With this post we continue a monthly chapter-by-chapter discussion of The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic by Eliphas Lévi, the book that launched the modern magical revival. Here and in the months ahead we’re plunging into the white-hot fires of creation where modern magic was born. If you’re just joining us now, I recommend reading the earlier posts in this sequence first; you can find them here. Either way, grab your tarot cards and hang on tight.
If you can read French, I strongly encourage you to get a copy of Lévi’s book in the original and follow along with that; it’s readily available for sale in Francophone countries, and can also be downloaded for free from Archive.org. If not, the English translation by me and Mark Mikituk is recommended; A.E. Waite’s translation, unhelpfully retitled Transcendental Magic, is second-rate at best—riddled with errors and burdened with Waite’s seething intellectual jealousy of Lévi—though you can use it after a fashion if it’s what you can get. Also recommended is a tarot deck using the French pattern: the Knapp-Hall deck, the Wirth deck (available in several versions), or any of the Marseilles decks are suitable.
Reading:
“Chapter Nineteen: The Magistery of the Sun” (Greer & Mikituk, pp. 364-368).
Commentary:
The beating heart of magic, as Eliphas Lévi understood it, is the secret of the Great Arcanum, the operation that gives the mage control over the astral light. For the last forty chapters—twenty-two of theory and eighteen of practice—our text has been circling around that secret, now hinting at it in one way, now in another, here rejecting a misunderstanding without saying much about the correct understanding that should replace it, there following out one of its applications without letting on anything concrete about the operation itself.
None of this is accidental, and no, Lévi didn’t engage in all this obfuscation to hide the fact that he didn’t possess the secret he spoke about so evasively. All the evidence known to me suggests that he believed that he had received the genuine secret of the Great Arcanum from his teacher Joseph-Marie Hoene-Wronski. He had tested his understanding against the ancient myths and the texts of medieval and Renaissance occultism that were traditionally held to enshrine the secret, and also against the ultimate test of magical practice, and it had apparently passed these tests to his satisfaction.
What practical uses he may have made of the Great Arcanum are anyone’s guess, since he followed his own advice and practiced the fourth of the magical virtues, the virtue of silence. Nor, of course, can anyone who does not already have the secret know if Lévi did or did not have it. Like the mages and alchemists of old, he followed to the letter the tradition that each adept should publish his or her knowledge of the secret in a way that is comprehensible to those who have it and obscure to those who don’t.
“Obscure,” however, is not the same thing as “unreadable.” The myths, allegorical fables, and intricate symbolic discourses that Lévi studied and wrote about so assiduously include quite a few works that were intended by their authors to speak not only to their fellow adepts but to those students of occultism who are ready to follow the same path. Here, too, Lévi followed the guidance of tradition, and penned a symbolic discourse that displayed his own insights to the adepts and offered certain keys to aspiring students of magic. That discourse, in case you were wondering, is the present chapter.
To make any kind of sense of that discourse, it’s crucial to remember that Lévi is speaking in parables and metaphors. Two sentences from the very first post in this sequence deserve repetition here: “If you take Lévi’s narratives in a purely literal sense, as too many people have done, you’ll miss much more than half of what it has to teach. Furthermore, the more literally Lévi seems to be presenting what he has to say, the more suspicious you should be that that he means what he says in a purely symbolic sense.”
Remember that Lévi is trying to lead you by indirect means to what he saw as the greatest of all secrets, the closest approach a human being can make to the attainment of absolute truth and effective omnipotence. He accepted the injunctions of the ancient teachers that this secret was never to be revealed to the ignorant and selfish, and that each student must achieve it by his or her own efforts. The present chapter is a classic example of that most cryptic of all literary genres, the Hermetic initiatory parable. It can be successfully deciphered, but only if you keep in mind that very little of it can be taken in a literal sense.
Let’s try to lift a veil or two and get a little closer to the secret than Lévi was willing to go on his own. He describes the goal of the Great Work, the Work of the Sun, in these terms: “To find the absolute in the infinite, the indefinite, and the finite.” Those who know their way around the cosmos of the Renaissance occultists Lévi studied so closely will recognize at a glance what he is saying here. The infinite is God; the indefinite is the created universe, reaching out into unknown distances in all directions; the finite is the individual human being.
You’ll notice that none of these involve any appreciable quantity of metallic gold. Gold is the bait dangling above most of the pitfalls on the path to adeptship. It is certainly the case that the master of Lévi’s Great Arcanum has access to as much wealth as he or she needs, and in Lévi’s own time—since all European countries at that time were on the gold standard, and gold coins were an ordinary medium of exchange—there was a point in describing the adept’s hands as overflowing with gold. None of that, however, came into being in any improbable way. “Nothing can be made from nothing,” our text points out; “one does not create wealth absolutely; one augments and multiplies. Thus aspirants of science well understand that one must not ask of the adept either sleight of hand or miracles.”
The philosopher’s stone about which Lévi and the alchemists write, therefore, is a mystification—but it is a mystification with a profound purpose. When they speak of the philosopher’s stone they are speaking of something utterly real, but it doesn’t happen to be a stone in any ordinary sense, nor does it manufacture metallic gold out of lead—or for that matter out of thin air. “Our stone is not a stone,” the alchemists wrote, and for good measure: “our gold is not the common gold.”
What is it? Lévi is more than a little daring here, for he is willing to identify certain alchemical factors—not the stone itself, but the essential ingredients that go into the creation of the stone—in so many words. In his understanding, the mercury of the philosophers, which is the universal solvent and the White Queen of alchemical symbolism, is nothing other than the astral light, the great magical agent. The sulfur of the philosophers, which is also their secret fire and the Red King of alchemical symbolism, is intellectual energy refined by concentration and directed by the individual will.
This sulfur must fertilize the mercury of the wise, and this fusion of sulfur and mercury must then descend into the salt that is present in every material thing. That descent transforms the salt and thus the material object in which it resides, creating gold—in some sense or other of that highly symbolic word. This may happen quickly, or it may take considerable time, depending on the relative condition of the matter and the astral light.
All this depends, Lévi reminds us, on a secret operation. He is willing to go a little further and discuss the theory behind that operation. It depends, as he has explained in previous chapters, on the two natural dynamics or motions of the astral light. He sets out these dynamics in a little more detail here. A table may help sort things out:
| in physics | stasis | movement |
| in philosophy | truth | invention |
| in theology | necessity | liberty |
| in logic | synthesis | analysis |
| in alchemy | fixed | volatile |
Both these motions must be in action for the Great Arcanum to be performed. As earlier chapters have suggested, in fact, they must take place simultaneously: in the Great Work, when it is properly performed, there are always paired upward and downward movements, a constant interchange between the volatile and the fixed, in the working of the Arcanum. Something is descending and something is ascending, and the astral light is the medium through which this twofold motion happens. The glyph of the Great Arcanum, which Lévi gave back in the fourth chapter of the Doctrine, is worth another glance here:
The triangle on top, with the Hebrew letters Yod and Heh in it, represents the fertilization of mercury by sulfur. The hexagram made from two interpenetrating triangles represents the double movement, while the square-and-circle at the bottom represents the material salt. This is the key to the whole mystery. Once you have passed through the process of initiation Lévi has outlined in this book, he says, you will have the philosopher’s stone always at your disposal, because the extraction of the stone from its raw materials “is then a simple and easy operation very distinct from projection or metallic realizations.”
Projection, in alchemical jargon, is the process of using the philosopher’s stone in the laboratory, while metallic realizations are the specific alchemical operations in which projection has a role. The point here is that the Great Arcanum need not be put to work in the specific manner the alchemists teach. There is another way of using it, which is specific to the initiate of magic. Again, this magical way is the heart of what Lévi has to teach, and he’s said as much in this chapter as he is willing to communicate.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that Lévi is not just being difficult, or hiding a secret that could as well be passed on in so many words. One of the essential principles of all esoteric traditions is that certain realizations are only possible to those who have done the necessary work. In Zen Buddhism, for example, the koans—riddling statements that appear to trample on all the rules of logic—each have standard answers, and every properly trained Zen master knows them. They are kept private, however, because the mere knowledge of the answer means nothing; the process of awakening that leads the student to discover the answer independently is everything.
The Great Arcanum can be seen as the central koan of Hermetic magic. Lévi has talked about the secret in a great many ways. In the process, he’s provided more information about it than most traditional sources, and offered guidance that will help the attentive reader avoid some of the more common mistakes. This chapter summarizes some of the basic points, but much more is to be found in the opening chapters of the Doctrine, especially those in which he discusses the Tetragrammaton and the astral light. Close attention to those chapters, especially now that you have a clearer knowledge of the applications of magic, will reveal much.
And if you, dear reader, want to follow the trail Lévi has marked out, through what one of the classic alchemists called “an open door to the closed palace of the King”? He offers a specific course of study meant to reach that goal. Start, he says, by meditating on the principles of the doctrine he teaches—that is, the theoretical material covered in the first half of our text. Proceed from there to read alchemical literature, and in particular the Alchemical Catechism of Baron Tschoudy, which is readily available in French as well as English translation and can be found online here among other places.
As you study these texts, keep in mind what Lévi calls “the unique doctrine of Hermes,” which he has defined elsewhere in the following words: “The visible is for us the proportional measure of the invisible.” (I recommend going over this sentence repeatedly, word by word.) To sort out what you learn and direct your practical efforts, in turn, the twenty-two trump cards of the Tarot in the order Lévi gives them form an essential guide.
That is as much as our text is willing to say. In the next two chapters, Lévi will discuss the two most famous applications of magic—healing and divination—and in the final chapter, he will return once more to the trumps of the tarot to offer some final guidance to the assiduous student and a final summary of the principles of his book. His last word on the Great Arcanum, however, has already been spoken in this chapter. Whether or not you follow up his hints in the traditional manner and unveil the mystery of the ages is, of course, entirely up to you.
Notes for Study and Practice:
It’s quite possible to get a great deal out of The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic by the simple expedient of reading each chapter several times and thinking at length about the ideas and imagery that Lévi presents. For those who want to push things a little further, however, meditation is a classic tool for doing so.
Along with the first half of our text, I introduced the standard method of meditation used in Western occultism: discursive meditation, to give it its proper name, which involves training and directing the thinking mind rather than silencing it (as is the practice in so many other forms of meditation). Readers who are just joining us can find detailed instructions in the earlier posts in this series. For those who have been following along, however, I suggest working with a somewhat more complex method, which Lévi himself mention in passing: the combinatorial method introduced by Catalan mystic Ramon Lull in the Middle Ages, and adapted by Lévi and his successors for use with the tarot.
Take the first card of the deck, Trump 1, Le Bateleur (The Juggler or The Magician). While looking at it, review the three titles assigned to it: Disciplina, Ain Soph, Kether, and look over your earlier meditations on this card to be sure you remember what each of these means. Now you are going to add each title of this card to Trump II, La Papesse (The High Priestess): Chokmah, Domus, Gnosis. Place Trump II next to Trump I and consider them. How does Disciplina, discipline, relate to Chokmah, wisdom? How does Disciplina relate to Domus, house? How does it relate to Gnosis? These three relationships are fodder for one day’s meditation. For a second day, relate Ain Soph to the three titles of La Papesse. For a third day, relate Kether to each of these titles. Note down what you find in your journal.
Next, combine Le Bateleur with Trump III, L’Imperatrice (The Empress), in exactly the same way, setting the cards side by side. Meditate on the relationship of each of the Juggler’s titles to the three titles of the Empress, three meditations in all. Then combine the Juggler and the Emperor in exactly the same way. Then go on to the Juggler and the Pope, giving three days to each, and proceed from there. You’ll still be working through combinations of Le Bateleur when the next Lévi post goes up, but that’s fine; when you finish with Le Bateleur, you’ll be taking La Papesse and combining her with L’Imperatrice, L’Empereur, and so on, and thus moving through all 231 combinations the trumps make with one another.
Don’t worry about where this is going. Unless you’ve already done this kind of practice, the goal won’t make any kind of sense to you. Just do the practice. You’ll find, if you stick with it, that over time the relationships between the cards take on a curious quality I can only call conceptual three-dimensionality: a depth is present that was not there before, a depth of meaning and ideation. It can be very subtle or very loud, or anything in between. Don’t sense it? Don’t worry. Meditate on a combination every day anyway. Do the practice and see where it takes you.
We’ll be going on to Chapter 20, “Thaumaturgy,” on January 8, 2025. See you then!
At this link is the full list of all of the requests for prayer that have recently appeared at ecosophia.net and ecosophia.dreamwidth.org, as well as in the comments of the prayer list posts. Please feel free to add any or all of the requests to your own prayers.
If I missed anybody, or if you would like to add a prayer request for yourself or anyone who has given you consent (or for whom a relevant person holds power of consent) to the list, please feel free to leave a comment below and/or in the comments at the current prayer list post.
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This week I would like to bring special attention to the following prayer requests.
May Peter Van Erp’s friend Kate Bowden’s husband Russ Hobson and his family be enveloped with love as he follows his path forward with the glioblastoma (brain cancer) which has afflicted him.
May Kyle’s friend Amanda, who though in her early thirties just passed away from brain cancer, make her transition through the afterlife process with grace and peace.
May Daedalus/ARS receive guidance and finish his kundalini awakening, and overcome the neurological and qi and blood circulation problems that have kept him largely immobilised for several years; may the path toward achieving his life’s work be cleared of obstacles.
May David/Trubrujah’s 5 year old nephew Jayce, who is starting chemotherapy for leukemia on Monday 12/9, be healed quickly and fully, and may he, and mother Amanda, and their family find be aided with physical, mental, and emotional strength while they deal with this new life altering situation.
May baby Gigi, continue to gain weight and strength, and continue to heal from a possible medication overdose which her mother Elena received during pregnancy, and may Elena be blessed and healed from the continuing random tremors which ensued; may Gigi’s big brother Francis continue to be in excellent health and be blessed.
May Jennifer, whose pregnancy has entered its third trimester, have a safe and healthy pregnancy, may the delivery go smoothly, and may her baby be born healthy and blessed.
May Quin’s father Bob in Austin, whose aortic stent procedure went smoothly, heal quickly from the procedure, and may his health improve over the long term as a result.
May Charlie the cat, who has been extremely sick and vomiting but whose owners can’t afford an expensive vet visit, be blessed, protected, and healed.
May Scotlyn’s friend Fiona, who has been in hospital since early October with what is a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, be blessed and healed, and encouraged in ways that help her to maintain a positive mental and spiritual outlook.
May Annette have a successful resolution for her kidney stones, and a safe and easy surgery to remove the big one blocking her left kidney.
May Peter Evans in California, who has been diagnosed with colon cancer, be completely healed with ease, and make a rapid and total recovery.
May Jennifer and Josiah, their daughter Joanna, and their unborn daughter be protected from all harmful and malicious influences, and may any connection to malign entities or hostile thought forms or projections be broken and their influence banished.
May Ram, who is facing major challenges both legal and emotional with a divorce and child custody dispute, be blessed with the clarity of thought, positive energy, and the inner strength to continue to improve the situation.
May FJay peacefully birth a healthy baby at home with her loved ones. May her postpartum period be restful and full of love and support. May her older child feel surrounded by her love as he adapts to life as a big brother and may her marriage be strengthened during this time.
May all living things who have suffered as a consequence of Hurricanes Helene and Milton be blessed, comforted, and healed.
May Giulia (Julia) in the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland Ohio be healed of recurring seizures and paralysis of her left side and other neurological problems associated with a cyst on the right side of her brain and with surgery to treat it.
May Corey Benton, whose throat tumor has grown around an artery and won’t be treated surgically, be healed of throat cancer.
Lp9’s hometown, East Palestine, Ohio, for the safety and welfare of their people, animals and all living beings in and around East Palestine, and to improve the natural environment there to the benefit of all.
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Guidelines for how long prayer requests stay on the list, how to word requests, how to be added to the weekly email list, how to improve the chances of your prayer being answered, and several other common questions and issues, are to be found at the Ecosophia Prayer List FAQ.
If there are any among you who might wish to join me in a bit of astrological timing, I pray each week for the health of all those with health problems on the list on the astrological hour of the Sun on Sundays, bearing in mind the Sun’s rulerships of heart, brain, and vital energies. If this appeals to you, I invite you to join me.
John,
You have a typo in the paragraph, “secret know” should be secret knowledge.
What practical uses…Nor, of course, can anyone who does not already have the secret *know* if Lévi did or did not have it.
In astrological terms, the two motions of the astral light seem to correspond to Saturn and Uranus. It is especially interesting in light of their status as the Last of the Classical Planets and the First of the Modern Planets. I think this could be an extremely important point worth careful thought and at least a month of meditations.
Just a small note on the translation: “ It is without danger, incidentally, to inhale its emanations.” In the original French, I read it as “It would not be without danger..” , the double negative indicating danger may be involved. Hopefully this isn’t too pedantic, as probably few of us will have opportunity to perform the experiment, but I felt it was worth mentioning.
Quin, thanks for this as always.
JM, no, it’s correct. The word “know” is a verb here; the sentence reads, in effect, “Nor, of course, can anyone (who does not already have the secret) know if Lévi did or did not have it.”
Taylor, a fine theme for meditation!
Paul, thank you for this. The translation I did with Mark Mikituk is better than Waite’s but it’s not without a few errors; that’s one of the reasons I encourage people to read the original if they possibly can.
I find it most interesting that the glyph of the Grand Arcanum corresponds exactly to the Tree of Life. Thanks for the post.
You are likely to tell me that this is a great theme for meditation, but I wonder if the Great Arcanum was what Fortune was explaining with her unusually (even for her) cryptic statement on certain types of polarity working “You will perceive that here you have certain important clues to the practice of that which induces that which is not in that which thinks it is, but is not.”
Luke, it does indeed. You’re most welcome.
Peter, I’m quite sure of it. I’ve found it very useful along these lines to treat the Cos.Doc. and our present text as two discussions of the same teachings.
On the idea that ” They are kept private, however, because the mere knowledge of the answer means nothing; the process of awakening that leads the student to discover the answer independently is everything.”
Contrast that with the way so called education is manufactured today. Transmission of knowledge. Heck! if they could download the electromagnetic patterns directly into the students’ encephali, aka a-la-Matrix, they totally would. Somehow, I recall the old timer Math teachers of the late 20th century, who devoted inordinate time trying to derive each formula from first principles, to everybody’s chagrin. One of my own Math teachers, may he be blessed, comes specially to mind: his favorite saying was “formulas are for mules”, and he repeated it at every chance.
Thank you for this as always. I am doing the meditation along with the reading – contemplating the topics of the first chapter with the second…. I’ve continued this until I reached 10, and then went back to take the second chapter and continued through 10. This feels helpful for me in seeing the tree of life. I find it much more difficult to contemplate the combinations once I move to 11 and beyond. Hopefully I haven’t gone too far astray here. Could the symbols you presented in this chapter, the triangle, the hexagram and the square with circle also be the tree of life?
I have been working a ritual where I balance the sadness of not achieving a goal with manic, over the top jubilation of achieving the goal. I do these together, as best I can. JMG, if you remember, you recommended many months ago that I give it a try.
It hasn’t manifested, and that’s okay. I don’t think it’s meant to be. But, I intuitively feel like this is a proper way of doing the ritual. And Levi seems to confirm that I might be on the right path because I am balancing emotional forces.
JMG,
A little off topic, but hopefully today this is is an appropriate forum to ask. The Binah:Tiphareth pair in the combinatorial method leaves me stumped. What is the significance of this combination?
Understanding is an outcome of truth and victory through adversity? Gaia meets Jesus, with sacrifice the common theme? Or perhaps focussing on the unfolding of the verb, the female principle ‘Heh’ comes before the male principle ‘Vau’, ie Mary gives birth to Jesus to enable the divine to interact with us on our material plane?
Thank you in advance for your help!
JMG – The idea of something rising while something is descending, the volatile and the fixed, brought to my mind a vision of a distillation column, with vapor rising up through bubble plates, while condensate trickles back down. (This refluxing action produces a distillate with higher purity than a simple condenser.) The fact that I was holding such a bubble plate at a local small-scale distillery a few days ago probably has something to do with my vision. The extraction of high-proof alcohol from beer or wine must have been an impressive feat at some point in alchemical history.
Hi John Michael,
My mind began spinning reading the text and being exposed to those binaries.
Look man, I’m exercising my will to do and be better whilst creating some beauty in this world. It’s not much to ask, is it? 😉
Cheers
Chris
CR, oh, granted. The education industry today sucks with the suckiest of suctions. Lévi had something far superior to teach.
Tamar, delighted to hear it. No, you haven’t gone astray at all. The resemblance between the diagram of the Great Arcanum and the Tree of Life is not an accident…
Jon, good. Very good. You’re not mistaken.
Claus, that’s a challenging one. Binah embraces the entirety of the macrocosm. Tiphareth is the apotheosis of the microcosm. “As above, so below” is your watchword here.
Lathechuck, good. That’s highly relevant. In your personality, what is rising, and what is descending?
Chris, ask Conan about that. What did the universe ask from him?
Hi John Michael,
I see that you’ve read Robert E Howard! 😉 Thanks for the recommendation too all those years ago, the Sailor Steve Costigan stories also left me chuckling at the silly antics of the brainless, but full of heart tough guy. Such a fun collection of stories, even his side kick British Bulldog had an ill temperament in excess of the diminutive stature, and Sven the wannabe, always came off second best. Tolkien lacked such a character in his crew of ring bearers, it may have livened things up. And I must say, given Tolkien’s characters had a ring of power, they still got hassled effectively by their meddling aunts – a very English concept! 😉 Just thought I’d chuck that observation into your mix.
He burned brightly the gentleman, and left a legacy. It does make you wonder though, about what is best? It probably won’t surprise you, but in relation to civilisation, my personal inclinations are closer to Howard’s than Lovecraft’s, of which the two were friends.
Conan also grappled with chains from time to time, but always escaped. Facing off against sorcerers will sometimes land a person in that predicament, even in these enlightened times. 😉 Far out, pesky people! Oh well, we can only but do our best boss, and then use what the universe gave us.
Cheers
Chris
“the Alchemical Catechism of Baron Tschoudy, which is readily available in French as well as English translation and can be found online here among other places.”
I’m glad for having read that “Catechism”, it clarifies some things: thank you JMG for the link…
The alchemical catechism is pure gold. Thanks for this!
The astral light merges with the intellectual energy refined by concentration and directed by the individual will to the particular aim, physical reification, or manifestation.
” I recall the old timer Math teachers of the late 20th century, who devoted inordinate time trying to derive each formula from first principles, to everybody’s chagrin.”
My ninth grade algebra teacher did that. We started with a=a; if a=b then b=a; if a=b and b=c, then a=c. And not that far into the year I finally started to understand math. No one before had bothered to explain why the rules they had taught worked.
Wow. Great essay. So much inspiration there with parallels to the yogic flow state of Samadhi.
Thank you!
Jill C yogaandthetarot
JMG,
Very OT, so feel free to delete. I just saw the Time Person of the Year cover for the 2024. The picture of Trump seems, well, Presidential to my eyes. Someone who has a plan and is thinking. I haven’t read the thing and don’t plan to. It’s a marked contrast to the previous picture in 2016 which had strong overtones of creepiness. Is this a surrender? What does this mean in magical terms?
For those of you interested in “living gold”, Schwaller de Lubicz apparently made it (in order to recreate the colors of stained glass like in Chartres). The most understandable description I have found so far is on https://www.aaroncheak.com/call-of-fire. A snippet is pasted below.
“The chloroauric acid solution that resulted from the dissolution of gold in aqua regia could be reduced with the aid of tin, creating a distinct purple colour in the process. Precipitation of the solution into a red crystalline gold salt was obtained through a reaction between gold chloride and tin chloride, creating a powerful powdered pigment or tincture (compare the Greek xērion, ‘powdered elixir’, whence Arabic al-iksir). Alchemically speaking, this process renders the metal ‘open’, and it was this awakened or enlivened gold in the form of precipitated gold salts—alchemically dissolved and vivified through aqua regia—that corresponded to the spirit or ‘fixed sulphur’ of the metal. When added to glass in its molten state, the red-purple gold powder permeated the mass with nanoparticles of gold, creating a colloidal solution; when the glass was cooled and reheated, the nanoparticulated gold was ‘activated’, thus transfiguring the glass into a brilliant ruby-red hue.”
For those who celebrate it, I wish you a happy Yule, Christmas, Winter Solstice (or Summer Solstice, for some of you).
@Randomactsofkarma: Thanks for this Aaron Cheak article. I read it once last year, or was it earlier this year, when I was reading The Mystery of the Cathedrals. I would really like to find more detailed information about the Station Scientifique de Suhalia.
Hi John Michael,
Two weeks is a long time. Makes you wonder…
Cheers
Chris
I’m struck by something else with regards to planetary symbolism of the Two Motions now: these establish a duality, and Pluto naturally ruled dualities during its reign as a planet. The second list of qualities also looks like it is Plutonian in and of itself: analysis is literally breaking things apart; volatility is a hallmark of the Plutonian; in Christian theology “Liberty” sometimes, although not always, meant “Free will, also called the capacity to defy God”; which would be highly Plutonian. Even the far more nuanced “Thing which is not required by the nature of reality” could easily end up yanked into the Plutonian orbit; movement establishes a division between what was, what is, and what will be, which is a Plutonian theme; and invention brings something new into the world, accomplishing the same thing.
This can be taken in some interesting directions (such as observing that the fact invention is Plutonian would explain why new technologies have so often been Plutonian since 1900); but the biggest insight I had is that it provides a perfect explanation for the issues in the occult community. Starting in 1900, the Great Arcanum, the beating heart of Western Occultism, was yanked into a new, Plutonian shape. Even the inherent tension between Pluto and Saturn that the presence of Saturn on one side indicates would merely strengthen the Plutonian influence: Pluto, after all, rules that kind of tension and contradiction.
All the pathologies of 20th century occultism that made it so distinct (such as the extremely overblown egos, the chronic infighting, the simultaneous rejection of tradition and innovation, etc.) are the working out of Plutonian themes. Even the odd way the Arisophical Movement suddenly took shape around 1900 and brought about one of the worst tragedies of human history by means of extreme malevolent magic fits: Pluto is both extremely evil, and highly self destructive.
This also reframes the Magic Resistance as well: it is just another case of people who got hooked on the Plutonian desperately trying to maintain their high and feed their addiction as the Plutonain continues its slow, steady decline into irrelevance.
“ABC News and star anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement with Donald Trump for $15 million, after Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump was found “liable for rape” in a civil case while interviewing Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) last March.”
Magical blowback? It’s certainly another item on the list of why not to believe in the mainstream media.
Assad’s army suddenly had no interest in supporting him any longer. That was a nice piece of infiltration, propaganda, psychology, etc. Magic by other names.
@ Justin Patrick Moore,
Yes, what little I’ve read about Station Scientifique de Suhalia is quite intriguing, though everything I’ve read seems to be rather superficial. If I ever find something more detailed, I will make sure to post.
Looking at my past and present naturally happening foci I can see I am a peculiar mixture of Druid tendencies, and traditional and Pentecostal Christianities (I pray in tongues along with other Pentecostal expressions). Have ordered several of your Druidism books to serve as sources as I am beginning consciously work to express, refine and strengthen this peculiar amalgam. I also ordered The Circles of Power one to look closer at the Hermetic approach though my gut feeling is that I won’t find resonance there and am just expressing my intellectual curiosity. Blessings on this freedom space with the good boundaries that preserve the freedom, an expression of Burkean conservatism!
Meditating as I washed out my coffee cup and breakfast bowl… when one doesn’t seek gold metal something from nothing, but seeks community choir to draw in more people and create an ambiance of joyful camaraderie… the right questions and aims being the better part of wisdom and success. And then time and patience. The SGI Buddhists I used to run around with not often and who also seek ‘actual proof’ of one’s capacity to work in the astral light had a saying from the letters of nichiren daishonin to his disciples, you can’t see the moon rise over Kyoto if you get almost there and then give up and turn around. Felt that in my favorite line ‘’All matter contains salt, and all salt can be converted to pure gold by the combined action of sulfur and of mercury, which sometimes act so rapidly that the transmutation can be done in an instant, in an hour, without tiring the operator and almost without cost; other times, due to more difficult circumstances and atmospheric conditions, the operation requires several days, several months, and sometimes even several years.”
Thanks JMG for showing me this book!
I meant ‘more often’ but wrote ‘not often’ above.
@randomacts wow thanks for tracking down that reference that led you to THE CALL OF FIRE: THE HERMETIC QUEST OF RENÉ SCHWALLER DE LUBICZ . I guess I should have guessed that the guy who figured out how to spread nanoparticles of gold through molten glass might also be interested in the esoteric principles that parallel the material alchemical process wrought there. But I didn’t and I’m glad I clicked the link to go beyond the excerpt you offered us!
@FJay in the world of well-conceived aims, positively stated to be drawn forth out of the astral light, that’s a beautiful one.
Sun-day 🌞 prayers for all on Quinn’s list on this day of joy and anticipation in the Christian wheel of the year.
Interesting morning. Rippling waves of magic by other names reflecting and diffracting everywhere.
“Lara Logan: “We live in the age of information warfare, where propaganda is not simply a weapon, it is the entire field of battle. This is a war for our minds that is aided by advanced technology, and we have never been here, not in all of human history.”
“Germany, Europe’s largest economy and normally a pillar of stability, is facing snap elections next year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence.
Scholz lost the vote, which he called himself as a step toward securing an early national election, with 394 ballots against him, 207 in his favor and 116 abstentions.”
It wasn’t even close.
“Now offshore wind opponents in Democratic strongholds of the East and West coasts, while they may not be fans of Trump, they’re hopeful the new administration will finally give them a seat at the table.”
” A Moscow source comments: “I think the Russian public will not be convinced to risk a presence there especially when the propaganda has changed its tune to the line, ‘it’s impossible to help those who can’t help themselves.’ With Syrian statehood gone, this battle is lost.””
But not to worry, the Intel Arc Battlemage 580 video card is out to good reviews.
Hi John Michael,
Hope you’re doing OK. Thinking of you coming up to the solstice.
Chris
Well, after looking at your book, Hermeticism is definitely not my gig. I am developing and trying out a Christian version of your triad of ritual, discursive meditation, and divination as the foundation for magical practice. My thoughts on Magic, – humanity has been given dominion over the earthly creation. In the past few centuries There are a variety of forces and activities we can access – the physical ranging from simple movements of the body combined with tools, to the use of heat, combustion, varied chemical reactions, agriculture, transforming matter into different arrangements, electricity, the whole panoply of the various electromagnetic radiations, nuclear energy and so on. Magic to my mind is forces accessed through mental and emotional activity assisted by materials and ritual actions.. Homeopathy at this point seems to be in an in odd between place.
In my thought what is ultimate and primal and supreme is the Spirit of God, but there are secondary forces and realities He has given as as being made in His image the right and the responsibility to use and develop. So I am open to magical practice. From past experience I know there is an in between world, between the Trinity and raw materialism. I am on the first chapter of The Druid Magic Handbook and so far I like it, will see where it goes. The first volume of The Dolmen Arch will arrive in a week or so. I definitely have an independent mind and my own unique take on and experience of reality so a full taking on and surrender to what I read in your Druidry books – I also have the Druidry handbook- is unlikely.
BeardTree, just curious, is there any particular thing about Hermeticism that makes it less appealing to you compared to what you read about Druidry so far?
I am neither a Hermeticism nor a Druid, nor a Christian. But from an outside perspective it seems that Hermeticism, though not necessarily Christian in origin, has historically been approached and explained from a Christian perspective many times over the centuries.
Just curious.
But you never know, I may end up diving deeper into Druidic magic, the solar, telluric, lunar stuff rings true to me and I stand in good posture and I seem to sense them. My tai chi and qigong practice over the years has perhaps sensitized me.
@Alvin #34 Hermeticism too complicated, also have had Druidic nature experiences of plants, animals, soil, sun, moon, stars, the sky, and natural forces and cycles since early childhood in the midwestern country of my rural upbringing. It has continued to this day.. As I have been examining Druidism memories of these experiences are coming to mind. So a Druid approach is more congenial to me.
@ Beardtree #36
If I may, I wonder if you have read any of the work of John O’Donohue? He was an Irish priest and mystic who was deeply informed by the spirituality of the Irish countryside in which he grew up. Thus what he writes on themes of spirituality are both lyrical and strongly rooted in the mysteries of the earth. It strikes me that you might find him, through his poetry, to be a kindred spirit.
His family operates a website dedicated to his work here: https://www.johnodonohue.com/
Best wishes, Scotlyn