Qabbalah Water

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Saturday 1st November 2009

QABALAH - ZEN OF THE WEST (PART 1)

So the third installment of my Duquette experience was this fabulous day long workshop on the Qabalah - specifically Duquette's particlar take on it called "Chicken Qabalah" after his pseudoepigraphical character Rabbi Lamed ben Clifford's take. It was probably just as interesting hearing of the wiriter's process in creating such a character, abnd how the character is you, but can speak in a voice you never would - and inevitably begins to take on a life of its own.

Lon summed up the qabalistic approach very nicely with phrases like "Inscrutable Illumination" and "External Mysticism" (as opposed to the "Internal Mysticism" of the East). Qabalah is not a religion in and of itself - despite being tied intimately to it's Judaic roots - but it is priamrily a way of thinking. It is a way of thinking which orders the Universe into a neat and arbitrary package. I so appreciate Lon's use of the word arbitrary - again synchronistically it ties in with my current reading of The Occult Mind in which Lehrich asserts that any occult system of thought is necessarily arbitrary and culturally specific. This isn't a new idea, but he is somewhat distinctive in his acceptance of and tentative embrace of that fact (in his rigid academic and scholarly way).

The Qabalah is a system of Hebrew mysticism which uses the forms, symbolism and names of Judaic scripture. However its particular way of thinking is not entirely unique, and would actually be quite familiar to a lot of modern physicists.

We start at the very Beginning (a very good place to start) with 913. Yes that's right - BRAShYTh "In the Beginning..."

I'll have to come back to this post at a later point as I've run out of time at work...

To be Continued...!

Qabalah Water and Thothapalooza

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Friday 30th October 2009

SPIRITS OF THE TAROT

Okay I couldn't think of a really witty blog title relating to Tarot. That's alright, I don't often talk about them. Lon's Lecture was a distillation of his book on Crowley's Thoth deck and ideas contained in a chapter of Chicken Qabalah. So they weren't necessarily new to me, but listening to Lon talk about it all was just fantastic. He related the story of designing his deck - the Tarot of Ceremonial Magick, which he had laid out on the table before him. The sheer complexity of the symbolism contained in each card was impressive, but when he showed how you could line the cards up to create an Enochian Great Table of Watchtowers I was staggered. It really did encapsulate the idea of the Tarot being a representation of the entire Universe.

His recounting of the history and development of the Tarot as we know it today was new to me. There is an excellent chapter in The Occult Mind by Christopher I. Lehrich (see right) concerning the Tarot and particularly how its nature expresses the nature of occult thought. I also have a book I am yet to read called Origins of the Tarot Deck which also extends to other games and divinatory systems.

Lon's take was very down to earth - as is to be expected - but suitably incorporating the spiritual element. The Tarot as we know them are undeniably spiritual objects, but how did they become more than mere games of chance and entertainment? Lon speaks fot eh two separate card games of Tarrochi and "Mamloc" (didn't get the spelling of this from Lon but after searching I found references to the Mamelukes (see Mamluk) as a likely precursor to the traditional deck of playing cards we are familiar with. The former contributed the Triumphs/Trumps - the 22 Major Arcana - and the latter contributed the 56 Minor Arcana.

Contrary to what some occult writers would have us believe there was no brainstorming convention of esotericists in antiquity when these cards were conceived and organised with precision. It has been demonstrated that these cards have no documented usage as anything other than a social past time and game prior to the 18th Century. Lehrich asserts a specific origin as a divinatory tool, but rather than being an act of occult significance it is more a misreading and misappropriate of scholarship and history from a time when Egypt was not the historical Egypt but "Aegypt" - the illud tempus or "time which is now and always" a time out of time. If there was an Aegypt which was the haven of idyllic spiritual understanding, then we have clearly fallen far from this pristine time. And if we have in our very hands the remnants of that knowledge and profound understanding we have lost, we can perhaps bring humanity closer to that prisca theologica (the doctrine of a single, pure and veritable religion, inevitably one which has been lost and many (most) religious and psiritual traditions are trying to recapture or aspire to).

Unfortunately the Tarot simply shifted themselves together with little to no planning. Lon's assertion is that if you shake anything (from a tray of magnetic sand over magnetic plates to a deck of cards to a cylinder of yarrow sticks, etc) they will fall along the same or similar lines which represent a Universal quality - a mathematical quality. We had a brief digression into Qabalah this night - which I'll go into at greater length in my next post about the Sunday workshop. Essentially we introduced the concept of Unity (divinity) dividing itself into a series of qualities, giving rise to common and familiar principles. 1 into 3 (Aleph - height, Mem - breadth, Shin - depth), which is at the same time 7 (these 3 principles seen as binaries - 6 - plus the central point - 7), which gfives rise to the cubic space of 12 edges.
- 3 dimensions, 3 primal elements, 3 mother letters.
- 7 points of intersection, 7 planets, 7 double letters.
- 12 edges, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 simple letters.
This is the cube of space, seen in numerous esoteric traditions. It is the primal centre which unfolds at the moment of creation, and simultaneously is all of creation. It contains everything that was potential at the "beginning" and therefore everything that is "now" is still contained within it.

I'm again reminded of the illud tempus, and also of Reb. David A Cooper's book God is a Verb.The good Rabbi talks not about Creation (a thing which has happened) but Creation-ing (a thing which is ongoing) and not God (a man in the clouds with a white beard) but God-ing (a process, an outpouring, and action - i.e. a verb).

ANYWAY, Lon basically said that if you shake antyhing, it will fall along these universal lines. The Tarot fall along these lines. The Major Arcana are made up of 22 cards (3, 7, 12) which can each be linked to a Hebrew letter, an element, planet or sign of the zodiac, and the totality of the Tarot deck can then be systematically applied to other magical esoteric systems - the Tree of Life, the 72 Goetic demons, the 72 angels of the Shem ha-Mephorash, the temporal calendar, etc, etc.

The coolest thing Lon spoke about would have to be his own deck and the way he spent three days and two nights (I think) ritually invokiing every single spirit of the Goetia and the Shem-ha-Mephorash into the "mother" deck of his cards when he received it from the publisher. When you view the Tarot this way - every card does literally contain spirits because the represent a part or a facet of the Universe.

Further Qabalistic musings were great penny drop moments for me. Imagine a Qabbalist sitting thinking about God. God is one, God is Unity, God is perfect. What can you say about this God? Not much except that it is very unified, and one-ish and singular. What if we broke it in half? It wouldn't be as perfect as the One, but we'd be able to say more about it. Then we have the idea of Two - God is duality. Now we can say a bit more about God - hot/cold, high/low, good/evil, light/dark, etc, etc. What if we break it up a little more? Not as perfect as the Two, and certainly not that fabulous One, but what can we say about Three? LOTS of things! Not only do we have polar opposites but we have something in between - hot/medium/cold, high/middle/low, thesis/synthesis/antithesis, etc, etc. Breaking it up even more we get more and more facets and can see more and more unfolding from the One, but each, although containing the perfection of that One, is imperfect because of its distance and dependence upon the One. Now imagine that this Qabalist in not a little old Rabbi with a beard and a hat, but the One itself. All of this is the One thinking about itself.

I also had a major penny drop about Dee's Monas Hieroglyphia, which I read recently and must admit had a lot fo trouble understanding! But I finally got the whole 1 is 2 is 3 is 4 is 5 is 6, etc, etc. I might do a separate post about that.

In any case, according to the system of correspondences, as a Sagittarian born on the date I was, I fall under the following influences/have ties to the following Spirits:
- Major Arcana: Temperance (Art) card,
- Minor Arcana: Queen of Disks, 10 of Wands (Oppression)
- Archangel: Advakiel
- Angel: Saritiel
- Shem-ha-Mephorash Angel: Reiiel
- Goetia: Ronove
- Qlipothic Intelligence: Saksaksalim
- Order of the Qlipoth: Nachashiron - Snakey Ones

One question which still remains is the attribution of the 36 small or pip cards of the Minor Arcana to the Planets and Zodiac. Aries is the start of the Wheel of the Zodiac, but Saturn is the beginning of the Qabalistic planetary order, however in the system of attribution, the 1st decan of Aries is attributed to Mars, not Saturn. I naturally asked this question and Lon said it was a very good one. Apparently it was MAthers or Waite who made the attribution which essentially leads to the wheel starting with the energy of Mars dignified in Aries, and finishing with Mars in the 3rd Dec of Pisces, hence Mars is doubled up. This doubling gives the energy of the Wheel a little push over the edge. Personally I find this very arbitrary - the Wheel may just as well start and end with a double Saturn, which could symbolise a diminishing, or a death, commencing in a rebirth and moving on to an expansion with Jupiter. But, I know that this is a system, and as no system is perfect, it works in spite of - or perhaps because of - its imperfection.

Little snippet sof info I'd love to have been able to explore on the following day workshop on the Tarot include that all the Court cards reside in the Aces. Also the justification for the Shem ha-Mephorash attributions makes a lot of sense - there are 36 pip cards, and twice 36 is 72 - hence the 72 Shem ha-Mephorash angels and the 72 Goetic demons, so each card contains 2 angels and two demons.

Enough about Tarot, I could ramble for a lot longer and this is already epic!

Next will be some deeper Qabalistic analysis and ruminations!

Spirit Actions

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Thursday 29th October 2009

Enochian magic has been a fascination since about 2005 when I read the dubious text "Enochian Magic for Beginners" by that pillar of scholarship Donald Tyson. I was at the time in the midst of my Reiki study and was most intrigued at the mention of these Angels Skilled in the Arts of Healing" in the eastern sub-angles of the Great Table of the Watchtowers. I designed a ritual whereby the system of healing I was familiar in - Reiki - could speak tot he system I was not familiar with - Enochian. It was intended as a first rite in which I very ambitiously wanted to contact all four kings of the Watchtowers. It was basically a Golden Dawn style usage of the material - I printed out the flashing colour tablets and used them and I relied on the pronunciation of the keys in "The Ritual Magic Manual" by David A. Griffin - probably the only time I've really used that thing, which I've since learnt is considered somewhat of an abomination, especially by orthodox Golden Dawn-ites. Despite it's hodge-podge nature, and the in some ways diametrically opposed systems, and despite my not insignificant terror at what could possibly happen, it was an incredibly successful ritual - incredibly! I found myself in a prolonged visionary experience full of imagery and landscapes I have since seen innumerable descriptions of, I received several symbols and gestures direct from the Kings, and a universe in itself was opened to me. I have since not returned to the Enochian universe, but have spoken to many a person about it, read a lot more (good and bad) and late last year/earlier this year plans were in the works to begin an Enochian working group with my Order Sorors and Fraters, which never properly eventuated, or rather, hasn't YET eventuated.

Enough personal history though - the lecture. Before it even started Soror L quietly took me aside and asked what I was doing on Monday. I said I wasn't sure and asked why. She said she was taking Lon sightseeing in the Blue Mountains and there was a spare seat in her car. She needed say no more - I said I would clear my diary and be there. More about that later. This night was my first meeting with Baba Lon and I was naturally nervous and awestruck at this towering and hilarious intellect. Very unassuming at first, his dry humour makes him somewhat of an esoteric stand up comedian. He takes the work absolutely seriously, but does not take himself seriously quite in the same way.

He started by introducing the origins of the John Dee and the contemporary thinking with regards to evoking spirits. It only then occurred to me that the proscribe act of ritually bathing and putting on fresh clothing prior to invokation would actually have been a pretty huge thing in that day and age, considering the cost of fabrics and seamstresses, and the fact that unless it was April, you wouldn't even think about putting deodorant on let along have a bath. That act had a simple yet profound significance it no longer has in this day and age of ubiquitous plumbing and irrigation. If taklen ritual showers or baths before, but rarely put into them the attention I think this fact necessitates. I may shower everyday, but a ritual shower is a ritual act.

Having read Woolley's "The Queen's Conjurer" I had a pretty good idea about how fabulous Dee was, but the point that Lon makes in "Enochian Vision Magic" is that the Enochian system as we know it would have been vastly different (and probably much more easy to understand and enter into) if ANYONE but a genius mathematician, philosophy, code-obsessed nerd like Dee had been the receiver. These angels spoke to him in such a way that his psyche would understand and respond. If they had spoken to a poet we would have had divine eloquence, if he had spoken to a musician we would be able to hear the mind of God in transcendent melody and harmony, but no, we had Dee - numbers, grids, geometry, vast complexity.

Duquette tradition informs us (this is Lon's key phrase for "this is not necessarily historically accurate") that Dee wanted to know if his friend Laski would be King of Poland. The angels said Sure! We'll tell you that. But first you need to understand what WE think of when we say "Laski" or "King" or "Poland"... or "Europe"... or "Earth"... or "Heaven"... or "planet"... or "galaxy"... or "Universe"... or "God." Lon argues that the angels set about circumscribing the entire universe for Dee and Kelley in order that they could contextualise themselves within in. This came in stages, building in complexity. He used the analogy of a beginner magician learning the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram as a first order of duty. This gets the magician the illusion that he knows WHERE he is - it orients him on the Earth, or at least the Earth he thinks he is in. THEN he moves on to learn the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram, which orients him in the Solar System, then he moves on to progressively more and more complex ritual actions which parallel the expanding complexity of his Universe.

We went on to briefly examine the Sigillum Dei Aemeth and the elegant structure of it and the dynamic nature of its construction - I loved his description of it as like a "basket" focussing energy woven together. We have the Lamen worn on the magician's breast, constructed from two misaligned tables, which reflects our imperfection as manifest human beings. We have the Holy Table itself, constucted from the same table which was flawed to make the Lamen, but has been corrected in it's alignment - making the Table of Practice a representation of the perfect Universe. So by wearing the Lamen the magician places himself as an imperfect part in the perfect universe and is drawn to perfection by virtue of what he wears.

We then as a group performed Lon's simple Enochian invokation and we all skryed the 30th Aethyr TEX. This involved a preliminary statement of sanctification, declaration of authority with the Ring and the Lamen - we put these on ourselves in our own minds because we didn't have a pretty gold one like Lon. We then began chanting the names of the letters around the outer edge of the Holy Table of Practice starting at the top right and working counter-clockwise. We chanted these seven times - 7 times circumscribing the edges of the universe. All the while Lon was chanting the letters in the centre of the Table 7 times.The visionary aspect began here. I felt hot all over and my legs just kept restlessly jumping, like I wanted to just leap up in the air. It was like air was rushing around up and there was a cacophany of activity. I could see the rows of chairs with the group of us sitting and chanting while the room around us was swept away. I'd like to say it was like we were rushing down a tunnel, but it wasn't quite.

We then said another mini-prayer before reciting in groups the words of the Tablet of Nalvage while Lon recited the Call of the 30 Aethyrs for TEX. We then finished this chant and Lon recited the Call again. This was when the visionary shit got really intense. The activity aroud us increased. Flashes of light, a dust storm of purple and orange and light and dark. Then there was something like an altar or plinth ahead - basically a truncated pyramid of yellow stone, like sandstone - spinning or approaching, then spinning again - a bit like the way the TARDIS in the more recent Doctor Who incarnation spins through space. The group, and the lines of chairs is gone and I am by myself in a sort of temple with a marble floor and square trapezoidal arches. The roof may be open, or it may not be. The altar is before me and seems to have some kind of pool of wtaer aroudn it - blacky-purpley water. There are people rushing everywhere around me - ghost like people that come and go, streaking past - a bit like an interdimensional Times Square. I hear words spoken all around me. Then there is no one there but me. Then the activity is back, then gone, then back. I kneel down, almost as if I am compelled, before this plinth. There is a male figure before me. (EXPLICIT INTERDIMENSIONAL BIZARRENESS WARNING:) I see an erect phallus. It's blue - sky blue. I take it in my mouth, then I don't, then I'm receiving fluid from it. Then the figure is gone. I see another hooded figure behind the plinth to the left of it watching me from under a hood. It steps behind a wall out of sight. Lon is meanwhile reading the names of the four Governors of TEX: DOXMAEL, TAAOGBA, GEMNIMB, and ADVORPT. Then I am alone there but for four figures staning around me.

I think it's a fair assumption these are the four Governors. So, being proactive, I draw one of the symbols I received from the Elemental Kings. The four Governors immediately burst into joyous applause. I then hear a voice saying DOXMAEL and one of the figures steps forward and draws a simple sigil in the air - it is like a boiling down of the original symbol. I repeat his gesture and they all applaud again. This gesture is repeated for all four symbols, each time a different Governor steps forward and traces a simplified symbol - which is at the same time a gesture. I'm planning another trip back to visit to try the original gestures I received, and also see their reaction to the strange Enochian phrase I received a long time ago, which first set me on the road to Enochiana. I tried this during this little group ritual, but we were pulled out of it and while the "state" of TEX held firm, the vision of it began to rock and disintegrate like a shakey hologram.

It ended with a few of us describing what we were seeing or had seen. A nuimber of us had experienced the sensation or image of spinning. Columns featured in others - and mine had slanted columns in that trapezoidal canopy.

We wrapped up the talk, and I was still floaty and awestruck. It was the most hilarious mind fuck I'd ever experienced. And I mean mind fuck in the best possible way - as my account of the Qabalah lecture will show.

I had a lift home from Frater D, and discussed the possibility of my attending his next Masonic Lodge meeting (another story I guess - I mention it only for the potential of personal posterity). I barely slept that night, but I didn't have a heap of wild dreams like I expected to. The following day many others had the same reaction - except Soror L who said she slept like a log. Darn her.

Raisin Affairs

LON MILO DUQUETTE VISITS AUSTRALIA!!

The road to hell is paved with good intentions of maintaining my poor neglected blog. And indeed the road to Hell was explored (if not really trod) this weekend past. Arguably one of the foremost occultists writing and practising in the (Western) world today, Lon Milo Duquette, and one of my favourite occult writers, has just completed (or will after his lecture for the OTO and Masonic folks tonight) the Sydney leg of his first ever Australian tour. I had heard rumours of this tour for over a year, and dates finally manifested about four or five months ago. When I heard I cleared my diary and spared (almost) no expense.We had the following:

Thursday: Introduction to Enochian Magic
Friday: Spirits of the Tarot
Saturday: Introduction to Crowley's Thoth Tarot (day workshop)
Sunday: Qabalah: Zen of the West (day workshop)
Monday: Introduction to Solomonic Magick - Goetia.

As it happened I could only afford one of the day workshops, so I went with the Qabalah - the Tarot evening lecture was enough, and as I understand there wasn't a lot I wouldn't already know, or couldn't work out myself. However it sounded like it would have been pretty awesome - aparently he went through each of the Major Arcana and dissected their origins, and the imagery in each of the Thoth deck and their significance/s and all the things you don't notice. Apparently Justice is the Fool's wife! Sorry I missed it, but glad I could do all the others.

I'm gonna do a separate post for each of the workshops because their focus was quite different, even though many of the elements beld into eachother - unavoidable in Western occultism. My companions for the weekend were e:.C:.T:. Sorors L and V and Frater D, and a few other folks I know, or met there including a Gnostic priest who is the only other individual I've met who was loopy enough to construct a bodybuilding altar (gave me ideas for mine actually) and proposed we go into partnership (in the gym that is).

The whole weekend has really galvanised me, and in more ways than simply being charged with an electrical current. Duquette's approach to spiritual inquiry and the practical exploration of self, divinity and the universe is at once profoundly deep, and profoundly whimsical. Possibly my favourtie quote from the lectures was "The big magic is becoming Solomon, not doing the Magic [itself]" which reminded me so strongly of the e:.C:.T:. aphorism: "It is the work of the magician to change his mind." Duquettes special skill to is to make complex and daunting ideas straighforward and understandable (if not necessarily easy or simple).

So here is the story of my "adventure" this weekend, and it was an adventure, because as Lon says, every adventure makes you a different person, which I am now more keenly aware of than ever...