Contemplation

Carl McColman has been making some great blogs about Contemplation and its purpose in our "modern" world. This ties in nicely with the topics I have been covering with my work colleagues.

Get on it, check it out, start from the beginning @

http://www.carlmccolman.com/2013/09/26/the-archbishop-and-the-community-theologian/

Pax,
MvdV

Simple Masonic Magical Structure

Image pinched from Scarborough Lodge #1214 website www.scarboroughlodge.co.uk

Have a room, orientated East -West (can be symbolically orientated, merely think of the directions set in your mind)

Have a central table/altar on which is placed

• A Volume of Sacred Law of your choice
• Compass (nautical or builders)
• Builders square

Have a kneeling stool or cushion in front of the table/altar

A chair in the 'East'

Start from the West of the table facing East and perform your opening ritual of choice. I use a ritual based on the opening of a Regular Lodge (Western Australian Constitution) plus some other Order material I find matches up.

I also use incense and candles within the ritual as well as a 20 minute meditation in the Emblems of Mortality/Chamber of Reflection before the ritual proper begins.

Once the area is cleared, you can commence.

Identify your goal: I usually work for wisdom, understanding, stability and fraternity. The desired outcome must match up with the spirit of Freemasonry, (Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth) or else your asking the wrong system. If you want power and shit, try a system that aims for that, Freemasonry has earthly power, but only through achieving its true goals (Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth) and the love of Wisdom.

I draw a Tracing Board on the floor in the East of the Table/Altar (I use a movable board for this) using Masonic Symbolism based on the goals of the ritual and within the framework of Masonic Ideals.

Perambulate the table/altar three times, kneel before the table/altar in the West facing East and invoke the name of your deity (I use Masonic names, I would suggest you do too GAU, GGU or TMH) 

"Oh TMH, may you place blessings on this your humble servant in this request. May you give me an increase of Faith, Hope and Charity so as I might further your Greatness and the reflected greatness of this Order. As the Moon reflects the majesty of the Solar body, may I/we become lights in the Darkness"

Open the VSL at your preferred passage, selected before hand to resonate with your intentions. Place the tools on the VSL (as represented in Masonic symbolism) and read the Verse that you need for the ritual.

Rise, perambulate three times and finish in the East (technically it is three &1/2 perambulations) use the Grand Royal Sign three times giving "All Glory to TMH".

Sit in your chair and visualise the power coming down into you as per the Kabbala and associated rituals, (use your own research here peeps, I'm not going to make it too easy for you). Link your power with that of the VSL as a conduit to TMH, joining within you and blending the two streams, creating a greater amount of energy than that you or the VSL can generate on your own. (Multiple individuals in this ritual obviously join in the power raising)

Visualise your goal, I tend to vocalise at this point and use a variety of ritual passages and stories from various rites I am a member of to express my goal and focus in on the intent beyond/behind the ritual.


When you have finished your work, finalise the conduit, close the ritual the way that you like, linked to the opening and reflecting on Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. Confirm you adherence to your God/s and secure the secrets you have been engaged in.

Erase the Tracing Board using water.

Bless the space and the participants.

Blow out the candles and tidy up. Do not leave the room set up and go for a cuppa tea straight away, clean it up and remove it all as soon as you finish.

Bless the space a second time, then go have your party pies and sausage rolls and high fives all round.


Yes I know this is simple, yes it is easy, that is why I put it up here, nothing revolutionary or mind blowing, just an easy ritual to help engage with Masonic Symbolism.

Pax.

MvdV

Depression and Magic

The correlation between my depression and my magical practice are pretty clear and concise.

The more depressed I am and more triggers are pulled, the less magic I do.

I guess it has something to do with the nature of depression, as an illness depression stops motivation, reduces efficiency, creativity and motivation to achieve goals. All of these things are vital to a magical system.

As I am currently on a down cycle and having to work against the tide, my magical system and practice has taken a beating. But the system itself is the solution and I intend (alongside mainstream Western Medical solutions) to use ceremonial magic to correct my balance and get back on track. We'll see where I end up this time around.

I have been immersing myself in Jung's 'Red Book' which comes in a readers version if you are short of change, like me, and it has been useful for instruction and giving me ideas for operations and ceremonial goals. Biblical work with the Apocropha and Torah have been useful, especially the Book of Tobit, which if you are a Rose Croix Mason, you should be familiar with.

I will be travelling to Jerusalem in December and I cannot wait to be in that place, visit those places and do the things I can. I have been connecting with the Old Testament and attempting to get to the heart of why this YHVH chose who it did and how they reacted to Him. Never really a fan of the New Testament, the recycling of the OldTestament yet denying its validity always rang false with me. I don't mind the shift and love the role of Christ. I just would prefer a bit more respect for Jesus' historical, cultural and central identity.

I thorough recommend the Chumash with Rashi and the Daily Torah available from Chabad.org as tools towards understanding. Remember, the Torah has 70 facets, not just one!

Pax

MvdV

Lives of the Saints

I have been working with a system recently that is based on the 'Catholic' system of worship.

By Catholic, I mean the literal translation of the word to "Universal" and I use this idea as the basis of my system.

A sense of Universal acceptance of all and attempting to reconcile myself to follow the "Path" (path is a poor word for the feeling I am trying to convey and that term makes me a bit sad on the inside, much like the "Journey" reality television participants talk about) that is part of my role in the universe. The feeling is linked to compassions, grace, 'being in the now' (the Taoist ideal of Wu Wei) and the servant role emphasised in the Christian Tradition. Universal belonging and acceptance of the vastness of that that is me and not me.

Many of the outcomes of this magical system have been identifying links, intuition, opportunities, self-actualisation blinks allied with unfolding a greater identifying of the greater skein of life. Appreciating doors to opportunities and taking some, rejecting others and maybe even creeping through the occasional window I may not have seen through earlier.

By utilising meditation of the Christian tradition (yes it exists and I have a bit of info on it if you want) with the mystical lives of the saints and proto-saints of the places where Christianity and other traditions mixed and mingled (Ireland, Spain etc). These saints are focused on because of the nebulous nature of their stories, we know there are gaps and blending in their realities. There is ambiguity about their existence and relationship with pre-Christian deities/worship systems. I also incorporate some symbols from Afro-Caribbean systems, because of their use of Traditional Roman Catholic symbols.

This magical work is based on ambiguity and the unknown. It is pretty much the opposite of the Masonic Work I usually undertake, but a change is as good as a holiday!

Pax

MvdV

Waite for it....

LXXIV

"That truth is at the bottom of a well is with some people a sufficient justification for allowing it to remain there..."

LVI

"The expression of the greater truths may be possible without cynicism, but the sardonic mood is inevitable..."

XCI
"A surface of commonplace often enables a man of genius to escape observation..."

III
"The last lesson of a liberal education is that, at least in the ordinary course, there is nothing that matters..."


A.E. Waite,
Steps to the Crown

While he may be difficult to read due to his approach to prose. Waite remains one of the luminaries of the Modern Western Tradition.

The above is from a book of aphorisms he presented which I would commend to you as something to enjoy and re-read over the years...

Pax,

MvdV

Post- Presentation Post

Well, it went surprisingly well.

It was actually received quite well, and in the spirit it was offered.

I used a 'Catholic' emphasis that allowed a lot of members of staff to think that it was acceptable within the Catholic context. I used Catholic and Eastern examples and Saints to emphasise how 'mainstream' Christian contemplation on the word of God is.

If you would like an outline of what I presented, please feel free to contact me via this site/Google+ and I'll forward it too you.

In other interesting things, I came across this site today while doing some google-fu on "Magical Schema".

http://witching.org

A great Meta-Data project on early Witchcraft in England.

Pax

MvdV

Keeping it quiet...

As an Esotericist, I find working in an Evangelical Christian School to be a little bit of a challenge sometimes. Scrap that, it's a challenge ALL the time. The inability of some of my peers to even get close to understanding non-literal readings of Scripture is mind boggling. They are all fantastic, caring, charitable and loving educators who have a great love for Jesus, but they struggle when confronted with a different point of view. As a result of this I have kept my membership of Freemasonry, interest in the Occult and the Western Mystery Tradition a bit of a silent fact. I have not denied it when asked about it by students and staff (I do wear a Masonic ring), but I have not advertised the fact openly to my peers. It's sad, but I don't want to come into my office and find flyers and pamphlets on my desk trying to 'save me'. I am already saved and need no help staying in that state.

I am not expecting to be treated differently when my peers 'find out' I am different to their norm, but I know I'll be treated differently... If you know what I mean.

Members of staff are on a roster to do a Staff 'Devotion' on either a Monday or Friday morning. We do one a year and it is a bit of a big deal. The Admin are looking for something that adds to the Christian focus of the school, and emphasis of prayer, a Christian teaching or something that can be used to point at how the majority view of the school is the right one.

I intend to do a devotion on the importance of Christian Meditation/Mysticism and how we can spend time in communion with God without asking for anything. Just hanging out, getting to know God and what God is like. This may involve introducing them to some concepts they may find tricky; Saints, Mysticism etc etc. But I feel that a focus on just being and spending time trying to figure out what we are in the light of our relationship with God. This focus on relationship can turn us from a me first, gimmy gimmy relationship with the Divine and work towards a partnership, much like the relationship we need to cultivate with other forces/gods/essences/eminations etc etc I have laked about earlier.

We'll see how that goes...

Pax,

MvdV