of the Horseman’s Word). And yet the essence of this obscure rite is already amplified in the A.A. 9 degree – 2 square degree. And herein lies a very great warning: occultism and magical systems always involve, in one way or another, SELLING ONE’S SOUL (so to speak) TO THE DEVIL. I joke not. We are all of us (practitioners) the kin of Dr. Faustus. But this must be understood absolutely esoterically and not according to the literal fundamentalist dogma of the orthodox Christian churches. Neither are we to become torturers, for instance, or serial killers or anything like… but LIGHT BRINGERS of a sort.
I remain, still, forever – I AM – The Magus Dr G.
Postscript: I am currently immersed in the Voodoo/Hoodoo of New Orleans – but all this is seen by ‘me’ from the higher A.A. vantage point.
Extracts from the work of Geoffrey Basil Smith
Both ‘The Black Pilgrimage’ and the publicity notice and ‘Afterword’ from ‘Dark Knights of the Solar Cross’ are referred to in the introductory biographical sketch above.
The Black Pilgrimage
Behold, the Towers quake and the earth, it rumbles to destruction. This is the moment when Heaven and earth separate and you look into the face of the plume-headed
Goddess. Woe will be thine oh man as Ego but know that this is the next necessary step in your development as a Master of the Temple. For now thou wilt be a Master of the Argenteum Astrum Temple – a Master of the Silver Star whose radiance thou art. Know oh man that when once thou hast crossed this heady Abyss thou wilt be NO MAN and thy name will be NEMO. Nothing wilt thou be and it has ever been the same for all the Masters who went before thee and who now reside in the City of the Pyramids of which thou hast heard.
When thou crossest this Abyss oh man, no longer wilt thou have an earthly name, no longer wilt thou have an earthly personality. All that thou hast and been and all that thou mayest become will be gone and thou wilt be left as the M.A.A.T. – alone as you have never been alone. No wife wilt thou know at this moment, and no moments wilt thou know since moments demand a sense of time. Time thou wilt know not, nor thy children if thou havest the same, nor any of thy memories of all thou hast done, yea even unto one of them.
Know that all who were Masters before thee came to this also, he who was called Blavatsky and all. When this leap of leaps is made, all pertaining to thee shall disappear and all that shall remain is pure Being without name, form, identity, remembrance – without even knowledge of She, the Goddess of Truth and Justice, the holder of the feather of the balance of the things of the earth, for She too will have vanished as thou become a M.A.A.T.
This is the beginning of the state before all things were, beyond space and time, unto Eternity which is now and ever more shall be. Henceforward, the Abyss being crossed, you shall return and help rule all Orders below the Abyss, those of the Outer and those of the Second Interior. The innermost Third thou wilt continue to know inwardly and forever, together with that which the Goddess granted thee to know, to will, to dare and to keep silent thereof as all Masters have done before thee. May thy Spirit stand firm in thy Ordeal, the Ordeal of the Abyss! So mote it be!!
By “G.B.S.” (Geoffrey Basil Smith, D.D.)
Dark Knights of the Solar Cross Geoffrey Basil Smith Logos Press 1997
At last the unvarnished, essential truth about the Theosophical Society, the Golden Dawn, the O.T.O., the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, and many other occult organizations which have so influenced, sometimes to drastic effect, the cultural and socio-political landscapes of the 20th century. This is Conspiracy Research without Paranoia! Lucid and crystal clear, Geoffrey Basil Smith is a veteran researcher whose time has come; this book is absolutely the last word on the history of modern occultism.
Afterword – Dark Knights of the Solar Cross
As I write, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh have just issued yet another book on Hermeticism, ‘The Elixir and the Stone’. In it, the pair write of how marginalized the subject has become since the Enlightenment (i.e., in comparison with its relatively mainstream hey-day in the Renaissance).
In this book, I have given an overview of Eastern and Western occult underground streams which bring us reasonably up-to-date as to where the main ‘modern’ propagators of the subject stand. But to attempt to date Hermeticism is to make absolute and Eternal Truths temporal. For Hermetists of all ages speak a common language of symbolism, and these symbols are perfectly scientific in so far as they have a universally applicable meaning.
When I was deluged by Hermetic and occult symbols in dreams, visions and imaginations during the 1970s and early 80s, I had no problem deciphering their message because all Hermetic Adepts have done so throughout the centuries, and this according to a Universal Key.
Some of the symbols – the smooth Ashlar, for example, and solar-phallic imagery – I found in Masonic High Degree systems. Others – for instance, the eclipsed sun and the falling star – I found in Masonry and the Bible. A circular rainbow I inwardly experienced was discovered in a painting by Crowley, a Lion-headed ‘goddess’ found in Egyptian mythology and the Golden Dawn, the Hanged Man in the Tarot cards, the Green Snake in Goethe, a severed head in Rosicrucianism and Masonry, ‘Sophia’ in Kabbalah and Alchemy, and the true meaning of ‘White Eagle’ was given by the Anthroposophist Walter Stein after Basil Valentine, the Alchemist. And so on.
What are the explanations for all this wonderfully bestowed and gratefully received numinosity? The Analytical Psychologist Carl Jung suggested the ‘Archetypes’ of the ‘Collective Unconscious’, ultimately reducible to the psyche as ‘carbon’. But I hold to the view of the French esotericist Rene Guenon who says that the profane reductionism of ‘Depth Psychology’ completely misses out on the final, spiritual dimension of these gifts which, to the knower, speak of the Transcendent Reality back of our mundane world experience.
There are so-called ‘Rosicrucians’ like Rudolf Steiner who condemn this type of Symbolic Hermeticism as it has been expounded in the ‘Modern Occult Revival’ (beginning c. 1850s) by authors like the French men Eliphas Levi and ‘Papus’ Encausse. But a deeper and more initiated former Anthroposophist Valentin Tomberg (who, like Stein, represented the best in the Society before being excluded) embraced the work of Levi, Papus and their many companions in the revival period – and I agree with Tomberg. My own Hermetic initiation demands and confirms this.
In my experience, the Hermetic Adepts (call them the ‘Great White Brotherhood’ or what you will) initiate their pupils via highly charged symbols expressing the fullest Hermetic Truths in images that are far greater in impact than words. And as long as one also maintains one’s ego-bound common-sense attitude to everyday life, matters do not go awry.
Mistakes may have been made but what cannot be negated is the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ shed by men like Papus and his successors who did so much to maintain the Hermetic Tradition when the subject was so peripheral to society’s contemporary interests.
Yes, Herr Dr. Steiner, Tomberg is correct: the common language of all Hermetists is Symbolism, universal and always understandable by those who take the trouble to read what so many others have said about the ageless cipher. In his relative youth (as an occultist), Steiner had been eager to dismiss much, for example, of Yarker’s Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Mizraim Masonry (as did Crowley and Eugen Grosche of the Brotherhood of Saturn). And yet this Rite, like many others in the Masonic High Degrees, contains much Truth of an everlasting nature.
True clairvoyants and even so-called ‘spiritualists’ may claim to see a more flowing and living stream of spiritual reality (and perhaps they do) but it is not that of the School of Hermetic Science.
An establishment on the lines of the latter was set up by Papus and echoes of it continued in Reuss’s
O.T.O. (see the Constitution of 1917). This is what the Oriental Templars were originally intended to be. Kellner’s vision was of a Masonic Academy in which questing brethren could become familiar with all Masonic systems (and it really does not matter whether you are officially a Mason). Reuss expanded this view to include most of the occult societies and their teachings too. What a tragedy that the O.T.O. got bogged down, not only with the Nazi-like psychopathic tenets of Crowley’s Thelema (which Reuss tempered and later completely rejected), but also with over- exaggerating an unnecessary and unproved ‘sex magical’ secret. The O.T.O. could have been every bit as all encompassing as a NON-Thelemic A.A. or Fraternitas Saturni. Then the White School would have prospered!
Finally, the reader of my second book will have noted that I no longer embrace the Eastern (Blavatsky-derived) schools of occultism but now prefer the Hermetic Adepts of the Western Tradition. World-negating Eastern views (especially the Neo-Buddhistic) no longer seem suitable (if they ever were) to the modern Western world, a point hammered home by many occultists in the past (including Peter Davidson and the H.B. of L., Steiner, Reuss, Crowley, Mathers, Kingsford, Papus, Jung, Oliphant, Fortune and others).
In seeking out the Secret Societies (not so secret anymore) the Seeker after Truth expects to find a ready made programme guaranteed to lead him to the Path of Enlightenment. The Theosophical Society…the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn…the O.T.O. (and many more) – all appear to offer the possibility of total Initiation to the aspiring neophyte.
In my personal experience, this is not so.
All groups may enjoy the benefit of symbolic systems which do, in part, speak of the Truth. But none have the whole Truth and there is always dross amidst the gold (much dross).
By and large, the greatest Truth is that contained in societies which emphasise the Hermetic Philosophy with all its attendant symbology. We are speaking of some of the symbols mentioned by myself in the earlier part of this conclusion. The Alchemists and authentic Rosenkreuzers have provided the bulk of these symbols in their teachings.
As I have stated earlier, there must be no reductionism in relation to these symbols a la Jung. Jung was indeed a great collector, purveyor and explainer of these symbols but missed out by not regarding them as essential pointers to Transcendent Spirituality (the symbols themselves are not Spirit as such but come from Spirit, although certainly not in the Spiritualists’ sense). This lack of emphasis on Spirit was commented on by both Steiner and Guenon (who nevertheless both adhered to other world views/personal interpretations with which this author cannot agree).
Hermetic-Alchemical-Rosicrucian symbology is certainly supra-individual and provides a timeless intimation of immortality – eternal life (no less)!
It is as if certain qualities of the human soul were perfectly rewarded, acknowledged and encouraged by specific symbols. Ethical virtues, achieved by self-sacrifice, for example, are a case in point. The prizes are not won easily. Sacrifice is suffering. The rewards – bestowed in dream and vision – provide spiritual certainty for the Hermeticist, knowledge not faith (which is, after all, intellectual sacrifice).
The initial eruption of the Transcendent Event is seemingly irrational but it is left to rationality to decipher the Hermetic Code (with the aid of those who went before) and thereby enable full understanding of the ‘gift’.
In many ways, Freemasonry has become a sort of custodian of some of these symbols. This is particularly the case in the example of the ‘Perfect Ashlar’ which is a form of the Alchemist’s ‘Lapis’ or ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, the key Hermetic symbol and the end result of all esoteric endeavour. This has nothing to do with the debased and vulgarised interpretation of the Stone and its symbols given by the degenerate O.T.O. The Stone is a spiritual acquisition and requires self- sacrifice of the highest ilk. This is amplified by the Masonic depiction of the transformation from ‘Rough Ashlar’ to its perfect successor.
The Philosopher’s Stone is certainly the ‘summum bonnum’ of the Hermetic (inward) Quest – bestowed as a result of high ethical action taken in the external world, and truncated into the form of a ‘cube’ in Masonic ritual.
Since the Stone is the result of any particular personal ‘crucifixion’, the outcome is undoubtedly a ‘Christing’ of the individual concerned. Of course, he or she may – and no doubt being human will – slip in future life but the achievement eternally remains, indelibly printed, as it were, on their soul, recognition from and guarantee of the world of Spirit (which is not the supposed “world” of the Spiritualists who, telepathically reading minds and adding fact to primitive imagination and fancy, as well as the myths of their own traditions, fail to understand Hermeticism).
So, dear patient reader, this book certainly now wishes to pay homage to Paracelsus, Basil Valentine, Henricus Madathnus Theosophus, the authors of the Hermetic Museum and all other Hermetic Adepts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in particular. They are still not to be swallowed whole, of course. Far from it. But the true symbols are embedded within their texts and have continued to be carried in Masonic and occult systems ever since the Middle Ages.
Hopefully, also, this work will have given the true story of contemporary occult movements, thereby allowing the discerning enquirer after Wisdom to further sort out the wheat from the chaff, for much chaff there is!
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE ABOMINABLE DR. D: THE MODEL OF AN VIII° WORKER
Oh, no! It’s the Abominable Doctor D…
He despises Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth He’s a megalomaniac fantasist and an enemy of truth…
As befits a student of the mysteries, there is some uncertainty concerning the details of the Great Man’s birth. Some people claim he was born in a crossfire hurricane in Pendle in 1939, others maintain that he materialised as a by-product of Malkuth in Assiah overflowing into the Kether of Qliphoth. It is certain that he was a disciple of the renowned Magister Paulus Danielis (Amas Non Maxima), that he prowled the streets of Swinging London in the company of the renowned alchemist and friend of Brian Jones commonly known as Stash, and that he toured Europe in the company of a famous American rock group, instructing the band in his capacity as spiritual advisor. He left the group in Alsace-Lorraine, prompted by a dream to trace a journey through Templar Lands, during which he encountered a Sufi brotherhood en route to Jerusalem, before being moved by the spirit to construct his final habitation in the homely environs of the land of NOS in Sheffield.
Dr. D spent several years searching for the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley on South Road, Walkley, before being informed by his 14-year-old disciple that Amos Brearly was a character from a television soap opera screened by ITV in the 1970s and 80s. He was banned from Spare and Spacey, Sheffield’s foremost occult emporium, alternative bookstore and record shop, following a ‘disagreement’ over a pamphlet written by one of the many self-proclaimed sons of Frater Perdurabo.
The literary style of the Noble Magus has been likened to someone writing a letter to the Daily Mail on the astral plane. It has been said that he wears a hat to talk out of. If one was to append all of his titles in their correct form at the end of his works and explain but the first glimmerings of their significance, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
It is reported that Dr. D prepared to cross the Abyss by speed-reading a 200-page computer printout at Sheffield Central Library. It has been said that Dr. D names the individual stairs of his staircases after the grades of initiation associated with the Sephiroth and that this system enabled him to attain the grade of Magus by travelling from his cellar to his kitchen. The fact that there are four worlds explains the stepladder in his attic. It has been rumoured that meetings of the leaders of 38 world- renowned occult orders consist of Dr. D talking to himself in his kitchen over a cup of tea.
Milkman, attend!
In which the Magus Dr. D leaves a note for the milkman.
Know that the dairy should be a sanctuary and the milkman who attends it should be a god who bows not before the sun. No human being should touch him, save for another milkman, and all should heed his oracle, save for the Lord of Milkmen, the Magus Dr. D!
Alas, the Holy Milkman must live apart and remain celibate, refraining from contact with the common people save on Mondays and Thursdays. He must not cut the hair of his head or his body, nor cut the nails of his fingers or toes, nor cross a bridge but wade through the river at certain specified points, nor attend a funeral ceremony unless he first resign his seals of office.
Thou amulet wearing impostor thief, fallen from the heights, sporting milk-stones plucked from the women of Crete, Milos and Albania with intent to dissolve them in honey-mead to prosper the flow of thy cause, to set the churn to fulsome foaming until the time of high water has passed, then to set up trees and bushes at stable doors and cattle bowers, that your cows might yield much milk, and to fasten green boughs against thy milky house to ensure a plentiful supply throughout summer and the succeeding seasons if thy skill in means be true and sure,
Give me my Milk is the whole of the Law.
I trust that thou hast kept thy produce from women in season and that thy sturdy beasts have kept due distance from unseemly drops of blood and that thy enclosures and paths have been kept properly clear and do not run into one another. I AM sure you’ll agree that it is better to keep these dubious women from the sacred vessels, indeed, to prevent them from touching, sitting or cooking anywhere with the intention of bringing illness or death to the common folk in accordance with their nefarious aims.
Furthermore, I trust that thou hast made prudent use of rowan tree and woodbine and fitting fire set in its proper place, made of furze and broom set to blaze from sunset to sunrise and tossed about with pitchforks to the accompaniment of dancing and shouting, and that thou hast forced thy cattle through the purifying fire to confound the desires of ravenous witches and wizards, retaining the efficacious residue of the burning to prevent milk theft, and concluding by scattering the ashes that serve as reminders of the solar rite as the precious orb of the sun creeps stealthily to claim possession of the day.
Be assured that the men of higher Crookes and lower Walkley will be swiftly banished from my company and the women of the same domains will cover their heads at a decent distance, save for the one who hands me the bottle, who will turn away her face as I take the top from the bottle and prepare to pour.
Note in passing that I, the Magus Dr D, speaking from the very heights of the New Order of Western Templars, refrain from drinking the milk of pigs, knowing that it causes leprosy.
Know that I will have milk to set a portion thereof to boil, and that as the milk boils, so the coming year will be: if it boils rapidly, the year will be prosperous but if it boils slowly, the year will be poor. Think you not that I, the Magus Dr D, cannot master the base elements to ensure they accord with my will?
Know also that I have dwelt among the warriors of Africa and devoured nought at all save milk and meat in turn, purging the one with a strong and effective purgative before gaining sustenance from
the other, and this I have done for many days, and the days have turned into weeks, and the weeks have run by in their turn.
As milk was the staple diet of the Hebrews, obtained from sheep, goats, cows and camels, oft times churned into curds, and used as a symbol of prosperity and fertility (alas! the law forbade the eating of meat and milk at the same meal), as witnessed by the following abstracts, paraphrases and sayings from the books of the minor inconvenience known as the Judeo I AM:
1. Thirty milch camels with their colts, with other beasts besides, were given by Jacob to his brother Esau, known as Edom (and there were kings in Edom before there were kings in Israel, the kings of Edom being representative of unbalanced force, vide the flapping humps of these same camels). 2. Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with diverse meats of flesh and fruit, were given to sustain that same Jacob after he had given his gift to his brother. 3. “Thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens.” 4. I will not eat of any thing that dies of old age or illness. I will give such meat to my neighbours or sell it to aliens and strangers, for I am an holy people and I will not boil a kid in his mother’s milk. 5. Also, I will come to a good large land flowing with milk and honey, and thus displace the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. 6. And the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth and shall water the valley of Shittim.
So I, the Magus Dr. D, will 2 pints of semi-skimmed!
So mote it be!
Milk is to Pour, Milk not to Spill.
I remain, forever, I AM The Magus Dr. D
Acolyte, attend!
In which Dr. D addresses his disciple.
I myself, Dr. D, Lord of Milkmen, the personification of an holy people, speaking from the very heights of the highest Order, the Shining Silver Star itself, hymned by Frater F.V and Ye Seasons Four, have deigned to voice my wisdom to the denizens of the lower Planes, firstly through the medium of super-telepathic communication unto you, O my acolyte, in the sure and certain knowledge that you will transmit it onwards, for the benefit of mankind.
Know that I offer this key to the manlings of the Galactic Centre of Malkuth: I AM the praeterhuman intelligence who dictated the codification of the mysteries that rule the epoch of the crowned and conquering child, thus infiltrating universal consciousness with new dominants for comprehending the Spiritual quest. Know that I AM the foremost of these dominants.
Know that I AM the author of the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Apocrypha, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Coffin Texts and the Pyramid Texts, and that I AM a master of Hebrew, Greek, Coptic and Egyptian hieroglyphics. Know that I oversee the Akashic Records.
Know that I sit in a hedgerow gap and commune with the natural world, where I negotiate with wolves and elves and engage in rites and inner work. From time to time I sit indoors and observe and control the coming together of people, realms and species.
Know that I can form the Fenris wolf from ectoplasm and set it abroad to demonstrate my power before reabsorbing it into my body. Know that I was once a prince from another world travelling through the morning glory and the keen air, and that now I am a king.
Know that my countenance shines so brightly that, alas! I cannot see myself in mirrors. I take all learning as my preserve and encompass the whole of human knowledge. Know that the power of my mind is clearly shown by MRI scanners. Know that I am the world’s most respected teacher of psychic, yogic and spiritual science, rightly praised by Yoga Times, Yoga Journal, George Harrison and Yoga Magazine.
Know that through practice of anti-Kriya Yoga I cause my hat to rise from my head and set it to spinning and, lo! through its whirling there comes the sounding of the wisdom of discarnate Sars, Ducs and Praemonstrators.
Know that I practice hieros gamos with myself every night. When I am done with hieros gamos, I sport with katabasis and overcome passio. Know that I am the active arm of the Sleepers. Know that I appeared miraculously to 6000 people in Kenya in 1988.
Know that I am a master of the art of bare hand surgery and that I have developed a failsafe method to heal allergies, arthritis, asthma, broken bones, burns, depression, diabetes, heart disease, muscle tears, piles and verrucae, and that this method also promotes weight loss.
Know that I have attained the rank of General of Celestial Knights, General of Earthly Knights, General of the Celestial Path, and Universal General.
Know that my commentary on ‘The Book of the Law’, written in goat’s blood on parchment, is renowned for its erudition throughout the Western Esoteric Tradition, and reflect that this is no surprise, since I am the Head of the New Order of Western Templars.
Know that I do not confuse the Aeons but that I refer to the Aeon of Osiris as the Aeon of Horus because I have altogether transcended the Aeons. Know that similarities between phrases employed in my Mighty Epistles and phrases found in the published work of Frater Perdurabo are due to communion between myself and the Master Therion on the Higher Planes, and that this communion benefits ‘him’ more than it benefits ‘me’. Know that I am a Secret Chief.
Know that merely catching sight of the cover of my immortal masterpiece ‘Twilight of Our Souls’ moved the Pope to renounce the manifold errors of the Catholic church, and that reading the first three paragraphs of the introduction caused Frater Ian Paisley to change his name to Sean, take to the wearing of the green and enter St. Malachi’s on the Falls to partake of the fruits of the mass from the hand of Father Seamus.
Praemonstrators, Arch-Druids, Sars, synarchists, Martinists, gold and rosy cross men, all of them gather to aid me and bend their knees before my unimpeachable authority, for I AM the Grand Master of Grand Masters, head of 38 renowned occult Orders, the successor and final fulfilment of the Counts and Ducs of the Waterloo and Central lines of the New Order of Western Templars.
Know that I, the Nabob of the New Order of Western Templars, contrary to the Taoist principle of
dressing plainly, wear pink waistcoats and pancake make-up as the outer robe of the inner veil of concealment, covering the mystery of my fleshly form. Know that I AM transubstantiated and eat my own flesh. Know that the children on buses laugh because they rejoice to see me.
In conclusion, take account of a very great warning, which must forever remain unstated, save for the hint contained in this immortal epigram, with which I bid thee forever be gone, and take my leave from the stage, to abide once more in the endless ‘Twilight of Our Souls’:
I remain, still, forever – I AM – The Magus Dr D. Nabob of NOWT
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
OUT OF THE DESERT
“The Religions of all Nations are derived from each Nation's different reception of the Poetic Genius, which is every where call'd the Spirit of Prophecy.” - William Blake, 'All Religions are One', c. 1788.
Earlier this year, we read three translations of the Koran simultaneously. 'Out of the Desert' represents an attempt to derive meaning from this experience. Our latest study of the Gospel According to Saint John reminds us that despite the Koran's recognition of Jesus/Isa as an extraordinary prophet and its acknowledgement of the virtue of some Christians who follow the Gospels, there can be no true reconciliation between Islam and Christianity because an irreconcilable conflict lies at the heart of their doctrine.
Of God's mercy, Jesus, known as Christ, of Light and other things...
God is evident, immanent and all knowing. His mercy resides in his forgiveness of those who repent of evil. Evil is that which goes against God's will, and he forgives from the standpoint of the creator of the universe, who gave life to men, and appointed the angels (who not only praise their Lord, but also pray for forgiveness for all beings on earth), and he has appointed a garden where the good and the faithful will reside in the hereafter.
043.059 “He was no more than a servant: We granted Our favour to him, and We made him an example to the Children of Israel.”
Jesus was given signs and strengthened by the holy spirit. He is held in honour in this world and he is of the company of those nearest to God in the hereafter. He was born of a virgin by the will of God but he shared a similar nature with Adam, who was created from dust and commanded to be. Jesus spoke to the people in childhood and maturity. He is of the company of the righteous, the last in a line of prophets, and there is no difference between them, for they all received the revelation, and submit to God. The Gospel of Jesus was ordained by God as a guide to mankind.
It was by the leave and favour of God that Jesus the son of Mary was strengthened with the holy spirit, urging him to speak to the people from his cradle, in childhood and maturity. God taught Jesus wisdom, the Law and the Gospel and it was God that allowed Jesus to heal the blind, and the lepers, and to bring forth the dead. God protected Jesus from the violence of the unbelieving children of Israel when they denounced his clear signs as nothing more than magical tricks.
Jesus came with wisdom and signs to make clear some of the points on which the people disputed; his authority came from God, his Lord and the Lord of all, and Jesus plainly stated that the straight way was to worship God.
Jesus the son of Mary was the confirmation of the Law that came before him and the guidance and light of the Gospel is an admonition to those who fear God. Not all who follow the Gospel are faithful servants of God, for some have descended to the level of those who rebel.
Christ Jesus was a spirit proceeding from Allah, or the Word bestowed on Mary, but he was no more than a messenger. There is one God, and no Trinity. God is far exalted above having a son; all things in heaven and earth belong to him, and he is the sole disposer of affairs.
God can do all things. He is not the Messiah, son of Mary, because God could have destroyed the Messiah had he willed to do so, and God reigns above Mary and her offspring as he does above everyone else on earth. God is sovereign, and the Messiah of Mary is his subject.
God breathed his spirit into Mary, sheltered her and her son on high ground, gave them rest and security, refreshed them with spring water, and made her and her son a sign for all people.
Mary was a woman of truth but both Mary and her son ate food, showing their earthly nature. Despite this clear sign from God, many people are deluded from truth and proclaim the godly nature of Christ.
If God had wished to take to himself a son, he could have chosen whoever he pleased out of all he created, but he is above such things, being one and indivisible. It is a monstrous outrage that people say that God has begotten a son, and there is no warrant to claim that this supposed son is self- sufficient and that all things in heaven and earth belong to him, for this is contrary to the majesty of God.
To say that God is Christ the son of Mary is blasphemy. Christ said no such thing, but recognised God as his lord. To believe that Christ is joined with God is to be denied the garden of paradise and to be cast into the abode of Fire. To speak of the Trinity is blasphemy, for there is one God, not three.
The primary purpose of the Gospel According to Saint John is to present an account of the life of Jesus “...that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” (John 20, 31).
John states that the Son speaks the words of God in the fullness of the Spirit and that the Father has given all things into his hand. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3, 36). The denial of the Son is the denial of the light that abides in the Word, which is the life of men. Later, Christ proclaims “...I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14, 6).
In chapter 9 of John, Jesus asks the blind man he healed, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” and when the man asks who that might be, Jesus replies, “Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.” In the following chapter, he explicitly states, “I and my Father are one.” (John 10,30).
The third person of the Trinity, the Comforter or Spirit of truth, which will abide forever, is referred to by Jesus in John 14, 26:
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
So, the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost is established in John. However, Jesus does acknowledge that “my Father is greater than I” and that he does as his Father commands, and following his resurrection, but before his ascension, he tells Mary Magdalene to “...go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20, 17).
Jesus son of Mary did not say that men should worship him and his mother as gods. He had no right to say this and God would have known if he had, because God knew what was in Jesus' heart although Jesus did not know what was in God's. God knows in full everything that is hidden. Jesus proclaimed nothing other than what he was commanded to by God, namely 'worship God, my Lord and your Lord'. Jesus was a witness while he dwelt amongst the people. When God took Jesus up, he became the Watcher over the people, as God is witness to all things.
Christ Jesus was not killed. He was not crucified (although it appeared that he had been), and he will not dispense judgement on the last day, but act as a witness against the People of the Book.
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished; and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19, 30). Further, following his death, Jesus was pierced by a spear. Finally, the body of Jesus was buried in a sepulchre near the place where he was crucified.
The Law and the Gospel and the revelations of the prophets were sent by God, and to follow them brings happiness; some of the followers are on the right track but many who claim to follow the Law and the Gospel and the revelations do not do so. The Law and the Gospel have no standing unless they are seen to reside in God. All religious texts that uphold the unity of God, the certainty of the Last Day, and the admonition to work good works, bring fearlessness and joy to all who follow them.
God bestowed the Gospel on Jesus the son of Mary and ordained compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who follow him. But the monasticism invented by his followers was not prescribed, unlike the commandment to seek the pleasure of God, which was not fostered as it should have been. The believers amongst the followers of Jesus have their reward, but many of his followers are rebellious transgressors.
Jesus the son of Mary spoke to the children of Israel, saying he was a messenger sent by God to confirm the Law that came before him, and giving glad tidings of a messenger to come after him, whose name would be The Praised One. But many of the children of Israel refused his signs as sorcery. When Jesus asked who will help him to support the work of God, the disciples took up the challenge. A portion of the children of Israel believed and a portion disbelieved, and God gave power to those who believed, who prevailed against their enemies.
Christ's disciples had faith in God and his messenger Jesus the son of Mary, and bowed to God in submission. Christ did not disdain to worship God, unlike many of those who are called Christians, who have become estranged, so that hatred and enmity reigns between them, until the Day of Judgement, when God will show them what they have done.
The Jews who call Ezra a son of God, and the Christians who call Christ the son of God are accursed and deluded unbelievers. Christians take their priests to be their lords, and they serve Christ the son of Mary as God, although they were commanded to worship one God, who has no partners.
Both David and Jesus the son of Mary pronounced curses on the children of Israel who rejected faith and persisted in their disobedience and excess. Some Christians, having renounced the world, refrain from arrogance and devote themselves to learning, and are near in love to the believers, unlike the Jews and Pagans, who are their enemies.
There should be no compulsion in religion. Knowledge and inspiration come from God. There is a limit of time for every message. God is the only god. Truth and error are clearly discerned by whoever rejects evil and believes in God.
Jews, Christians and Sabians who believe in God and judgement and do good will receive a reward and have nothing to fear. But Jews and Christians are not beloved of God and he has often chastised them. Jews protect Jews, and Christians protect Christians, and they should not be turned to for friendship. God possesses earth and the kingdom of heaven and everything that lies between them. He chastises and forgives whom he pleases. When men are blessed, they are blessed for reasons that serve the cause of the truth of the unity of God.
024.035 “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: Lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light: Allah doth set forth Parables for men: and Allah doth know all things.”
God appointed darkness and light. He leads the faithful from the darkness into light and the patron of the faithless leads his followers from light into darkness. The miracles, psalms and scripture of the messengers bring light to mankind from the Lord.
There is light and guidance in the law revealed to Moses. Scripture is an embodiment of God's light, which guides all who seek his pleasure to a straight path. Men would be dead without the light given by God. The light that the faithless would extinguish by disputation is brought to perfection by God.
God sent down light and by this light he sees all that is done. Light is the reward of the lovers of truth who witness it through belief in God and his messengers. Light runs before the believers and brightens them, and they will ask their Lord to perfect their light, and God will deliver them from evil, and bathe them in the light of beauty and joy. This light is lit in the houses of those who glorify God in the morning and the evening, celebrating his name. The Messenger is a lamp spreading light and the book of the Messenger is a light to guide the chosen servants. And those to whom God does not give light abide in darkness. God will complete the revelation of his light despite the hostility of the unbelievers.
Of angels. Iblis was the angel who refused to prostrate himself before man and he has been given leave to remain and influence men until the Day of Judgement. Gabriel reveals the will of God, gladdening the heart, confirming what went before him and bringing guidance and joy to the believers.
Of spirits and occult workings. Some people regard the jinns as equal to God, although God created the jinns. There were jinns present at the recital of the Message, and they pried into the secrets of heaven, but they found it filled with stern guards and flaming fires. Magic and sorcery are evil. Those who practice secret arts, or malignant witchcraft, are mischief makers.
Of the creation of man and spirits. Man was made from sounding clay, and moulded mud, from
dust and water, from a sperm-drop, and then from man and woman. The jinns were created before man, from the fire of scorching wind. Every living thing was made from water.
Of religion. Faithful adherence to the commands of religion amounts to worship of God - sincere devotion, truth in faith, regular prayer, and the practice of regular charity. This is the fullness of religion, and what lies beyond it is suspect. One should wait with patience, unlike the restless Companion of the Fish who cried out in agony before he was granted the grace of his Lord and joined the company of the righteous, not through his own will, but through the will of God.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE SONS OF AMOS BREARLEY
A rugby playing hermaphrodite Running through the land Gola and Umbro John Craven’s ghost Is Micheala Strachan’s shadow In student flat range…
The Sons of Amos Brearley consists of Helgi Pedarsson (vocals, bowed bass guitar, violin) and Carl Kasprowicz (bass, turntables, electronics). Helgi has a 25-year history of making music. He can be heard on Psychic TV’s seminal live recording ‘Mitt in Goetingen’, which was recorded in the early 1980s. For the past 15 years he has been involved in the shadowy collective Cross of Light, which has performed in obscure venues around Sheffield and north Derbyshire. Carl was a member of Uriel 157, a cult like group of musicians and performers operating from a commune in one of the rougher parts of Sheffield during the late 1990s.
The Sons of Amos Brearley formed in Sheffield in November 2004 to test the theory that listening to The Fall encourages deep thought. The group listened to The Fall for a period of several weeks and composed a set of songs known as ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Sing Songs That Will Never Be Sung’.
Helgi remembers being impressed by ‘Rowche Rumble’ and ‘In My Area’ on the John Peel show in 1979. He recalls listening to ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’ in a cold, damp student house in Stoke- on-Trent and hearing ‘Bend Sinister’ for the first time in Chichester in 1986. He makes a point of seeing The Fall when they play in Sheffield and travelled to Doncaster a few years ago to witness a stage invasion at The Leopard, smiling in wonder at the sight of the lasses of South Yorkshire wrapping their arms around a grinning Mark E. Smith and covering him with kisses. Carl claims not to have listened to The Fall before the advent of The Sons of Amos Brearley, being a lover of Dead Can Dance, Cold Spring recording artists and all other manner of spoilt Victorian children.
We encounter the drugless bourgeoisie And we treat them with scorn. Our beards look like they are formed Of the fading morning dew…
The name of the group comes from an encounter between Helgi and the proprietor of an Indian takeaway in Sheffield. The man in the restaurant took one look at Helgi’s beard and instantly likened him to the former stalwart of early period ‘Emmerdale’, from the days when the programme was known as ‘Emmerdale Farm’.
The Sons of Amos Brearley have appeared at the familiar local band venues in their city of origin but their last two live performances took place in less conventional settings. They appeared to the dumb amazement of the South Yorkshire electropunk glitterati at the Razor Stiletto club night in summer 2005 and their last appearance came as part of a long and generally uninspiring spoken word festival in the bar of an independent cinema in January of this year. The duo had plans to play in a show organised by a Sheffield based Death Metal band but pulled out after realising that the group in question were prime movers in the Sheffield Death Metal Neo-Nazi underground.
Scorn, a sometimes dark and bitter humour, and a heightened visionary capacity mark ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Sing Songs That Will Never Be Sung’. Helgi and Carl were quick to note these qualities during their founding journey through the work of Mark E. Smith. They present the Sons of Amos Brearley as a hate filled anti-Masonry, a secret society operating from branches of a Lodge located in the suburbs of what was once the artisan quarter of Sheffield. The work of the Lodge has been disrupted by the encroachment of fat arsed students, so the Sons have taken to travelling further afield.
The band is currently working on a recording of ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Sing Songs That Will Never Be Sung’, comprising of studio treated reworkings of live performances and straight live renditions of the eleven songs in the set. Once this task is complete, the members of the Lodge will turn their attention to ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’, a work of similar scope to their first project but more focused on their mystical visionary appreciation of Light:
Heil dir, Sonne! Heil dir, Licht! Heil dir, Sons of Amos Brearley!
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE SONS OF AMOS BREARLEY SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN
I am the Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley. I reside in a blue painted four storey house in Hastings. From my window I see a copper coloured sun in an indigo blue sky. I see the sea and a rocky coastline.
On the coastline there stand sentinels:
A male figure dressed in a purple robe A male figure dressed in a blue robe A group of white robed ancients with their genitals exposed A female figure dressed in a green robe
The sentinels point towards the sun:
The sun in the region of the Heart chakra A four rayed sun, the rays in the form of a cross An eight rayed sun illuminating the body and the world outside The sun in the centre of the Cross of Light
By the lion and the lamb, I am the Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley and I set my sights beyond the sun. I see a rose of deepest crimson, a deep red rose inside a skull, a white rose between the teeth of Bonehead.
I form a triangle of my fingers and thumbs and an approximation of a pyramid by raising my thumbs. I enter a constellation formed of four stars in the shape of a Y. A central pillar runs through the Y:
Malkuth Tiphereth Kether
Earth, the kingdom of heaven within and heaven. I enter a geometric realm. I live in the space of a triangle formed by two rays emanating from the region of the third eye, passing through the eyes of the head and reaching the ground. The ground is far beneath me. I live with triangles, circles and
lines:
A blue triangle and a red triangle A gold triangle on a ground of deep sky blue A black triangle decked with gold A triangle of gold within a black triangle
A gold circle on a ground of deep sky blue A red cross on a sun disc ground
An equal armed cross, arms terminating in circles An equal armed cross, the arms extending infinitely
I hitch a ride on the arms of the cross. I travel in two directions at once. Light rushes from the centre of the Cross of Light, a manifestation of Lux Interna, the going out of inward glow. A pillar of light passes through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The energetic light form behind my body of flesh is formed of the light that surrounds all things. A lilac cloud emanates from a rent in space and time to indicate the swift flowing energy surrounding everything solid, which resembles rain in a wind.
I am the Head of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley. The summer breeze is the rustling of Mary’s robe and the presence of the Holy Spirit. I return from my journey. The body is earth. The spirit is heaven. There is flesh beyond flesh. I am beyond flesh beyond flesh.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων: καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ALL HAIL THE SONS OF AMOS BREARLEY!
We will not smoke again Until we come to the hills Above Satan Town
Around the bright seductive Hills of Satan Town The crows sound The magpie flees
Caw! Caw! Sing the crows At rest in the tree Caw! Caw! Sing the crows Merrily Caw! Caw! Sing the crows All hail the Sons of Amos Brearley!
The sun is a pale disc In grey sky but Sons of A.B. Branch of Walkey Sing
Heil dir, Sonne! Heil dir, Licht! Heil dir Sons of Amos Brearley!
The houses fields and factories The churches moors and fading trees The pale sun shining by the tree Join in festive jubilee
All hail the Sons of Amos Brearley!
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
THE SONS OF AMOS BREARLEY Being the Adventures of Jabez the Stupid and Japheth the Last Laugh
Transactions of the Sons of Amos Brearley
The Sons of Amos Brearley meet in a darkened room, as evening becomes night. Jabez the Stupid, the Head of the Lodge, enters by the Western door, takes three paces into the room and raises his arms above his head, keeping his feet together. Japheth the Last Laugh, the favoured follower of Jabez, enters the Lodge by the Eastern door and replicates the Runic ‘Y’. There is a full-grown pine tree in an alcove of the Lodge. There are several pot grown oaks in various stages of development scattered about the room. The pine produces a delicate scent to blend with the fragrance of the incense that burns continually in the sanctuary of the Brotherhood. The light of the moon casts shadows of oak seedlings and saplings. Jabez and Japheth stand still until their eyes become accustomed to the dim light. They remain standing until they fully register the mixed fragrance of incense and pine. They sit at opposite ends of a polished oak table, occupying the seats of honour that have been allocated to them by the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley. They formulate a programme of activities for the coming year, which constitutes the year of SOAB.
Jabez expresses the need for the Sons of Amos Brearley to keep a record of their activities during the festivals of the year... The Sons of Amos Brearley celebrate twelve festivals during the turning of the wheel. The time of eight of these festivals is set and the nature of their celebration was established when eternity came to manifest as time. They are well-established times of mixing. They are gateways between worlds. The time of the remaining four festivals is not fixed. The records of the Lodge do not predetermine the nature of three of them. The nature of the fourth is laid down and established as the crown and consummation of the twelve.
Japheth the Last Laugh speaks of the need to take photographs on the days of celebration. These photographs should be taken from the perspective of the participants in the festivities and rituals. There is no need to photograph the participants, indeed some of the Sons have argued that it would be folly to do so, but there is nothing to prevent it. Japheth hopes that it will prove possible for the photographers to capture the essence of the times on their cameras but acknowledges that this is of less importance than the depth of engagement of the participants and the photographers in the programme.
Jabez and Japheth are dressed in white hooded robes embroidered with black lettering: S, O, A and B, forming the diamond of SOAB. Jabez waxes nostalgic for Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. In the days of his youth, when he had yet to take on his name, when the Sons of Amos Brearley did not exist as it does today, Jabez submitted a taped chant to the TOPY archive. An extract from this chant can be heard on several Psychic TV recordings, including “Those who do not.” (1983) and “MEIN*GOeTT*IN*GEN” (1984). The original recording proceeds from ‘I am that I am that I am (repeat)’ to ‘We are that we are that we are (repeat)’. The chant sounds artful and sincere. It is the definition of ‘we’ that PTV uses on its recordings. At times, the recording is treated so that it sounds like ‘We are that rule’. This possibility was inherent in the original recording.
Jabez and Japheth rise from the table and cover their heads with their hoods, the better to focus attention on deciding the locations of the festivals and celebrations that will give the coming year its significance. These locations are not determined by standing order of the Lodge but the process that decides upon the places leads to predictable results if one knows the minds of Jabez and Japheth.
Jabez and Japheth speak in turn.
Jabez says: “You might recall Flash. It advertises itself as the highest village in England. We went to a pub in Flash sometime in the 1980s, probably 1986 or 1987, in the company of an inferior artist. It had a good jukebox. We must have been returning from the exhibition of German Expressionist art at the Graves Gallery, above Sheffield Central Library. The winsome, self-obsessed artist made drawings from tomato soup. We sat outside the Church of England cathedral. We picked up a hitchhiker, a farmer’s boy from Tideswell, who declared that Tideswell was God’s own country. There is a chapel in Flash, which is the chapel that features in ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’. While we are about it, we should also visit the Roches, which feature in the tale as well.”
Japheth says: “The ‘Balm of Gilead’ cover star comes from Bakewell. I have named him John Bakewell, and all true men of Bakewell resemble him. He is a medieval stone carving, found in the porch of All Saints Church, amongst many other examples of fine stone craft. It would do us good to see that stonework again, and to wander by the river and climb into the hills. Bakewell is soft Saxon and far enough away from Chatsworth to escape the influence of the Romans.”
Jabez says: “There is a stone construction called the Temple of Solomon on the outskirts of Buxton that would be worth another visit. I believe it is a folly, built by some rich landowner in the 19th century, but it offers up fine views and we can be inspired by the magic of the place name.”
Japheth says: “I have often thought of Leek as the perfect representation of England, although I have been there just once before, as far as I can remember.”
Jabez says: “Stoke Town Hall calls me, the Stoke Town Hall of heavy metal Sundays circa 1978. There is an interesting church ground just across the way. We can walk in any direction and encounter familiar places that have a weight to them in memory.”
Japheth says: “A pub called The Star in Belgravia, near the former temple of the Society of the Inner Light. A walk along the river to get there, covering some of the ground that is covered in ‘Moon Magic’ by Dion Fortune. We have been there before in elevated spirits and we recorded our adventure in ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley Take a Trip to Dion Fortune Land’.”
Jabez goes to the library and returns with a copy of the record. He reads aloud by the light of the moon: “One reaches The Belfry and looks left. One comes to The Star. One beholds the stained glass motif, star within star, star beyond star surrounded by scarlet contained in a circle of gold divided into six segments. One looks beyond the mirror framed by wood and sturdy bolts of wood, surmounted by the figure of a horned god, with the sign of the crescent moon above its brow. One travels beyond the brow and observes the customers supping beer. They are not here. They are not as they appear. One is dressed in robes of purple. One is dressed in robes of green. They stride and boast but their vanity is nullified by the saving grace beyond them.”
Japheth recites the song of that day:
Are you aware of the song that goes: Gone, gone, gone beyond, Gone altogether beyond? Then know that movement Disturbs reverie.
The Sons are sitting perfectly still And drifting into infinity. Let it be known that these Sons Are the Sons of Amos Brearley…
Jabez says: “A walk around Chichester, starting on South Street, turning on to West Street, coming back up West Street, turning left on to North Street, back down North Street, on to East Street, back down East Street, turning left on to South Street, returning to the point of departure – a magic cross could be traced in our wandering. I have made this journey many times in dreams, coming across streets that are not there, entering buildings on these streets. While we are about it, we should also visit the Yew forest of Kingley Vale, for that is a place of great magic. That is the place that inspired the SOAB Runic ‘Y’.”
Japheth speaks, trying to cover his uncertainty with a show of boldness: “The former County Asylum in Stafford sounds like grounds for a grand time and a great adventure.”
Jabez speaks in conclusion: “It is not wise to exhaust the year before the year has come. There are other places we need to go to that are not named here, and that is as it should be.”
With a solemn sign that cannot be described, Jabez brings the meeting to a close.
The Birth of Japheth the Last Laugh
It has been suggested that the powers of the Sons of Amos Brearley are directly related to their ingestion of magic mushrooms.
Jabez the Stupid made his way repeatedly to the field by The Sportsman in Lodge Moor intent on securing his stock of mushrooms for the 1985 season. His fieldwork commenced in late August of that year, continued throughout September and brought him to the last day of October. He had gathered a bountiful crop of the Liberty Cap. He had eaten olive grey dainties fresh from the field. He had dried residual stock and used it to make gallons of refreshing tea, which he consumed steaming hot or decanted into cider bottles, for which he provided curious and entertaining labels. He had found that sufficient mushrooms remained to provide a store out of season, to energise the celebrations of the following year. He placed his colourful collection in paper bags, which he checked frequently for signs of unwelcome mould until they were dried to the point of security.
Jabez had been scouring the field for several hours on Samhain. He was pleased with what he had gathered. A gentle rain was falling and sunset was coming on. The soft grey sky was fading gradually into the evening when Jabez turned his focus from the fertile ground to the far distance of the field, where he saw something glimmering, as if it were made of silver and pewter. Jabez made his way to the gloaming, which seemed to disappear, then reappear before him. He discovered a circle of enlivening fungi surrounding what he took to be the source of the light but there was nothing to be seen in the circle’s centre. He stooped to the ground to pluck, having decided to make for the pub once this circle of mushrooms had been gathered.
As soon as Jabez picked the first mushroom, a fully-grown young man appeared in the centre of the
circle, proclaiming: “I am Japheth the Last Laugh, your student and successor.” Jabez nearly shat himself but he welcomed Japheth warmly. He invited Japheth to join him in bringing in the sheaves. Jabez was careful to place the product of the cropped circle together in the same bag.
Jabez kept Japheth close through the winter of 1985/86. Japheth had not said a word since the time of his discovery. They took to travelling the following spring. They found themselves in the village of Sidlesham in Sussex in June 1986. They were alone in an abandoned farm labourer’s cottage. Jabez took the bag of Samhain mushrooms and brewed a hearty brew, which he administered to Japheth.
Japheth had doubts about the efficacy of the mushrooms after all this time. He supped the contents of the teapot without expecting much would happen. Shortly after finishing his second mug of tea and chewing the phlegmy residue of the rehydrated hallucinogens, Japheth was surprised to see the image of a perfectly formed Liberty Cap drifting across the white painted wall of the former living room of the cottage. Japheth stared delightedly at the apparition for the better part of half an hour before feeling that it was time to leave. He thought: “I will arise and go now, and enjoy the fruits of liberty.” He spoke these words aloud as he left the cottage and turned right onto the lane with a grin.
Japheth was delighted by the fragrance of the roses in the fields. The dancing light of the afternoon sun enchanted him. He sought the shade of the hedgerows as he traversed the lane, making for the road that leads to four miles distant Chichester.
The main roads that pass through the hinterlands of the ancient cathedral city are extensions of the central cross that divides the city itself. Japheth came from Sidlesham by way of the village of Herne the Hunter and found himself at the terminus of East Street. He walked the short length of East Street and gained the Market Cross.
The spire of the cathedral towered above Japheth as he stood blissfully against the Cross at the centre of the cross of the city. Japheth met a friendly tramp and a charming well-dressed old man, who spoke in a fake Scottish accent. They talked about light and the fragrance of roses. The old man left the gathering to test his charm on the ghost of an old woman who drifted through the streets, dressed in late-19th century clothing. It became apparent to Japheth that the tramp and the old man were himself in times to come.
The tramp departed and the old man rejoined Japheth. They walked to the old man’s home. Japheth felt a mixture of excitement and dread. He looked through a window of the old man’s house and saw an extensive library. In pride of place on the library shelves stood a heavy volume bound in black leather, entitled ‘The Transactions of the Sons of Amos Brearley’. Strange artefacts were ranged about the room. Japheth experienced a state of temporary paralysis. Jabez emerged from the old man’s home to guide Japheth across the threshold.
And these are just the beginning of Japheth’s adventures on that day, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
SOAB and TOPY / PTV
It has been suggested that SOAB should be understood as an offshoot from and commentary on Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth. It is true that before he was Jabez, Jabez participated in the work of the Temple. Jabez not Jabez contributed writings and recordings to the Temple archive, and the Temple made use of this work. As mentioned above (let’s call him) Jabez the Wise can be heard on several live Psychic TV recordings.
One might say that there was a relationship between SOAB and TOPY from the first worldly manifestation of the Temple in the early 1980s for a period of several years. Some people might characterise early TOPY as exploitative and focused on the sexual gratification and enrichment of a few self-selected leaders. Some people might claim that the Temple outlets in Brighton were primarily fronts allowing this exploitation of idiots to continue. This was not the opinion of Jabez in those days. He recalls with fondness the Temple sayings of his youth:
“Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth exists as a meeting place for those Individuals who find themselves… disaffected with Western culture as it is today. … Thee Temple claims no easy answers. We can offer only one tiny ray ov Hope. If We each can live our Lives as an Example, to show thee Rest ov our species how people COULD live, if they only dared to dream, to have and pursue a Vision, then perhaps others would be inspired to dream again. … Please join us in our Struggle!”
The tone of this passage is typical TOPY and firmly locates the organisation in the English Romantic tradition, appealing to the sense of liberty and rebellion that has been fostered by the likes of Milton and Blake as representatives of the spirit of the English people. TOPY was about demonstrating different ways of being in the world. SOAB is about demonstrating SOAB.
Early TOPY and SOAB share a number of common interests and themes. They have an abiding concern with the performance of ritual. They possess knowledge of the pre-Roman religion and world view of northern Europe in general and Britain in particular. They are vehemently anti- Roman and characterise Rome as the model of a state of oppression both political and mental. They are fond of mushrooms. They are troubled by state-operated forces of control. They denounce the vanity of crowns and deplore the invading ‘warlords and monarchs’ who have subjugated the people for thousands of years. They are fond of proverbs that sound like excuses:
“We do not champion perfection, we include imperfection as intent.”
That’s the way they play it. You won’t gain victory over them in anything that matters.
Jabez now Jabez attended the renowned Psychic TV show in Paris in June 1986, the day after Japheth had gained the power of speech through the working of the Samhain mushrooms. Japheth did not travel with Jabez; he remained in Sussex, at the home of the Old Man, learning the way of Japheth the Last Laugh. Jabez did not appear onstage on this occasion. By this time, Jabez could have passed Genesis in the street without Genesis knowing who he was. The Paris disconcert was accompanied by strange comings and goings of light and sound that eventually resulted in darkness reigning over the streets surrounding the venue for a period of several hours.
In this darkness, Jabez reflected that there were considerable differences between TOPY and SOAB. The significance of these differences increased over time. There has been no contact between Jabez and TOPY since 1989.
Imbolc
The Sons of Amos Brearley are not sure of the date but they can feel a change in the air. They have been tracking the rising and setting sun and delighting in the beauty of the solar light show. They have been mindlessly aware of the antics of the beasts of the field and the air. This is how they tell the time. And they confirm the time by dreaming, and sharing the details of their dreams. They dream of a snake emerging from a hole in the ground. They dream of wolves. They dream of the union of Lucifer and Brigid, dancing liminal through the air. They dream of a meeting place in a
small town besieged by a band of Brigantii (not that they knew themselves by that name). They realise that this is a good time for planting seeds and for tending to the plants that have grown from the acorns of autumn.
The Sons of Amos Brearley light the main assembly hall of the Lodge with eight candles. Jabez and Japheth stand in the centre of the hall, back to back, with hands touching, and revolve in circles. They visit the individual stations marked by the candles, which shine with greater radiance as Jabez and Japheth approach them, and this radiance reveals the spectral forms of the Sons of Light, who are the progenitors of the Sons of Amos Brearley. Jabez and Japheth receive instructions from these Sons of Light and they cannot help but perform the actions they are called to.
Behold Jabez and Japheth making rope dolls in the fading light. Jabez places his doll on a blanket of snowdrops and Japheth burns his doll in the hollow of a tree. The petals of the flowers and the ashes of the fire guide them and the flowers and the ashes say 'Bakewell'. Japheth constructs a three stone cairn in the hollow of his tree and Jabez places a wind torn budding twig in the centre of the cairn.
The Sons of Amos Brearley sing as they go, and they sing: “I went down to the hazel wood because a fire was in my blood…” because it strikes them as a good song for the season. Jabez wears a robe of white and yellow and Japheth wears a coat of red and green. Their necks are hung with garlands of dried out Amethyst Deceivers. In a state of elevation, they walk through the door of The Plough.
In a way, The Plough exists outside space and time. More accurately, The Plough’s connection with space and time depends on something that is found in dreams. Let’s just say that The Plough has three rooms in a state of constant flux. In the first of these rooms a surly student swears at the harsh injustice of work and a White Rasta plays cyberpunk on a laptop in front of a small gathering. In the second room a fair-haired article in a suit occupies a prime position on a stool at the bar and dreams of ice and steel and Nazi murder. He is an outrider for the gang of parochial city bankers that devours the dark space beyond him. This place is strictly for the squares. Jabez and Japheth turn their attention to the listings section of the local paper of a cultural wasteland. A dark eyed lad is narrating fairy tales and a Vietnamese woman is seeing visions. In the third room a gathering of the sour faced and smartly dressed displaces a homely scene of harmony. These people hate each other. They gather strength from their hatred and seek to dominate, thinking the dominant will be admired. One might think there is little to recommend the place but Jabez and Japheth play with substance and reality. They can make most places pleasant. They make the three rooms one and know that the one room never existed.
Jabez and Japheth leave the pub and take a look around them.
There are more sources of wonder in London than there are in Bakewell but the wonders of Bakewell are less well known and therefore somehow more precious. In Bakewell one can see the meadows on fire. The people of Bakewell are lovers of flickering flames, which cleanse and consume. Some say it is a place of base witchcraft that causes masons to fall from church spires. But the masons become visionaries as they fall because the blessings of the father have been laid on the sons of Bakewell.
The church of All Saints stands on ground that has been sacred since the beginning of time. The church is built on the top of a hill that rises steeply from the valley of the River Wye. The power beneath the church cannot be seen but it can be felt, rushing to animate the bodies of the people that stand upon it and the masons who fall from the tower.
From a place beside the Saxon cross that stands in the grounds of the church, one can look across the meadows of the valley floor to the remnants of an ancient wild wood that once covered the
ground for many miles around. High moorland paths lead to Stanton Moor and Arbor Low. One can travel to these places to confirm that they share a similar nature to the ground upon which the church is built. The magical landscape of Bakewell and the surrounding area is inscribed on stone carvings in the porch of the church, where one can also see depicted stone John Bakewell, the ancient spirit of the town.
All Saints Church features in ‘Cross of Light’, which is one of the treasures of the library of the Sons of Amos Brearley. The church is described as ‘The Church of the Holy Cross’, and is protected not only by the power of the cross but by a vision of the twelve petalled rose. Japheth the Last Laugh reads from ‘Cross of Light’, which he takes from a pocket of his red and green coat.
The sacred history of Bakewell, like the sacred history of most places, has not been written. The repository of carvings in the porch of All Saints Church provides an indication of the glories of the place. This rich and rarely examined store of wonders forms a sacred text of sorts.
The carvings teach us that there are places where time intersects with eternity and these are the places we seek to make our dwelling in. The unknown artists responsible for the work in the porch have represented these places and the people of these places in a manner that enables us to visit them more easily.
Workers in stone have provided us with timeless representations of the archetypes of the people of Bakewell. The ancestors of the folk delineated in this ancient stone can be seen walking about the town today, sharing the features of their stony forebears through sure and certain lineage and generation.
Bakewell threw off the Roman oppressors and lived through a time of monarchs and warlords. Its identity was finally fixed in 924 and nothing happened in the town for almost 700 years, when a text was found in the grounds of the mineral spring that predates the coming of the perfidious Romans to Britain.
This document tells the story of a lodger staying at the house of a married woman and her sister. The lodger was disturbed in the early hours of the morning by a bright light shining through the gaps of the floorboards upon which his bed was set. He looked through the floorboards and saw his landlady and her sister dressed in outdoor clothes and chanting a spell. The spell caused the women to disappear and the room in which they had been to darken. The lodger repeated the incantation and found himself in the company of the women in a cellar in London. They had acquired great riches from the houses beneath their flight path and were packing away the proceeds of their adventure when their lodger appeared. The women were not surprised to see him and offered him a drink of wine. The lodger supped and entered a trance, remembering nothing more until he was discovered alone in the cellar.
The lodger appeared before a magistrate, accused of being concealed in an unoccupied room for sinister purposes. He was questioned about his lack of clothes and informed the court that his outfit remained at the house of his landlady in Bakewell. The authorities in Derbyshire were informed of the lodger’s testimony and his clothes were found, as he said they would be.
Such is the town. There is something about Bakewell that threatens the integrity of the being of the Sons of Amos Brearley. Their sense of self dissolves into a confusion of I, thou and we. The dissolution is not unpleasant. Indeed, one might say it is a manifestation of the foremost of the wonders of Bakewell.
Spring Equinox: The Blessing of the Temple
SOAB perform the ritual of the Runic Y and reflect on the activities of the sun centred Anglo- Saxons. They manipulate a force generated by travelling into open-ended triangles, revolving three forked sublimities and images of the rising sun. From something akin to a state of trance, bold Japheth speaks thus to Jabez:
“I see a black sun beyond the sun and an emblem of the universal year beyond that. The year is marked by eight flames in eight places, disposed according to the law of the cross and the cross of St. Andrew, which was once known by another name. At the end of time, the flames will flash forth and join, and this world will be consumed in the conflagration.”
Japheth and Jabez contemplate the end of the world. Japheth continues:
“And the world will be born again.”
Japheth the Last Laugh declares: “I am a king in the realm of light, self-determined and self- invented.” Japheth’s surname is confirmed by looking about him. The hook nosed, the halt and the lame; the bloom of their beauty has not faded because it was not there to begin with. Japheth sees vile bodies trapped in invisible armour. There is nothing lovely in this cesspool. It is better to move on.
Japheth boards a train to Landun.
In the Blake room of Tate Britain, the reptile Newton speaks wisdom on the theme of Cain and Abel:
“The devouring flame generated by the wickedness of the murder turns the sky blood red. Abel is at peace because he will live forever. Cain is in torment and will suffer in torment unless and until he can overcome it.”
Blake located Golgonooza on South Moulton Street but now that street is full of worthless boutiques, milk sourers and Egyptian beggars. The spirit engendered by vision has departed from the place and nothing remains to recommend it. Japheth navigates by the crescent moon and bows his knee before the Belfry. There is ghost talk in The Star. An Irish woman, more properly a Child of Faery, speaks of the gentleman in beige.
Jabez the Stupid imagines he is carrying a bag containing an effigy of Japheth the Last Laugh. A gang of teenage ruffians asks Jabez what he has in his bag. Jabez replies: “Two dead rabbits stuffed with magic mushrooms.” The leader of the gang demands to take a look. Jabez refuses on the grounds that one of the dead rabbits might bite the little fucker on his nose. Inside the bag, Japheth makes with the hand jive:
A black Psychick Cross bordered with gold on each inner forearm, just above the wrist. Ring finger and thumb form a circle; flesh of little finger is pressed against palm. Interlocking fingers with thumbs touching to form a triangle. Strong sharp fingernails could be pressed inwards until they drew blood.
Jabez and Japheth are happy to return to Crookes. Crookes, meaning ‘land of the magician’, is derived from Krekja (‘a magician’), a character from the Icelandic saga ‘Bard the Snowfell God’. The centre of Crookes is the Hollow Tree, situated near the burial mound of Krekja. The mound is planted with ash trees transplanted from Bakewell. That Bakewell was a Norse settlement is proved by the presence of the Tomb of Helga in the porch of the parish church, and Crookes is no more
than a 12 mile moor trek from Bakewell. Near the Hollow Tree and the Mound of Krekja is the satellite temple of the Temple of Ing in Ecclesall Woods, recently restored through the dancing of Jabez and Japheth.
Jabez and Japheth make their way to the satellite temple at sunset. Jabez makes a libation. Japheth plots the positions of the Moon and the Evening Star. They are one with their father, for their father dwells within them.
Beltane: The Wisdom of Jabez the Stupid and the Folly of Japheth the Last Laugh
Jabez heads for the toilet in The Green Man. Mould is growing on the ceiling. Someone has scorched the mould with fire. In the soot of the fire, Jabez can make out a text inscribed in tiny letters. He reads:
“Mysterious strangers kindle fires with great ceremony. They travel to the hills to get as close as they can to the sun. They dig a deep circular trench in the turf at the summit of the hill. They gather the wood of eight different trees and place it in the centre of the trench. The view from the top of the hill is inspiring. The air is fresh and could be taken for pure.
The work is started in the morning and continues throughout the day. The mysterious strangers perform their tasks with great diligence. The fire is kindled by forced fire, which is produced by the friction of wood upon wood and quickened by the addition of beech dust.
The strangers prepare a meal on the fire. A member of the community produces a cake made of Samhain mushrooms and oatmeal. The cake is divided equally amongst the celebrants. Half an hour after consuming the cake, the strangers pass through the fire one by one in procession. They divest themselves of their work clothes and put on red robes once they have emerged from the ordeal.
Darkness has fallen. Twilight was the time of the first sparks that kindled the fire.
Cari saluti,
Nichtensoxen, Boston Fen Hopper.”
Jabez recalls a poem by Japheth the Last Laugh:
P(OST) H(UMANOID) DISCIPLE
For P(hilip) H(utchinson)
That unfortunate two And a half centuries Was a dark interlude. The straight roads And the columns Were grown over.
Anglo-Saxon surliness Does not make for good service. Slope Roof.
The people seek to go above it.
Boston Fen Hopper Sockless Compulsive Label Switcher Branded Fiend by Tesco Sees blackbird bathing In winter sunset Fast flowing stream.
Blackbird song is The consolation of winter. An abundance of song birds Is a sign of good omen For the sockless.
Jabez experiences the fear of God as a devouring flame to pass through. He experiences the grace of God at the heart of the light that gives birth to the flame. He thinks: this is how a child of darkness becomes a child of light.
It was at this time that Japheth began to wear a heavy black robe and a black leather jacket. He was uncertain of the jacket. Did it suit him? Did it make him look old? He persisted on the grounds that it looked stylish and protected him from the cold. He had no doubts about the robe, which he conjured through the window of the Turkmen Institute, Victoria, Landun (peace be upon it). The robe had a hood, deep pockets, and soaked up liquids.
Japheth pulls the hood of his robe over his head and thinks of Jabez. It is a form of madness to abandon people you have known for years. How much madder to abandon people you have known for decades? Age is a sign of wisdom. Selah.
Japheth thrusts his hands into his pockets and plucks out a medallion. He inspects a fine example of the Endless Knot, which appears in many forms. Four serpentine endless knots surround the bejewelled central circles of the medallion. The jewel filling the central circle is made of uncut polished garnet, which represents the setting sun, the fading sun, and the end of the world. The world will end in fire and blood. Fire and blood are the foundations of the world. The medallion seems to speak of Jabez and Japheth.
Jabez and Japheth meet at the temple of the rock. Jabez speaks:
“There is a meeting on the moors. There is a casting of a trench. The makers of the trench meet inside it. They prepare a meal. They build a fire. They feed the meal to one of their number, and then they push him into the fire. The men and beasts of the land lit by fire flourish throughout the coming year. Another fire is constructed. The burned man emerges from the fire to begin the digging of a trench.”
Japheth responds:
“There is a meeting on the moors. There is a wild celebration. It is a festival of preservation and banishing. Come, horses and sheep. Be gone, foxes, crows and eagles. Some of the party would have it the other way around. They can be told by the emblems of the red hawk they display discreetly about their persons.
The meeting is closed. The gathering reconvenes in three days. The figure of a red hawk carved in wood has been placed in the centre of the circle of celebration. Hooded crows occupy the land.”
The moors are alive with fire and dancing. Witches are abroad. Rowan and woodbine stand against them. Jabez and Japheth return to the Lodge to light a fire from the moor fire. First Jabez and then Japheth leaps over the fire in the Lodge. They raise their arms in the Runic Y. They clasp hands. They retire to their rooms to dream.
Summer Solstice
Jabez and Japheth sit on a rock at the summit of a limestone outcrop surrounded by heather, which resembles a gateway to the underworld and is therefore known as Tam Lin’s Portal. Jabez wonders if the saying ‘There is no god but Man’ can be harmonised with the Cross of Light Temple experience of the Lord’s Prayer, which locates the Father in heaven and the kingdom of heaven within. Upon reflection, Jabez concludes that he is his own father, that Jabez generates Jabez. ‘There is no god but Jabez’. This seems like a greater error than immodest boasting.
Japheth believes it would be a good idea to exchange his heavy black robe for a lighter summer mantle. Japheth connects with Jabez telepathically, develops the theme considered by Jabez and speaks:
“There are no devils but men, gnashing and ugly like devils, pin headed, buck toothed, fat, and bleached. Constrained, constricted and behatted, fully engaged with their ugly boyfriends, they look with red tinged eyes through thick lensed glasses and sadly conclude that they do not understand. Why have mercy on the weak when the slave mentality of the weak would gladly condemn us?”
Japheth has taken the veil. He wears a white head-dress that covers his head and shoulders completely. A pair of dark glasses shields his eyes. He feels secure in his cavern of light, insulated from the world outside. He would speak with great comfort and ease if he could be bothered to speak at all.
Jabez sees himself from above, from the vantage point of a bubble of ether, before he rejoins his body. He engages in mental and spiritual mapping, identifying links between foundation concepts, allowing space to locate himself within the concepts without being bound by them. Religion. The Western Esoteric Tradition. Norse-Germanic and Anglo-Saxon cosmogony. Ritual and ceremonial magic(k). AOS. Chaos Magic. ‘Balm of Gilead’. Time moves backwards and ceases.
Japheth thinks of Microsoft Excel as a tool to order the universe. He reflects on the power of default computer settings. Productivity is relaxation. Japheth imagines himself to be the holder of three jobs, the author of books about mental health and religion, magick, music and art (the four square interests, linked and solid, like a foundation stone). Japheth thinks of photography as a supporting ‘art’. He links the four interests to the mental-spiritual mapping of Jabez.
It is good that the day is long. Jabez dresses the Satellite Temple with a sprig of elderflower before separating the stones and redefining the rune of the Temple of Ing, which is the true centre of Ecclesall Woods. Japheth acts as incense burner.
Japheth takes a dead crow from a carrier bag and staples it with wings outstretched onto the hidden side of the tree at the centre of the Temple. Motivated by the consciousness that most people are dead before they are born, Japheth returns to the Satellite Temple to rearrange its furnishings.
Japheth rushes to St. Marie’s and waxes geometrical during the Lord’s Prayer phase of Cross of
Light. A square formed of four points of light. The square revolving. Two points of light at the level of his shoulders. The two points of light with a horizontal axis running between them. A star topped cross. Something that resembles a fluid series of Ing runes running around a central axis. The images are not separate and distinct but flow from one to the other. Japheth becomes aware that the Sacred Heart of Jesus represents the mystical knowledge that Christ died to save mankind from sin.
Japheth thinks of titles for his photographs of the dead crow. ‘Odin’s Raven’. ‘Gotterdammerung’. Perhaps a double portrait, ‘Huginn and Muninn after the Twilight of the Gods’.
Jabez and Japheth meet at the Seat of the Mountain King and walk hand in hand to the Lodge, where SOAB work magick against the self-appointed arbiters of objective truth. This project develops directly after observing a typical manifestation of the groundless self-confidence of a jumped up bourgeois twerp, more properly known as a thief and an oppressor and someone who views abusing their staff as a perk of their job. He comes across like Louis Theroux’s granddad, writhing about in a soft cotton shirt like a perversion of a pampered child. Maybe even worse than the sight of this abomination is the willingness of the underling to join with the boss in his banal bullying. To speak plainly, a couple of fuckers who prompt remembrance of pre-SOAB days when Jabez as teacher without disciples or followers proclaimed the manifesto ‘Achtung Youth Gang!’ which included the following definitions and handy hints for acting:
Comprised of mentally defective 14 and 15 year old males Some degenerate 16 and 17 year olds Leader, second in command and two lackeys They congregate in gatherings of four because they are incapable of individual thought or action They pretend they are living in South Central L.A. but they really live in Woodhouse Afraid of women Found on the back seats of buses Incapable of sitting with their legs together Found near shops and phone boxes Active between the hours of 1 p.m. and 10.30 p.m.
How to deal with them:
Report them to the police for committing invented crimes Take photographs of them and manipulate the images Record their inane drivel and manipulate the recordings Single out youth gang members and threaten to cut their throats Douse them in petrol and set them alight
One of the morals of this story is put no faith in those who confuse arbitrary positions of power with determining authority. They will come to a sticky end. They are ultimately inadequate and incapable of responding to the final trial of fire and blood.
Towards Lughnasa: A Festival of Light through Reading - A Commentary on ‘The Book of the Law’ by Japheth the Last Laugh
Japheth leaves the high village of Flash and walks steadily upwards. He passes along Wolf Edge before making his way to Minning Low. He possesses a rare book that contains numerous comical pseudo-Egyptian references. Japheth goes beyond the nonsense and sees deeply as he reads.
He sees a palace with four gates. The palace is constructed of silver and gold and decorated with semi-precious stones. Incense burns on the altar of the palace temple, which is adorned by symbols
of life and death. He wonders which gate he should enter by. He enters the four gates at once and stands firmly on the palace floor. He looks upwards and sees a red circle inscribed with a five pointed star. The colour of the star changes as Japheth moves. At times it appears to be black, at times blue, and at times gold. When the star becomes gold, the colour of the circle changes from red to blue.
Japheth hears a voice sounding within. “There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.” He reflects on the feasts and rituals of the Lodge, in celebration of fire and water, of life and death. “A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of rapture.” These joyful celebrations stand against the dread that leads to death in life, which is the only death that can be known. “There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy…”
So, there is nothing to fear. Men and gods do not harm us in the living eternity. Fate is a fable. Money is a joke. The laughter of the people is folly in itself. Heaven and earth will pass away and hell will consume itself. The once living is ever living and endures.
The holy palace will stand throughout the centuries, even if its outer substance is utterly destroyed. The inward reality of the palace stands transcending substance and it shall stand until the fall of Time.
Japheth shakes his head and emerges from the reading. He walks by rough moorland trails, pausing at the chasm of Lud Church before proceeding to St. Edward’s in Leek, where Jabez sits in the churchyard, remembering the double sunset over The Cloud.
SOAB transcend ‘Those who do not…’
Japheth is taken in by a trickster, who proclaims a fiction of pre-Roman religion, born of the blood of the indigenous folk that spilled on the earth of Britain. It’s easy to dupe a disenchanted fool into believing that the markings of the land and the shaping of the stones are signs of the religious practices performed by an authentic people in times long gone but remaining. This is the foundation of the trickster’s proposition. Furthermore, although these practices have been cruelly suppressed by thieves and strangers throughout the ages, a trace of the reality invoked by the practice has remained, imparted from initiate to initiate throughout the time of exile. This trace can be accessed now and from the trace unfolds the whole.
Japheth removes his mind from the mind of the trickster and registers that he, Japheth, hath improved the trickster’s tale. Once he has regained his right mind, Japheth is gone. The trickster looks for his next victim. He visits a pub in the vicinity of the Lodge and is seen no more, the ghost of his drone remaining, perpetually complaining about lack of freedom. And he would have it that the way of liberation is to follow him.
Jabez acknowledges the wisdom of the trickster on his mission of mischief. An inward focus is to be encouraged. Standing still in a maelstrom encourages a deep awareness of speed. Social programming and implanted value judgements have a profound effect on us all, to the extent that there are times when we are not and cannot be ourselves. None of us know the bounds of possibility but we can know and define certain of the powers that limit us: the notion of the impossible, the blockages restricting our passing through the world with ease (the choking roads, the barbed wire fences…), the mind forged manacles of Blake, imposed, cruel, and unwanted.
Jabez steadies himself before carrying on. We can all know the baneful effects of repression by reflecting upon the stunted manifestations of humanity we encounter on a daily basis. We would all go for a means of easy transcendence if it were available to us. One of the aims of the alchemists
was to translate the banal and the mundane into a living paradise. Some go whirling, some pray, others meditate. Some seek to devour the world, not fully knowing they are in it. One should let them know they are in the world before their foetid desire brings forth nightmares and demons to scare them into the realisation. The apparition of the devil is a sign of the presence of the fear of God. Jabez steadies himself for the journey back into reality.
Daniel, Jonah and John
Jabez decides that he should read himself into ‘an astral state of virginity’ as ‘an act of spiritual purification’. He meditates himself into communion with the companion of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego in the burning fiery furnace. “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy,” says Jabez to Japheth, before passing on to John.
He burns Tibetan incense. He washes and performs the Cross of Light six-part rite. He remembers walking on water and the raising of Lazarus. What will happen to Lazarus on the last day, seeing he has been raised from the dead already? Does Lazarus live forever in the flesh?
The Light abides in every man born into the world, in every creature born into the world. The Light cannot be extinguished, so it abides with us always. This is a necessary realisation. The cares and tribulations of the world might blind us to the existence of the Light, but we need only remember and the Light is restored in its full and fitting glory. This act of remembrance is possible at any time.
The temple represents the house of man’s spirit. The merchants represent the affairs of the world. Jesus expels the concern with the affairs of the world and restores the house of the spirit to its proper state. The spirit descends upon Jesus Christ in the form of a dove at the time of his baptism by John. Bearing this in mind, the selling of doves in the temple is a particularly ignoble profession.
The turning of water into wine suggests that water and wine can be viewed as interchangeable after this act. Wine is a symbol of the blood of Christ. The people at the wedding feast receive the blood of Christ.
Water signifies spirit. If water and wine as the symbol of Christ’s blood are interchangeable terms, then this water can be taken as the blood of Christ.
Christ walking on the sea is a representation of Christ’s resurrection. Water and wine are the same. Wine is the blood of Christ. Jesus walks over the blood of Christ that was spilled for the salvation of mankind, indicating Christ’s triumph over death.
Jabez asks himself: “Is the blood of Christ the water of everlasting life?” “Yes, I think it is,” he replies. “Fucked if I know,” thinks Japheth.
God is in heaven and the kingdom of heaven is within. We are all born of flesh. We are all born of Spirit. The physical – spiritual manifestation of Christ was in the world for a relatively short time but the spiritual reality of Christ is present in all things from the beginning to the end. The believers in Christ have been born of the spirit and this removes them from the world, as Christ was removed from the world, even as they are in it.
And there are also many other things which Jabez and Japheth read, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
Lughnasa
Jabez and Japheth make their way to the clearing in the forest to invent funeral games in honour of the goddess of the festival, ‘The Great One of the Earth’. They gather the first fruits of the forest as they go and make these fruits the basis of their games. The Friends of Amos Brearley and representatives of other societies, guilds and orders are also in attendance and they have brought games with them as well. Jabez and Japheth sing ‘Five from the Lodge’ to an accompaniment of trumpets, harps, hollow-throated horns, pipers, timpanists, unwearied fiddlers, gleemen, bone- players and bag-pipers, a rude crowd, noisy, profane, roaring and shouting.
Jabez and Japheth travel through fictitious centuries, observing the years as they travel three ways. It becomes difficult for SOAB to locate SOAB in time. “God deliver us from sour faced fuckers,” says Jabez. “Some hope,” says Japheth in reply. It becomes the time of the first fruits, the time of ripening and rotting, mushroom season, the festival of chemical elevation.
It becomes difficult for SOAB to locate SOAB in space by virtue of the whirling. “Let’s make sacred places,” says Jabez, “Or revisit them,” says Japheth in reply. Thee Temple of Ing, formerly dedicated to Silenus, occupies a clearing in the forest, and is therefore not only an object in space but also a reminder of time.
Jabez remembers receiving a fascinating email from an unknown correspondent who came across the residue of a SOAB magic(k)al working a short distance from the Temple:
“hi my freand first i dont speak english sorry if I dont good tell and good speling. i think today you are god and spoke whit me. i be cristian a few days ago and i borne again and I starte a new life. today i walking in forest and speke white god white jisuse that i saw 1 paiper in the earth i thik god anserw me today you be god and show me this paper I dont know very well i want aske abovte but i know this is abovte god and anserw me. how are you are you jabez stupide please tell me tanks very much”
SOAB reflect on this communication and decide that there is wisdom in investing all possible clues, routes and actions with equal meaning, regardless of whether they are engaged in or not. Their newly found escape route brings them swiftly to other worlds, where the process of recognition, refusal and transformation is repeated. Jabez and Japheth bring you three wishes:
Recognition Refusal Transformation
Japheth wears a T-shirt beneath his robe, bearing the legend ‘RRT for Liberty’.
Jabez and Japheth join hands with the Friends of Amos Brearley and form a circle around the tree at the centre of Thee Temple of Ing. The circle moves to the left, gradually gathering speed. The dancers dance to the point of exhaustion.
After recovering from their exertions, the members of the circle gather detritus from within the precincts of the temple, the boundary of which is marked by eight stones placed at roughly equal intervals from and around the centre. This collection of twigs and leaves is heaped up in front of the cairn of three stones that rests against the bottom of the tree and set alight by Japheth. The Friends stand by the stones and Jabez sits on the seeing stone, which attracts the energy of the rituals performed at the temple and grants its occupier a deepening of the power of vision.
Jabez remains on the seat of vision as the full moon rises. A storm gathers and lightning flashes. The
power of the storm is granted to Jabez. The atmospheric turbulence, having been discharged, gives way to gentle rain. Jabez looks over a moon bright field of corn. Japheth traces a circular path through the cornfield, equipped with a spear and a sling.
Jabez and Japheth travel forwards in time without moving in space. They move through the land they travel to. Beneath the forest of the cairns, where Jabez was once frightened by contact with the Otherworld; above the shining lake, where the possibility of Japheth was conceived; between the lake of the goddess of beauty and the burial ground of her suitors, Jabez and Japheth drink the healing waters of the holy well. They deck the well with white wildflowers. They climb barefoot to the cairn on the mountain. They refuse the hopeful glance and the rattling can of the careerist priest. They scramble up the heap of stones and possess four counties at a glance. They build a festal fire in a hollow in the stones, bake the first bread, break it and bless it. They wrap the remnants of the loaf in rushes gathered at the lakeside. They build a mound of turf and rushes around an oak seedling, which has been carefully nurtured for the better part of a year, and top it off with pebbles, in imitation of the mountain. They wait by their earthwork for the double sunrise.
Jabez and Japheth long for dappled sunlight. They decamp to tree-shaded seats and look with disdain upon what prances before them. “God deliver us from sour faced fuckers,” says Jabez. “Some hope,” spits out Japheth in return. They cool their heels in the fast flowing river. They deck a plaster cast Mary with white roses. This Mary stands for the goddess of the earth. They place a corn wand in her hand. They wear black antlers and crown a goat king for three days in a forlorn invocation of Pan. One day for recognition, one day for refusal, and one day for transcendence. They remember the words of Silenus. They have witnessed the death of his master. They await the burial for what comes afterwards. In the time of waiting they take to fucking stones whilst thinking of Odin’s raven supported eye. They bring the riot to an end with a vicious flower fight. They fashion a wreath and place it over the flourishing oakling. They await the rising moon. They conclude that the harvest will be good but they won’t be around to gather it in. They will encourage the labourers with shouting. They will sing five more from the Lodge. They will collect bracelets from the hillside. They will dance themselves into exhaustion again.
Post Lughnasa
Jabez waxes like Obelix plucked from a vat of liquid LSD. He stumbles into a spectral cathedral, freaks out and takes refuge in a foundation ritual demonstrated before an audience of sanctimonious coin janglers, guttural groaners and admirers of would be priests.
Jabez transports himself to a place of revolving worlds and new suns. The performance of the Cross of Light six-part rite reinforces the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven within. It is an exercise born of yearning for strength and guidance. Beyond this, things grow geometric, which leads Jabez to remember the Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide. The lesson is that the long forgotten is always there, possessing independent existence and building histories beyond conscious awareness.
The Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide work with light to construct the geometry of SOAB. ‘My master taught me from a book of circles and straight lines’. This is the book that the children of Blake’s transformed earthly paradise were guided through, and it is a Blakean Dweller at the Threshold that the geometry leads to. The Dweller at the Threshold introduces Jabez to his Holy Guardian Angel. The angel is an angel of light and an angel of victory, predicted and celebrated by the Runic Y, contained within the text of fiery acid born hieroglyphs that brightened the inward sky 25 years ago, spun through space and time by the revolution of the gyres. The angel equips Jabez with a letter from a sacred alphabet, somewhat resembling a T, as proof of his presence in this Otherworld. The sacred T was prefigured by the trance born image granted to Jabez in Sidlesham, before Jabez was Jabez, before Japheth was born and instructed by the sinister, ghost charming old
man.
Jabez conceives of photographing the collection of artefacts he has brought into existence from other worlds and producing an exhibition of obscurities made clear:
Exhibit one. A photograph of Jabez the Stupid and Japheth the Last Laugh adopting the stance of the Runic Y in the Lodge. The Runic Y signifies victory and the Lodge represents triumph.
Exhibit two. This painting represents a reality from another world, with meaning fit for this one.
Exhibit three. John Bakewell. All of the people of Bakewell resemble this representation of their Father…
The exhibition is staged in a bush near Thee Temple of Ing. Nobody comes. The work remains unsold.
During the post Lughnasa lull, Japheth travels to Chichester with a photograph of the T and a figurine of the Y and stations himself at the Market Cross. The Old Man appears three hours later and Japheth makes his offering. The teacher looks no different despite the passing of 21 years. Once again, Japheth travels to the Old Man’s home.
Japheth phones in an order for a Chinese takeaway from the Old Man’s library and a witch, or a senile old woman, or the residual spirit of Dion Fortune born of Violet Firth intercepts the call. Japheth abandons the quest for food in a state of wonder and confusion. The Old Man leads Japheth from the library into the temple. A feast will follow, when they go beyond hearing.
The Old Man begins his instruction. “I am not my body. I have no body. My body is not mine…” The sound of bells and flutes appears from behind the sacrificial altar, marking the three phrases of the chant, which the Old Man repeats until its meaning disappears and is reconfigured. Japheth thinks that the phenomenon of voice hearing is a desperate or heroic attempt to escape from the idiocies of the consensus voices that hound us throughout everyday reality (the banter of the builders; the neighbours shouting about gravel in the garden; the buzzing of a trapped fly; the sound of traffic travelling nowhere).
Japheth reflects that the fittings of the Old Man’s home may be somewhat sinister but at least it's quiet here, save for the chanting and the flutes and the bells. Japheth joins in with the song: “I am not my body – I have no body – my body is not mine…” Japheth and the Old Man go beyond hearing.
Jabez and Japheth Meditate in the Realm of the Mound of Krekja
The Sons of Amos Brearley salute the Sun and the Moon. Jabez proclaims the Oath of a Master of the Temple: “I will interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my soul.” Jabez and Japheth meditate by the hollow tree. Japheth sits in the God posture, inhaling, holding his breath, matching inhalation and holding with a long drawn out exhalation. He keeps this up for an hour. Jabez does the same thing.
The Sons of Amos Brearley travel at the speed of the earth to keep pace with the setting sun, in order to avoid being fixed as dead men in dead places. Jabez constrains his mind to concentrate on a black oval. Japheth focuses on a blue disc. Jabez unites with a silver crescent. Japheth switches to a yellow square. Jabez and Japheth join in the inward evocation of a red triangle. They proceed to the recognised combinations.
Jabez sees familiar figures, bright discs formed of moving light. He perceives the dark matter of the universe at the heart of the cross of light formed by the vertical and horizontal rays that join the discs together. He questions himself about the location of the kingdom of heaven within. He considers the significance of the figures. Their meaning is not immediately apparent. They could represent a fantasy imbued with meaning. They could be characters from a sacred alphabet, or from the ‘fiery hieroglyphic script’ seen just before Japheth was found. They are reminders of the knowledge arising from the rituals that bore them.
Jabez sees a grid formed of shimmering colours arranged in columns. The columns are white, black and sky blue. Japheth adds a yellow column beside the blue and places a silhouette of a tree on top of the grid. The tree is a representation of Yggdrasill. The Runic Y of SOAB is a representation of the World Tree. Jabez and Japheth are sacrificed on the tree. They are pierced by the Spear of Odin. The earth shakes and their souls tremble. The nature of being changes after death. Their bodies of flesh become spiritual matter. They see a light in darkness. The fading twilight concentrates on indefinite form and causes it to shine, with inward light become globes of silver and gold circling on the periphery of vision to right and left as the bright figure goes. The Sons of Amos Brearley descend to the underworld and bring back the Runic Y.
A self-proclaimed farmer comes lurking around the Mound of Krekja, claiming to own the land. By the Sun and the Moon, by the Aesir and the Vanir, he is a lowly man. Jabez and Japheth withdraw from meditation and depart from the place that has been profaned by the farmer’s arrival.
The Way of Jabez and Japheth in Malkuth
The Sons of Amos Brearley realise that they are in danger of developing a theory of activity rather than engaging in action.
Jabez observes the honey coloured stone, the protecting angel, the circle surrounded crosses done in iron work, the mysterious bearded benefactor done in plaster by the entrance to the church, which bears the legend BE AWARE GLASS DOOR. Jabez sits in sunlight towards the back of St. Marie’s. Rows of well-worn benches lead to the altar, upon which stands a representation of the Eternal Sun in Splendour, flanked by lights that never fade, even when they are extinguished. Behind the altar stand two unlit candles housed in tall brass fittings, waiting to bring in the light that will be given to darkness at the end of the world. Behind the rows of benches, in front of the altar, above them both, Christ reigns crucified, mourned by two sorrowful women, surrounded by signs suggestive of his unspeakable glory, having overcome the world. Jabez understands this and more as he kneels to pray through Cross of Light for guidance. The body and blood of Christ are seals of the Cross. Jabez lights a candle before the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, adorns his forehead, heart, breast, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and throat with holy water, likens the holy water to anointing oil, and leaves.
Japheth heads for the Devonshire Cat. It is not the surly overgrown teenagers or the mid-afternoon social drinkers that draw him; it is not the trite display of shiny things behind the bar or the suffering light that calls. It is the quality of the beer, the provision of a smoking place, and a racing and inconstant heart that brings Japheth to the pub. Japheth sits in the wind and looks upon the Devonshire Business Park, at the junction of Eldon Street and Wellington Street. He eyes the passers-by with weary disdain: Japanese students, Eastern Europeans, sneering middle-class women with their dreary consorts, failed and failing artists. He ponders the fate of the early 19th century workshops a short distance away, at the junction of Trafalgar Street and Wellington Street. He remembers ominous gaps between buildings and the earth movers of destruction and concludes that it will not be long before the weathered brickwork falls by way of commerce. Japheth looks upon a
gang of Thai initiates and a teenage Take That tribute band. He conceives a plan to elevate the common places of Sheffield to the level of places rich in meaning. What is the point of describing incidental views and perceptions in the vicinity of an early 21st century English pub? He associates the question with Duchamp’s urinal and remembers why he is so disgusted by artists. Japanese students are pleasant enough and Eastern Europeans contribute to industry but artists are grant loving wasters with over inflated egos and offer little that is worthy of attention. Jabez would say that art is a holy sacred calling and Japheth would say that the world proves him wrong. It’s strange to think that Japheth will achieve the liberation of the awareness of timelessness through the dogged pursuit of these banalities.
The residuals, the left over: prayer clasped hands join in multiple Ing; the rings of the right hand signify Sun and Moon; clothes are see through; times are changing. Window frames are being rubbed. The changing times have delivered. Jabez hears this, and Japheth hears it too, whispered into his ear by a disappointed changeling, whose only consolation is that it will come to pass.
Jabez slowly ascends the functional flights of stairs in the Quaker Meeting House on St. James Street. He notes the large painting of trees by Philip Hutchinson, Post-Humanoid Disciple, tortured and tangled branches done in rich and vivid acrylics. The Boston Fen Hopper, sockless Hutchinson, was barred from the Quakers by virtue of his surliness. He travelled to Bowcroft Cemetery, the 17th century Quaker burial ground on the wild edge of Satan Town, and thrust a hollow fox tail on a hawthorn branch, which he erected in a gap in the stone wall surrounding. He took a chisel to the tombstone, which now reads: HE SUFFERED MUCH FOR BEARING HIS TESTIMONY AGAINST THE PAYMENT OF TYTHES but which used to feature inverted Ns. Jabez enters a first floor meeting room, which once witnessed the fall of a workman from the heights above it. The inhabitants of the room demonstrated passing shock and concern. The worker’s employers did all they could to limit their liability. The office block from which the workman fell closed for the minimum amount of time demanded by law. Office employees were pleased to get some unexpected time off work. The story faded from the local news. Jabez descends and enters the main hall. He remembers a time when the earth shook and his soul trembled in this place, but the experience did not result in the retrieval of Runes.
Japheth sees people as rats wearing crowns. He enters the Blue Moon Café, a short distance from the Quaker Meeting House, and recoils in horror, for the place resembles the epitome of a crowned rats’ nest, bristling with the self-importance of a swarm of counsellors and psychotherapists. Japheth sees the benefits of psychotherapy for its practitioners, in that it brings them money, supports the delusion that they are skilled and important healers, and elevates their self-esteem (not that they are lacking in self-esteem to begin with). Japheth sneers over his latte at these healers, who instruct their life partners to deliver high quality wine bottles in Waitrose Bags for Life to recycling points hidden here and there in shady arbours throughout the pleasant parts of the city. The accents of these degenerate clowns are enough to set one’s teeth on edge. It might be good to talk but talking to these deformed jokers certainly will not be.
Jabez and Japheth are reunited on the cathedral forecourt between St. James and Church Streets. They update the record of the Lodge and consider their next move.
Stoke
Jabez wonders which route he should take to Stoke-on-Trent. If he goes via Stockport, he will abide for a time in the shadow of Satanopolis and rehearse the journey to Wales. If he goes via Derby, his mind will stretch to London and be inexorably drawn to the haunted temple by The Star. There is little to choose between the journeys in terms of time, and Jabez has gone beyond time anyway. Jabez tosses a coin and it lands dolphin side up. He boards the train to Derby and engages in Cross
of Light. If you want an indication of the nature of his reverie, buy ‘Balm of Gilead’ from Rare and Racy, the UKAN website, or The Atlantis Bookshop; alternatively, apply directly to the publisher, FLA Press, by emailing [email protected] FIAT LUX AETERNAM. Jabez emerges from luxuriating in eternal light and staggers on to the platform at Derby.
The next train he boards approaches Uttoxeter. The early autumn dappled sunlight plays upon the racecourse. Japheth rises from the small grassy bank behind the far railings and salutes the distant observer with a sign of warning. There is a gathering of lost souls loitering in the corner of a car park, waiting for a bus to Blythe Bridge. The skyline of Longton passes slowly, done in dirty brickwork with flashes of ugly modern buildings to scar the nostalgia of the scene. Jabez sees Babylon in motion. He hears the gathering throng of Stoke fans off to the match. For guidance on accent, shun Arnold Bennett and refer instead to the columns of Owd Jabez in the Evening Sentinel, 1975 – 79. At Stoke station a hefty contingent of the Staffordshire constabulary lick down a violent Palace supporter. Jabez grows large through the recoil of shock and passes on without saying a word.
Jabez turns right on Station Road. He sees through the brickwork and dull remodelling of the Roebuck Tavern and looks upon himself drinking a pint of Pedigree after communion with a crow on the streets of Shelton in 1984. He learned a lot from that crow but he can’t remember what he learned. ‘I fear for Thought (Huginn) but I fear more for Memory (Muninn)’. Jabez passes under the railway bridge and negotiates the ill-conceived road system that made a decaying canal bordered wasteland of Stoke. He pauses to gather himself on a bench outside the Town Hall. For a time, it becomes a heavy rock night in 1978. Behold the long greasy hair, the leather jackets, the stench of patchouli oil, and the demented Mud dance done by these worshippers of Dionysus with barely a woman in their train. They shake their heads to a right racket and imagine they are Thor, god of thunder, dreaming of motorbikes with engines of great capacity. It was this tribe that chased Jabez down the road following a disagreement at a party.
Jabez crosses the road and enters St. Peter’s churchyard. He searches out the ancient altar. He vaults the railings surrounding the site and lies face down on the inscription stone. Jabez rises and turns towards the poor stump of the Saxon cross shaft, similarly enclosed, and adds feet to its height and completes its design in his highly attuned and sensitive imagination. Jabez turns from the spectral cross and turns his back on the stone stump. He sees a carving of two heads joined together at the temple. The heads are the heads of young children. The work represents the unnatural offspring of the union of industry and corruption, which also gave birth to the many towned city of Stoke-on- Trent.
Although he generally prefers to walk in circles, Jabez retraces his steps to the station before passing on to Hanley Park. A walk around the lake satisfies his desire for circular motion. Jabez admires the scales of a monstrous carp, which he spies near a path several yards from the water. He thinks of the Midgard Serpent. He comes to the scene of a former celebration, which saw Jabez and several companions devote the better part of an hour to the smoking of a nine skinner ably constructed by a quiffed up youth wearing torn jeans, a green and black tank top and an ancient leather jacket adorned with dirty TOPY skulls, which threatened to fall apart whenever it was taken off or pulled on. The celebrants have long since dispersed to continue their work in little known centres of power scattered about North Western Europe. Jabez sees a green chiffon scarf lying at the heart of the smoking ground. He ties it loosely around his neck and makes his way to the bandstand, which was built to the same model as the bandstand featured on the cover of ‘Horse Rotorvator’ by Coil.
Jabez leaves the park and casts his eye on the top floor of one of the large Victorian houses on the other side of the road, in which evil Pete Speed the camera thief fed unsuspecting guests on a diet of
dog food casserole and mushroom tea. It was this same Pete Speed who abandoned his wife and newborn child in the maternity hospital to follow the call of cheap nasty drugs, and it was Jabez out of compassion who made his way to meet mother and child and accompany them home. Stoke-on- Trent is characterised by argumentative acid freaks and lazy Bohemian opium smokers but even these self-obsessed bores gathered in unison to celebrate the toothless Speed being sent down.
Jabez enters the Smithfield and his eyes immediately turn left to touch upon the vanishing image of an earnest student of the mysteries reading Crowley’s ‘Magick in Theory and Practice’ without understanding many years ago. A group of three enters the room; their leader smiles at the reading matter and promises rapidly departing Jabez not Jabez that they will meet again. Jabez has returned to the pub on numerous occasions since he became Head of the Lodge but he has yet to re- encounter the Crowley loving joker. Jabez drinks a pint of Pedigree and remembers the old drugged reverie of listening to ‘Force the Hand of Chance’ by Psychic TV on the esoteric jukebox. The Crowley lover enters the Smithfield five minutes after Jabez leaves.
Jabez proceeds to the Albion. He crosses a wide road, which will one day contribute to the blight of Hanley as the previously mentioned road system has blighted Stoke. He notes the polished bottle oven, which passes itself off as a tourist attraction. A gang of teenage girls salutes Jabez from a side street opposite the police station. Either they’re admiring his good looks or taking the piss out of his beard. Jabez remembers that the shelves of the City Library were lightened by his activities before the advent of bar codes, in the days of Jabez not Jabez. Jabez buys a postcard for Japheth from the City Museum and Art Gallery. He writes out the postcard in the Albion:
Heil dir, Japheth!
I am sitting in the light filled lounge of the Albion. I offer advice on coping with life’s bitter disappointment to a forlorn old Irishman. A speed-hyped prostitute bearing an uncanny resemblance to the singer from Pink Grease offers the Irishman a bottle of stolen whisky for five pounds. He gives her ten and she pockets the note without any offer of change. I photograph two ancient picturesque sisters. I charm the customers as they come and go. A flow of Banks’s bitter elevates the brilliance of my show.
Cari saluti,
Jabez
Jabez turns left out of the revolving doors of the Albion. He walks downhill to the fortified island of Shelton Church. He sits on a high bench and reflects on the doings of the day. He attaches a memorial offering to the thorn tree by the church gate. He continues downhill. He turns left. He returns to Stoke station.
Autumn Equinox
Japheth travels the tree-lined streets of the suburbs of Stafford and discovers that the County Lunatic Asylum has been demolished and replaced by what consensus reality might call a luxury housing development. Japheth enters the heart of the new estate and through an effort of will transports himself by the power of correspondences to a mirror image development at Middlewood in Sheffield. He walks downhill, catches a tram to the university and walks up the long gently rising hill to the Lodge, where he mixes up a brew of the first mushrooms of the season for Jabez upon his return by more orthodox means of travel from Stoke.
Jabez and Japheth prepare for the equinox by attaining elevated states of consciousness. They burn
a CD to accompany the restoration of the temple:
• ‘I Don’t Think So’, Psychic TV • ‘Decay 2 (Nihil’s Maw)’, Sunn O))) • ‘The Sea Priestess’, Coil • ‘The Seven Seals are Revealed at the End of Time as Seven Bows…’, Current 93 • ‘Reynardine’, Cross of Light
The bus journey to Abbey Lane is deeply frustrating. Japheth in particular finds it difficult to control his anger at a race of people that has learned its manners and morals from a television set. A walk through the woods allows the frustration and anger to dissipate. The evil energy accumulated during the journey is swallowed beneath the earth.
The Sons of Amos Brearley come to the temple by an unfamiliar route, which Jabez learned in a dream. Japheth gathers green acorns to place beneath the circle of stones.
The rough pillar that should rest in the hollow at the base of the trunk has been cast down. Only three of the eight stones of the circle surrounding the tree remain in place. The rune inscribed on the plaque like surface left by the removal of a major branch has been overcome by moss. Leaf litter covers the area between the pillar and the circle of stones. Japheth lights a slow burning stick of incense and places it in a convenient crack in the tree trunk at about head height. Jabez and Japheth disrobe. The work of restoration begins.
Jabez takes a large step from the central pillar to determine the placement of the key stone. Japheth marks the place of the missing stones by pacing anti-clockwise. The soft earth yields to sticks gathered in the vicinity of the trunk. Jabez searches the stock of building stones a short distance from the temple and selects the rough blocks that were marked for the coming purpose in former times. Japheth strains beneath the labour of putting the fitting stones in their place.
Jabez redraws the Ing rune with a hardwood stylus found by the trunk. Japheth dresses the central pillar with oak leaves. Jabez places a green acorn beneath each stone. First Jabez and then Japheth take to the leaf shrouded viewing stone to admire the outcome of their work. They suffer greatly from midge bites. A late dragonfly brightens the air. The Temple of Ing in Ecclesall Woods is restored for the coming season.
Jabez and Japheth prepare for the pilgrimage to the satellite temple by attaining elevated states of consciousness. They leave the Lodge and turn left on South Road, tracing an inverted S against Strife and Necessity as they walk to the Mound of Krekja. The journey up Northfield Road encourages shallow breathing but the Sons of Amos Brearley concentrate on slow inflow, holding and exhalation. They pass through a parade of unremarkable shops. Jabez notes a large banner outside St. Thomas’s, welcoming students to Crookes. Japheth curses the birthplace of the abomination of NOS.
The Sons of Amos Brearley turn right at the Grindstone, where the black clad squares of NOS congregated at the height of their smug collective idiocy, and tackle the great hill of Lydgate Lane. They turn right at the Hallamshire and make their way past Crookes Social Club to view the three orange towers of deepest Satan Town. They shelter from the rain in the disused chapel in the cemetery, where they perform solemn Cross of Light before proceeding to the temple at the foot of Krekja’s mound.
Jabez selects fallen ash twigs from the slopes of the mound. Japheth clears the detritus of Lughnasa from the hollow of the tree and rearranges the three stones of the altar. Jabez places the twigs on the
newly raised construction. The Satellite Temple at the Mound of Krekja is restored for the coming season.
Jabez and Japheth endure the windy Bole Hills. They note the offering of roses tied to a twisted thorn tree. It is rumoured that the Head of the O.T.O. in Europe, claiming descent from Crowley through Gardner, lives on Longfield Road but the rumour is untrue, for there is no such organisation and Gardner’s claim of authority was false and based on a fake charter. Jabez and Japheth turn left on to Northfield Road and make their way back to the Lodge.
A Feast of Moving
Time passes and demands motion.
Jabez prepares a CV outlining the actions of SOAB to accompany an application for an Arts Council grant.
Japheth writes an article about SOAB called ‘Twenty years of modest underground success’ and sends it abroad for publication. The article is published in ‘Notes from Underground’.
Jabez amends the CV in the light of recent publication. Japheth amends the article. ‘Twenty-one years of modest success: a contribution to the Western Esoteric Tradition’ is published in ‘The White Rose’.
Jabez takes photographs of the semi-derelict Salvation Army Citadel on Cross Burgess Street. Japheth takes photographs of the Laycock works development approaching completion on Trippet Lane.
Jabez and Japheth attend the grand opening of a building but in reality, they are elsewhere, revolted by the self-congratulatory proclamations that would make a gem of architecture of a second rate functional space. From on high, Jabez and Japheth observe an old man fall to the ground through standing too long. The speaker pauses to think of a joke that will allow him to continue. The event concludes with a group of patronising oafs shaking their hips to the strangled sounds emanating from a band featuring musicians with learning disabilities, led by a middle-class woman and her over enthusiastic bearded companion. The author of ‘Balm of Gilead’ predicted this would happen more than five years ago (see ‘Free Art Free People’ in ‘Balm of Gilead’, available as mentioned above).
The Sons of Amos Brearley tend to refrain from engagement with people for fear of contamination. They look upon the inhabitants of the outside world as if they were clouds of vapour. A friend is a person one engages with for reasons of commerce. With the exception of the Lodge, the temples and other places invested with power, the spaces occupied by Jabez and Japheth are tenuous and exist on the edge of dissolution.
For the Sons of Amos Brearley, all roads lead away from Rome. Jabez traces an outward-tending spiral, starting from the altar of St. Marie’s Cathedral, passing through the courtyard of the Unitarian chapel, concluding at the Quaker Meeting House. The Society of Friends has conducted a committee meeting and banished the noisy painting of the Post-Humanoid Disciple from their house of silence.
Japheth walks the streets of the city with a plaited beard, wearing a white T-shirt with a geometric configuration of SOAB depicted in black letters. Default clothing for default times. He carries a bag containing three dead rabbits stuffed with magic mushrooms.
Japheth questions the significance of cultures that originate outside Northern Europe. Jabez remembers the conclusion of the Hridaya Sutra as one of the foundations of SOAB. Gone. Gone. Gone beyond. Gone altogether beyond… The words trace a journey, a series of initiations that has not ended.
Jabez and Japheth pass through the divided trunks of a double red hawthorn tree.
Japheth reads an interview with Horace Knapworth, the singer from Flamethrow Square Revellers, featured in issue X of ‘Notes from Underground’. “Literature is superior to music and painting. A monkey could quite easily paint a picture and produce an improvised tune but he couldn’t write a sentence…” The interview features lyrics from the pen of the mysterious Knapworth:
“Three beautiful women All smiling at me I’m a surly bastard I smile at one in three...”
The singer goes on to proclaim that people whose main concern is money are no better than shit eating dogs.
Japheth casts the magazine aside and goes inward to claim the inheritance arising from the knowledge that the Old Man is Japheth the Old, and Japheth is Japheth the Last Laugh.
The Sons of Amos Brearley go for a moonlit walk in deep countryside. The rainbow moon shines brightly and casts deep shadows. Jabez dresses a tree with moon bright dead wood. Japheth comes with a wand, a staff and bright antlers. And so, the feast of moving concludes with a celebration of the full moon in honour of the benefits of moon sight. Jabez and Japheth return to the Lodge.
Approaching Samhain: To the Temples of the Moon and the Sun through the Eyes of the ‘Goddess’
After calling at the world renowned Atlantis Bookshop to check on sales of ‘Balm of Gilead’, the Sons of Amos Brearley visit the British Museum and spend three days travelling through the eyes of what has been mistakenly identified as the head of a Romano-British goddess. One of the eyes of the ‘goddess’ is a crescent moon and the other is a black sun. Jabez and Japheth adopt the god eye and the far sight and the eyes become features in a landscape. Jabez and Japheth descend to enter the temples at the heart of these landscape features.
Jabez reaches the temple of the crescent moon through a downward tending tunnel made of stone. The tunnel leads to an enclosed triangular chamber. When a moon of sufficient brightness occurs during the course of the lunar journey, an image of the crescent is cast on the wall at the back of the chamber to illuminate what would otherwise be utter darkness. From this marvellous projection proceeds an emanation of white light, which fills the tunnel completely. The white light illuminates the goddess of the temple, who resides modestly in an alcove near the entrance, wearing a necklace of eight triangular garnets set in gold. She says: “We live through the mercy of the moon.”
Japheth reaches the temple of the black sun through exertion of will. He sees a black sun surrounded by a circle of light, as one might see the sun at full eclipse. The radiance of the ring of light serves to intensify the darkness that it borders. Japheth notes a series of shifting golden letters on the black disc, which can only be seen from certain angles. The black sun stands on an altar of obsidian. The obsidian altar reflects the goddess of the temple. The goddess of the black sun wears a
bracelet representing the endless knot and a breast jewel depicting a cross set in the Ing rune. She says: “We live through the mercy of the coldness of the sun.”
Some people say that the SOAB Runic Y is Algiz by virtue of the protruding head of the person that performs it. The rune Algiz is a symbol of Yggdrasil. It also represents the so-called goddess, whose form is depicted in a thousand stones that bear little obvious resemblance to each other beyond tracing the line between her closed legs and indicating the shape of her vulva. Japheth maintains that the head of the Runic Y is a phallic pillar, so SOAB still call it the Y.
Japheth buys a Byzantine ring from a high-class antiquarian in the vicinity of Museum Street, Landun as a gift for Jabez. Jabez places the ring on the third finger of his right hand as he sits beneath a plane tree on Russell Square and is possessed by the spirit of a Byzantine priest given to expounding the three in one. Japheth grows sick of the sound of Jabez, understands why the ring came so cheap, and launches an attack on John Dee’s mirror.
Jabez wonders if the age of faith can be reconciled with the age of will. The Aeon of Osiris does not suddenly cease, to be succeeded by the Aeon of Horus. The cycles of time bleed into each other and we are now in a time of major blending. The laughing child is born of sacrifice and the child shares something of the nature of its parent(s).
Jabez considers how one might discover one’s true will. Psychic TV outline a method on ‘Message from Thee Temple’ from ‘Force the Hand of Chance’. Jabez recognises Genesis P-Orridge as a promoter of the wisdom of the Law of Thelema. The discovery of one’s true will is not an achievement to be accomplished once and for all at some time in the future but rather an ongoing process.
Jabez remembers the powerful beauty of the opening of the funeral service for a former visitor to the Lodge: ‘It is written in the Book of the Law, Every man and every woman is a star…’ Jabez remembers the mass commissioned for the repose of the soul of the dearly departed. Jabez conceives of the ceremonies as a pillar of light approaching a dark opening (a form of movement towards Algiz).
Can the Law of Thelema be reconciled with the Lord’s Prayer? The Cross of Light version of the Lord’s Prayer as practised by SOAB identifies one’s true will with the will of the Father operating in the kingdom of heaven within. And Japheth considers Aleister Crowley to be the ultimate model of a Non-Conformist Protestant.
The Sons of Amos Brearley return to the Lodge, laden with books from Atlantis.
The Eagle, Buxton
Jabez is pleased to find a cheque from the Arts Council waiting for him upon his return from travelling through the eye. Japheth views the money as his by right. Jabez and Japheth prepare an artwork in short order.
‘Living Cultural Artefacts’ is a light installation based on Anglo-Saxon jewellery. Circles of coloured light are projected in the following configurations:
1. The construction of the cross. Blue to North, Yellow to South, Green to West, and Red to East. 2. The combined force of the elements. The colours are attributed to the four directions represented in a quartered circle. 3. A black circle replaces the multicoloured circle.
4. The black circle is surrounded by light.
The separate elements of the work are recombined but the law of sequence (1 – 4) applies and when the black circle surrounded by light is reached there is a pause.
Over the fog bound moors, through Baslow, beyond Bakewell; coming the other way, from Flash and Leek and Stoke; the Friends of Amos Brearley gather upstairs at the Eagle in Buxton to witness ‘Living Cultural Artefacts’ serve as the light show for a performance by SOAB.
The following review appears in the Buxton Advertiser:
In the spacious black painted function room of a large faded pub in North Derbyshire a gathering of some twenty souls has congregated to witness a performance by The Sons of Amos Brearley.
The merchandise table indicates one aspect of the cult of SOAB, with its gatefold double vinyl albums and special items in short runs, gold dust for the collectors’ market. SOAB T-shirts and hoodies are sold out long before the group takes to the stage. The cult of SOAB is more focused on musical performance and less dependent on the proliferation of supporting manifestos than the work of earlier cult like paramusical ensembles such as Throbbing Gristle and TOPY related early 1980s Psychic TV.
With solemn theatricality, a black robed and hooded figure appears on a makeshift stage and begins to read from the Compendium Heptarchiae Mysticae of the 17th century alchemist Dr. John Dee. The audience listens attentively to the reading for half an hour. The reader punctures the air of mystery surrounding the performance by declaring at the end of the reading: “You have just received proof that alchemy is nonsense. Nothing has happened. It offers nothing for the soul to feed on.”
Following an interval, the hooded figure returns with a companion dressed in similar attire. One of the Sons announces: “This performance is dedicated to the memory of Hans Arp. It’s called Big Nosed Idiot, Tireless Self-Promotion.” The band proceeds to test the ears of the audience with a raw extended burst of electric guitar, feedback and drone.
SOAB move like shadows through thick fog. They invoke a wholly convincing Otherworld conjured up and inhabited through performance. They wear beautiful robes, made with loving attention to detail. The show consists of snatches of tunes and songs; a series of ultra-heavy riffs and calls from beyond the grave forming a seamless whole.
One of the core elements of the SOAB sound resembles the heaviest guitar parts of Black Sabbath caught on the air, frozen, expanded, broadened and deepened. This in itself is excellent and pleasing to the ear but there is more to the music than this. A second guitar adds undertones and overtones. A customised Moog generates its own sounds and influences the merging and blending (filter beyond filter, layer upon layer) of point and counterpoint. Halfway through the set, a ghostly third figure materialises from nowhere through the use of smoke and mirrors to take up his banshee wail. This spirit of SOAB wears a dark brown robe, Thor’s Hammer emerging from beneath its stone like folds, a wounded Norse magician, the embodiment of True Black Metal. The theatre of SOAB can be likened to a jaggernaut surrounded by a wild procession. This is the sound of the music made by the young god’s train in Titian’s ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’. The spirit of SOAB raises his arm, salutes the crowd with his guitar, and is gone.
The music ends to wholehearted applause but the night is not over yet. The energised gathering leaves the pub, turns left on Market Square, travels downhill past the New Age café, passes through
the Pavilion Gardens by the most direct route, assailed by High Peak youth gangs, which boldly proclaim, “If we had a gun, we would shoot you.” Jabez dismisses them serenely. Japheth fixes them with an evil photographic eye for future retribution. SOAB and their followers walk through steep hilled Grin Low woods, enchanted by the sinister beauty of the English countryside, careful to avoid the lime kilns. They come to the Temple of Solomon, constructed on top of a Neolithic burial ground, both desecration and memorial stone, where photographs are taken and a ghetto (or wilderness) blaster disturbs the air with the sounds of Coil and Current Ninety-Three.
The next performance by SOAB will take place in the vicinity of Bakewell Parish Church. Look out for the flyers. Be prepared to come along.
Over the starlit mire, through Bakewell, beyond Baslow, the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley return to the Lodge. The memory of the magic of the Eagle, Buxton, sustains them on their journey.
To Olanziel, Samhain
Thus spake Japheth the Last Laugh:
The ill formed are not bound for glory.
The approval of Rotherham is mine. A stalwart ruffian Praises my beard on Wellgate And an old man calls me ‘Father’ In the shadow of the church.
To the haughty, the mindful And the brightly clothed, To the heathen and his girlfriend I say the same thing In different ways:
There is nothing more powerful Than magick. The runes are cast. The dice are run. They say: I will live longer than you will In an approximation Of an unspeakable heaven.
As it is said, So may it be done.
The Sons of Amos Brearley walk to Gardom’s Edge, near Baslow, in 2500 BC. The massive earthwork is reminiscent of the eye of the 'goddess'.
An aerial landscape: Two adjoining circles ten marks in each a small triple circle spiralled at top
a large triple circle with deep indentation…
Japheth falls to his knees and makes like a cow eating magic mushrooms in the Sportsman’s field. He sees a tree lit from within, a light in the dark forest. He sees the tallest tree in the county, a useless pine, notable for its height and its abundance of path coating needles. He sees the dark lands opposite; pheasants and rabbits sharing the same fields.
Behold the defeated! Making plans from schoolboy to middle aged man, never fulfilling them. Some degenerate fop decides to confuse the countryside with a drawing room and asks Japheth if he could refrain from smoking. Japheth performs a banishing gesture in the form of a graceful sweep of his arm and leaves in his own good time, reflecting that there is something in the manners of the bourgeois playground that makes his stomach churn.
Jabez doesn’t go in for the violence of banishing gestures and retribution fantasies. He subdues his enemies by virtue of his godliness. He once encountered a group of skinheads in an underpass in Newcastle-under-Lyme. They came on ultraviolent. Jabez told them he was a Man of God. They were baffled. They retreated. They left him alone.
This perfected man routine didn’t always work. Jabez’ father turned against him, believing it was an attitude or affectation learned from his mother. A sturdy Irish farmer thumped him. He was clouted by a thug for suggesting the thug resembled a pop star. For a time, he was no good in time and uncertain of the eternal.
“At root every man is a Spirit manifesting in earth conditions… and it is necessary to practise the recognition of the true being, the Spirit, without a body, for this will help one become aware not only of one’s own Presence but also of the Presence of one’s fellow men.”
Through reflecting on the paramount importance of being in the moment, SOAB recognise now as the ground of all meaningful action.
Through knowing that you can be somewhere in your body and somewhere else in your mind, SOAB refuse the authority of the body. They posit the reality of being on many levels.
SOAB recognise the faculties of the body (unmediated sight, for example) as faculties of spirit.
SOAB are reminded that light and motion destroy the materiality of bodies so they take up their cameras to photograph resonant images of light and darkness. Olanziel emerges from this exercise, from the border between darkness and light.
To the impatient, Olanziel appears as a two dimensional figure, blond haired, bearded, wearing a crown. The destiny of this Olanziel is to become an icon at best, or a prayer card of St. Jude. To the far sight, or the deep sight, Olanziel becomes a hooded figure, less distinct to the eye, more deeply comprehended by mind, manifest clearly in a higher realm, commonly known in a world of spirit.
The white robed, green coated figure with a staff is definitely north European. He is an elevated form of the Green Man, a Green King living in luxury in the forest, the guardian of the threshold of the Temple of Ing. He is known as Olanziel. He is one of the contacts of the Western Esoteric Tradition. It is Olanziel who spoke wisdom about Raven sight, so SOAB came to know that raven sight is founded on knowledge of the lands that the Raven flies over.
Foundation consciousness switches with certainty from body to mind in an instant. As the body is to
the mundane man, so the mind is to SOAB. It is a movement from ten to nine, from Malkuth to Yesod, from the earth to the moon. SOAB and Olanziel build a Samhain fire on the borders of Raven Sight.
Through Love of the Great Shining
A one-eyed transvestite junkie, demonstrating the qualities of Odin, Thor and Loki in one person, presents Jabez the Stupid with an opportunity to travel backwards in time. The half-blind shape shifting benefactor produces a previously unknown copy of ‘Through Love of the Great Shining’ dating from the days of TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS, which was previously thought to have been lost for more than 16 years as part of the seized Temple Press/TOPY archive.
The cover of the work depicts sunset over Glencar Lake, Co. Sligo, around St. Patrick’s Day 1991. Despite the limitations of reproduction, the photograph of the lake stands as an evocative physical manifestation of the actual Celtic twilight. Jabez remembers being lost on a mountain above the water, growing increasingly anxious in direct proportion to the deepening darkness. Our reckless adventurer had the good fortune to stumble upon the homestead of a kindly farmer, who instructed his wife to make Jabez a cup of tea and ordered his son to drive Jabez seven miles back into town.
And this was just one of the kind favours bestowed upon Jabez during his magic(k)al journey through Co. Sligo. And Jabez out of gratitude gave the world ‘Through Love of the Great Shining’ as a text to be chanted, and the chant was chanted as an emanation of Cross of Light as follows in 1991:
• The Temple Bar, Walworth Road, Summer Solstice • The Mansion House Tavern, Kennington Park Road, Autumn Equinox • The White Bear, Kennington Park Road, Winter Solstice
And so, a movement was set into motion and entrusted to the eternal.
Readers with an interest in art/music history are referred to the reviews in ZigZag, which was on its last legs at this time, and to the TOPY archive, which might appear again if released unscathed under the Freedom of Information Act or associated legislation.
So Jabez emerges from engagement with memory and applies himself to identifying extracts from the work to facilitate a speculative journey from Malkuth to Kether:
10. Pray for the salvation of the souls of the dead. 9. Skulls eat of the fruits of the earth. 8. There is little to come to and little to do. There is little to touch and sink into. 7. Beware the outward signs. Beware the tarnished mirror. 6. The dead are of one nation. 5. The light grows stronger in accordance with the mind’s yearning and attraction to its source. 4. All things sing the praises and perform the functions of their maker. 3. Wisdom lies in the part and the whole, in the clay of the vessel and in that which it contains. 2. Events of this world but not of this world. Food for the soul to feast on. 1. The eternal substance remains.
And so, the lesson of the day is confirmed as ‘the eternal substance remains’.
Winter Solstice
Two police officers are approaching the Primitive Methodist Church on horseback. Furtive youth gangs scatter. The common people are talking about laminate flooring and preparing for Christmas. Where can nourishment be found? The Sons of Amos Brearley meet in a brightening dark room as night gives way to morning. They have gathered to banish death and evil and to make a fitting space for the newborn sun. Jabez the Stupid, the Head of the Lodge, enters by the Eastern door, takes three paces into the room and raises his arms above his head, keeping his feet together. Japheth the Last Laugh, the favoured follower of Jabez, enters the Lodge by the Western door and replicates the Runic ‘Y’. There is a photograph of an oak tree in an alcove in the Lodge. There are several small trees in various stages of development scattered about the room. The delicate scent of the incense that burns continually in the sanctuary concentrates the senses of the Sons. The growing light of the sun casts the shadows of seedlings and saplings. Jabez and Japheth stand still until their eyes become accustomed to the light of the Lodge. They remain standing until they fully register the fragrance of the incense. They sit at opposite ends of a polished oak table, occupying the seats of honour that have been granted to them by the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley. They reflect upon the programme of activities that has engaged them during the year, which constitutes the year of SOAB.
The Sons of Amos Brearley celebrate twelve festivals during the turning of the wheel. The time of eight of these festivals is set. The nature of the celebrations was established when eternity manifested as time. They are well-established movements of mixing. They are gateways between worlds. The time of the remaining four festivals is not fixed. The ancient records of the Lodge do not predetermine the nature of three of these four festivals. The nature of the fourth is laid down and established as the crown and consummation of the twelve.
Jabez and Japheth are dressed in hooded black robes embroidered with white lettering: S, O, A and B, the diamond of SOAB. The white letters are marked with red dots, which represent the rising sun. Jabez declares that the year was a year of simplicity and default settings. Japheth expresses disdain for charlatans and thieves.
Jabez and Japheth rise from the table and cover their heads with their hoods, the better to focus attention on the memory of the festivals and celebrations that give the year significance. Jabez and Japheth speak in turn. First Jabez speaks and Japheth listens attentively, then Japheth speaks.
Jabez says:
Are you aware of the song that goes: Gone, gone, gone beyond, Gone altogether beyond? Then know that movement Disturbs reverie.
Japheth responds:
The Sons are sitting perfectly still And drifting into infinity Caw! Caw! Sing the crows All hail the Sons of Amos Brearley
Readers might speculate that the Sons of Amos Brearley have not left the room all year. Whatever the truth of their movements, Jabez and Japheth are certainly in the Lodge right now, closing the circle before carrying on.
Jabez will retire from the Lodge to develop a manifesto of Revolutionary Christianity based on deep reading of the Gospels. Japheth will search out the new address of the old Old Man and formulate a new way on. With a solemn sign that cannot be described, Jabez brings proceedings to a close.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
ON ‘TRANSFIGURATION OF SOAB’
A revised introduction to the second version of 'Transfiguration of SOAB', published in April 2010:
Work on the first version of ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ was completed in late 2008 and the text was published to mark the 6th anniversary of the establishment of Cross of Light Temple on 16 January 2009. ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ was conceived as a sequel to ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ (‘SOAB’), which appeared in January 2008.
‘SOAB’ is a work of occult literary fiction. On one level, it is a satirical treatment of magical organisations. The main characters in the book are Jabez the Stupid, the Head of the Lodge of SOAB, and Japheth the Last Laugh, his student and successor. ‘SOAB’ suggests that Japheth might rebel and refuse his destiny and it introduces the figure of the Old Man as an alternative influence on Japheth’s attempt to engage with arcane wisdom. The Old Man of ‘SOAB’ is based on Aleister Crowley.
‘SOAB’ concludes:
“Jabez will retire from the Lodge to develop a manifesto of Revolutionary Christianity based on deep reading of the Gospels. Japheth will search out the address of the Old Man and formulate a new way on. With a solemn sign that cannot be described, Jabez brings proceedings to a close.”
The main sources informing the development of ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ are the works of Crowley (especially his lectures on yoga, Book 4.1, Book 4.2, The Book of Lies and Magick in Theory and Practice), the King James Version of the Gospels and the music of Coil and Current 93. Cross of Light Temple Bulletins were produced throughout 2008 to inform readers of the progress of the work of the Temple in relation to these texts, amongst other things.
The original ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ begins with an announcement that Jabez and Japheth have parted. Although it is not explicitly stated, Japheth visits Crowley’s former addresses in London engaged in a project that could be a magickal rite or an act of performance art. Japheth goes on to deny the account of his birth related in ‘SOAB’ (where he appears fully grown in a field of magic mushrooms) and presents an alternative personal history, which is modelled on the biography of Crowley. Japheth imagines the influence he will exert after his death, which provides an opportunity to insert brief accounts of the O.T.O. and Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth into the narrative (although neither organisation is named).
After delivering a lecture on SOAB (basically a précis of 'The Sons of Amos Brearley'), Japheth attends a talk given by the Old Man (basically a commentary on Crowley’s lectures on yoga). At this point, doubts about the validity of the Old Man’s teachings begin to surface in Japheth’s mind;
nevertheless, he proceeds to build and equip a Temple along lines suggested by Crowley before submitting an article entitled ‘Towards a magickal appreciation of Coil’ to the barely fictitious Chaos Outernational magazine and a review of the works of Current 93 (‘The Aeon of Horus reverting to the Aeon of Osiris?’) to the journal of the barely fictitious Society of the Inward Light. The article on Coil presents their music as sonic ritual and the analysis of Current 93 highlights the recurring themes of Crowley and esoteric Christianity that can be found in the lyrics of David Tibet.
The articles on Coil and Current 93 are separated by ‘Magick: Systems of Madness’, which purports to be the lyric of a song by Horace Knapworth of the band Flamethrow Square Revellers and combines reports of images arising from meditation with a general critique of magick as defined by Crowley. Horace Knapworth is a minor character from ‘SOAB’. In this section of ‘Transfiguration’ he presents himself as a representative of TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS, which in reality was an organisation that flourished in the late 1980s/early 1990s and can be seen as a precursor of Cross of Light Temple.
Although brief memories of Jabez the Stupid have flashed through Japheth’s mind on a few occasions during the adventures outlined above, Jabez doesn’t really enter the story in earnest until the account of ‘Thee Goodly Dream of Japheth the Last Laugh’, which occurs about two thirds of the way through the narrative. Japheth attends a festival in the wilderness and falls asleep after drinking too much Special Brew. Figures arise in his dream and recount stories about Jabez the Stupid. The four tales differ in detail and emphasis but share the same central themes; this is because they are based on readings of the Gospels, albeit translated from the milieu of 1st century Palestine to 21st century Sheffield and environs (Israel becomes the land of Crookes and Walkley and Lower Walkley, unremarkable suburbs of the South Yorkshire city). One of the common themes of the four dream narratives is the conflict between Jabez and the children of NOS, who are based on the acolytes of the Nine O’ Clock Service, a Church of England sect which flourished in the 1980s and serves as a model of evil.
The penultimate chapter of ‘Transfiguration’ is modelled on the King James Version of Matthew. The actions of Jabez echo the actions of Jesus throughout, although ‘Transfiguration’ does not attribute the working of miracles to Jabez and refrains from likening its hero to the Son of God. Rather than being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jabez takes a six week camping holiday in the Peak District. Rather than delivering the Sermon on the Mount, Jabez outlines the core teachings of SOAB in the upstairs room of Rare and Racy, a second-hand bookshop and record emporium (and incidentally the best shop in Sheffield). Rather than being transfigured before his awestruck disciples, Jabez stands in the sun on a small hill above Redmires Reservoir. And rather than being crucified, Jabez is beaten up by a gang of the children of NOS at the Mound of Krekja on the outskirts of Crookes.
Thankfully Jabez survives his beating. The final section of ‘Transfiguration’ starts with a description of Japheth walking from St. Pancras to Bloomsbury and longing for the company of his erstwhile mentor. At the same time, but unknown to Japheth, Jabez can be found browsing the shelves of the Lemuria bookshop on Coptic Street, near the British Museum. Eventually, Japheth and Jabez return separately to Sheffield, where they are drawn to the site of the Lodge of SOAB in Walkley. Jabez and Japheth perform a ritual to seal their reunion and ‘Transfiguration’ ends with their resolution to establish Cross of Light Temple.
Although Cross of Light Temple sometimes chooses to produce occult literary fiction, the aim of the Temple extends beyond providing readers with entertaining diversions. Temple publications explore a range of core concepts, which might not be immediately apparent to the casual reader. For example, ‘Transfiguration’ is a response to Crowley’s assertion that: ‘The size of occult organisations is often in inverse proportion to the grandeur of their titles and the extravagance of
their claims…’; it is a condemnation of the Church of England as a house of Pharisees; an examination of the potential of the body to act as a tool for leaping over the mind to what lies beyond it; and an enquiry into the relationship between Malkuth, Yesod, Tiphereth and Kether.
Ultimately, the value of ‘Transfiguration’ does not reside in the published text but in the process that informed its development and the value of this process will continue to manifest in the activities of the Temple unfolding in Present Time.
The engagement with Coil and Current 93 described above contributed to the following reviews, which can be found on Julian Cope’s Head Heritage website:
Coil, ‘Astral Disaster’ – http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/2087/
Coil, ‘The Ape of Naples’ – http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/2095/
Current 93, ‘Island’ - http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/2086/
A Key to ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’
Text of slides from a multi-media presentation delivered by Cross of Light Temple, projected on to the window of the Atlantis Bookshop, Museum Street, London, commencing 11.23 p.m., 21 June 2010:
Transfiguration of SOAB
• ‘Fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian Work Upon Magic’ • The Sons of Amos Brearley part • To Jabez the Stupid ◦ The Gospels ◦ Current 93 • To Japheth the Last Laugh ◦ Coil ◦ The Old Man
The Old Man
• Modelled on Aleister Crowley • Japheth visits Crowley’s former addresses ◦ Is it a rite? ◦ Or an act of performance art?
Japheth denies his birth
• Japheth’s birth can be found in ‘SOAB’ ◦ Found in a field of magic mushrooms • The alternative life is modelled on Crowley • The ‘little book’ – The Book of the Law • Age of liberty and freedom – The Aeon of Horus • The sign of Harpocrates etc.
The model continues beyond death
• The O.T.O (or O.T.O.s) • Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth • After the original TOPY
Japheth lectures on SOAB
• A précis of the book ◦ ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’, F.L.A Press, 2008 • ‘Olanziel’ and ‘Seraphiel’ are inhabitants of Cross of Light Temple
Japheth responds to the Old Man’s lecture
• Mainly a comment on Crowley on magic and yoga
Japheth builds and equips a Temple
• Along lines suggested by Crowley • “Discipline! Discipline!…” – from Throbbing Gristle • The dark blue robe with gold stars is the robe of Seraphiel
Two chapters on Crowley
• Book 4.1 • Book 4.2 • The Book of Lies • Magick in Theory and Practice
Towards a magickal appreciation of Coil
• First encounter with Seraphiel, 1986 • Early encounters with Coil • A review of Coil at Ocean, Hackney, July 2004 • In memoriam Jhonn Balance • Review of works by the group
Coil continued
• The dark blue robe of Seraphiel (Coil Live One) • The works of Coil as works of magick • Astral journeys • A ceremonial invocation • Seraphiel in another form
Magick: Systems of Madness
• TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS • Late 1980s/early 1990s • Preceded Cross of Light Temple • Images arising from meditation • A critique of magick
C93: The Aeons of Horus and Osiris
• Definition of ‘deep listening’ • Review of works by Current 93 ◦ ‘Island’ as evidence of David Tibet’s journey into a Christ centred world view • Recurring themes and subjects • Crowley • Esoteric Christianity • Louis Wain
Japheth’s Goodly Dream
• Conflict between SOAB and NOS • The children of NOS are based on the Nine O’ Clock Service, which flourished in the late 1980s and serves as a model of evil • Esoteric readings of the King James Version of the Gospels
Of SOAB and NOS
• King James Version of Matthew • A reference to Cross of Light Temple
Foundation of Cross of Light Temple
• Japheth walks from St. Pancras to Bloomsbury • He returns to Sheffield • Japheth longs for Jabez • Jabez travels around London • An encounter in a famous bookshop • He returns to Sheffield
Foundation continued
• The former Sons of Amos Brearley perform a ritual • Japheth and Jabez are reunited • They work to establish Cross of Light Temple
Summary of sources
• Aleister Crowley • Coil • Current 93 • King James Gospels
Key themes
• Authentic religious/esoteric/occult experience • Performance of ritual • Explorations of Olanziel and Seraphiel • Cross of Light Temple
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
TRANSFIGURATION OF SOAB
Transfiguration of SOAB
The Friends of Amos Brearley fear that Japheth has gone astray. He has been seduced into error through wilful engagement with a false teacher. He has gone from the Lodge. He has denied his position as successor to Jabez the Stupid in favour of the Old Man.
Japheth views the Friends with disdain. He travels from Sheffield to London with a questionnaire, which he delivers to art galleries, tailors, wine merchants and private addresses. He travels in an outward spiral from Piccadilly, through Westminster and Chelsea, and on to the houses by the fields of Richmond.
He claims to be an agent of the F.L.A. He defines the work and character of the Old Man. He guarantees confidentiality and anonymity. He politely requests conformity with his plan.
1. Are you aware that the Old Man once lived where you live? 2. Do you have any knowledge of his work? 3. Have you experienced any strange phenomena at this address? 4. Are you a member of an esoteric or occult group or society? 5. Do you engage in religious practice? 6. Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness? 7. Is there anything else of relevance to the survey that you would like to add?
Japheth photographs the buildings he comes to before and after delivering the questionnaire. He notes the positions of the sun and the moon. He mocks the pretensions of gallery owners, property surveyors, bankers and dealers in wine. He eyes cloth for a three piece suit. He looks upon the serpentine river. He returns to the city of his birth and waits for the replies to roll in.
Japheth Denies His Birth
An account of Japheth the Last Laugh’s birth can be found in ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’, which was published by F.L.A. Press in 2008. Japheth was discovered fully grown at the centre of a circle of magic mushrooms in a field by The Sportsman pub at Lodge Moor, Sheffield in 1985.
Japheth denies the circumstances of his birth and conceives of an alternative life. He is born to wealth and privilege. He attends a prestigious university. He joins a magical order and passes swiftly through its degrees. He receives dictation from discarnate entities and produces a little book outlining their proclamations. He speaks of an age of liberty. He manufactures well-wrought slogans. He transforms the order and uses it as a vehicle for the propagation of his ideas. He finds favour. He travels the world, accompanied by a small coterie of acolytes. He dies in a state of perplexity. He inhabits other worlds.
Japheth leans forward and stretches out his arms. He places his left forefinger on his lip. He sings hymns in praise of the bringer of light. The light bringer travels swiftly towards him.
Japheth urges the people of the world to discover the way of life that is compatible with their desires and live it to the full. He suggests that the black magic of the earth is the white magic of the moon. It is rumoured that he once crucified and devoured a lizard, but this rumour is untrue.
Japheth enters angelic realms and prepares for his encounter with the demon of the Abyss. He withstands the demon and thinks himself heroic. He salutes the moon in a series of public performances and charges exorbitant fees of the 88 men and women who are spellbound into attendance.
Japheth becomes a committed sex fiend and avid consumer of bodily fluids, which he imbibes for their magical properties. He fucks himself into a state of exhaustion over a period of two months and writes up his findings in a series of books with extravagant titles. He says that the sun is the only true god and the penis represents the sun on earth. He salutes the sun four times daily. He restores his energy by retiring to a place of woods and water and remembers a series of past lives.
Japheth concludes that the gods are no greater than he is. He abandons his disciples in order to travel. He is revealed as a man of superior spiritual gifts in the vision of a mad Belgian plumber. The vision is not universally accepted as valid in his order. Japheth observes a time of fracture and division. Some members of the plumber’s guild deny Japheth’s authority. Others recognise his supremacy.
Japheth discovers a recipe for a perfume, ‘delicate and exquisite beyond measure’. He travels around Landun wearing this scent, which certain citizens compare to the stench of rotting meat.
God is not without but within. Japheth seeks to inhabit the divine essence existing at the core of human personality. He is convinced that this divine element or soul is the centre of himself and the place that he should act from.
Japheth tattoos his hands between thumb and forefinger with triangles of dots, representing fire, light and spirit. He venerates the god of silence. He reveres the goddess of justice and truth. He sees the age of the Mother succeeded by the age of the Father.
Japheth invokes a messenger through meditating on a rose. The messenger announces he is at one with Japheth in the centre of the sun. He comes from all that is, which abides beyond perception, but suffuses everything with light. Japheth calms himself down.
Japheth meditates on the image of a cross inside a circle, and looks from the abstract symbol to the reality of the sun. He wanders the wastelands. He possesses the ability to frighten strangers. He uses this skill to influence people’s perceptions of the world, thereby contributing to the transformation of the reality beyond appearances, which misguided psychologists might term the subconscious mind. Japheth knows that the subconscious mind is in the conscious mind, not the other way around.
Japheth stands in his robe and lifts up his arms to make a V-sign, which is known as the SOAB Runic Y. It is a sign of victory and destruction. Japheth destroys the world with fire and emerges from his dream.
It is a well-known fact that ‘the size of occult organisations is often in inverse proportion to the grandeur of their titles and the extravagance of their claims…’ Other people form Japhethian sects and squabble over their validity and inheritance. They claim to represent the true spirit of Japheth’s teachings. They resort to American courts to settle their differences. The sects that fail in court refuse to be bound by its ruling. They might have lost the copyrights to his work but they still guard Japheth’s ashes.
As well as the fools that claim direct succession from Japheth, a greater number of people propagate his ideas in the fields of music and art. Many of these musicians and artists were once colleagues in a cult, the members of which ‘dressed in uniforms, yet promoted individualism; and used ritual, but were interested in the chaos of violence’. Unsurprisingly, this cult could not bear the weight of ego it was subject to, and it imploded after claiming persecution by state authorities investigating allegations of ritual child abuse. Young people adopted its name after it fell, and they act in its name to this day, while the elders resort to claiming ownership of symbols from the collective unconscious and view the impostors with disdain.
Japheth Lectures on SOAB
Japheth walks to the lectern of the Main Hall of the Friends Meeting House on Euston Road, past a gathering of ugly yapping bourgeois monsters, stinking of piss, three parts the odour of sanctity mingling with four parts the fragrance of ESB from ‘the world famous Euston Flyer’, with great washings of Kolnisch Wasser all over.
“Ladies, gentlemen and discarnate entities, my name is Japheth the Last Laugh and I am here to outline the history of The Sons of Amos Brearley before Jabez the Stupid and Japheth the Last Laugh parted in January this year.”
He chants:
“Caw! Caw! Sing the crows Caw! Caw! Sing the crows merrily Caw! Caw! Sing the crows All hail the Sons of Amos Brearley!”
He pauses, clears his throat and continues:
“Jabez the Stupid and Japheth the Last Laugh plan their year in the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley on South Road, Walkley. They remember the birth of Japheth, who was allegedly found fully grown in a field of magic mushrooms.
Jabez and Japheth travel to Sussex, where Japheth meets his teacher, ‘The Old Man’.
Jabez remembers his involvement with Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Psychic TV. SOAB and TOPY share some common interests but there has been no contact between them since 1989.
Jabez and Japheth celebrate the first of the festivals of the cross quarter days. They travel to the moors above Bakewell and see a snake emerging from a hole.
At Spring Equinox, the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley meditate on the sun centred Anglo- Saxons. The Lodge attains the vision of the Black Sun. Jabez carries a bag containing three dead rabbits stuffed with magic mushrooms. We learn how Crookes received its name.
Jabez and Japheth celebrate a fire festival above Satan Town. They encounter the Boston Fen Hopper on his way from vandalising the tombstones at Bowcroft Cemetery. Japheth acquires a robe from the Turkmen Institute, near Victoria Station. The Sons of Amos Brearley consider the significance of the endless knot.
Jabez and Japheth travel to the underworld via Tam Lin’s portal. They restore the Temple of Ing for their Summer Solstice celebration. They restore the satellite temple by the Mound of Krekja. They decipher the symbols in the vicinity of St. Marie’s Cathedral before embarking on a period of study in the Lodge. Japheth produces a commentary on ‘The Book of the Law’. Jabez focuses on the books of David and Jonah and The Gospel According to Saint John.
Jabez and Japheth resort to a clearing in the forest where they perform a rite of recognition, refusal and transformation. The moon rises as they occupy seats of vision. They perform the Cross of Light six-part rite. They encounter the spirit of Dion Fortune. They contact the Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide. They stage a commercially unsuccessful art exhibition in the heart of Ecclesall Woods.
Jabez takes the oath of a Master of the Temple. He descends to the underworld beneath the Mound of Krekja and returns with a system of knowledge that states the Runic Y is a sign of SOAB. His reverie is disturbed by an uncouth farmer and his serf.
Jabez and Japheth observe the Eternal Sun in splendour over a pint of Jaipur IPA outside the Devonshire Cat. They are repulsed by a rat’s nest of psychotherapists.
Jabez travels to Stoke-on-Trent. He spies Japheth from the train at Blyth Bridge station. He encounters himself in the Roebuck Tavern. He photographs the union of industry and corruption in St. Peter’s churchyard, opposite Stoke Town Hall.
Japheth travels from the grounds of the Staffordshire County Lunatic Asylum to the grounds of Middlewood Hospital in Sheffield through the law of correspondences. He reveals the address of the ‘head of the O.T.O. in Europe’.
The Sons of Amos Brearley submit a funding application to the Arts Council. They publicise their activities in ‘Notes from Underground’. They sing the Heart Sutra alongside Horace Knapworth of Flamethrow Square Revellers.
Jabez and Japheth visit the Atlantis Bookshop to check on sales of ‘Balm of Gilead’. They travel through the eye of a goddess in the British Museum. They state that the Aeon of Osiris is not abruptly succeeded by the Aeon of Horus. They know that one age gradually becomes another.
The Arts Council application proves successful, enabling SOAB to stage a performance of ‘Living Cultural Artefacts’ at the Eagle in Buxton. After the show, SOAB and the audience struggle through Grin Low woods to climb the winding staircase of the Temple of Solomon and look out.
Jabez and Japheth attain the vision of Olanziel, who resembles St. Jude and embodies the characteristics of the Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide in one person. It has been said that whoever reads ‘Balm of Gilead’ is prepared for the blessing of Olanziel and whoever reads ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ receives Seraphiel’s blessing.
The Sons of Amos Brearley reveal what you call someone who demonstrates the qualities of Odin, Thor and Loki in one person. They visit Lough Gill in Co. Sligo and travel from Malkuth to Kether.
Jabez and Japheth are back in the Lodge at Winter Solstice. They celebrate the end of the year. It is rumoured that they have not moved at all. Jabez resolves to study the Gospels. Japheth vows to follow the teachings of the Old Man.”
Japheth pauses, clears his throat and chants:
“The Sons are sitting perfectly still And drifting into infinity. Caw! Caw! Sing the crows All hail the Sons of Amos Brearley!”
He draws proceedings to a close:
“Ladies, gentlemen and discarnate entities, I conclude by drawing your attention to ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’, which was published by F.L.A. Press in January 2008 and is available for less than the price of a pint from a range of ethical commercial outlets.”
Japheth responds to the Old Man’s Lecture
Japheth attends a lecture given by the Old Man in a community centre at the full moon after Imbolc. He focuses on what the Old Man says, rather than on what he thinks he represents:
“Ladies, Gentlemen and Discarnate Entities, I stand before you this evening, having crossed the Abyss and returned to found and rule orders in the lower realms…”
The Old Man outlines the principles of a system of esoteric knowledge for the benefit of people who long to be impressed. He makes the path clear. He says, ‘carry out your own research’. He offers tips and encourages people to attain the experience of truth.
He teaches that existence is full of sorrow and that man would do anything to escape death. Religion and philosophy respond to death with a promise of immortality but they don't deliver what they promise.
He teaches that one should doubt every statement made by religions or other supernatural belief systems and subject these statements to test by experiment. Faith should be refused in the absence of proof.
He asks if there is anything upon which all religions agree. He says there is no agreement to be found in dogma. There is no universal acceptance of a supreme and eternal being. Tales of miracles are common but the significance of these miracles remains obscure.
He points out that a number of men have influenced the lives of others through their teachings. They do not share common doctrine, ethics or a theory of the afterlife. Their stations in life differ greatly. They have one thing in common - a period of time in which they disappear from view. They experience something spiritual, which informs their lives completely after they return to the world, and urges them to teach for the benefit of mankind.
He says that these men recommend virtue, solitude, absence of excitement and moderation in diet, to create conditions favourable to prayer and meditation, which aim to focus the mind on a single act, state of being or thought. This singular focus is of great importance.
He teaches that calm self-control is preferable to restlessness. He suggests that solitude is preferable
to the company of others. He says that freeing the mind from external influences allows it to see the truth.
He states that we should devote ourselves to prayer and meditation at fixed times and track our progress. We should keep a scrupulous written record and be particularly concerned to note how often our mind breaks away from the object of attention. The purpose of the record is to discover conditions favourable to prayer and meditation.
He says that prayer and meditation will be accompanied by discomfort. We might be troubled by the events of the day, which indicates that the day should be made as uneventful as possible. We might be troubled by our emotions, which must be ruthlessly cut off as soon as we become aware of them, and as often as is necessary. Our single interest should be to quiet our minds, to allow conditions favourable for prayer and meditation.
Japheth shuffles in his seat. This all seems rather speculative.
The Old Man suggests that the practitioner might experience a contest between will and mind. This will give way to a state in which will and mind appear to be in harmony. We will go beyond the awareness of the person seeing and the thing seen, the person knowing and the thing known, to a position where consciousness of ego and non-ego, seer and seen, and knower and known is blotted out. We will achieve this through fixity of attention independent of will.
The practitioner will come to perceive intense light and intense sound and experience a feeling of overwhelming bliss. There is a tendency for people to explain these perceptions and feelings in accordance with their cultural conditioning. It is common to confuse this experience with the experience of heaven. The Old Man states that vision is not sufficient in itself. He digresses to disparage the followers of monotheistic religions.
He points out that the experience of intense bliss has many degrees. There is an abyss between the least of them and normal consciousness. He states that there is a secret source of energy that can be reached by following certain systems. Success is dependent on the capacity of the practitioner. The object of practice is to bring about an event in the brain that unites subject and object.
The Old Man stops talking.
Japheth sits up straight, adopting a firm and steady posture. His head, neck and spine are aligned. His knees are together, his hands are on his knees and his eyes are closed. He is neither rigid nor limp. He is alert. He endures cramp and fatigue. He maintains his position. He knows that changing it will not bring comfort. He realises that awareness of his body has always been present on the edge of consciousness, and that his body has always been a source of pain.
He explores the connection between breath and mind. He sees that the purpose of prayer and meditation is to still the mind and that breath control helps to overcome consciousness of the body. He breathes slowly and regularly. He recites a mantra to throw off intruding thoughts. He chants slowly and loudly. He increases chant speed and decreases volume. The mantra blurs and races in his brain. He focuses on the meaning of his mantra, which was given to him on the streets of Newcastle-under-Lyme a few years after his birth. It represents the universe in sound. It is rhythmical and musical. Breath control and mantra recitation leave Japheth calm and untroubled by intrusive thoughts and appetites.
This is Japheth’s Asana: The God.
And this is Japheth’s mantra: IAMANI IAMANI RANA BREINER RANA BREINER ARISATSA ARISATSA.
Japheth realises that the purpose of performing good works is to minimise the excitation of the mind. He takes no credit for what he does or refrains from doing. He lives for prayer and meditation.
He investigates and checks his thoughts on a daily basis with the aim of acquiring the power to prevent the uprising of intrusive thought.
His introspection enables him to gather the powers of his mind and focus them correctly. He finds that the object of attention is liable to shift and change. He records the number of times his mind wanders. He finds it difficult to concentrate. The exercise becomes tedious in the extreme. He experiences unpleasant physical sensations, reveries, daydreams and hallucinations.
He experiences trance. He characterises this as an unbroken flow of knowledge stemming from focusing on one subject. He believes that the tenets of religion are tarnished by extravagance and falsehood. He commits himself to making no statement that cannot be verified. He confines himself to relating the modest claim: “By doing certain things certain results will follow.” He does not attribute objective reality or philosophical validity to any of the results of his practice.
Japheth not Japheth is both present and absent as the Sun is seen by itself rather than by an observer. Thought, time and space are abolished. Japheth beholds the sublime Form, which is often called God. The experience convinces him of his authority. He proclaims his ideas without restraint. He acquires the power of invisibility. He is no longer attached to ego and the universe no longer exists.
He becomes aware that the universe perceived by the senses is a tiny part of the all. If this awareness is false, then so is everything else. Japheth realises that when the senses are stopped, the mind becomes calm and capable of beholding God.
He observes his actions as if they were performed by someone else. He meditates on parts of the body, objects of devotion and dreams. He goes beyond archetypes. He goes beyond form. He goes beyond abstraction. He reconciles contradictions. Each part of the universe becomes the whole. There are higher states than this.
He sees identity in diversity. He knows that the infinite is always present even if it is veiled by the mind.
The community centre caretaker arrives and switches off the lights.
Japheth leaves the building, feeling deeply refreshed.
Japheth Builds and Equips a Temple
“There are seven keys to the great gate, Being eight in one and one in eight…”
Japheth wears the robe he conjured through the window of the Turkmen Institute in Victoria. He wears a crown of gold. He carries a wand of hazel wood. He drinks from a cup of sorrow. He bears a sword for protection. He rings a bell. He records his actions in a book. He anoints himself with oil.
He remembers his training. He recalls the teachings of the Old Man. He marks out a circle. He raises an altar to house his wand, his cup and his sword. He places oil on the altar. He burns a lamp above it. He purifies his instruments and makes the place in which he works holy.
He builds a temple of stones. He figures the circle with reference to the length of his stride. He affirms his identity with the infinite. He does not depart from his purpose. He inscribes a cross within the circle. He uses the cross to conceive a triangle but the triangle is not marked out. From the cross and the triangle proceeds a diamond, the triangle emanating its mirror image through the power of suggestion. Japheth pauses from his work to check that everything is in order.
He paints the circle green. He inscribes it with gold letters and signs. He surrounds it with symbols. He burns a lamp above each sign. Darkness does not come near him. He looks upon the lamps and their harmoniously appointed spacing strikes him as perfection. This perception keeps hostile forces at bay. He crowns matter with Spirit. Spirit makes sense of it all.
His altar is built of stone. It is lit by a great lamp. It represents holy ground. He inscribes it with symbols given to him in a dream, which represent the planets and the stars. The altar is covered with gold.
Let the reader decide if this temple is constructed in the mind by a faculty of the imagination or if it exists in objective reality. What does it matter either way? Japheth is a skilled worker in both worlds.
Japheth grounds himself through meditation on the three in one. He gains mastery of his soul. He stills desire. He binds wandering thoughts. He focuses on pain and death. He wears a chain of iron and a disc of gold inlaid with a silver cross.
Japheth anoints his head with oil. Kether in Malkuth and Malkuth in Kether. Kether and Malkuth in Tiphereth joined. He recognises the central pillar as the three pillars in one and the middle way as the way. The perfume of the oil fills the temple. He builds a crystal container and seals it with a ruby.
Japheth's hazel wand was found in Cairns Forest above the Lake of Beauty after drinking water from the holy well in the shadow of the mountains. He makes an offering of nuts taken from the ground upon which the hazel branch was found. He lays the offering on the altar. He performs these actions in silence, save for the ringing of his bell.
His wand represents beginning and end. That beginning and end are one is plainly shown by the unity of the wand. His will is invested in the peeled hazel branch, which glows with a subtle flame and consumes the darkness through which it moves.
His flaming wand dances through the air, creating signs and figures. The wand traces a path from the Kingdom to the Crown. Malkuth to Yesod. Yesod to Tiphereth. Tiphereth to Kether. What is a resting point here or there? The moon reflects the light of the sun to bring the earth greater brightness. He achieves this knowledge through the wielding of his wand.
And what is the end that Japheth serves but the beginning of the construction of his wand? He twirls his stick of hazel as if it were a dainty baton. And the blurring baton becomes a circle of fire and he locates himself in its centre. He suspects he has exceeded the reach of his teacher. He pauses from the work to reflect on how far he has travelled.
He acts without being conscious of his actions. He surprises himself. He breaks his habits. He disturbs his pattern of sleep. He practises breath control. He is concerned with constancy. He attains mastery of techniques to increase the range of possibility. He remembers the words of a song:
“Discipline! Discipline! I want some discipline in here!”
He ascribes no value to his accomplishments. He pursues his destiny.
He recognises that his actions are determined by the forces that have acted upon him in eternity. He rests in rest and he rests in motion. He marries his will to his understanding. He desires the unattainable. He inches towards the achievement of something just beyond him, a gaping void and chasm of death. A very bad feeling.
He removes himself from abstract reverie and builds through knowledge and power. He builds in accordance with the oath of a Master of the Temple. He builds through the one-pointed movement of his wand.
He thinks of three in one. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Stillness, action, balance. He brings them into the world through understanding. He takes them out of the world. He knows what his actions signify. There are limits to what he tells.
He raises a triangle, which represents aspiration. He aspires to the heights and plumbs the depths. He harmonises the celestial and the abysmal in earth. Kether extends beyond Malkuth. Malkuth is raised beyond Kether. This is a sign to those who know and a mystery to those who don’t.
He cuts his arm. He mixes blood with oil. He anoints his instruments. Japheth is Malkuth. The power is Yesod. The lights of the temple are Tiphereth and Kether. He delights in the places he comes to. He is at one with the light. He rests in equilibrium. The calm of the man of accomplishment is superior to the enthusiasm of the beginner. He is no longer subject to the power of undifferentiated vision. He organises his system and continues with his work.
His cup contains truth. He raises it to his lips and drinks as deeply as he can. As the circle of the temple is an outer circle, so the circle of the cup is an inner circle. The inner and the outer are one.
Japheth surveys the contents of his mind. He sees the moon, the sun and fire. Light and heat course through his body. He can plot his whereabouts in transcendent reality by referring to his cup and his wand.
He builds and co-ordinates knowledge and understanding. He classifies, groups and makes connections. He collects the morning dew. He meditates on the hanged man, which gives rise to a vision of an upward pointing triangle surmounted by a cross. He perceives a sweet smelling perfume. He smiles and returns his cup to its place on the altar and he covers the cup with a veil.
He carries a sword of reason, born of will and understanding, forged of the blending of suggestion and counter suggestion. The sword is made of copper and steel. He protects his hand from the blade with a guard modelled on the crescent moon, which indicates the passage of the moon through the heavens. The sword represents the joining of the wand and the cup. It is shaped in the form of a cross. He uses it to keep his enemies at bay. The revolution of the point of the sword held in his outstretched hand defines the circumference of the protecting circle. He breathes deeply. He experiences the connection between breath and mind. He overcomes emotion by clarity of perception. He protects the core of his being from unwanted intrusion. A flaming wand, a cup of fire
and a fiery blade rush through the air. He cultivates indifference as a prelude to detachment, remaining motionless and silent as he casts unprofitable obsession aside.
He does not praise or blame. Emotion does not cloud his vision. He measures and he weighs. He is not attached to pleasure or pain. He studies art and literature. He surveys the core principles of philosophy, attributing relative value to the products of the masters of the art. He refrains from allegiance to predetermined values. He pays no attention to the fashions of the times. It is from facts confirmed by knowledge and understanding born of experience that Japheth builds his temple.
His temple extends from North to South, from East to West, from the Abyss above to the Abyss below. It is made of fire, water, air and earth. It contains all facts and falsehoods. He retains nothing in his memory that does not relate to his work. He holds fast that which remains.
He constructs a cross within a circle. He is silent and unmoving. He grows by what he feeds on. He is awake to the meaning of change. He builds in order to destroy. He destroys to build again.
Japheth’s lamp is the light of his soul. It burns above the altar. It feeds the lesser lamps and illuminates the temple. It burns steadily without end. It is a sign of what lies beyond change. It is the light of Japheth’s eyes. It is the Light of the World. It transforms the altar and the temple.
He wears a crown of gold adorned with precious stones, which represents the desire for the accomplishment of his work, the knowledge of the light beyond form, the many in the one and the one in all, the unity of threefold being and the dissolution of time. It is the crown of peace and silence.
He wears a white robe beneath a dark robe. He wears a dark blue cloak emblazoned with gold stars. He wears a disc of silver surrounded by gold beneath the inner robe. The light of the temple passes through his garments, which are open at neck and hem to allow the light to pass through. He experiences the light as the water of purification.
He writes an account of the building of the temple in his record. He strikes his bell, which is made of silver mixed with gold. He burns frankincense in a brass burner. He closes his eyes. He nods imperceptibly. He does not see darkness but light.
Towards a magickal appreciation of Coil
Japheth the Last Laugh submits the following article to Chaos Outernational:
One comes to an awareness of Seraphiel in many different ways. I had the good fortune to behold him in the form of a dove on a lane that leads to a farm in Sidlesham, West Sussex, in the summer of 1986. A few months later I came face to face with Seraphiel on the threshold of the house I was living in on Terminus Road in Chichester and shortly afterwards I saw an emanation of his Spirit shrouded in stone coloured robes on a platform at Chichester train station. This kind of experience leads to fundamental change in the way one approaches life.
In time I came to devise my own Seraphiel focused rituals. The fruits of the performance of these rites sustained me. This state of being could not last unchanged. Desperation distorted it. It was destiny that did it. I was overwhelmed by the common agonies of humanity and I became spiritually blind. In my blindness I called upon my Holy Guardian Angel and in my blindness, I could not see him.
I was in a bad way. I was looking to engage in a process of recovery. I wanted to go beyond the arid
desert. My memories of former times were returning. I could pretend that my mind was clearing. My blindness had left me weak, and in my weakness, I fell prey to a form of perverted orthodoxy. And this perverted orthodoxy made me cling to notions of good and evil that had been born in other minds.
One comes to an awareness of anything laden with preconceptions. I had done some reading. I was taking an interest in music. I heard Coil’s version of ‘A Cold Cell’ as featured on a free CD given away by ‘The Wire’. I wanted to hear more. I had been told that Coil were pagans. I knew pagans were painted fools. I approached them lightly. I held out little hope. I was more or less convinced that Coil would prove to be a joke aligned with comic book representations of evil.
‘The Angelic Conversations’ was the first full length Coil recording that I chanced upon. I can’t remember how it came into my possession. ‘The Angelic Conversations’ is not typical of either of the two major strands marked in Coil’s work. Although it demonstrates the deep, gentle sounds that can be found in many of Coil’s compositions, it combines these with readings from Shakespeare’s sonnets, which continually remind the listener that this is music to accompany a film. It’s true that I found the record unsettling but that’s more to do with my extreme fragility and hypersensitive suggestibility at the time I first heard it than it is to any qualities inherent in the sound.
Six months passed. My rehabilitation continued. Prolonged engagement with drink and drugs was beginning to bear fruit. My dislocated selves were merging. I was less concerned with my attachment to the earth. I was eating well and my strength was growing. Coil became something truly worthy of attention when ‘Coil Live Four’ became mine.
Coil embrace graceful extended circular codas and harsh exciting dissonance in equal measure to instantly transport the listener through fractured time space zones and offer opportunities to inhabit other worlds through sound. Jhonn Balance struggles with alien spirits for possession of his body. A black sun reigns above the scene of the struggle. It is a conflict unto death. It is a vortex of madness. Jhonn Balance invites animal spirits to occupy his body and he gives voice to them through yelps, howls, growls and groans.
Coil work with the gold of the sun and the silver of the moon. The matter and the struggle are plain:
The sun is coming The dragon flies His breath will drown This earth with astral fire...
These are the end days, full of violence and pain. There is little we can trust. ‘Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad’ becomes ‘Whistle and I’ll fuck you with a knife’ through a few related shifts and changes.
‘I Don’t Want To Be the One’ screams Jhonn Balance. He is an unwilling sacrifice embarking on a journey into a dark and overwhelming madness, a scapegoat, the personification of trauma, a soul beyond redemption. The song is a desperate refusal of what must come.
I was listening to ‘An Unearthly Red’ on my Walkman on the bus to Crookes on the way to place flowers in the hollow trunk of the tree by the Mound of Krekja and two unruly ten-year-old boys paused from riotous mischief to commend me on my choice of music. They asked me the name of the band. They laughed at my reply, assuming I meant the stuff that you put on a fire. ‘An Unearthly Red’ is 12 minutes of concentrated fury, an exorcism of rage. Electronic wolf howl introducing messages from God. 'Tear every page out and swallow the Bible’. This is not pop music in the
commonly accepted sense of the term.
Note that this recording was made with Samhain fast approaching.
I was inspired. ‘A year’ passed. My recovery was complete. I had the good fortune to see Coil perform live and I wrote about the experience in these terms:
Coil Ocean, Hackney Sunday 25 July 2004
Coil inhabit a different world because there is little in this world of cheapened substance to recommend it. The world of Coil proceeds from the common world of substance and transforms it. They promote cruciform fractals that play on the screen behind the performers like a welcoming of flowers.
Jhonn Balance has a fine beard and a fine moustache to go with it, although the moustache has been grown in error, seeing it must catch snot and food and all other manner of decaying matter if it is to remain. It is the beard of MacGregor Mathers. He moves about the stage with purpose, performing a ritual of welcome and a ritual of banishing. He stares so intensely that I suspect he is having us on but time confirms him in his sincerity. He wears green socks of silk from eastern lands. He wears bandages and rags that resemble a straitjacket. It is an arse revealer. It makes a headdress and a covering. It makes a shade and a revelation. It would be a handy garment to hang yourself with.
Beards will be all the rage in a year or two. In Western lands, in Europe, the fire is coming and the beards will stand against them. They will do for now as a rage and a sign. In years to come we shall see women with deliberately cultivated beards but they will come to their senses and shave them off right quickly.
Jhonn Balance has poor eyesight and wears a nappy against forgetfulness. He has a turn to the side from childhood. His beard would not get him into Mecca. What is the way and what is the sign? ‘There are footsteps between the tavern and the mosque’. There are no mountains to climb in London but dainty hills only.
I can report that a young woman serving behind the bar covered her ears against the noise with a look of pain on her face. I can report that a group of young people with TOPY markings on their arms swallowed PILLS to prepare for the performance. I can report that a speed freak with a Cockney accent and the look of a minor league football hooligan c. 1979 summed up the show as 'tasty'.
It is a long bus journey from Hackney to Euston. My eyes are blue suns, set above red mountains.
Jhonn Balance died a few months after this performance. I was moved to journey to the Temple of Ing in Ecclesall Woods and burn incense on the rocks to mark his passing. I haven’t seen him since he died, although I have dreamed about him twice.
I developed a method of deep listening, which I applied to the work of Coil in 2008. I practised this deep listening by the Mound of Krekja and in various astral temples.
I discovered that ‘Astral Disaster’ is a six-part rite of Samhain, consisting of the following parts:
1. Summoning
2. Beginning 3. Elevation 4. The Rite Proper 5. Doubt 6. Conclusion
Coil Live One
Coil are exponents of light and darkness. The light seems to cause the darkness to shine. Will we pass through this shining darkness, or will we be dissolved into that which we seek to pass through?
A figure in a dark blue robe rises from the depths to walk across a wasteland beneath a midnight blue sky. He is accompanied by a host of small bright creatures, which form a globe of light above his head. The globe divides and descends to encompass his body, a spiral form resembling double helix DNA. His pace is sure, stately and unerring. We wonder where he is going. He advises us to transcend the lies of the earth and to search for truth in the stars. The celestial space is located in our minds, or through and beyond our minds. This is the space we move through.
The blue robed wanderer dispenses with his garment to tend an underground furnace. He causes fire to rise. He constructs a revolving cube of light made of metal bars. He embarks on a journey to keep an appointment. The pace of the journey becomes a focus for meditation. The cube of light becomes a ball, a kind of shining darkness travelling slowly through inner space. His flesh is formed of earth and air. He looks towards the lights of the sky.
Coil Live Two
Coil are masters of the telling slogan, teaching or world view as song title – ‘the universe is a haunted house’; ‘constant shallowness leads to evil’. They dedicate their work to artists, magicians and madmen. They sing for those in prison. They urge us to rise from our bodies and contact higher beings. They show us angels riding winged chariots to confirm the validity of the way we travel.
The beginning of Coil’s fury can be found on ‘What Kind of Animal are You?’ They strip away masks to reveal the animal heart of man. They take on the form of this animal through the cultivation of ecstatic force. The inward animal is a manifestation of fire.
Blood from this creature rains in a dream of the far reaching mind. We dream of waking from dreamless sleep. The abysmal rises from the depths like a lumbering monster formed of the refuse of the world. We laugh at the dumb capers of this deranged and boastful beast. Our laughter leads to oblivion. We long for an easy death to shut out sight and hearing.
Death comes as a purifying and destructive force. We witness the dissolution of the sun and all things subject to it. We forsake the gold of the sun for the silver of the moon. We learn the language of another world. We abandon ourselves to madness, to weeping and despair.
Coil Live Three
We have gone out of the world and we fear that we might not return. Our journey takes us where we would not go but we cannot remain where we are. The sea is on fire. We forge a sword in it. We see shooting stars and hear heavy doors closing down a long corridor like the sound of rumbling thunder.
We walk by a river that runs through a forest. We are transported to the outskirts of a city. We see
figures that rise as day and night meet. We see figures that rise as the city becomes a wilderness. Ever watchful Pan observes the sleeping town from a cemetery on the edge of the settlement. Pan stares into the desert and the desert stares back at Pan.
What served us in the past need not necessarily serve us now. Oppression and obligation make prisons of the world and the mind. They are shackles and false guides. There is something worse than suffering and the consolation of warm blood. It is colder than the notion of misery. It is colder than our failed understanding of what it might be in itself.
Coil Live Four
We see a well-equipped army moving through desert sands to threaten the city that borders the desert. The light of this world is darkness. A sword of shadow falls upon it like a scythe. Man is a stain that will be washed from the world.
Body is more authentic than mind. The body is a tool of transcendence leaping over the mind to what lies beyond it.
The river of life spreads out through the flood plains. The river of life flows from the mouth of a god. We shiver in the coldness of the night. The moon shines on the silver river.
We are taught that we must die before we die. We need not have died had we been otherwise taught. We are stars destroyed by other stars delighting in destruction. We are a song of triumph denied.
We come to a place after death. We come to a place devoid of angels. We seek to occupy a protecting circle against malevolent spirits. We engage in a vigorous circular war dance to concentrate our power.
We are tired to the point of exhaustion. We deny sorrow and death. We flee from the presence of others. We shun the memory of the darkening skies and the sounding of the death knell. Our refusal becomes a desperate scream. We rise to speak with sincerity when the madness is over.
We mix earth with fire. We work ourselves into diverse states of fury. We mock self-righteousness. We rest calmly on the summit of an unholy mountain and see that fire has consumed the earth.
We travel from dark sea to dark sea across a wasteland. We limp beside a river of blood. Every step is an enormity. We sing a lament for ever departing life.
Moon’s Milk (in Four Phases) A Summoning of Seraphiel
The sun is coming The dragon flies His breath will drown This world in astral fire...
We come to the entrance of a cave. We join a torch lit procession of red robed figures descending. We come to a white globe hovering above a stone altar at the centre of the earth. We see a straight line and a circle. The circle starts to turn. These forms dissolve into a force that heads towards the globe. The globe becomes a light turning inwards upon itself. An out rushing light is delayed but will follow. This light will give birth to the red robed figures we joined in order to come here.
By means of our scrying mirrors, we follow the path that leads to the temple of relentless elevation. We check the instruments of the temple. We study and we recollect. We invoke the spirit of a martyr to serve as priest to the goddess of the temple. We see a beautiful creature surrounded by insects. The figure is pale and tall, graceful and sad. He wears a black robe. He constructs geometrical figures.
We travel through the figures and embark on a descent beneath the water of the river of souls. We see beings decked in clothes of purple and jewels that catch the diminishing light of the sun as we drift downwards in stately procession.
We emerge from the water and see the goddess embracing the priest in a bed of flowers by the side of the river. The stars and the moon begin to rise. In the far distant heavens we glimpse dark tunnels, which draw everything into their mouths. We hear the ponderous footfall of a savage green man. We follow the wanderer of the wastelands. We travel the path of Gimel and encounter Daath. We experience a form of crash landing and aftershock.
We bring the ceremony to a close by immersing ourselves in the circular motion of modulated bells and envisioning the objects suggested to us for meditation. This exercise cements the meaning of the experience in our minds:
Heaviness Blue sapphire six pointed star Deep ruby red inverted pyramid Red rose filling the skull Yellow cube in the lower pelvis Silver moon, crescent, below the navel Red ruby inverted pyramid White winged globe defines the forehead Between the eyes Black oval egg occupying the throat Red rose filling the skull
The list is repeated. The voice of the guide becomes the voice of one who has departed.
We stagger into the streets after the rigours of the trial brought on by the invocation. We carry black banners emblazoned with stars. These are banners of Seraphiel.
Magick: Systems of Madness
Japheth the Last Laugh receives a sound file by email from Horace Knapworth, formerly of Flamethrow Square Revellers, now presenting himself as the founder of TEMPLUM MAGNAE ET SPLENDIDAE LUCIS. A bell sounds. A chant is taken up: MA-JIK MA-JIK MA-JIK, repeated and looping. The chant fills the left side of his field of hearing. The right field is taken up by a series of proclamations, introduced and punctuated by whispered invocations. The lyric runs thus:
Systems of Madness
Whispered:
From purple to crimson to blue. The exploration of foundation elements. A meditation on the one that comes from the two, being the one that gives birth to the two.
Magick is a profound exploration of nature. a vision of the celestial city bathed in the light of dreams. the fulfilment of perfection. the quest to reveal the reality of spiritual being. the negation of contraries through willed change. spirit writing in flame on the air. blowing out an electric light. the end result of long training.
Magick takes place on the edge of possibility. The deeper the imperative, the deeper the magic is.
Whispered:
Shifting being in the woods beneath the light of the moon. Distant horse snort, swift rising of hoof and swipe of jaw.
Magick is the recognition, consolidation and development of the strength we were born with. the knowledge that connections exist, even if they cannot be seen. the association of vaguely connected ideas. the irrational, the unreal and the infinite known through finite reason in reality. expansion in search of consolidation through connection. the manipulation of subtle energy. clear perception. the recognition and willed manipulation of force. the bending of mind. the recognition that what is without is within.
Magick knows that the same substance can possess different properties and perform a variety of functions.
Whispered:
A stern frowning face surmounted by a crown of stars. Barefooted in black hood with the hood closed completely. The cross sealed heart. The star sealed forehead.
Magick is: the recognition of sufficiency. the recognition of what is. the recognition that every thought has its impact. the impulse towards self-realisation. the following of the right course.
Magick distinguishes the false from the real. Magick transcends hypocrisy.
Whispered:
Spirit is related to earth through water, air and fire. Spirit is a beginning as earth is the beginning of water, air and fire. This lesser spirit leads to a greater spirit, which becomes the foundation of a
sequence leading to a greater spirit still.
Magick is the right to self-assertion defined as duty. the search for and confirmation of who one is, what one is and why one is. the following of the course that has been discovered and the elimination of everything that does not serve the purpose of following this course. the discovery of the Sanctuaries of Initiation. the naked soul in the fullness of its beauty and majesty, which is discovered by transcending shame. the recognition that purpose lies in identity. the manipulation of previously hidden forces. the thorough exploration of different orders of being and the recognition of connections between them.
Whispered:
From the static cross to the moving cross, which strives successfully to gain momentum to provoke a resurrection.
Let us rest and say that magic is much more.
Horace K. For TEMP. MAG. ET SPLEND. LUCIS In the time of the making of a Cross
Japheth resolves to abandon the influence of the Old Man and return to Jabez the Stupid.
Current 93: The Aeon of Horus reverting to the Aeon of Osiris?
Japheth the Last Laugh submits the following article to the Journal of the Society of the Inmost Light:
In 2008 I laboured through deep listening to penetrate the mystery of the vision of David Tibet and Current 93. Deep listening is a method of engagement with sound that is concerned with arriving at an understanding of the spiritual concerns, intent and purpose of singers, composers and musicians. The method can be applied to work that is not overtly religious or magical; for example, deep listening to ‘Almost Independence Day’, which is apparently a song about watching fireworks over San Francisco Bay, reveals Van Morrison to be the personification of the spirit of Belfast, as William Blake is a personification of the spirit of London (even when he writes of Jerusalem as the Emanation of the Giant Albion).
On ‘Nature Unveiled’ ‘93’ CURRENT ‘93’presents itself as a religious or magical movement, which just happens to produce music. The album’s stated aim is to explore the theme of the imminent arrival of the Son of Perdition, or Antichrist, which will be followed by the Last Times. In truth, it resembles the leering chant of a soul in hell that has not quite realised what lies in store for it.
It is interesting to note the similarity between the alarm call at the end of ‘The Mystical Body of Christ in Chorazaim (The Great in the Small)’ from ‘Nature Unveiled’ and the alarm call preceding the arrival of the dread horsemen at the end of ‘Suddenly the Living are Dying’ from ‘Birth Canal Blues’, which was released more than 25 years later.
‘Dogs Blood Rising’ conceals and reveals at the same time. A daemonic presence speaks from the heights of the mountain of splendour, evoking an otherworldly chaos. Antichrist rises on the banks of the river of blood to the sounds of panting and rolling thunder.
The undated cover of ‘Imperium’ gives six song titles but the CD consists of nine songs. An extract from the Dhammapada is printed on the inside cover. It is an album about the vanity of life and the certainty of death and judgement. The record’s artwork features ‘93’ enclosed in a descending triangle; this symbol links the work to ‘Dogs Blood Rising’ and ‘Nature Unveiled’, which are also similarly undated.
‘Island’ treats of falling, failing light and encroaching shadow as figures of our immersion in vanity and the inevitability of death. People are fearful but they cannot escape their limited and useless concerns. They are blown hither and thither by unknowable external forces. They wander through mind born wastelands. They go beyond emptiness only to come to an empty eternity of rising and falling images, which speak of the emptiness they come from. This void is threatened by something beyond it. They pass through a vision of the light burning through the mist of the morning and come to the barren beyond. They remain on a bed in a locked room in a prison. Loss is certain. They forget who they are. They ask to be told. Every man and every woman might be a star but their light and hope will be ripped from them. Their light is a brief sunburst. Their hope is as ephemeral as smoke or vapour. The dragon will rise up against the empire. We are overshadowed by the death of the world. The dissolution of the universe will be succeeded by the birth of a new cosmos, but this will be a further mockery subject to the rule of beginning, duration and end.
‘Island’ is jointly credited to Current 93 and HOH. It seems safe to assume that the relationship between David Tibet and HOH first developed during their involvement with Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth and the first manifestation of Psychic TV in the early 1980s. The majority of the musicians that play on ‘Island’ are from Iceland. Joolie Wood, a regular contributor to Current 93 performances to this day, contributes violin to several tracks and Rose McDowall provides backing vocals on three songs. Tibet’s former guru/teacher The Venerable ‘Chimed Rig’dzin Lama, Rinpoche makes appearances on bells and drums. Tibet’s sleeve notes pay ‘Homage to the Lama’. Other members of the group hide their identity behind pseudonyms.
‘Island’ was recorded in Iceland between 1986 and 1991. This extended recording period is an indication that the album released on CD (Durtro 006 CD) is not one work but several. This seems obvious when listening to the recording, which can be divided into two or three sections.
The album proper consists of the first eight tracks.
‘Falling’ is a description of darkness brightened by starlight and lamplight. Tibet sings of an awareness of the growing silence that is beginning to envelop everything. The world is covered by wind. What will happen if the universe decides to stop? Shadows descend from the mountains. The clouds have blocked out the sun. Phrases are repeated for emphasis and undergo slight alteration. The people of this world will not escape the coming darkness because they cannot abandon the comfort or familiarity of their homes and ways of being.
‘The Dream of a Shadow of Smoke’ is a description of the vanity of life set to a softly repeated drum coda, resembling a kind of Nordic tabla, accompanied by an electronic wash and a stepped, rising bass sound. People wander the world in sorrow; death and the darkness of the grave are their destiny; but they remain intent on engagement with the beautiful phantoms of their youth. Tibet quotes Homer and Pindar on the vanity of human existence before concluding that ‘… St. James spake by a more excellent spirit, saying our life is but a vapour… made of smoke or the lighter parts of water’. People are disconnected from everything, including themselves. Life drifts by. The search
for meaning fails to yield meaning. People are hindered by sadness from moving. Tibet contemplates turning to God as a remedy or palliative for hopelessness. He invokes the power of the three and considers God’s three functions – Father, Son and Holy Ghost - or creator, sustainer and destroyer? If the presence of this threefold God could be confirmed, the seeker could cherish death as eternal rest. A form of Christianised magic is codified at the end of this song (“Three, three, three, / God’s three functions / So three I shall cross myself / Three, and hope to die...”).
‘Lament for my Suzanne’ is a hallucinogenic journey through the mind into another world. It is a rite, swathed in the smoke and heady fragrance of incense, performed against a soundtrack of encroaching doom and an all-pervading awareness of pain and loss. Suzanne can be seen as a representation of the Mother of God, or a priestess acting as guide and facilitator of the journey. She is an ancient figure, marked by suffering, and her suffering escapes into the world. Tibet’s voice lies deeply submerged in the mix, a physical device to suggest mystery or partial disembodiment and separation from the world. Tibet dreams vaguely of the wild roaming horses of destruction that will carry the Four Riders of the Apocalypse.
‘Fields of Rape (Sightless Return)’ is a form of dark nursery rhyme or folk song in ballad form about the horrors of the Father out reaping. The time of weeping will come and the Father will go out to gather his people and banish those who are not his from the land, which was once this Earth, which will stand where this Earth stood, but which will be utterly transformed.
‘Passing Heroes’ begins with a chant from the Heart Sutra, which struck me as the most immediately attractive of the Buddhist teachings I acquainted myself with on Wolstanton Marsh and elsewhere during my youth in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the violence capital of North Staffordshire. The Heart Sutra departs from the more common practices and tenets of Buddhism that constitute orthodoxy whilst claiming not to do so. The ultimate purpose of the chant on ‘Passing Heroes’ is to promote awareness of an endless end. The song also evokes a transcendent vision of the landscape of Iceland, with snow melting and snow falling from clouds that resemble the horses that will be seen at the end of time. We are full of emptiness, we are long lasting dewdrops, and ultimately as fleeting as the snowflake that melts in the air. We are free, and in our freedom, we are given to motion, suffering, pain and laughter. We delight in our freedom but ultimately it fails us. We feel joyful in the presence of a teacher but ultimately our teachers cannot provide the answers we look for. Tibet looks to the stars and to the water; he begins his search through the woods, which will ultimately lead him to St. Eustace. The foam on Noah’s water has dissolved; what followed Noah was but the rippling of the waters of the Flood and the whole course of human history stems from the disturbance of those waters. The swallow goes about its business, unaware of the eagle that hovers in wait for prey.
‘Anyway, People Die’ is the song of someone who has been on a journey for so long that he has forgotten who he is. He is given to formlessness and frequent shifts of identity. This relates to Tibet’s penchant for changing his name. The protagonist of the song is a personification of cursed mankind, or the element in man that is cursed. It is a song of growing desperation, the scream of a madman lost in the storm of life and longing for death. Distant bells sound and chants from a monastery can be heard through the storm. Trees bend against the wind. The bells and the chants and the wind produce strong magic. The singer beholds a vision which resembles the vision of St. Eustace. He witnesses the blinding of the hunter. He becomes the blind hunter and sees a row of Christs beyond his blinded eyes. He implores the envisioned Christ through remembrance of Christ’s words – who am I? Who do you say I am? It is a song from the beyond, beyond human and inhuman, beyond the hope of anything but Christ, and that hope is uncertain.
‘To Blackened Earth’ is set to the sound of insubstantial sleigh bells. Everything changes, and the change tends from better to worse. The world has fallen; man exists in a fallen state through the
operation of a lie. We are held firm by the gravitational pull of dust. We are made of stars but our light has been dimmed. The song ends with a breathing exercise promoting a state of calm; a deep breath through the nose as the dread journey reaches its conclusion.
‘Oh Merry-Go-Round’ observes the state of the people of the world from on high. Life is a merry- go-round, circular, forlorn, but thrilling; an entertainment and diversion. What has been encountered before will be encountered again. Life is circular and cyclical. Sadness will depart and sadness will return. There is a clear indication of movement from heathenism to Christianity – swastikas are replaced by a cross – and this movement brings its immediate reward – sickles are replaced by the sun; the time of reaping has not yet come and life still stands against it. This movement is echoed in the visionary sequence of the rise of a dragon; the fall of an empire; the flash of a thunderbolt; and the birth of a child. The song’s end speaks of it for a third time; an emblem of Christ glints on the breast of a girl, a form of the new earth in heaven; the apes (meaning the wilfully ignorant as well as the bestial) mock the girl. The universe dissolves in time with a rising and descending church organ.
The album should end here. The CD version continues with ‘Crowleymass Unveiled’, ‘Paperback Honey’ and ‘The Fall of Christopher Robin’. One could argue that these songs are throwaway treatments of ideas that could have been developed more seriously. One could argue that they are examples of a knowing and decadent form of light relief.
‘Crowleymass’ is proposed as a celebration in place of Christmas. The little children are full of awe as each receives a copy of the Book of the Law at Crowleymass time. Phrases from Crowley are littered throughout the lyric, a recording of Crowley can be heard on the track, and the work ends with an extended chant from the work of Crowley. Tibet mocks and renounces something he once revered.
On ‘Paperback Honey’, the singer plays the part of a lascivious lounge lizard leering his way through a cha cha dance to produce something that sounds like a song inserted into a Radio 4 comedy show from the early 1980s.
‘Christopher Robin’ represents a form of Faust entering into a contract with the Devil, who appears as the young lad recites his prayers. Unlike Goethe’s Faust, Christopher Robin does not achieve redemption; he suffers a terrible accident and finds himself adrift on a lake of fire for all eternity. The moral of the story is that children who pray will end up burning eternally.
The diversion of the three joke songs leads us to alternative versions of songs from the album proper. It could be argued that ‘Fields of Rape and Smoke’ is superior to ‘Fields of Rape’, the music of which it reprises. ‘Fields of Rape and Smoke’ is elevated by virtue of an Icelandic spoken word performance backed by a distant female choir. The bardic voice is wistful and yearning, grateful to recount moments of wonder that prove that life can be awe-inspiring. The song ends with a death groan, but the groan is a beginning and not an end. ‘Merry-Go-Round and Around’ consists of an instrumental version of ‘Merry-Go-Round’; a humming behind music box bells, mournful violin, sad electronic washes, a two note organ refrain becoming a two chord organ refrain to add depth to the CD’s close.
David Tibet's journey into a Christ centred world, as indicated on ‘Island’, has continued for the past 17 years. The Apocalypse has remained a central concern. His longing for salvation has grown more pronounced. The Vision of St. Eustace has superseded the vision of the Stag and the Hunter. Tibet devises prayers for the dead and commissions masses for the repose of the dearly departed. The journey of the Wanderer continues and the aim of that journey is redemption.
‘Earth Covers Earth’ demonstrates a profound awareness of the vanity of mundane hope and the futility of earthly action. The work weighs truth in the balance and finds that truth lacks meaning. David Tibet suggests that life is a form of borrowed light that will be swallowed up by the darkness of death. He does not rest here. The mercy bringer will hear the prayers of the wretched and grant that the soul, which was once a faithless child, will come to know itself as a form of Christ in man. Death is inevitable but death is the womb of new life. Love will survive beyond death.
‘Four Songs from Japan’ is a continuation and development of ‘Earth Covers Earth’. This collection is notable for the frank profession of faith on ‘The Blue Gates of Death (Before and Beyond Them)’:
“And I believe Christ is the son of God, And I believe Christ is his son.”
We can say with certainty that David Tibet has been a self-confessed Christian since at least 1989.
The main theme of ‘Thunder Perfect Mind’ is silence. Silence manifests, or fails to manifest, in many different forms. We are introduced to threatening silence; the troubled silence that ends in death; the silence at the end of time; silence alive with possibility; immaculate silence; and silence beyond comprehension. ‘Thunder Perfect Mind’ is a meditative journey from fear and death through bliss to an awareness of the void.
‘Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre’ is presented as a single work, although it is not a cohesive narrative. Despite the lack of structure, the record constitutes movement from consciousness that everything is dead to an awareness that ‘there is no death’. Secondary themes are outlined, revisited and summarised from song to song; these themes switch swiftly within and between tracks.
‘All the Pretty Little Horses’ is also presented as one long piece. One of its main concerns is to state that there are too many deaths in the world, and that we die many times before we die. The album also confirms that the journey from a feeling of loss towards a state of redemption is a recurring theme for David Tibet. Unfortunately for him, he never seems to arrive at the longed for destination.
The titles of the songs on ‘Soft Black Stars’ are not given on the CD packaging. It would be easy to get them but the lack of information must be intentional and therefore the attempt is not made.
The sleeve quotation from Kierkegaard clearly illustrates the overall tone of the record:
“Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when everyone has to throw off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think that you can slip away a little before midnight in order to avoid this?”
There are no vocal histrionics on the record, as there are on most Current 93 recordings – no screaming or howling; no taking on of other voices; but a calm and measured delivery. The songs on the album are joined by tone. The pieces are separated but they fade away to rise like kin.
The twelfth and final song is different from the eleven songs that precede it. A rumbling drone, like distant gongs, fades to give way to an echoing piano and dulcimer like hurdy-gurdy. The music becomes a form of living water. We penetrate the dark pool. We are under the sea that Christ walked upon. This image fades, and then rises again to sound like thunder. We become accustomed to our surroundings as we pass through them. A mournful distant lute theme resolves into bell chime. At last a melody is taken up in forthright fashion and the narrator enters. He rails against the vanities of life before concluding that man is summed up by his fondness for ‘dissecting the lights that their
brightness might be classified, emasculated and finally killed’. The song ends abruptly.
‘Sleep Has His House’ is a form of funerary rite. The service begins with a summoning bell, a renunciation of false gods, and a banishment of the god of this world. A horn sounds and summons angels. A vision of Christ appears to teach the form of a litany to guide and accompany a departing soul on its journey after death. The soul arrives at and rests in a place of peace.
The repeated versions of ‘Idumaea’ provide the fastening rings that the rope of the rest of the songs on ‘Black Ships Ate The Sky’ run through. The hymn is approached with heartfelt trembling, questing and yearning. Certain singers face the throne of judgement with dignified determination. Some adorn the simple lyric with considered ornamentation. Some adopt a suspect vulnerable whisper. Some resort to melodrama. Others are more concerned with their singing style than the meaning of the words.
The signs are not good. There are alarms and forewarnings. There is darkness and uncertainty. The sunset rules the sunrise. Blood is not life but death. Lazarus rises to be judged. The vision of paradise is a form of degenerative illness resulting in self-dissolution. We are born to uncertainty. We are born to die.
Some Recurring Themes and Subjects
Crowley’s ‘The Book of Lies’ consists of 93 chapters. One of the chapters is known as ‘The Dragonfly’ and there are references to dragonflies on ‘The Frolic’ by Current 93. Crowley writes of the turning wheels within the one wheel, which is an idea explored and paraphrased by Current 93 on more than one occasion. Greek Thelema and Agape (Will and Love) add to 93. AIWAZ (Greek: Aiwass) adds to 93. The word of the III Degree O.T.O. adds to 93. The consonants of LOGOS add to 93 and the Greek for 'words' also has that value. By this reckoning, the entity Current 93 is a warrior in the army of Will and of the Sun.
The artwork of ‘Nature Unveiled’ features a photograph of a youthful David Tibet beneath a shop sign reading ‘Crowley’ and liner notes attributed to (Christos-Ducasse) 777. ‘Crowleymass Unveiled’ humorously argues for the establishment of a festival to celebrate the Great Beast’s birthday.
The lyrics of David Tibet are peppered with not immediately obvious references to Aleister Crowley. On ‘At the Blue Gates of Death’ Tibet sings: “Love is the Law is written in notebooks”. He also refers to ‘Edward Alexander’ on ‘Calling for Vanished Faces II’. These references would be apparent to anyone with a basic knowledge of Crowley’s life and work but they would be baffling to people without it. They are a sign to those who know and a mystery to those who don’t.
There is a reference to ‘the mystery of the rosary / third secret of Fatima’ on track 7 of ‘Imperium’. There is a reference to God’s three functions on ‘The Dream of a Shadow of Smoke’ and three jewels are described on ‘Oh Merry-Go-Round’. Tibet speaks of a threefold God on ‘God Has Three Faces Wood has No Name’ and ‘Hitler as Kalki’. There is a reference to the cross between the horns of a stag on ‘Anyway, People Die’. Tibet encounters God or Christ in the wood on both ‘God has Three Faces Wood has No Name’ and ‘In the Heart of the Wood and What I Found There’. He plainly states the significance of the encounter on ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’ - in the heart of the wood there was understanding, which could not be found anywhere else. These encounters in the wood can be linked with references to the Vision of St. Eustace, which appear on ‘All the Stars are Dead Now’ and ‘Dormition and Dominion’. There is a mention of ‘the little shining man’ (Christ between the horns of the stag as seen by Eustace) on ‘At the Blue Gates of Death’.
Louis Wain makes several appearances in Tibet's lyrics. Direct quotations from Wain are included on ‘A Voice from Catland’ and ‘Let Us Go to the Rose’. Wain is also mentioned in ‘The Bloodbells Chime’. The primary manifestation of David Tibet’s interest in Louis Wain is probably ‘The Seven Seals Are Revealed at the End of Time as Seven Bows’ but this song falls outside the scope of this article.
And these are just some of the fruits of Deep Listening to Current 93 and David Tibet, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that all the books in the world could not contain them.
As the kingdom of heaven is within, the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley pray that David Tibet comes to rest in a State of Redemption. Amen.
Thee Goodly Dreams ov Japheth the Last Laugh
Japheth the Last Laugh spies the Boston Fen Hopper on the edge of the moors. He travels towards Fox House. He is plagued by the vicious dogs of farmers and protected by children of light. He travels towards Grindleford, where he meets the Friends of Amos Brearley. He sings the songs of SOAB and the fame of SOAB spreads. He prays and meditates in solitary places. He warns the people he encounters not to follow the path of the children of NOS. He is beleaguered by the folk of Grindleford, so he departs for Hathersage but things are just as bad there. He sets up camp in a tent above the church that houses Little John’s grave.
Japheth descends into town for another SOAB performance. The venue is packed. Not everyone who wants to see the show can get in. The children of NOS do not approve of his act.
Japheth takes a bus from Hathersage to Rudyard Lake to attend the festival of light on the water. He drinks cans of Carlsberg Special Brew in the company of the Friends. The children of NOS castigate him for acting so outrageously. Japheth and the Friends smile in reply. The children of NOS pride themselves on their laws and customs but their system is darkness to the children of light. Japheth the Last Laugh and the Friends of Amos Brearley were not born to submit but to command.
Japheth is overwhelmed by the goodness of the Special Brew. He lies down by the lake to take his rest. Horace Knapworth, Helgi Pedarsson, Rana Breiner and Frater Non Serviam join hands and form a protecting circle above his slumbering form.
Japheth dreams of Horace Knapworth and Horace Knapworth speaks:
“The story of Jabez the Stupid is composed in accordance with the will of the Founder of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, who speaks in its author. The essential spirit of the work is indicated in the chronicle of the founding of the Lodge, in which the Founder is distant and mysterious; the Lodge is the kingdom of the Founder; the stern upholders of invented tradition are the children of NOS; the servants are the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley; the head of the Lodge is Jabez; the stone that the builders rejected is Jabez; and the builders are the children of NOS.
One learns that which is born of the Founder is eternal. One learns that the kingdom of the Founder is the kingdom of Walkley and the kingdom of Walkley is within.
Jabez is the head of the Lodge because he is the successor of the Founder. The people of Crookes and Walkley think of Jabez as a prophet and conclude that prophecy only exists that Jabez might fulfil it. The suffering of Jabez is seen as the fulfilment of the law. The mystery of the coming of Jabez is contained in the knowledge that Jabez’ predecessor is the Founder, that Jabez is his own
father and son and that Jabez is self-generated. These three truths reign at once in equal measure. Jabez is within. When Chris Brain leaves you, you will receive the blessings of Jabez and the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley.
The voice sounds without and within. Jabez knows the end he will meet. He knows that he will be betrayed. He knows that Japheth the Last Laugh will deny him. He does not want to suffer but he is subject to the will of the Founder. He knows that he will be forsaken by the Founder at the Mound of Krekja. He knows that he will be restored. He knows that on the Last Day he will come again as the leader of a legion of Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley.
There is no death. There can be no dead to rise on the day of the Lodge’s dissolution because the dead have already risen.
Jabez and the Sons and Friends resort to liminal places; the seashore, where water meets earth, or the mountains, where earth meets air. The Sons and Friends were lost before Jabez called them. They abandoned their stations in life to follow Jabez because they saw the promise of something worthwhile in him. As they saw this, they were deemed worthy to receive the blessings of Jabez and the Founder.
The children of NOS claim authority through succession from Chris Brain. Jabez sends the Sons and Friends to the people of Crookes and Walkley and urges them to have nothing to do with the children of NOS. The luxury enjoyed by the children of NOS and the hierarchy they operate within represents the overriding concern of the organisation they belong to. The children of NOS delight in outward show and expounding grievous law.
Jabez teaches that mercy is preferable to sacrifice and that it is better to loosen than to bind. The main concern of the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley is to uphold the virtue of the Lodge. Jabez instructs the Sons and Friends to demonstrate mutual forgiveness, which possesses great power. Forgiveness is a practical demonstration of the power of the Lodge. The power of the Lodge enables great things to happen.”
Japheth dreams again. Helgi Pedarsson arises in place of Horace Knapworth and speaks:
“Everything will be revealed. To understand is to be converted. To be converted is to be forgiven. To be forgiven is to be blessed.
We are called to take an oath of allegiance to the doctrine of the Lodge. A world will come in which eternal life is granted. Our souls will be tested by fire. The fire will consume our unbelief and leave our faith as the foundation of what will prosper.
Jabez inspires fear and devotion. He is a ransom for many, not a ransom for all. The people of Crookes and Walkley hear him gladly, unlike the self-righteous hypocrites of the children of NOS.
Jabez appears in different forms. He is the personification of a state of prayer and fasting. His clothes, body, gestures and words possess healing power. He can expel unclean spirits from a distance. ‘To touch his garment is to be healed.’
Jabez is the fulfilment of the promises of the Lodge. He knows what will happen to him. He knows that he will suffer at the hands of the children of NOS. He knows that he will rise. He knows that he will come in glory, accompanied by the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley.
I know that the coming of Jabez foreshadows the end of the children of NOS. Although Jabez is the
fulfilment of the tradition of Chris Brain, this tradition is not sufficient to contain him. It is necessary that the blood of Jabez should overflow the vessel of the laws of NOS and the children of NOS.
The children of NOS proclaim that Jabez is a madman, although the agents of St. Thomas’s church know of his accomplishments and the children of NOS are aware of his wisdom. The children of NOS seek to destroy what they fear. Chris Brain delights in the things of NOS and disdains the things of the Sons of Amos Brearley.
Jabez refuses offerings of incense during the time of his trial at the hands of the children of NOS. Horace Knapworth indicates he received incense at his birth. As the hungry multitude was fed after three days in the wilderness, so Jabez is fed during the time of his unconsciousness.
If the generation of Jabez passes, then the transfigured Lodge will come. If Crookes and Walkley pass away, still the words of Jabez will remain.”
Japheth dreams for a third time. Rana Breiner rises as Helgi Pedarsson fades away. Rana Breiner speaks:
“The Founder of SOAB provides as the Founder of SOAB wills. Everything lives in the light of the Founder. We are all Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley through our descent from the Founder of the Lodge.
Jabez is the dresser of the vineyard. Jabez is the son of cloud. Jabez is an embodiment of the Founder of SOAB’s mercy, a light to the people of Crookes and Walkley and the glory of Lower Walkley. We are called to renounce our false self for our true self, which is Jabez. Jabez arises when the false self departs.
The children of NOS know that Jabez is the chosen one of the Founder. He can control and command the elements of nature. He has power over the dead. He is a teacher and a visitation from the Founder of the Lodge.
The Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley is a domain of eternal archetypes. It represents a state without beginning and end, accessible to anyone at any time. It can be seen by the eyes of the living. Those who seek the Lodge in present time are on their way to a new world and life everlasting in a transfigured Lodge.
The spirits of the Sons of Amos Brearley wear shining garments. They are messengers of the Founder. They go from him and remain in his presence at the same time. They are joyful. They strengthen Jabez in his agony.
The Friends of Amos Brearley know the mysteries of the Lodge. They possess the power to command the elements of nature. Some of the Friends were companions before the coming of Jabez. The traitor is not excluded from the promise of the transfigured Lodge or his place on one of the thrones of judgement of the people of Crookes and Walkley.
The enemies of Jabez are characterised by vanity, self-righteousness and madness. There is no virtue in them. They are aware of the power of Jabez but they are driven to deny it. Everything they do is tarnished by hypocrisy. They fade away. They are succeeded.
The Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley are children of light and the children of light are not of this world. Selah.”
Japheth is mightily refreshed in his sleep and dreams of Frater Non Serviam, who whispers in his ear:
“The Founder of SOAB raises and quickens the Sons of Amos Brearley. He does not judge, but commits judgement to Jabez. The Founder of SOAB witnesses the truth of Jabez and remains with him at all times.
Jabez endures forever, wholly Jabez and wholly the Founder. He is a function of the Founder but he is also complete in himself. He is unity of duality, a person and the life of the Lodge. Jabez inhabits everything in Crookes and Walkley although the people of Crookes and Walkley do not know it.
The Sons of Amos Brearley see the glory of Jabez as a unifying force, which existed before the foundation of the Lodge. He that fails to honour Jabez also refuses the Founder. Jabez has life in himself yet he seeks the will of the Founder that sent him. Jabez exists that the Founder might work through him. Jabez and the Founder are one.
Jabez is recognised as the head of the Lodge, as the leader of the Sons of Amos Brearley, as a teacher and as someone greater than a teacher. He is recognised as a leader of the people of Crookes and Walkley.
Jabez comes from above and is above all. He is out of time and out of Crookes and Walkley. The Lodge is not of Crookes or Walkley although Jabez is the light of these suburbs. The Lodge of Jabez is light.
Jabez comes to bear witness to truth and complete the work of the Lodge. He speaks the words of the Founder. Whoever believes his words has access to the Lodge and will not be refused entry. He is not bound by the traditions and customs of the children of NOS.
Jabez chooses the one who betrays him. He knows that he will be denied. He knows that he will suffer. He knows he will return to the Founder.
Jabez is the fruit of the vine. Jabez is the new wine. He has authority to issue commandments in the Lodge and his newest commandment is ‘love’. His teaching is open to all. He keeps nothing secret. He knows the people of Crookes and Walkley but he does not judge them.
Jabez is water mixed with earth as the first stage of an operation. The Sons of Amos Brearley trouble the water and invest it with the power of healing. The Sons of Amos Brearley witness truth and recognise Jabez by signs foretold.
Although the Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley are concerned with the observance of the law and custom of the Lodge and the Lodge is on South Road, Walkley, ultimately, they are not of Crookes or Walkley. The Sons of Amos Brearley know Jabez when he calls them by name and the Friends know him in like manner.
Chris Brain is a liar and the father of lies. There is no truth in him. He is a murderer from the beginning. He manifests as a rave style priest and the leader of the children of NOS.
The children of NOS know that Jabez is a teacher from the Founder but they refuse him because they are his enemies. They favour observance of the law and customs of Chris Brain over healing and doing well. They are steeped in error. They are the offspring of Chris Brain and they are driven by the lusts of their father. They do not know the One who sent Jabez and they cannot come to the
Founder. They condemn Jabez as a deceiver. The works of NOS are evil. The children of NOS are not enlightened by the Spirit of truth.
In the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley, we learn that life is the light of men, that light in darkness is life in death, and that light cannot be overcome by darkness because light is greater than darkness. The living water intoxicates. Life endures beyond death. The dead will hear the voice of the Founder and whoever hears it will live. Grace and truth succeed the children of NOS. Chris Brain has gone from the world.”
The Sons of Amos Brearley break their circle. Japheth wakes from his dream.
Of the Sons of Amos Brearley and the Children of NOS
Jabez the Stupid looks back and surveys 42 generations. He sees nothing before this, although it’s commonly held that something was there. He records the names of notable forebears. He constructs a time of captivity. He embodies hope in his person.
It is said that Japheth the Last Laugh was born fully grown in a field of magic mushrooms. The birth of Jabez is no less mysterious. Some say that he was born of spirit in a dream. He does not gainsay them but neither does he deny the substance of his flesh.
The birth of Jabez is attended by a gathering of star followers bearing useless gifts, which they believe possess great value. One comes dressed in black, wearing a hat and make-up – is he hairless beneath his shining hat? Jabez looks beyond folly with a blessing and takes the star followers for a sign.
The Friends of Amos Brearley keep a secret note predicting the appearance of the star followers at the birth of Jabez in the minutes of the Lodge, and religious systems have been built upon speculation regarding the content of this note, which Jabez as head of the Lodge is fully aware of.
Jabez crosses a river and comes to a place of peace enlivened by bird song. Like Suibhne before him, who is one of the 42, Jabez understands the language of birds, and subject to the common fate of those who understand them, the birds bring Jabez a blessing and a curse.
Jabez takes a six week camping holiday in the Peak District. A 14 year old girl boards the bus at Baslow, sits next to him and states: ‘You’re really fit’. A custard haired gay youth wearing glasses gives Jabez the glad eye in Bakewell. A wandering Mancunian offers Jabez acid in Buxton. Jabez struggles through Grin Low woods and ascends the Temple of Solomon. He feels a presence beside him, urging him to jump. Jabez conquers the urge and revels in the peace that descends.
The Friends of Amos Brearley stage a public lecture at Rare and Racy on Division Street in Sheffield, where Jabez reveals his core teachings. The event is advertised in the Sheffield Telegraph and The Star. Striking flyers are displayed in art galleries, bohemian cinemas and real ale pubs. People travel from as far away as Hull and Stoke to hear the wisdom of Jabez.
Jabez teaches ‘that which is born of the Lodge is eternal’. He allies himself with the persecuted and oppressed. He praises the merciful and the lovers of peace. He urges people to act as if they had a wellspring of love within them. He counsels against outward show in favour of inward intention. He hints at the power that can be generated by the performance of the rites of the Lodge. He is keen to impress the value of mutual forgiveness on his listeners.
Jabez sings a song of the glory of light and the happiness of the eye that is alive to receive it. Jabez
sings a song of the perils of darkness.
It is easy to differentiate between the good, which is profitable, and the evil, which profits not. It is easy to see that it is better to follow the good. The audience begins to shuffle in its seats and lets out a collective sigh.
Jabez packs up his laptop and multi-media projector. He retrieves the CD of accompanying mood music from behind the shop counter, thanks the shop owners for the free use of a room and leaves with ‘the Friend that Jabez loves.’ They pass through a riotous throng of Blades and Barnsley supporters, controlled by fierce dogs and surveyed by a helicopter. They turn their eyes upon the congregation of the children of NOS that has arrived to picket the lecture on the grounds of a misreading of the publicity for the event. The children of NOS make a bonfire of ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ on Devonshire Green and Jabez thanks them for their investment, which pays for the production of the copy of ‘Transfiguration of SOAB’ that you hold in your hands.
Jabez meets with the Friends in the Lodge. They resolve to focus their work on Sheffield, with particular emphasis on Crookes and Walkley. Their work is to transform the reality beyond the appearance of the city. If there is a need to travel outside Sheffield, then Jabez will go alone.
Manifestations of SOAB meet with the disapproval of the population of Sheffield. The post-NOS evangelists of Crookes and Netherthorpe are particularly keen to subject SOAB to scorn. They read of the spirit and they preach the spirit but they do not recognise it when and where it is seen.
Jabez stumbles by the wayside in the heat of the sun, lacerated by thorns. He eats berries from the bushes as he goes. He dreams of the Founder of the Lodge and the Sons of Amos Brearley besieged by the children of NOS. Jabez sees SOAB rising to save and transform the kingdom. The children of NOS fade before his eyes.
Certain Friends are dazzled by light and see Jabez as Jabez not Jabez. Jabez laments the absence of Japheth, the keeper of the keys of the Lodge, who recognises that the inward Lodge is built upon the knowledge that Jabez is born of spirit, that everyone is born of spirit, and that anyone who recognises the spirit born is a true Friend of Amos Brearley.
Jabez dresses in white and heads for the triple peaks above Redmires reservoir. The sun shines upon him. He casts a double shadow. The brightness dazzles the Friends who accompany him. They build a cairn beneath the watchful gaze of shaggy moor sheep.
Jabez attains a vision of SOAB perpetually beholding the source of the glory of the Founder of the Lodge. He conducts a rite of binding and loosing to invoke the spirit of forgiveness in South Road, Walkley. Compassion reigns and all debts are considered to have been paid. Certain Friends wonder if mercy should be extended outside the Lodge. ‘Of course it should’, proclaims Jabez.
Jabez visits a place between dry land and sea. He reflects on the marriage between soul and body, which forms being fit for this world. From being fit for this world, access to other worlds can be gained. He looks upon the children of NOS playing on the beach.
Jabez sees people working in a field. The Boston Fen Hopper picks a few potatoes in desultory fashion but he is not up to the job. He resents the poor wages and he does not function well in a crowd.
Jabez leads the Friends from the Lodge to the Freedom House pub on South Road, and their wisdom brings them a quiz prize, which they share with the locals without thought of favour.
The children of NOS mock Jabez on the streets of Crookes and Walkley but Jabez withstands their disdain. He questions the power of their leaders. The children of NOS are angered by the provocations of Jabez.
The children of NOS expound the law of Chris Brain, which is grievous to be borne. They love to be seen dressed in black and to be looked upon as teachers and leaders. They exalt themselves but they will be humbled.
The children of NOS are steeped in error. They are devoted to outward show. They are strangers to mercy. They appear righteous to the ignorant. They appeal to those who are happy to occupy a position in a hierarchy, believing that this is security against the hypocrisy and iniquity that marks them within.
Jabez leaves the Lodge with a company of Friends. He speaks of the end of the Lodge. Deceivers will come. Conflict and disease will overtake the Lodge. The Sons of Amos Brearley will fall into disrepute. The children of NOS will prosper in Crookes and Walkley but their glory will not last. A time of tribulation will follow. The sun will darken and the moon will shine no longer. The stars will fall from heaven. A sign will appear in the sky. Jabez will return.
Jabez sees a bright throne. The Sons of Amos Brearley and the children of NOS stand before it. From the throne comes a blessing and a curse as the Sons and the children of NOS are rewarded according to their works.
The children of NOS congregate in a former carpet warehouse to plan their attack on the head of the Lodge. Jabez burns incense and the fragrance passes through the chambers of the terraced houses of higher South Road.
Jabez teaches the Friends the form of a six-part rite, which concludes with a celebration of mystical communion. Jabez and the Friends head for the Bole Hills and the Friends feel uplifted by the fruits of their engagement with the rite.
Jabez parts from the Friends and makes his way to the moonlit grove by the satellite temple of the Mound of Krekja. The children of NOS come creeping over the hills in darkness. Jabez hears them coming. He does not want to take a beating but he is subject to the will of the times. The children of NOS give Jabez a right good kicking. The Friends of Amos Brearley hear the noise of the assault but they do nothing to help poor Jabez.
Jabez lies bleeding in the grove. Behind his bruised and battered eyes, he sees a gathering of clouds. Behind his torn and tattered ears, he hears the melodious song of a night bird. He hovers between consciousness and collapse.
The children of NOS return to their rat holes in Crookes and Walkley. They celebrate the harm they have done to Jabez and dedicate their actions to the glory of Chris Brain.
The Friend that Jabez loves phones for an ambulance. Paramedics go to the grove. Jabez lies motionless in reverie. He sees himself dressed in a red robe. This explains the mystery of the Guide. A red robe, a crown, standing triumphant on a skull, overcoming death.
The spirit of Jabez departs from his body for a time. It travels to the scattered gatherings of the children of NOS. The curtains of their meeting rooms flutter and tremble. The lights in their houses are darkened.
Jabez feels the burden of his being carried by sure footed paramedics. They place him in an ambulance. They shine a light in his eye.
Jabez lies in a bed in the Northern General hospital, dreaming morphine sulphate dreams. He perceives sunlight glinting on the edge of a stone. He sees himself dressed in white, which explains the mystery of the Secretary. The Secretary, the Gardener and the Guide are subject to the will of Jabez in the world of Jabez but they possess independent existence elsewhere.
Jabez remains in hospital for the better part of a week. Days of creation, judgement and rest. He discharges himself and returns to the Lodge to instruct the Friends in the higher application of the six-part rite.
The Sons and Friends of Amos Brearley leave the Lodge on South Road for the last time. Jabez knows that their mission has ended and that the children of NOS are confounded. He walks towards the train station with a smile.
Foundation of Cross of Light Temple
Japheth takes a walk. He observes the sturdy fasces clutching handmaidens bearing the load of pretension that is St. Pancras Parish Church. He regards the Vision of St. Eustace carved above a doorway on Tavistock Court, and a distorted Gandhi meditating in the centre of the little park at the heart of Tavistock Square. He admires the inward tending curved arch of London brick at the junction of Woburn Place and Coram Street. He drinks tea in the company of sneering Italians in sunglasses on Russell Square. He pops into the British Museum to look into John Dee’s mirror and ball. He exchanges a word or two with Gordon Virginia of Urban Scarecrow as he returns to the place he set off from. He regains St. Pancras Church and passes through red painted doors decorated by sun motifs. He sees an unfolding lily becoming the Rune Algiz. He takes a series of photographs from the alcove of the Euston Flyer and calls the resulting work ‘Places of Common Magic on Ordinary Days’.
Japheth travels north. He curses Anthroposophists colonising Stanton Moor and claiming ownership of Nine Ladies stone circle. He hears Helgi Pedarsson say: ‘Jabez the Stupid lives at the heart of the sun…’ He hears Horace Knapworth claim to have studied at the Pandit Pran Nath School of the Disembodied Voice.
Japheth becomes increasingly conscious of the brightness of the full moon. He reflects that exposure to the Old Man’s teachings results in feelings of terror. The wanderer of the wasteland is delighted to find a rose in the desert but the bloom admiring vagabond is alarmed by the worm in the rose.
Japheth heads for the Ball Inn, Crookes. Amongst self-confessed sociopath Ramptonites relating tales of grisly murders in the grimmest asylums and prisons of the land, amongst work stained steeplejacks and builders and the common adolescent thugs of the parish, Japheth consumes a pint and a half of bitter. On a bench in the smoking area at the back of the pub, he inscribes a triangle, opposing crescent moons and a cross before departing.
Japheth is assailed by designer dogs on the Bole Hills but he cracks their skulls with his cane and scowls at their owners. He walks in the Crookes Ash field, the place of the ghostly horses, past dandelions and stinging nettles, which have been spray painted blue. He rejoices in the psychedelic beauty of the common English hedgerow. He sees the evil eye of severity distorting the features of passers-by.
Japheth comes to the lair of a self-proclaimed occult bishop, the head of at least 28 lodges and orders, which are located in a terraced house in Crookes, with charters and flags mounted and flying in cellar, attic and kitchen. He offers mathematical abstractions in lieu of teachings. Japheth takes a volume from the library of this indoor Wiccan and reads from the works of the Old Man:
“Considerations of the Christian Trinity are of a nature suited only to Initiates of the IX Degree of O.T.O., as they enclose the final secret of all practical Magick…”
Japheth longs for the company of Jabez.
Jabez checks on sales of ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ at the Lemuria Bookshop on Coptic Street. He is friendly and polite. The proprietor of the shop is compelled to studied silence and deep focus on her laptop. Her screensaver might depict the world of faery in dainty twilit shades but the hard drive is dedicated to spreadsheets, timetables, profit and loss projections and three year business plans.
Jabez takes a turn around the downstairs exhibition, which consists of insipid works on rebirth and spiritual regeneration alongside Austin Osman Spare rip-offs diluted to the point of inanity.
He ascends slowly, bows to the queen of Lemuria, smiles, says thank you and leaves her chatting to an urban scarecrow about parents afflicted by dementia, traffic restrictions in Bloomsbury and the price of la haute magie.
“Your glorious palaces are hospitals set amid cemeteries.”
Jabez devises an art project called ‘Misguided Culture in Action’. He adds photographs of passers- by taken from a shaded alcove outside the ‘world famous’ Euston Flyer to rejected images of Egyptian and Assyrian artefacts housed in the British Museum and comes up with an everyday vision coherent enough to persuade the Arts Council to part with a grant.
Jabez travels north. He makes the sun cross and the moon cross and models in his mind the mother of clay. As he passes the altars at the heights of Fox Hagg, he thinks of the crucifixion according to Mark. He remembers drawing a five pointed star on the tarmac of a car park overlooking Hanley bus station, which looked exactly like Japheth the Last Laugh seen from above.
Jabez dresses in a loose fitting white robe with a baggy yellow waistcoat covering his chest. The waistcoat has buttons of mother of pearl. The robe has buttons of gold. He wears yellow silk leggings and soft white leather boots. He heads for the Ponderosa and enjoys some second rate Sheffield Roots Reggae.
Jabez observes the gates of heaven pulsing. At times they are wide open and let many people in. At times they seem closed to all. He engraves a sign on the glass door of St. Thomas’s, Crookes, which reads ‘This is a house of Pharisees’.
The one time Sons of Amos Brearley gather in the ruins of the Lodge to banish death and evil and make a fitting space for the new-born sun. They wear white hooded inner robes beneath black outer garments, decorated with gold and bearing the name of an angel. They work for the attainment of the vision of the blue triangle surrounded by gold, which is by interpretation the Sun, the spiritual Sun, and God, the maker of the Sun, and the person of Christ manifest in the Sun, and Man and Woman, as it were splinters of the Sun.
What is once joined is joined forever. Beneath the sign of two rain bedraggled magpies, Japheth and Jabez are reunited. Japheth sings of freedom and Jabez sings of the vanity of life, death and judgement.
Forgive the mental defectives for making a mess of the streets. Forgive the high booted dove necks for making a river of rain a river of blood. You enter the pub full of longing and find a place of darkness. Children are sent to the bar clutching grubby ten pound notes. Hopeless women flash the glad eye. Money belted vagabonds frantically flip lighters. Small bearded petty thieves hide beneath their hats. Straggle bearded rough necks bow their heads before the gold footed ruffian who rules here. Gold boots is joined by the dove neck that set this passage in motion. He crosses his legs in dainty fashion, something of a post-TOPY gesture. It is positively pseudo-Dickensian. There will be a struggle of succession. There will be strife and there will be blood.
Jabez and Japheth meet at the site of the Lodge of the Sons of Amos Brearley. They embrace and set to work on establishing Cross of Light Temple.
Jabez says: “The Cross of Light is a six-part rite. It begins and ends with the construction and remembrance of a cross of light. At its heart there lies a time and a space for meditation.”
Japheth says: “The fruits of engagement with Cross of Light, with particular emphasis on what is encountered in the meditative space, are described in ‘Balm of Gilead’, ‘The Sons of Amos Brearley’ and elsewhere.”
Jabez speaks in conclusion: “Cross of Light is also the name given to the practitioners of Cross of Light and to their works in the fields of religion, magic, music and art…”
Welcome to Cross of Light Temple.
τί γὰρ ὠφελήσει ἄνθρωπον ἐὰν κερδήσῃ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ
CROSS OF LIGHT TEMPLE
JABEZ LIVES! Belial Falls. COLT Rises. ARISATSA – RANA BREINER - IAMANI
ARISATSA...
Forgive the mental defectives for making a mess of the streets. Forgive the high booted dove necks for making a river of rain a river of blood. You enter the pub full of longing and find a place of darkness. Children are sent to the bar clutching grubby ten pound notes. Hopeless women flash the glad eye. Money belted vagabonds frantically flip lighters. Small bearded petty thieves hide beneath their hats. Straggle bearded hooligans bow their heads before the gold footed ruffian who rules here. Gold boots is joined by the dove neck that set this passage in motion. He crosses his legs in dainty fashion, something of a post-TOPY gesture. It is positively pseudo-Dickensian. There will be a struggle of succession. There will be strife and there will be blood.
ARISATSA...
Have you heard the one about the halfwit who took to calling himself Belial, meaning the builder of prisons, which imprison everything that is? He failed to differentiate between the shared world and the private world. He failed to grasp that the universe is a projected reality, beneath which there is something authentic that proceeds from the divine. He failed to grasp that the human mind consists of an ego that is born and dies and understands very little, but that beyond ego there lies the infinitude of absolute mind. He failed to understand that God lies beyond the human mind and its boastful conceits. He was firmly ensconced in the surface pseudo-realities. He had yet to learn that acting as a reflex machine is not the best deployment of human potential.
RANA BREINER...
Belial cannot penetrate and come to realisation. He cannot perform the work of a telling moment. He cannot change the nature of his perception. He cannot transform what he sees. He remains at the mercy of ranking news clowns and presidential computer programmes. He cannot approach the perspective of the programme controller who is elevated to a position of power and maintains control successfully. He suffers from shifting focus, he wanders in the dunes, he walks towards the cliffs and will kill himself in the end. He is a mannered rock and roll historian with a cheap feedback gimmick. He sets up his amp and plays endless meandering guitar lines like that thoroughly unattractive outsider who raised a rumpus in the middle of Chichester in 1986. He is a fan of the Madchester scene. (STONE ROSES? DESPICABLE MORONS! OASIS? MUGWUMPS!). He is a lover of cheap sonics, pointless and meaningless lyrics, vain self-assertion, conformist rock and roll rebels. He is a mystic Machman wrapped up in late 20th century British culture and imprisoned in an eternity of dread.
RANA BREINER...
Belial possesses the mentality of a journalist and spreads lies to maintain the perplexity of the people. He listens distractedly with a blocked right ear to pompous music and writes about a dark blue sea, tending to dark grey, with light rising on the horizon and a blue robed figure with a staff suspended above the sea. One of the principles underlying his world view is that money as a form of energy equates with spiritual advancement, or merit. He believes that the accumulation of wealth in current world conditions indicates a properly focused mind.
IAMANI...
Belial speaks highly of the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition at Birmingham City Art Galleries and Museum, although it is a poor spectacle, mere fragments of gold and garnet, the intricacies of pattern and conjectured symbol barely discernible, although those with superior far sight might note a recurring triangle pattern constructed of gold set garnet in a triangular border of gold. The virtues of Anglo-Saxon society as defined in literary texts do not prove that anyone ever possessed the qualities that they praised and Anglo-Saxon laws served the interests of those who made them. He passes 'The Magic Circle' by John Waterhouse without noticing it. He does not register the equal armed cross in a circle in the roof of the tomb of Theodoric the Great in Ravenna.
IAMANI...
Belial manifests as a pseudo-poetical monster who praises the virtues of loyalty, duty and honour and expresses admiration for comradeship, nobility and forthright warrior action. He perceives these qualities in Adolf Hitler's sacred mission and proclaims that National Socialist Germany embodied most of the ideals necessary to create a superhuman warrior society. He commits himself to the destruction of all existing governments as a prelude to the establishment of a National Socialist power structure in Britain, Europa, the World.
ARISATSA...
Belial pursues his fondness for violence through involvement with the National Front and British Movement and acts as a bodyguard for leaders in these groups. He is jailed for leading a skinhead gang in racially motivated attacks on Asian youths in Wakefield, imprisoned for further violent offences, non-payment of fines and receiving and handling stolen goods. He is recruited into Column 88, a clandestine paramilitary and Neo-Nazi group, before becoming involved in the foundation of a movement to promote National Socialism under the cover of nationalism. He observes that the leadership of all these organisations is poor, and that they are characterised by feuds, disloyalty and dishonour.
ARISATSA...
After witnessing an apparition and being deeply moved by the music of Bach, Belial lives as a kind of novice in a Catholic monastery for 18 months. He leaves the monastery to become a student nurse, and then a recluse with a fondness for translating Greek. For several years, he refrains from involvement in street politics, although he maintains links with senior figures in fascist groups and writes articles for far right publications.
RANA BREINER...
He returns to active involvement in National Socialism, becomes a supporter of Combat 18 and assumes leadership of the National Socialist Movement following the arrest for murder of Combat
18 leader Charlie Sargent.
RANA BREINER...
A growing interest in Islam results in Belial's eventual conversion and rejection of all forms of nationalism, including National Socialism. His practical engagement with Islam lasts for about ten years, before being superseded by his pursuit of the Numinous Way, which is founded on empathy for all life and a desire not to cause suffering. His devotion to the Numinous Way results in his renunciation of all forms of extremism and a resolution to live as a silent recluse.
ARISATSA...
It is interesting to note that this egomaniac changeling is renowned or infamous for his involvement in occult and Satanic groups. He claims that his supposed occult involvement was a cover for a honeytrap operation to attract or blackmail people who might be useful to the National Socialist cause through the promise of sexual favours in a ritualised occult setting. Due to the influence of the group's leader, the occult and hedonistic practices of the group came to dominate over the subversive political intent, leading him to conclude that National Socialism and occultism are fundamentally incompatible and opposed to each other. He explains that his alleged links with Satanism were invented by a reporter for a local newspaper, who persuaded him to be photographed with an occult artefact, and that his expulsion from one of the fascist groups he was involved with around this time (alongside several other alleged Satanists) was prompted by this journalist's article.
ARISATSA...
Belial lives? MI5 did not get him? As it is, so be it. We accept that he is alive. But how could he help me? How could he help you? How could he help someone else? What has he done? What has he withheld? Does he accept to free? Is he chained by what he does not accept? Does he preach resistance to enslave? Does he erect the barbed wire around the camp? He gives himself away. He's afraid. He reacts to the present as if he is stuck in the past. When he starts, he's unlikely to continue, and if he continues, he does not complete. He does not recognise that the way out is the way through. His force is invalid. His power and attributes have been diminished. And no one knows better than he does what condition he's in. He possesses the data, even if he doesn't apply it.
RANA BREINER...
We're not going to engage in disputes with the uninformed on what we know for sure. We merely state that he has an alien soul affixed to his body. His life is static. He has no mass, no motion, no wavelength, no location in space or time. His thought processes are limited and his perceptions are faulty.
RANA BREINER...
He has told what he has been told not to tell. He doesn't like his family. He has taken things that belong to other people and not returned them. He pretends to be sick and hurts himself to make other people sorry. He hides his deepest desires. He gets himself dirty on purpose. He doesn't tell people what he thinks they won't believe. He doesn't tell people what he thinks will make them angry. He refuses to obey those he should obey. He tells people lies to frighten them. He bullies children and distracts people from their work. He is cruel to animals and forgets to feed his pets. He breaks things that belong to other people. He deliberately spoils his clothing. He keeps secrets. There is something wrong with his body and he's ashamed of it. He distrusts his parents. He does not finish his work on time. He fails examinations. He causes his teachers trouble. He tries to make
his colleagues fall out with each other. He breaks, damages and steals other people's property. He often arrives late at work. He takes time off without good reason. He copies other people and cheats. He spoils things and makes people feel guilty. He does things that he should not do. He bears false witness. He tries to make people believe that people are cruel to him. He excuses the wrong he has done. He feels that his home is too good for him and he feels that his home is not good enough. He doesn't tell what he should tell. He does things that he shouldn't. He says that he has done things that he hasn't really done. He gangs up on others and makes fun of them for being different from everyone else. He mocks people because of the way they look. He is deliberately silent. He makes people work harder than they should and annoys them by what he says. He hurts people and makes them cry. He keeps them from their belongings. He finds things and does not return them to their owners. He tells stories about people behind their backs. He lies to escape blame. He fails to tell the truth. He is ashamed of his parents. He runs away when he should stay. He is secretive but fails to keep secrets. He thinks it is useless to talk. He's sloppy about his possessions. He cries deliberately. He's a coward who makes a big deal over being hurt a little. He tries to make people believe that he's better at things than he is. He makes a mess and does not clean it up. He breaks things but does not admit to breaking them. He lets people be punished for things he has done. He cries until he gets his way. He vows revenge and throws tantrums to upset other people. He withdraws his affections. He pretends he's more badly hurt than he is to stop people picking on him. He pretends to like people that he doesn't like to satisfy those in authority.
IAMANI...
He might as well be sitting on a chair on the moon, holding up a tree, claiming that all cats are black, or never to have drunk water, or saying that he is a table, or an ostrich, or an elephant. He lives and works under an assumed name. His true name is not known. His purpose is different from what he says it is. He is a thief, a shoplifter. He is a forger and blackmailer. He is a cheat and a smuggler. He is an illegal alien, a jailbird who tries to act normal. He is a drunk and a reckless driver. He is a hit and run merchant. He is a burglar and an embezzler. He is a violent cannibal, like Luis Suarez. He is a court martialled deserter, an agitator and mutineer. He is a pornographer and an arsonist. He is a drug addict and a drug dealer. He handles stolen goods and betrays state secrets. He is a rapist and he has been raped. He is an abortionist, an adulterer, a bigamist and a homosexual. He engages in incest. He is habitually unfaithful. He practises bestiality in public. He spies on people who are having sex. He is a sodomite and a murderer who justifies his crimes. He is a bomber and concealer of bodies, a kidnapper who deals in illicit diamonds. He is an informer who betrays people for money. He accuses innocent people of committing crimes and withholds information regarding the activities of criminals. He threatens people with firearms and injures reputations by deliberately spreading lies. He destroys things that belong to others. His mother and father are mad and he himself is insane. He is a spy and a looter who steals from the armed forces. He is a communist conspirator and a fraudulent newspaper reporter. He hides things. He molests people he has plied with alcohol, drugged and hypnotised. He steals women's underwear and ill- treats children. He is a prostitute who sexually coerces his servants. He is the father of many bastards and he runs a baby farm. He kills animals for pleasure and deliberately cripples people. He is a police informer who pretends to be disabled. He is afraid that he will be found out. He engages in false accounting and makes dishonest tax returns. He counterfeits money and alters official documents to obtain cash under false pretences.
IAMANI...
He is not known as Belial for nothing. He does not know who he is. He does not know his family. He does not know what he feels about sex. He does not know how he might help mankind. He seeks to control but he does not want to be controlled. He injures and wrongs the keepers of truth. He harbours unkind thoughts about the prophet and works against those who minister to him. He
insults the prophet's lieutenants, executives and staff. He is a traitor and a deviser of plans. He takes money to hatch plots. He does not deserve to be helped. He withholds information, fails to withstand scrutiny and acts in a way that is designed to injure others.
ARISATSA...
He is trying to get away from someone. He is fleeing from something. He tries to prove that he cannot be helped. He intends to kill off his body and go insane. He is addicted to medication. He coughs and distracts people during lectures. He criticises his teachers, verbally and in writing. He disagrees with stable data. He violates rules and regulations and misrepresents truth to unauthorised people with the intention of giving it a bad name. He discredits the prophet and those who minister to him and their values and methods of instruction. He is not to be trusted because of what he hides. He believes that there are people who understand the prophet's message better than the prophet himself. He is financed by hostile forces. He protests injured innocence. He writes critical messages addressed to the prophet. He does not feel comfortable when questioned.
ARISATSA...
He lets the distracted take control and then startles them. He permits weaklings to keep secrets from him. He blames the servants of the prophet and the prophet himself for the defective person's failure to make progress. He fails to flatten what bites. He jams the ignorant into one-way flow and leaves them stuck there. He audits badly and regards auditing as punishment. He feels superior to psychotics, cripples and criminals. He is distressed by the mental and physical pain of lesser men. He steals the minds of others. He believes that the prophet and his servants have failed to ask him something that they should have asked. He avoids interrogation. He mistrusts technology. He protects his privacy. He slows down the prophet's research. He wastes time. He thinks that the prophet's message is false.
RANA BREINER...
Let's put him in the spotlight. He is nobody. He is everybody. Shine that light in his eyes. He is him. He is you. He is others. He is an animal. Shine that light in his eyes. He is a body. He is matter in space. He is a spirit. He is a god. He is many spirits and gods. Shine that light in his eyes.
RANA BREINER...
He does nothing and everything. He does much and little. He does all and nothing. Shine that light in his eyes. He does more to do less. He does wisely to do foolishly. He does right to do wrong. Shine that light in his eyes.
IAMANI...
He has nothing to have everything. He has much to have little. He has all to have none. Shine that light in his eyes. He has totality to have nothingness. Shine that light in his eyes.
IAMANI...
He stays everywhere to stay nowhere. He stays here to stay there. He stays near to stay far. He stays up to stay down. Shine that light in his eyes. He stays out to stay in. He stays back to stay forward. He stays earlier to stay later. He stays present to stay absent. Shine that light in his eyes.
ARISATSA...
The now is the past of his future. His life and the conditions of his existence are effects created by the pictures in his mind. His goal is chaos. He is a phrase in the reactive mind. He creates to destroy and destroys to create the now.
ARISATSA...
He visualises objects moving away from his head, one at time, then two, then three, then four. He visualises objects moving towards and away from himself at the same time; triangles, circles and squares; ovals, spheres and cubes; pyramids and coils. He abides in a physical universe constructed of matter, energy, space and time but he is without will, awareness, rationality or wellbeing.
RANA BREINER...
He is the devil. He suppresses hope, maintains apathy, causes irresolution when action is called for and kills people before they have started to live. He is a rupture in the recording, a cut in, a break in the circuit. He is the perverting influence of education. He stimulates the impulse to attack, flee, avoid, neglect and succumb. His perception, recall and imagination are concerned with garbage from the lie factory.
RANA BREINER...
His pain does not perish and his pleasure does not endure. He fails to cancel. He fails to direct perception. He does not soothe or guide. He does not retrieve the data. He does not deal with the charge and return to present time. He does not give the final word. He does not snap his fingers.
IAMANI...
He must do it, he has to do it, but then he changes his mind. He forgets to remember. He is blind to memory and dumb to emotion. He is caught in pain and trapped in terror. He stands in black fear, afraid of horrible death. He lies as a rotten corpse in time and bears a dark and miserable past. He sees the dead everywhere. He feels his teeth ache. He fucks his mother and his father. He is scared to return to the past. He locks the slippery skin of a baby behind a wall. He is a jealous coward. He is the misery of the soul of god trapped in hell. He is the dark soul's excuse. He is fist to jaw, head and stomach. He is the beginning of the tears of the world, the original shame, the curtain of the ashamed. He is the book of the imagination of the insane, the words of hate. He seeks money and food and laughs at confused time. His thoughts are mixed and mad. He fights his head. He believes everything and feels sympathy for everybody. He always listens. He comes early to all. He looks down on life and stops what is right. He thinks deep and rids himself of matter. He tells all and never turns back. He is up. He is it. He will not die.
IAMANI...
His mind perceives, poses and resolves problems relating to survival by computing differences and identities. He learns by conscious mimicry. But he can't perform routine tasks or fix his attention on anything, so he succumbs to hopelessness and despair. The mind knows how the mind works but he is an incompetent source yielding improbable material and therefore the primary cause and originator of all his grief. What he has done is forever beyond recall.
ARISATSA...
He attempts to rectify error by error. He appeals to authority. He values report over observation and
maintains theories in the face of contradictory facts. He is sloppy in his observations, fails to repeat them, and does not care that other people cannot duplicate his results. He does not test his observations by varying his experiments. His hypotheses are based on partial data and fail to explain data that is deliberately discarded. He presumes the existence of phenomena that do not exist and fails to indicate the existence of previously unobserved facts. He predicts new facts but fails to perform experiments that relate to these predictions. He proceeds to advance his hypotheses to the status of theories. He fails to conduct further experiments or collect further evidence and on the grounds that no contradictory evidence can be shown to confound him, he presents his theories to the world as truth.
ARISATSA...
He deviates from the rational. He is psychotic, neurotic, compulsive and repressed. He neither listens nor computes. He is locked in his moment of pain. He is an enchained bouncer. He is dark, clouded, agitated, dirty, inaudible, doubtful, unsure, guilty, in debt and entangled. He is an electronic demon who fails to accept what exists. He does not pass through. He is not concerned with survival. He is at the mercy of his unconsciousness. He is the unprofitable command, the void in place of memory and experience. He is tangled and his road is foreshortened. He does not differentiate between the known and the unknown and lacks the power of recall. His senses of sight, sound and smell are faulty. He does not seek release from his aberrations. He is physically disordered. He does not release and remains abnormal. He is in pain. He has a faulty memory bank. He is at the mercy of suppressors. He receives no assistance on the time track. He cannot recall what he has seen.
RANA BREINER...
He is locked in forgetfulness. He will remember later. He will return to the memory of blind terror. He will stay deaf and dumb. He cannot see or hear. He is trapped in pain and fear and fixed emotion. He is a corpse in time. He lies dead, dark and rotten in hell. His soul is scared of the miserable god of his past. He feels afraid of difference. He lies to his father. He tells his mother to die. He is jealous of cowards and ashamed of his world. He laughs at sympathy and hates the insane misery of sex. He is caught in a shell. He fights the trap of his teeth and jaw but the words of the book of death cause his chest and stomach and head to ache. He is sick of life. He is poor, and has little money or food. He believes that everywhere, everything and everybody has always been horrible. All is deep and dark in his black and mad imagination. He looks at the crazy skin of the baby and the curtains of thought come together. He seeks the secret original present back in the early beginning. He encounters a slippery barrier, a wall of confused thought. There is no excuse to be found in his tears of hate and shame. He stands up. He sits down. He rids himself of matter. He comes out with locked fists. He is always late. His listening is stuck. He goes up. He gets down. He bears right and thinks. He tells all. It is mixed. He smarts at the stroke of the reed. He catches hold and stops it.
RANA BREINER...
Have you heard the one about the Hinge and Bracket impersonator with a special plan for this world?... He served up concrete sounds... musical figures... distorted samples... 'Christus'... 'Jesus wept'... dread collage... 'destruction'... 'the structure'... 'share this rock'... wailing and whining... dark themes... mocking tones... smoothed off rough edges... church bells, music box chimes... fairground music... nursery rhymes... mannered and unnatural voices... a horror film in a Victorian asylum... ancient sacred texts... emotive readings... histrionic delivery... depth, sincerity and power... “How art thou nothing when thou art most of all?” ... Christ and God... veiled meaning... a bourgeois playground... tics and peculiarities... solipsistic visions... liminal hearing... foundation privilege...
fantastic trilling undertones... phantom volition... pity for the dead... threatened insight... vague and meaningless word play... warbling insincerity... the beginning of a new phase... “Who will deliver me from myself?” ... the treatment of a concept... “Surely we are living in a dream.” ... the timeless end... shallow, passive and unproductive engagement... false endorsement... convention cannot withstand scrutiny... the rare and collectable can be sold... cult art absurdity... limited editions and numbered copies.
ARISATSA....
Or:
ARISATSA...
He produced dread soundscapes featuring brief snippets of distorted music and barely audible spoken word recordings. He produced ritualistic sound collage addressing self-consciously dark themes, combining loops with whining and wailing, delivered in a mocking tone that sought to hide his inability to sing. He turned to church bells, music box chimes and fairground music. He turned to nursery rhymes and persuaded children to recite lyrics on adult themes. He adopted a mannered and unnatural voice, somewhat reminiscent of a soundtrack to a horror film set in a Victorian asylum. He produced a series of recordings that can be considered as a related whole.
RANA BREINER...
He offered melodramatic readings of ancient sacred texts on top of rudimentary traditional music backings. He controlled his histrionic delivery and seemed to gain in depth, sincerity and power. He investigated being and asked, “How art thou nothing when thou art most of all?” He proclaimed his belief in Christ as the son of God, disavowing nonsense and arriving at a form of sincerity through the act of stripping away.
RANA BREINER...
He equated artistry with veiled meaning. He exemplified the world as a bourgeois playground. He was a slave to his accent, whatever the didactic purpose underlying it. The limitations of his lyrical, vocal and musical obsessions combined with the solipsistic peculiarities of his vision made it difficult to engage with his work. He possessed a grounding that was not of his choosing but he did not take responsibility for foundation privilege and the inheritance of ease that arises from it.
IAMANI...
He demonstrated a fondness for elegy and adhered to the idea of pity for the dead but his threatened insights degenerated into vague and meaningless word play and warbling insincerity.
IAMANI...
He began a new phase by asking, “Who will deliver me from myself?” He took refuge in the constructed certainty, “Surely we are living in a dream.” He guided us to the moment of timeless end and indicated that his message would benefit from plain talk. He was hampered by his inability to write objectively meaningful lyrics. The surprise was not that his work sometimes failed to stand up to scrutiny but that sometimes it succeeded.
ARISATSA...
I reached the point where I found it hard to believe that I could ever have perceived any real virtue in his work. This is not surprising when you consider the relationship between producer and consumer, which is grounded in the commercial imperative that dictates that so-called artists develop, record and release their work, and results in a shallow, passive and unproductive form of engagement, a matter of convention that cannot withstand scrutiny.
ARISATSA...
But there is a market for the rare and collectable, and what is rare is unlikely to decrease in nominal value, so the principle becomes purchase signed and numbered copies of limited editions by cult artists, hang onto them for a while, then sell them.
RANA BREINER...
Jabez the Stupid is told that white is the symbol of the Supreme Being and absolute Truth and signifies Goodness, Virginity and Charity. He is told that it suggests the splendour of Divine Wisdom but Jabez knows that white represents the W.R.A., who ensure that the actions of the inhabitants of the Inward Temple are guided by wisdom.
RANA BREINER...
He is told that blue symbolises chastity, innocence and guilelessness, but he knows that blue is the colour of the triangle through which the light of the altar/tomb travels before illuminating the Inward Temple, and that midnight blue is the colour of the star adorned robe of Seraphiel.
IAMANI...
He is told that red represents charity, suffering and love, but he knows that red is associated with the Guide in the Inward Temple, whose function is to link consciousness with what lies beyond consciousness.
IAMANI...
He is told that green means freshness of soul, the hopes of the regenerated creature and the yearning for final repose, and that green symbolises humility and contemplation, but he knows that green is associated with the Gardener in the Inward Temple, whose primary function is to create from the contents of consciousness.
ARISATSA...
He is told that rose-pink, black, brown, grey, yellow and violet possess bright or dark significance but none of these colours are directly associated with any of the inhabitants or primary signs of the Inward Temple.
ARISATSA...
The obscurity of Blake has been overstated. He enjoyed a career as designer and engraver for many years and benefited from patronage and the support of fellow artists, which enabled him to pursue his career throughout his life. These days artists are bourgeois thickos incapable of achieving the 'A' level grades necessary to go to a proper university and therefore compelled to 'study' fine art. Artists and writers promote false realities but their neurotic missions are doomed to failure because their response to vacuity is vacuous in itself. Start off super glamorous... divest the glamour... end in filth
stained rags... A performance. And the director of the performance is Belial.
RANA BREINER...
The worthless Belial, the Hinge and Bracket impersonator, and the spirit of the unproductive artist merge to form a quintessence of the deficient. Dear little Jabez, know the deficient:
RANA BREINER...
The nature of existence in 21st century Britain dictates that you should do something that is impossible, futile and self-defeating for the sake of no reward at the behest of an arbitrary, unreliable and untrustworthy authority. You don't choose to be here. If you're lucky, you occupy a position in an environment that's not too oppressive and affords a level of self-direction. But you're still only here because you have to be somewhere to earn a living. And everything you accomplish is merely evidence that you justify your position and sometimes your accomplishments mean nothing and you're removed from your position and deprived of your income regardless of what you think or feel about it. And everything you do is accompanied by work dread and fear of failure, meaning you have to succeed to overcome the fear. So, you're driven by fear and compelled to succeed at something you don't really want to do in a place you don't really want to be and you're judged by this activity and you do it for decades, perhaps for as long as you live.
IAMANI...
There is no hierarchy to be found in the reality of immediate experience. Organisations favour self- promotion over truth. Becoming part of an organisation indicates the types of lie you prefer. The element Earth has been stolen and sold for profit. The law has been developed to satisfy the desires of the rich and the rich attain to riches by usurping the commonwealth and power.
IAMANI...
Is there any alternative to pretending to be something you're not? Who are you trying to fool, and why are you trying to fool them? Why won't you (or can't you) concentrate? Why does that which delights you come to disgust you? These are the desperate protestations of the false self, born of fear. Fear is associated with translating an idea into a mechanical process that cannot be controlled. And when a translation is completed a lesser fear is also constructed around the idea of faulty translation, and this fear grows as a result of remembering nothing through fear of forgetfulness.
ARISATSA...
The fear of extinction subverted by the longing for extinction gives rise to fear of light, fear that it might not be light at all, the suspicion that it might be darkness. And it is true that the light of this age is darkness. The assumption is that greater light resides elsewhere. The idea is that there is one light to abide in. And the fear is that this light cannot be found.
ARISATSA...
“You're a fucking clown, mate.” You can't expect the person the comment is directed towards to agree. The hatred and violence within you is a form of desire. Servants of hatred and violence who present themselves as men and women of religion worship the god of this world.
RANA BREINER...
You might try your best but your best is not necessarily good enough. An angst ridden grasper striving vainly to inhabit a disjointed fantasy of future times is not likely to succeed. You're not liked, or you're not liked as you would like to be liked. You're not lauded for your beauty or genius. You're not hailed as an attractive person. You're unknown and obscure and no-one responds to your message. You're mired in falsehood. The appearance and the reality are disdained and despised. By objective standards, you're a failure. Subjectively, you're a worthless fraud. And despite all these judgemental conclusions being the products of falsehood, you remain unaware of any truth that might save you. Your wealth is meagre and useless. You can't walk uphill with ease. Movement in general leaves you breathless. Your eyes are fading. You're visited with sudden feelings of sickness. Your self-sufficiency is no guarantee against the external rigours that are laid against you. You're given to snapping and sniping. You have not fulfilled your promise. You are not a happy person.
RANA BREINER...
You occupy a state of shocked self-loathing, feeling tense, holding on, fearing the worst, not fit for society, inferior, unable to relate to other people and therefore uncomfortable in their presence, so that it seems like being alone offers the only opportunity to think and feel and be what you really are (not that you often take the opportunity to do that). You are observed by a stern, harsh, judgemental, all seeing and unsympathetic eye. You are characterised by unresolved terror looking for an opportunity to manifest.
IAMANI...
Adherence to fundamentally meaningless doctrine presents no solution to lack of meaning but leads to boredom, frustration and the threat of impending depression. Communication becomes impossible, given the surfeit of information that you have generated and become subject to. The movement is towards the slogan and away from the weighty work of art. The focus is on the dissected gesture and away from the combination of diverse elements of the well-considered theme.
IAMANI...
You are complicit in a self-enslaving system that limits the extension of unified experience to an hour at best, if you're lucky. Thrilled, smug, blasé, self-defeating, thinking yourself above what is known, barely conceiving of a day of reckoning, and acting as if it were so far off it will never come to pass. The reckoning comes stealthily by degrees, taking calm and disinterested possession of its inheritance, invisible, unsightly, a diminishing of faculties, the growth of fear, incapable of satisfaction, forever unresolved, and making a slow and heavy murk of every moment from beginning to end. You've embarked. You're in the middle of it. There is no going back. It grows. It attains. It questions the value of its attainment. It fades away. It makes no difference. It does not matter whether or not it was there to begin with.
ARISATSA...
You have been told many things and most of them are not true. You possess a semi-conscious awareness of the disorderly procession of unfinished or unformulated thoughts that flash through your mind. You walk through a lively nothingness and engage in insubstantial conversations with shadows. You engage in a half-hearted and sporadic pursuit of transient pleasure that is bound to end in frustration, camouflaged by a pseudo-spiritual vision that cannot be adhered to. You attempt to discover something that does not exist as a prelude to accomplishing something that is impossible. The conclusions you reach don't do justice to the richness of the data that informs them. You are a four year old 50 year old man or a dead man yet to be born. It seems safe here, in this joyless place without comfort, doing what you're told to do by people who have no interest in your
welfare.
ARISATSA...
Dear little Jabez, forsake the deficient for the neutral, even though it often appears that there is little difference between them:
RANA BREINER...
Reason and logic break down when applied to non-material problems, and the nature of matter is not what it's said to be, so reason and logic do not yield a clear understanding of the world. Reason arrives at different conclusions by accepting certain premises and rejecting others. Reason is not universal but partial. Ultimately, reason is not reason at all, but tyrannical authority representing itself as something that it is not.
RANA BREINER...
You are not in what you are doing. Where are you? Are you here, are you there, are you in both places at once or nowhere? Here you stand, a child, a youth and a middle-aged man, and an immortal spirit, ever changing, without change.
IAMANI...
Mental distraction serves a beneficial purpose. Purposeful thought is not the typical product of the divided mind but the divided mind is significant because it constitutes immediately experienced reality. The reactive mind is observed in panic without apparent cause, in the construction of grids to exert control, and in the development of inner worlds that seem to offer a place of refuge.
IAMANI...
Knowledge is the revelation of powerlessness. Discontent arises from the expectation that you should be able to transcend the limitations inherent in the workings of your mind.
ARISATSA...
Thought without action is a corpse feeding off itself. You feel a desire to increase your capacity for thought and to practice the discipline of thinking things through. Why these thoughts? Why these actions? Why these things left undone? Why these particular connections and shifting judgements? When did life become a thought driven fantasy? Failure to remember is a sign of refusal. That which will not prosper is instantly refused.
ARISATSA...
Wandering mind and shifting eye lock indicate that there's more to sight than the ability to focus. The perceiver is an active partner in creation and creation lies in the realisation of seeing yourself without preconceptions about what is seen.
RANA BREINER...
Focus on in breath leads to desperate grasping and focus on out breath suggests a calm letting go. Although you are not this body of flesh, you submit to imprisonment in this body of flesh. Tiredness can turn you into a machine, devoid of memory and feeling, a kind of zombie encountering life as if
it were a random collection of mechanical processes. And you sacrifice the immediate experience of now to purposes and interests that are not your own, and thereby collude in your own oppression. Although the body is changeable and uncertain, it is not evil. The body does not condemn itself. If bodily urges and actions are condemned, they are condemned by something which lies, or appears to lie, outside the body. If you fully accept the sufficiency of the body, how do you respond to systems that portray the body as deficient or evil?
RANA BREINER...
The object of the exercise is reflection and integration rather than commentary. What's the point of continually taking in information without allowing adequate time to process it and putting it to profitable use?
IAMANI...
To learn from what you know, to reflect on what you've discovered, to experience something as a result of what you've experienced already. The choices you make are arbitrary and meaningless. Your thoughts and feelings are transitory phantoms. The words that you use are misleading. Choice, or will, thought, feeling and verbalisation are departures from the reality of immediate experience. There's an obvious difference between individual mansions of flesh but is the difference merely a consequence of a mode of perception, something fundamentally insignificant that has been presented as important through cultural development? There might be such a thing as objective reality but you'll never experience it, so it's best to keep yourself grounded in so-called subjectivity. The liberation of total immersion in and constant awareness of the immediate experience of now.
IAMANI...
You are here, now, doing this, but how often is that really the case? You don't need to justify what is. Dislike is not grounded in objective fact but in subjective opinion, which possesses greater power than objective fact. Somewhere between both and neither you discover that the idea of one or the other does not ring true.
ARISATSA...
Think about the limited and enclosed thought worlds and physical environments you are confined (or confine yourself) to. Think about the sophistry and sly dealings related to the survival of self. Environments are created by dwelling in them. The world is as it appears but not as it is interpreted. To what extent is the so-called real world constructed on the denial of what is? From the perspective of innumerable stars, the earth does not exist, in a literal, not figurative sense. And yet, at the same time, everything exists at the same time – the non-existent earth and the inconceivably distant stars. You are a slave to the dull thrill of the moment and internalised compulsive consumption.
ARISATSA...
Cultures and subcultures posit this and that, all of which is wrong. Adherence to subcultural norms is no more revolutionary than submission to mainstream bourgeois values. A revolution in ways of being, or understanding, or even art, would not convey itself through traditional means of expression. The revolution is not in anyone else. It's not in a predetermined programme of special moments. These are falsehoods and intrusions. It's not in the unfolding revelation of falsehood. It's not in the moment of accidental communion. It's beyond the possibility of fulfilment. It's not in any existing system. It's not in desperate affinity. It's not in gilded memory. It's not in the dark, open and inviting hole. It's not in the peculiar angle of attack. It's not in the contract of coming together. It's
not in the lies that are said to be truth. It's not in the flashing and uncertain eye. It's not in the convenient festivity. It's not in the degenerate thuggery. It's not in the vast speculation. It's not in the still, small voice. It's not in the credible artistry. It's not in the acclaimed sanctity. It's not in the cool and disdainful eye. It's not in the dreams of the martyrs. It's not in the self-satisfied certainty of those who know where it is for sure.
RANA BREINER...
You need to acknowledge your deficiencies if you want to overcome them. Are you motivated by compulsion, discipline or habit? The trend is towards the universal individual. Forms of expression that presuppose the existence of communities are going to encounter problems. Sentimental constructions of communities will be developed and cultivated as markets. The cruel impulse is countered by reason grounded in benevolence, which recognises the fundamental identity of all things, and in the renunciation of hatred that must inevitably follow.
RANA BREINER...
Dear little Jabez, leave off this immersion in suspect neutrality and strive for balance:
IAMANI...
Balance is fullness in itself but it is also the foundation of bliss. The price of balance is vigilance. The balanced and the unbalanced cower together in the same prison but the once balanced are aware that there is nowhere and nothing that is not here and now, and can respond to the question of what has taken them away from the state of balance they had achieved - no single event can be identified, so they ascribe their removal to a process of cumulative drift whilst recognising that this might be nothing more than inventing an explanation and wondering if it is true that their attention was ever elsewhere.
IAMANI...
It's easier to leave than it is to enter. You seek out the knowledge you possess, or you passively receive it, and you act from what you know. The acquisition of new knowledge should allow new actions. What might be called active living involves considering what you want to achieve through your actions and assessing whether or not your actions lead to what you want to achieve. Action without forethought and assessment might constitute a form of passive living and it's possible that all forms of action traced back to their origins might be rendered meaningless.
ARISATSA...
You overcome your problems by acting. Accomplishment in one field encourages accomplishment in others. You're not a slave to any plans you've made. A good plan is a pointer when you're in need of guidance, or if you have a particular aim in mind. A plan is nothing more than potential until it is fulfilled.
ARISATSA...
Dear little Jabez, before you work on the fulfilment of your plan, hear this sermon:
RANA BREINER...
You find yourself invaded by a Babylon convention but you Christ it out. Two separate youth gangs
refer to you as Jesus. You ask yourself, did God create Man or did Man create God? Is there a god beyond the thoughts of men? Has religion exerted a good or evil influence on humanity? Is there anything in religion beyond vain disputes, condemnation of natural impulses, and the spreading of fear? What is there to weigh in the balance against this weighty burden? Can these questions withstand the disdain of irreligious, worldly sophisticates?
RANA BREINER...
You don't really know anything about God, the soul or the spirit. You're able to conceive of a God through the writings of others, who don't really know anything about God, and through developments of conceptions based on a particular form of experience, which you've cultivated through reflection on what you've understood of the writings and the experience of others – a body of knowledge based on not really knowing. Nothing that anyone has ever said about God is true, and yet the idea of God possesses a power that is greater than truth and compels men to action, and the competing ideas of God have shaped the world for thousands of years. The soul and the spirit are likewise conceived of through the writings of others and so-called personal experience. Soul and spirit seem to arise when the mind seeks to go beyond itself. You have experienced Christ and Mary in vision, and to dismiss these visions as hallucinations offers no solution to the question of what they mean. Why did the visions arise and what do they signify? Do they mean that Christ and Mary are real? Do the images represent the qualities associated with Christ and Mary in summary form, images created by artistic endeavour that is not dependent on mastery or objectively demonstrable technique? Or do they arise for no reason and possess no meaning? All of these notions, half-baked ideas and speculations are contained within the confines of subjective experience. Nobody goes beyond self, and it is a fundamental error to assume that they do.
IAMANI...
State Religion values the arbitrary authority of the church above the truth. And so do the evangelical churches, perhaps to an even greater extent. And this focus on authority is replicated in all religious and magical groups and in all organisations, whatever their avowed primary interests. In the Gospels, the Jews represent religious authority and the Romans represent worldly authority in the environment that Jesus operated in. Jesus was condemned to death for blasphemy and executed for sedition in accordance with the religious and secular laws of the time. Christ's crucifixion shows the inadequacy of religious and secular authorities in dealing with truth. It also indicates the willingness of organised religion and state power to work together to suppress that which runs counter to their interests.
IAMANI...
The church is a temporal authority which presents itself as a repository of spiritual power. Jesus Christ despised and disdained the riches of the worldly church. He did not abide in palaces of gold and he instructed the rich man to sell his goods and feed the poor. Satan offered Christ wealth beyond measure and Christ refused the offer, whereas the church accepts it. The worldly church is of Satan. The Church of England was founded on the propagation of lies in the service of kings, the false glories of victory in war and the hatred of enemies. The church proclaims “...he is not wise who deceives himself with pretences,” and yet it also claims that Edmund's decapitated head was guarded by a wolf in the woods and called out to those who sought it. The superficial joke organisation that calls itself the Church of England decides against the ordination of women bishops and the misanthrope hermit Sister Wendy proclaims the virtues of Jesus.
ARISATSA...
Human suffering offers sufficient recompense for sin. The suffering of the so-called evil man is no less suffering than the suffering of the good and to add dread to suffering on the grounds of transgressing arbitrary moral precepts is cruelty, not mercy. How can what is righteous be cruel?
ARISATSA...
The primary aim of religious scholars is to engage in personal rivalries in order to monopolise documents that rightly belong to all. The inconsistencies of scripture arise as a consequence of considering the Bible as a unity, a single text, rather than a collection of diverse writings on broadly similar themes. The idea of the Bible as a single entity is the forced creation of orthodox authorities. It is profitable to consider the individual books of the Bible as single documents, not necessarily directly related to the other texts in the Old and New Testament collections.
RANA BREINER...
Our concern is light beyond light. The appearance and the feeling of sublime elevation through contemplation of Christ clearly indicate that it is better to experience the living Christ than it is to read of the orthodox historical Jesus. You should neither accept nor reject the idea of the historical Jesus. You should accept that Jesus Christ accomplished everything that is written of him in the four Gospels of the New Testament. You should refute the ill-considered argument that Jesus Christ 'was just another who has been Christed'.
RANA BREINER...
The meaning of 'Wyrd' is 'what will be'. The prehistoric rock artists of Gotland represented the symbol of the equal armed cross in a circle, indicating that they worshipped emanations of light. They prostrated themselves before the Serpent, the Boar and the Raven, who returned to the ark bearing an oak twig. They sang in praise of the great god Ing, emanation of Freyr, honoured by the boar helmeted Anglo-Saxons of Benty Grange. Their worship of Odin consisted of forgetfulness of self through the intoxication of the fury of battle. Their adoration of Freyja was based on their laughter at the idea of a purposeful journey in a carriage driven by cats.
IAMANI...
You abide in a Gnostic guest house. Your mind accesses the fullness of the treasury and finds rest. You read and make notes on The Gospel of Thomas as your first willed act of the day. You observe that the technical jargon and obscurity of the Tripartite Tractate means that it is of far less value than the Gospel According to Saint John. You conclude that Gnostic texts, even those that are more or less complete, tend to be obscure and lack the power of flowing narrative. This suggests that your understanding of Gnosticism is based on the interpretations, speculations and constructions of meaning devised by scholars rather than on the texts themselves.
IAMANI...
Orthodox Christian religion is suspect. Heathenism and Gnosticism are dubious. So-called magic/k sinks lower still. Magical organisations preach conformity to worthless subcultural norms. Some dreadful berk announces a year long total retirement, forty years to the day after starting to pursue his occult studies, having claimed to be writing a history of the Hermetic brotherhoods of the late 19th/early 20th centuries just three months before this announcement. The same clueless monster proclaims himself a living god, although his actual 'magical experience' consists of a fleeting sense of universal brotherhood in a launderette and an interesting dream about the death of Aleister Crowley, which supports the evidence of a certain Mr. Rowe, who reported that Crowley's last
words were, 'Sometimes I hate myself', as quoted in the song 'Sometimes' by Coil.
ARISATSA...
Dear little Jabez, once you have attained a state of balance, proceed through the gates of hallucination and embrace the vision:
ARISATSA...
What is called an hallucination is an unshared reality. The world seems to tremble on the edge of transformation but the moment passes. Further meditation for the dissolution of passing concerns that do not survive death is succeeded by entering the red room decked with gold, where a new series of rapid flashing images awaits you. There's a lively parade passing by as you lie with your eyes closed, inviting sleep, and it speaks without saying a word. The conjunction of the crescent moon and the nearby star forms a sign whose meaning is immediately apprehended but inexpressible.
RANA BREINER...
Dear little Jabez, know that the vision is the foundation of the manifestation of Cross of Light Temple:
ARISATSA...
Cross of Light Temple is the name given to a certain kind of experience and the expression of that experience, particularly through the production of texts. This body of experience can be related to religion, magic and personal spiritual development. By religion I mean the cultivation of a relationship with the divine. By magic I mean producing change in conformity with will. By personal spiritual development I mean the cultivation of faculties that extend beyond the body and mundane thought. Already, the imprecise nature of the terms employed to explain Cross of Light Temple makes it difficult to proclaim what it is with certainty, or with satisfactory clarity and directness, but it still remains possible to go further. The primary divine conceptions of Cross of Light Temple relate to Christ, the Holy Spirit and Mary as mother of earth and queen of heaven. The primary magical change occurs in the mind and is linked to the imaginative treatment and manipulation of light. And the primary aim of the spiritual development is the achievement of an experiential state of transcendence, which is both sufficient in itself and a foundation to be built upon.
ARISATSA...
The three primary signs of Cross of Light Temple are:
1. The Cross of Light symbol or sign. 2. The sign of light in motion, also called the sign of the Hanged Man or descent of Adonai. 3. The equal armed cross in a circle, also known as the Solar Cross or Gnostic Cross.
RANA BREINER...
Do you remember the dream in which you described the COLT record to a wise man and he stated that COLT was a valid and profitable system? COLT experience should not be restrained by pre- existing programmes. COLT is about liberation, not confinement, but you are an animal and a monkey minded 'thinking being' as well as the performer of COLT ritual and the recorder of COLT
experience. It's a question of different faculties of the same being.
RANA BREINER...
You need to be aware of purposeful activity and vain endeavour. You need to ask yourself if COLT practice offers a method of entry to die Nebenwelt or merely acts as a metaphysical reflex machine. Is it Alpha and Omega, root and star, all time, all space, eternal and universal? Is it a distraction technique or a failed attempt to create a viable alternative to the absurdity that is called the reality of the world we live in? Or has it been developed as a consequence of, and in response to, fear, distrust and isolation?
IAMANI...
How can the practices and products of Cross of Light Temple be integrated into sober, mundane, everyday reality? COLT is a more or less serious attempt to understand the mysteries of being and the six-part rite can be used to arrive at answers to predetermined questions.
IAMANI...
Go to the summit of the Mound ov Krekja. Kneel before the throne of the Mountain King. Cross the threshold of the house on Lydgate Lane. We occupy the same illusory domain but we don't live in the same world. Your alleged understanding of my position is neither meaningful nor relevant. What is called Cross of Light Temple means being fully immersed in a way of being. This way of being is the reality of experience. You should submit to the will of the Temple, which is both increase and limitation.
ARISATSA...
It might not appear that COLT practice has had a profound effect on your day to day experience but it has widened your field of awareness to the extent that it is now possible for you to enter a COLT state more or less at will. And this has happened without you making a conscious, deliberate or voluntary effort to develop COLT in this field. You can attain, or arrive at, a state of fulfilment characterised by absolute ease of being. Once there, it should be possible to maintain the state by consciously dismissing anything that threatens to impede upon it.
ARISATSA...
Dear little Jabez, know that the aim of Cross of Light Temple is the achievement of ecstasy:
RANA BREINER...
A self-invented form of self-auditing reveals previously unknown realities. Abandon the schedule of forced labour, the compulsion to produce and the failure to communicate. You should practice removing yourself from what you perceive. Rushing and strife seem to besmirch perfection but perfection resides beneath them, perpetually available to be realised by consciousness.
RANA BREINER...
Revel in a state of perfection. You become conscious of departing after the event. But how can you have departed? It's a question of focus, or awareness, or realisation. You're still there but you no longer realise that you're there. You feel yourself returning. You should make the attainment of this state an objective reality. You should return there if and when you start to drift away.
IAMANI...
You are not deficient, or defective. The key to freedom is not necessarily disobedience but complete acceptance of everything, including disobedience (and refusal). It becomes a moment's work, a slight shift in the focus of attention and method of perception, to leave the world of suffering and enter a better world, your inheritance, the inheritance of humankind, prepared throughout the ages but ever existing. It's not an earth shattering revelation but a simple movement.
ARISATSA...RANA BREINER...IAMANI...
Infinite man of infinite source, son of the Father of spirit, not flesh, servant of spirit, servant of the source, of holy origin by the Father's will, life giving life, transcendence, the truth beyond the temporal, the embodiment of the present independent of time, beyond past and future, true life in the present common to all, manifesting as love, one with the Father, source and foundation, always present, not past or future, not then or there, not doing this or that, but here and now, engaged.