How to feel energy, this is something I know I wanted to experience for so long when I was younger. I believed there was more to life but wanted some kind of experience of it to verify my beliefs. Well, it took me a while but eventually I learned these skills and could finally tick that personal experience off my list. Here in this post, you will also learn how to feel energy and learn how this can become the foundation for further exciting training. If you want fully comprehensive training on this then you can see this course.
Below we provide guidance from Bob the founder of SixtySkills. I include both the text and video below.
Imagine the ability to feel like you’re 20 years old again anytime you want to. Imagine having access to boundless and endless amounts of energy anytime you need access to that. Building the ball is an exercise that is a secret of the yoga masters, meditation practitioners, qigong masters, zen masters, and practitioners throughout the ages. It will give you the ability to control your own personal energy and the ability to control the energy of the environment around you.
This will allow you to feel more and feel more completely than you ever have at any point in your life, with the added bonus of not being controlled by your current personal energy limits. Imagine being able to summon all of the energy you need to get through your day with only five minutes while you’re waiting to get on the bus, while you’re waiting to get on the subway, while you’re in the parking lot getting ready to get into your car to go pick up your kids from daycare, or in that five-minute break before the big meeting at work. All of this is possible and very easy to learn how to do in approximately an hour-long course.
How to Learn Building the Ball
We are now going to discuss how to learn to perform the exercise known as building the ball. First, building the ball teaches a practitioner how to manipulate their subtle sense of touch. This is the least degraded of the subtle senses within the human body, and as such, it is both the easiest to learn and the first technique you’re going to learn how to manipulate.
Tactile manipulation of energy is by far the easiest of the meditative arts to learn, and this is important because all of these arts are largely predicated off of the amount of time that you spend practicing them. This exercise will require between one and 10 hours of continuous practice for most people to gain the benefits of it. In some cases, it may be as much as 30 hours, and in very rare cases, it may require as much as 100 hours.
The benefit of being able to do this is that a practitioner can then engage and interact with the energies in the environment around them. This is of crucial importance primarily because learning to develop clairvoyance or subtle sense of sight or clear audience subtle sense of hearing, barring a natural predilection for those abilities, can take an extended period of time. In the most gifted of practitioners, it may require as much as 100 to 200 hours of continual practice to begin to open those subtle senses, and in the less gifted, significantly more.
As such, learning to use your clairvoyance and clear audience could take up to six months or a year or longer in some cases. This is not always true, and again, in the case of gifted people, it may happen relatively quickly. However, your clear sentience or subtle sense of touch is something virtually anyone can unlock in a handful of hours. It is also a very convenient skill because it allows you to work with everyday objects that are sitting around you, and the basic techniques involve allow you to practice while you’re going about your day, which is not true of many of the other techniques we are going to focus on later in this course. So remember, your subtle sense of touch, referred to as clairsentience, is one of the three primary techniques you have to learn to engage in in order to perform any of the yogic and meditative abilities effectively. It is also the easiest to learn and, in most cases, will require less than 10 hours of continuous practice.
The Organization of Energy and Matter
We are now going to cover the organization of energy and matter within the phenomenal universe. When performing yogic and meditative arts, we are primarily dealing with three levels of reality: the physical level of reality, the energetic level of reality, and the mental level of reality. The physical level of reality represents just that; it represents the chair that I’m sitting on, the hand touching the leg, or any of the other conventional ways of looking at matter and reality around us. It is the primary objective of most engineering and the hard sciences and has the most to do with your day-to-day in terms of how you move around. As such, we don’t need to discuss this at elaborate length.
The energetic level of reality does require a bit more discussion, and this represents the primary level of reality that you will be engaging with in the exercise known as building the ball. The energetic level of reality constitutes emotion, sensation, and what most people would refer to as energy, both energies that can be measured such as phenomenon within the electromagnetic spectrum and energies that you could feel, for example, pinpricks upon the skin or the sensation of hot or cold on the skin as well. By learning building the ball, you are taking your first steps into the esoteric by learning to manipulate the part of the environment that is around you that most people render to be a subtle or non-manipulative environmental factor.
By this, I mean something that you passively experience. We’re going to change this into a situation where you are actively engaging that. An important part of the energetic realm to keep in mind is that it is largely bereft of the sensation of time, which is why emotions and sensations can seemingly come out of nowhere, exist for long periods of time, and then suddenly disappear. One of the most common is what we refer to as pain.
Pain can happen as a result of an injury, it can be chronic, and oddly enough, when it suddenly stops, many people who have been affected by this sensation for long periods of time don’t actually realize it. As an astral phenomenon or energetic phenomenon, as we’re referring to it here, is again something bereft of the element of time, and this is important to keep in mind. When engaging energetic phenomenon, typically speech slows down quite a bit, the sensation of time is suspended, and moments can seem to last hours and vice versa.
The Mental Level of Existence
Thirdly, we will be dealing with the issue of the mental level of existence. The mental level of existence describes a phenomenon in which there is no sensation of spatial restraint. As such, you are dealing with phenomenon that largely fall into the category of constructs or ideas or sometimes colors. Examples of this include things like morality, legalism, or taxation. These are abstract ideas that don’t necessarily have a physical representation even though their application to the universe can have physical effects.
How to Engage the Energetic Realm
I am now going to describe how you engage the energetic realm. As discussed earlier, the energetic realm is a place that, while it has spatial limitations, lacks the concept of time. Other sensations associated with the energetic realm are slow, soft, and sensual, with the accent upon the central.
So what I first want you to do is I want you to take your hands and hold them next to each other, just close enough to where you can feel the heat coming off of one hand onto the skin of another. If it helps, you can hold the palm of one hand against the back of your hand or against the back of your arm, and I want you to hold it there until you can feel the body heat coming off of the hand onto the back of the hand or the back of the arm.
Focus your attention on this very softly in a relaxed manner. What you’re going to find next is that the heat coming off may kind of come in waves, but it’s not continual, and this happens very, very, very slowly, maybe only once or twice per minute, depending upon your individual pulse rate.
You’ll also notice that this sensation is very soft; it is not hard like picking the back of the hand with a pen or your nail but, in fact, feels very soft, almost like the caress of a piece of linen or touching a pillow or a feather. If you have one of these objects handy, you can also use one of these.
What we’re getting you to do here is to pay attention to just how subtle this can be. So hold your hand there for just an instance; you can even move it back and forth a little bit, then pull it away. Now pay attention to the back of your hand; you’ll notice the sensation of heat or that soft sensation is now no longer there.
Go back and do this again; place the palm just over the skin of the hand, and again, wait until you feel a little bit of warmth or heat there. Notice how this feels soft. Notice how when you move it up and down the back of the hand, you can feel that kind of soft heat move with it as well. Do this on your own for a second or two. Again, remove your hand; notice how that sensation leaves. The head no longer feels quite as warm, and you certainly don’t feel that almost soft kind of caress coming from the body heat of your other hand.
Introduction to Pore Breathing
We will now begin to discuss the concept of pore breathing. Breathing is the primary method by which you power the building the ball exercise. So what I want you to do is I want you to get into a comfortable seated position with your back straight, preferably not leaning against something. If you suffer from chronic back pain, you can put a pillow in your back or do whatever is necessary to be comfortable.
This is not a power-building exercise; this is a sensation-building exercise that is designed to teach you how to manipulate your subtle sense of touch. As such, you need to be in a comfortable position and should not be stressed in any way. If it is comfortable for you, you can cross your legs or, if you prefer, simply place your feet flat upon the floor. Once you’ve done this, I want you to go into your upright body position.
Imagine a light hand pulling from the top of your head, making your spine straight. I want you to place your tongue on the roof of your mouth directly behind the teeth, and I want you to breathe in through your nose and out through your nose with the physical breath. Do this a few times. Now, as you were doing this, I want you to visualize light and heat entering the pores of the skin, going into the center of your body into your lower abdomen on the inhale, and then on the exhale, I want you to imagine that same light and heat passing out through the pores of your skin with the exhale. I want you to do this a minimum of nine times on your own, and you can do this for five, ten, or fifteen minutes or greater length of time as you wish.
Begin now; I will walk you through this. On the inhale, visualize light and heat entering through the pores of your skin into your lower abdomen. Then, on the exhale, I want you to visualize this light and heat leaving the pores as well. Inhale; breathe in through the pores of your skin, seeing light and heat enter the lower abdomen. Exhale; feel the light and heat leave the pores of your skin back into the environment around you. As you inhale and exhale, you may feel a light pinprick sensation on the skin.
This is important to remember as this is the vital energy of the body entering and leaving the body. Always keep the sensation in mind as you breathe in, visualizing light and heat coming in through the pores, and breathe out, feeling that same light and heat pulling any possible sensation of tension, discomfort, or any kind of emotion that’s bottled up inside of you out through the pores of your skin back into the environment around you. Inhale light and heat in through the pores of the skin into the lower abdomen. Exhale the light and heat and anything else you wish to get rid of from the lower abdomen out through the skin, out through the pores, back into the environment around you. Do this several times on your own.
The Build the Chi Ball Exercise
We are now going to build the ball. Get back into your seated position in your chair as comfortable as you can be. Suspend from the top of your head, imagining a hand pulling up on the top of your crown, straightening your spine. Place your tongue behind your two front teeth on the soft part of your mouth. I want you to inhale and exhale through your nose, and I want you to start with the last exercise of breathing light and heat in through the pores down to the lower abdomen on the inhale.
On the exhale, I want you to visualize that same light and heat and anything you want to get rid of leaving the lower abdomen and exiting the body via the pores on the skin, filling the environment around you. Inhale light and heat through the pores; exhale through the pores and the skin.
Now, I want you to pick your hands up and hold them in a comfortable position right in front of you, arms at a 90-degree angle or any position that you’re going to be able to hold for a few minutes straight. Now, as you inhale, inhale into the lower abdomen via the skin. Then, as you exhale, this time I want you to exhale through the palm of the hand, and I want you to visualize seeing a ball of light in front of you. Inhale through the pores into the lower abdomen; exhale through the palm of the hand, filling a ball of light. Inhale; exhale.
Now, as you’re doing this, I want you to remember that pinprick sensation you got from the earlier exercise, that sensation of vital energy in the body, and I want you to feel for the leading edge of that ball. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms, feeling for the leading edge of that ball. For some people, the ball may be very small; for others, the ball may be larger. Take a few minutes to do this. Roll your hands around the edges; feel the edges of that ball, and do this for as long as you need until that sensation becomes concrete, like you’re running the hands over the skin of a water balloon.
If it helps, place your attention inside the center of the ball. Inhale to the pores; exhale to the palms. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Move your hands around; smooth the edges of the ball out while you’re inhaling and while you’re exhaling through your nose, slowly in a non-rushed fashion. Inhale; exhale. Inhale; exhale. Make the ball a little larger using a few breaths, and when you lose that sensation, go back in until you feel the edges again. Take a few breaths. I want you to make the ball larger by pushing more and more light and heat into it, and when you can’t seem to make it any bigger, I want you to start to condense the ball down smaller and smaller.
As you do this, the edges of the ball become a little warmer; the edges of the ball become a little more solid. Take your time; inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Slowly bring the ball down in size until it stops responding, and you’ve got it as small as you can. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms. Smaller and smaller; inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms.
Inhale through the pores; exhale through the palms until the hands almost touch each other, and then hold the ball there, just feeling its edges, feeling that warmth, feeling that heat, putting in the back of your mind that this represents the vital force of the body, the basic energy of life. Hold this for a few minutes, and then, when you’re ready, let it go.
Conclusion
So now you have successfully learned ‘How to feel energy’. It was not nearly as hard as many think it is, you just need a good method, positive outlook and some patience and within a few short minutes to an hour you get to feel energy.
If you would like to continue your training then you can take the following course Building the Chi Ball this gives you a thorough training in how to feel energy and how to work with it. This builds a foundation for further work with energies.
The Three Transformations – Free Course
The ancient Chinese sages spoke of jing, chi and shen. The Hermeticists of old spoke of vital, astral and mental energies. Both spoke of ways to convert one energy into another. And the Three Transformations were born!
Ever wonder how to do this exactly? Wonder no more. It turns out this is not some mysterious thing that exists only for the greatest of saints. All the details behind how to convert one of the basic natal energies into another, why you would want to perform the Three Transformation and the various issues involved are included in this SixtySkills course.
In an article called Franz Bardon’s Initiation into Hermetics: Common Subjects & Why No Progress, I write about reasons why someone may struggle to progress in Franz Bardon’s Initiation into Hermetics (IIH). In that piece, I touched on some issues that can arise with teachers, but I think these points deserve a clearer and more focused discussion.
In that previous post I wrote:
This is a sensitive subject as a good teacher can save you years and a bad one can cost you years. I have had experience of both, and this only strengthened my view that the trusting of oneself is vitally important. So, in regard to teachers by all means gain information from experts in the field but maintain self-responsibility for your own life. So often in spiritual groups intelligent, talented people slowly defer decision making to the teachers as if supposed spiritual progress makes these teachers an expert in every other aspect of life.
To be clear this post is not directed only at the Bardon path it is directed at the teacher – student relationship. We see these things occur in spiritual groups, yoga groups, martial arts groups, etc – wherever we have a teacher student dynamic some of these things can occur.
It’s surprisingly easy, even for intelligent and well-meaning people, to fall into the role of an obsessed student or a controlling teacher. In both cases, they often believe they’re doing the right thing. A teacher might truly think they know what’s best for their students, believing their own hype, while a student may feel their soul depends on the teacher’s guidance. This can lead to the views of friends, family, or partners being ignored as the teacher-student relationship takes over.
Lastly, I want to explain why Perseus works with the teachers it does. These relationships are built on trust and respect. The teachers we collaborate with have spent their lives developing their magical skills while also working on their character—something I think is just as important. While we may not always share the same worldview, I trust these teachers genuinely want to help their students grow.
At Perseus, we see teaching more as coaching than traditional spiritual instruction. The goal is to help students find their own path, not enforce strict ideas or control. I also value the honesty of our community—people aren’t afraid to speak up if something seems off. This balance of experienced teachers and a vocal, engaged community helps us create an environment where learning and trust go hand in hand.
Disclaimer
This article isn’t aimed at anyone in particular—seriously, it’s not. But, if the shoe fits, it might be worth taking a moment to think about it.
Understanding the Role of a Magical Teacher
A magical teacher is meant to be a mentor—someone who shares their knowledge, experience, and insights to help their students develop their own abilities. The best teachers empower their students to grow, think critically, and trust their intuition. However, the role of a teacher goes beyond imparting skills—it also includes fostering a healthy and respectful community for students to thrive in.
When bullying, manipulation, or inappropriate behavior is ignored or excused, it reflects a failure of leadership. Teachers must be held to high standards, ensuring their behavior and community interactions align with the principles they teach.
When Respect Becomes Obsession
Respecting a teacher is essential, but obsession occurs when admiration turns into unquestioning reverence. A student might begin to see their teacher’s words as absolute truth, ignoring their own instincts or critical thinking. Over time, the teacher’s influence can overshadow all other relationships, causing the student to withdraw from friends, family, or partners.
In some cases, teachers intentionally or unintentionally reinforce this dependency, presenting themselves as the sole source of wisdom or progress. This imbalance erodes personal autonomy and can hinder a student’s development rather than supporting it.
Romanticizing the Teacher
For some students, a teacher’s charisma, authority, and spiritual presence can lead to idealization, sometimes crossing into romanticization. This is especially common in cases where a student views the teacher as a potential romantic partner, creating emotional entanglements that complicate the teacher-student dynamic.
Such fixation not only distracts from learning but may also cause dissatisfaction in personal relationships, as the student begins comparing their teacher to partners or potential partners. Some teachers may even claim to have past-life connections with students, which can increase feelings of obligation or loyalty. These dynamics can distort the relationship entirely, making it less about learning and more about emotional dependence.
Charismatic Teachers and the Illusion of Authority
Charismatic teachers often use subtle tactics to establish authority and foster dependence. They may imply they are privy to divine knowledge, using cryptic comments, smiles, or knowing glances that suggest they understand things beyond ordinary perception. Some may claim their teachings are part of a divine mission or cosmic plan, making students feel that questioning the teacher is akin to defying the divine.
Another common tactic is invoking past-life narratives, where teachers claim to have been a student’s master, guide, or romantic partner in a previous life. This creates a sense of destiny or obligation, making it difficult for students to challenge or break away from their influence.
While these tactics may appear subtle, they often have a profound psychological impact, shifting the relationship from one of mentorship to control. Recognizing these manipulations is crucial for maintaining balance and personal agency.
Arrogance
As teachers gain recognition and success, some begin to believe they are the only ones “doing it right.” This mindset can lead to arrogance, resulting in an abrasive personality or a superiority complex. While this may be wrapped in charisma, it can alienate students and foster a toxic culture where questioning the teacher is discouraged.
This kind of arrogance can extend to students, too, who may adopt their teacher’s attitude and mirror their behaviors. It’s especially important to watch for arrogance in ourselves, as it serves no one and can derail personal growth.
Ultimately, even a teacher with significant skills can still be immature or narcissistic, using their position to harm others rather than helping them grow. As a guiding principle, remember: kindness first, skills second. A truly great teacher uplifts their students rather than putting them down.
Harmful Behavior in Communities
One of the challenges in spiritual communities is the presence of individuals whose behavior disrupts harmony and undermines the group’s purpose. These behaviors can include bullying and belittling others—particularly men bullying other men, or women targeting other women—and males being inappropriate or overly familiar with both single and married women.
Some individuals manipulate situations to elevate their status within the organization. Shockingly, such behavior is sometimes excused or overlooked, with these individuals even being rewarded with leadership or teaching roles. This often leaves members confused and disheartened, questioning the integrity of the community.
It is the responsibility of the teacher or leader to address such behaviors promptly and decisively. Just as workplaces enforce boundaries and professionalism, spiritual communities must uphold clear standards to create a supportive and respectful environment.
Consequences of Unchecked Obsession
An obsessive relationship with a teacher can have far-reaching consequences. Students may become stagnant in their personal and magical growth, unable to think or act independently. Teachers who exploit this dynamic often take advantage of a student’s loyalty, emotional attachment, or even financial resources.
This dependence can lead to disillusionment, loss of autonomy, and damage to personal relationships. The very traits students sought to cultivate—independence, confidence, and personal power—may be lost in the process.
Conclusion
A magical teacher can be an incredible guide, but it’s important to remember they’re human, not perfect. At the extreme end, scandals like those involving Sogyal Rinpoche highlight the dangers of unchecked power, but most issues begin with smaller, subtler boundary crossings.
Teachers may interfere with a student’s time, career, or finances, framing it as necessary for growth. These situations, while often framed as sacrifices, can leave students feeling trapped and exploited.
Healthy teacher-student relationships require trust, clear boundaries, and a focus on personal growth. A good teacher helps students discover their own power rather than taking it away. By recognizing imbalances early and addressing them, students can prevent unhealthy dynamics and build a more empowering learning experience.
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The ancient Chinese sages spoke of jing, chi and shen. The Hermeticists of old spoke of vital, astral and mental energies. Both spoke of ways to convert one energy into another. And the Three Transformations were born!
Ever wonder how to do this exactly? Wonder no more. It turns out this is not some mysterious thing that exists only for the greatest of saints. All the details behind how to convert one of the basic natal energies into another, why you would want to perform the Three Transformation and the various issues involved are included in this SixtySkills course.
In this conversation with Pim Vermeulen, we dive into his personal journey with meditation and Jungian psychology. Pim opens up about how his practice began as a way to end suffering and evolved into a deeper exploration of consciousness, spirituality, and self-realization. From his early experiences with meditation apps to more advanced practices like the Jhanas, and integrating archetypal work, Pim shares raw, personal stories of transformation. He reflects on the challenges and breakthroughs along the way, offering a glimpse into his ongoing journey of spiritual and psychological integration.
PAA: Can you describe your initial encounter with meditation and what drew you to explore it more deeply?
I encountered meditation out of a great desire to end my suffering. When I encountered it, I was in my twenties and suffered from severe burnout symptoms for a couple of years. I remember lying on the floor in my living room while reading a book, when I came across the concept enlightenment as the end of all suffering. I looked up to my ex-girlfriend and said to her something like: “That’s it, that’s the solution, from here on I will aim for enlightenment.” That’s when I started meditating with an app, and later with The Mind Illuminated as a framework for further development of my meditation skills.
PAA: How has your journey as a meditation practitioner evolved since you first started?
Quite a lot. I started mainly focusing on concentration practices, which naturally led me to learning and practicing the jhanas. However, over time my practice has naturally evolved towards either a practice of just sitting or more visualization-based practices, in which the latter is a form of dialogue/going on adventure with the archetypes that present themselves in awareness. Sometimes, often during times of uncertainty, I just need to re-connect with my personal daimon and ask for guidance. Meditation then becomes a way of re-opening the channel.
Being a father of a 6-month old boy though, my meditation practice is mostly based on daily life events. I see the world as a mirror of my own inner world, in which it always shows where there still is work to do. My daimon, the guide from above, makes sure that I can’t sit on my hands for he has a knack of pulling me into high intensity circumstances. And those circumstances often carry the exact themes in which I still get identified and emotional, so I see why these events present themselves.
It’s funny, the evening after typing this I came across this Tao the Ching quote (chapter 13), which summarizes my practice beautifully:
“See the world as your self. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self; then you can care for all things.
This opening felt like a lightning strike to my nervous system and led me to spend 3 to 4 months in complete isolation, for I could not communicate with other people or function normally without feeling severely disoriented.
Pim Vermeulen
PAA: Can you share a pivotal moment or experience that significantly shifted your understanding of meditation or spirituality?
I am one of those people who, after a long period of extreme suffering, simply “blew open”. That moment happened something like 5 years ago, during a retreat with friends at my home. The intensity had been building up for months and I spend most of the mornings crying in my sofa, until one evening something clicked and the dreamlike nature of reality showed itself. This opening felt like a lightning strike to my nervous system and led me to spend 3 to 4 months in complete isolation, for I could not communicate with other people or function normally without feeling severely disoriented. And because of the intensity of the shift, I suffered from extreme tremors which can still, fortunately in milder form, manifest to this day.
Back then I felt that that was IT, but looking back, it was only the beginning. After a year-long void like state perception flipped into quite a wondrous view. I became quite inflated, felt enlightened, so both fortunately and unfortunately, after only 3 months life took care of this once again and I contracted Long Covid. This was such a hard ordeal for me, to lose my bodily strength once again after 5 years of burnout. I think it was this crisis that pulled me straight into the underworld. This was the beginning of a long period of wading through archetypal forces, visions, and intense personal trauma, while being in search of my soul. It was a humbling process, and it still is.
Anyway, I often feel as if I’m still integrating all that which was contained in that initial opening many years ago. Over time, it introduced me to my daimon, showed me why I’m reincarnated here on earth, what my individual purpose is and who I am as an individual manifestation of the one source.
PAA: Can you describe your personal journey through learning and experiencing the Jhanas?
They came rather easy to me, which says more about my personal archetypal constellation than anything else. I first started learning the form Jhanas with the help of TMI as a manual and got to experience the 4 of them quite quickly. Not long after, I went to a rather strict 10-day Mahasi Sayadaw based vipassana retreat. But instead of following the instructions, my intentions were set on learning the 4 formless Jhanas with the help of a summary of particular Buddhist suttas. Those 10 days were enough to get a sense of them, and back home access to these states seemed much easier. Later on I heard about the Pureland Jhanas via Kenneth Folk and learned those too.
PAA: Before transitioning away from Jhanas, did you notice any limitations in this practice for your personal growth?
Absolutely. The Jhanas are profound states to abide in, but they’re still states. Although exploring these realms gave rise to specific insights, they also were a movement away from the simple experience that is arising in this moment. If I’m honest, what I really wanted is to become free from this material reality in every way possible, and I saw the jhanas as a potential way “out”. Thereby forgetting that this is such a wondrous world that has so much to offer. So even though human suffering is sometimes tremendous, I now see it as a gateway to the development of human consciousness. As Rumi said, the wounds are the cracks where the light comes in. And humanity needs a lot of light right now. I think this is the biggest reason for me to transition away from the Jhanas, for I did not want to escape this reality anymore. If this right here isn’t enough, what is?
That initial encounter frightened me deeply. I had heard of deities but never assumed them to be “real”, but in this encounter I experienced a force that was clearly not arising from my own personal unconsciousness taking hold of me.
Pim Vermeulen
PAA: What initially sparked your interest in Jungian psychology?
Well, at one moment during my journey through the underworld (collective unconscious in the Jungian framework) a wolf-like being pervaded my personal consciousness. It would specifically come during full moons and almost force me to bite my wife in her neck during the night. That initial encounter frightened me deeply. I had heard of deities but never assumed them to be “real”, but in this encounter I experienced a force that was clearly not arising from my own personal unconsciousness taking hold of me. I knew then that I needed a different framework to deal with these encounters, after which my mentor pointed me to the work of Carl Jung.
It was a gold mine for me, because Jung, who personally underwent a long journey through the underworld (see the Red Book), built an entire psychological framework for dealing with these phenomena. In that sense, it’s a spiritual tradition built on our Western origins that incorporates not only the transcendental aspect, but the psychological aspects too.
PAA: In your transition, how did you begin to integrate Jungian concepts with your existing meditation practice?
Jungian concepts were of enormous help to me, both in my own practice as in my work as a guide and therapist. Take the concept of the shadow for example, which I would define as the unconsciously supressed side of yourself that keeps you from realizing your own innate wholeness. This is a concept that is rarely focused on in Eastern traditions. Transcendence is a legitimate aim, but as we’ve seen, many spiritual teachers carry an enormous unconscious shadow with them, sometimes leading to harmful actions aimed at their followers. Jung’s work and my own psychological work, both with the help of therapist and guides as in daily life, have taught me humility. Whenever I get emotionally triggered, I know there is work to do. For identification only happens when I believe myself to be a separate self that is hurt by a person outside of me. This view, although the dominant view among humanity, is based on delusion when investigated thoroughly. But that takes humility, for we prefer pointing at the other or waving our pain away as illusion instead of retracting the projection and letting it burn inside of us.
Next to this, Jung’s work gave me inspiration on how to deal with the intensity of different archetypal forces. During my journey through the underworld, archetype after archetype would present themselves in my consciousness. They would greatly color my perspective of reality. They would “talk” through me, and I would write down what they had to say. Every archetype has both a light side and a shadow side, and both need to be completely felt and understood before I as awareness itself could dis-identify from the archetype. This sounds simple, but it always felt like “dying” in order to give rise to a new perspective. And it still does sometimes.
For example, one day I was flooded with non-specific dread. I felt as if the world could end in any minute. For months, I would feel this strange terror every day, and when I looked upon the world, I mainly saw its inevitable destruction. Later, that specific archetype presented itself as Apocalypse, which actually is activated in the collective unconsciousness right now. To see through its lens, and feel the annihilation of everything I held dear was a hard burden to bear. But I now see it was necessary, for Apocalypse has a light side too. It is the shedding of the snake skin, the bringing to light of all the old patterns and systems that have to abandoned by humanity to give rise to a new mode of consciousness. God wants evolution, the mythos on the screen of eternity is changing, and it would be foolish to resist this. We can only turn inwards and go through the transition ourselves to help the human species as a whole to prepare for the collective dark night of the soul that is to come. The apocalypse archetype never left me. Although I never talk about it with friends or family, it’s a humbling experience to know the world as you know it is going to change tremendously over the coming decades.
PAA: Among the influential figures you mentioned (Jung, Hillman, Kingsley, Almaas, Levy), whose work resonates most strongly with your current practice, and why?
I have developed my own style of practice based primarily on the work of Jung, Hillman and Levy. For the astrology nerds among you, I’m a virgo rising with my ruling planet mercury in the 1st house, which means the archetypal constellation of my personality is highly analytical but also Hermes-like in essence. Like the Greek Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, jumping between dimensions and receiving messages “from above” feels quite natural to me. That’s perhaps why the more visual-based approaches of Jung and Hillman resonate so much.
I think this is important to mention, because it’s often overlooked that we all are highly unique individuals, even though we’re all interconnected and arise from the same source. The wisdom of astrology was of tremendous help for me to understand how each individual has a unique soul code, a unique archetypal blueprint that defines deeply who they are. For example, I have a friend who is a scorpio rising and has a stellium of planets (5 in her case) in the earthy sign of capricorn. You don’t want to teach a person with this specific constellation the Jhanas, for she is all about feeling, feeling, feeling. Some people are made for magick and occult practices, others are made for feeling-based practices. Knowing your own unique archetypal constellation is tremendously worthwhile in that regard.
My daily practice is, next to having attention always located in either the heart or other parts of my body, to see the world as a mirror of my inner world. My inner world, as a reflection of the collective unconsciousness, contains a limitless amounts of archetypes that can be activated when triggered by external events. For example, the moment I became a father 6 months ago, the baby archetype in me became active. What I did not know but became clear through introspection was that my own inner baby suffered from post-natal trauma, as I was immediately taken away after birth to be injected while surrounded by a group of white cloak wearing doctors. To me this felt like dying, of which the reason why became clear later on. So when I feel that there is a degree of identification with a specific archetype, I know there’s work to do. This means that whenever I get identified, I try to sit afterwards and investigate what just happened. I sometimes literally ask my daimon where this pattern originates, which will sometimes give rise to spontaneous insights about the construction of the karmic pattern. But knowing the source is not enough, it demands to be felt thoroughly. And often, my body desires to move in specific ways too. It wants to do what it couldn’t do when the inner baby was traumatized. So in this specific example, I cried and kicked like a baby while letting all of it arise in loving consciousness.
James Hillman’s work taught me to always follow the symptoms, because these symptoms provide a gateway to the soul, which really is all about remembering who you are. In the previous example of the baby archetype, I received images that seemed completely separate from what happened to me as a baby. I saw myself standing on a stage, in front of an angry mass, who threw rocks at me. For my entire life, my neck wanted to turn to the right in meditation, but I never understood why. Now though, it turned to the right and revealed why it had to do so. There was an executioner standing there, and I was reliving a past life in which I was executioned for speaking my truths. This experience led to me feeling unsafe in groups in this life, as if I could be attacked in each moment, but I never knew why this would be the case. Now I knew.
It showed me the relation between past life events and current traumas. And it showed how past life trauma cyclically manifests itself in your life in order to heal it, as it immediately after my birth did. It taught me that reality is constantly being manifested as a reflection of your inner world, and if your inner world is divided and supressed, chances are that reality often feels unkind. When something “bad” happens to me, I never accept it as bad luck but try to see the reasoning behind it. Because it’s never based on coincidence. Psychological constellation, meaning that your own supressed sides manifest themselves in outer reality, is a thing, and once you see it, you see it everywhere. At the same time, neglecting the daimon’s call, that subtle inner voice that knows the way before you do, is a recipe for disaster. I’ve learned this the hard way many times.
PAA: How has Peter Kingsley’s work influenced your understanding of ancient wisdom traditions and their relevance to modern spiritual practices?
Kingsley’s work has broadened my perspective significantly. He clearly shows that our Western culture originates from civilizations that had unique spiritual practices such as incubation. Nowadays, we in the West believe that people like Pythagoras based his knowledge on rational thinking, but all of it was gifted by the Gods through building a bridge between the physical and spiritual dimensions. Kingsley’s work shows that we’ve forgotten the roots of our Western culture, and the consequences are not hard to see. Most of us have become blind to see that inventions are not ours to claim, but are gifts given to those who remember this ancient connection between humanity and the divine. And these gifts are never for them, they are to evolve humanity as a whole. Kingsley’s work taught me to reconcile my own experiences with a Western historical framework.
My own Western heritage became clear to me after having visionary encounters with Christian archangels. Before that, my mind was drawn mainly to Buddhism as a framework for my experiences. Nowadays, I’ve learned to embrace my own inner Christian myth. And I think we Westerners all should, for Christ is nowhere to be found other than in ourselves.
PAA: How do you integrate meditation techniques, including Jhana practices, with Jungian and archetypal approaches in your work?
I work both as a guide and a Jungian analyst/therapist so integrating these techniques in my work come rather naturally. I mainly use meditation based techniques if a client is completely identified with the stories of the mind, while Jungian approaches are especially effective for people who have a tendency to spiritually bypass their emotions and shadow sides. In that sense, the combination of these two perspectives works wonders for both transcendence and psychological healing and integration. I only teach Jhana practices when people specifically ask for them. I prefer teaching people how to restore the connection to their inner world through active imagination practices and visualizations over teaching the Jhanas, for they tend to awaken their inner feminine aspects which are so highly needed in our world right now.
PAA: How has your understanding of the “awakening” process changed since incorporating Jungian and archetypal perspectives alongside your meditation background?
In the Jungian framework, there is a different term for the awakening process. It’s called individuation. And although it seems as if it implies becoming a whole individual, it also means to surrender one’s sense of self to the divine. Or to become a spoon in God’s kitchen drawer, as Jung himself put it.
Years ago I believed there was a final enlightenment which would liberate me from all my problems. Now, I don’t see how there could be an end to the awakening process. On one hand, awareness itself never changes, on the other, reality as a manifestation of the same source constantly does. Like our galaxy that continuously expands, human consciousness continuously expands too. Our species is a work in progress, and I don’t see the inner work I do as an individual practice anymore. We’re all interconnected, which means that the inner work of one person can have tremendous effects on humanity as a whole. In that sense, I think that what we call awakening now is just the next step in human evolution. Nothing special about it.
PAA: Based on your unique background combining Jhana practices and Jungian psychology, what do you see as the most promising areas for future integration of meditation and depth psychology?
I think that the missing aspect of most spiritual practices nowadays is the psychological aspect. All of us are inherently traumatized and many unconsciously use spiritual practices to escape their own wounds, while it are their unique wounds that offer the brightest gifts to both themselves and humanity as a whole. Jungian psychology and other depth psychology approaches have built a bridge between spiritual practices and psychology, which allows us to effectively work on the wounded aspects of ourselves that need to be re-integrated in our psyche as a whole. If we only focus on the transcendental side, both inflation and psychological projection come rather easily, of which both are tools that Wetiko, to use Paul Levy’s term, uses to keep us from realizing our innate potential.
I’ve seen quite some people who have had legitimate awakenings but keep clinging to the notion that their own emotions are illusions. That it’s all a dream and therefore should not be taken seriously. This is a dangerous view, for it means that these persons see the potentially harmful unconscious actions that arise from being triggered are illusions too. I think that, with the slow re-awakening of the feminine half of the collective unconsciousness, the spirit of the times leads us to work on our deeply supressed feminine aspects. Feeling deeply, experiencing from the heart, not polarizing everything into opposites (which is the tendency of our masculine aspect), but seeing the world from a symbolical viewpoint: As a wondrous myth that is being played out on the screen of eternity, in which all our individual myths play a role. I think depth psychology and other Soul-based approached help us to re-connect with our co-creative potential and inner world. And the inner world is the basis for our external world.
PAA: Really interesting to hear your experiences, thank you for sharing with us.
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In the vast landscape of spiritual exploration, Alex Koritz stands out as a modern-day seeker whose journey transcends traditional boundaries. This intriguing interview reveals how Koritz’s quest for deeper understanding led him from conventional Western religious roots to the mystical teachings of the East, and back again to a renewed perspective on Western esoteric traditions. Through his experiences with Kriya Yoga, the Self-Realization Fellowship, and the teachings of enigmatic figures like Daskalos and Franz Bardon, he offers unique insights into the intersection of various spiritual philosophies. If you enjoy this interview or have any questions, then please let us know in the comments.
If you would like to follow Alex’s work, you can read his articles here.
Background
Background Please briefly introduce yourself and your path. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Alex Koritz. I’m from Salt Lake City, Utah, and come from an average Mormon (LDS) family. Being raised in the LDS Church, I also served a two year proselytizing mission in Columbus, Ohio. I’m a husband and father of three kiddos and two dogs. I own a small public relations firm and now split my time between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Well as we all know, life happens and my spiritual path, like many people, departed from the faith I was raised in.
I became disillusioned with the Hell/Fire/Damnation Jesus which so much of Christianity puts forth, so I was naturally drawn Eastward, particularly toward the Hindu and Budhist traditions. I narrowed my focus to Kriya Yoga and studied with the Self-Realization Fellowship, which was founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in the 1920s. I was ultimately initiated into this tradition and it still makes up a significant portion of my spiritual practice.
The Hindu and Buddhist traditions have a deep reverence for Jesus. In fact, Yogananda discussed and wrote about the ancient traditions of Jesus having visited and studied in India, Tibet and Nepal during his “lost years” in the New Testament. This reverence towards Jesus was initially confusing, and then intriguing. Maybe I needed to take another look at Jesus. During this time, which was about three years ago, I stumbled upon the Cypriot Christian mystic Stylianos Atteshlis (called Daskalos by his students) and fell in love with him and his teachings. I also discovered Rudolf Steiner, who hailed from the same spiritual ‘stream’ as Daskalos; and I also studied many of the Theosophists. These two teachers pointed my back to Jesus and I’m experiencing Christ from a whole new perspective. Another teacher I’ve really enjoyed is modern Rosicrucian practitioner, Robert Gilbert. Through his courses, I was introduced to Franz Bardon about a year ago. I’ve since consumed most of what Bardon has written and his teachings have become part of my spiritual practice, although I still consider myself a Bardon novice. Ultimately, I’m quite ADhD, and my spiritual leanings reflect that as I draw from and incorporate various teachers and traditions into my spiritual practice.
PAA: In what ways does meditation blur the line between the observer and the observed?
A key component of mindfulness is to initially become the observer. As our practices advance, it ultimately leads to a state where the distinction between the observer (the self) and the observed (thoughts, emotions, sensations) begins to fade. We can become so absorbed in the experience that we may no longer feel separate from the object of our observation.
PAA: Can meditation be a form of self-deception? If so, how?
I believe if we’re not careful we can get caught up in experiences. A spiritual experience is great and can bolster your journey along the path, but if we’re not careful, we can chase these experiences and become sidetracked by them. Or even worse, our minds can start to create them which leads down a path of self-deception.
PAA: In what ways might practices like Qi Gong or Reiki be affecting the body-mind system?
Both Qi Gong and Reiki are Eastern energy practices. In addition to Kriya Yoga, Paramahansa Yogananda also introduced a series of energy practices that are very similar to Qi Gong. The esoteric practices revealed by Daskalos and Rudolf Steiner are also energy based. I would suggest that most spiritual practices are energy practices.
PAA: How do different spiritual traditions interpret and work with Kundalini-like phenomena?
Many of the Eastern practices involve raising energy or “prana” from the Kundalini at the base of the spine upward, while most Western esoteric practices focus on drawing the energy downward from the crown chakra. Both Eastern and Western practices focus on transmitting spiritual energy but have different methods unique to their systems.
PAA: What are the ethical considerations in manipulating spiritual energy for personal gain?
A well developed initiate is able to affect the spiritual energy in other people. This can be done, for example, to heal or to manipulate. One should never attempt to access another person’s spiritual energy without consent. Also, true to the Bardon and Rosicrucian systems, a true initiate should never use their spiritual powers for personal gain. This is strictly forbidden as it can easily lead one into the black arts or left hand path. One will also quickly lose the patronage of the spiritual masters from the Astral plane if his/her powers are used for selfishness.
PAA: How might the Kriya technique of “pranayama” be affecting consciousness at a subtle level?
The practice of controlled breathing, along with the deep concentration techniques in Kriya Yoga, has a profound effect on the autonomic nervous system. By calming the nervous system, these practices reduce stress and anxiety, creating a more stable and receptive mind-state conducive to deeper meditation and spiritual experiences.
PAA: In what ways might Kriya Yoga offer a systematic approach to transcending ordinary consciousness?
Kriya Yoga involves specific pranayama (breath control) techniques that help regulate the flow of prana (life force energy) in the body. This regulation and purification of energy channels, known as nadis, are believed to clear blockages and allow for a smoother flow of energy, which is essential for experiencing higher states of consciousness. In addition, Kriya Yoga practices often focus on the chakras, or energy centers in the body. By concentrating on these centers, practitioners can activate and harmonize the chakras, leading to an expansion of consciousness and the awakening of spiritual energies like kundalini, which is believed to be essential for attaining higher states of awareness.
PAA: How do Western esoteric traditions like Rosicrucianism bridge ancient wisdom and modern thought?
I believe that most of the deeply rooted esoteric spiritual practices in East and West draw upon what’s called the Perennial Philosophy. This philosophy was popularized by the philosopher and writer Aldous Huxley in his 1945 book The Perennial Philosophy, where he explored the common spiritual truths found in various religious traditions. However, the form and function of the Perennial Philosophy changes over time and is interpreted by the culture that is receiving it. For example, the guru disciple relationship was designed for the Eastern psyche, while the Western psyche is much more independent and individualistic – particularly Americans. To accommodate this difference in temperament, traditions like Franz Bardon’s, The Golden Dawn, and the Rosicrucians have altered the Perennial Philosophy so that it could be digested by Westerners.
PAA: How does the Western esoteric concept of spiritual evolution compare with Eastern ideas of enlightenment?
The difference between the concept of spiritual evolution in the West versus the East once again comes back to the psyche. The Eastern aspirate is drawn towards a guru who provides direction so that a person becomes a part of the spiritual whole or group. This is contrasted against the Western psyche which is very individualistic and focused on the person’s own individual spiritual development.
PAA: How do Western esoteric teachings on cosmology relate to both ancient mythology and modern physics?
In Western esoteric traditions, such as Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Rosicrucianism, ancient mythological motifs often underpin cosmological models. For example, the idea of the universe emerging from a primordial void (chaos) mirrors creation myths like the Greek tale of Gaia and Uranus. Regarding modern physics, Western esoteric teachings emphasize the unity of all existence, sometimes referred to as the “One” or “Source.” or “Logos.” This concept parallels modern physics’ search for a Unified Field Theory— or a framework that unites all fundamental forces of nature.
PAA: Thank you very much for your time in answering our questions.
This is the third installment exploring the depths of Thelemic practice. In this post “The Joy of Dissolution,” is the subject of discussion which is a book authored by J. Edward Cornelius, Christopher Reed Johnson and Erica Johnson. This post goes deep, diving deep into the complexities of sexual alchemy, Buddhist influences on Thelema, and the ultimate goal of channeling the True Will. A big thank you to Chris and Erica for continuing to push the boundaries of Thelemic literature and providing much-needed guidance for those ready to take on the challenges of the Inner Adept. Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or simply curious about advanced magical practices, “The Joy of Dissolution” promises to be an eye-opening read.
I highly recommend reading the previous two posts from Christopher Reed Johnson.
Sexual Alchemy, I Do Not Exist, and Thelema’s Buddhist Roots
by
Erica Johnson and Christopher Reed Johnson
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. –AL, I:40
The Joy of Dissolution
PAA: Please introduce this book and what benefits it brings to practitioners.
The Joy of Dissolution is one of the few books that casts a spotlight on the second half of the Thelemic path: ego dissolution. This is the task of the Inner Adept. In this second “half of the equation” (AL, I:56), the aspirant converts his or her own lifetime into an alchemical vessel for the Angelic self, the One who took the incarnation. Thelema (“Will”) refers to the law of the New Aeon as disclosed in The Book of the Law, which was received by the British Magician and prophet Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) in 1904. According to this nondual philosophy, every one of us must uncover and live one’s own Angelic nature. Ego dissolution involves becoming dynamically receptive to the Universal Will—the Will of the True Self. As we wrote in the Introduction:
We wrote the entirety of this book to illustrate the simple truth that all knowledge you acquire in the quest to know thyself and all conversations you have herald the Knowledge and Conversation of your Holy Guardian Angel. Every phenomenon is a dealing of God with your soul, and thus every conversation, every perception, and every experience of pain or pleasure is simply an instance of your ongoing dialogue with God.
The importance of the principle to know thyself is aptly described in The Secret High Degree Rites of the Masonic Rite of Memphis by John Yarker:
Whoever shall penetrate into this vault alone will be purified… He will come out perhaps…from the bosom of the earth, and his Soul will be prepared for the revelation of the Mysteries. Child of Earth, sound the most secret corners of thy heart—Know Thyself.1
Today, the maxim “Know Thyself” is more important than ever. Anxiety, loss of faith in something higher, and the fixation on science as the Truth have created an imbalance whereby our connection to nature and God has been usurped by the vision of a cold, mechanistic universe. The realization that we are all Microcosms of the Macrocosm is slowly receding into the background. Only a foggy memory remains as a vestige of our essential connection and unity with the Universe. This sacred, holistic understanding has been supplanted by isolation, alienation, and materialism. Yet with Knowledge of the Self arises an increase in self-confidence and a diminishing of fear, anger, and sadness. Through following the law of Thelema wherever it may lead, you can heal yourself—but only if you realize that any perceived threats emerge largely from within.
Such seeming threats are transparent only because they are functions of the ego.2 Therefore the advanced spiritual aspirant must make the ego transparent to itself. Crowley writes:
One wants to become like a mighty flowing river, which is not consciously aiming at the sea, and is certainly not yielding to any external influence. It is acting in conformity with the law of its own nature, with the Tao. One can describe it, if necessary, as “passive love”; but it is love (in effect) raised to its highest potential. We come back to the same thing: when passion is purged of any “lust of result” it is irresistible; it has become “Law.”3
You must discipline the ego so that you can obey your internal Law, which is necessarily the Universal Law. Again, this requires you “Know Thyself.” Using the “method of science”, you must know your strengths and faults, both actual and potential, both inherited and acquired. Working with an objective knowledge of the vehicle, you can and must discipline the ego so that it becomes quiet. Only in Silence can it acquiesce to the universal currents coursing through it.4
PAA: You state that this is no beginners book, and it is finally something appropriate for advanced students, can you provide more details as to why this is so?
As a Thelemic beginner, you study, strengthen, and balance your outer self so it can eventually function safely as a vehicle for the True Will—which is always unconscious. Only as an advanced practitioner do you reverse the process: you progressively relinquish control so that the divine current can work through your outer self. In other words, as an advanced practitioner you dissolve your ego. Relatively little has been written for the few who are ready to start channeling the divine current. Our book begins there.
As a beginner, you might, for example, carefully test your own physical, mental, and emotional nature and limits by recording the results of magickal and mystical exercises. What are your strengths and weaknesses? You must find out. How have the events of your life led you to pursue the Great Work in the specific way that you do? What is your outer self all about? This type of work is without a doubt the most important part of every Thelemite’s path.
In fact, even as an advanced practitioner, you have to keep on going back and shoring up the foundation of your Temple. Naturally, then, a lot has been written on these early stages of the path that occupies most aspirants for their entire lives. Rightly so. Yet as critical as these early stages are, more and more aspirants today are reaching the point that they can begin to put their lifetime to the universal function for which They took it. We wrote The Joy of Dissolution for these “few & secret” servants (AL, I:10).
PAA: What are the practical implications of inhabiting a state of pure Love beyond the confines of the ego, and how might this state of being inform and transform one’s relationships, creative expression, and engagement with the world?
Even at the beginning of your Thelemic path, you discover that “freedom is a two-edged sword”. The magician and rocket scientist Jack Parsons wrote brilliantly about how there’s no such thing as exercising your Will without allowing everyone else to do their Will first.
The Thelemic path may appear selfish and immoral to those who try to impose rules from the outside—or to those who mistake it for a ticket to harm others without consequence. However, this is the furthest thing from the truth. There is only one Will—the divine Will. If two Stars collide, at least one of them has deviated from doing the True Will into doing whatever they “want”. Thelema immediately requires you to treat others with great respect.
You eventually learn to “Love all things” and people—whether you like them or not. Everything is part of your Universe. The world is your playground. You can advance only if you don’t sell your soul for any of them. Thus, one of the first and, in some ways, most important questions upon contemplating your spiritual journey is this: Are you willing to give up the quest for worldly desires for the chance to serve something higher than yourself? (Letting worldly goods come without trying.)
If so, are you furthermore ready to even give up your fundamental sense of self in the end?
If, upon examining yourself closely, you find that the answers to these questions are “Yes”, then the inner journey is for you.
In the end, those who are ready for simplicity will understand, whereas those who remain entangled in the nets of words, viewpoints, and concepts will inevitably see only what they wish to see.
The aim of all magick is to unify the Above and the Below to channel the True Will. However, to receive and transmit this high amount of energy requires a properly prepared incarnational vessel. Otherwise, the magician’s chakra system may be damaged irreparably.5
Ego dissolution represents an advanced stage of the Work. Only those who have developed certain abilities can approach it safely. You must have an ego receptive to Will. By “receptive to Will”, we mean an ego confident, open to revision and the unknown, and generally ready to be guided. We refer to the process by which the ego becomes receptive as “ego dissolution”:
“This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all” (AL, I:30).
PAA: How does the practice of sexual alchemy facilitate the dissolution of the ego, and what are the specific techniques and rituals involved in this process?
Properly spiritual sexual alchemy represents one of the most potent practices for dissolving the ego. To succeed, it requires of the individual not only a high pitch of sincere spiritual devotion, but also perfect samadhi (concentration) developed through meditation and magickal knowledge of how to wield soul and body—particularly the phallus (penis) or the kteis (vagina)—as an organ of God. In The Joy of Dissolution itself, we go more deeply into both the requirements and the basis of practice. Unfortunately, it is not possible to discuss the practical side adequately in the short space of this interview. Here we shall instead try to convey how sexual alchemy overflows the space of physical sex and occupies the entire life of its practitioners.
Although not everyone can, or should, practice sexual magick, Thelema is an irreducibly sexual and creative path. It recognizes that only those who freely embrace their sexual nature can throw off the slavery of false gods.
Furthermore, the Thelemic pantheon involves two Gods whose unceasing sexual congress creates the knowable Universe. The Father Principle, Chaos, the Will of God, is a high-level avatar of the infinitesimal and omnipresent God Hadit, whose principal Force is “to go”. On Earth, He is represented by prince-priest—the Beast—and his phallus. Likewise, the Mother Goddess, Babalon, is a high-level avatar of Nuit, the Goddess of “Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof” (AL, I:22). The Sacred Whore, Babalon, originates all Form. On Earth, She is represented by the priestess, or Scarlet Woman, and her kteis.
Even though Crowley continued to agree with Gautama Buddha that duality causes pain at times, he urged the Thelemic adventurer to view those transitory pains as “but sharp Sauce to the Dish of Pleasure” (“De Comedia Universa, Quae Dictur Pan”, Liber Aleph). Indeed, such duality stands as the prerequisite for divine “love under will” (AL, I:57), which creates joyfully everywhere and all times: “For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.”
Through Thelemic sexual alchemy, the practitioners dissolve their separateness, not only from one another, but in general. Through their yoga (union) they become the very bed of the Gods (see AL, I:66).
Although sexual alchemy involves what most people would recognize as sex, it is a 24-hour-a-day pursuit that involves the dissolution of all separateness and opposition in general. It culminates in the marriage of Self and non-self—of Heaven and Earth:
Yet rest not in the Joy of the Destruction of each complex in thy Nature, but press on to that ultimate Marriage with the Universe whose Consummation shall destroy thee utterly, leaving only that Nothingness which was before the Beginning. So then the Life of Non-Action is not for thee; the Withdrawal from Activity is not the Way of the Tao; but rather the Intensification and making universal every Unit of thine Energy on every Plane. (Aleister Crowley, “De Nuptiis Mysticis”, Liber Aleph)
PAA: What are the potential risks and challenges associated with the practice of sexual alchemy, and how can practitioners navigate them safely and ethically?
When an Adept earths out his or her sexual energy in physical lust or in the unconscious urge for security and protection, the sexual energy that should have been consecrated to union with the divine is wasted.
The occult path is more dangerous than others for many reasons, one being that any premature encounter with the Real can induce psychosis—sometimes permanently. Another danger is the phenomenon of the Adept who overdevelops the ego to such an extent that he or she becomes unbalanced—a phenomenon all too evident in the rantings and ravings of personal greatness and the delusions of grandeur found in the discourses of individuals in most, if not all, occult communities.
[H]uman beings need the ego to protect them from the unbearable energies of the Real—what magicians worship as God. Anyone who experiences reality unmediated by a proper ego will find their psychic system burnt out. Such a person will typically become psychotic or might even die. Thus, we need an ego to survive in our socially structured world.6
By contrast, the Adept who exercises his or her sexuality without Restriction while dedicating it to his or her own inner divinity may yet touch wonder.
PAA: In what ways does Thelema’s understanding of the nature of the self and the process of ego dissolution align with or diverge from Buddhist teachings on the concepts of anatta (non-self) and nirvana?
As we touch upon in The Joy of Dissolution, Aleister Crowley embraced Buddhism as a young man, and he never strayed far from its basic tenets. Yet, after he received The Book of the Law, he tweaked his essentially Buddhist metaphysics in an action-oriented, dynamic, and joyful direction.
For example, he identified as a Buddhist in March of 1902 when he wrote “Berashith” (published in 1903). This was his foundational essay on ontology, which is the study of Being. There he provided a theory of the universe as Nothing “conceived as (illusory) pairs of contradictories” (Confessions). Crowley made his theory explicitly compatible with Buddhist meditation. To him at the time, meditation was the ideal practice for spiritual attainment, albeit untenable for most Westerners. Thus, he also made his theory friendly to magick and Qabalah. He wanted to motivate Western practitioners to lay for themselves the groundwork for later meditation. When he wrote “Berashith”, he regarded the ultimate spiritual goal as Nirvana, which he defined there as “extinction of all that exists, knows, or feels”—the gateway to enlightenment. Once he received The Book of the Law, he still believed in extinguishing the seeds of cause-and-effect, but not to escape conscious experience. Indeed, he urged Thelemites to revel in the adventure of life—simply without attachment.
Similarly, he consistently adhered to the doctrine of Anatta. However, by “non-self” he understood no unchanging self. Thus, he wrote:
Whom Men call Gotama, or Siddartha, or the Buddha, was a Magus of our Holy Order. And His Word was ANATTA; for the Root of His whole Doctrine was that there is no Atman, or Soul, as Men ill translate it, meaning a Substance incapable of Change. Thus, He, like Lao-Tze, based all upon a Movement, instead of a fixed Point. And His Way of Truth was Analysis, made possible by great Intention of the Mind toward itself, and that well fortified by certain tempered Rigour of Life. And He most thoroughly explored and mapped out the Fastnesses of the Mind, and gave the Keys of its Fortresses into the Hand of Man. But of all this the Quintessence is in this one Word Anatta, because this is not only the foundation and the Result of his whole Doctrine, but the Way of its Work. (Aleister Crowley, “De Gotama”, Liber Aleph)
Crowley came to see Thelema as a pathway, not off the wheel of existence, but rather onto the axis of that wheel—the center of all. For him, the Thelemite cultivates Pure Joy in existence, without “lust of result” (attachment), without falling “down into the pit called Because” (AL, I:44; II:27).
PAA: How can the practices and insights of Buddhism inform and enrich the Thelemic path, and what unique contributions does Thelema offer in terms of its approach to self-realization?
Buddhist-derived meditation and mysticism continue to be necessary to the Thelemic path, as a counterbalance to its action-oriented, magickal nature. As Frater Perdurabo (Crowley) and Soror Virakam (Mary Desti) point out in Book Four, Part I, “the contemplative life is generally opposed to the active life, and it must require an extremely careful balance to prevent the one absorbing the other.”
Both mysticism and magick are necessary to realize the Nothingness in the Something and the Somethingness in the Nothing—the True Self. That is why we recommend that everyone take at least one 10-day immersion course of Vipassana meditation, where they use the Buddha’s original teachings as they were preserved in Burma through the school of S.N. Goenka and his teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin.
Thelema uniquely offers a sophisticated understanding and wide array of practices for realizing the True Self whose essence is Change. Ego dissolution is what we call the process by which an advanced aspirant realizes his or her True Self. The True Self may be apprehended through the three divine aspects of Absolute Nothingness: Hadit, Nuit, and Ra Hoor Khuit. These three-in-one constitute the ever-changing Self of all.
Hadit is the omnipresent, divine, dynamic, infinitesimal Point of Nothingness that “goes”. “I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. ‘Come unto me’ is a foolish word: for it is I that go” (AL, II:7).
The God Hadit makes love continually with the Goddess Nuit, the infinitely great Nothingness. She says, “I am Heaven, and there is no other God than me, and my lord Hadit” (AL, I:20). In doing so, Hadit and Nuit actively manifest the ever-changing phenomena, centered in Ra Hoor Khuit—Nothingness that is equally Something, having been brought down through the mind into the realm of duality “below the Abyss” that separates the purely potential from the actual.
Before someone dissolves the ego, they suffer the torments of the ego’s defenses against the Truth of the seemingly separate self’s nonexistence. Thus, Ra Hoor Khuit says, “Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of Vengeance” (AL, I:3). Only by embracing all phenomena as Self can the aspirant enjoy the underlying bliss of existence: “There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell. Let it be that state of manyhood bound and loathing. So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will” (AL, I:41-42).
After dissolving the ego, the Adept basks in Pure Joy, recognizing the Universal Self in the Many/One/None. “Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains” (AL, II:9). The aspirant who thus succeeds in dissolving the ego illusion has “crossed the Abyss” between Something and Nothing—meaning that he or she now knows with certainty the Somethingness of Nothing and the Nothingness of Something.
Liberated from the illusion of separateness, he or she exercises the divine creativity that is everyone’s birthright—for we are all God. This unconscious, divine creativity is known as the True Will. It is the Will of the True Self. Because we are all organs of the body of God, the only law of Thelema is “Do what thou wilt” (AL, I:40; III:60). Again, “with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will” (AL, I:42).
PAA: What are the key insights and experiences that J. Edward Cornelius shares in his final work, “I Do Not Exist”, and how do they shed light on the ultimate goal of Thelemic practice?
In his final piece, J. Edward Cornelius (1951–2023) discloses explicitly for the first time the female, or “N”, formula within Crowley’s general formula of ON. The N formula allows an Adept to “dissolve” his or her ego. In other words, N allows us to use the personal self as a vehicle for channeling the True Will of humanity without Restriction—namely, “crossing the Abyss”. Cornelius thereby shares the secrets of the ultimate goal of Thelemic practice.
Jerry’s piece outlines the formula of “N” in its connections with Speech and Silence, the Holy Guardian Angel (as the foundation to becoming an Avatar), the Abyss, Nothingness, Nuit, Babalon, the ego, Coagula, the Woman, and Death, to name a few—topics that even Aleister Crowley was reticent to discuss for the most part.7
Cornelius was a Thelemic Magus and the heir of Crowley’s immediate student, Grady Louis McMurtry. He was our teacher and the Inner Head of our branch of Crowley’s Inner School, the A.A., until he died and Christopher Reed Johnson (Laus Priapo Deo 217) grabbed the sword. A brilliant writer and thinker, Jerry was himself an astral magician who excelled above all in channeling the unconscious Will of God. Jerry’s major contribution was to explicate and develop Aleister Crowley’s magickal formula of ON, about which Crowley wrote only cautiously since it relates to sexual magick.
Crowley discusses ON in Liber Aleph, in the chapters on the Tarot trumps of the Devil (connecting Hod-8 and Tiphareth-6) and Death (connecting Netzach-7 and Tiphareth-6). These two paths correspond respectively to the Man’s formula and the Woman’s formula. The so-called Man’s formula pertains directly to the man in sexual magick, but it also pertains to the left-hand, descending paths on any aspirant’s microcosmic Tree of Life. The difference is that anyone with a female vehicle works the left-hand paths indirectly, through her seemingly external Universe, while she works the right-hand paths directly. The opposite is true for a male; while working the left-hand paths directly, he works the right-hand, ascending paths indirectly. Thus, Adepts of either sex who have been called, like Atlas, to shoulder a particular determination for all humanity and cross the Abyss must learn how to work the N formula.
Whereas Cornelius spent his life discussing O, the phallic side of Crowley’s ON formula, he had never before openly discussed N, the kteic side. In doing so in The Joy of Dissolution, he hammers the fact that crossing the Abyss and fulfilling the True Will is by invite only. No one who attempts to apply the N formula by force can succeed. Yet, since each of us takes incarnation after incarnation, slow and steady wins the race. There’s no rush. If and when it’s time to dissolve the ego, you’ll know.
In the Joy of Dissolution, Cornelius reveals how the central sphere of Tiphareth encodes the final secrets (and pitfalls) of the N formula regarding how to “cross the Abyss”. In addition, he discusses the practical necessity of correctly working upper Tiphareth along with the other two spheres of the upper Ruach, or mind—Geburah-5 and Chesed-4. The Adept must understand that consciousness cannot rise above Tiphareth in the first two worlds (the top of the lower Ruach). Thus, any visions of Gods, Angels, and so forth are creations of the mind. Such phantasmagoria serves at best as conscious vehicles of something unconscious and unknowable. They are only as useful as the mind is pure.
Cornelius introduces both the paradox and the solution of the N formula for channeling the True Will. The Will swims deep in the ocean of Nothingness rooted in our unconscious mind (upper Ruach), which you must control if you are to channel God’s Will purely. But how do you control something that is by nature unconscious to channel the Nothingness from above the Abyss? The simple answer is Love. Of course he refers to the impersonal, Universal Love also known as Bhakti (devotion). Cornelius discusses Love in terms of the three spheres of the upper Ruach. Bottom line: unless the Adept has mastered the unselfish Love known as Bhakti, he or she has no chance of crossing the Abyss.
…simply because you’ve taken the Oath of the Abyss doesn’t guarantee accomplishments. Any Tom, Dick, or Harry can swear the Oath, but only a magician can live it. Also remember: NO magician remains functioning above the Abyss; a successful crossing allows the MT [Magister Templi] to pick and choose his foundation below… I must be absolutely clear and remind you that unless you can solidify your claims above the Abyss then Qabalistically nature will automatically ‘right the wrong’ and it’ll be out of my hands; nature will choose your foundation below and it is always in relationship to where you are stumbling. (J. Edward Cornelius, Cornelia No. 13, 2007, p. 39)
Yarker, J. (1993). The Secret High Degree Rites of the Masonic Rite of Memphis. Montana: Kessinger Publishing Company, p. 33. ↩︎
Johnson, C. and Johnson E. (2024). The Joy of Dissolution. Woodstock, GA: Privately Published, pp. 7, 20. ↩︎
3 “Chapter XVII: Astral Journey: Example, How to Do it, How to Verify Your Experiences” in Crowley, A. (1973/1991). Magick Without Tears (I. Regardie, ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Publications p. 142. ↩︎
Johnson, C. and Johnson E. (2024). The Joy of Dissolution. Woodstock, GA: Privately Published, p. 18. ↩︎
Johnson, C. and Johnson E. (2024). The Joy of Dissolution. Woodstock, GA: Privately Published, p. 20. ↩︎
Johnson, C. and Johnson E. (2024). The Joy of Dissolution. Woodstock, GA: Privately Published, p. 16, 21. ↩︎
Johnson, C. and Johnson E. (2024). The Joy of Dissolution. Woodstock, GA: Privately Published, p. 22. ↩︎
The following is an interview with Craig Williams, discussing his new book “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)”. The interview covers topics such as the role of meditation in exploring metaphysical realms, reincarnation and karma, igniting the sacred spark within, the relationship between science and spirituality, and the integration of Eastern and Western esoteric traditions in his work.
This is the second interview we have done with Craig as I find him to be refreshing in this world of magic, he is someone who has truly walked the walk, being accepted by and respecting multiple traditions while also thoroughly carving out his own path and direction.
If you did not read the first interview, then I advise doing that first and then coming back to this one. You will then be able to see the development of the journey Craig has been on.
General
PAA: What role does meditation play in exploring metaphysical realms and expanding consciousness? Are there specific techniques more effective than others?
The role of meditation plays an extremely important role in exploring metaphysical realms and the expansion of consciousness, or rather it SHOULD. I feel this is often glossed over or completely ignored in many circles of esoteric work. Cultivating a substantial meditation practice is fundamental in not only navigating the murky waters of “other realms” but also in establishing a clear relationship with oneself and one’s place in the universe. In yogic systems, the practice of meditation proper is considered Dhyana. This is preceded by the limb of Dharana or concentration which preceded by the limb of Pratyahara or sensory withdrawal.
Therefore the role of concentration and withdrawing the senses to prepare the nervous system for meditation proper is very important to mention before discussing the potential benefits of the practice of mediation. Many people today complain of the inability to concentrate and focus and without these abilities, any hope of using the practice of meditation will be slight at best. This is sobering reality check for many, but it must be addressed. Another facet to mention is the amount of time spent in meditative states. Extensive time must be spent in deeper meditative states for substantial transformation to occur. This is much like exercise. Walking ten to twenty minutes a day is very good for health however this will not result in advanced states of physical fitness. If I run ten to twenty minutes, many beneficial reactions will occur within my mind and body. However if I run for one to two HOURS, deep alchemical changes occur such as an increase in mitochondria and training my body to improve the utilization of glucose and fat for fuel; these transformations only occur if I exercise for specific extended lengths of time, not ten to twenty minutes. So we must be realistic about how much time we are spending in meditation.
Meditation for ten to twenty minutes a day can help one relax and decompress from stress, lower blood pressure, improve sleep, etc. But this small amount of time will not magically propel one into deeper realms of consciousness. Often people need to spend more time cultivating the ability to concentrate and focus before attempting to learn meditation proper. Eastern systems of gnostic study provide detailed programs of study for preparing the mind and body for deeper practices of yoga and these preparatory methods should not be overlooked or ignored. Once one does understand and utilizes the preparatory methods, entering into the deeper states of meditation proper can be radically life altering. One can experience dramatic inner visions and even external projections of consciousness. These are par for the course, nothing truly “special.” The third Pada of Patanjanli’s Yoga Sutras, the Vibhuti Pada, deals primarily with the various “super-natural” powers that one may manifest or experience on the path to Samadhi. But this is just like fireworks on the Fourth of July, expected and soon forgotten.
Fundamentally, the main goal of Dhyana or meditation is to turn the awareness inwards, away from the external world and external egoic obsessions. To seek the inner presence of the Divine which is always eternally present patiently waiting to be “discovered.”
PAA: Do you think our souls have lived through multiple incarnations across space and time? If so, do we carry karma and lessons with us through different lifetimes?
The question of reincarnation is a complex and incredibly nuanced topic of discussion! Different lineages and schools of theology have divergent views on this topic and it is a subject rife with controversy. The mere mention of karma and reincarnation cause some individuals to become angered and accusatory—“no one deserves this!” etc. Many schools of thought argue over whether there is actually a true personality who is the protagonist of karmic evolution, some claiming that upon death, the personality we associate with, assume to be the “person”, dissolves like a cloud in the sky. Other schools propose that each life is a learning journey, each life building upon another, in a progressive development, other schools view the earthly body as a “prison” to be escaped and avoided. Therefore this subject is incredibly complex and nuanced. One important aspect I always bring up which is often neglected is that what we term “reality” is but one small wavelength of cosmic manifestation. The human earthly realm is but one realm among many for incarnation—an infinite array of lokas exist for incarnation, embodiment, and spiritual evolution.
In my opinion, for the majority of individuals, it is best to ignore concerns about supposed “past lifetimes” and focus on the present incarnation. As a matter of fact, most individuals would go insane if they were able to see what lifetimes they had led “in the past.” One important consideration to keep in mind from a Tantric perspective: what we think at the moment of death is of vast importance. This is an extremely important concept to contemplate and embody. In many ways, we are training our entire lives for this single moment of what I term “death lucidity.” This is extremely important to contemplate and take seriously.
The quality of memory or smarana must also be considered. The inner limbs of yoga, both Indian and Tibetan, methodically work to purify the senses and clear obscurations which cloud the quality of our “inner vision.” What we feed our mind produces the quality of the mind; this can be cloudy, chaotic, or clear. So the quality of our perception will dramatically determine our ability to grasp the nuances of incarnation.
The concept of multiple time-streams must also be considered when pondering the question of reincarnation. The predictable flow of mundane linear time is but one stream among many that feed into the ocean of eternity. In some dimensions, the past / present / future occur simultaneously while in other dimensions there is only the Eternal Now. Time streams are wave forms crashing within the ocean of eternity.
PAA: If everything emerges from an eternal cosmic fire or light, how might we further ignite the spark of the sacred within ourselves through spiritual practice?
My new book “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)directly targets this important concept: how can we uncover / awaken / nourish / purify the sacred spark eternally burning within the human experience. The sciences of Tantra, Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, and Nei Gong provide important maps for this alchemical journey. We could call the path of one’s spiritual journey “the path of the Flame”. Each individual must work to cultivate their awareness of this eternal divine spark which is in many ways a “remembering”. Important ideas on this concept are revealed in the gnostic text “The Hymn of the Pearl”. It is very important for individuals to search for a path that calls out to them, a path which inspires them. This is not something magical although many portray it as such. We just have to be listening, to be awake and aware. In many ways this describes the process of Agni Yoga: a purification of the senses. The senses must be withdrawn from the mundane world (Pratyahara) and purified. Many systems exist that teach and describe this process and each individual must discover a path which guides them in this process of involution. But this process does not occur with luck or with no effort and the majority of the influences of mundane life guide the individual AWAY from this process. Therefore an individual must make a decision on their priorities and formulate a plan if they wish to undertake this alchemical process. The good news is that we live in a time of unprecedented access to texts and teachers alike.
My goal for “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)was to provide readers with a type of primordial inspiration which they can feed into their own unique path of alchemy. The concept of the sacred spark exists within every spiritual tradition in an elemental seed-like form, waiting for the incubatory heat needing for sprouting (Tapas). It is my hope that the text can be used by everyone regardless of their specific spiritual path to ignite specific states of awareness to discover the divine flame hidden within their human incarnation and use this for inspiration!
PAA: Is direct experience more valuable than intellectual study when exploring questions of consciousness and existence? How do revelation and transmission differ?
The discussion of direct experience versus intellectual study is an extremely important area to explore. I see both areas as important and both have the potential for cross-pollination. From a yogic perspective, the entire purpose of intellectual study was to prepare the mind and purify the mind for direct experience. It is important to note that the concept of “intellectual study” within the path of Yoga is not equivalent to the concept of “academic study.” We could for example examine the yogic concept of Svadhyaya or “Self-Study”. This term is often explained as some type of personal introspective self-examination, often with individuals being asked to journal how they feel in order to “find themselves” as some type of exploration of “Svadhyaya.” This is not how the practice of Svadhyaya is defined in traditional Yoga. Technically the definition of Svadhyaya is “the study of Moksha Shastras” or scriptures which discuss distinct concepts of liberative gnosis, texts which are considered sacred writings within the respective tradition. Also implied within this study of scripture is the practice of mantra sadhana. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.44 states: “From Svadhyaya (study and repetition of the mantras) communion with the Ishta-Devata (desired Deity) is established.” From this verse it is very clear that svadhyaya is not simply reading books or taking college classes in Religious Studies. This verse is stating that the practitioner will experience a gnostic communion, a direct experience, with his or her desired Deity, not simply acquire knowledge. This is not what the contemporary world would term intellectual study.
However when we are discussing nuanced subjects such as consciousness, revelation, and transmission there are no completely neat and clear categories. The ideal would be to have a balance of intellectual study to provide a framework of study / practice and also practices which provide direct gnostic revelatory experience. I know many professors of Sanskrit who have no spiritual beliefs at all; they have spent a lifetime of study of Sanskrit and have experienced no “communion with the Ishta Devata”. I also know many practitioners who have experienced radical communion with the numinous yet have no way to digest the experience or frame the experience within their lives. For me, the alchemy lies in the balancing between these two paths. This balancing act cultivates a type of spiritual fire or Tapas which deeply inspires my life.
PAA: What role might quantum phenomena play in understanding multidimensional layers of reality?
The study of quantum physics / quantum phenomena can play a very stimulating role in the exploration or study of multidimensional layers of reality. But for this pursuit to be truly fruitful, it cannot be pedestrian or “armchair” study of quantum physics. The contemporary new age world is filled with what I call “garbage quantum physics”. So although I personally feel that the exploration of the study of quantum physics can be fruitful, it must be a serious mature examination of quantum phenomena not just cherry-picking data which requires a rigorous and mature multi-disciplinary view.
PAA: How might we move beyond rigid constructs of space and time to connect to our boundless true nature?
The practices of Yoga and Tantra provide a wide array of tools and practices which help move the practitioner beyond the rigid constructs of mundane space and time. Our true inherent nature, the Atman, is boundless, infinite in scope and beyond mundane comprehension. Practices such as mantra sadhana, puja, Bhakti Yoga, Sri Vidya, etc all work to transmute mundane human awareness into cosmic awareness. This is not an escapist fantasy or childish game but a common experience born from the Tapas of Yogic sadhana.
PAA: Is humanity headed toward an event horizon or singularity that will require expanded awareness to navigate creatively rather than destructively?
I myself don’t find apocalyptic obsession interesting. Each generation feels the impending “end of the world.” This happens over and over ad nauseam. I think humanity does not need to wait for any crisis or event horizon in order to expand awareness. Since the beginning of time there has been constant suffering. This is the nature of Samsara. It is the responsibility of every human to cultivate compassion for all living beings and to work in some way to alleviate the suffering of all sentient beings, humans and animals. I always encourage anyone living in fear of the “end of the world” to go down to their local homeless shelter and animal shelter and quickly begin to help people / animals who are suffering. Act at directly and locally as possible. Stop worrying about the future and act in the present moment to alleviate pain and suffering.
PAA: Can science and spirituality be integrated for more holistic understanding, or do their approaches fundamentally contradict?
Science and spirituality should ideally cross-pollinate, each one enhancing the other. However we can clearly see the radical dichotomy which exists between these two fields. When this disconnect occurs, there are significant negative implications for all levels of society. Both sides must set aside prejudices and myopic arguments and work closer together to build bridges of communication. This often occurs when the older closed-minded members of specific paradigms literally die as highlighted by Thomas Kuhn in his class “Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” I had many mentors and Gurus in my lifetime who were engineers and scientists who were also deeply committed to their spiritual sadhana, all encouraging me to view reality in a comprehensive manner and cultivate an integral vision of reality. The important work of Sri Aurobindo and Rudolf Steiner were also deep inspirations to me of how science and spirituality can work in intimate harmony in a true alchemical vision. In particularly, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s concept of the Supramental Descent is an extremely important and fertile area of study in relation to evolution and the implications of Quantum Physics in relation to spiritual development.
PAA: How might embracing paradox, ambiguity, and uncertainty aid progress on life’s journey more than seeking hard and fast answers?
Embracing paradox, ambiguity, and uncertainty is a great aid in the pilgrimage of the human incarnation. We are born into samasara and must navigate our unique prarabdha karmaand svadharma and there are no guarantees in how our lives may play out. The more we try to perfectly plan and force certain outcomes, the more likely the suffering. This is why the Hindu concept of Shraddha, often translated as “faith”, is so important. Shraddha is not the “blind faith” of Abrahamic traditions, rather it is a certainly born from direct experience of the numinous. The entire point of Svadhyaya, study of moksha sastras and mantra japa, is to allow the sadhaka to have a vision of his / her Ishta-Devata, their own personal vision of the Divine. Once this occurs, worry and fear lose the death grip on the mind which perpetuate layers and layers of Maya. When constantly possessed by worry and fear the person lives in a never-ending Mirage. In the words of The Mother:
My life is terrible!’ they say. ‘I have the most terrible life in the world!’ They are fools. Everyone has the life that is best suited for his total development; everyone has the experiences that are best suited for his total development, and everyone meets the difficulties that are best suited for his / her total realization.
Paradox, ambiguity, and uncertainty are opportunities to turn within and attune ourselves to the inner voice / inner images of the Soul, so to avoid these experiences is to miss rare chances for spiritual growth.
Agni, the divine flame hidden within all matter and all levels of reality, builds bridges between traditions and once an individual connects with this ever-present Eternal Flame, sectarian differences melt away.p
Craig WIlliams
New Book: “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartograpy (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)
PAA: In your previous interview, you described extensive initiatic study in Eastern traditions like Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta etc. How do the “primordial tributaries of gnosis” you explore in this new book connect back to or build upon your background in Sanatana Dharma?
The new book “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartograpy (A Handbook of Agni Yoga) (Gateway Publications) is entirely rooted in my life journey within the vast inspiring expanse of Sanatana Dharma. This text was born from my desire to connect all streams of primordial gnosis to the Vedic concept of Agni. How is the ash cross different from the ashes smeared on the body of the Aghori? Agni, the divine flame hidden within all matter and all levels of reality, builds bridges between traditions and once an individual connects with this ever-present Eternal Flame, sectarian differences melt away. But this does not mean that everything melts into a bland generic mess. Rather it means that a unique diversity-within-unity is revealed. In many ways, this new book is a distillation of a lifetime of experience baked in the Tapas of my Aghora sadhana.
PAA: You also mentioned your deep interest in Gnosticism, the Nag Hammadi texts, Western esotericism etc. How does this book synthesize Eastern and Western mystical streams in a unique way?
My studies of the important Nag Hammadi texts have been deeply inspiring. I was karmically blessed to be able to be awarded a degree in Religious Studies at Louisiana State University at a time when the Nag Hammadi texts were finally available in text form and microfiche in academic circles. I was also doubly blessed with the karma of being able to study these texts under the direction of Dr. Robert Segal, an immanent scholar of Gnosticism and Jung. His lectures and personal guidance were deeply inspiring to me in my youth. I was particularly fascinated with the texts “Gospel of Thomas”, “Gospel of Phillip”, and “The Hymn of the Pearl.”
“Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)” devotes an entire chapter to a unique translation and commentary on these Nag Hammadi gospels. For over twenty years I have taught private courses and organized study groups on these inspiring gnostic scriptures and this chapter gives a glimpse into how the “lens of Agni” can help uncover unique messages hidden within these scriptures. We read these gospels via the “Eyes of Fire.” Reading in this manner allows for these gnostic verses to be used as Lectio Divina allowing the reader to potentially enter into deeper states of alchemical perception.
PAA: Your book “Cult of Golgotha” combined Eastern ideas with Bertiaux’s system of Esoteric Voodoo. Is there any relationship or crossover between the symbology, rituals, concepts etc. outlined across these two texts?
“Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)” can be read as a stand-alone text however keen readers will see unique connections between this new text and my previous texts “The Cult of Golgotha” and “Entering the Desert” (both via Anathema Publishing). I personally feel all of my books are inter-related and inter-connected yet can absolutely exist independently as well. Many of the ritual and prayers found within “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)” can unlock deeper layers of my previous writings due to the unique revelatory power of Agni Yoga. This new book is also deeply inspired by my private discussions with Dr. Reginald Crosley. We would talk for hours and he was very encouraging to me and many of the rituals and prayers within “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)” were shared with Dr. Crosley years before I envisioned writing this new text. His positive feedback was no doubt an ember which eventually became the flame of this new book.
PAA: “Entering the Desert” sounds like it explores pagan sacramental mysticism and elemental magic. Do any of those themes reappear within “Desert Meditations” and its map of the esoteric body or discussion of the role of the sacraments?
The two “Desert texts” absolutely share many common themes in particular the role of the sacred flame of Agni within the gnostic Mass and within the alchemical transformation of the Sacraments. Once the practitioner has discovered a connection to the inner flame, all aspects of gnostic study and experience are deepened and radically transformed. In many ways, the new book is an “igniter” of all my other texts!
PAA: In what ways does this eclectic fusion of Eastern and Western esotericism in “Desert Meditations” build upon or differ from your previous trilogies like “Tantric Physics” which may have had more of a Hindu/Buddhist focus?
I wrote the text “Entering the Desert” in a unique style and manner to allow anyone to be able to read and comprehend. There is no “complicated” Sanskrit or Yogic theory. However, all aspects of “Entering the Desert” are rooted in my explorations of the Aghora path as well as Agni Yoga. “Entering the Desert” presents an elemental primordial vision of spiritual transformation which can be applied to any tradition yet contains the seeds of the Aghora path and the alchemical fire of Agni Yoga.
PAA: You mention the central role of Agni as the Flame of the Soul. Is there any connection between this concept and your Aghori sadhana mentioned in the background interview?
All aspects of Agni Yoga are related to my path of Aghora sadhana. The Aghora path is a distillation of all facets of Indian gnosis melting together into a stream of radical devotion to the Divine. The inner Flame of Agni guides all spiritual growth and karmic unfoldment, and the Aghora path is a vision of seeing the Divine Flame burning within each and every aspect of reality: nothing is not Divine!
Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)
PAA: What is the meaning of the title Desert Meditations and how does it relate to the theme of the book?
I have always been fascinated with the concept of a specific style of writing often termed a “meditational”. It was very common growing up in a Catholic culture to find small “Books of meditations” sitting around my house being used by my mother for prayer and devotional study and in the monasteries where I worked as a volunteer. I remembered the priests would frequently carry small “devotional books” for Lectio Divina with them as they went to Mass or as they counseled people in need. In adulthood, I also saw this same practice with small devotional sanksrit texts while traveling in India and Tibet (Sutra literature) as well as in many streams of Qi Gong and Kung Fu which I studied: all these traditions used “meditational texts” to convey complex theological / philosophical ideas in terse “Sutra-like” verse.
I wanted this new text to mirror these experiences and become a text when can easily be carried during spiritual practice or traveling and to be used daily to ignite and inspire the readers spiritual growth. Ideally with each reading, a new layer is revealed and as the reader’s consciousness is transformed, hidden layers of the text manifest much like the inner Flame of Agni. The text is layered with devotional writing, prayers, and meditations which are used to ignite the awareness of the guiding force of the eternally present Inner Flame of Agni. Ideally this book can become a constant companion for Lectio Divina, meditation proper, gnostic mass, or simply inspired reading!
As we journey throughout our lives and explore the unfoldment of our unique Prarabdha Karma, several streams of time, past, present, and future, all coalesce and intermingle however few are aware of this.
Craig Williams
PAA: How do you explore the concepts of time-travel, Solar and Lunar realms of experience, and the Mass in the context of gnostic ritual and practice?
The concepts of Time-Travel, Solar and Lunar realms of experience and the alchemical machine of the Mass are all discussed in my new book. As we journey throughout our lives and explore the unfoldment of our unique Prarabdha Karma, several streams of time, past, present, and future, all coalesce and intermingle however few are aware of this. We can gain awareness of this via specific states of meditational / gnostic awareness which is discussed in the text.
Specific streams of Solar and Lunar awareness radiate within the Ajna Chakra and this is connected to how we literally “see” reality. The next text explores these ideas and reveals specific prayers and meditations which can help to the reader to “see” more clearly clearing away the clouds of Maya which obscure the clear view of our spiritual path.
The Mass is an important environment which when created with gnostic intention and awareness call down the Flame of Agni not only to the ritual altar and sacraments but into every cell of the participants. This new text offers some key meditations which can be utilized within any type of gnostic mass to deepen the experience and call down the sacred flame of Agni.
PAA: What are the Nag Hammadi texts that the author comments on and how do they relate to the book’s message and purpose?
There is an entire chapter in “Desert Meditations: Gnostic Cartography (A Handbook of Agni Yoga)” dedicated entirely to an esoteric commentary on the Nag Hammadi scriptures “The Gospel of Thomas” and “The Gospel of Phillip”. I chose to offer a unique perspective on these important gnostic scriptures, choosing to create a unique translation via a “lens of Agni” with a concomitant commentary which lends itself to the practice of Lectio Divina. Ideally this chapter can be used within gnostic study groups, meditation practice, and during gnostic Mass to allow the reader to experience the radiant Presence of Agni.
PAA: What is the significance of the red Sanskrit “KRIM” Bija debossed on the back cover of the book and what does it symbolize?
The bija mantra “Krim” is a powerful and incendiary invocation to the beautiful and radiant Goddess Kali. The book is a flame and a sacred altar of Ma Kali and the flames of Her smashan!
See the limited-edition version of his new book at the Violet Gateway
The Three Transformations – Free Course
The ancient Chinese sages spoke of jing, chi and shen. The Hermeticists of old spoke of vital, astral and mental energies. Both spoke of ways to convert one energy into another. And the Three Transformations were born!
Ever wonder how to do this exactly? Wonder no more. It turns out this is not some mysterious thing that exists only for the greatest of saints. All the details behind how to convert one of the basic natal energies into another, why you would want to perform the Three Transformation and the various issues involved are included in this SixtySkills course.
Have you ever felt like traditional occult practices and systems are too limiting or dogmatic? Dr. Peter Duchemin’s “Meta Magick” offers a refreshing alternative – a harmonizing synthesis of various magical traditions, myths, and scientific principles into an open, modular framework. Meta Magick breaks free from the constraints of specific occult systems, aiming to create a universal method that operates at the forefront of our world-making capacities. If you’re ready to explore an innovative, integrative approach to magical practices, this blog post will provide a down-to-earth introduction to the key concepts and techniques of Dr. Duchemin’s revolutionary Meta Magick.
If you have not already read his first interview then I recommend doing so, it is a good primer for this even bigger interview, see it here:
Before we start I just want to say that having met Peter and also being in the fortunate position to see many different methods. His Meta Magick is GOLD – It may take a bit of time to develop eyes and ears to the method, but when you do, ALOT of things open up. Not only that, but Peter as a person only wants the best for people who work with him – this is important. – Perseus Arcane Academy.
PAA: Can you explain in simple terms what Meta Magick is and what makes it different from traditional magick?
Meta magick involves viewing magickal systems as “suites” of transformational pressures that are brought to bear on eternity as humans experience and express it. If traditional magickal systems are like islands of stability generated by humans in relation to chaos, and at the same time, those systems are viewed as “truths” discovered and practiced by the adept, then meta magick instead sees an open archipelago of such “truth-giving” systems, and seeks to establish commerce across them. It is inclusive of all magickal systems on principle, and puts them to play alongside one another within an immanent field in which they are all operative and interactive.
Meta magickians seek to experiment with hybridizations, combinations, and syntheses that might arise from such an ideology-neutral field. At the same time, the practice is more than just philosophical relativism. The meta magickian recognizes that all systems are “wholly (and not just subjectively) true” in their own nature, and that the immanent field is not a “greater truth”, but rather, something like a basin – or “common truth” in which all magicks play. Some aspects of the traditional systems prove themselves to be unviable in this arrangement – and get selected out. Other aspects come to the fore, and shine. The meta magickian uses ideologically neutral methods of study to explore what each system contributes, and how, and notes also where different systems overlap, and where they diverge. Through this alchemical process, we discover the real value of these world pictures and we also transcend the pathological elements that can accrete over time, such as dogmatism, xenophobia, and literalism. Meta magick is a kind of science, even as it is wholly made of art.
“Meta” generally implies that the subject is being treated from an adjunct dimension – hence, for example, “meta-language” is a technical language that treats language itself as the subject, or, as another example: the “meta-analysis” of power conducted by Michel Foucault which treated power itself as the subject and discovered how it reproduces itself in institutions such as schools, hospitals, and prisons. There is implied a deconstruction/reverse engineering, and then a recombination – perhaps in a similar form, perhaps in a slightly different form. Meta magick is the result of just such a deconstruction/reconstitution. Put another way, meta magick is magick that has been subjected to an intense critical process of “disenchantment” but has survived that process and regrown on the other side. The result is a philosophy of magick that can recreate the systematic structure of “old school” magick, but is freed, to a large degree from its ideological elements, and may have an as-of-yet-unconsidered trajectory into the future.
Now this being said – meta magick is not simply “chaos magic.” Chaos magick is of course rather famously a reduction-to-principles of the magickal act – however meta magick is conceived of as more akin to an advanced reconstitution of “traditional systems”, grown back to their “original size” and beyond, based on those principles that chaos magick reduces to. If chaos magick is “postmodern”, metamagick is post-postmodern. Meta magick is made of traditional magicks that have survived being subjected to the chaos magick process, and have regrown, albeit in newly integrated ways.
What a classic system (or part thereof) tends to gain from this process is in terms of gaining “open valences”, where before, they may have had tighter ideological limits that restricted their full expression in the common field. Even the case of highly syncretic systems – such as Thelema – those definitional restrictions can operate as a “bottom line.”
Meta magick has no such bottom line – it translates magickal systems into “fields” which can be plugged into one another in a modular fashion, and as such each meta magickian’s approach is going to be unique – and the meta magickian is not looking for “the correct system”, but playing with how human magickal systems can be combined to form “molecules” that assert a pressure on time itself. As such, it could be said that “Meta magick is the pressure of art, brought to bear on time”.
Meta magick is the pressure of art, brought to bear on time. All creative acts change the becoming of experience. At base, in meta magick we recognize – as with chaos magick – that there is something universal behind the rituals and procedures of specific magical traditions – that our magick “works” not because we performed the right exercise, but rather because we did it in the appropriate state, or register
Dr Peter Duchemin
PAA: What is your definition of Meta Magick and how is it different from traditional magical paradigms?
Meta magick is the pressure of art, brought to bear on time. All creative acts change the becoming of experience. At base, in meta magick we recognize – as with chaos magick – that there is something universal behind the rituals and procedures of specific magical traditions – that our magick “works” not because we performed the right exercise, but rather because we did it in the appropriate state, or register. Alan Chapman puts this extremely well in Advanced Magic for Beginners, where he defines magick as: “the art, science, and culture of experiencing truth”. As for definitions – I offer one, but I prefer that it not be “definitive” – after all, pinning magick down always seems to cause more distortions that it clears up. The history of magick is a history of contested definitions. I’d like my “definition” to be considered as more of an emphasis or a spotlight on some aspect of the art, and I would encourage others to define it differently – let each of us redefine magick, and let that be our magick!
That being said, “the pressure of art brought to bear on time”, fits me well – that was just a one-liner from my thesis, by the way, and one of my editors flagged it as particularly evocative. Since then, I have used it in almost all of my copy, and discussed it extensively. It is related to the saying “time is art” creditable to the Mexican-American new-age calendar magician José Argüelles. My focus is quite different from his, although I agree with the basic statement completely.
My focus is on change as the fundamental reality – since I do not believe that we can know the “basic laws” of reality: law is a limited, anthropocentric concept rooted in our need to fix and stabilize the variables of our environment in order to feel “safe”. Instead, I hold that what we think of as Law is at best some kind of habit – this should shine light on why I spotlight time (as our experience of becoming), over space (as our experience of being)… It is not that I don’t think they collapse into one another – but rather that I see space collapsing into time and then time collapsing into eternity, and then eternity collapsing into boundless openess – in that order.
Magick, then, involves ways that creative expressions call forth into existential display, some temporal experiences over others – not usually through cause and effect but via resonance and attraction: surely the ancient people’s cave paintings DID effectively allow them to hunt bison, or whatever they were after – but not because the painting “caused” the success, but rather due to the resonance that the painting had in focusing awareness single-pointedly and fully, leading to a temporal encounter of a successful hunt.
So to say magick, or meta magick is the pressure of art brought on bear on time, is to remove all content and all rules and all “laws” from magick, and simply to portray it as creativity calling worlds of different sorts to display themselves from out of the plenum of potential such expressions.
A meta magickian, using this axiom, is free to become any expression of the universe that they can call forth through their Arte – let that art involve imagination, story, calculation – and let it entangle itself in the myriad momenta of all other stories as they play out – yet don’t lock it into a closed system – make it evolutionary, modular, and always fresh. Closed systems get chained together in open molecular assemblages – nothing is truly bounded – everything is transparent to eternity.
The approach to the hunt that the neolithic peoples took was fresh – on the horizon of the creative – we should endeavor to bring all our magick to that horizon, whether it is traditional or not. We are not just pushing buttons – we are living vividly: it’s all quite messy. We should be present and alive in each performance of our art – never rote, never “because” – if we are active and bright in our work, and open to all potential times and all potential ways of shaping those times – then we are, I believe, doing meta magick.
PAA: You mention Meta Magick as involving the “synthesis of myth, magic and science” – can you expand on what aspects are drawn from each domain and how they integrate together into the MetaMagick approach?
The key to this is recognizing the “nesting order” – what could be called the meta magick ladder. This relates to the observation that we have successively experienced different “centers of the world” in our collective evolution – collectively we all share the unconscious legacy of being a species for whom, at one point the “center of things” was the personal location, crossroads, or compass rose – the center of the magical circle.
As well, most societies have also developed a geocentric cosmology – in which the whole earth is at the center of things, and around which the planets (including the Sun and Moon) appear to wander. Our calendars and our cultural mythologies map us onto the larger cosmos by means of this centering. Notice how it does not physically cancel the compass rose, but rather, sublates it into a larger, more enveloping order – the magical center remains real, but the mythic order surrounds and conditions it. The mythic becomes the aura of the magickal…
Next, we can see that some societies, especially those following suit with the scientific and Copernican revolutions in Europe have built themselves around a heliocentric model – a development which comes with philosophy, reason, and science. It is interesting to note that the heliocentrism existed as a sub-culture as far back as a millenia or so before Copernicus, and this often ignored precursor tradition represented the nascency of this center – prior to its emergence as the dominant model. It was known – it just wasn’t commonly accepted as the norm.
The “revolution” framed the heliocentric model as “correct” and the geocentric model as an illusion – but considered in the light of the current knowledge of the universal structure, it is clear that the heliocentric cosmos is every bit as contingent and relative a center as the geocentric (something that Giordano Bruno was able to see clearly). This recognition allows us to re-evaluate the rather forced “opposition” between scientific knowledge – which grounds on heliocentricity and mythical knowledge, which grounds on geocentricity.
We can now recognize how these centers do not in fact displace or cancel, but rather include or envelope each other in the order of their evolutionary emergence – magic is thus enveloped by myth, which is subsequently enveloped by reason, which is finally enveloped by the developing galactic centering (which will not, it is clear, be the final centering – the process is OPEN). Each center is a world, and each world is a kind of organ in a developing integrated body. Integrality – fitting working modules together into synergetic wholes – is the method of the galactic center, and it ripples back and commensurates the other levels, bringing them into energetic alignment and synchronization with one another. Each center is its own world-order, its own paradigm, and its own independent economy of thought and ecology of energy. We thus have a body with at least four operative levels – each with its own language that must be learned, lest we make the mistake of collapsing the planes, and throwing the whole system into imbalance.
Consider this multi-level, meta magickal “organism”: Magick is at the root, developed by myth, checked by reason, and then modularized by integrality. This is how meta magick is possible – basic magickal energies and the stories that carry them, are deconstructed to the point of understanding but then regrown organically as part of a living tradition – magick rises up the meta-magick ladder and blooms like a pheonix on the other side of the abyss of reductionist scientific materialism.
Meta magick gives us the confidence to approach standard rituals and systems in a non-superstitious way, that is nevertheless untainted by profanation into materialism. The meta magickian still views the material as sacred, and yet in a different register and with different implications than the traditional views.
Dr Peter Duchemin
PAA: In what specific ways does a Meta Magick practice differ technically from standard rituals or techniques in traditions like the Golden Dawn, Thelema, Wicca, etc? What is unique about the procedure or underlying framework that distinguishes it as “MetaMagick”?
Meta magick gives us the confidence to approach standard rituals and systems in a non-superstitious way, that is nevertheless untainted by profanation into materialism. The meta magickian still views the material as sacred, and yet in a different register and with different implications than the traditional views.
This is well demonstrated by the meta magick approach to Enochian magick. Traditional Enochian magick is very much based on a metaphysical story telling exercise– the idea is that angels are telling us something about the objective nature of the metaphysical world. In meta magick, however, we don’t necessarily assume this narrative as objective fact: we start with the historical documents, and then look at the semiotic mechanics of the system, and then we ask ourselves (skeptically): what is actually going on here, if we suspend our “beliefs”?
Accordingly, we find ourselves with an artifact – or series of artifacts – the watchtowers etc… that certain people have believed certain things about. Now, the nihilist skeptic will take this as grounds for dismissal – but meta magickians are not nihilist skeptics – they employ skepticism, but not to dismiss – only to provide a different view on the nature of the artifact or practice. The skepticism’s role is to baptize the material in ideological doubt – without destroying it. We are asking, in effect – what does this material radiate into manifestation – purely as a result of its structure and nature and presence? Sometimes these manifestations are quite different than the frames of ideology that surround them. This is very much the case with Enochian.
So, basically, we are not going to say “yes, these are objectively messages from angels about the metaphysical hierarchy of the world and its objective transcendental structure” – but we ARE going to say “these can be experienced as messages from angels about the metaphysical hierarchy of the world and its objective transcendental structure”. They are such an artifact as to be able to evoke these kinds of encounter – but what can we know that they ARE? They are writings, they are combinations of letters and patterns. They are encrypted layers of “names” that can be given associations and can display a richness of structure – they are far from “deluded nonsense” like a nihilist skeptic would say. They are powerful, insightful and intriguing.
They are, if nothing else, a kind of proof of concept of how signs and symbols can be used in a certain way to create powerful mantras and store memory in the lines of a virtual grid. They are a sort of cryptic coordinate system. They can be used to trace sigils in the air using only the sound of our voices, if for example, the grid of a watchtower is imaginally superposed upon the visual field, and the sigil is translated into some pattern of cells, and those cells’ letters “intoned”. The Enochian materials are – we know for SURE – a method of imaginal focus that was introduced under the auspices of a certain story at a certain time by certain men and that it has certain properties and capacities. We do not need to assume anything about metaphysical law to “get” Enochian. It is what it DOES – the medium IS the message.
And now we can innovate – rather than pickling Enochian or treating it like a “dangerous” sacred cow, we can understand the innovation itself – view it like a technology – perhaps like a precursor to modern computing, and then play with that innovation – try different angles, different approaches – “skin it” in different ways – reverse engineer it.
So, for example, in my courses I show how to arrange the thirty Enochian aethers in a mathemagickal hexagon – this is in no way traditional. I treat it as a pattern compression technology in the form of a thought experiment. I dispense with the “calls to the Aethers”, I don’t include Liber Logaeth, or even the Sigillum Dae Aemeth. I simply treat the watchtowers as a mantric generator, that if liberated of its accumulated blinds (and I suggest reading David Allan Hulse’s The Western Mysteries for this), is a remarkably clear, elegant, and potent mnemotechnic “machine”: it grants practitioners the ability to vastly amplify the “surface area” of their internal memory, creating blocks like memory banks, and increasing the sensitivity to detail that the practitioner can exercise – while at the same time bringing that heightened perception together into a whole – synthesizing it without extant “noise” or contradiction. It operates here to exert its influence as a gestalt upon the common field by shining through the adept and into the world.
As per this example, and many more, meta magick can help us realize the true spirit and impact of magickal systems as attentional modulators. It raises the objects up through the three inner “world systems” of magic, myth, and reason, and it establishes them in the clear light beyond – at the same time as it holds them at all three levels – simultaneously. In other words, it engages a given occult system with every rung of the meta magick ladder by simply recognizing their innate energy (lococentric), engaging with their storied and mythopoeic overlays (geocentric), clearing them with agnostic skepticism (heliocentric), and then raising them as “true events” to the level of integral contemplation (galactic-centric).
It is here – at the integral climax of the nested worlds – that these systems emanate the meta magickal fields, radiating their coherence into the common basin. It is here that they become time-attractors in the purest sense.
PAA: What inspired you to create this new approach to magick? What problems were you trying to solve?
I am not certain that this is as new as it might appear. I think meta magick is one articulation of a developing perspective that has been incubating for a few hundred years. For me, the formulation of “meta magick” grew rather slowly, under the cover of the process of writing my PhD dissertation. I thought I was just talking about magic, but I was bringing in a lot of different strands, including stage magic, occultism, mysticism, and postmodern philosophy. By the time I realized that I was articulating something substantially different than many of my peers, I had already written my dissertation, and had already proceeded to enact my findings in practice.
Shortly thereafter, I began to realize that I was in the midst of a major occult revival in terms of the popularity of Tarot, and other practices, and that at least a good part of that revival was driven by a fairly strict ethos of scholarly reading of texts like the Papyri Graecae Magicae and such. I of course, had cut my teeth on more futurist and less historically “accurate” modes of esotericism like that of the Golden Dawn, Thelema, Discordianism and Chaos magick – and also my work was filtered through the philosophy of Michel Serres and Gilles Deleuze – thinkers who could be associated with French deconstructionism. Consequently, I appear to have become a bit of an odd duck.
At any rate, the catalyst for the mature theory actually came about when I read Jean Gebser’s Ever Present Origin, and it absolutely set my heart on fire. I realized that what I was doing was essentially magick from a galactic center of reference, and that this embraced and transformed reason, myth and traditional magics (like the PGM) from a very contemporary locus. Gebser’s four “mutational structures” became my “four centers” – as I added my own insights surrounding universal models (one that drew on Marshal McLuhan’s axiom “medium is the message” at the same time as Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). Meta magick, then, is an adaptation of Gebser’s luminous account of Origin and spiritual transparency (diaphany) to my own engagements with occult systems and embodiment based post-structural philosophy.
So “the problem to be solved” becomes rather simple and it is the same as the “Babel” problem – our attempts to give a totalizing account of the real always fall short of the actually real, and when those “solutions” succeed, they do so only for a time – as long as the foundation that supports that solution is the central and accepted foundation. But centers shift and are displaced – old foundations crumble and new foundations are built on their ruins. When this occurs, then contending world-stories develop. Oftimes our biggest problem is that we are presented with multiple, parallel, equally effective solutions that are competing for dominance with one another. This dissonant state of affairs is exactly what integrality addresses: when presented with multiple paths to Truth, discover the account of Truth that allows it to be accessed by all those multiple paths.
I wish to assist in the process of fitting together the different world stories (magical, mythic, rational/scientific) so that they don’t collapse into competing ideological camps, and thus lose their real spirit, and instead “hook up like Voltron” as the saying goes – leading to a whole, open ecology with possibilities for evolution and full play given to all the key human endeavors – the creative and the reflective.
I am seeking to articulate a magick that does not end in a cul-de-sac, but opens up into the full range of human capacities, and STAYS open. I am not interested in reifying a new category of “magick”, but in developing a truly universal method, adequate to our current situation, and functioning on the very threshold of our world-making capacities. Meta-magick is my understanding of magick as it occupies the contemporary threshold of all our skills, abilities, and stories, and as it peers into an unscripted unknown that is our collective future. Here is where we can take responsibility and have true, salvific, impact. The problem is, how do we achieve the diaphany of all worlds amid the divine plenum of all potential realities?
The i-mage-iner is master of a type of knowledge which does not submit to facts – but which is not false. Science produces scientific knowledge – a jewel to be sure – but those who would say that this is the only knowledge are misguided. If facts are like bricks, the i-mage-iner’s knowledge is like mortar – it slides in between the cracks and helps the cracks cohere into a form – a shelter. The magus is a shelter-maker, their stories are a house. Such is what allows us to think in general and specific terms, to use metaphors, to will with a purpose. Whether we recognize it or not, we are all magicians, all enchanted: our facts cohere into our stories. So… the true magician learns to liberate their stories from parasites, from dependencies, from distortions – and to open them up, transparent, to the true horizon of eternal becoming. The mage tells true lies at the threshold of eternity so as to make possible the soul. Now is our time to regrow the soul. Take this opportunity, i-mage-iner – Dr Peter Duchemin.
PAA: You mention harmonizing different centers of consciousness like the compass rose, earth center, sun center, etc. Can you give a concrete example of how this synthesis works in practice?
I have discussed it in theory quite extensively – in practice it can take on either a contemplative or a ritual form. Contemplatively speaking, it is enough to simply practice the perspectives – learn magic rituals and how they conjure elements and spirits and such– feel them in the primordial sense of their reality, and in their anarchic denial of absolute law. Learn the pact, the circle, the hedge magics of sympathy and sorcery. Practice this and make this level of experience robust through contemplation and play, either within a tradition or across several, as in chaos witchraft.
AT the same time, let this not be the only muscle that you exercise – also begin to explore myths as they relate to unconscious archetypes – learn stories that structure long-term epic developments – learn the magick of calendars as they carry a collective cultural narrative across epochs. Practice and learn astrology – the art of qualitative time. Learn it from multiple perspectives – tropical, sidereal, classical – immerse in it.
But don’t let it end there. Realize that our phantasies are subject to distortion and illusion – explore the roots of philosophical skepticism, from Socrates to Hume – take the time to understand how we have used reason – deduction and induction, to take leaps beyond the world as our visionary souls presented it – to escape mythopoeic literalism. Read Spinoza. Learn how to disenchant, and to move beyond the apparent, to discover hidden causes and conditions. Learn how to science: proper agnostic methodologies – test things out and see what happens without assuming a narrative. Learn how to move beyond your belief systems.
BUT… don’t let this descend into nihilism or reductive materialism – both stop-gap belief systems, with themselves no necessary relation to science, save as as a kind of attempt to synthesize the enormous gulfs in our understanding that we have become aware of in order to make us feel less afraid – by cynically throwing out our stories and imagination. NO. Learn how we are NOT passive observers, and that our stories and imagination have always been the ways through which we ourselves have interfaced with the world – they may be fictions, but they are not illusions in the sense of falsities – the magickal and mythical carry our attention, and our memories, and give us the very ability to reason and science- they radiate trueness and create worlds to live and contemplate within– don’t let nihilistic materialism cannibalize the very roots of our thinking capacities, which are in the rich storehouse of metaphors that we use to remember patterns and grow our reasoning (for this, see George Lakoff’s Metaphors we Live by) – embrace the magickal, the mythical, AND the scientific. Don’t make straw-men out of any of them, and if that seems to result in an uncomfortable contradiction or paradox – sit with it, lean into the paradox. Don’t collapse the narrative like Alexander cutting the Gordian knot – endeavor to truly solve it – stay with it. This is integration.
Hold contradictory ideas simultaneously in an alchemy of synthesis, having faith that these stories cannot truly exclude one another, and each’s truths must necessarily converge. Seek that point of convergence. Commit to this quest, long though it may be. Construct calendars if necessary to carry the effort beyond your lifetime.
This describes the contemplative means of aligning the centers. The main thing here is that over the long term, we practice discernment – we don’t cancel any of the perspectives: we seek to cultivate an affinity with all of these modes so that we can tease apart any practice or system and cultivate aspects of it that resonate with every center on the ladder. When this ability is in our toolkit, and we can use it consistently, we are meta magickians. The ritual means would be at once more simple than this, and yet more visceral. As this is specifically the subject of question 7, I will give the second half of the answer to this question, there.
PAA: What role do mathematical magical figures like magic squares play in MetaMagick? Can you give a specific example?
One of the key ideas that allows Meta Magick to develop a modular approach to magickal systems is that magical figures such as magick squares, circles andWstars represent a kind of optimized arrangement of numbers that establish a resonance which is more than the sum of its parts. For example, the magick square of Saturn, what the Chinese call the Lo Shu, consists only of the numbers 1-9 and those numbers are arranged in a special way that allows a magick sum (15) to emerge on the horizontals, diagnols and verticals. What makes this even stronger is that there is only one unique arrangement (disregarding mere reflections and rotations) of those numbers in a 3×3 grid – such that it can be said that this tuning is “discovered” and not fabricated. It has been said that magick squares are like “frozen music” and often have structural symmetries that resemble the Chladni patterns that occur in sand when it is vibrated musically or through “cimetics” – the musical vibration of liquid surfaces.
With this as the starting point, and the recognition that such systems have been involved in magickal systems for all of human history (considering not just the western Kameas, but the I Ching, and it’s cousin the Tai Hsuan Ching, as well as other systems and word squares like the Abramelin squares), then we can draw the inference that these special and optimal arrangements allow magickal systems (which are usually based around divinatory oracles – or what amounts to the same thing – memory classifications of possible meaningful events) to be arranged in these mathemagickal arrays!
In meta magick then, we open up the borders of what constitutes a magick square talisman, and go looking for mathemagickal arrangements that we can map occult systems onto. One of the best resources for this endeavor is Cliff Pickover’s brilliant the Zen of Magic Squares, Circles and Stars. In it are hundreds of different types of magickal number arrangement – drawing out of the annals of recreational mathematics, in multiple dimensions and in myriad forms. Meta magick uses these. Since the basic logic is that a mathemagical figure causes a series to resonate to a new frequency (the magick sum), then we find ways of taking systems such as the Ogham and causing it to become a toroidal singularity that radiates pentagrams, or the I Ching line oracles and connecting them to the combinatorial expressions of the hypercube, or linking the Enochian aethers with porous hexagonal tiling arrays that give out the magick sum of 93.
Amazing connections, extensions, and harmonizations are possible in this way, but what is more is that these figures are so compact, and their energy is so singular, when treated in this way, that the individual systems can become modular, and be connected in surprising ways to one another. Meta magick fields, with their open valences, allow entire magickal systems to be bonded together like molecules.
One such example is as follows – there is a very unique figure, I call it the “Sunflower array”: a magickal hexagon tiling of order three – which is absolutely unique, it is the only regular tiling of magickal hexagons of ANY order at all – this makes it even more singular than the Lo Shu. It consists of nineteen hexagons. When a magickal system of nineteen elements is mapped onto it (or when the numbers 1-19 are simply “scryed” for their properties) the dry mathematical framework becomes a host for the imaginal and phantasmic content that the magickal system overlays – that content is then in turn set to resonate as a singularity.
In my experience this is a very solar figure and operates very well as a map of the Metonic cycle – the 19-year cycle of Sun, Moon, and Earth that allows us to predict eclipses – the Baha’i calendar is based on it and so the Bahai’s months, which are named after attributes of God, may be used on this hexagon. So with these elements in place, we can actually enter into the structure of the figure in our visionary state, clothe ourselves in it and take it up as our auric nimbus, so to speak. We would do this by going in and with the eyes of the heart, occupying the central cell, which incidentally is the number five. It is important that we feel this, not just think it – then the emotional energy radiates as a harmonized aether-feild, out into the body of eternity.
What makes this even more striking is that the Lo Shu ALSO centralizes the number five – and note, this is not constructed or arbitrary – it is a discovered mathematical fact that five must occupy the center of these highly singular structures in order for them to become magically resonant!
So now consider that we may “enter” the Lo Shu and clothe ourselves with it in the same way – in fact most martial arts from China do, and numerous other systems privilege this figure – David Chaim Smith uses it as the framework for his map of the “Nine Chambers of Kether”, featured in many of his works, but especially in Deep Principles of Kabbalistic Alchemy.
So, assume we are “bracing” into the Lo Shu, and have hosted one or more magickal systems upon it and charged them through immersive, heart-based practice, so it is now emanating a meta magickal field – that central cell “5” operates as a coupling-point with the central cell of the Hexagon tiling, which means we can join them together, almost as if we are chemically constructing a molecular bond – the 5 becomes a trunk, shared by BOTH fields, and the remaining 8 cells of the Lo Shu become a field of roots, while the remaining 18 cells of the hexagon tiling become a field of branches – our metamagick “tree” thus has 27, or (9×3) components, in total – all resonating together. Eight lunar roots, eighteen solar branches, and a solunaraxis mundi that connects them as a shared valence.
This joining is not unique. The meta magick method frequently maps magickal systems to different arrays and then joins those arrays in “meta-molecules” that allow two or more different magickal paradigms to contribute their energetic resonance in-toto into a kind of modular whole. Note that this is very different than just mashing systems together, or splicing them mindlessly – it allows each system to be a whole voice and then harmonizes those voices as if in a choir.
This is the ethos – not to deny or replace, or obstruct traditional systems, but to attempt to experiment with harmonizing their voices – insofar as those voices issue magickal fields, metamagickal molecules – and to explore and report our findings. This is the integral function of meta magick as it is technically applied.
PAA: You talk about “meta magical fields” that arise when magickal systems are channeled through mathematical objects. What do these fields concretely do and how does a practitioner interact with them?
I am pretty sure the above accounts answer a lot of this question, but I’ll try it in different words. Magickal systems assemble awareness into a gestalt and offer a “whole model” lens through which to see the world. This act of seeing is not passive though – not something a “subject” simply experiences. Seeing is a dynamic activity that can radiate forth into the world, coloring it. Seeing the world actually creates the world in a subtle sense – as such , a magickal system is like a stained-glass window – it lets the light through and paints pictures on it – and then those pictures tell stories, those stories are “cast forth” into the world, where they mold our experiences of becoming and then our experiential engagements with those stories inspire new pictures and new stories and so forth in a feedback loop– it is all very active, and it contributes to the world – creates with it, so to speak.
This effect of radiant seeing can be described as a kind of existential effulgence (or radiation) that stems from the practitioners awareness itself, and then casts its light (however configured) onto the world. These change time – SO, when we use a mathemagickal object like a magick square or star, we are tuning that magickal system, so as to display a kind of overtone or resonance – the powerful patterning of these objects gives them a singular beauty.
When a practioner shines awareness through a total suite of universal symbols AS CONFIGURED into a harmonic arrangement by means of a magick square, circle or star, that radiance directly influences and shapes time – what happens, what doesn’t happen – what is attracted into manifestation, what is repelled from manifestation. A meta magickal practitioner who has cultivated a rich system of fields can get to the point where they don’t have to “do” anything at all – their “self” does not have to intervene in states of affairs, because the fields carry them effortlessly toward where they need to be and away from what they don’t need to be. This can hit a stage where the effect compounds and amplifies exponentially, and in resonance with many mages, in synchrony.
The meta-mage becomes the fields themselves – is fully translated into fields – and as such their open valences carry them beyond subject and object, self and other. Meta magick fields become the transpersonal textures of time itself. In this apocalypse we transcend the status of “individual”, and transform so as to become like unique spotlights ranging across an ever-flowing and endless river. Sometimes we overlap, sometimes we depart, but we no longer tend to collide.
PAA: What is calendar hypnosis and how does the Gregorian calendar negatively impact magickal work? How does MetaMagick attempt to counteract this?
Calendar hypnosis refers to the conditioning effect that following a given calendar has on the mind of individuals and on the structure of societies. Calendar hypnosis can manifest in many forms, some beneficial, some harmful – it can be unconscious or conscious. Metamagick attempts to harness calendar hypnosis consciously to generate widespread and enduring social, psychological and spiritual transformations. In particular, we are seeking to incubate the development of a social arrangement called synarchy.
Synchrony is the great power that allows us to rise beyond the dichotomy of self and other. If my meta-magickal approach were to be given a political label, I would choose “synarchist”, meaning government-by-synchronization. This potential social arrangement is possible because meta magick adepts are effectively modular configurations of magickal fields with different shapes and characters that can hook up and connect to each other in great, volunteeristic structural arrays. Those arrays form the synchronic sub-structure of our emergent integralist society – at once neither hierarchical, nor orderless – but something that evokes Buckminster Fuller’s vision of tensegrity: wherein the structural strength of a dome comes equally from all the points of its form, provided that the design is sound and the principles are applied. Each meta magickian, operating to sculpt time in a modular and open array becomes a nexus in the tensegrity matrix that functions as collective, dynamic armature supporting society as a whole. This vision sees us actually sublimating external institutions of governance, and rebuilding their essential functions as part of our emergent understanding of time. This will truly come about once we learn how to reprogram our calendars.
A calendar does not measure time, it shapes it and sculpts it – it takes the raw fact of enduring presence, and then en-wraps it in a frame that contextualizes “past” and “future” in terms of certain directions, associations, programs, and values. Calendars clothe time in a framework that allows for social organization, collective memory, and a concept of recordable history.
The Gregorian calendar is the latest modification of the Roman/Julian calendar, which originally began as a work schedule for part of the year, and eventually became a totalizing narrative for time itself – the Gregorian modification came about at the dawn of industrialization and was meant to increase the calendar’s quantitative accuracy – and furnish it to interact with new technologies such as the clock – especially in terms of how the clock relates to production and mass production. This new calendar instantiated the ethos “time is money” and made it possible to conceive of the wage – at the same time it came with a utilitarian perspective towards the resources of the world.
The Gregorian calendar conjured capitalism into manifestation, and at the same time was conjured into manifestation BY capitalism – it is capital’s operating system. It portrays time like an infinite train track, moving inexorably forward, and being driven by “progress”. It powers an ideology that has colonized most of the world and extracted its wealth. It privileges institutions that can think in long arcs, and it disadvantages “ordinary people,” supplying only a 30 day “paycheck to paycheck” rhythm for us to follow, even as “inflation” dilutes the value of the wages we earn (and thus the leverage value of each of our individual presents). The Gregorian calendar is a bit like a bad social media platform that has become intoxicated with its own monopoly, and grown tyrannical.
The hyper-emphasis on the quantitative is at the expense of qualitative time – and even what qualitative time we can salvage – from say, astrology, gets quantified and sold back to us. The Gregorian calendar is like a great, leaking, slave-barge – a dependency machine that relies on us not seeing that we can sculpt time independent from it.
For this reason, the sacred calendars of the world are of some help- they show us alternatives – and yet they themselves are somewhat overpowered by the Gregorian’s inexorable march towards financial dominance: no other calendar’s inherent purpose is to transform time into money – and in a world in which money is accepted as the highest power, that gives the Gregorian the advantage.
In the late 20th century, José Argüelles proposed that “time is not money, time is art”. He did this in the context of a new-age adaptation of the Mayan calendar, which much to the chagrin of many actual Maya, now quite often sells itself as the “true galactic calendar, and the authentic Wisdom of the Maya” to an assortment of non-critical practitioners. I am dubious about showcasing this product as the only answer to the dilemma that the Gregorian puts us in, and I consider Argüelles to be a cautionary tale, but I DO want to draw attention to the fact that “Time is Art”, interpreted BROADLY may be our best way out of the trap of incarceratory time (the Gregorian calendar is identified in meta-magickal calendrics as the very same same entity as Phillip K. Dick’s infamous Black Iron Prison – the Roman empire’s time-gulag).
Learning how to create, follow and multiply new calendrical narratives may be the best strategy to depressurizing the monopoly that the Gregorian has on money, and thus on magick. As such, since 2003, I have constructed a system of 9+1 calendars entitled “The Ibisystem Orrery” which are calendars based on the orbits of the planets from Mecury out to Neptune, and inclusive of the Sun and Moon. The system functions like an orrery – weaving multiple timelines together into a braid, and proposing a vision of time that I call the “moment-focal sphere” a vast ball of time in which every calendar in the world passes through the direct center – the collective present. Out of this common heart, a million diverse timelines bloom.
The effort here is not to destroy or even replace the Gregorian, but rather to make its monopoly obsolete by out-designing it. It is my sincere belief that a revolution in calendrics with be the keystone to a society-wide global transfiguration that will liberate us from the current morass into which our obsolete world views- as yet un-adapted to the galactic register of awareness – have fallen.
We will outgrow the Gregorian calendar’s grasp – meta magick is the pressure of art brought to bear on time, and new magick calendars are the fulcrum upon which we will amplify that pressure exponentially beyond the level that the relic-calendars are capable of exerting.
The Meta Magick ladder is our House in the cosmos: we are at home at our root, our heart, our throat, and our head: in magic, myth, reason and integration.
Dr Peter Duchemin
PAA: Can you walk through a simple MetaMagick ritual step-by-step so people understand what it looks like in practice?
Okay, here is a basic daily practice, which I call the metamagick ladder rite:
Stand and breathe, imagining yourself in a vast circle (or oroboros) then, focus attention on your root – the sex center. Imagine a taproot going down into the center of a crossroads and connecting to the fundamental, primordial elementality of embodied experience – fire, water, air, earth – hot, cold, wet, dry – four qualities contending before the formless chaos that the Greeks called apieron. Root into the circle and claim your magick powers in your sexual core. Activate the compass rose.
Next, put your attention into your solar plexus and envision the whole world at your heart – encircled by the seven classical planets – witness the Ptolemaic cosmic picture – a “sublunary” sphere of elements, inside eight crystalline circles – the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and finally a hole-pocked, star-strewn “firmament” of the heavens, encasing it all. Feel how you can transfer your awareness from the lococentric root perspective, where immediacy resides, up to the collective world level, where destiny abides.
Now, move your focus to your throat…. Feel yourself going beyond the firmament – it opens up, the picture shifts into a Heliocentric register, and the Sun takes centre stage – the dreamy visions evaporate, and a clear vista of forces emerges – move beyond destiny to the domain of rational objectivity. Spirits are replaced by “facts” determined by observation, and here is where you can weave a network of dynamic, rational concepts that connect all those facts into probabilistic “bets” about what is going to happen in any given state of affairs – this is the predictive power of science. See the solar system itself from the perspective of the Sun, – all the planets, moons, asteroids, comets – the physical reality divorced from story and available to observation alone. Feel how skepticism can lead to a “crowned agnosticism” that merely observes and learns, and does not assume. Ideological neutrality. Avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of theological ideology on the one hand and materialist nihilism on the other, pass through the gate of true, humble, awe-struck agnostic witnessing of the vastness of space and time. Become the mind of true science.
Draw back down, on the mythical cosmos of Ptolemy, in the heart, and on the magic compass rose of elemental forces at your root. Sense how they nest, one within the other, enveloped and interconnected. Consolidate these integration.
Migrate your awareness to your head and shift your perspective to the very center of the Galaxy, the black hole that is Sagittarius A. See how the solar system is located in the Andromeda arm of that galaxy and is amongst myriad millions of worlds. Luxuriate in the vast inclusion of all stars and world. Let your awareness also reach downward back from the galactic head into the heliocentric throat and the geocentric heart, all the way to the lococentric root. Flow back up: feel magick grow into myth into reason, and finally into diaphanous clarity as the galaxy embraces the sun, embraces the earth, embraces the crossroads. Feel them all in concord, each center with the others – they have NEVER been separate – they have always been one in their diversity.
To finish, turn your awareness at once to the outside – above and below – the sky of infinite futures – structures beyond the galactic, and to the earth of infinite microcosms – beneath the crossroads into the hearts of each atom, and all the way into the minutia of light, thrumming into and out of existence at the planck length. Recognize that the four centres are our “visible spectrum” of capacities, afloat in an Origin that both subtends us and supertends us infinitely. We are bouyant within it – the way is open in either direction, yet we have established homes on all four cosmological centers.
The Meta Magick ladder is our House in the cosmos: we are at home at our root, our heart, our throat, and our head: in magic, myth, reason and integration.
Breathe and let this vision become transparent. Let the circle dissolve into eternity like an ice cube into an ocean.
Re-assume your mundane consciousness, and go about your business.
PAA: You mention harmonizing chaos magick and traditional occult systems. What does each uniquely contribute and how are they synthesized?
Chaos magick is like the mortar, and the traditional occult systems are like the bricks. If we consider what Chaos magick contributed to occult ,though: principally it is the ethos that a universal mechanism for magick can be identified – what Peter Carroll called “gnosis”, and that knowledge of this mechanism allows us to dispense with elaborate systems –and go direct to causing magickal “effects”.
Carroll showed that it wasn’t the content of the rituals that cause the effect but rather the communication of non-dualistic intent – bypassing the conscious mind and going right to the unconscious that appears to evoke magickal results. Classic rituals are just elaborate mean of achieving this, according to Chaos magick. Chaos magick thus becomes almost obsessively focused on results – “do what works, and discard the rest”. Needless to say there are many who felt that while this had some validity, it was, to a large extent “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. Are results the only thing that magickians and mystics are concerned with? Is “what works” necessarily the optimal method? Is “optimal” actually what we are all necessarily seeking in our practice?
Alan Chapman, in Advanced Magick for Beginners achieves a subtly brilliant synthesis of traditional and Chaos methodologies – largely by stripping down the “mechanism” even more than Caroll did. He sets up perhaps the most clear set of instructions on how to do magick universally that has ever been published. At the same time, with his definition being “the art, science, and culture of experiencing truth”, in contrast to Crowley’s “science and art of causing change in conformity with will”, Chapman shifts the emphasis away from “results magick”, while keeping the clarity that the universalist magickal distillation has achieved.
So basically what we are doing in Metamagick is extending this project and including all magickal systems – especially the traditional and elaborate ones – as arts, sciences, cultures of experiencing truth, and we are seeking to craft something of an ark – a magickal interlanguage that encourages the living conservation of as many culturally significant magickal systems as possible – while shining the light of clarity through them so as to clear them of undigested dogma. Chaos and tradition need NOT be opposed as “open mindedness – versus dogma” (a state of affairs that brings out the worst qualities in all fields), but instead held together as moments – one moment a solve function and the other a coagula function. We are thus performing an alchemy on magick itself. The prize is something far more than ego’s desired “results.” It is the experience of truth in all its flavors.
PAA: What does a typical vision or communication with a meta-magickal field look like? How does it differ from working with traditional spirits or energies?
Once, in a dream, I was given the word “Sasafoi” by a dream messenger. I was shown that it was an acronym for “Spontaneously Appearing, Self-Adjusting, Field of Influence”. This was the germinal idea that led to my contemporary articulation of “metamagick fields”. It was also influenced by my studies of the I Ching, Gilles Deleuze, and Rupert Sheldrake.
In meta magick, we train ourselves to sense these fields, and to talk about them, and I would say that the raw phenomena that combine to trigger the deployment of a meta magick field exist through all four of the integrated centers of the meta magick ladder – but they bloom as such fields only in the Galactic level. So meta magick actually allows for (and demands) all the different kinds of traditional working too – the style of vision or interaction will be appropriate to the level: pacts and sorcery on the logocentric/Compass rose level, astral travel and heavenly chariots on the geocentric/Ptolymaic level, quantitative analysis and scientific proofing on the heliocentric/Copernican level, and then finally on the Galactic level, all these phenomena display their real nature as haecceities that can at once be animistic, phantasmic, AND fact-generating.
These are the meta magick fields, and when we cultivate an intrinsic connection to them, we can almost flex the energies like a muscle – we can feel them with a kind of magickal proprioception – an intimacy that is not mediated by thought, but is felt directly in the heart and sensed in the body. We can connect to the aethers, their feeling tones, and their language-defying flavors and textures, and we can move in and through them, shape them, cultivate them, emanate and modulate them. We in fact BECOME the fields – as that is the secret… we have always already BEEN “spontaneously appearing, self adjusting, fields of influence” and that is what we all – and everything actually is. None of our previous apprehensions are negated, they just reach a culmination or climax in this visionary register. It’s quite an extraordinary experience – but I hesitate to suggest that I could pin down a “typical” example.
Essentially, in meta magick, you can have traditional experiences, sorcerous experiences, scientific experiences, even “mundane” experiences – but you can also raise each of these types of experience to the level of the universal horizon, and “wash” them in its openness. It is there that they become something beyond our ordinary vision of the world – something beyond, and beyond beyond – as the Sufis say, “God is closer to you than your own jugular.” Meta magick does not negate or alter anything – but changes the perspective through which all is seen.
When we ourselves are emanating a field, it opens space, and clears it of clutter, and at the same time makes it habitable for us. When we encounter someone with a strong “presence” we are coming into contact with their field. I think that the terminology I am using might make it all sound like something proprietary – but really I’ve just given a name to that kind of “bending” of the world that any strong and integrated locus of awareness has.
We are actively seeking to concentrate and integrate our fields so we can extend them – both as ourselves, and in resonating chains and arrays with other adepts – but one need not be versed in – or have heard of “meta-magick” to extend such a field. Accomplished artists, martial artists, magickians, all have them – leaders of renown invariably project a field around themselves that bends time to their intent – think Winston Churchill, for example. The fields, in my experience, which essentially bend time – are a result of a connection to divine purpose – if they are rooted in egoism, they are, at the end of the day, quite weak, like sandstone – even if they appear superficially overwhelming – their granularity makes them subject to erosion.
Dis-integrated fields tend to either dissolve or double down on their unhappy arrangement and become vampiric or predatory – these pathological fields in some way are alienated from the great Horizon of which I spoke – they are claustrophobic spaces and their spirits feel imprisoned and are suffering. Such toxic fields are best dealt with by adepts who can show the right balance of compassion and firmness. Through the medium of the internet, it is currently possible for networks of dis-integrating fields to unnaturally prolong their existence by recruiting more and more unhappy and alienated people into their influence in a kind of horizontal contagion wave. Is there even an original agent? Doubtful. In vampirism, the hunger itself is the ultimate agent.Memes very often carry this – being as they are “pseudo-thoughts”, sound-bites, commercial jingles, and talking points – or what is the same: weaponized mnemonic devices. These are to real thought as the great garbage field is to the Sargasso sea – they clutter us, and assemble us into these dis-integrative amalgams.
As disturbing as this may be, acknowledging it is a step towards a powerful transformation – and when the view changes, even these sick, alienated fields of superficiality (what the Kabbalists would call Qliphoth), can become the prima materia for a genuine transmutation. Even toxic fields can be redeemed and healed. This is, I believe the great task of the integral age – and field perception, free as it is from traditional superstitions, dogmas, and reductionisms, is the key to effecting this great healing, this Tikkun.
PAA: How can an average person start benefitting from MetaMagick without years of training in multiple occult systems? What are some beginner accessible techniques?
The simplest place to start is the ritual meditation that I provided in the answer to question 7. After that, I would recommend my meta magick scrying course, which is a crash course in meta magickal fields without any necessary knowledge of outside “occult systems.” After that, I would recommend the meta magick Tarot course, which will introduce the practitioner to many of the systems that come into use in my personal construction of meta magick.
PAA: In your upcoming Meta Magick Scrying course, you focus specifically on scrying magical squares and figures. Why is scrying these mathematical structures an important foundational practice for Meta Magick? What benefits does it provide?
A magickal figure is a kind of “frozen music” – it is an optimal arrangement of number-able elements that allows those elements to course with palindromic flows of consistency and coherence – in other words, it makes them resonate uniquely. At the same time, a magickal figure as it appears on paper is merely a curiosity – a recipe, if you will.
Number alone, unless one is a numerology adept, does not carry emotional or psychic energy – what the Tantrics might call “rasas”: feeling tones, aesthetic emotions. In order for our mathemagical figures and objects to disclose their real beauty, we need to load them with rasas. This is a bit like as if the figure were a garden plot, with specific, optimal positions for certain types of plant to be grown so as to maximize their interaction and synergy – but in its basic state, that garden plot is unused – fallow.
Scrying consists of projecting our imaginations into a target domain, while we are sufficiently at balance and in equilibrium to receive impressions from our unconscious without interference. When we do this properly, we can get very vivid images and associations. Sometimes these have tangible forms – like dream images and characters, and sometimes they are more like textures, or abstract patterns. No matter – the main thing is that a previously “blank” target domain now has some content – something sufficient to hold an emotional load. Emotion is our energy – where we feel emotions – whether gross or subtle – we are interacting with psychic energy. By finding an emotional response in each of cell of the figure – in this case the Lo Shu, we are actually placing real psychic energy into this harmonic arrangement, and it allows the grosser registers of the feeling tones to be refined – by means of the resonance, into finer registers – these finer registers are what radiate into eternity – into the plane of immanence – as meta magick fields. SO, when we scry the Lo Shu, or the Sunflower array, or the meta magickal merkabah, we are not just having a subjective experience – we are modulating the very makeup of our emotional/energetic constitution and training it to climax in these palindromic patterns that cause it to become more than the sum of its parts.
Remember, we don’t HAVE fields – on the ultimate level, we ARE fields – Spontaneously appearing, Self Adjusting Fields of Influence. When we do these exercises, we are raising our magic, myths, and reason to the galactic plane, and resonating like stars into the shared ecology of heaven.
PAA: You mentioned that in the MetaMagick Scrying course, students will be building a customized “merkabah” using the scried visions. Can you explain what a merkabah is in this context and how it relates to the meta-magickal fields you discussed earlier? How does having one’s own merkabah aid in magical work?
Merkabah, of course, means “chariot” in Hebrew, and the classical merkabah is drawn from the vision of Ezekiel. In the contemporary context the merkabah is associated to the geometric figure known as the stella octangula – or stellated octahedron. This figure can be pictured as either two large, interlaced tetrahedra, or as eight smaller tetrahedra “glued” to the sides of an octahedron. It is, truly both at once. At the same time, this frame perfectly fits to the volume of a cube.
In standard contemporary magick as taught by the Builders of The Adytum (BoTA), and other schools, we can center and ground ourselves within a great cube called the “cube of space”. I have always leaned more towards the octahedron for this same effect, but the truth is that the octehedron and the cube are interchangeable: they are each other’s dual. The cube has six faces and eight corners and the octahedron has six corners and eight faces. The main point, however, is that they come together completely, when the octahedron is stellated. At this stage, since there is a cube within the octahedron and an octahedron within the cube infinitely – this particular geometric “field” scales to infinity in both directions. In other words, this is a kind of field that can contain an infinite intensity, and allow it to manifest a coherent form.
In magickal visionary work, we at times encounter “aethers” and atmospheres that are exceptionally difficult for ordinary persons – for egos – to integrate. The merkabah becomes the astral vehicle of the adept because, with an activated merkabah, consciousness can encounter these intensities and atmospheres and retain its form and composure – even as the ego would dissolve on contact.
When we transfer our self-hood from our drives and neuroses over to the reliable framework provided by sacred geometry – insofar as it is animated by a sense of loving trust in the divine – then we gain the necessary tools to go beyond our “individuality” into transpersonal, spiritual, and interconnected spaces of great beauty and austerity.
The merkabah is the magickian’s space-ship for the exploration of visionary dimensions beyond the ordinary.
In meta magick we construct our merkabah using a mathemagical “tetrahedron ring” which is a special figure with the same kinds of resonance as a magick square, except that it produces a ring of eight tetrahedra which takes the numbers 1-32 as inputs and then harmonizes them to produce magickal sums within each tetrahedron. We use this technology to convert the Tree of Life, with its 32 zones (spheres and paths) into the merkabah. This integration then gives us what we need to practice the “work of the chariot” on the galactic scale.
PAA: You have created numerous unique occult calendar systems as part of your overall Meta Magick framework. What role do these specialized calendars play? How do they differ from traditional timing systems and how are they used by the practitioner?
See my answer to question 6 for a good introduction to this issue. To answer here, briefly – the calendars allow meta magick fields to be socially generated: it is not just the individual practitioner that wields meta magick, but rather a kind of network of magickal amplifications that develops across the users of the calendars – since my calendars essentially act to clear out pathways in time through the anti-magickal friction zones that the Gregorian imposes, and since, being planetary in nature, they amplify specific energies – they play the role of gradually freeing us, individually, and socially – in the long term – from detrimental interference with our magickal trajectories caused by cultural “dampening fields” and other distortions that traditional calendars apply.
The Ibisystem calendars accomplish this liberation by fulfilling the spirit of the Hermetic Axiom – “as above so below”, which has its roots, I believe in the chapter of Plato’s Timeaus, where he suggests that we imitate the heavenly movements in all our ratios and proportions, and seek to bring the pulse and rhythm of those motions into our lives on earth. We are making calendar hypnosis completely conscious and evolving it to supply our contemporary needs for bigger, more coherent mythopoeic surface area. While for the adherents of the Gregorian calendar, time is like a train track, for Ibisists, it is more like a coral reef.
The difference between meta-magick and classical magick here is that, in meta magick, unlike astrology, we are following the orbits of the planets as they circle the sun, rather than the cycles of conjunction and opposition that we see from the earth. The meta magick calendars of the Ibisystem Orrery are heliocentric in nature – they draw from the data of astronomers moreso than that of astrologers, however they do not deny astrology as a valid system on its own plane – they integrate the qualitative emphasis of the latter with the quantitative precision and simplicity of the former. Any calendar is a triple interface between psyche, cosmos, and socius. The calendars of the Ibisystem entrain an entire suite of braided planetary timelines into a kind of super time-cable.
This is how we take full charge of our own calendar hypnosis, shake off any undesirable holdovers from previous conditioning, mitigate interference, and clear out anti-magickal residues. Traditional timing systems seek to “measure time” but they actually condition it – in meta magick we condition it directly – and in a manner conducive to the development of our integrative faculties. We want to operate in a drag-free “superconductive” magickal temporality.
The polycalendrical system used in meta magick is meant to vastly deepen our overall understanding of what a calendar (or multiple calendars in tandem) can do. Practitioners typically use a given calendar by “following” it – that is by being part of a community that discusses the themes of that calendar as it moves through them (as for instance the way that the Venus calendar moves through the 32 paths of the Tree of Life in 32 weeks, or how the Mercury calendar moves through the 88 constellations in 88 days) – and if that practitioner wants to increase the intensity of the experience they can select a creative project or a series of ritual actions that they will complete or perform alongside the rhythm of the count – which is to say they will perform that activity over the course of a single orbit of the planet – harnessing its momentum and converting it into a metamagickal field by means of their creative or reflective engagement. This is what is called “chronoforming “ time. We take raw time – any oscillating body in the cosmos – and we transmute it into a metamagickal field by synchronizing a practice with it. The actual potential of this activity is limitless, and the Ibisystem is just the beginning.
In any event, as a practitioner begins to adapt to this methodology, they may want begin to add other calendars into the mix, and since the momentum of these calendrics is not isolated to any one individual, gradually the Orrery itself is charged and comes into life for the whole community of practitioners, and arguably for the whole occulture and culture – radiating a massively comprehensive, hermetically cogent set of time-evoking pressure fields across the entire “theatre of human experience”, so to speak.
The pulse, or time song of the cosmos is written onto the Earth by the living practice of the meta magickal calendar wizards, in their irresistible dance of synchronicities. This is our synarchy.
PAA: You emphasize the importance of attentional control and management in MetaMagick. In what ways does MetaMagick train attention differently than standard occult practice? What attentional faculties are strengthened and how does this augment magical work?
I don’t want you to think that this control has to be strained, or forced – this has to emerge as a kind of natural and relaxed state – like that of a Kung-Fu master playing their forms. High activity and control – but without strain – this allows us to improvise, to play the various fields of emotional and aesthetic energy like a jazz ensemble – not rigidly, but adeptly and sensitively. A flow state.
So when I hear “train”, I almost want to replace the word with “cultivate” – to show the slow patience involved in growing these capacities. Practice, train, cultivate. “Control” comes out as a result of having diligently pursued these flow states, day after day, for years, decades, and lifetimes. There is no worthwhile shortcut to realization – all such cheat-codes cost more than they pay out.
There is no single way that meta magick trains this, either – except “all the ways”. Try them out! Vipassana, or Buddhist breath meditation – that is a good place to start. Juggling three or more objects will also get you there. Kung Fu is excellent practice. Essentially what we want to do is teach ourselves to re-collect presence whenever we can – to avoid falling into aimless or futile imaginary loops. To return to the moment and to feel our energy – our most authentic energy – and to open it all up before the fullness of eternity – in a sense to offer ourselves continuously and wholly to the divine – as we understand it. Then there is a flow that breathes like fresh air through everything – and attentional “control” becomes something different than we might at first think.
Our awareness is itself a prayer and we can offer that prayer – ARE always offering it – to whatever we choose. The key is to raise that that prayer above mundane matters and offer it to the great and wonderous mystery itself. It takes a shift of character away from selfishness to do this, by the way – but the rewards are connection, transparency, clarity. There is not greater magic than sharing cosmic awareness and realizing ourselves as expression of the divine plenum.
At this stage, attention becomes devotion. Awareness worships itself on the purest level – and in doing so realizes it has no “self”. The borders are completely and forever open, and the sacred saturates everything, always.
Chop wood, carry water.
PAA: Thank you for another super indepth interview. You share so much in these posts and I hope readers can see that working with you in any capacity will be extremely useful.
Learn with Dr Peter Duchemin
If you would like to take the next step and start learning directly with Peter then there are two options as described below. The first being the in depth, huge 33 week Meta Magick Tarot course (it goes way beyond Tarot) and the second being the more introductory course focusing on Meta Magick Scrying.
The Meta Magick Tarot is a unique, 3-part course which can be pursued on your own time, or synchronized with the 32 week calendar of Venus, the Forest of Life. The entire Tarot is covered in 32 lessons with PDFs, Video Support, and guided meditation for each class. The meta-magick philosophy is future oriented, and understands magickal thinking in a way similar to an engineer’s perspective. How can we build a uniquely powerful philosophy of creative tarot practice that we can live INSIDE? The content and materials will range from the basic to the advanced, and there are insights and innovations that you will find nowhere else.
This course offers a concise and comprehensive seven-module program that guides students through the process of constructing a fundamental set of MetaMagick fields. These fields, which are underpinned by mathematically-based magickal structures, interlock to create a stable foundation for the MetaMagick practitioner. In essence, this course provides an accelerated introduction to the construction of a MetaMagick Merkabah – the visionary chariot.
We have a growing collection of free courses from various teachers. These courses give you a chance to get to know our teachers better while developing a new skill set.
In our modern world, there is a growing interest in reviving ancient spiritual practices and weaving them into contemporary lifestyles. One such movement that has gained significant traction is Neoshamanism. This fascinating approach aims to make the timeless wisdom and techniques of traditional shamanism more accessible to those seeking a profound connection with the natural world and the realms of spirit. In this piece, Andre Consciencia, a respected voice in the Neo-Shamanic community, takes us on a journey, contrasting the cosmology of Neo-Shamanism with that of ceremonial magic traditions like the Hermetic Kabbalah and Enochian magic.
We are going to dive in at the deep end and look at these practices next to other well know practices in the magical world. To see information about Andres course that explores Neoshamanism please see here.
PAA. How does the cosmology and worldview of Neoshamanism differ from the cosmological models found in ceremonial magic traditions like the Hermetic Kabbalah or Enochian magic?
It does not, in essence. The first thing to know is that just like water is the base and whole constitution of ice, shamanism is the base of magic, sorcery, religion, mysticism, and even art. It is hard to conceive of any magician or mystic following any system for a whole life and not learning the source of it, yet that is the most frequent case. Hermetic Kabbalah and Enochian Magic are of the Ancient Greek line, systems that take all the life you can find in this source and apply it to logic. They are systems meant to offer the imaginal to logic, and enliven reason, making it animistic. Truth is, Hermetic Kabbalah and Enochian magic must first be shamanic, and only then hermetic kabbalah and Enochian magic. They do not, however, remain shamanic in the true sense of the word, since they have been encapsulated and mummified in their systems. The circuits of power in Hermetic Kabbalah or Enochian Magic are closed, and this means they are channeled in a way that the power accumulates, the emblem being that of the Oroboros, the serpent that grows from feeding of itself. In shamanism, the power is free and flowing through all things. To catch it, we must match its freedom with our own wildness. That is how it works.
PAA: While both utilize an awareness of subtle realms/planes, how does the Neo-Shamanic concept of the lowerworld, middleworld, and upperworld relate to or diverge from the qabalistic model of the Tree of Life?
The division in neo-shamanism and shamanism in general is very basic and elemental. The lowerworld, better called as deep world, represents our atavic and most untamed powers, the middleworld represents the enchantment of the world we live in most of the time, the upperworld is the cosmos that underlies it all but also where our innermost purity lies. In neo-shamanism in particular, sometimes people use Jung’s theories, and the deep world would be the unconscious/subconscious, the middleworld the subconscious/conscious, and the upper world the conscious/superconscious. The Quabalistic Tree of Life has three pillars, and there is a parallelism that could be drawn. The middle pillar is the pillar of consciousness and it represents the subconscious/conscious, where synthesis occurs. Contrary to popular belief, the right pillar would be the deep world, the unconscious/subconscious, since it sets things in motion with its uncontrolled power (force). The left pillar would be the upperworld, since it sublimates and limits all potential limitations (form). This comparison, however, is already limiting when applying Jung, and much more if we remove the neo from Neo-Shamanism and Jung leaves the room as well. It could be said as well the deep world is the world of the qliphoth, but that would imply that judgement was made upon it. The deep world cannot survive judgement, it must be abscent of judgement if it is to be at all, and the comparison becomes fruitless. The middle world would include Malkhut and Yesod, but that would mean matter and dream were to split, and if this is so, it no longer stands the middle world. Shamanism makes no such distinction. The upperworld could be the rest of the tree, but can we really contain it in 8 figures?
PAA: Ceremonial magic often utilizes complex systems of correspondences, whereas shamanism is more experiential. How do Neo-Shamanic practices strike a balance between these two approaches?
Neo-shamanism as I have learned it and as I understand it does not intend to bridge shamanism and ceremonial magic, it is simply shamanism made accessible to the modern person who has no idea what wildness (I use this word intentionally) is in the wilderness. If it becomes somehow closer to ceremonial magic it is an accidental side effect, made possible through Carl Jung, who is also adopted by numerous ceremonial magic systems. Let us be clear, in neo-shamanism Jung is not essential, his system merely allows us to explain certain things to newcomers in a more familiar terminology. However, many powerful experiences in traditional shamanism may end up being whitewashed as intellectual experiences, simply because the urban person needs to feel in control in order to cope with the lack of control that large societies thrive on. This person has no control over insanity, and prefers to believe his or her experiences are a simulation. The most mature neoshaman meets the level of the traditional shaman, stops distinguishing between intellect and matter, dream and vigilance, and through the spirit taps into raw insanity and gains control over it.
PAA: Many shamanic traditions work closely with plant teachers/entheogens, while ceremonial magic is typically less reliant on them. How does Neo-Shamanism integrate plant medicines within its practice?
Very well. But, while medicines are crucial in traditional shamanism, they are optional in neoshamanism, and might not even be particularly encouraged. Again, for the regular modern person the medicines can be a hard pill to swallow. This comes to be because there is no controlled insanity.
PAA: The use of shamanic drumming is common, but how does this relate to other sonic technologies used in magic like hebratic/enochian voice magick?
It does not except that both are made of sound. If one should look for a correspondence to hebraic/enochian voice magic in shamanism, one should look for the icaros, and still be left wanting. Hebrew voice magic (at least as it is being used today) is hardly voice magic, it is based on the concepts it invokes and eventually materializes (evokes). More or less the same takes place within the enochian system. In the Icaros (songs of power or magical songs) the idea is to get reed of concepts altogether, to speak without concepts, so that the song does not refer to a thing but is the thing.
PAA: Neo-Shamans often work with spirit guides/allies, while ceremonial magicians may call on intelligences like angels, demons, egregores. How do these beings compare metaphysically?
Ceremonial magicians are neoplatonists. The intelligences are parts of the imagination of God (God being imagination imagining itself) that are imagining themselves. By tapping into them, the magician is actualized and becomes closer to the source of him or herself. Angels and demons are mechanical forces of these imaginations (when imagination imagines itself it generates intelligence) , they are living agents in the mechanics of the universe. Moving aspects of intelligence. None of these pose a problem in shamanism. Everything is a living agent of the Great Spirit, everything is imagination imagining itself. Yet, everything means everything, not just a portion with specific numbers and divine names.
PAA: Ritual construction differs between the two – how does the typical Neo-Shamanic ritual format compare to ceremonies like the Opening by Watchtower in the Golden Dawn system?
A ritual is always a ritual, in any tradition. There is a cleansing, communion, intention, celebration, integration. The typical neoshamanic ritual has purification of the people involved, of the space, invitation of the spirits, traveling in turn to the spirit world, rescuing power, dancing/incorporating/celebrating. The watchtowers are particularly close to how a circle is opened in neoshamanism (a method for the purification of the space stage), where the shaman incorporates a spirit (generally a spirit animal) and dances around the space while expressing the four seasons until the spirit goes full circle. Similarly, the watchtowers greet the four elements and stars in the four directions, the analogies include the four seasons.
PAA: Both traditions incorporate ideas of traveling in consciousness. How does shamanic soul flight/journeying relate to ceremonial astral projection or rising on the planes?
The shamanic flight happens and we take the journey. The ship is not commanded consciously. Instead, it is set in motion by turning off conscious control and surrendering to our intention and the forces surrounding it. Ceremonial astral projection happens the other way around, by gaining conscious control or learning how to activate self-control within the astral plane.
PAA: Ceremonial magic sometimes makes use of complex gestures, postures, weapons, and other implementa. What physical tools hold significance in Neo-Shamanic rites?
Every object that you can learn to see beyond the linear pattern of thought that limits your perception becomes alive with power, and a shamanic tool therefore.
PAA: While ceremonial magic is often solitary, shamanism frequently has a community aspect. How does Neo-Shamanism foster the teaching and intergenerational transmission of its practices?
Neoshamanism is solitary. If it still had a real tribal community it would still be shamanism and not neo-shamanism. Sure, there are workshops and shamanic circles, but there is no tribe. In our civilization the tribal days are long gone, even family is scarce. We do not foster intergenerational teachings. We teach to those willing to learn and then we dissipate in the sea of a thousand million again, and so do they who learn.
PAA: Your course has 5 levels, what can students expect from each level and where does the course lead the student to ultimately at the completion of Level 5?
Level 1 and 2 are about mastering the deep world, working with animal spirits and the ancestors. Level 3 is about mastering the middle world, its spirits and shamanic tools. Level 4 is about mastering the upper world and finding out who you are as a shaman, your nature, call, vocation and mission. Level 5 is about completely merging the visionary world with our material/mundane world, not in a metaphorical sense but in a literal sense. For more details you can consult the course curriculum.
PAA: Do you want to share anything specifically about Neo-Shamanism? Perhaps something that has been overlooked or point out some misunderstandings?
Overlooked: Neo-Shamanism is not a system, it is a non-linear or non-systematic approach. Set to work, it is the life force behind and beyond all limited conceptualizations.
Misunderstandings: The three worlds are thought to be separated. There are no three worlds. There is just a continuity of countless worlds that flow together as the Great Spirit.
Neo-Shamanism allowed me to work with Lusitanian deities, and not only deities worshipped by the lusitanians but by the celts and celtiberians living in the region that is the Iberian Peninsula in Pre-Roman times.
Andre Consciencia
PAA: Can you share any personal stories or experiences from your practice of Neo-Shamanic rituals and teachings?
Neo-Shamanism allowed me to work with Lusitanian deities, and not only deities worshipped by the lusitanians but by the celts and celtiberians living in the region that is the Iberian Peninsula in Pre-Roman times. There is very little about how to work with these pagan deities and the little there is, is not being utilized nor built upon. I and a group of people kind of raised these deities from their sepulchres through shamanism, and that later allowed me to build an approximation to the Ars Goetia using the gods and goddesses and the ancestors, and a sort of a devised Indo-European Quabbalah, taken from the Indo-European phonemes and their significances. This can all be found in my work The Lusitanian Grimoire, published via Sirius Limited Esoterica. But the whole method of how I first met them and unburied them was shamanic and had to be, and I mean unburied them because they were very hungry for human blood when first we started, as if they had been deprived from humanity for too long to return to it without taking their toll. This work was hard and full of perils. Yet, quite rewarding.
PAA: Can you describe how you first discovered and connected with your own shamanic calling or spiritual path?
Maybe through Jim Morrison, with his crow capacity to cleverly provoke and incite and his lizard ability to dream, withdraw and expand, his words like the fragmented dance of the shaman who invites in the ancestors through the broken spaces of himself. His ancient sophisticated wild call and mine seemed to sing together, and I’d skip English class to read The Lizard King’s books at the library until the teacher told me to read them at the class, since Jim Morrison was better than what was being studied. Then, I got to Antonin Artaud, the shaman of the avant-garde, and I started connecting all the dots. I was 15-16 years old.
PAA: Where and from whom did you initially learn about Neo-Shamanic practices after your initial interest as a teenager?
I started training at the hills of Palmela, on a mill inhabited by a monk. The neoshaman and author to whom the mill was lended, at once a monarchist and a libertarian, had come from a line of Tibetan Shamanism and Dzogchen. Through a long career he eventually was initiated in a French Luciferian sect that he brough to Portugal, then he was initiated by one of the pioneers of the so-called (modern) traditional witchcraft and later he opened a series of parallel pagan projects (some open to the public and some closed), among which was Neoshamanism. It was for me a necessary start, that I felt very happy and relieved to leave behind. Sometimes you have to steal knowledge from those who would steal your soul given the chance.
PAA: Have you traveled to or learned from any specific indigenous cultures in your Neo-Shamanic studies?
My teacher or reference of traditional shamanism or at least the one whose teachings were closer to what it really is, was Ramon Peregrino. An Argentinian artist that joined the cult of Santo Daime, the line of the general and master Irineu, at the Amazonian forest. He was sent out from it, into an indigenous tribe, since he exhibited very little of folk Catholicism and spiritism and very much of the African animist perspective and indigenous South American shamanism. There, he learned the traditional methods from the area, which seem to be very much in line with the methods from Peru, where he also began to work (most indigenous family-lines are interconnected these days). Ramon lives with and as part of the Amazonian tribe and is from time to time sent out as a sort of diplomat between indigenous spirituality and western spirituality. I had the chance to travel with Ramon to Peru or to the Amazonian forest for direct tutelage with the tribal shamans, which I declined, knowing well it would be harmful to me. Others in our group traveled, and came back knowing it had been harmful to them, none, that I know of, came back with a different conclusion.
PAA: How has your perspective on Neo-Shamanism evolved over the years through your personal practice and teachings?
I started realizing there is much less structure than one thinks at the beginning, or maybe no structure at all. The dance keeps dancing itself as it learns to dance itself. I have been a beast exploring the powers of the earth, my fire matching its density. Today I have become the hawk, light and soaring in the blue sky, watching down with the light of the Sun.
The power animal must choose you during the shamanic visionary journey and give proof that it is a power animal. You may think you have a special affinity to a particular animal all your life and when you do this journey, a very different animal appears
Andre Consciencia
PAA: Have you had any particularly profound or transformative experiences while practicing shamanic journeying or working with plant medicines?
Concerning journeying, I will pick meeting my power animal. I have seen some people search the internet for animal meanings in shamanism and picking an animal, or doing guided visualizations to find them. The power animal must choose you during the shamanic visionary journey and give proof that it is a power animal. You may think you have a special affinity to a particular animal all your life and when you do this journey, a very different animal appears. In guided visualizations I have seen this not to be the case, as people do not leave their conditioned thinking if not in a trance. All a guided visualization can do is induce certain elements into your conditioning, but the visionary trance deconditions. Now the power animal is not something your personality identifies with at the start, or at least not necessarily. The power animal is also not the animistic power that will balance your soul and psyche (other animals will help with introspection). What the power animal is, is the animistic life that potentiates your body and personality to deal with the world. It takes what it gets and assumes it is divine as it is as long as it can express its full potential. My power animal is a very lone wolf, protective but also aggressive and ferocious, flees from any sense of pack, but has imbued in his head the large antlers of a deer, particularly an elk. Now, while the wolf prefers to be alone or with a single person where loyalty or else equal ferocity can be met, the antlers make him a leader through the spirit. And so it is that after I met my power animal and started turning into it in astral travels, visionary journeys and through physical dance, I began to integrate the animal in my daily concerns or rather he started to take place in all of them. Soon I had started a cult, then two, etc, but nobody would reach me, only my antlers. I also integrated other cults and ritual groups, which I influenced without ever getting caught up in the eggregores or the intrigues and herd mentalities that so often characterize groups. The horned wolf was mighty and unbeatable in its discreetness, and yet a firestarter in the esoteric sense of the word. This is one of the strongest and most effective connections I ever formed throughout my occult path. Today, I have decided to be the wolf no longer, so that we can work together and balance one another, this is what my hermetic path requires, equanimity. But I would not be here if not for the path behind, and if not for the horned wolf.
What I and a few in my current call the soul animal can be another example. The soul animal is more about withdrawal and the innermost states and siddhis than about the extroverted forces of the power animal. Mine is a crow, and after I met him when I left the body I seemed to leave by my head transforming into a crow and departing from the remaining structure. I could see all things in tones of gray and silver and directly perceive all astral currents and paths conjoining in whatever I looked at. This means I could immediately detect issues of whatever kind or blessings in the wait, the people who were influencing the object or person, etc, with a detachment very different from that of the wolf, whose scent connected things to what he himself regarded pleasurable or repulsive according to his instincts. This crow, capable in her silence of knowing the forest from inside each tree simultaneously, sees both blessing or curse with the same detached suspicion. She observes the world as an animal spying another animal.
I leave details that I have one way or another included in the course, like my ancestor leading me to an African sorcerer that had built the exact mask the ancestor had shown me (for me to wear as his face). The sorcerer had been instructed by my ancestor himself. All these details are consequences of shamanic journeying.
OK now, onwards to the medicines… The medicines are very mighty so I must almost pick the episodes randomly. Let me start by one happening in my first Ayahuasca ceremony, which was closed doors, They say the first is always one of the hardest, since it includes initiation into the medicine and a purge from everything opposing its spirit. The purge takes places physically as well, as toxins leave the body. At a certain point during the ceremony, upon my third take of the soup, the rhythm changed entirely, and I started feeling like the anaconda (a name for the spirit of the plant) was draining all my juices and ready to digest me. Then I lost my strength and I disappeared from this world. I was (or fully felt and perceived that I was) in another place entirely and physically, no part of me was left in the room and I could not return to it. I was at the top of a Mesoamerican pyramid, left to dry in the Sun until my death. It was absolutely horrific and painful but as I surrendered to the inevitability of my fate, since I was morybund and had no strength to move no matter how hard I tried or wished to, the Sun, who was my executioner, started to incarnate in me, the light taking flesh in my flesh and after a sight of relief everything became abundantly simple. Then, I came back to the room, and I threw up, after which I and Ayahuasca were allowed to dance together again more consciously.
In another closed doors ceremony with Ayahuasca I remember looking at this person with whom I had built most of my occult work regarding community efforts, and she was looking at me. And I saw very clearly that all which had looked like rational and good intentions (as far as reason considers good or good considers reason) had been tools of manipulation with which she kept her claws in me, puppeteering me. She smiled in recognition, and I smiled back. The loving-thought which must accompany any Ayahuasca experience for it to be a medicine and not a toxine, had shown me she was better than I thought. A power that does not bend to any linear system and that I could count on in any emergency, when our preconceived and known structures fall and crumble down under the weight of their own fragility. Her claws were dipped in the fire of love and the poison of the spirit. Without Ayahuasca, the ego would have hidden and shy from all this like a snail in its shell.
Or, with Peyote and Ayahuasca, during pilgrimages, finding half of the group lost and abandoned in the midst of kilometers and kilometers of forest and hills, freezing in the dark, and in trance. The animal took my senses into his and I his into mine. I could hear for miles, it was enough to lead them with certainty on every turn. In the pitch black, a hintch of moonlight, enough for there to be faint shadow. I had walked for fourteen hours now, but my shadow probed the ground perfectly efficiently, checking for any perils and guided me by the hand, I as light as it.
Ah, now the boar. Maybe because on those hills there are many boars, I took to myself, unconsciously, to ride the boar in the vision. Now the thing when you mix Peyote and Ayahuasca is that Peyote gives you the accelerated rhythm of a visionary shamanic journey, that rhythm of the drum beating fast and you on your no-looking back flight. Ayahuasca, on the other hand, makes it so that the material world and the spiritual world move exactly in the same place. So. when you commit yourself to a pilgrimage under the effect of both medicines, you are on a shamanic journey like when you leave the body, except you haven’t left the body, you are journeying with it. And the vision of the boar was at my side, doing its thing, loud grunts and squeals, taking the vegetation down like a furious cyclone of beastly vitality. But following me, by my side. And, yes, I had managed, I was not afraid! At this point I realized the whole group had fled to the other side of the path and was looking at me, apalled. I thought I was probably doing something impressive, since when we are in these kinds of experiences we form a telepathic and empathic bond that expresses itself from time to time and breaks through the individual trances. Now the shaman was walking towards me, singing a song of power and playing the drum, worried and alert but calm enough and with authority. I realized the boar was not a vision. But the ride still worked.
I should add that I do not suggest taking any psychothropic medicine unless one is already very skilled and experienced in neoshamanism. These magical technologies are built into the indigenous blood, culture and way of life, they are not hardwired into the rest of us just yet. It takes a lot for our system to adapt, and often it does not, not really.
PAA: What have been some of the unique challenges you’ve faced as a Neo-Shaman, compared to traditional shamanic practices?
If I have to compare it with traditional shamanic practices, I’d have to say none. Neoshamanism is much easier.
PAA: How do Neo-Shamanic practices and beliefs vary across different cultures and regions of the world?
They do not, or rather they are not supposed to. Neo-shamanism means to water down the different shamanic traditions of the world into a single modern line that is global.
PAA: Are there particular geographic areas or indigenous traditions that have had a stronger influence on the development of modern Neo-Shamanism?
Siberian shamanism has the strongest influence. I personally like to integrate aspects of toltec shamanism, and it has been sufficiently disseminated in neo-shamanism to be a thing. Last in line, with no influence at all, is European shamanism. I regret that.
PAA: How do Neo-Shamanic practitioners aim to respectfully integrate teachings from indigenous cultures while avoiding what in this day and age is labelled as cultural appropriation?
I do not think cultural appropriation can be avoided here. It is one of the most flagrant cases of cultural appropriation. However, as far as I have witnessed, the indigenous cultures encourage it as a way to pass on their message. A way to prepare the ground, so to speak.
Western culture has killed imagination, to the extent that imagination is thought of as unreal. Imagination, however, is the matrix of reality. Someone else imagined this mass industrial world for you and told you how it works, if you’d be put in contact with original imagination, the one that is real, after years of being brainwashed and programmed, you’d collapse.
Andre Consciencia
PAA: In what ways do Neo-Shamans adapt practices to be more relevant and accessible in modern societies?
Western culture has killed imagination, to the extent that imagination is thought of as unreal. Imagination, however, is the matrix of reality. Someone else imagined this mass industrial world for you and told you how it works, if you’d be put in contact with original imagination, the one that is real, after years of being brainwashed and programmed, you’d collapse. In Neo-shamanism, as fantastic in the good sense, or full of wonder, as it may seem, there is inherent the impression that you are in a simulation. When you realize that you are not, enough breath has been given you for you not to panic. Indigenous cultures are in contact with the spirit, so when for instance they work with medicines, there is nothing that shocks them in imagination being real. They lay looking at the stars, in nets hanged by trees, and consulting them person-to-person with all the serenity of the world. Or, they work the land, and the spirit works the land.
PAA: Are there examples of cross-cultural exchanges or shared learnings between Neo-Shamans from different parts of the world?
Neo-shamans are global, they are the result of different shamanic traditions from different parts of the world mixing under a modern Western influence. Most indigenous cultures are well organized and in contact, they influence this process.
PAA: How do language and cultural barriers impact the transmission of Neo-Shamanic knowledge globally?
Neo-shamanism, as a movement, is modern. Language is no more of a barrier than me, being Portuguese, answering your questions in English. This is one of the gifts of Neoshamanism.
PAA: Thank you very much for sharing your experiences with us and shining a light on these practices.
Journey to the Spirit World: Exploring Neoshamanism
For decades now, I have been practicing neoshamanism in parallel with my endeavors in hermetics and magic, having formed my shamanic groups and circles. Occasionally, it appears in my teachings or when I share a story with one of my Perseus Arcane Academy students. To such an extent, that I have been directly asked in more than one instance, to create a video course specifically on neoshamanism and make it available on this same platform.
As the suggestion sat upon the back of my head, this point in time led exactly to its realization, an immersive video course that delves into the ancient roots of shamanic practices while aligning with the dynamics of today.
This course will demystify the rituals, tools, and techniques of Neo-Shamanic practices, thickening the connection with the spirit world.
André lives in Moita, Portugal and has been a dedicated practitioner of magic and mysticism for more than two decades.
He met Fraternitas Hermetica (an order based on the works of Franz Bardon) while still a minor and had an initiator that stood even after the order vanished. He also has worked with his old initiator for 20 years. He has experience of other magical systems such as AMORC, Order of Michael’s Grail (with roots on Dion Fortune), Thelemic Golden Dawn, Astrum Argentum, the Typhonian OTO and the OTOA-LCN.
André teaches neo-shamanism and has his own active group of practitioners. Aside from his shamanic path, which he puts to use as a simple way to reach the uninitiated, he has been through the hermetic magical systems of Franz Bardon, as well as through systems presented by Rosicrucian orders and Thelemic organizations, still being a member of the Chaorder of SilverDusk and a member of the Inner Council of the Horus Maat Lodge, in which he holds the Portuguse Nexus.
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In this post I want to highlight some of Peter’s work (Metamagick) as I still feel due to terms like Scrying or Tarot in his course names many are assuming familiarity with the contents. I have to say the content from Peter is more like units from a college course. It is that in-depth and that integrated, nothing is just for the sake of it! You can see I am a big fan of Peter, so I will also add all the resources and interviews he has been in with myself and others on this page.
Background
I first heard of Dr Peter Duchemin and his work from Andre Consciencia, Andre spoke very highly of Peter which was enough for me to investigate further and get in touch with Peter. Fortunately, Peter ended up taking a holiday in spring 2023 to Taiwan. This enabled us all to meet up on a sunny spring day in Taipei. Just this short meeting was enough to see how deep Peters understanding of multiple traditions is and how the lens of Metamagick has enabled him to use them in a very nontraditional but effective way.
Our next meeting was truly epic, this was a gathering in Hong Kong that consisted of Dr Peter Duchemin, Falcon Books Publishing, Perseus Arcane Academy and the wonderful Nenad Djordjevic-Talerman, the author of 360 Spirits of the Earth Zone and coauthor of the Moon Zone. During this meet up Peter and Nenad where in their element sharing respective discoveries of different spheres and approaches to magic, with Peter presenting is very original perspective on the ethers of Enochian magick.
Now lets share the recent chat that I had with Peter in ‘Perseus Conversations’:
00:00 Meta Magick, according to Dr. Peter Duchemin, is an approach to magical systems that allows for their understanding, combination, and re-evaluation within the context of contemporary spirituality and development. 03:45 Meta magick encourages the formation of novel and wholesome combinations of magical systems, emphasizing openness and integration rather than rigid adherence to tradition. 12:18 Meta magickal fields provide a methodology for integrating diverse magical systems coherently, using structures like magic squares and recreational mathematics to create harmonious combinations. 23:26 Dr. Duchemin suggests that Enochian magic, attributed to Edward Kelley, involves a form of pattern compression and cryptography, rather than being a literal divine language. 26:20 Meta magick is seen as a non-cynical technology with divine beauty and intelligence, despite being a product of human invention. 27:41 ️ The methodology of pattern compression in magic has significant implications for how we perceive the world and access hidden forces. 28:47 Viewing magic as a sophisticated pneumatic computer rather than a relic allows for innovation and evolution of magical systems. 31:56 There’s an interpretation suggesting Druidry influences within Enochian magic, providing a unique perspective on its structure. 32:51 Magic is viewed as a technology from previous eras, but there’s a need to evolve beyond the dichotomy of magic versus science. 39:24 The modern period has transformed ancient artifacts like the Memory Palace into externalized technologies, shaping our perception and memory. 42:28 There’s a vision of evolving society through powerful numinous techniques, integrating oral traditions with modern technology, like creating an orally transmittable computer made of language. 44:40 The study of meta magick and calendars presents an opportunity to develop sophisticated numinous techniques that can reweave society and its relationship with information.
9000 Word Interview!
If what you have seen so far has got you interested in Peters approach, then I HIGHLY recommend reading his very in-depth written interview. We cover everything from traditional evocation/invocation, magical calendars, meta magick fields, meta magick approach to scrying as well as an introduction to the crowning glory in Peters curriculum Meta Magick Tarot.
Here is a brief summary of the interview:
Dr. Peter Duchemin, a practitioner of esoteric Tarot with over 25 years of experience, specializes in calendar magick from an eclectic, non-emanationist perspective. His approach, MetaMagick, utilizes magickal calendars to harness spiritual energies. He integrates traditional systems like the I Ching, Qabalah, Tarot, Enochian, and Runes with a Chaos magick ethos, emphasizing syncretism and a “magickal interlanguage.”
Dr. Peter Duchemin, also known as “Abraxis Nothing,” has practiced magick since the mid-1990s, influenced by counterculture scenes.
His journey into magick intensified after meeting an adept named Steve C., leading him to explore Crowley, the Tree of Life, and the Golden Dawn.
Duchemin’s initiation involved a blend of traditional and chaos magicks, shaped by his academic pursuits in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Humanities.
He developed an original approach called MetaMagick, focusing on calendar magick to manipulate spiritual energies in alignment with celestial movements.
Duchemin’s skillset includes stage magic, clowning, and circus performing, inspired by Tarot archetypes.
He emphasizes an open-system approach, integrating various magickal traditions without rigid adherence to any one school.
Duchemin defines magick as “the pressure of Art, brought to bear on Time,” emphasizing attentional control and independence from cultural narratives.
He critiques the Gregorian calendar for its disempowering effects and advocates for chronologically independent magickal practices.
Duchemin’s academic journey, from undergraduate studies to a Ph.D., was guided by a pursuit of knowledge that complemented his magickal practice.
His academic work focused on reframing magick, blending elements of prestidigitation with political philosophy and semiotics to develop his MetaMagickal system.
Duchemin utilizes magic squares and other mathematically magical arrays to amplify magickal systems, creating “Metamagickal Fields” that shape events and phenomena.
He emphasizes the importance of the Qabalah in his work, drawing from Golden Dawn and Crowleyan traditions while exploring Hebrew Kabbalah concepts like Tikkun Olam.
Duchemin’s eclectic approach extends to other magickal systems, including gematria, pathworking, and spells derived from the Qabalah and Tarot.
He remains open to exploring other magickal systems, such as Franz Bardon’s, as part of his ongoing journey in magickal practice.
Let me remind readers that when you hear the words scrying and tarot, these courses with Peter are far beyond those already involved subjects. His courses require in-depth study and the application of this knowledge via mini projects within the course. This why I often say they are more akin to college courses.
Throughout the course, students will engage in exercises designed to elicit visions from various zones defined by the structures being studied. These visions are then recorded and mapped onto provided templates using intention and receptive intuition. Upon completion of the course, students who have completed all exercises will have created a set of talismans that anchor and integrate the MetaMagick Fields. Additionally, students will have gained valuable experience in visionary projection and an understanding of advanced mathemagical objects and figures.
As part of the course, students will also construct a specialized magickal tool to aid in the active transmutation of obstacles and the metabolization of difficult energies into a MetaMagick perspective. By the end of the course, students who have completed all work will have full control over a fully operative set of MetaMagick fields.
The MetaMagick Scrying course is designed to be completed within 10 to 20 weeks. While the instructional videos are brief, the exercises require time for digestion and assimilation as they contain a wealth of information. The course culminates in a 28-day program of practice that integrates all tools and solidifies them into a mode or vehicle for experiencing time through the lens of a personalized set of MetaMagick artworks. It is important to note that MetaMagick is the application of artistic pressure to time itself.
The Meta Magick Tarot is a unique, 3-part course which can be pursued on your own time, or synchronized with the 32 week calendar of Venus, the Forest of Life. The entire Tarot is covered in 32 lessons with PDFs, Video Support, and guided meditation for each class. The meta-magick philosophy is future oriented, and understands magickal thinking in a way similar to an engineer’s perspective. How can we build a uniquely powerful philosophy of creative tarot practice that we can live INSIDE? The content and materials will range from the basic to the advanced, and there are insights and innovations that you will find nowhere else.
In this course we learn how to live – and create – in Tarot Time, using the Forest of Life Venus calendar – a unique magickal calendar that tracks the real-time orbit of Venus.
Every week you will receive a PDF package packed with esoteric ideas, that over the 32 weeks will gradually unveil an original, potent, magickal system – powered by the Meta Magick methodology.
Every week through videos, discussion, and guided meditation – we go in depth at one of the key Tarot themes.
Each week we use scrying, or receptive imagining, to discover images and inspirations to link us with the growing Tarot energies. We make marks on paper together, and grow them into living works of art.
Participants who choose to may use the course as a creative rhythm – perfect for making your own complete Tarot, or Tarot-based project. Artists, writers, poets, musicians, magicians are all welcome to create in their chosen medium.
We examine and study a wide variety of Tarots together using the Rider-Waite-Smith deck as a home base from which to discuss the differing images and ideas. Together we will learn the Qabalistic philosophy of (post)modern Tarot, and explore the paths and spheres of the Tree of Life.
The course is an initiation into meta-magick, into the Venus calendar, and into Tarot Time.
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Samuel David’s fascination with the ancient polytheistic beliefs, rituals, and symbolism of Mesopotamian spirituality is truly compelling. In this insightful interview, we delve into what inspired the author of “Rod and Ring: An Initiation into a Mesopotamian Mystery Tradition” to immerse himself in the study of one of the earliest known civilizations. From personal experiences and academic research to a profound connection with this enduring tradition, discover how Samuel’s groundbreaking book was shaped by his exploration into the mysteries of Mesopotamia.
Interview
Introduction to Samuel David and his book “Rod and Ring: An Initiation into a Mesopotamian Mystery Tradition”
PAA: Samuel, what initially sparked your interest in Mesopotamian polytheism, and how has your personal journey influenced the writing of your book?
My interest in Mesopotamian polytheism developed over time from childhood with my first illustrated Bible – “The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes”, and later, the Epic of Gilgamesh which was included in a book of fairy tales and myths given to me by my grandmother, as well as Halley’s Bible Handbook. The awe I felt in reading those texts at a young age is something I hope to maintain as my spiritual journey and written explorations continue during the passing years.
PAA: Could you share a pivotal moment or experience that inspired you to embark on the path of writing “Rod and Ring,” and what message do you hope readers will take away from it?
A great deal of material found in “Rod & Ring” was being composed starting in 2016 as contributions to the spiritual community that I found within the Temple of Sumer, the Temple of Inanna, my local pagan group (which sadly disbanded at the start of the COVID epidemic), and events such as Pagan Spirit Gathering, Paganicon, Ishtarfest, and The Scottish Pagan Federation’s “Visions of Magick” conference. It was largely due to outpouring support I had from others that compelled me to compile much of my work for eventual publication.
PAA: As a writer, researcher, and educator in the field of Mesopotamian spirituality, what advice would you give to individuals who are new to this tradition and eager to learn more about it?
Sadly, there’s a great deal of information in the esoteric section of many bookstores that disregard the rich history, culture, religion, and magical traditions of the various Mesopotamian peoples in favor of alternate history and dubious theories concerning extraterrestrials. I urge those interested in this rich, complex spiritual current to not be afraid of the research section of their local library or bookstore – you’ll be surprised at the rich selection hiding under your nose.
Book Content and Approach
PAA: What inspired you to take a practical approach rather than an overly scholarly or artistic one in writing “Rod and Ring”?
Aside from notable titles such as Simon’s Necronomicon – so long as one excludes all the Lovecraftian elements or the presentation of Marduk’s fifty names as individual spirits, there exists little in the way of practical material that remains true to the spiritual and magical legacy of the Mesopotamian peoples. Much of the extant material is either a derivative of The Necronomicon or heavily relies upon western ceremonial lodge magic. The latter of which can be somewhat disappointing. A rich corpus of cosmological traditions, practices, and rituals that are complete unto themselves with their own formulae and modes of operation already exist in the historical record.
With regards to scholarly elements, I was unable to acquire permission from academic publishers after reaching out to several institutions with requests to include direct translations of historical texts. In fact, one publisher simply returned my letter with no response.
PAA: Can you elaborate on how readers can actively engage with the content of your book in their spiritual practice?
Throughout the course of the book are a series of sequential rituals and evocations as well as formularies and instructions on creating ritual garments which serve to immerse the ritualist into a living mythopoetic epic if you will. I also provided a means in which one may determine their initiatory theophoric name. Elements drawn from the myths of Inanna such as her acquisition of the ME and her descent, as well as Gilgamesh’s quest for meaning are woven together along with rituals dedicated to a total of twenty-four gods. These rituals are composed in such a way that an individual or a group such as a coven or temple may approach the material as part of an initiatory process either alone or together. The reader may also utilize incantations from the book to secure working ritual spaces, establish protocols to magically protect their home, and ritually purify themselves or others.
PAA: How do you envision your book contributing to the broader understanding of ancient Mesopotamian religions?
I sincerely hope that my work speaks to those who are looking for something that more prominent esoteric and alternative spiritual movements aren’t providing them. Cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of the written language and the various Mesopotamian peoples’ dedication to documenting everything imaginable, including religious, cultic, and ritual texts is a testament to their timeless legacy. Speaking candidly, I know that I am not alone when I say that contemporary spiritual or esoteric practices derived from western lodge magic or contemporary interpretations of European paganism or even Wicca don’t speak to everyone.
Ancient Mesopotamian Religions and Influences
PAA: Could you share more about your journey from your Christian upbringing to exploring ancient Mesopotamian religions?
I often joke that the Bible was my “gateway drug” into paganism, polytheism, and the esoteric altogether. I was raised in a Pentecostal household and attended Pentecostal and Charismatic churches for the greater part of my life. For those unfamiliar with these sects or traditions of Christianity, aside from the mystical elements like speaking in tongues among other gifts of the Holy Spirit, there is a great deal of emphasis placed upon the various figures of the Old Testament. In the narratives found throughout the texts, there are countless examples of conflicts between the early Jews and their contemporaries. There are several passages that struck me and compelled me to ask uncomfortable questions about accounts of the ancestors of the Jews living beyond the Euphrates in the city of Ur who worshipped other gods (Joshua 24:2-3); the worship of the Queen of Heaven and the prosperity the people enjoyed when she was publicly worshipped (Jeremiah 44); the references to the worship of the god Tammuz (re: Dumuzid) and the epiphanies of various gods as astral bodies (Ezekiel 8:14-16); the accounts of Daniel living in Babylon as one of the divination experts in the court of the king in Babylon. Another part of my journey includes the mild obsession from an early age with the debunked and quite outlandish theories of individuals such as Alexander Hislop, who asserted that Babylon has maintained its occult hold on the modern world under the guise of Catholicism. This material was so intriguing to me that I often spent a great deal of time reading prophetic texts from both the Old and New Testament to better understand the great power of “Mystery Babylon”. I find this quite humorous now because there were several individuals throughout my life that insisted that “the Lord was calling Samuel to ministry through the power of his word”.
PAA: What specific aspects of Mesopotamian mythology and deities resonate with you the most, and why?
Within my own private praxis, I have a room dedicated as a temple with separate shrines for my personal pantheon comprised of Inanna/Ishtar and her spouse Dumuzid/Tammuz; the solar god of justice, Utu/Shamash; the storm god, Ishkur/Adad; the lunar god, Nanna/Sin and his spouse, Ningal; the god Marduk. Except for Marduk, these deities form a holy family and I perceive that they oversee the agricultural wellbeing of the region of the American Midwest in which I live. I have also developed a relatively minor devotional praxis involving the chthonic deities Ereshkigal and Nergal, and the titanic forces that are embodied in the apotropaic demon-god, Pazuzu, and the terrifying ogre named Humbaba. The most poignant aspect of Mesopotamian mythology concerns the plight of humanity explored in the mythical Epic of Gilgamesh as well as the countless narratives concerning the prevailing power of order over entropy and chaos. The lack of anthropocentricism in Mesopotamian cosmology as well as the philosophy concerning life and death are of particular interest to me. While there is an emphasis on hospitality, honorable words, and honorable deeds, there is no ideology concerning some eternal reward or an apocalyptic end of the world. Humans were seen as a part of the same “ecosystem” in which animals, divine spirits, and immortal gods inhabit and death is the great equalizer.
PAA: How do you navigate and reconcile the differences between various Mesopotamian cultures in our book?
While the respective spiritual expressions or magical traditions may vary from on period or culture to the next, I focus upon the similarities or parallels and historical examples of syncretism that exist. Thankfully, a blueprint already exists thanks to the efforts of the Akkadians who sought to harmonize their own culture with that of the Sumerians to soothe racial tensions after they conquered and colonized the Sumerian population. This began under the reign of Sargon of Akkad, who installed his daughter, Enheduanna, as the high priestess of the city of Ur. She is credited as the first known author in written history and composed dozens of liturgical texts dedicated to the gods as well as various temples throughout ancient Iraq. Other people groups such as the Babylonians and Kassites, for example, would take this even further by elevating aspects of Sumerian culture, including the use of Sumerian cuneiform to compose numerous myths, liturgical texts, and exhaustive comparative and lexical catalogs of gods. Topic: Significance of the Rod and Ring Symbol
PAA: In your book, you discuss the rod and ring symbol as representing divine authority and order in Mesopotamian civilization. How do these symbols manifest in historical texts and artifacts, and what role do they play in contemporary spiritual practices?
These symbols manifest in historical texts such as the Enuma Elish, or Babylonian creation epic, and the Descent of Inanna as tools of divine office. They are also found in historical reliefs which depict deities presenting these to a king. The most famous example is found on the Stele of Hammurabi, where the solar god, Shamash, extends these items in one hand in an act of benediction. It is my personal interpretation that the motif of the rod and ring may serve as an adequate image to symbolize the Mesopotamian spiritual current – much in the way that movements such as Asatru utilize Mjolnir or Kemetic groups utilize the ankh.
PAA: Can you elaborate on the ritual significance of the rod and ring symbol, particularly in the context of Mesopotamian ceremonies or religious rites? How do practitioners today incorporate these symbols into their worship or rituals?
Aside from their presentation symbols of divine authority over cosmic order and civilization, these items are understood to be the equivalent of a ruler and a coiled measuring line which were used in times of peace when kings measured and established the foundations of temples to not only commemorate their achievements but also serve as a public declaration of their service to the god or godsthat they venerated. Personally, I utilize these items in my own praxis to serve as tangible reminders of my responsibility to my temple and the gods whom I serve both publicly and privately. To me, they are symbols of my role as a steward of the temple and a leader in my community.
PAA: As someone deeply immersed in Mesopotamian polytheism, how do you interpret the symbolic meaning of the rod and ring in relation to broader themes of cosmic order, divine sovereignty, and human destiny?
I interpret these items beyond their historical meaning as symbols that represent the connection between the realm of the gods and mortals; the astral, terrestrial, and chthonic realms in the form of the rod. The cycle of the seasons and the human lifecycle are represented by the ring.
Personal Experiences and Rituals
PAA: Could you share more about your personal experiences during rituals, such as the instances of synchronicity you mentioned?
There are so many experiences I could talk about! One of the most poignant experiences involved a ritual recitation of a text I wrote which recounted the events of the Babylonian creation epic and the battle between Marduk and Tiamat. This ritual was conducted with both my local pagan group and with several participants at Paganicon. During the ritual, when Marduk is invoked, there were some incredible epiphanies. During the ritual with my pagan group, which took place outside, a sudden wind picked up. There was no inclement weather in the forecast. The ritual space was surrounded by lit torches and the altar had an iron cauldron with a steady flame. The fire guttered and was snuffed out while the wind grew steadier and cloud cover formed overhead. The ritual came to an end with the symbolic slaying of Tiamat which involved me striking the ground with an axe. In that moment, the wind stopped. When this ritual was observed at Paganicon, during the same moment of triumph over chaos resulted in the fire alarm going off at the same time throughout the entire hotel. There was no threat of fire and it the cause of the alarm could not be determined. During another ritual – again, there was no inclement weather in the forecast, an item was being consecrated to the service of the god Ishkur/Adad. During the ritual, my pagan group gathered with several instruments that were used in succession to evoke the sound of a gentle rain, then a steady downpour, and finally, thunder and lightning. The god was then invoked by name, offerings were presented, and he was petitioned for his providence. A heavy storm started the following day and lasted for approximately three days and nights. During that time, the county was inundated with rain which caused localized flooding. This was taken as a sign that the god, his emanation, or attending spirits heard us. To this day, the item that was consecrated to his service has been used with the utmost care.
PAA: How has your involvement with a local pagan group influenced your understanding and practice?
I am thankful for the challenges that the group brought, especially in terms of public speaking, addressing an audience, and more importantly, commanding a ritual setting with concise instructions. I love devotional ritual, however, being part of a large group who have gathered for a singular purpose is a beautiful experience. It has also compelled me to write and present material in a manner that doesn’t rely upon academic terms and concepts. I present the material in a way that is approachable, even for those who are unfamiliar with the subject matter.
PAA: What advice would you give to those interested in incorporating Mesopotamian rituals into their spiritual practice but unsure where to begin?
There’s an adage I’ve heard several times: “perfect is the enemy of good”. I encourage everyone who is interested in incorporating these practices into their own praxis to experiment and find ways that make the most sense to them. I also have a concise list that was put together by myself and other members of my spiritual community that provide titles for relevant texts that can enrich one’s praxis. I also encourage everyone to take time and be comfortable in silence. Gods and spirits don’t always speak with proverbial booming voices. Sometimes their answer or presence is affirmed by synchronicity, innocuous epiphanies, or even the words of a friend.
Artistic Presentation
PAA: What inspired the aesthetic design of the artisan edition, and how does it enhance the reader’s experience?
The cover of the artisan edition features an embossed reproduction of a cuneiform tablet, which records part of a balag, a song of lament that accompanied a stringed instrument. The text is typical of the Seleucid period, where the words are written in Sumerian but with many lines accompanied by an Akkadian translation. Sumerian was the language spoken in southern Mesopotamia until around 2000 BCE, while Akkadian had probably ceased to be a spoken language by the time this tablet was written, having been replaced by Aramaic and Greek throughout much of the Near East. However, both Sumerian and Akkadian continued to be written in cuneiform until the early centuries of the Common Era by learned scribes. This tablet contains a lament by Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of fertility, over the destruction of her cities and shrines, and contrasts her present humiliation with her previous power. There are parallels with well-known myths dating from the late third and second millennia BCE — such as the Sumerian version of the myth of Inanna’s descent to the Underworld — demonstrating the very long-lived literary tradition maintained by the temple scribes of Mesopotamia. The reason why I chose this image as the inspiration of this book’s cover is because I am deeply moved by these laments and see my work — and the work of my peers who also venerate the gods of the Ancient Near East, as building blocks that are rebuilding and reestablishing what was lost to time.
PAA: Have you considered making artwork available as standalone pieces, and what factors would you consider?
The artist of Rod & Ring is Johnny Decker Miller and he has made his artwork available in the past. Perhaps when and if the book is re-released by Anathema in a paperback edition, prints of various images may be produced as well. In my own time, I produce my own artwork as expressions of devotion.
PAA: How do the visual elements contribute to appreciation and understanding among readers?
Several illustrations serve to instill a sense of the world as the ancient Mesopotamians perceived it as well as the epiphanies of the gods. One illustration, for instance, is found on page 325 presents the astral, terrestrial, and chthonic realms of the mortal and the divine. Above the “circle of the earth” is a massive ziggurat surrounded by clouds. Below the “circle of the earth” is an inverted ziggurat surrounded by the river that separates the living from the dead and far below it, the primordial cosmic sea. For those who are curious and may find it humorous, yes, the Mesopotamian peoples were “flat-earthers” – just as countless other cultures were in the ancient world.
Future Projects
PAA: Can you share anything else you are working on?
Aside from Rod & Ring, I have two other publications that are available. The first is “Lioness: the Song of Inanna” which can be purchased through Miskatonic Books. The second is one that was released last year which was a labor love devoted to the god, Dumuzid, titled “The Red Shepherd”. This text serves to present a contemporary cultic practice dedicated to this complex deity who is more than just the effete husband of Inanna who was unfortunate enough to take her place in the Underworld at the close of her descent myth. I have two other projects in the works. The first concerns the Enuma Elish (or Babylonian creation epic) and the second concerns the application of elements from the Epic of Gilgamesh within the framework of a psychospiritual esoteric praxis.
PAA Where can people follow your work?
I’m available on Facebook, Instagram (@rodandring), Youtube (@rodandring), and my website.
PAA: Thank you very much taking the time to answer our questions.
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