SixtySkills has announced Throwing Hands with Bardon’s Kabbalah, a new five-part online LIVE course exploring the practical use of letter magic for spiritual combat, energetic protection and targeted magical work.
Rather than presenting Kabbalah as a purely theoretical system, Bob will focus on methods intended to help practitioners:
Break curses and hexes
Rebound hostile magical attacks
Burn out disruptive or negative energies
Accelerate the consequences of another person’s actions
Physically and energetically repel unwanted people and influences
The course begins on Sunday, August 23, 2026, at 3:00 PM New York City time, with the fifth and final class taking place on September 20, 2026. All five classes will be recorded and made available for on-demand viewing, so participants do not need to attend every session live.
Please check the complete ticket price and event information before registering.
PAA: Hello everyone, and welcome to this new episode of Perseus Conversations. I am very excited today because we have someone who is well known in the magical community and on YouTube, and who is doing important work on subjects that constantly come up in magical communities: the real-life problems, internal challenges, and sometimes embarrassing difficulties that practitioners face. Today I am speaking with Lyam Thomas Christopher. Welcome.
Lyam: Good evening to you and good morning to me.
PAA: Thank you for joining us. As we were briefly saying before we went on air, I am really impressed with your YouTube channel. For anyone listening, definitely check the description box below, because you are going to see important subjects that we all face: the challenges, the internal challenges, and even the embarrassing challenges. I want to dive right in. First, I want to talk about your book, Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation. This is something I have only recently discovered through the Perseus community, with people talking about it, the different grades, and what they are doing. For those who do not know, could you give a brief overview of what this book is about, what its goals are, and why you felt the need to write it?
Lyam: The book is written as a dramatic way of introducing the Golden Dawn that actually works, as opposed to trying to go into the Golden Dawn book by Regardie, which is basically a large collection of Golden Dawn writings, rituals, and things like that. People look at the material and say, “What do I do with all this? I can’t even understand half of it.”
Kabbalah, Magic and the Great Work of Self-Transformation is a means of exploring what is covered in the Golden Dawn material and experiencing it for yourself. By the time you get through the course, everything in the Golden Dawn book makes sense. In the process, you undergo a spiritual transformation, which is apparently what the original theurgists of the classical era and late antiquity were all about in the practice of high magic.
One other thing about the book: it did not make any attempt to be highbrow necessarily. It was more of an attempt to really get into the dramatics of it. All the stuff that we think is really cool about magic, all the titillating things, matter because magic has a multilevel appeal. There is the highfalutin spiritual material, and then there are the external appearances of it: the dark imagery, mysterious symbols, and things like that.
In order to get into the system, all of that is important. The goetic elements of the magic are important to the high magic. The book is essentially an effort to rescue all of the glamour from the glamour. In other words, all this stuff serves a purpose. You want to use it to stir the imagination because you are setting up a discipline that drills down through the bedrock of the ego and uncovers something soulful, something spiritual, to be discovered.
The reason I wrote it was because that had not been done yet. It was the book I was looking for. You know the common complaint: if you do not find the book you are looking for, you have to write it.
PAA: That is what has been communicated to me, and after looking at it as well, so many people look at the Golden Dawn and wonder how to access it. There are obviously the big books out there, but, as you say, much of the work is quite highbrow. For someone just coming to it, it can be very intellectual. You can end up reading and thinking, “Great, so what do I do now?” You spoke about spiritual transformation, and I have also been going through your YouTube channel over the last few days. One of the things I listened to today was about abstraction: moving away from the finer details of something and saying, “It is just this” or “It is just that.” So when we look at spiritual transformation, what does that actually look like for a practitioner of this system?
Lyam: You have hit upon something very important. If you go into various traditions of spiritual transformation, Zen, mindfulness, transcendental meditation, and so on, these teachers tend to speak in abstractions.
For example, if you have a recurring emotion that troubles you, they might say, “Deal with the emotion. What does the emotion feel like? How does it feel in your body?” One of the problems is that the very label of the emotion, let’s say jealousy, is an abstraction. The actual experience of jealousy is quite startling.
At the core of the emotion is actually an image, or an imagistic scenario, which is essentially an unresolved duality. This is what we would call a spirit. This thing keeps resurfacing because it is trying to work out whatever duality or unresolved conflict it was originally enmeshed in.
In the scheme of our cosmic evolution or biological evolution, we have come across many challenges and horrific situations that have embedded in us these difficult unresolved dualities. It is sort of like trauma. In the East they call these things samskaras. In the West, we can call them spirits, entities, or demons.
We call them that because when they surface, they surface as imagistic scenarios or images. They come complete with horns, fangs, glowing eyes, claws, and things like that because they get associated and tangled up with traumatic imagery from our evolutionary past. They also appear as flash floods, storms, lightning strikes, explosions, and so on. These are things we have experienced in our ancestry, or so the theory goes, and they are embedded in cell memory.
They haunt us and drive our behavior. You really cannot get at them until you get at the imagistic scenarios that keep surfacing. They are there, but very often we are unaware of them because we have developed a hostile relationship with imagination, or imagination has developed a hostile relationship with itself because of all the pain that is in it. So naturally it says, “That is not real. Forget about that. That is just a dream. It is not important.”
In magic, we do not just deal with the emotion. We do not simply say, “How do you feel? Write about it.” We go into the feeling. What are the entities involved? What are they doing? How do they move? In the old grimoires, they say “move and appear,” because that is how spirits first manifest. There is movement, and then you can suddenly see them as a charging water buffalo, a wolf-like creature stalking you, an avalanche that is going to bury you, or a dark hole you are going to fall into.
These images are not abstract. They are visceral, concrete, and scary. That is how the psyche works. Like it or not, you cannot escape the way the psyche works.
PAA: So the transformation would be the working through of these things as they appear in your life, or as they become present in your life?
Lyam: It is the acceptance of them and the assistance of them, so they can work out or work through whatever issues they have. In high magic, it is more an attitude of love or compassion for them, and it requires empathy.
You look at this thing that is coming up and making a hell out of your life because it keeps taking over your behavior. Then you ask, “How has this thing evolved to function as it does?” Of course it would work that way. Of course it is trying to do that. This is empathy. This is real empathy.
It is not primarily about being a good person and loving your neighbor, though that is fine. Primarily, it is the empathy we have for these unresolved complexes, these unresolved dualities that surface within us. They are very much alive. They are older than we are because they exist in the traumatic history of humanity and before that. They go all the way back to primordial single-cell organisms.
The tendency to contract when something is poking at you is not just a human thing. It is a life thing. Even plants do it. That contraction is the primordial contraction we experience, and that is what the ego has latched onto. The ego is that compulsive contraction. You cannot seem to unclench anymore. You are constantly on guard, constantly hunting for the next fix, or constantly alert for dangers.
To be very clear, when we say, “This is mere psychology,” we are dealing with the psyche of the universe, not just the psyche of each individual person. Who came up with the idea that the soul is inside your body? That is something modernity does to you in order to contain you, control you, and isolate you.
Lyam Thomas Christopher
PAA: So you are saying this is beyond us. It is like a shared pool for humanity. It is not simply that these things manifest only for each individual person?
Lyam: To be very clear, when we say, “This is mere psychology,” we are dealing with the psyche of the universe, not just the psyche of each individual person. Who came up with the idea that the soul is inside your body? That is something modernity does to you in order to contain you, control you, and isolate you.
The experience of the soul being trapped inside the body is certainly interesting, but that is an ego construct. It is part of our affliction, and this is what we examine. It does not mean that you have a soul inside your body necessarily. Soul permeates everything: anima mundi, the soul of the world.
We need to rescue psychology from the psychologists.
The real task is to turn the light around and look at the entity arising inside the magic circle: this thing you think you are, which is reacting to the thing out there and saying, “I need to get away from that. I need to push it away. I need to forget about it and never think about it again.” Or, “I need it so badly because I am incomplete without it.”
Lyam Thomas Christopher
PAA: That has completely transformed my understanding of the work within the book. As a baseline, it is not simply within you; it is within the universe. It is the inner plane, so to speak, not just inside you and all your fault because it is inside you. Students working with this brings me to something I mentioned off air about the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. You said in one of your videos that life might get worse first when you do that practice. That shocked me, because I have done that practice before and thought, “Why am I doing this? What is happening?” Is that because you are bringing up this material?
Lyam: Yes. It is funny because I did not make that up. My teachers in the Golden Dawn, at Ra-Hoor-Khuit Temple, mentioned it almost sidelong. They said the secret purpose of that ritual was to stir up all your stuff. We thought, “What? I thought I was banishing negativity from my life.” They said, “You are.”
What happens is that you are banishing negativity with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram every day, but what that does is bring a kind of magic circle around you. It reinforces the artificial self that the ego is occupying, creating, or becoming. It reinforces the dichotomy between “me inside here” and “the big bad universe out there.” It strengthens that by pushing the negativity out there.
But the psyche works this way: the stuff you push out there gets puffed up in a more obvious manner. The stuff inside here that pretends to be you is also puffed up. This is why so many people doing magic become ego-inflated. They are puffing up the complexes inside the circle and outside the circle. They become increasingly paranoid and think they are being attacked psychically: “Psychic attack, psychic attack. Somebody sent a demon after me.” Or they think institutions are out to get them. Another one is, “You should be prepared for what is coming,” as though civilization is about to end.
All of this is reinforced by the tendency to push those demons out into the world, where they can arise in more fearsome forms to confront you. The task is to confront them, but not to let them control you.
Here is the really cool part. When we see something outside the magic circle bothering us, our tendency is to go fix it. “I need to fix that,” or “I need to run away from that.” We always have to do something in regard to it. That is karma. That is the error. There is nothing wrong with it, but when you only do that, you are reinforcing karma.
“I need to get a new house. I need to get a new car. I need to get a new girlfriend. I need this. I need that. I need to run away from this.” Every time you respond to the external thing that way, you are reinforcing karma.
The real task is to turn the light around and look at the entity arising inside the magic circle: this thing you think you are, which is reacting to the thing out there and saying, “I need to get away from that. I need to push it away. I need to forget about it and never think about it again.” Or, “I need it so badly because I am incomplete without it.”
These narratives are not real. You begin to look at this thing and say, “What are you? I did not consent to this.” Yet for countless millennia, this thing has been arising and taking over our behavior in various biological forms. Most animals are almost completely dominated by the entities that keep arising and saying, “Go do this. Go do that.” These instincts, drives, and habitual behaviors take over.
As humans, we have developed the ability to supervise these entities and empathize with them. If you cannot empathize with them, you are in trouble. Difficulty empathizing severely damages your ability to make progress with magic or spirituality.
As the things inside the magic circle rise up, the demon inside the house with you is the one you need to scrutinize. You do this on the pages of your magical journal. As you work in the journal, you write about these things as they come up, especially how this thing is responding: “I have this other tendency that keeps coming up. What is that like?”
That is training for the real work of Goetia that comes in the inner order, where you may eventually be conjuring spirits to visible appearance and doing work with them. In the outer order, you are doing a light version of that first. You are doing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram every day, the Middle Pillar, and things like that, purifying yourself of these things and noticing yourself noticing them. Eventually you can do more intensive work.
PAA: It seems like a process of identification. Without foreknowledge, people might think, “This is coming, this is coming,” but if you do not deal with these things and scrutinize your tendencies, they just keep taking over.
Lyam: Right. If you do not deal with these things and scrutinize them, they will keep taking you over. In fact, they will inflate you. They will increase your sense of self-importance because now you are more easily irritated by inferior things outside your magic circle. You become an ass. That is how ceremonial magic works. It pushes out the complexes that are causing your suffering.
PAA: So it is important to be within a system that has a process for dealing with this, rather than just doing the ritual and hoping for the best.
Lyam: If you are going to conjure the demons, you need to confront them. If you do not have the courage to do that, do not do this work.
PAA: You mentioned the magical diary. That seems really important. Do the magical diary and the ritual work basically work in tandem?
Lyam: Yes, the magical diary is essential. You cannot just say, “I am observing these things and making mental notes.” No. When you write about them, you are not skipping any steps in the scrutinizing process.
You are not only tacitly analyzing them; you are thoroughly analyzing them because the sentence structure and grammar of the words on the page require you to do that. You will not skip as many blind spots that you might otherwise gloss over if you allow the language to carry you through a complete process of narrative and analysis.
It also helps tremendously to have a teacher who can guide you. The teacher might say, “Let me see some of your journal entries, and I will give you some pointers.”
PAA: That brings us back to exactness versus abstraction. Do not dismiss what is coming up with abstractions. We are good at that: “It is just jealousy,” or “I am just depressed.”
Lyam: Yes. What does depression look like? It can be startling. Or take a fear of heights. Some people’s fear of heights is like falling into a dark hole, being forgotten, and starving to death in darkness. Other people’s fear of heights is like tumbling end over end through space with no control. Mine is more like hitting the ground really hard. That is what I am afraid of.
A psychologist might say, “You have acrophobia, a fear of heights. Here is a prescription.” But let us look at this thing. How does it manifest for you? What does the entity that is about to fall, falling, or clinging to the edge look like? What is the preciseness in it?
PAA: In addition to the diary and the banishing ritual, is there any other kind of balancing work that people do within the process or the system you have?
Lyam: When we bring up the idea of balance, it has always annoyed me because I ask, “What are we balancing, and where is the fulcrum?” Some people would put the fulcrum over here; other people would put it over there. What are we balancing?
Ultimately, what happens in high magic, in the realm of spiritual transformation, is that the balance is between existing and not existing. This is the sweet spot. It is like the god Thoth as the enterer of the threshold. He is in manifestation and out of manifestation at the same time. He comes and goes, like the moon comes and goes.
This delicate dance of only showing up when needed and disappearing when you are not needed: there is your true balance. What do we do with our lives? We constantly micromanage and meddle in things. Your life is mostly none of your business. Stay out of it. It does its thing. You occasionally show up to tweak things, and then you let go.
So it is a balance between managing and letting go, meddling and disappearing. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf will show up, say a few words, poke a few people, and then go away. Then he comes back and sees whether they woke up and whether they are actually doing something.
PAA: So really, follow the process. Let’s say a student is following this process, journaling, and having things grow in their life. Maybe they are not dealing with it as well as possible, or it is affecting their life a lot, and they are thinking, “I am not sure I can get through this.” What would your advice be to that student?
Lyam: The big relief that eventually comes is this: I do not need to fix all this stuff. It needs my tender loving care and attention. It kind of fixes itself when it is allowed to air itself out in the imagination.
If you do not deal with your karma on the level of Yetzirah, or the imagination, it eventually trickles down into your life and makes your external physical life hell. It starts beating you up in the physical world.
The theory is that you can deal with this karma before it manifests physically. When you deal with it on that level, you can help it resolve itself so it no longer appears in your behavior and circumstances of life. No guarantees. Karma is everywhere. It is everything. But you can head off some of the really unpleasant stuff that is trying to resolve itself.
It is painful to think that these things are trying to come out so they can see for themselves that they do not quite work the way they want to. In order to do that, they are going to be pathological first on the level of imagination, in terms of scary dreams, dreams of walking around in the park naked, or other uncomfortable dreams. If you do not deal with them on that level, they will manifest in your physical life.
When people are suffering a lot in their physical circumstances, we can theorize that they do not know how to deal with it on the level of imagination. This is not necessarily true, and it is not their fault. They may not have the executive function that says, “These images are arising. They need help to work themselves out before they become physical.” Who would know to do that? You have to have someone teach you.
PAA: Let’s move on to something that came from the community. People were talking about the book and things you had said, and a question came through about qigong, internal energy, and why someone might be told to practice this in addition to the work of the book. What differences, if any, are there between the Qabalistic Cross or the Middle Pillar and doing some form of standing qigong? What is one doing, and what is the other doing?
Lyam: In most cases, when a teacher gives you some work to do with the energy body, or something ritualistic like this, you just do it. You will notice your tendency to want to use these things to control your energy: “I want more energy. Give me energy.” You are trying to get things out of it.
The teacher says, “No, do as I say,” because what you are primarily doing is noticing what the energy does out of habit.
I love this idea from biology, though it is not really new: the morphogenetic field or morphic resonance. We inhabit an energy field that ensouls, invigorates, or animates all life in the biosphere, or maybe in the universe. This energy field becomes concentrated in us, and it has habits within it. There are recurring patterns, and these recurring patterns can cause many problems. These recurring patterns are semi-autonomous entities, as we might say in psychoanalysis. They are demons or creatures, often much older than we are, because they persist in the human race, in animals, in plants, and everywhere.
They go through patterns where they are stuck and keep beating themselves up because they are trying to accomplish something. They persist because they occasionally work. Most of the time they do not work, but when they occasionally work, that is enough for them to keep going.
As these energy flows do their habitual things, cramped over here and gushing too much over there, we begin to notice them. The primary thing happening when we are working with ritualistic energy, qigong-type energy, Kundalini work, or breath work is that we are noticing how this energy field exists within the body.
We tend not to believe it is there. Even a Zen teacher might say, “Notice the emotion in your body. Where does it manifest? As a cramp?” People think it is in the body, in the musculature or fascia. But no: it is in the imagination, or the imagination of the universe, or the soul of the world, which is being concentrated. You are now dealing with the eruption of some habitual tendency that is trying to discover what it really is. It keeps coming out so there is an opportunity to deal with it.
The main thing that will eventually collapse is the habitual contraction of imagination into ego. Primarily, what a teacher is working on, like it or not, is destroying you. Eventually, that habitual contraction into a sense of self you think is you will collapse, which frees a tremendous amount of energy.
Normally what happens is that it happens to you, it is catastrophic, and then you recover. If you already have a lot of experience, it is not a big deal. You think, “What was that? I disappeared for a second.” Then you come back. The ego reconstitutes again, and the energy pattern says, “I am back again.” But this thing that is “me” is like a sock puppet. You are crammed up in your head again as a control-tower entity looking out through your eyes. Yet this is not real. It is not what you thought you were.
Problems still resurface, but every time one of these little behavioral eccentricities comes up, you see how it works. You gain an instant understanding that it is an eruption of a habitual energy pattern. This is when you begin to see how these things unfold.
The primary goal, whether it is ritual, qigong, chakra work, Kundalini, or breath work, is to discover that it is not simply in your fascia, muscles, hormones, or neurotransmitters. All of these are manifestations of habitual energy patterns trapped in reactive patterns. Eventually, you begin to see them. They do not liberate right away. You begin to notice them as they are stuck, and it can hurt like hell to notice them. Before, ignorance was bliss. Now you see how stuck you are.
Another thing you see is that the way you are trying to feel better does not work. You see that no matter what you do, in all those habitual ways of striving to fix this or fix that, you are not going to feel better. When you see that, it is as though someone in the family has died. When someone dies, you think, “What is the point of all this? We are going to die anyway.” The same feeling comes up: no matter what I do, it is pointless. This thing thinks it is going to feel better by doing this or that, but it never works. It only works for a little while, and then the suffering comes back.
That is disheartening. It is called the dark night of the soul. You see that nothing you do is going to make you feel permanently better unless you turn the light around and look at the thing that is compulsively trying to feel better all the time.
Then you see: this is what is going on. This thing is trying to feel better all the time. First of all, is there anything wrong with it to begin with? How did it get the idea that something is wrong? This idea that something is wrong is a driving force, a mechanism that keeps us controlling, freaking out, dominating the planet, and killing other life forms so we can live. It is the way karma works, and it is flying blind.
When you notice this thing, you see, “This is not what I am. This is just stuff going on.” Eventually you begin to wake up because this idea of “me inside here” and “things to fix out there” is not real. It is a dream. You do not wake up from the dream; you wake up to the dream. You still see all the dream forms that the nervous system is creating: “That is a bad guy. That is a good guy. Of course, I am the good guy.” But none of that is inherently real, and yet we still wink at it.
That is why so many magicians sleep with one eye open. One eye is turned inside into the spiritual world, where they can see that none of this is actually happening. The other eye is turned outside, playing along with the phantoms the nervous system is creating so it can perpetuate itself.
PAA: That is not the answer I was expecting, but it is an excellent answer. So whether we are doing the Qabalistic Cross or the Middle Pillar, even though they may come at this from a particular perspective or give particular experiences, the endpoint is identification with reality.
Lyam: Yes. Can you exert energy fields and heal people? Yes, it is possible. But what is involved might scare the hell out of you because it involves deep empathy for, and taking on, the energy pattern of the other person. You can see it because you understand it, and then you demonstrate in front of them that you can come out of it. Maybe they will harmonize with you coming out of it. That is terrifying because you have to actually face what they are facing. That is a kind of healing.
PAA: Let’s move on to three subjects in one: lodge, lineage, and solitary work. I have seen a few of your videos on these subjects. First, let’s look at lineage. There is this idea of, “My teacher is this person, therefore…” Could you speak to that? Also, is there a difference in what someone can achieve through solitary work versus lodge work? There are many views on this. If someone is in a place where they cannot access anything other than your book, can they develop in the same way?
Lyam: First of all, it is conceivably possible that you can become enlightened just by reading. It is very unlikely, and people say, “You cannot get it from a book.” But if you really know how to read, like a theorist reads, you are going through all kinds of horrific transformations as you read. We know this because we read literature and think, “I cannot believe this. I am tearing up. I am getting chills.”
The ability to do that can spiritually transform you. It is called catharsis. The ability to do that happens on your own while you are reading literature, watching a movie, or better yet, watching a live play. These things happen whether we like it or not. Life unfolds that way.
With magic, art, or drama, we turn up the volume on that. We intensify the catharsis process, purification, and self-empowerment. You realize what you really are and become more authentic.
I came into the work trying to initiate myself, and I was making progress. Then I encountered Ra-Hoor-Khuit Temple and Laura York, who was my teacher. I benefited tremendously from just having a few words with her and hanging out on occasion. We did the 0=0 initiation ritual, which was wonderful, but most of the juicy stuff I got was from being with the adepts of Ra-Hoor-Khuit Temple, especially her.
That is when I realized how lineage works. I have noticed that people doing the Kabbalah, Magic work make progress and their lives change. Then they meet with me online and have a conversation like this, and everything suddenly changes for them. They go after it more seriously. They say, “I am going to start over. Now I know what is going on. Now I know what is happening.”
There is nothing special about me, but somehow that has carried forward. I am paying it forward. I got it from Laura, and now I am fortunate enough to have been activated or initiated.
To be initiated is to rise to a new level of activity and function at that level. It is a higher level or deeper level, whatever resonates. You cannot go back because you now see what is possible for yourself, and you have to do this. Once you are in, you cannot undo it anymore. It is done.
If you try to back out, you will suffer horribly because you are trying to live a life that you know will not make you happy in the way everyone else is doing. Now you can see through it, but you are still trying to do it. You cannot do that anymore. It is no longer your game. You can play it and have fun with it, but it is not something you ultimately subscribe to.
PAA: The last part of that would be this: when it comes to the outer and inner order, from the bookwork, this takes you up to the entrance door. Is that correct?
Lyam: To the portal, right. To knocking on the door and hoping it opens, and then going into Tiphareth and being happy forever.
The real transition from the outer order to the inner order involves being able to work magic from the inside. Let’s say you get into Goetia and you are conjuring demons so they will go do things for you. That is a manner of working with spirits in which you take their existence at face value. You do not really know what they are. You say, “They are out there, and if I conjure them and pretend to be the archangel Michael, they will react, cower, and go do things.”
That is usually the outer-order perspective. As we go through the outer-order process, we realize that is not real. Those are fake forms of power, the kinds of power tyrants wield: coercion and pecking-order authority.
True authority involves penetrating insight into what these spirits are as karmic formations desperately trying to work themselves out. People are collections of these entities, and you can walk around in the world seeing that. Then you are on the inside. You are operating at the level of the soul, and you see how the soul of the world is erupting into manifestation, attempting to work out its dramas.
Working from the inside means that, yes, you may still conjure spirits and demons and appear to get benefits, as though they are doing your bidding. But that is not what is happening. You are helping them work out their unresolved dualities. These spirits or semi-autonomous complexes transform and assume forms that are more helpful, mainly like watchdogs. Instead of taking you over and making you do things, they say, “Look out.” Or they dissolve entirely and never bother you again.
That is the process. In the process, you gain an extraordinary way of living, which for you is quite ordinary because you touch down on the mind the way the mind actually is, not the mind as it has been forced into this role or that role.
We think all these roles we compulsively play are reality. That is a dream state. When you come out of that, you see that being free of these roles, entities, and scenarios compelling you is the reality. That is the mind the way it actually is. It is kind of nice.
You are not immune to these things, but as they come up, you are aware of them. They will not necessarily take you over and force you to be an actor in their drama. They will still act themselves out on the level of imagination, where you can help them realize what they are or what they are trying to do.
They love that. At first, they may say, “What are you doing? You have not noticed me for a million years.” Then they settle in and say, “This is really nice. I am going to serve you as an instinct that is no longer going to grab hold of you and make you do things. I am going to pipe down now.”
That happens all around you. You see these things everywhere. It is not just, “I am getting control of my behavior.” It happens with the people around you as well. They get magnetized by you, or catalyzed, whatever you want to call that.
PAA: Could we say that this links to authenticity? The authenticity of your practice in what could be called the outer order: as you develop, you transition inward without necessarily needing entrance into another structure. Your own evolution takes you into that state.
Lyam: Let’s backtrack for a second because I want to deal with the idea of group ritual. People think, “I need to join a group, and the group ritual work is going to carry me through.” That is all fine, but primarily this Hermetic work is self-initiation. Even if you are in a lodge, it is your daily work that is going to do the work for you.
When you bring your A-game to the group meetings or the lodge, what you bring is yourself as you are in your current state of personal individual transformation. Here I am. People are learning from you, you are learning from them, and they are noticing the stuff you are stirring up, which may be problematic for you and for them.
It is not necessarily easy. In magical lodges, the work will push out demons and inflate egos. That is how it works. The teacher’s job is to help people deal with that so things settle down and people do the work on the level of imagination instead of letting it come out into the world and beat everyone up.
You can do ritual in groups, and that is fine. But primarily, the work is by yourself: doing your magical journal, doing your daily ritual, and doing whatever your teacher prescribes.
PAA: That is really good to hear. It shows how tough entering one of these things can be.
Lyam: Especially if you are an addictive type of personality, group work can help with relying on alcohol, pornography, or things like that. When you reach for things that are cheap and easy, it becomes addiction. What the psyche really wants is to be challenged.
When you enter a social group, it is automatically challenging. It is always difficult. There is always a little bit of, “What is going on here?” That is enough to make addiction unnecessary. You are not reaching for that cheap fix anymore because you have a genuinely challenging and engaging situation. That is much more worthwhile than finding a cheap, easy feel-good.
PAA: I think you have covered authenticity indirectly, but when I saw your material on that, it really struck me. Maybe this is a reflection of me, but I thought, “Yes, that is very important.” Personally, I feel I want my outer to reflect my inner, and if my inner is pretending to be my outer, I feel uncomfortable.
Lyam: You are a practitioner. I have just added you as a practitioner of magic because if you are doing magic, authenticity becomes a huge issue for a long time.
Eventually it is not such a big deal. You run into people and they say, “Have a nice day,” and they do not really mean it. It is all right. Do not freak out. People ask, “How are you?” and they do not really mean it. That is fine. They are starting a conversation.
Authenticity is paradoxical because, from my perspective, you realize there is no “you.” You have all these entities reacting to things outside the magic circle, and each of them is inviting you to identify with it: “This is who you really are. You exist to fight injustice. Let’s go beat up injustice.” But the real challenge is not to identify with the compulsion to become this role-playing thing.
When you realize that none of these entities inviting you to become something are inherently real, then you see there is not really any “me.” But then something curious happens. You notice that the way these entities come out, and the way you play along with them, becomes emblematic of who you really are. It is your own style. You cannot necessarily put a finger on it, but there is the authenticity.
It is like what Oscar Wilde said. This is not a direct quote, but he said there is nothing more artificial than trying to be yourself. The manner in which you wear your different masks tells me who you really are. The manner in which you handle all these entities as they come up, playing along with some and letting others go, is your style. That is your authenticity.
Whatever that karmic pattern is, it is probably going to continue for a very long time, long after your body is gone, in that wave pattern or whatever it is. I do not know whether that is true, but it is a beautiful idea.
PAA: Thank you for answering that. That was one of the questions I really wanted to cover. I have many others, but I am drawn to ask this: in your own practice, was there a point where you were half in and half out, asking, “Is this real? What is real?” Was there an experience where you felt, “Okay, this is something I need to commit to and go all in”? If you are able to share it, what was that?
Lyam: I mentioned this in the book. I got into magic by pursuing astral projection, which I had some results with. The book was by Ophiel, The Art and Practice of Astral Projection. It is a fantastic book, especially for his writing style. He mentioned the Golden Dawn and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and that brought me into Golden Dawn work.
I started doing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and after about a week or two, I felt different. I felt good, but not in the ordinary way. It was more like the ego beginning to think, “I am awesome, and all that stuff out there is just material dross.” That started to happen, but I realized something was going on. This was real. Something was happening.
Astral projection itself was not that big a deal. It was a lucid-dreaming type of thing.
PAA: I am surprised, because I would have thought that even a clear lucid experience, or a real astral projection, would be quite powerful.
Lyam: It was not remote viewing. It was simply being awake while dreaming, aware and able to fly and explore. Most of us have experienced that before, so we know it is not that big a deal, though it is nice to be able to do it consciously.
But realizing that waving your hands in the air and chanting names actually does something like psychic surgery made me think, “Oh my God, this is real.” From that point, I pursued it seriously and eventually discovered Ra-Hoor-Khuit Temple and the Golden Dawn.
Another experience happened when I was in Zelator. It was my first enlightenment experience, at the level you could say of Assiah, the world of action or material world. I was living in an apartment that had no washroom, so I had to go to the community washroom. I was walking across the lawn and happened to notice that I was the earth arisen in this form, looking at itself.
Then I entered the washroom and thought, “What was that?” I almost missed it. These things are always there. I almost did not see it. That was real. I began to notice that the ego construct is inherently unreal. That was probably the most profound moment out of all the work, even though it was so ordinary and subtle. It had the biggest impact.
Eventually, in the same grade, or perhaps Theoricus, I do not remember anymore, the ego collapsed. I had a letting-go attack. The ego started to collapse, but I was able to hold on. It was beginning to crumble, and I thought I was dying. There were hallucinations involved. I write about this on the Forbidden Realms Patreon site.
It was alarming. I contacted my teachers at the time, and they were all on a camping trip, so I had to wait several days for them to respond. When my teacher responded, she said, “Yes, of course. Next time that happens, just let go. Discover something new. It is all right.” I thought, “What do you mean? I had dragon voices growling into my ears.” I did not know what was going on.
Now I understand it more. I also had experiences of being attacked by teeth, fangs, wolf-like creatures, and maybe snakes. Sometimes I would touch an object in the environment and get an electric shock. These are evolutionary traumas being pushed out into hallucinatory experiences.
It is funny to call them hallucinations because that is an abstraction used to dismiss them. They were tangible and shockingly real, sort of like PTSD for a moment. They did not ruin my life, but I was noticing them. I told my teachers about it, and Laura said, “Good. Very good. You are being attacked by entities. Very good.”
PAA: That was the point where you thought, “Okay, I am absolutely all in.” You also mentioned Patreon, so I would like to cover that. Would you let us know about the Patreon and anything else you have going on: activities for students or people interested in your work? All of that will be put in the description box below.
Lyam: Speaking of authenticity, I just quit my day job, so this is what I am doing now. Please support me on Patreon.
On the Patreon site, the idea is that being able to contact somebody, even through the computer, and work with them live or through messaging, is often enough to allow the lineage thing to work. I have seen this happening on the internet, especially on YouTube, and I thought, “This can work.” That is why I started doing it. You can have tremendous reach and cause a lot of trouble online.
On Patreon, people can direct message me, and every other day I answer messages. We go back and forth. Some people are doing the work in my book, trying to master Golden Dawn magic. Others are doing enlightenment practices to try to have a spiritual experience. That is fine. Whatever you are doing, there is also biohacking, which is cool because biohacking is pretty much what sorcerers used to do anyway. They called it magic back then, and now we are trying to label it something else.
Biohacking includes breath techniques, exposing yourself to cold and heat, making sure you get enough ultraviolet light, making sure you get enough red light, and making sure you do not get blue light at night. These biohacks can be astonishingly effective, especially blocking blue light at night. I cannot emphasize that enough. People suffer horribly from brain fog, and it can simply be because there is not enough melatonin while they are sleeping. They are not exposed to nighttime anymore. They are constantly immersed in LED or fluorescent blue light, which tells the brain, “It is daytime.”
You can join the Patreon site. It is easy to find. You can look for Lyam Christopher. It is called Forbidden Realms, because these things really are forbidden. You are getting into things that undermine the ego’s narrative of civilization.
That is why magic has such a dark reputation. The karmic patterns that created civilization are based on suffering, stratification of classes, rampant capitalism, and things like that. These are karmic processes demanding that we continue to participate in them. I do not want to get political about it, but freeing yourself from these does not mean going out, radicalizing, changing the world, and becoming president. Forget that. It means being aware of them and becoming more amused as you notice them happening all around you. That can be really important.
There are articles on the Patreon site. I put YouTube videos there as well, though those are free on YouTube. There are enlightenment practices. If you do not want to do the Golden Dawn curriculum, you can do visualizations, energy work, and things like that as an attempt to become enlightened.
There is only one tier right now. I will probably put guided meditations on there for a second tier. Right now, it is only $5 a month. There is no second tier yet, but there probably will be.
PAA: For that kind of tier, to get direct access to someone with this kind of experience is a no-brainer.
Lyam: I do want to go to Boleskine House. If you know what that is, it is where Aleister Crowley supposedly did the Abramelin ceremony. Not that I am a follower of Aleister Crowley necessarily, but I do think he is fascinating. I would like to travel to Scotland and go to Boleskine if I get enough supporters to pay for the trip. Then I could be that internet celebrity walking around Boleskine House with my phone saying, “Here I am in front of the most infamous house in history.” That would be great.
PAA: That would be a lot of fun. It is big news that you have given up your day job.
Lyam: Four or five months ago, yes.
PAA: Fair play. It is a big step.
Lyam: I was a learning specialist, or I still am a learning specialist: twenty years of experience helping people study, read, and write at the college level.
PAA: Thank you for being on Perseus. I wish you all the luck in the world with the new Patreon. In any way that we can work together or help each other with Perseus, I am happy to do that. I have really enjoyed listening to your answers. Now that I have discovered your YouTube channel, I will be going through it one by one. There is a lot to go through.
Lyam: I am not sure how that happened. I started it a couple of years ago, and it just kept growing.
PAA: It is bizarre that I had not seen it before, but thanks to people in the Perseus community, they were mentioning people doing the work of your book. I thought, “Who is this? Tell me more.” Then I saw your work and thought, “Let’s do an interview. This has to happen.” Thank you so much for answering all these questions. I had so many questions, with pieces of paper and documents here, but there is just so much. Possibly again in the future, that would be wonderful.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us. I really enjoyed this episode: learning about these things, making sense of what I had only vaguely understood before, and hearing Lyam explain them. If you enjoyed it, please like this video, subscribe to the Perseus channel, and also head over to all of Lyam’s links below. Visit his YouTube channel, subscribe to his YouTube, and take a look at his Patreon. To have expert advice for a small amount of money is very worthwhile.
Thank you all, and I will see you on the next episode.
The Three Transformations – Free Course
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Frater Barrabbas Tiresius is a practicing ritual magician who has studied magic and the occult for over forty years. He believes that ritual magic is a discipline whose mystery is unlocked by continual practice and by occult experiences and revelations. Frater Barrabbas believes that traditional approaches should be balanced with creativity and experimentation, and that no occult or magical tradition is exempt from changes and revisions.
Over the years, he found that his practical magical discipline was the real source for all his creative efforts. That creative process helped him build and craft a unique and different kind of magical system, one that is quite unlike any other yet based on common Wiccan practices. So, despite its uniqueness this magical system is capable of being easily adapted and used by others.
Frater Barrabbas is also the founder of a magical order called the Order of the Gnostic Star and he is an elder and lineage holder in the Alexandrian tradition of Witchcraft.
Interview
Frater Barrabbas
PAA: You describe Archaeomancy as something that grew out of a single word by Michael Bertiaux that stayed with you for decades. Do you feel like you discovered this system as a sudden insight, or that it revealed itself slowly over time?
There were actually both processes at work in the development of Archaeomancy. When Michael Bertiaux briefly described his idea, it had a powerful effect on my imagination. I began to have impressions about what that magic would look like and determined that it involved the Qabalistic structure of the Forty Worlds. After that, I developed my magical technology over time to best accommodate the process of working with the various angelic beings in these worlds. Yet that was just the first approach to this magical topic and it spanned the 1980’s into the 1990’s.
The second approach was taught to me by the Nephilim, who helped me to develop a new approach to the Tree of Life. They presented to me a Tree of Life pattern without the Sephiroth, showing the skeletal lattice where triangular shapes were emphasized, and that just below the supernal triad were two trapezoidal shapes. There is a total of eighteen of these shapes formed by the pathways, and these are the Qabalistic Dimensions, which became the focus for this new system of magic. I developed a system of magic that would aid me to enter into these dimensions to experience the source or core of the Tree of Life. This magical technology is discussed in greater detail in the second volume of this series on Archaeomancy.
Liber Artis Archaeomancy: Mastering the Angels of the Four Worlds (June 2026 Release – Pre order now)
PAA: This book, being a manual, also has the components of a philosophical work. What compelled you towards this format?
Overall, this book is a practical approach to the art of angelic invocation involving the forty Qabalistic domains. I also wanted to discuss the historical precedence for this kind of magic in Medieval Europe, and how what I am proposing now is a variation of what was performed in that world. I am also a pagan and a Witch, so that will color how I approach angelic spirits, and how I view the world. While all this is true, I did not seek to include any philosophical speculation in this book, but it does attempt to create a sacralized environment in a very secular post-modern world.
PAA: You mention that this system of magic developed in the 1980s and 1990s. What changes in your understanding of Archaeomancy occurred over those years?
While the initial development for Archaeomancy of the Forty Worlds was begun in the late 1980’s, with the basic concept or target domains for this work, the actual magical technology evolved over time. This is especially true with the development of the second methodology of gaining entrance into the dimensions. Even as recently as the early 2000’s this magic has been in a state of development, mostly refinements and the ritualized utility for others in my magical social circle. The earliest inspiration remained the same, but the technical methodology evolved and changed over the decades.
PAA: Can Archaeomancy, in practice, be distinguished from classical ceremonial magic?
The differences between my system of magic and ceremonial magic are considerable. As technics of magic, they have some common ground, but they differ in the approach. First and foremost, godhead assumption is the primary state and mindset of the ritual magician who would practice my system of magic. While I will use a magic circle, it is to define the boundary between the sacred precinct of the temple and the outer profane world. What this means is that all magical operations and interactions with spirits occur within the magic circle and not without. There is no need nor requirement for the magician to hide behind a protective magic circle while engaging with spirits. Because a ritual magician is exposed directly to the spirits that they invoke or evoke, they rely on their godhead assumption to mitigate any potential harm that they might experience while engaging with these entities inside of their defined spiritual domain.
My system of magic uses internal cross-roads, gateways, pylons, and energy vortices that make the magical workings directly tangible through a process of immersion. Direct contact with the spirits conjured is startling different from what is practiced in ceremonial magic. Also, godhead assumption allows the magician to be fully inspired by their personal Deity so that the ritual script can be completely abrogated for a more impromptu approach. Immersion allows for spiritual transformation of the highest kind, since there is a direct contact between the magician and the conjured spirit. Oddly enough, I have discussed the idea of immersion with other practitioners and I have discovered that left-hand path magicians use the same kind of approach.
So, I don’t consider myself a ceremonial magician because I decided long ago that strictly following a tradition was too constraining. I also find that ceremonial magic is too wedded to the Abrahamic faiths, and I am too much of a pagan to follow such a path. Ceremonial magicians also treat my system of magic with a certain disdain, where one such individual referred to my magical system as “stinking of Witchcraft,” which I took as a badge of honor.
Entering the domain of spirits, whether angelic, neutral or demonic has the effect of producing deep, profound, and highly impactful spiritual transformation.
Frater Barrabbas
PAA: What are the side effects of entering the domains of spirits?
Entering the domain of spirits, whether angelic, neutral or demonic has the effect of producing deep, profound, and highly impactful spiritual transformation. The main purpose for angels is to evolve the practitioner and rely on their help to become a better person, and ultimately to achieve enlightenment. While most magicians start out seeking personal power and material gain, yet at a certain point in their quest, if they continue their work, they will change it to one that is about seeking knowledge, wisdom and self-mastery. This is where the interrelationship with spirits can have its most positive and constructive effect on the practitioner; when they have given up the pursuit of material gain and personal empowerment.
PAA: Can Archaeomancy be understood without being practiced?
A person can always understand any form of magic from a theoretical perspective, given that they have a good imagination and a basic education in the occult. Archaeomancy is no different in this way than any other system of magic, although it is more complex and has more ritual components. However, unless and until someone successful performs one of these ritual workings, they can never know how potent and profound this system of magic actually is when compared to other systems. To know is to do, is my personal aphorism when contemplating any form of magic. Outsiders will view this magical system as overly complex and perhaps too dissimilar from other systems of conjuring spirits, particularly if they are a practitioner of one of the more traditional systems of magic. My hope is that people will not only read my book but actually try to construct their own rituals and perform a magical working using this system. Those who can do that will discover the value of this magical approach.
PAA: Do you see the forty worlds mapped through the Qabalah as something objectively real?
The Qabalah, whether we are talking about the Forty Worlds, the Eighteen Dimensions, or the structure of the Tree of Life, presents to the practitioner a simplified model of what is very complex and beyond any kind of mind-based approach. Just as a map is not the actual physical terrain that it seeks to describe, models of spiritual consciousness are also symbolic representations that cannot be confused with the reality. They are representations, overly simplistic so we can approach and grasp them with our mind. To truly apprehend this spiritual world, we would need the eye of spirit rather than the eye of mind. What I have found by experiencing the subtle planes of consciousness is that symbols are protean and changeable, and words and mental constructs of any kind are useless.
PAA: How should a practitioner use the relationship between the eighteen dimensions and the forty worlds?
The Qabalistic Forty Worlds structure is one of many models of the domain of the inner planes, and it is not the only model. The Qabalah of the Eighteen Dimensions is another model that I was taught by the Nephilim, or the fallen Sons of God. Either approach is just another way of taking a view-point on the Tree of Life, where one sees the ten Sephiroth through the four Worlds, and the other sees the triangular structures of the Tree of Life as actual living spiritual worlds. What binds them together is the Tree of Life, but any approach used to define sacred space using symbolic models is limited by the fact that the mind cannot fully comprehend the domain of spirit.
PAA: Do you see the intricate and extensive correspondences in your book as a language to be learned and spoken?
Tables of correspondence are an arrangement of unrelated materials, concepts and symbols that when combined using a template describe a spiritual concept. In that way, it could be construed a language. Since my system of spirit conjuring uses a matrix of symbols to define a specific Qabalistic domain where resides a spiritual being, or a hierarchical group of spiritual beings, then one could conclude that the use of these symbols forms a magical language of conjuration. Used as such, it describes and fully defines the place of residence of a spirit. When it is used with a ritual technology, that symbolic description becomes fully realized, opening up a Qabalistic world to the magician.
In numerous ways, myths protect us from the real truth, which would be confusing and disturbing, and it would negate much of what passes as dogma and theology in most religions. Myths can also point to the truth, but only to those who are willing to question their face value and to seek their underlying mystery.
Frater Barrabbas
PAA: From magic to theology, what do you think most people are missing about angelic beings?
Religious beliefs about angels, as well as associated folklore, present to the faithful a logical and friendly exoteric perspective. There is a hierarchy of good angels, and they do the work of God in heaven. Then there are the bad angels, who reside in the underworld of Hell, and are used by God to tempt and lead astray the unbeliever and the unfaithful. It is a very simple, neat and tidy representation of something that is very complicated and not at all as friendly and reassuring.
First off, there is no one supreme godhead, there are in fact many gods answering to a myriad of human spiritual needs and wants. There is, in all of this, a singularity, which I call the One, but it has no name nor any kind of interactive personality. It is the union of all being, the source of all that was, is and ever shall be. The closest we can get to that holistic being is through the highest states of consciousness, called by many names, but is a form of conscious illumination.
In numerous ways, myths protect us from the real truth, which would be confusing and disturbing, and it would negate much of what passes as dogma and theology in most religions. Myths can also point to the truth, but only to those who are willing to question their face value and to seek their underlying mystery.
With that said, I can state that spiritual beings reside in the archetypal domain of consciousness, and have both a symbolic existence and an activated and manifested instantiation. They exist in a place called the inner planes and function in specific roles. Since there is no supreme Deity, then there is no polarity in the spiritual world. There is just the functional roles and the striation of spiritual or material density. There was no rebellion against heaven, and demons reside in the underworld because it is close to the earth and the place of their origin. They are not evil or good, since such moral values have no relevance in the spiritual world. Things are much more complicated, and angels, demons, earth spirits, fairies, and the whole host of disembodied entities do not have conflict with each other.
These ideas, which I have gleaned by a long period of interacting and communicating with these spiritual beings are so far removed from what non-practicing people believe about angels that it becomes for me a point of not communicating what I have experienced. However, all spirits can have a role in helping a human being to perfect themselves over time. What is required is for the seeker to break past the exoteric beliefs that function as a barrier in order to discover the esoteric truth.
PAA: How much of the emotions and personalities of angels and demons are projections, and how much is intrinsic to the entities?
As I have pointed out previously, spirits have a symbolic existence and an activated and manifested instantiation. That process of materialization is determined by the beliefs and expectations of the practitioner. When I have achieved states of consciousness that reside in the subtle realms, I have observed spirits assuming an egg-shaped globe of colored light. However, in my imagination, they appear in the guise based on my expectations, wearing the characteristics of their symbolic nature as I interpret them.
PAA: Is there truly a division between “high” angelic magic and “low” goetic practice?
Conjuring any kind of spirit using whatever manner of magic might be considered “high” magic, and performing magical spells to acquire material benefits might be considered “low” magic. Using magic to help or harm others, to obtain enlightenment, or selfishly empower and enrich oneself could also represent polarized perspectives on the practice of magic. However, there must always be included the context of one’s intention, and social and material situations to consider. Thus, defining this kind of a binary approach to magic is likely an inaccurate assumption. Since I don’t see angels and demons as opposed or representing good or evil, then such a perspective on high magic or low magic is practically irrelevant.
PAA: Did you already have the chance to see Archaeomancy consistently transform the lives of others?
Yes indeed – those who shared these workings with me were transformed by them, although temporarily. As I have stated in my book, a person would need to have a continuous ongoing spiritual discipline and practice and then to integrate what was experienced into that discipline in order for the transformative revelations to be more permanent.
PAA: What really is spiritual renewal all about? And is it the goal of Archaeomancy?
Renewal sounds like maintenance to me, such as maintaining a spiritual discipline by periodic religious-magical events or experiences. Archaeomancy is a magical system that produces a profound spiritual transformation that can completely change someone’s orientation or belief-system. When practiced as an ordeal, it can overcome all personal obstacles and bring the practitioner face to face with their personal godhead, with all the revelations, insights and visions, and realizations that that might incur. Whether or not someone has a regular and consistent spiritual discipline, after successfully performing one of these ordeals, they will quickly adopt one in some fashion or another.
PAA: You speak of “veil of darkness” that brings emptiness and terror along the path. How important is this veil and what is it veiling?
I talk in my book about the absolute source of beingness as the One. From a Qabalistic perspective, that would be the Sephirah of Kether. Yet behind and beyond the One is the None, which is source of being as Non-Being. This would be the Ain Soph in the Qabalah. From the perspective of individual beings, such as we are, the idea of non-being would be a veil of darkness that is terrifying. If we cannot consciously comprehend the One, which is the source of all being, then how can we expect to understand non-being. Buddhists have stated in their various sutras that what is beyond and also the source of all beingness is emptiness. This metaphor is what I was trying to relate, in my limited fashion using words, what is the actual source of everything. The veil is our own blindness and the inability to mentally comprehend these very exalted, spiritual concepts.
PAA: When revising and innovating a tradition, should we risk distorting it or should we prevent it at all costs?
I am the last person to defend any kind of tradition or orthodoxy when it comes to the practice of magic. It is my strong belief that in each new age, a magician must reinvent the practice of magic. Traditions of magic cannot be transported or accurately reconstructed from one age to another because the cultural context supporting that tradition is irreparably lost.
I sought to show this when examining angelic magic as it was practiced in Medieval Europe and then comparing how it is practiced today. So much has changed in how we see the world around us that it is surprising that magic can even be practiced by intelligent people in our post-modern world. A magician must invent their tradition, using the various practices of the past along with more modern practices that will hopefully produce a complete and workable system of magic. People saw supernatural occurrences easily in the 16th century because that was the framework of their culture and their religious beliefs and expectations. We are not the same people, so we have to work at breaking out of our culture determinants in order to see and experience spirits. This is why meditation and trance are so integral to the practice of magic today, where it was not as important to practitioners in the previous age.
Preserving a tradition of magic that no longer has relevancy in our current age is a fool’s errand, in my opinion. This is because reconstructing a tradition is basically changing it in a fundamental manner.
PAA: Did your work within the Order of the Gnostic Star influence the development of Archaeomancy?
Archaeomancy was developed for use by the members of the Order, or at least the Qabalah of the Forty Worlds. However, in the early 90’s the mother temple fell apart, and since then there has not been an active temple to use what I had developed. Additionally, in the 1990’s I developed the second methodology of Archaeomancy, and then in the 2000’s all this lore was redeveloped along with the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal to become the resident lore of the Order. While I did share the transdimensional system of Archaeomancy with a few members of the Order, the revised version and the additional lore have not been engaged by anyone in Order as far as I know. I am hoping that changes with the publication of this book and the next in the series.
PAA: Is this system something that should be adapted to evolve, or something that requires fidelity to the original structure?
As I stated previously, I am against any kind of orthodoxy, including for my own work, which, I might add, has changed and evolved over the years. I would assume that someone who would seek to use this system of magic would adapt it to their own system. They would thereby create a hybrid, and then over time, it would evolve into something that is unique to their own personal practice. This is a very natural progression for magical development, and one that I would highly approve. I am a strong believer that magicians should show fidelity and consistently to their personal practice. They owe no fealty to me and what I have developed, since I am just another practitioner with a different perspective.
PAA: Who is the ideal reader of this book?
This is an advanced book on magic. Beginners would probably not find it very useful, since it will be seen by them as complex and having many ritual components. What a beginner needs to do is build their own magical system from the ground up, and I do have a book that teaches a beginner how to do that – “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick.” My audience for this book is individuals who already have their own system of magic and have practiced magic intensively for a few years. Such a person will see the value of this system of magic and be able to adapt it to their own system. I am hoping that people who read this book will also attempt to perform the rituals that are in it. I think that anyone who can achieve this goal will be greatly rewarded by what they experience. To make the best use of this system of magic, it also requires an individual to have their own well-established spiritual discipline, so that when they perform one of these ordeals, it will be able to permanently change and transform them.
PAA: Thanks to Frater Barrabbas for taking part in this interview and to Andre Consciencia for facilitating this interview.
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Back when I was training within The Order of Michael’s Grail, the Grand Initiator told me once that each grade, corresponding to a sphere, holds a different formula of magical equilibrium. To this day, I sometimes think of this, as the solution to this charade was left a mystery, and have managed to come to results by adapting to the electric and magnetic fluid of each sphere, and balancing the cosmic letters pertaining to the spheric elements, together with other methodologies that, as is the case with these, can be found in my books.
On a larger scale, combining the spheres themselves, 10=1, 9=2, 8=3, 7=4, 6=5, 5=6, 4=7, 3=8, 2=9, and 1=10 (imagined hierarchically from 1 to 10) are obvious formulas that depict spheric volts of balance. The Earthzone overcomes Neptune at first (1=10), Uranus is ruled by the Moon (2=9), Mercury rules Saturn (3=8), Venus rules Jupiter (4=7) and so on at first, the planetary number in the left standing magnetic/passive and the planetary number in the right electric/active. As we evolve, the volts transmute so the higher leads the lower, in any case, however the numbers may be arranged, they depict the necessary balance for the progressive stages of maturity.
While this stands true, I wish to venture beyond such quantitative knowledge and other kinds of wisdom I keep to myself on the subject and move unto unknown and qualitative terrain, under the announced premise of sharing directly with the readers.
For this purpose, I have set the circle and triangle, made sure to have the four elemental emperors anchored in the corners (see A Guide to the Elementals), and adorned myself with the seal of Aschmunadai (monarch of the Earth Belt), magic belt, magus band and robe, so as to sustain the prolonged operation without any drainage. I have, upon evocation unto the triangle of the ceremonial chamber, loaded, as previously arranged, my guardian genius, guru or guide with the four divine qualities, keeping my own state of the Godhead in the background to make for a limited and relatable communication, easier to read.
First, upon the final charging with omnipresence, this priest of Amon, my guide, seems to engulf and lose shape, yet gain substance without end. Called back, he returns unmarked, nameless, and without a care. And, without a care, we depart from the physical chamber to subtler venues.
The Zone Girdling the Earth
As we spiral up and reform from my ceremonial chamber to the Zone Girdling the Earth, I see my transfigured guide is dressed in clothes of light and holding a burning staff. He looks at me and away to a sacrificial altar where a virginal female, naked and very white, is surrendering to the upcoming sacrifice of fire. We stand inside an oak-wood circular temple, squared by four columns of bronze, and there is an additional black pillar of consecration to the left of the altar where the woman’s heart is to be deposed.
I look inquisitively at the staff. “You are this staff”, the deity divines my unformed question. My inquisitive gaze keeps burning into the deity’s eyes. “You, or anyone” he completes. “The self”, I conclude. “The Self, the first flame, when it didn’t yet consume, or needed wick or needed fuel,” the deity says.
I inspect the virgin, lost in some waking dream, prostrated on the altar, and study the cubic pillar of consecration. “Why is there a sacrifice where no wick or fuel is needed?” – “The woman is the mind, laid upon the altar of forms-ideas. The first flame of original individuality dispenses the woman that is the mind, but the woman that is the mind cannot dispense the flame of the original self, nor can the archetypal altar dispense the woman that is the mind.” I smile. “Be mindful of the readers.” – “The self is self-sufficient, the mind is enlightened by it or perishes, but the mind may not be touched by the flame of the pure self without something to conduct the holy fire. Thus, the mind gives itself to the archetypes, providing the means of infiltration for the pure Self.” He replies and I nod.
He points at the circular temple: “This is the circle, and where you see a circle, I see a bridge, for the circle is all that stands between the inside and the outside of the circle, and to both these spaces expands. The four pillars are the known virtues of the sphynx: to Will as the Self wills itself in the first flame, to Know as the woman in the altar of sacrifice knows the form-idea of the first flame, to dare as the circle dares merge form-idea and self, and to keep silent as” he points to the pillar of consecration “we hide the Self within the duality from which the Self is not, and impregnate it so as to bear the heart of unity and the Soul.”
After a moment of silence, I instigate: “How is equipoise within this frame?”, and as he answers, the circle delineating the temple seems to shimmer with his light in tune with his voice: “Self-Awareness balances Fire, Contemplation balances Air, Transcendental Devotion balances Water, and Detachment balances Earth. Once all are balanced from within, they stand equally balanced among them.”
The deity points again to the black cube and I see now the heart of the woman standing upon it, translucent with light and revolving in black flame. “Fetch me the heart.” He begs. As I touch it, I have a flash of its insides. It stands as a womb and within it, a baby of white shimmering light. I pass it with some relief. The deity hooks it to the head of the staff, and it catches flame. He uses it to set the circular walls on fire. The fire spirals up, and as it consumes the walls, I see we stand in a vast plain where all that is visible is lilac-silver-white lunar light.
The Moonzone
As I turn my gaze back from the lunar vastness, I see the woman is up within a larger-than-human goblet filled with the graceful waters of the moon. She holds a sickle of silver metal in her left hand and a pentacle in her neck. The altar and the pillar of consecration are gone.
Inquisitive, I look at the deity only to find his staff has become a golden-dark trident, as if the gold metal had been scorched by extreme fire and will. The guide pushes the trident inside his body, so that the lateral pongs exit from his temples and the central pong stands at the crown, the staff running down the spine to the coccyx. The trident changes this carefree body and it becomes white, beautiful and peaceful, red, passionate and wrathful, and black and sexually insinuating. All three coexist for a while until they finally mingle and dissolve into the radiant, boundless presence of the trident itself.
I call the deity by the name of my guardian genius, having no other reference, and see, to my satisfaction, that he responds. “I am the trident of inspiration and the lunar fires.” I nod. “What are these fires?” – “A will that knows itself with a knowledge that acts.” – “I see.” I divert my attention from the deity to meet, with shyness, the gaze of the woman, only to find that she does not seem to see beyond the Goblet of Grace except the grace reflected back from its glass. “Where you see a goblet, I see the womb of the Virgin Mary, so impregnated by Gabriel through her ears.” Speaks the trident. “So what shall our third party, reading us, be looking for?” – “The waters of the Moon, called Grace by the Church, the Knowledge that is given only by the graceful action of the knower.”
I furrow my forehead and shift attention to the crescent of her sickle. The light it reflects makes me feel like I am losing my human form and turning into a white swan. The trident continues: “The Air of the Moon sees to it that all shape is bound to change, and such evolution is the action of knowledge.” I realize the woman is still lost in a dream. “The pentacle” continues the deity within the trident, “unveils the change, ceasing the continuous moment of the sickle, and, shape being freed from its own gravity, reveals quintessential stability in all things. Such is the Earth of the Moon.” He finishes.
I look fixedly and silently at the trident, awaiting a conclusion. “These are the operations by which will knows itself.” There is greater silence. “And the equipoise?” – “A stability that is change, a change that finds a stable rhythm. A grace that is inspired and not suffered.” I smile and ask: “Is the woman still the mind?” – “As the goblet is the soul.” After this, nothing happens, and the silver light begins to freeze. I grab the staff of the trident and am pushed upwards in a spiral.
The Zone of Mercury
We see the bright orange sphere approach within the infinite darkness, becoming the size of a universe, and as we pierce through, the trident releases itself from my hands to fall head down, piercing a black cube, the same Pillar of Consecration met within the Earth Belt Zone. Behind the cube, the woman stands an effigy, as if petrified by the moonlight’s crystallization in the sphere below. There seems to be nothing else but pulsing orange light, subtly buzzing.
“This is the Earth of Mercury, and it stands as a veil meant to unveil, a secret that reveals. Push me, then, and you will open it.” I touch the trident, feeling its immense power of illumination and inspiration, and push it back. The top of the black cube detaches, and I see inside a talisman inscribed with the image of a she-devil, a pouch, and the trident itself, its presence having vanished from my hands.
Inside the box this trident remains silent, like a relic, and having no orientation I start by grabbing the she-devil talisman and an immense euphoria fills my subtle body. The engraved succubus speaks “The dynamic power of Mercury is in the Water, and it is desire: the fuel of all knowledge and the blood that irrigates the intellect.” I give the talisman back and move toward the pouch, but before I hold it, the voice of the deity speaks from it. “All the potential of Mercury is in the Air, as much as all charms are held within this bag. These are secrets of the intellect that only desire can reach. The trident to my side is but a cold and lifeless remnant of power gone, and should all desire be spent in my secrets, all that is revealed back is the fiery living trident.”
I stand in doubt for a moment. “And the woman?” I ask. The pouch whistles and starts forming words once again. “She is the often hidden longing for death. Mortals inhibit Her conquering submission within the black box. Still, breaking the pillar of consecration is greater consecration; it is accepting submission to death, and desiring death, in so doing beginning to learn from splendor.” I frown further. “Is She still the mind?” – “No longer, she is called the Akasha. I am the mind, as the she-devil of desire is the soul.” I nod.
The voice explains: “For equipoise, you purify the air by preventing thoughts from running vague and loose and devoid of sustained vitality, and this you do by encoding experience. The water shall be purified by devoting your emotions to decoding what thought has encoded. The earth shall be balanced by decoding encoded experience with refined practice, so collecting wisdom. Fire is then purified as it is abandoned, so all will is given by wisdom and none by impulse. This is the intellectual way.”
From there on, the objects cease to express themselves, and only the effigy releases a silent prayer, imperceptible except as the subtle vibration of the ether. Upon waiting and seeing the deity not manifest, I decide to spiral up on my own.
The Zone of Venus
As I stabilize in the green-emerald acid mass of light oscillation, I see the woman, sulphureous, no longer crystalized, standing over the waters of a sacred well of liquified emeralds and, levitating above the waters with her, a verdant cauldron and fire. The woman seems to be in an agitated trance, but quite compenetrated, crushing green herbs in a pestle and mortar and spitting salt from her mouth upon the cauldron.
I look for the deity but find it not, and wonder at its meaning. Suddenly, the woman’s wild eyes stop on me for the first time, green, gray, red, gold, the iris flashing with a black light. “Make no mistake,” she says, but the voice washes in from all sides, “I am in everything you see.” I realize the deity is speaking, smile, and sit in the absinthe green light on one knee. “What do we have here?” I ask in a good disposition. She lifts the pestle and mortar. “The air, for the intellect here no longer divides but dissolves in the fullness of the mind, and holds thus the secret of the transmutation of all error.” She shows her saliva, made of crystal salt, and swallows it back. “This is the earth, for all sensations here are pure and vitalized.” Again, she brings forth the purity from her saliva glands and spits onto the pestle and mortar, mixing the herbs. “The transmutation of the soul. Now,” she points with the club-shaped pestle towards the sprinkling well within which the holy spirit seems to move, “the water, for all sensations here are of trance, and deconditioned. Then, we stand above these waters as we make ground upon the ever-green land of ecstasy.” At this point, she enters the cauldron with one foot and slowly retrieves it, becoming gradually made of gold. “And this is the unifying fire and will that instills the mind to dissolve thoughts, the senses to vitalize and purify, and the emotions towards ecstasy.”
She stops and looks at me, and suddenly I see in her my late grandmother, a saintly miracle worker who was one of my greatest teachers. “Come”, she says, and regains her own form but not completely, looking as something in-between. I move, take her hand, and, levitating above the waters, wait for her push. Up we spiral.
The Zone of the Sun
We arrive, within the Sun Zone, at a clearing created by the deity amidst the blinding light. I can see a shining mirror behind a wheel that spins the cards of the tarot. In the center of this wheel, there is a dark crystal orb with runes drawn around it: angled fork shapes flowing with energy, moving angular forms, illumining torch shapes, self-aware concentric symmetries, and spines connecting worlds.
“This proves to be an easy one for you,” tells the deity, still wearing the same aspect as in the Venus Zone, yet having lost all traits of my grandmother, the eyes having become pure white light and the shape of gold, genderless. “The mirror of fire represents Will towards itself, so that it moves towards no other object but its own nature. The wheel represents how you balance water while replacing limited emotions with intuition. The runes stand for the air element, balanced by replacing vulgar thoughts with the articulation of the cosmic letters. The all-seeing orb represents the function of earth – consciousness – dropping the ego to embrace prophecy, becoming completely prophetic in function.” She gazes, reading my mind and making sure I understand. “The activation of each aspect emanates all others by consequence.” The deity completes, and on we move towards Mars.
The Zone of Mars
This zone today seems to present some resistance, and both I and the deity seem to become made of raw flesh and blood against the natural friction. None of us is bothered by it, and we fly towards what I can only describe as a depth-point. It looks like a minuscule wormhole surrounded by a black-gray sphere with sparks of gold, reflecting the red-ruby dry ice snow around us and seeming to change the angles outside as we look inside. We hold hands and enter.
I see above me a throwing spear and below me a sword, to the sides, front and back, forming a cross, describing to the best of my ability, since we have become a 360º sphere, I envision a whip, a dagger, a knife, and a scythe. The whip is the element of air transmuted by extreme excitement, and elevated thoughts thereof. It can only be balanced by the knife of water that cuts away and detaches from all emotions. This emotional departure process is equally balanced by the intellectual excitement of Mars, represented by the whip that enthusiastically unmasks all limitations.
The dagger feels like fire, having no will but towards illumination, no matter the cost. It is balanced by the Scythe of putrefaction, which dissolves all sense of superiority. The scythe must likewise be balanced by the dagger.
The spear represents the electric fluid, balanced in the scale of Mars by continuous release. The sword represents the magnetic fluid that must be held down to be balanced and prevail in the Sphere of Mars.
Without us first leaving the depth point, the deity guides me further up.
The Zone of Jupiter
Here the deity resumes the original form of my Guide, but wearing a gold helmet, over which is placed a royal blue and golden Nemes, he is armored in violet leather and covered in a mantle of leopard skin, the strange color of lapis lazuli, from intense violet-blue to lighter shades of sky blue, turquoise, and greenish-blue. Tied to him on his right side, we see the same staff as in the Earth Belt Zone, still with the woman’s heart lodged on top. Devised through his mantle, in his waist, a sparkling magic chain, an amulet with ashes is embroidered in his chest, binding the leopard skin and the morning star sits above his head. At his feet, boiling, there seems to be the skinned leopard he wears. There is nothing but sapphire blue oscillating in all directions, up and down.
The deity flexes his knees and extracts fat from the leopard, then opens the amulet at the chest, collecting a small amount of ash, and mixes it with the fat for soap. “The will of conscience is to solve all tied knots”, he explains with a voice coming from behind me, as if the past is evolving towards the future faster than I in the lines of time. “This is the balancing function in the air of Jupiter,” he continues, throwing me the soap. As it lands, it falls on a desert of Lapis Lazuli sand, in all the tones of his leopard skin. I look at the sky and it has similar shades, between clouds of helium and diamonds.
But my attention is lost in the star above his head. “Why would a king in Jupiter wear Venus as crown?” I ask. “Emotional vigilance, not policing, sanctifies.” He answers. “This is the water as the water should be here.” – “And the chain?” – “The chain and the amulet of ash are closely tied. Should conscience be clear and the heart sanctified, one sees the present as one would feel solved and weightless memory,” he touches the ash amulet, “and this is the balanced earth.” Where he stands, there is no sand, just a clearing of sapphire light oscillation over which he and the leopard carcass levitate. “Memories connect in time like a chain of events, but cleansed, the present connects in space like a chain of beings, a league of shared clairvoyant will men and women call Divine Providence. Such is the balance of fire.” I breathe in silence for a while and say: “I notice you come bearing the staff of the Self?” The deity smiles with lips unmoving, and unmoving the lips talk still, the voice coming from behind me to stand on my front.
“Would I not? It aligns all that I have said, but mind you, for it is fire no longer, nor is it self. Upon conjunction with the heart of the sacrifice, it is akasha, and nothing except agency of alignment: at once it resolves conscience, sanctifies feeling, removes the weight of consciousness, and delivers one from the clutch of the Lion-Serpent of the Desert to the hands of the Brotherhood of Light.”
As I am thinking of further inquiry, his eyes fix on me, celestial gray-white but warm, and I am lifted up, not in a spiral but in a direct vertical line, from the inside out.
The Zone of Saturn
Here, the deity is the same, but his adornments, including the mantle, are all made of cords the color of lapis lazuli, and he is spinning a dark violet wheel from which he obtains such cords. From time to time, he cuts them with scissors and weighs them at golden scales against a feather. The air is vibrant with black and violet diamonds and the ground is held by a greater concentration of them. He stops, head leaning down under his hood of cords, and speaks to me. “What is it that you see, child?” – “The cords were the magic chain. And they now are understood as measure and they are, therefore, fate. But which element is it?” – “The chains were fire, and the cords are fire. Where there is will, there is measure and fate. But not everywhere there is measure and fate there is will. The first is the cause of fiery balance, the second condition, the cause of fiery imbalance.” I nod. He waits. “I can see the scissors are air, and that they cause severance, but I cannot, devoid of greater contemplation, divine their cause.” The deity laughs slightly and lightly. “Discernment. This is the principle that balances air on this scale.” I nod, and try further: “The spinning wheel is water as much as emotion is energy in motion. Will sets the goal and measure, but emotional fluidity the tissue of fate, and the fluid principle is the balancing factor.” There is a second of silence, and the deity replies, “Correct”, then waits.
“The scales are the purifying icon of the earth element; they are consciousness balancing spirit and flesh, subject and object, and justice is this balance.” The deity confirms with a barely perceptible movement. “The feather is what the staff was, the truth of the akasha, against which only pure will may be measured.”
Satisfied, the deity looks up at once and abruptly hits his sandal on the floor; the diamonds open and whirl around each other, carrying us up as we turn into light.
The Zone of Pluto
As we penetrate the light gray oscillation ever more densely, it starts to feel and smell like methane snow. As a cloud of light, we approach like moths what seems to be a lit candle, the flame dim, spherical, ghostly blue, and soot-free. As we float around it, I notice the wax does not melt, and, catching the smoke of a thurible, we regain form. I observe how the smoke, too, expands spherically from the extremely hot tip of the incense, forming a growing cloud that lingers where it is produced, like a stationary fog.
Within it, illumined by the candle, I distinguish a purple book, unlocked, and the deity, completely naked, the hair turned gray and the skin dry, holding a torch whose flame is rounded and dome-like, burning in slow motion in a steady blue glow, the smoke accumulating around the torch head. From the deity’s neck pends a key.
“Transfer your consciousness to the candle,” says the deity. As I do, I become the pure experience of clairvoyance. When I come back to myself, I observe attentively. “The book is clairaudience, the thurible is clairalience.” I pause, but soon regain. “The torch must be clairsentience or clairfeeling, for the flame touches all and quickly expands its touch, its light being even more instantaneous in its lick.” I stand in doubt regarding the key, although obviously only clairgustance is left. The deity smiles shily. “You ponder which relation the key has to the book; however, this key simultaneously locks and unlocks the book, the censor, the torch, and the candle. Clairvoyance has you watch the images of certain things; clairaudience tells you about them; clairfeeling teaches you their textures and structures; and clairalience their layers and compositions. Clairgustance, notwithstanding, speaks directly to what they are and moves towards the essence.” As the deity speaks I see the sideral space move within his mouth. “There is clairvoyance in fire, clairaudience in air, clairsentience in water, and clairalience in earth, however, nothing is to balance any of them but the key of clairgustance, for it locks their excesses by exposing essence directly. The key, then, is the akasha of the quintessence, the balancing factor for this stage. The quabbalistic letters are not the sounds of clairaudience, the colors of clairvoyance or even the sensations of clairfeeling, although these do express them. The akashic nature of the letters is known only through clairgustance, and the layering of its formulae is better unified by clairalience. This key of Pluto has not yet been taught in your sphere in the field of present history.”
After a brief moment, I look up in response. “Do you stand ready?” The deity asks.
The Zone of Uranus
As we move further towards the center of the universe of Uranus, the multicolored iridescent lilac oscillation becomes more and more like the vibration of diamonds, but although I was expecting a reference to land in, we remain without a clearing and apparently bodiless.
“We are not bodiless, but nor should the elements enter here, for they are an imbalanced ingredient for this structure. Observe.” The deity asks. I begin to realize that we are both made of omnidirectional, concentric spheres. “This is the physique, it is balanced by sustained purity and harmony. Would this material body travel to your world, it would be perceived as the ringing of a bell and by no other means. Search now for what inhabits it.” I look at him and see that permeating the concentric spheres that move in all directions stand expanding columns or beams that move forward and backward. “This is the soul, and the note that balances it is warm resonance. Listen to it,” the deity asks. Using clairaudience, the sound is similar to that of a drum. “Go deeper,” the deity asks.
I see controlling the beams disconnected bursts of pressure that fill the immediate area but lose their shape very quickly as they travel; however, more are constantly being generated, like an active sparkler. “The mind, balanced by its sharpness and discretion, you know it as white noise.” There is silence and I answer not. “Rhythm is the general key, and it is not locked within the quadripolarity of the elements but the tripolarity of electromagnetism. These three keys, in their corresponding planes, also reveal an enhancement for your Quabbalah, the letters are to move as depicted.”
Then, suddenly and instantly, we are at Neptune.
The Zone of Neptune
All is diamond white. I stand robed and my robe is starry. I stand girdled with a golden girdle of love. My right index finger wears an electric-blue ring, and a pagan insignia is on my breast, depicting a twisted branch. I realize I am the deity, and facing me is André Consciência as a child, curious and impenetrable. To his side is his guide, now an ancient Egyptian child from earlier in his last life. He is on his knees, embroidered in white, and, curved, offers me jewels bound to the queens and kings of the elementals. “My child, may the magnetic kings find home in my insignia and the magnetic queens a refuge in my girdle,” I return him.
André, standing silently, approaches, leans and places a crown of gold decorated with lapis lazuli on my head. I sense within it all the prophets, demons and angels. “My child, may the electric kings find home in my ring and the electric queens a refuge in my robe.” I turn to them to read them, and ask: “Know you what these adornments are?”
“The cowrie shell girdle of Hathor is love and it balances the waters of the whole universe,” tells my guide in a devoted and musical voice. “The white band worn across your chest opens the old ways to the ancestral source of existence, and it balances the ground of the whole universe.”
André speaks next, the voice cryptic and unchanging, almost a whisper, saying something to himself alone. “The robe is purity of mind and it balances the world. The ring is the unity of light, and it balances the world.”
I, who breathe not except by their virtue, let them breathe in and out three times before I speak: “Know then that the crown is the base, as the base is the crown.”
As the white light begins to fade, I find myself within my ceremonial chamber, the insignia is the seal of Aschmunadai I wore for authorization, the crown my magus band, the robe my magic robe and the ring the magic ring that connects me to the godhead. The gems of alliance with the four elemental emperors fill the four directions, and the girdle is my magic belt, uniting micro and macrocosm. I seem to stand alone, and proceed to close the ritual.
Conclusion
Each sphere encodes a formula of balance. When I wrote Theurgy of Saturn I had a student tell me he couldn’t even explain what he could not understand about it, since he could not come to terms with any of it. And I can only imagine what the case sometimes is with Theurgy of Thoth. I will, for this reason, extract and systematize this into a progressive table, showcasing the internal logic (electric/magnetic, elemental balancing, and qualitative shift of the “woman”/principle relationship).
The 10 Stages of Magical Equilibrium
(Progression Through the Spheres)
1. Earth Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: The Self as the original, self-sustaining fire (the so-called Ishim)
Polarity: Magnetic mind (passive) offered to electric Self (active)
Elemental Balance Key:
Fire: Self-awareness
Air: Contemplation
Water: Transcendence
Earth: Detachment
Character Ennoblement: The mind (feminine) is sacrificed to the Self and becomes its vessel (it loses automatisms)
Operation: Alignment through the four virtues (Will, Know, Dare, Silence)
Sign of Success: Awakening of the Self that precedes all automatisms
2. Moon Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Dynamic stability
Polarity: Electric will enters magnetic soul, generating cycles
Elemental Balance Key:
Air: Evolution
Water: Grace
Earth: Stability through release
Fire: Inspired will
Ennoblement of character: The mind, purified by the Self, gains Soul (the Goblet/Womb of Mary)
Operation: Synchronization
Sign of Success: Flow, Dao, in which stability is achieved through movement
3. Mercury Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Intellectual Transmutation
Polarity: Magnetized intellect structures reality; electrified desire animates it
Elemental Balance Key:
Air: Encoding (understanding experience via thought)
Water: Decoding (understanding thought via emotion)
Earth: Wisdom (understanding emotion by filtering experience)
Fire: Surrendered will (freed from impulse)
Ennoblement of Character: The soul is permeated by the Akasha
Operation: Encoding and decoding experience into knowledge
Sign of Success: Refinement, as thought becomes power
4. Venus Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Fusion of all faculties into a single one (the so-called binding yoga)
Polarity: Electric will dissolves into the magnetic totality of unity
Elemental Balance Key:
Air: Dissolution of inner chatter
Water: Trance and emotional depth
Earth: Vitalized sensation
Fire: Ecstatic unification
Character Ennoblement: The anima or soul expands into the total field; all becomes expressive of one principle
Operation: Ecstatic Transmutation
Sign of Success: Integration, as all faculties can now merge into one
5. Sun Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Centralized, self-radiant consciousness
Polarity: Electric center radiates; magnetic field reflects and organizes
Elemental Balance Key:
Fire: Will directed toward itself
Air: Cosmic articulation (letters, principles)
Water: Intuition replaces objectified emotion
Earth: Prophetic consciousness
Ennoblement of Character: Ego-consciousness becomes a radiant functional center
Operation: Systemic activation
Sign of Success: Centralization, as unity radiates through all levels, remembrance of past and future lives
6. Mars Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Balance through controlled opposition of forces
Polarity: Electric expansion and magnetic restraint are consciously regulated
Elemental Balance Key:
Air & Water: Excitation balanced by detachment
Fire & Earth: Illumination balanced by humility
Electric & Magnetic: Release balanced by containment
Character Ennoblement: The self becomes energy instead of identity
Operation: Complete mastery of magical equilibrium
Sign of Success: Tension stabilizes power instead of destabilizing it
7. Jupiter Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Harmonization through conscience and higher intelligence
Polarity: Magnetized, memory is purified; electrified, will aligns with universal order
Elemental Balance Key:
Air: Resolution (untangling complexity)
Water: Sanctified emotion
Earth: Weightless, purified memory
Fire: Alignment with Divine Providence
Character Ennoblement: The self becomes a conscious node within a greater intelligent order
Operation: Ethical alignment and purification of memory and intention
Sign of Success: Expansion, as equilibrium extends across beings and time
8. Saturn Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Measure and discernment
Polarity: Electrified will establishes measure; magnetized structure becomes fate
Elemental Balance Key:
Fire: Will as knowing and causing
Air: Discernment
Water: Emotional continuity (flow of destiny)
Earth: Justice (objective balance)
Character ennoblement: The personality becomes aligned with the law of necessity
Operation: Judgment
Sign of Success: Crystallization, as balance is fixed through law
9. Pluto Zone
Principle of Equilibrium: Direct perception of essence beyond elemental mediation
Polarity: All elemental perceptions dissolve into Akashic essence
Character Ennoblement: Perception becomes immediate contact with essence
Operation: Unifying clair-senses
Sign of Success: All-Penetration, as essence replaces appearance
10. Uranus–Neptune
Principle of Equilibrium: Total unity beyond elemental and polar structures
Polarity: Polarity dissolves polarity
Elemental Balance Key:
Uranus: Balance through rhythm, resonance, and the highest triune (see Neptune)
Neptune: Balance through love, purity, and total identity
Character Ennoblement: The self becomes identical with the universal principle
Operation: Pure being, resonance, and universal identity
Sign of Success: Completion, equilibrium is no longer practiced but becomes what we are
We should be able to recognize this magic equilibrium progression includes a stage where we begin to control the elements, a stage where, once under our control, we align these elements with cosmic law so as to, in the next stage, be able to perceive the essence of the cosmos and, further, in a final stage, become it or at one with it.
It is meant to see the structure itself is encapsulated, one way or another, within Franz Bardon’s Initiation Into Hermetics. It is my wish, then, that I have made this post useful for the sphere magician, who will know how to use the spheres themselves and the seals provided, and that the auto-suggestion prayer I will offer helps those threading IIH to complete it, or those who have completed it to keep the magic equilibrium it provides. Remove, thus, time and space from the subconscious and listen very closely, as much as you like:
The School of Visionary Hermeticism — André’s most advanced structured program: a three-semester, Hermetic curriculum aimed at deep study, practice, and serious development.
Magic and Mystical Introspection — A long-form initiatory path built around soul mirror work, introspection, elemental balance, and progressive inner training.
Level 5 — Dream Worlds, the fifth stage of the neo-shamanic curriculum.
Ceremonial Magic individual levels
Level 1 — Foundational ceremonial work in André’s Bardon-aligned approach.
Level 2 — Intermediate ceremonial development building on the first level.
Level 3 — The culminating level, centered on the Grand Ritual of Invocation.
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This month, I bring you two ceremonial magic rituals using adapted Bardonian techniques, whose purpose is to stabilize the powers and their subsequent manifestation, considered thus energetic work. Therefore, this is not to be mistaken for true high magic, whose focus should be on initiation and conscious integration beyond the necessity of ritual repetition for desired effects.
The highest aspects of this kind of practice must then be found mostly within Ceremonial Magic & The Franz Bardon Tradition, which guides you through all techniques from step zero within the framework of the integrated Grand Rituals. Essential mechanics are also found in the book A Guide to Sphere Quabbalah.
The Minor Ritual of Purification
PREPARATION – Soul Mirror
Start by checking your soul mirror before proceeding, and ensuring you are not lacking in the virtues of love, discretion, patience, generosity, courage, and silence. If these virtues need cultivation to find a presence in your daily life, cultivate them. Proceed only then.
STEP 1 – Self-Transparency
1 Above the head, vibrate the letter N in the akasha (bliss beyond mind, soul, and body), followed by H in the mental plane (understanding through the eyes of Divine Providence), and B on the astral plane (opening the profoundest of intuitions and showering electromagnetic fluid to the body below). Practice by inhaling in the A tone the corresponding cosmic letter colors into the crown region. Exhaling in the tone A the dark violet light of Saturn unto the sphere surrounding the crown. When you are ready, imagine the top of your head disappearing into this voltage.
2 In the forehead, vibrate the letter S in its akashic state (the substance of all-power), followed by J in the mental plane (bringing S to the highest form of rapture and ecstasy). This should result in the control of the astral consciousness of oneself and others. Practice by inhaling in the G# tone the corresponding cosmic letter colors into the region of the third eye and exhaling in the tone G# the sky-blue light of Jupiter, filling the sphere surrounding the Ajna. When you are ready, imagine your forehead disappearing into this voltage.
3 In the throat, vibrate the letter Ae in the akasha (the ascension principle), followed by ShD in the mental plane (clairknowledge), and OR on the astral plane (ingenuous astral contentment), finishing with Ae on the material plane (quabbalistic influence over dense matter). Practice by inhaling in the C tone the corresponding cosmic letter colors into the throat region and exhaling in the tone C the red-ruby light of Mars into the sphere surrounding the throat. When you are ready, imagine the neck disappearing into this voltage.
3-4 In the nape of the neck, vibrate the letter T on the akasha (inspiration), L in the mental state (saintliness), G on the astral state (happiness). Practice by inhaling in the F tone the letter colors into the nape and exhaling in the tone F the golden-white light of the Sun into the sphere surrounding the back of the neck. When you are ready, imagine the zone disappearing into this voltage.
4 In the heart chakra, vibrate the cosmic letter F in the astral plane (magic equilibrium). Practice by inhaling in the F# tone the light-green color of the cosmic letter into the chest center region and exhaling in the tone F# tone the emerald-green light of Venus into the sphere surrounding the Anahata. When you are ready, imagine the upper torso disappearing into this voltage.
5 In the solar plexus, vibrate the cosmic letter E in the akasha (the omnipresence of universal consciousness), followed by C in the mental plane (contagiousness of divine ideas), and M on the astral plane (magnetic mastery). Practice by inhaling in the D tone the corresponding cosmic letter colors into the stomach-bottom region and exhaling in the tone D the yellow-orange light of Mercury into the sphere surrounding it. When you are ready, imagine the area of your body disappearing into this voltage.
6 In the bladder, vibrate the cosmic letter Õ in the akasha (divine love cognition), followed by Õ in the mental plane (power of quabbalistic alchemy), and Ch on the astral plane (micro-macrocosm attunement through rhythm). Practice by inhaling in the D# tone the corresponding cosmic letter colors into the region of the bladder, and exhaling in the tone D# the silvery-violet light of the Moon into the surrounding sphere. When you are ready, imagine your sex and neighboring bodily areas disappearing into this voltage.
7 At the base of the spine, vibrate the cosmic letter Y in the material plane (materialization/dematerialization). Practice by inhaling in the C# tone the corresponding pink color into the region of the base of the spine and exhaling in the tone C# the black light of the Earth Belt into a sphere surrounding the whole body. When you are ready, imagine yourself disappearing into this voltage and becoming invisible.
STEP 2 – Elemental Equipoise
Within this black sphere into which your body has disappeared, have it gradually form once more as
A red triangle for the place of the head
A blue circle for the place of the chest
A silver crescent for the place of the pelvis
And a yellow square encompassing it all, functioning as the spine
All these shapes should emanate a soft glow of pale gold.
Bring your attention to each of the areas, sequentially, and sequentially have
1 a small luminous point within the triangle unfolding into a red five-petaled rose of fire. Imagine it rotating, giving the impression that the petals are spinning inwards while the power of their color seems to expand outwards. Inhale the fire elemental fluid into it while you exhale in hissing sounds (fricative consonants).
After a while, transfer your consciousness to the center of the rose (locate above, below, left, right), rest your awareness there, and let the rose, as it spins, become brighter, from red to golden-red. When this is achieved, return your awareness from depth-point.
2 a small luminous point within the circle unfolding into a light-blue gaseous five-petaled rose. Imagine it rotating, giving the impression that the petals are spinning inwards while the power of their color seems to expand outwards. Inhale the air elemental fluid into it while you exhale in open and nasal sounds (vowels and nasals).
After a while, transfer your consciousness to the center of the rose (locate above, below, left, right), rest your awareness there, and let the rose, as it spins, become brighter, from light-blue to white-blue. When this is achieved, return your awareness from depth-point.
3 a small luminous point within the crescent unfolding into a blue-green five-petaled rose of water. Imagine it rotating, giving the impression that the petals are spinning inwards while the power of their color seems to expand outwards. Inhale the water elemental fluid into it while you exhale in liquids and glides (approximants) (e.g. l, r, w, j).
After a while, transfer your consciousness to the center of the rose (locate above, below, left, right), rest your awareness there, and let the rose, as it spins, become brighter, from blue-green to silver-blue-green. When this is achieved, return your awareness from depth-point.
4 a small luminous point within the square unfolding into a dark-brown five-petaled rose of stone that encompasses all other roses. Imagine it rotating, giving the impression that the petals are spinning inwards while the power of their color seems to expand outwards. Inhale the earth elemental fluid into it while you exhale in stops or plosives (p, b, t/, d/, k, g).
After a while, transfer your consciousness to the center of the rose (locate above, below, left, right), rest your awareness there, and let the rose, as it spins, become brighter, from black-brown to glowing-black. When this is achieved, return your awareness from depth-point.
All the while, the purifying luminous center of consciousness is being distilled.
STEP 3 – Closing
Let the images fade into silence. Remain still for minutes. Let the result root and grow.
The Minor Ritual of Evocation
PREPARATION
Begin by concluding the Minor Ritual of Purification.
Locate the vertical line that runs from the crown to the spine and down to the perineum, and load it with electric fluid, impregnating it with the quality of willpower.
Continue to charge this line until you feel your vital field expand around you like a sphere, pressing between the chest and solar plexus. Load this sphere with the magnetic fluid impregnated with the quality of magic equilibrium.
Transfer yourself into the depth point of this volt, adopting an akashic identity.
STEP 1 – The Mother Triangle of Birth-Giving Into the World
Breathe slowly, deeply, and silently from the depth-point. Nose in, charging the breath with the electric fluid (containing the quality of willpower), mouth out, loading the magnetic fluid (quality of feeling), offering cohesion to willpower. Pause between inhales and exhales, giving the air you are circulating the awareness that it is in your service.
When not only you but the room feels saturated by the fluids, add, on exhale,
1 the letter Sh. Volt it through the vertical line, contain it within your sphere, and intone from the depth-point. The sound should neither be loud nor low, but something in-between, a vibration moving the astral light. Make sure the tone is steady, the breath is charged and the vertical line, sphere and depth-point geometry are held effortlessly.
You are pushing the vibration of the cosmic letter outward by using the vertical line of willpower to draw it from the universe, the magnetic field around you to shape the cosmic letter as a wave, and the depth-point to give it identity towards purpose.
The cosmic letter moves into the room, and after seven to eleven repetitions, it should move within the room as a radiating Sun of fire whose very light causes the highest enlightenment possible.
2 By now, you should have moved the astral substance by condensing the influence of Sh into space, automatically charging the atmosphere and any objects in the room, affecting your own emotions, thoughts, sensations and the field of probability between your aura and your fate. The letter now has an external influence.
It is time to add to this vibration without losing coherence, using the same principle as in music, acoustics, and breath-voice training. Again, before proceeding, ensure the pitch, volume, and timbre (no breathiness or strain) are stable. For there to be no breathiness or throat tightening, keep the vocalization/body-vibration of the cosmic letter for no more and no less than 10 seconds at each repetition. The breath should be supported by the diaphragm, and the sound should be carried by the airflow rather than by the throat muscles. The pressure should be felt below the ribs and not in the neck.
Your spine should stand upright and tenseless, the chest open and the shoulders low, and the jaw and pelvis are to remain relaxed. If all these tests are true, the posture never collapses while you hold the letter tone, and the body remains neutral and calm.
When all this holds, practice the same letter, but now feel a second vibration in the brain within the skull, vibrating from the depth-point and the brain simultaneously, without dropping stability. Use the harmonics to intentionally fix the Sh-Sun to your right.
3 Now add the cosmic letter A. Volt it through the vertical line, contain it within your sphere, and intone from the depth-point, same rules as before.
Push the vibration of the cosmic letter outward as taught. The cosmic letter moves into the room and then within the room as a gas of light whose very intoxicating breath causes the highest possible wisdom.
Take all measures given previously, then feel a second vibration in the breasts and lungs, vibrating from there and the depth-point simultaneously without dropping stability. Use the harmonics to intentionally fix the A, having it sit above your hair.
4 Now add the cosmic letter M. We refrain from repeating the general instructions. When lively moving within the room, it should do so as a shining liquid whose humidity causes everything to flow without a single obstacle.
Add a second vibration in the abdomen, vibrating from there and the depth-point simultaneously, without dropping stability. Use the harmonics to intentionally fix the M to your left.
The three living cosmic letters now form a vertical triangle around you, shining like a triple-sun over the room wherever your attention flows. For step 2, you should have a magic mirror in front of you and focus your attention on it.
Note: Notice that although different tones naturally resound through different parts of the body, this is not to be mistaken for the point of vibration. Classically, all tones vibrate from the diaphragm. We add other vibrations for harmonics and will be adding vibrations outside the body, to expand astral tension.
STEP 2 – Performing Atum 2, The Priestess
Pick an elemental or planetary intelligence for evocation. Breathe from the depth-point, and you sync your depth-point with the depth-point of the plastic Sh, A, and M. Nose in, charging the breath with the electric fluid (containing the quality of willpower), mouth out, loading the magnetic fluid (quality of feeling), offering gravity. Pause between inhales and exhales, giving the moment the identity of the being to be evoked (visualize the seal and associated powers and virtues – for a greater understanding, see A Guide to the Elementals).
When you and the room feel saturated by the aura of the being, focus all your efforts on the mirror and start intoning Sh-A-M from within the depth-point and vibrating within the Sh pillar to your right, the crown A, and the M pillar to your left. Use your 10 seconds to distribute the three letters evenly and intone them together each time on a single exhale, shifting tones as needed.
All three letters in the three-letter combination are to vibrate from your depth-point and the elements of the vertical triangle around you; the triangle acts in unison and not sequentially. That is, the Sh pillar, A crown, and the M pillar all intone ShAM.
Have the vibration move the astral light within the mirror. Keep repeating and use the vertical line of willpower to draw the intelligence from its abode in order to manifest as a wave within the magnetic field of the mirror.
After seven to eleven repetitions, the intelligence should appear within or around the magical device, its influence charging the atmosphere.
Note: For planetary beings, proceed invariably as described. For all kinds of elementals, you must as well, at first. With experience, it is possible to vibrate solely from the depth point to manifest gnomes, from the M pillar alone to manifest undines, from the A pillar individually to manifest Sylphs, and use only the Sh pillar to manifest salamanders.
A Guide to Sphere Quabbalah
This book covers aspects of The Key to True Quabbalah, by Franz Bardon, and expands them. It is divided into four parts that serve the magician, the theurgist and the learning quabbalist.
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 this post we talk with Nikki Wardwell Sleath in what is a highly detailed and informative interview. Nikki Wardwell Sleath is a full-time occult teacher, author, and founder of the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick. In this interview, she shares how her early experiences with spirits shaped her path, what disciplined training taught her about ritual skill, and why lucid dreaming can function as a living laboratory for real magical practice.
We hope you enjoy this interview and find it useful for your own practice. If you’d like to learn more about Nikki and her work, you’ll find a set of links at the end of the post.
Finally, we’d love to hear your thoughts—leave a comment with any questions or reflections, and share this post with anyone you think would enjoy it.
PAA: Your ancestor Samuel Wardwell was executed during the Salem witch trials, making you the eight-times great-granddaughter of a woman accused of witchcraft. How has this unique family history influenced your own path as a witch and occultist? Did growing up with a Salem witch in your lineage shape your identity or inspire you to explore witchcraft?
Interestingly, though I had heard vaguely of my ancestor Samuel and knew he was hung in the Salem witchcraft trials, there wasn’t much talk of it in my family during my upbringing. As a high schooler I began to realize that I really should know more about this, and I did a genealogical project for a social studies course, where I charted my ancestry back along the Wardwell (my father’s) side of the family. This was not hard to do, as I grew up in Reading, MA, which is only about twenty or thirty minutes from Salem. The local libraries had lots of old birth, death, marriage and tax records and it was pretty smooth going as I connected the dots of this history. Still, I had not really connected the dots of my own magickal nature yet at that time, in my youth. I was very intuitive and perceptive, and had very vivid dreams but I never really realized how inspiring it was to have Samuel as my forbear until I was an adult and will into the development of my own magickal practice. He was actually on record as having had the ability to tell fortunes with cards, and to be able to know things that would happen ahead of time through dreams. Aside from Tituba, he may be the only person who was accused based on any actual magickal skill. I find it fascinating that dreams and cards are also my own personal strongest forms of divination, talent-wise. Certainly, now that I have been operating publicly as a witch for so long, I am so grateful for his legacy, and it feels like an immense honor to be able to practice and teach the Craft publicly. It feels as though my work has helped to shift some familial karmic balance in this regard.
When I heard spirit voices in my house, I just assumed that if anyone else had been there with me at the same moment, that they would have heard it too.
Nikki Wardwell Sleath
PAA: In interviews, you’ve mentioned that as a child you became aware of voices and spirits in your family home, and even noticed your psychic abilities sharpening every fall season. Can you tell us more about these early paranormal experiences? How did they lead to your “huge spiritual awakening” and the realization that you were a witch for life?
Honestly, as a kid, I just thought I was kind of perceptually sharp in general, but I didn’t initially notice that there was actual psychic ability there. My mom would joke about me having “ESP”, but I didn’t really think there was anything extraordinary about my psyche. When I heard spirit voices in my house, I just assumed that if anyone else had been there with me at the same moment, that they would have heard it too. I now know that would not have necessarily been the case. I would sometimes pretend to be a fortune teller or make potions out of acorns and rainwater in the yard, but it definitely felt like play when I was young. I certainly did have plenty of time to play on my own and get lost in imaginative thought in the old victorian house in which I grew up in MA. It wasn’t until I was a student at the University of CT that I started noticing that pattern of extra crisp psychic clarity ramping up each fall. That sensation was really something though, and after I noticed it a couple of years in a row, it was no longer something that could be ignored or written off. Luckily, this coincided with a time when more occult books were starting to be seen on the shelves in bookstores, and when the internet was just starting to provide access to other people’s thoughts, articles and teachings. There had come a day when I was hellbent on digging further into my psychic relationship with autumn, and I found a couple of online articles about the modern-day practice of the Craft. When I read about some of the underlying beliefs, practices, themes of personal magickal and psychic development, it resonated with everything I felt to be true about myself and my worldview. That was when I had a moment of hyperclarity and truth chills, understanding that I would never stop following after the mysteries of magick and the Craft from that day forth.
Training, Healing, and Personal Breakthroughs
PAA: You received formal training as an initiate and priestess in the Religious Order of Witchcraft. What was that training like, and what are some of the key lessons or disciplines you learned as part of this tradition of American Witchcraft?
Since ROOW is an oathbound tradition, I can really only speak about my experience in generalities. The training was a very traditional “year-and-a-day” type of training where I had a private lesson with my High Priestess once a week, and also gathered with the other members at each Sabbat and full moon to be in ritual together. I was a sharp student, easily taking to formal divination practices and ceremonial magick skills, so I was shunted straight from my initiation as a witch into another year of training as a priestess. I got a lot of what I call “on the job training” in my experience with ROOW. I never intended to teach magick or do any of this professionally. I undertook my training solely for the purpose of quenching my own deep thirst for greater exploration of the mysteries, and for the expansion that arises when magickal experiences are shared with others. All the same, as my propensity for this work became clear, I found myself quickly being asked to take on leadership responsibilities in a way that validated my capabilities. Some of the key things that were reinforced to me that were very valuable were the need for constant study, and the realization that continual learning would be my key not only to ongoing effectiveness magickally, but to personal fulfillment. I was prompted to study from the oldest texts I could find, and not to fear the archaic language or dark connotations associated with some of them. This was probably one of the greatest gifts of my training- gaining the confidence and ability to patiently pick through old tomes and see how powerful it could be to bring old magick into my own modern practice. I also truly learned the value of honed ritual skill and the benefits of a daily ritual practice, and this is something that I continue to impress upon my own students to this day.
Our approach is to never tell a student what is absolute truth, but to give them tools to explore what they are able to hold as truths personally.
Nikki Wardwell Sleath
PAA: After years of practice, you went on to form your own occult order, the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick, also known as the Wardwell tradition of American Witchcraft. What inspired you to create your own magickal order? How does the Wardwell tradition differentiate itself from other witchcraft traditions in terms of practices or philosophy?
I branched out to create my own order because I wanted the freedom to be creative in terms of ritual and curriculum development. I left the ROOW in order to do this, so I have no idea how things are in that order now, but at the time when I left many years ago, it was extremely traditional in terms of the insistence that things were always done a certain way, following old traditions. I love tradition and learning from prior magicians, but I also tend to be something of a chaos magician in the sense that I prefer to allow my beliefs, and therefore my corresponding practices, to evolve as I do. Part of what is different about SWOM is evident right in the comparison of the titles of the two organizations: the order I trained in was quite religious, where I tend not to be. SWOM is, at its heart, a training order and not a religious organization. Yes, we offer ceremonies and teach practices that facilitate spiritual experiences for the participants and students. Where we differ from other orders is in trying to avoid dogma, and being cognizant not to fall into traps of fundamentalist thinking wherever possible. So, the Wardwell tradition of American Witchcraft emphasizes learning and evolution, the respect and consideration of teachings from traditions from all over the world, and the use of magick to work toward greater wisdom and enlightenment in this life. Our approach is to never tell a student what is absolute truth, but to give them tools to explore what they are able to hold as truths personally. Essentially our belief system is that we should always be breaking the walls of any belief system, and that we can use magick to do this. It is due to this approach that I have decided not to file the order as a religious organization, but to operate solely on the basis of personal instruction.
PAA: You have a strong background in healing arts – you hold a Master’s degree in Integrative Health and Healing and are a Reiki Master/Teacher – and you offer private psychic and energetic healing services in your practice. How do these holistic healing modalities intersect with your work in witchcraft and magick? Has your training in health and energy healing informed the way you cast spells or conduct rituals, and vice versa?
It is impossible for me to keep healing and magickal practices separate from one another. I perceive every moment as a unique combination of energy and consciousness that not only manifests in its own way, but also vibrates with the raw potentiality of magick. For me, there is a sense of the dreaming universe that underlies all things, no matter the time of day or the season of the year. When I set intentions and make myself very present for a client in order to flow healing energy to them, for example, I become very aware of liminality of it all, and in the space between the intention to receive healing and the integration of the experience, I find spirit guides, psychic information, spontaneous new healing techniques, and more. It is all so undoubtedly magical, and for this reason I am very forthright with new clients about my tendency to eclectically blend Reik and witchcraft, for example. I can’t undo what I know, in a sense. If I’m present to a healing flow of energy for a client and I start psychically hearing the name of a rune or a spirit being chanted, I’m not going to ignore the pertinence of that magic to the session- I’m going to engage it. On the flip side of all of this, having become very comfortable with how it feels to open to the flow of Reiki also adds to my ability to flow energy through myself for ritual, channeling and all kinds of other magickal purposes as well. A few of my trainings are very shamanically oriented in their healing approaches, and this is simply magick. Everything I learn informs everything that I do and that’s sort of just how I roll.
PAA: You once noted that you “would not be where [you are] as an occult teacher” had it not been for studying healing on a holistic level. Looking back on your journey, what have been some of your biggest personal breakthroughs or turning points in magick? For instance, were there moments when your understanding of occult practice evolved dramatically or when you achieved a new level of spiritual insight?
I am so fortunate that part of the requirements for the holistic Master’s degree I sought included having to do mentorships with three various well-established holistic professional practitioners. Some of my biggest breakthroughs happened as a result of undertaking trainings with these mentors, specifically in doing various week-long in-person trainings to become a facilitator in the approaches of Robert Moss, as a teacher of Active Dreaming, and with Llyn Roberts to be trained as a shamanic Reiki practitioner. Llyn brought all of her experience working with Peruvian indigenous shamans to the course work she created (with their blessing), and her training was rigorous in terms of hours spent learning spirit flight. This caused the metaphorical psychic training wheels to go flying off in the sense that the repetitive work caused me to come away with an ingrained confidence in what the groove of spirit flight feels like and how to get right back there whenever I wished. When you know you can seek the wisdom of spirits and guides literally and directly at any time and trust the ensuing experiences, anything is possible in both magick and healing. Exposure to Robert Moss’ teachings just blew my mind with respect to the limitless potential that lies in dreams. I became constantly aware of wanting to integrate more and more of my night dream experiences into my daily life, and this is what caused me to start becoming fully lucid in my dreams. I was thinking about dreaming so much that I would realize I was dreaming, and then try to learn even more in those lucid opportunities. I describe one particular breakthrough dream in my book Dream Sorcery, where I became lucid and suddenly just started receiving hyper-clear wisdom downloads from the energy of the dream scene itself. It’s impossible to relay with words exactly what this feels like, but I woke up feeling quite irrevocably changed. I understood something about the ongoing nature of consciousness in the dreaming that put physical incarnation into perspective in a new way. While each life is important and should be lived to the fullest, I knew fully that this life only comprises a quick glimmer in the cauldron of all that we are. The understanding in that dream was so crisp and acute that I found the sensations of this reality to feel a bit blurred and less “real” feeling than what I had experienced in the dream. I would definitely call this a moment of sudden new spiritual insight, and it informed the motivation of my dreaming practice from that point forward. Since that time I have purposefully engaged lucid dreaming and spontaneous night dreams consistently to aid all of the important magick that I have done, including attaining by traditional methods the coveted “knowledge and conversation” with my Holy Guardian Angel.
Lucid Dreaming and Dream Sorcery
PAA: What sparked your deep interest in lucid dreaming as a component of magickal practice? You’ve trained to the highest level in shamanic dreamwork with Robert Moss’s School of Active Dreaming and now you’ve authored Dream Sorcery: The Ritual & Magick of Lucid Dreaming. Was there a particular experience or influence that led you to marry lucid dreaming with witchcraft and sorcery?
Two experiences I had with lucid dreaming that greatly spurred my fusion of it with magickal practice included energy infusions from the Morrigan, and my runic sorcery training. When I first started to realize the spiritual intensity of lucid dreaming, I began trying to summon the Morrigan, the ancient Irish goddess of battle, prophecy and death, into my lucid dreams. After a few tries I had the experience where she arrived as an onslaught of swirling energy- a tornado of abstract wings and feathers and bats- that hurtled toward me with great force. I allowed the energy of this Morrigan tornado to smash into me, and it ended up thrumming through me with the vibrations of an out-of-control train. Imagine deep, vibratory energy racing through your body at top speed. I gave myself over to the sensations, and my dream body began involuntarily floating, writhing in the air, and snarling. When I woke, I could feel the energy thrumming through my physical body for a long time after. The dream empowered my auric field in a very obvious way, and I was so grateful, and simultaneously excited to see what else was possible. Not long after I began deepening my lucid dream practice, I also began the work of Edred Thorsson’s The Nine Doors of Midgard. This is a book that provides the outline for a self-guided system of training in runic sorcery. It takes a few years to do the whole thing to the letter, and being unafraid of ongoing magickal work, I made the commitment and dove in. Each stage of the training calls for in-depth, close examination and practice of each rune for long periods of time, using many varied approaches. There is psychic work, yogic work, academic study, and of course magickal practices such as chanting and hand gestures that are all a part of the recommended training. I was doing all of this, but felt I would be remiss if I did not also add a lucid dream component to my learning with each rune. After all, the point of such a training is to learn to embody the runic energies to such an extent that you become a natural channel for their wielding at will. I began using my lucid dreams at the time to practice signing, gesturing and chanting the runes. I would enact the technique and then pause and watch the dream environment to see what the effects were. Upon waking, I documented every such experiment with all the detail possible, so that I could continue to build on my experiences and benefit from using the techniques more confidently in waking. Spending the time doing this for all 24 runes of the Elder Futhark really impressed upon my just how perfect the lucid dream state is for experimenting with and honing magickal skills.
PAA: Your approach to dream work is quite unique – Dream Sorcery isn’t just another dream guide. In fact, it treats the lucid dream as “a metaphorical alchemy lab” for transforming one’s magickal practice. How does Dream Sorcery differ from more conventional lucid dreaming books or from psychological approaches to dreams? What can occult practitioners gain from lucid dream magick that they might not get from traditional spell work or meditation alone?
Dream Sorcery is different from the other lucid dream books out there in that it highlights the theory that consciousness is not local to our physical brains. It requires the reader to consider all of the dreams that show us that we are often transcending time, and all of the dreams that bring us real interaction with other spiritual beings. These are the transtemporal and transpersonal potentials that exist within dreaming. Magickal practitioners naturally work with these enchanted parameters of reality, so the conventional lucid dream material that takes the approach that everything about dreaming is solely about you and your own mind, is very limiting to them. I knew that the magick I was experiencing through my lucid experiments was achingly real, and that no one else was really teaching about this in any accessible depth. The book had to be written, and I believe it is an important addition to today’s magickal literature. There is so much that an occultist can gain from lucid magick that they can never gain from waking magick alone. At the crux of this is the ability to function as a spirit, thereby collecting glimpses of truths about the nature of consciousness itself. Lucid dream magick is the only way (outside of some kinds of astral projection experiences, which are just as tricky to cultivate) to perform magick while still existing here in this physical life, yet without the limitations imposed by being in a physical body. Journey work, meditation, trance and all kinds of waking divination work are all impacted by the combination of the body’s presence upon our conscious awareness.
PAA: In dreams, you’ve said, the usual rules don’t apply – we can practice magick without the physical world’s constraints. You’ve even shared experiences of precognitive dreams and collective dream rituals that show how expansive the dream realm can be. Could you give an example of a magical operation or experiment you’ve conducted in a lucid dream that would be impossible or impractical in waking life? What did that experience teach you about consciousness or the nature of reality?
Well, all of the magickal operations I’ve conducted in lucid dreaming would be impossible in waking life, in terms of the scope of the results and the ability to experience them. The clearest example for readers to comprehend is any of the myriad of spirit summonings I’ve successfully conducted in lucid dreaming. In waking ritual magick, the work of full-on evocation is immense. It takes months of preparation and buildup, personal work, and lots of energy expenditure as well as precise ritual skill. In lucid dreaming, however, you can simply yell out a precisely worded summoning call, and then experience the results of the spirit showing up in a potentially fully personified way, in a dream body. You still get to experience their energy as you would in waking, but in a thought-responsive environment like lucid dreaming, the toil of a physical world summoning isn’t needed because the limitations of the physics of our reality aren’t there. This is just one example, but this applies to so many magickal acts that are possible here.
Alchemy and the Philosopher’s Stone
PAA: Reviewers of Dream Sorcery have noted that you “thrill with the suggestion that, fully charged, lucid dreaming may be the philosopher’s stone.” That is a fascinating analogy! Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? In what sense could lucid dreaming be considered a philosopher’s stone for modern practitioners – does it facilitate a kind of ultimate spiritual transformation or alchemical process for the soul?
Yes, lucid dreaming does hasten spiritual evolutionary experiences. The idea behind trying to transform lead into gold in the alchemy lab was based on the idea that the underlying wisdom of such a transformation exists in its witnessing. The process needed to be sped up and performed as an experiment because our human lives are too short to get the chance to witness this transformation in its entirety while living. Similarly, we really don’t get to function as bodiless spirits while living, except for in the space of lucid dreams. The philosopher’s stone was the term for the missing ingredient needed for the full alchemical experiment to be a success, and I believe that it is our ability to wake up in dreams, and therefore to the felt experience of the nature of ourselves as spiritual beings, that is the key ingredient to hastening spiritual transformation while here, physically incarnated.
PAA: Alchemical symbolism appears to be a significant influence in your work – for example, Dream Sorcery is grounded in the framework of alchemy and even divided into sections named for Salt, Mercury, and Sulfur. What draws you to the alchemical paradigm? How do you apply classical alchemy concepts in your own occult practice and teaching? For instance, do you find that the alchemical idea of transmutation plays a role in your spell craft or personal development work?
I love the alchemical paradigm because I find a cross-cultural universality to the concept of the tripartite nature of the self. Whether we are talking about mind/body/spirit, land/sea/sky, lower/middle/upper worlds, the Cauldrons of Poesy, Agrippa’s three soul model or any number of others, there is a relatability to this type of construct. The tria prima of alchemy gives us a clear format in which to break experiences and learning down into categories while also acknowledging that they are not separate from each other. The salt, mercury and sulfur of the book relate respectively to the foundational practices of lucid dreaming, the spiritual goals and motivations of lucid dreaming, the purposefully transformative magick around lucid dreaming. The tria prima constantly effect each other in order to inform the nature of the whole, and this is true of the various acts that can make up a virtuous cycle between lucid dreams, spiritual experiences and magickal skills. And finally, yes! I believe the whole point of having a magickal practice that runs deep and through the course of a lifetime goes well beyond spells and basic manifestation and must ultimately be motivated at its core by the desire to develop as much as possible as a spiritual being while in this life. Looking at magickal experiences such as lucid dreaming in this way is a great approach to the continued facilitation of this progress.
Goddess Traditions and Magickal Craft
PAA: In addition to dreamwork, you’ve delved into divine feminine mysteries. Your book The Goddess Seals grew out of your frustration that traditional grimoires had seals for various spirits, yet none for the goddesses you and your students work with. You responded by channeling and creating 13 Magickal Seals for 13 Goddesses (from the Morrígan to Persephone, Hathor, Freyja, Lilith, and others). What was the process of developing these Goddess Seals like, and how are these sacred symbols used to enhance modern magickal practice? Did your own relationship with these deities (for example, your work with the Morrígan) guide this creative magickal work?
It was not solely my relationship with these goddesses that guided this work, (those relationships were certainly the original motivation of the work) but also the ability and confidence I had gained in approaching spirits in general that allowed me to undertake it. I am a trained practitioner of a few shamanically-oriented arts, and I use these skills routinely in the healing and magickal work I do on behalf of clients. I spent many years doing energetic and spirit flight work to meet up with the guides of others, bringing back wisdom, healing energies, messages and more for the person on my table. When I realized how consistent the accuracy of the information and experiences gleaned were for the clients, it allowed me to develop a deep trust in my spirit communication abilities. Because of this, when I decided to begin creating traditional seals for goddesses, I was able to put these skills to use. The process for me involves going into a state of meditative communication with the deity or spirit in question. I do this by going either to my usual spirit flight starting point or one of the routine inner temple spaces I use in my daily practice. From there, I normally allow my usual navigational spirit guides and goddesses to help me gain access to a desired spirit if it is someone with whom I don’t already have a familiar relationship. I then begin respectful discussion, trying to learn what their vested interests are and what they would be willing to do on behalf of magicians who might use a seal to connect with their legions. I would take notes and allow the conversation and resulting downloads of imagery and wording for the seal to take form. Later, after I had polished everything up and gone back and gotten it fully authorized, I would do a formal casting of sacred space and conduct a ritual consecration of the seal with offerings to the deity. Seals are a huge enhancement to magickal practice because they allow the practitioner to engage spirit assistance locally. Spirits can often manipulate energy and move information and impulses between realms, and outside of time and space in ways we cannot. If we don’t involve spirit talents in our magick, we may be limited to effects that our own physical and mental energy can create. Working with seals also brings the ongoing benefit of continuing to build bonds between the magician and numerous talented deities. These types of relationships are invaluable.
PAA: As a full-time occult teacher and the founder of a training order, what do you find most rewarding about teaching witchcraft and magick to others? What is your approach to mentoring students through the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick – for instance, how do you balance imparting foundational knowledge with encouraging personal gnosis and individual growth in your students?
A: I think the most rewarding part of running this order is seeing people accomplish their magickal goals, have their petitions answered, and seeing them gain measurable magickal skill. We have lots of members who did not use magick in a professional capacity prior to their study here who are now professional mediums, readers, healers, magickal artisans and more. To try to provide a balanced experience to students in both knowledge and gnosis, I have different levels of training available. Neophyte (first year) work is generally a knowledge-building time, where the student learns basic ritual skills and accumulates confidence in understanding crucial areas of magickal practice in a broad manner. Then, there is a mage-adept level of training which requires much more experimentation on the part of the student with both psychic and energetic magickal faculties. This depth work helps them create and trust lots of experiences within their own personal gnosis. I also happen to have a priesthood training level which involves teaching skill, group ritual administration, ego work for being of service and other things of that nature. Ultimately, the thing that balances my teachings overall is my constant effort to emphasize the avoidance of fundamentalism. While I relay wisdom I’ve gained from my own learning and experiences, I make sure to tell students that everything is possible and there is no one set of truths and no one right way of doing things. I don’t tell them what to believe, but try to give them the tools to form their own beliefs around magick and the development of the spirit. I think this is what provides the balance of which you speak.
PAA: You emphasize the importance of building genuine relationships with deities and spiritual energies, comparing it to befriending someone rather than making “transactional demands of strangers,” which challenges a common approach in magick. How does this philosophy shape your own practice and rituals? For example, as a long-time Priestess of the Morrígan who co-facilitates the Morrigan’s Call Retreat, how do you personally forge and maintain such authentic, living relationships with the divine? Any advice for practitioners seeking to deepen their connection with their patron deities or spirit guides?
Yes, I do think it’s important to have great spiritual relationships, and I think it’s important that the same rules of engagement apply as you would expect in your physical world relationships. To elaborate, consider the principle of correspondence from the Hermetic teachings. This teaches that there are parallel resonances that exist between things on every level of existence. If you subscribe to this, then we can try to apply respect, etiquette, comfort level and such things to our relationships with deities just as we would in order to have a relationship with trust with another human. For example, are you inclined to help another person that goads you into helping them in an obligatory way? If someone forced you to act on their behalf, would you be likely to reach out and help them later when the choice were up to you? The answer to this is probably no. This is simply a matter of my own personal belief, but I think it’s wise to treat spirits the way you would wish to be treated if you were in their shoes. One bit of advice I often give to people trying to deepen connection to their spirit guides is to make an effort to get to know the heart and mind of that spirit. In other words, don’t just appeal to them constantly asking for help for yourself, but, as in any good and reciprocal friendship, make sure to spend just as much time asking them what they want, what is important to them, and how they are doing. This goes a long way in nurturing mutual understanding, and inspires the relationship with greater confidence from both sides.
Vision and Future Endeavors
PAA: Finally, what’s next for you on your journey? You’ve mentioned you have more books in the works – can you tell us about any upcoming writing projects, events, or magickal endeavors you’re excited about? Additionally, what is your broader vision or dream for the future of your work – for example, goals for the Society of Witchcraft and Old Magick, or areas of the occult that you hope to explore more deeply in the coming years?
I have begun offering a publicly available online course as a depth teaching companion to Dream Sorcery. I’m happy and proud of how this going so far, and I hope to keep offering it at intervals to folks who are ready to truly dive into the work of the book. As far as writing projects, I do have numerous things in the works. I’m not at the point of having the editorial go-ahead to reveal them, but I can say that there is another seal-oriented book coming soon, as well as a couple of other Celtic sorcery books that I have co-authored with some other talented folks. There are more in the pipeline after this as well. As far as SWOM, I hope to have the energy and constancy to keep it going as it is now for at least another 6-8 years, at which point I might be needing to retire from the immense amount of work I currently do in this respect. (I’m 52, and as I get closer to retirement age, I hope to shift the emphasis of my work in ways that suit my energy level.) I haven’t yet identified who might take over for me, but my hope is to find someone who has trained within the order and who understands how to continue it healthily, to do so. It’s not an easy job at all. We’ve been in operation for 11 years now under the current format, and I would love it to be perpetuated on by someone else. While I do want to hand the order over to the right person eventually, I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing and teaching, since all of my decades of magickal experience have left me with a very deep well of ideas to impart. I do love to travel, and am grateful that I’ve been able to start doing more of this with conferences and book appearances, and I hope to do more of this as well. Thank you so much for your very thoughtful and thorough questions, and for the opportunity to share my responses here in this forum. May all who read these words be blessed and inspired. Let us not fear death, lest we vandalize life; For the aim of the spirit is awe and not strife. Blessings, Nikki Wardwell Sleath
PAA: Nikki, thank you very much for answering our questions and providing so much detail. Very much appreciated.
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.
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.
What follows is a ‘Student Story’ generously provided by a student who has now completed all three parts of Ceremonial Magic and the Franz Bardon Tradition. Many thanks to them for taking the time to share their experience.
Student Story
“The method used by the modern initiate for interpreting the language spoken by the ancient myths is a very simple and effectual one. He finds in the Qabalistic Tree of Life a link between the highly stylistic pagan systems and his own more rational methods…
…Upon the Tree of Life with its Ten Holy Sephiroth the modern occultist bases both a metaphysic and a magic. He uses a philosophical conception of the Tree to interpret what it represents to his conscious mind, and he uses a magical and ceremonial application of its symbolism to link up with his subconscious mind. The initiate, consequently, makes the best of both worlds, ancient and modern; for the modern world is all surface consciousness, and has forgotten and repressed the subconsciousness, to it’s own great hurt; and the ancient world was mainly subconsciousness, consciousness having been but recently evolved. When the two are linked up and brought into polarised function they yield the superconsciousness,which is the goal of the initiate”
Dion Fortune, the Mystical Qabalah
Many versions of The Golden Dawn’s flagship rituals have existed before this set, created by Andre Consciência. A great deal of these are available online for free, even more versions in books, and perhaps a few more versions behind the doors of lodges to which I do personally do not belong. The question is then begged as to what is the point in learning yet another version of these staples of western occultism. What does this offer that other versions do not? Why should you even bother?
Assuming instead that you are a practitioner of Franz Bardon’s more yogic systems of western occultism, what is it that is contained outside of those methods? If Initiation into Hermetics is a self contained path to Adepthood, why would you need something else beyond that? The Ceremonial Magic and the Franz Bardon Tradition course address these questions, not through amalgamation but through synthesis.
The truth is you do not need another version of The Ritual of the Pentagram or the Middle Pillar nor do you need anything outside of Franz Bardon’s works to reach Adepthood. This course is actually something different than both of those things. Is it instead the marriage of both of these methodologies into a whole that leverages each while simultaneously creating essentially a third esoteric mini-system that carries the student from basic magical skill to ascending the mantle of assuming the Godhead. It is not so much a crash course to the finish line as it is a condensed form of practice, a more direct and surgical Theurgy.
The Ceremonial course created by Andre Consciência uses his knowledge of both of these systems (and others) to access each set of skills and rituals in a manner where they enforce each other, creating a much more direct and efficacious system then when used separately. The advantage here is not in the lower hanging fruit of better direct energy management and engagement that is the hallmark of the Bardon system. When approaching aspects of rituals like the Middle Pillar these sorts of things seem self-evident, and honestly any ritual magician worth their salt would and should be able to reproduce these sorts of energetics, at least inside the framework of the ritual itself. It is instead the use of Bardon’s Quabbalah and Evocation techniques, the use of depth point and planetary magic, and the use of intertwined Godnames and Deity Yoga that push this over the edge from “just another version of ritual X” to something that is unique.
That being said each section makes use of the techniques of Bardon’s Initiation into Hermetics as the base for each ritual making knowledge of Bardon’s first text advantageous, though not entirely necessary. The course itself is guided by Andre directly, piece by piece, to monitor any adverse changes and also to help the student down any rabbit holes they might find along the way. The guidance might not be needed assuming that the practitioner is either an Adept in Bardon’s system or the Golden Dawn, but use of Bardon’s Quabbalah and Planetary energetics can cause adverse reactions in those not prepared.
Per the Rabbit holes; practitioners of Bardon may not be used to the effects of practicing ritual magic, the results of which can be somewhat unpredictable as the mind interacts with the symbols, energies, and words of power. Bottom line is, Initiation into Hermetics lends itself to a great deal of control while ritual magic tends to leave the results to form as they may: oftentimes somewhat unpredictability. Each side has its benefits and practitioners of either (or both) can benefit from the other. The level of self mastery granted by Bardon’s methods only enhance any Ritual Magician’s repertoire, while I’m sure there are many Bardonist’s who could use some objective reactivity in their pursuit of “perfection”. There is no actual dichotomy in play here anyway, which is essentially the point of the course. The separation between methodologies does not actually exist. They come to full fruition when used in tandem.
Additionally, as it is somewhat of a mini-system each lesson learned pulls double duty as being part of the rituals themselves as well as skills that can be put to task in typical magical work. Many of the techniques used in the course mirror the same basics in Initiation into Hermetics with a slight twist or expanded contents. Creative magicians should find new skills to cut their teeth on and clever new ways to think about how to use skills they already have.
Each ritual is densely packed with information and follows the basic framework of the originals but not slavishly, still leveraging the magic and symbols of the original rituals of the Golden Dawn. The major touchpoints of many of the rituals are compacted and reiterated through the impact of Bardon’s three manuals while still retaining the core and efficacy of the original Ritual of the Pentagram and Middle Pillar. Because of this the performance of these rituals becomes more than the sum of its parts. Needless to say, the warning provided by Andre for those who might be sensitive or have adverse reactions to altered states of perception should be heeded.
The Grand Ritual of Purification
As to the courses themselves, the magician begins with the Grand Ritual of Purification in step one, using the Middle Pillar as its base. The lessons lead the student through the creation of the center pillar of the Otz Chim in their astral body, starting with a specialized form of equilibrium and introductions to the energies involved in the course. These energies include about half of Bardon’s Cosmic Letters, so students should be prepared to put their nose to the grind stone, especially as they learn the lexicon of the course itself. This may be somewhat of a turn off for less tenacious students and also an additional learning curve for people less familiar with these systems. However, it is rare in the entirety of the course that it is required to succeed at an exercise for more than 10 minutes and in this it follows the spirit of Initiation into Hermetics: that the sum of its parts is indeed more valuable than any exercise individually.
Once one has the basics down these energies are compiled into the Middle Pillar, Sephirot by Sephirot, step by step. Each energy is a lesson and serves to build the efficacy of the ritual and part of these step stones is stability. Many of these skills aren’t just being used one by one but are stacked to function simultaneously with other skills, requiring the magician to learn to operate from multiple points of consciousness. This may require an immediate recalibration for some practitioners as by the end of just the first course one will be managing volts, hand rituals, incanting multi-letter formula, all while holding depth point.
That being said, the end results of this ritual serves up a platter of invoked god states, quabbalistically incanted altered perceptions that serve to purge the magician as well as prepare for later courses. It is a multi-tiered event, combining multiple forms of equilibrium stacked on top of each other, interwoven with the energies of the Middle Pillar and effecting multiple levels of the magician.
From my own personal experience with the first course, there is definitely an energetic adjustment period with many of the steps and the full completion of the ritual itself has its own adjustment period. There are ways to “loop” the ritual, presented in the course, where in the more rotations increase the strength and depth of the resulting trance, but I never found it necessary to do more than 2-3 rotations. Depending on the skill of the magician and the desire for depth, the ritual itself can be completed in less than 10 minutes to an easily extended 30 or more minutes without even beginning to loop the ritual.
While I found each of the sections of the course equally impactful, the first section was especially memorable as it sets the tone for the rest of the course and adapts the magician to the primary methods being used going forward.
Grand Ritual of Evocation
The next section is the Bardonization of the Ritual of the Pentagram and as the description on the side of the box implies, it is focused on evocation. Rather than imagine a few sensations and some ephemeral visualizations, the course now leverages Bardon’s Practical Magic of Evocation to summon the four archangels to the four corners.
Before we get to the evocations, though, there is review on the opening and closing of the ritual right before a rather intensive multi-tiered exploration of Vacancy of Mind which also serves as a study of the Pentagram. This was one of my favorite parts of the course and the beginning of what I felt was the most artfully arranged of the sections as the aspects that are understood in these lessons will be repeatedly seen to change form and representation through the rest of Course 2, serving as a common theme.
Now the evocations of the Archangels presented in this course are pure Bardon, no tools, and one hundred percent raw dog (if I may be so crude). Because of this it must be stated that these evocations are rather concentration hungry. Like the first part of the course, there are a lot of moving parts and all these parts serve to negate the need for these sorts of devices by the mind doing its duty in reproducing these tools’ functions ( or one could say the tools do the duty of the mind’s function). Building tools is a magic in its own right, however, and before getting to the evocations proper I had created two tools for my use (the belt and magusband) and procured a third (the magical dagger). I found it valuable to learn this evocation method with and without tools, the former to build my skill and strength with the art itself and the latter to both enhance and reduce mental bandwidth needed.
There is a bit of a shift in skills between the 1st and 2nd courses. Aside from some of the Quabbalistic incantations, the Grand Ritual of Evocation is the right hand to the left hand of the, The Ritual of Purification and both of these courses represent the framework of Bardon’s three book methodologies with the content of the Golden Dawn rituals.
The Grand Ritual of Invocation.
The 3rd course is the crown jewel of this set of theurgies.
The final ritual is the combined efficacy of both previous rituals, now coupled with a full methodology of God Form intensive practice. Just as stacking the fundamental skills that Franz Bardon presents in IIH formulates the foundation of the work, we now stack rituals on top of each other to create one “Mega-Ceremony” that takes advantage of everything we’ve already learned so far and presents it in one mind-altering package.
The Deities (yes, multiple) chosen for this are Vedic and not Egyptian which is an interesting choice as it actually leans into Franz Bardon’s exposure to culture and not the Golden Dawn’s. Without going into too much detail, each God Form is built on a specific characteristic that builds the deity yoga and thus the relationship and indwelling of the deity. All of this dovetails seamlessly into the ritual structure so instead of adding more ceremony you are actually building atop the foundation you have already created. The characteristic sets and visualizations for these deities are extensive and detailed, however at this point in the course it should truly prove to be little difficulty for the magician if they have made it this far.
As far as more specific details…relationships are personal. This is one you will have to experience for yourself as well as the “results” of the ritual.
Conclusion
Overall this is an excellent course and has many of the necessary ingredients to both engage experienced magicians as well as bring neophytes from “Zero to Hero”. Each course is quite meticulous but once traction is made in the learning curve of the first course, sailing should be mostly smooth aside from any personal barriers (or meandering side quests!) that one may encounter. While certainly this course can be learned in a year’s time as suggested this becomes advanced work very quickly. Unless one is already well trained or a savant it can be well conceived to take more. Each skill section is also accompanied by required time periods of study, and these time periods are part of the magical formula of the course itself so while one may learn one of these skills in one or two sittings, practicing for the required amount increases the efficacy of the “charge” of the skill. From my experience with the course, I would say that it also pays to build and keep momentum in this course as the tantric style build up and release of energy can be incorporated to sling shot the practitioner through the course itself, which can be quite transformative on its own.
This is quite a journey but you are not at it alone. André is quite attentive in helping through these and is concerned, not just with the course material, but on making sure the magician leaves this practice in an equilibrated state as well. And just like the understanding of the Tree of Life and why one might build the Middle Pillar into the astral body, the course work is just the map: the student is actually the objective.
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Recommended: Use a Free Link Manager (Future-Proof Your Links)
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Linktree
Free plan is enough to get started.
Lets you build a simple “link in bio” page with multiple buttons.
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Lnk.Bio
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Bitly
Free URL shortener that gives you neat, memorable short links.
Useful if you want a specific short link per course (for example in YouTube descriptions or email).
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Choose the courses you know best Start by promoting courses you have actually taken: the Master Course and any additional Sixty Skills programs you’ve completed. (We will add courses that you are approved for after your registration.)
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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.
We are very fortunate to have here the follow up to the already incredibly helpful first interview with Alexandre Moryason on the trachings of Franz Bardon. In this second interview we were invited by Alexandre to source questions from the community at all levels of ability, so that this could be truly useful no matter where a student was in their practice (If you contributed a question then we would like to thank you, for contributing to a true community project that benefits us all).
I believe that what Alexandre has produced here has more than achieved that goal and along with the first interview stand out as valuable contributions to all students of Franz Bardon which I hope will be used as supporting material for decades to come. We cannot thank Alexandre Moryason and all those at Editions Moryason enough for making this happen, being so thorough and thoughtful in the answers to these community questions and for being an absolute pleasure to work with.
Once again please be sure to visit Editions Moryason website to see the titles they have available. As you can see from this interview anything that is there, you know is because it is truly useful for practitioners and comes from the best of intentions.
For Clarity: These answers are given by Editions Moryason with the authorization of Alexandre Moryason. The following interview has been reproduced as provided by Alexandre Moryason.
Alexandre Moryasons Answers to Perseus Arcane Academy’s Questions Second interview
Friday, October 24, 2025
For Clarity: Perseus’s questions are in blue. Edition’s answers are in black.
Nota: IIH = Initiation into Hermetics
PME = The Practice of Magical Evocation
KTQ = The Key to the True Kabbalah
You present your questions by classifying them by “student level” on the Path of Magical Training. We respect this principle with regard to the answers, specifying, however, that the understanding of this Path, to be correct, must be comprehensive, because the levels interpenetrate and, consequently, the results obtained depend on the student’s initial subtle structure.
To facilitate possible cross-references to our answers, we have numbered your questions within each level you mention.
Beginner Level
PAA: I Mental Discipline and Thought Control: Franz Bardon’s training begins with seemingly simple yet challenging mental exercises. In IIH Step I, he emphasizes observing and controlling one’s thoughts as the foundation for all further development.
Many beginners struggle to quiet the mind even for a few moments. What advice do you have for cultivating consistent mental discipline at this early stage? How can a student overcome frustration when the mind wanders, and what “little tricks” (as Bardon puts it) can help build concentration and focus in daily practice?
In our previous interview, we pointed out that Franz Bardon’s system shares strong similarities with the Indo-Tibetan teachings, which refine and cultivate mental discipline and thought control at an even deeper level, in order to become a “Buddha” and achieve “Liberation.”
Students should therefore understand that these exercises should not only be practiced by beginners, but also by extremely advanced individuals, because to no longer have to practice them, one must have attained “perfect and continuous present awareness,” which is the state of an Enlightened One.
We have already partially responded to our correspondents on this subject. Here is some additional key information.
In the set of exercises covering the Ten Steps of Frans Bardon’s magnificent work, “The IIH,” only two exercises are given, and “these alone” potentially contain Ultimate Realization. It is important to know that:
• the First Step alone encapsulates the Path;
• two exercises in this Step lead to Divine Consciousness.
1° The first exercise: this is the practice of Meditation, called Mindless Emptiness, which should be done for at least ten minutes, morning and evening. It is this exercise that we have been asked about for years, and we understand that you are asking us too.
• Mindless emptiness does not mean fighting the thought or thoughts that come in; this fight creates a tension that is counterproductive to the desired goal. The energy of the Collective Mind flows, and flows…; nothing can stop this flow. Therefore, it is a matter of being aware of the thought but not “jumping” on it and developing it (the thought of the cat comes and we think we have to buy its kibble; from there, we think of the usual supermarket, from there, the promotions… That’s it: we are out of the loop of the purpose of this exercise). We observe it, in fact, and we let it fade away; its energy dissolves; Another thought arrives, we don’t hold onto it, we don’t develop it; it leaves… After a certain time of this practice, the thoughts will become more and more spaced out. Between them, a “void” will appear. It is in this “void” that our Divine Self can manifest.
• The position of the eyes: they must be open and the gaze relaxed in front of us, as when we dream with our eyes open. Closed eyes create a fixation onthe Lower Mind (kama manas) and we can’t escape; thoughts flow in.
• Breathing is done through the mouth, gently and without tension. Breathing through the nose does not immediately “connect” to the Divine.
We are taking the liberty of providing these last two pieces of information because they have been publicly disseminated by the Buddhist Tradition for about thirty years. Other teachings must certainly be kept confidential, but these details, reported here, are essential to success.
Why, you may ask, did Franz Bardon not provide this information? Because his Teachings were given in the 1950s, shortly after World War II, when “planetary karma” did not yet allow for this dissemination.
But this was permitted as early as the 1980s and beyond. As for the “Mindless Void,” it was explained in the “Yogas of Naropa,” written in India (1016-1100), and Éditions Maisonneuve published this work in the 1960s.
2° The second exercise: this is found in the “training of the mental body”; it consists of maintaining awareness in the present moment, thus not letting the mind wander and concentrating on what we are doing at each moment: when we eat, our awareness focuses on the act of eating, etc. This exercise is crucial; it was brilliantly formulated by Gautama Buddha. We have published a book: “The Sublime Practice or How to Attain Enlightenment in a Single Life.” We will publish the English translation and send it to you when it is available.
PAA: II Vacancy and Akasha – Does the work of Vacancy of Mind eventually lead to experience of Akasha?
Yes. The previous answer explains in detail how the deep practice of Mind Emptiness leads to the state of “Buddha.”
To understand this fully, we must first clear up two misconceptions:
1-The first confusion is perceived in the commonly used terms: mind and spirit. The “mind” is “the lower mind” (the “dense” mind or kama-manas in Sanskrit and “sem” in Tibetan: the four lower subdivisions of the Mental Plane, the three higher subdivisions being luminous, beyond the reach of the movements of the dense mind). And it is precisely this lower mind that must be emptied of thoughts. When referring to the higher subdivisions and beyond (Buddhi), we write “Spirit” with a capital “S” (Buddhi-Manas in Sanskrit, “the Sem linked to Rigpa” in Tibetan).
2- The second confusion is commonly made between the notion of “emptiness” or “Vacancy” in Sanskrit and Tibetan texts and that of “nothingness.” “Nothingness” means “absolute Nothingness.” But “Nothingness cannot give birth to anything,” as the sacred rites of the Rosicrucians remind us in the West.
Therefore, “Void” does not mean “empty of nothing,” but a full “void” that contains, in gestation, everything in the Universe when it “manifests.” Therefore, this “full void” is the Absolute Divine Reality that manifests in the Universe through the Creative Akasha.
The latter contains “Divine Ideation,” that is, “what the Absolute Divinity wants to create,” its Conception of its Creation. This conception is expressed by the Cosmic Divine Mind (“Mahat”). This same Divine Mind irrigates all thinking beings in the Universe and is called, for the sake of distinction, “Manas,” our Mind, when it concerns human beings.
The “void” also concerns what the Divine Mind creates (the Universe and everything it contains): this Creation “is empty of all intrinsic Reality.” This means that Manifestation and subsequent Creation are, in fact, an immense hologram representing what the Divine Mind wants, but that in truth, the only Reality resides in this “Void” which contains the “Seed of everything.”
In this view, the Mental Void leads to the experience of the creative Divinity (Akasha).
Akasha is our true nature: “Liberation,” reaching the state of “Buddha” or “Liberation,” is to experience this Truth.
PAA: III Step 2 Visualisation – Some people are natural visualisers and others have real problems ‘seeing’ anything other than blackness. What is your suggestion for students struggling with visualisation? Can they still progress? What is the reason hermetically that they cannot ‘see’ mentally within the mind.
Yes, these students can progress.
As F. Bardon explains, the problem stems from the imbalance of the Elements in the student’s structure: the Fire Element is weaker than the others. This does not mean that the student has “no willpower,” but rather that the other Elements in his or her structure (Water, Air, Earth) are more intense than the Fire Element and, in any case, function differently: Fire is clearly lacking, but also, the Air Element lacks the power to activate Fire… this is an imbalance.
This imbalance is, in reality, common to most human beings and is a reflection of the current state of development of humanity, still firmly anchored in the 3rd Dimension. The natural ability to visualize reveals a development linked to the 4th and 5th Dimensions. It is therefore by practicing visualization that the student will develop and thus reach these last two Dimensions, which definitively free them from the prison that confines ordinary humanity.
To improve their elemental balance, the student can:
• Practice the rituals revealed in Part II of “Light over the Kingdom”; through these rituals, each Element is purified of its density (it thus becomes increasingly luminous) and develops in power. These rituals automatically balance the Elements of their structure;
• Practice all types of willpower-strengthening exercises (these exercises are easy to identify : they are those that train us to resist a natural indolence tending towards the satisfaction of every desire.
By doing this, the student will eventually notice an improvement and will finally begin to “see” things, by truly concentrating and exercising a will that is both “strong” but “not too tense,” because strong tension disrupts Air and thereby blocks Fire…
The first steps: for example, he will place an apple on a table, then close his eyes and try to reproduce it on his mental screen, as if he had taken a photo of it. Once this exercise is successful, he will add the table to his visualization. Once this is successful, he will continue with landscapes, people, etc. Later, he will practice visualizing with his eyes open. This process is more difficult, but one can master it. It is very important because it allows us to create in the etheric and astral substance objects, situations, settings, positive and happy ensembles, which we wish to see manifest in our lives.
Depending on his elemental structure, the student will then begin to see, on his mental screen, shapes in color or black and white; he will thus see, without his control, images linked to his conscious memories, those hidden in his unconscious, and even perceptions of the historical past or the future (personal or general).
Visualization thus gradually becomes a “portal” through which the Universe sends them messages (mental clairvoyance).
PAA: IV Soul Mirrors and Self-Honesty: One of Bardon’s early requirements is the creation of the “soul mirrors” – a thorough inventory of one’s positive and negative traits categorized by the Four Elements. This introspective work can be daunting, as it forces an honest self-examination.
In your experience, how should a beginner approach the soul mirror exercise without becoming either overwhelmed by faults or overly proud of virtues? What practical steps can help maintain a balance between ruthless self-honesty and patient self-compassion during this process of character analysis and purification?
Also, in line with the previous interview could you perhaps go into detail about purification – conscious act of this from a dedicated student and perhaps how life may enforce this.
The suffering experienced during Soul Mirrors and self-honesty results from identification with the “ego,” our lower tripartite structure (mental, astral, and physical bodies, called the “personality”), when in reality, we are the Self, our Soul, a Divine Being without beginning or end (our Individuality). The approach should be as follows:
• Stop identifying with the “ego” and therefore perceive everything through its filter: this technique consists of seeing oneself as a third party observing this mass called “ego,” named John or Mary. There is a Disidentification and therefore an external observation of this whole that is our being here below, this “ego” that obstructs everything.
This observation allows us to see the defects and the qualities, this “Mirror of the Soul“, as being that of a person other than oneself. This “ego” must be observed as an object of study which must therefore not arouse any emotion, pride if it is a quality, or shame or violent rejection if it is a defect. Emotion is a very powerful astral energy (linked to the Water Element); whether it is laudatory or accusatory, it amplifies, by the very fact of its elemental nature, everything it touches; it therefore further fuels the initial imbalance of the student’s Elements. To counter this natural, very human phenomenon of the emergence of emotion as soon as anything concerns us (our ego), using our mind is the key to success: immediately thinking of “looking at” this emotion (pleasant or unpleasant), observing it as something foreign to ourselves. This “looking” empties the emotion, discharges its power, and allows the “Soul Mirror” exercise to continue properly, without the traps of the ego.
• Practice the purification rituals given in Part II of “Light over the Kingdom” and Bardon’s exercises: the structure will be purified and the ego will weaken;
• Purification is the key to unleashing occult powers: a structure with a low and dark (heavy) vibration cannot possess powers pertaining to higher dimensions.
PAA: V Intention and Ethical Foundation: Bardon’s system is not just about techniques but also about the aspirant’s inner attitude. He notes that any power obtained can be used for good or ill, but a true magician “will never think of any evil motives” and remains a faithful servant of Divine Providence.
How important is it for a beginner to cultivate pure intentions and ethical motives right from the start of magical training?
Can you share your perspective on how one’s intention – for example, whether one practices for spiritual growth versus ego or power – influences the effectiveness and safety of early magical exercises?
How can newcomers align their practice with higher ideals to build a strong moral foundation?
The inner attitude is essential because Universal Reality is based on the fundamental Good, absolute Compassion. As soon as a beginner in Hermeticism, in magical training, approaches this Path without having previously developed (work of past lives) the will to work for the Good of all beings, he walks on a path which is not linked to Universal or Divine Reality. Consequently, not only will his training be doomed to failure (the Elements will not obey him, whether for his personal development or to carry out magical works) but he risks awakening, more violently than the compassionate student would suffer, the negative aspects of his own structure, (the famous “Guardian of the Threshold”) “which is the absolute danger; “absolute” because he will not have within him the Force which is Compassion to “calm” and dissolve the mephitic substance of this “Guardian”. In fact, “Purity” cannot be accumulated on “impurity.”
Therefore, before venturing onto the Path of magical training, the beginner who lacks this naturally benevolent orientation toward others and who seeks to acquire occult powers in order to fulfill selfish desires must absolutely:
• reflect and force oneself to “feel” what those around oneself and in the world are experiencing, to grasp human suffering;
• practice acting and reacting—through actions and feelings—as Christ or a Bodhisattva would; at first, one imitates even if oneself is seething with selfishness; one strives despite everything; then gradually, Compassion arises in the heart.
This work is immediately aided by the Force of Universal Compassion, which is thus called upon, and also by the help of the Masters of Wisdom, including Franz Bardon Himself.
The effects of intention, when well-directed:
• It guarantees the effectiveness and power of practices; • It is secure, because we are undoubtedly following the path of Divine Magic and following the example of the Masters of Wisdom, the Mahatmas, Christ, and Franz Bardon. If the latter’s life has been entrusted to us by his son and disciple, Dr. Khulman, in such detail, it is to become a source of inspiration, a tool allowing us to understand how to consider higher objectives as a key aspect of our practice. Franz Bardon’s example clearly shows that, in the long term, higher powers must be used to help humanity.
PAA: VI Purpose of Basic Exercises: Beginning students often question the purpose of exercises like observing thoughts, visualizations, or simple energy work, perhaps feeling eager to jump into more “exciting” techniques. From a teacher’s perspective, how do these early-stage practices (thought control, visualization drills, elemental breathing,etc.) form the philosophical and practical foundation for later stages?
For instance, how might mastering one’s thoughts or imagination early on benefit the practitioner when they eventually move to more advanced work like evocation or quabbalah?
From the Student’s Perspective
Regarding the usefulness of the basic exercises, refer to the two essential exercises explained in Beginner Level – Question I.
For visualization: refer to the answer in Beginner Level – Question III. “Wanting to embark on more stimulating techniques!”… This question reveals a general ignorance regarding the merits of exercises that seem to the mind—in search of egoic stimulation—dull and, to say the least, unexciting. This demand is found in all initiatory schools or spiritual paths. It is human. It will be overcome, precisely with the help of these unstimulating exercises.
From the Teacher’s Perspective
The basis of these exercises is not philosophical in the strict sense of the term; rather, it stems from a very precise knowledge of the occult anatomy of the human being (channels, drops/tiglés, breaths, state of the “fires,” chakras, etc.). This true medicine of our subtle structure is exhaustively known in the Esoteric Tradition of India and Tibet. Fragments of it have reached the West: we find them in the exercises of Orthodox Christian monks, Catholic abbeys, notably Cistercian ones, among the Sufis, the Druzes and the Shamans of Europe and America. It is therefore a science and not metaphysical speculations.
Since Magic is a science, these exercises are essential for the success of everything it allows, including successful Evocation (without unpleasant surprises) or the use of Words in Kabbalah. Without this development of the student’s subtle centers and vehicles, which generates a constant increase in the vibratory frequency of the being, Divine Magic could not be practiced, in all its stages.
Franz Bardon states in his book “The Key to True Kabbalah” (KTQ), “This is why I emphasized at the beginning of this work that the practice of the first book, “The Path of True Magical Initiation,” was absolutely essential—at least up to and including the Eighth Degree—if one wanted to obtain satisfactory results in Kabbalah…”
PAA: VII Why is the order of practices in IIH as it is? It seems a lot of the easier stuff is in the later chapters, while the starting chapters are full of really hard material such as elemental manifestations and total control of mental faculties. Why was it arranged this way? (I think I know the answer, but I’d love to hear your take.)
The main course, that is, the basic training (difficult initial practices), is presented before the advanced practices, which are apparently easier to approach, since the latter only become easier in their complexity through mastery of the more complex exercises presented from the beginning.
Indeed, some practices may become easier with the energy used by the student, but the effectiveness of this energy’s action is based on a balanced astral and mental equilibrium. This balance is due to mastery of the exercises of the preceding Degrees.
* Intermediate Level
PAA: I Elemental Balance and Astral Equilibrium: Bardon places great stress on achieving elemental equilibrium in the personality – balancing the qualities of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth within oneself (initiation-into-hermetics-franz bardon.pdf).
For an intermediate practitioner, what are the signs that they are approaching a genuine balance of the elements in their character?
Conversely, what indications might reveal that one element is still too dominant or deficient?
If imbalances persist (e.g. excess fiery temperament or an overly watery, passive nature), what practical steps would you recommend to harmonize that element ?
Perhaps through specific behavioral changes, meditations, or elemental exercises – so the magician can attain the “magic equipoise” Bardon says is absolutely necessary for further development.
Elemental balance is relative: students, disciples, initiates, Adepts, (Mahatmas) … At each stage of development, the person is supposed to reach a higher level of elemental balance, a higher level of perfection. Thus, for an intermediate practitioner, the approach to a better elemental balance translates into the development of certain abilities: better concentration/mental visualization, intuition, clairvoyance or any other aptitude that may emerge according to the structure and karma of the individual. However, from this description we must reflect on the meaning of the end of the previous sentence: “according to the structure and karma of the individual” because, according to the students, from the beginning of the Path, some have results of those who are at the intermediate or advanced level and vice versa, others, despite great efforts, cannot reach the intermediate and a fortiori advanced levels.
Signs revealing the approach of true elemental balance:
This is the manifestation of psychic abilities (clairvoyance, clairaudience, intuition, successful telepathy, etc.); better health, and very positive speech.
Indicators revealing an Element is still too dominant or deficient:
The negative attributes of the Elements manifest: Fire = aggression, agitation, continual thirst; Air = mental restlessness, lack of concentration, forgetfulness, etc.; Water = extreme sensitivity, neurasthenia, indolence, etc.; Earth = laziness, inaction, difficulty acting or reacting to something, etc.
Harmonizing an Element with the others is achieved:
• by practicing purification rituals that will automatically balance the Elements of our subtle and physical structure;
• by thinking/meditating on what relates to this failing Element (to activate a failing Fire, for example, one will act by meditating/thinking on the qualities and specificities of this Element: movement, action, strength, etc.; for Water: sensitivity, feelings, calm, empathy with others, etc.; for Air: liveliness in one’s senses, notably mental, intellectual curiosity, expansion, elevation, lightness of being, etc.; Earth: stability, endurance, constancy, certainty, etc.
PAA: II Four Regions Elemental Exercise: Can you discuss this part of Step 4, this seems like such an important part of training. Is this like a gateway towards working with our own Akasha? Like the result of this equanimity is the access to Akasha?
This is a highly advanced method aimed at balancing the Elements. We advise students to focus on purification rituals, unless, of course, they have mastered the previous steps.
For the average student, purification rituals offer similar benefits without any risk, which is why we encourage them in this regard.
The balance of the Elements leads to Akasha, and an imbalance creates a dissonance in consciousness that hinders access to it.
PAA: III Projection of the Elements Outward: In IIH Step V, students learn to accumulate the elements in the body and then project them outward into the surrounding space. This ability to externalize elemental energy marks a new level of practical magic.
What are some safe and meaningful applications of this skill for someone at the intermediate level?
For example, how might one use elemental projection in healing, ritual space cleansing, or protection?
Additionally, how can a practitioner ensure they handle the elements responsibly – avoiding any unintended effects on themselves or their environment – and properly reabsorb or dissolve the forces after working with them?
Elemental projection is used by:
• Focusing the heart on a Bodhisattva, Christ for example; this brings the Force of Compassion to the operation and energy to the practitioner; it is also a form of protection for the latter.
• Then defining the goal (healing someone, for example);
• Determining the Element or Elements to act (generally, regardless of the vector Element, Air is added, which either animates or calms it);
• Focusing the mind by visualizing the person to be healed, with the will for this healing and certainty in the use of this magical process.
• Concentrating/feeling compassion in the heart center for the illness and suffering of the recipient of this magical action;
• Sending/projecting/visualizing the final delivery of the predetermined Elements to the patient (on the etheric/physical plane, the Elements have the following colors, respectively: Fire = red; Water = green; Air = yellow; Earth = brown); for this delivery, visualize the Element with its color while breathing deeply through the nose, then exhale through the mouth quite abruptly, forcefully, visualizing the Element’s path to the patient; choose to send the main Element and then Air.
• Thanking Divine Providence for allowing us to be the channel of the healing It has granted.
Dissolving or “discharging” remaining forces:
When accumulating energy, the most important thing is to dissolve it at the end of the practice or to assign it a specific purpose. If we don’t, this energy flows without a destination, creating a vibrational chaos that attracts less evolved, even highly negative, entities, and, as Franz Bardon says, “the result always goes against your interests.”
We dissolve the remaining forces by visualizing their sending either to Earth or to infinite space, visualizing, in this case, their dissolution. In both these destinations, breathing effectively accompanies the process: we inhale empty and exhale forcefully, visualizing the Elements disappearing in turn. We can repeat this inhalation and exhalation three or seven times, depending on how we feel.
PAA: IV Formation of Elementaries and Thought-Forms: As training progresses, Bardon introduces the creation of thought-forms and artificial beings – from simple elementals in Step VI to more complex elementaries in Step VII. What is the purpose of learning to create these energies or entities?
In practical terms, how does creating a temporary elemental for a task (like a charged thought-form) differ from crafting a more enduring elementary with a set lifespan and independent influence?
Many students feel both excitement and caution here, given Bardon’s warnings about maintaining control over one’s creations. What guidance can you provide on the ethical and safe formation of elementaries?
For instance, how should an intermediate practitioner decide on a clear purpose and lifespan for a created being and ensure they remain the master of their creation – including knowing how to properly reabsorb or dissolve it when its task is complete?
The purpose of creating these entities
Fundamental rule: the creation of these entities must be for the benefit of others. The entity will act, in the space and time determined by the Magician, to facilitate mental work that seems difficult in a given situation for a given individual, etc.: harmonize a romantic encounter, with the instruction, however, not to interfere with the free will of the people involved, protect a child from night terrors, etc.
A corollary to this rule: the compassionate aspect of this creation calls upon the luminous, high-vibration Elements; this being so, the entity will be docile to the Magician’s commands regarding the goals of its action and will be more malleable at the key moment when its dissolution is necessary. This is explained by the very nature of the Elements in action: of high vibration, therefore less dense, more volatile in a way, the Elements composing the entity will not offer much resistance to their dissolution.
Unlike this process, entities created by black magic—where the Elements vibrate at heavy, obscure, and therefore very dense frequencies—tend to disobey the sorcerer; they initially carry, depending on the Element in action, a charge of violence or inertia (laziness and inaction) and offer great resistance to their dark creator, even provoking a fight… We can see the destiny of this sorcerer, whose subsequent lives will be haunted by this or these entities.
We must point out, however, that while the preceding explanations tend to suggest that this process of entity creation is easy and risk-free, even when operating in White Magic, it is an extremely dangerous practice.
Dangers Faced Due to the Failure of the Entity Dissolution Process
More than four decades of contact with the Hermetic community clearly demonstrate that an abnormally high number of imperfect “magicians” reincarnate and must confront a previous life of an undissolved entity. These magicians do not know, at the beginning of their lives and for a certain time, the origin of a perpetual ambient malaise leading to depression, the cause of their very restless, sometimes even terrifying, nights, etc.
Their karma, however, leads them to the Occult Sciences, including Magic. At this point, they are helped to realize that they are not victims of a harmful action perpetrated by a family member, a neighbour, etc., as they once believed, but rather of their own creation of an entity, in a past life, whether it was once through White Magic or Black Magic. Indeed, the sorcerer created, in a past life, a negative entity that resisted its dissolution; therefore it vampirized all those it approached and tyrannizes its creator, pursuing him through time. Since it is a negative entity, this is logical. However, an entity originally created by White Magic and which, by accident (energetic weakness of the creator Mage) could not be dissolved, began to wander due to a lack of direction due to the absence of the Mage (deceased). This wandering in the Ethers and the Astral Plane, gradually led the substance of this entity (which is only substance, in fact, because it is devoid of Soul) towards the lower subdivisions of the Ethers and the Astral, generating an energetic and therefore disruptive chaos, which, according to Cosmic Law, pursues its creator in a distressing way.
It is recommended not to attempt to create an entity, even for beneficial purposes, because the practitioner of Magic cannot be certain of having dissolved it. Certainty can only be achieved if one’s etheric and astral vision is as stable as that which one has in everyday material life, a vision that will then allow one to clearly and surely see the dissolution.
Even if one believes one has reached the VIIIth Degree of the IIH, it is better to avoid this type of Magic and act for the good of others through other means (visualization, sending Divine Force to a given situation or person, etc.).
Difference between an elemental with a short, restricted task and one with a long-term task
An elemental with a short task will have a less “nourished” substance because the Magician’s charge of the Element will be short-lived; it will therefore dissolve more easily.
Conversely, an elemental with a long-term task will have a stronger substance and will therefore be more resistant at the time of its dissolution.
How to be sure…
One can never be sure; unless one is an Adept Mage, such as Franz Bardon.
We strongly advise against practicing this type of creation. Experience shows that, in this field, students have enormous self-confidence. Although this is generally a quality, it often becomes a flaw when it comes to Magic, even White Magic: they overestimate their abilities due to a naive, not malicious, of course, exaltation of their ego.
PAA: V Fingergestures (mudrā)
a) Describe one way you use a charged Step4 mudrā in ordinary life to anchor an elemental quality or ethical stance.
b) Once the gesture is selfacting, how do you prevent accidental discharge or imbalance?
c) Can you share your experience with Finger Gestures? Have they saved you a lot of time?
Franz Bardon’s description is clear enough: the difficulty lies in the intensity of the “charge,” that is, the energy required to power the ritual. If you possess the “energy,” it’s not so difficult to direct it and connect it to a mudrā, a word, or a short phrase.
What is difficult to provide, then, is the energy intensity required for the power: Franz Bardon provided advice to facilitate this process in his two other works, “The Practice of Magical Evocation” and “The Key to the True Kabbalah.”
There can be no accidental discharge or elemental imbalance due to a lack of energy, as long as the intensity of the charge is consistent and the will of the Magician, who initially established the purpose of this practice, is always present and mentally and psychically reiterated.
Yes, this magical process saves time.
PAA: VI Early Experiences in Mental Wandering: IIH Step VIII marks the beginning of mental wandering – the projection of one’s consciousness to distant places or spheres, purely with the mind. At the early stages of this practice, how can a student discern the difference between a true mental travel experience and a vivid imagination or daydream?
In your view, what initial benchmarks indicate that someone is successfully “wandering” with the mind (for example, verifiable perceptions or a distinct sense of separation from the physical body)?
Could you share any practical tips on concentration or mental clarity that help stabilize this skill? Additionally, if a student encounters distracting or phantasmagoric images while attempting mental travel, how should they respond to remain on course?
To succeed in these experiences, one must have mastered the previous stages, and this mastery will be manifested by the occult abilities that have thus developed: etheric, astral, and mental clairvoyance. These guarantee greater reliability in perceptions during mental journeys.
There are two types of mental travel.
• Ordinary mental travel, which takes place on the four lower subdivisions of the Mental Plane, the sub-planes of “Kama Manas,” the lower mind, among the seven sub-planes that make up this Plane. The consciousness of the lower mind is the waking consciousness of an ordinary human. The student therefore connects with the frequency at which their mental substance vibrates on these four dense subdivisions; if their thoughts, concepts, and visualizations are charged with heaviness, violence, etc., the places on these astral subdivisions will be painful… they can, however, easily free themselves from them by opening their eyes, thus putting an end to these experiences. If, on the contrary, their thoughts, concepts, and visualizations are charged with light, benevolence, and an attraction to Beauty and Goodness, the places on these astral subdivisions will be pleasant and instructive, and this will gradually lead them to the higher sub-planes of the Mental Plane.
This habitual consciousness is “worked” with exercises, rituals, spiritual pra ctices and thus, from being ordinary, the student of Occultism becomes a human being “in evolution” and acquires a consciousness that is increasingly refined. The mental journey that the student will make is similar to a wandering in the beginning of the experience to become a process of knowledge and real encounters linked to the Mental Plane.
• The “visionary” mental journey that takes place on the three higher sub-planes of the Mental Plane, called “Buddhi-Manas.” We are already entering the “antechamber” of Akasha, of Divinity, which is the Buddhic Plane (also 7 subdivisions) and above. This developing consciousness increasingly borders on the radiance of the individual’s Akashic Principle, and this allows the latter to undertake Buddhi-mental journeys: these truly put him in contact with Beings of Light, Masters of Wisdom, Intelligences linked to the planetary Spheres of our solar system (ref. Practice of Magical Evocation).
When the path between this higher Self (Buddhic Mind) is cleared (purified by the exercises) and reaches the lower mind, or concrete mind, conscious communication, in daily life, from this higher Self to the student’s waking mind occurs quite naturally. This is the Path of Intuition and Telepathy. The student telepathically receives instructions and teachings from the Master or from his own Self. This is the royal process of communication. The information is compressed in this Higher Mind and sent in a batch (“a compressed file”) to the Concrete Mind, which “opens this file” to spread the information one by one; it opens “the files”…
Finally, the journey of the Concrete Mind, and even more so of the Buddhic Mind, allows human beings to travel through Time and throughout Space, beyond our solar system, if we so wish.
How can we distinguish a true mental journey from an overactive imagination or a waking dream?
Even well-developed psychic and mental abilities cannot avoid “pitfalls” during these mental wanderings, pitfalls linked to the vibratory nature of the mind, as previously mentioned. For example, a magician’s subconscious can conjure up images related to their karmic imprints. They will then be unable to distinguish a mental perception belonging to the places visited from images rejected by their subconscious.
Events experienced may also emerge from the reservoir of their memories linked to the current incarnation. In this case, he will realize that these sudden perceptions have nothing to do with what is happening in the places he is mentally visiting.
Another example: if we visit a parallel mental world and receive instructions about specific upcoming earthly events, these events must match what we have mentally perceived.
First signs that a person is successfully “wandering” with our mindYes, there may be a sensation of a kind of distance from the physical body.
All of this (mental journeying) requires, in fact, the development of intuition, because only intuition can provide information at any given moment about what is happening, and can distinguish truth from illusion, etc. Developing intuition is fundamental to following the Magical Path.
Practical advice on concentration or mental clarity
Refer to the two fundamental exercises in Step 1. Question-Answer I.
How to React to Distracting Images
To realize that these images are distracting, that is, that they have nothing to do with those of the place visited, the instant intervention of intuition is absolutely necessary; it is this that immediately generates this awareness and rejects these unwelcome images. Otherwise, we will wander and mix everything up.
PAA: VII Understanding Akasha – The Subtle Fifth Element: Bardon describes the Akasha (or “principle of cause”) as the subtle precursor to the elements – an omnipresent etheric principle that underlies all magical effects. This concept can be abstract for intermediate students. How would you explain the role of Akasha in practical magic to someone who has grasped the four elements but is just beginning to work with this fifth principle?
Are there exercises or meditations you recommend for attuning to the Akasha perhaps drawing from Step VI’s training on mastering the Akasha element in trance?
Outside of what is already presented in IIH. Furthermore, why is developing a sensitivity to Akasha – even if it’s just a felt sense of a “subtle space” or intuitive guidance – so important before one attempts advanced operations like true evocation or Quabbalistic work?
True Perception of Akasha
Akasha is not a perception of a “subtle space”; it is our True Self, our Divine Essence, our true Nature; it is who we really are. It is the God within us. The problem we face lies in the fact that our waking consciousness is so strongly focused on the dense/lower planes of the Universe that we tend to forget this Divine Nature. F. Bardon reminds us in the KTQ that contact with our Akashic Principle, and therefore with the consciousness of God within us, is essential for practicing Divine Magic because it manifests itself through intuition, which guides the Magician at every step.
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PAA: I Mental Travel vs. Astral Projection: For advanced practitioners, Bardon distinguishes between mental wandering (moving the consciousness with the mind alone) and astral travel (the deliberate separation of the astral body from the physical body). In practice, how do these two experiences differ in sensation and purpose?
What milestones should a practitioner reach with mental wandering before they attempt a full astral projection?
For instance, do you believe one should be able to maintain clear consciousness and gather accurate information while in a distant place mentally, prior to undertaking the more complex task of releasing the astral body?
Finally, could you share any personal observations on the challenges of astral projection – such as overcoming fear when leaving the body or safely returning – and how to prepare oneself to navigate the astral plane responsibly? It seems the dangers of separating the astral body may outweigh the benefit other than providing very real proof of the astral world?
Mental Journey
It should be noted that this type of journey—whether for beginners or advanced students—follows the same requirements. It includes two types of experiences:
• Ordinary mental journeying, which takes place on the four lower subdivisions of the Mental Plane. Refer to our answer to Intermediate Level – Question VI.
• “Visionary” mental journeying, which takes place on the three higher subplanes of the Mental Plane, called “Buddhi-Manas.” Refer to our answer to Intermediate Level – Question VI.
Astral Travel
Astral travel requires a conscious exit from the astral body, thus separating from the physical body, although still connected to it.1 Three dangers await the student who travel:
• They will necessarily be directed towards the astral subplanes having the same vibrational frequency as their astral body. If this body, which is in fact their psyche, is made of an unpurified substance (low frequency, therefore obscure), they will go towards the “unpleasant” subplanes… and they will not be able to escape this situation easily because the Astral Plane, in all its subdivisions, has a “Water/Air” base, and it is therefore more difficult to escape this ultra-magnetic environment, especially the dense subplanes. It is best to ensure the “luminosity” of their astral body before attempting this journey.
• Before astral travel, it is important to ensure that the physical body (including the etheric body) is safe and secure, and that no one will disturb the body, which will be in a state of sleep. Indeed, a violent shock to this body caused by an unexpected arrival in the room, or any major disturbance, can cause the silver cord to loosen and lead to physical deah.
• Finally, there is the risk of the physical body being possessed by a negative entity. Entities from the lower astral plane still lurk everywhere on our planet, except in occultly/spiritually protected places, as the Dark Forces are on the lookout for this type of investment. Therefore, before venturing into such a journey, it is necessary to protect this place with a ritual or other spiritual process.
Astral travel is generally limited to the Astral Plane of the Earth, the astral aspect of the Sphere surrounding it, and even that of the Moon. Beyond that, it’s possible, with all the risks involved, and without going beyond the solar system.
The conclusion is clear: we advise against this type of travel.
PAA: II In “The Light Over the Kingdom”, the Tree of Life diagram presented follows the Golden Dawn layout, which diverges from the more symmetrical and cosmologically coherent version found in the GRA version, described in the Sefer Yetzirah. Many have noted, including Rawn Clark, that the GRA Tree more accurately reflects the true metaphysical structure and divine order of the universe. Given this, was there a particular reason why the Golden Dawn version was chosen for the book instead of the GRA Tree?
You also mentioned in your book that the Golden Dawn was instructed to close its doors. May I ask for what reason this was?
This assertion that the GRA Tree more faithfully reflects the true metaphysical structure and Divine Order of the Universe is that of Raw Clark and other scholars who adopt “the supposed initial presentation of the Universe” in the Sepher Yetzirah, but on what grounds? However, this apprehension is erroneous.
The Sepher Yetzirah – The Book of Formation
Indeed, we know that the authorship of this founding text of Jewish Kabbalah, symbolically attributed to Abraham , is attributed, with hesitation, to various Rabbis: Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef (2nd century), Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanos (1st-2nd centuries), etc.
• It is, originally, a text without the notion of “Sephiroth,” nor a presentation in a Tree
The original text of the Sepher Yetzirah does not present the Universe with the Sephiroth called Kether, Hokmah, Binah, etc. as we know them from the Middle Ages to the present day. It presents it as “10 empty Principles of Creation” in connection with the succession of the Emergence of the Elements (1. Spirit of the living God => 2. Air from the Spirit => 3. Water from the Air => etc. then the 6 directions of space); it is a diagram with lines and not a Tree.
From the 2nd to the 4th centuries, the words “Sephira” (singular) and “Sephiroth” (plural) emerged, but Names (Kether, etc.) were not yet attributed to them. Until the 12th century, the diagram of the Tree did not exist. • In the 12th/13th century (1100-1200), the Names and the Sephirothic Tree were born in the Sepher ha Bahir, The Book of Clarity. We owe this to the work on the Sepher Yetzirah carried out by the Kabbalistic Circle of Provence, which named and arranged the Sephiroth in the form of the Tree we know. This ensemble has since been adopted by all Kabbalists; the Tree presented with the succession of Sephiroth by theSepher ha Bahir is the one also presented by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and which is also presented in “Light over the Kingdom.”
Therefore, the original foundations of Kabbalah, derived from the true Sepher Yetzirah, “more faithfully reflect the true metaphysical structure and divine Order of the Universe”; they are expounded in the Sepher ha Bahir, and do not pertain to the GRA Tree.
The Kabbalistic Tree GRA
The so-called GRA Tree (Gaon Rabbeinu Eliyahu) is wrongly attributed to the famous Gaon of Vilna (18th century) because it appears that this Tree is of a later construction. It shows the Sephira (6) Tipheret taking position before the Sephitoth 4 (Chesed) and 5 (Gerurah) and the Sephira Yesod (9) taking position before the Sephiroth 7 (Netzah) and 8 (Hod). Makhut (10) is in its place.
This Sephirothic ordering follows a different concept of the Universe that was rejected by many Kabbalists of the 19th and 20th centuries who were familiar with both the genesis of Kabbalah and its effectiveness demonstrated by centuries-old practice. A Sephirothic Tree, as revealed in the Sepher ha Bahir following the study of the Kabbalists of the Circle of Provence, was drawn by a Kabbalist in 1884 presenting it as a rectification of the GRA Tree.
The Sphere of Daath is clearly represented; this was later “suggested” and not written down because it represents a “chasm of swirling Elements, organizing themselves to bring about the emergence of Creation” and not a Sephirah in itself.2 Creation is revealed in the Sephirah Chesed, the 4th, the Quaternary, which contains it, that is, the rest of the Sephiroth (from 5 to 10), all crowned by the creative Ternary, “God Manifested” (Kether, Chokmah, Binah).3 It should also be noted that from the end of the 15th century, Pico della Mirandola also presents the Sephirothic Tree as we know it (Golden Dawn, “The Light…”), without Daath.
Order to Close the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
One of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its leader was Samuel Liddell Mathers (he added MacGregor to his name) (1854–1918). This Order enjoyed great renown due to the quality of many of its members, but also due to setbacks due to human vicissitudes.
Rumor has it that he received an order from the Masters of Wisdom, residing in Tibet, to close the Golden Dawn at the beginning of the 20th century. We have no details on the exact date; however, given the troubles the Order experienced due to the deviances (black magic) perpetrated by some of its members, this order seems justified.
PAA: III The Depth-Point Concentration: Bardon includes an exercise where the student learns to identify with the center (depth-point) of objects and eventually of their own being. This technique of shifting awareness to a “center of depth” is subtle but said to unlock profound perceptions. How does mastering the depth-point concentration contribute to one’s magical abilities at an advanced level?
In what ways did practicing this exercise affect your own development – for example, did it enhance your sense of unity with objects or living things, or improve your ability to enter a trance or akashic state?
For those struggling with this practice, what methods can help (such as using simple geometric objects first, or visualizing oneself as tiny as an atom at the object’s center) to eventually achieve that complete immersion into the depth-point? With such a small size we could work with the depth point of liquid or gas or idea could we not?
Concentrating on the Depth-Point
The Depth point is a vortex, more precisely a portal between several Dimensions. By focusing consciousness on the center of depth, it immediately shifts through this portal: we thus have a perception of different Planes or Dimensions, depending on our abilities; we can also approach the Akashic Trance.
It is important to remember that our consciousness is exactly where our attention is. The obstacles to these peregrinations from this depth point lie in the impurity of our triple structure (physical/etheric, astral, and lower-mental). These obstacles encourage us to purify our bodies (physical and subtle).
How has practicing this exercise influenced your personal development?
The results of this practice vary depending on the subtle structure of each student. Describing these personal results here will be of no use due to this difference.
Methods for Successful Completion of This Exercise
What has just been clarified: the purification of our vehicles and well-practiced concentration.
Working deeply on everything…
Yes, in the infinitely small as well as in the infinitely large.
PAA: IV Contacting Spiritual Beings (Evocation): In PME, Bardon provides a meticulous guide to evocation – the conjuration of entities ranging from elemental beings to Olympic planetary intelligences. From an advanced practitioner’s standpoint, what are the most critical preparations before attempting spirit contact as described by Bardon?
We know that he insists on having fully developed astral senses (clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc.) and a balanced personality as prerequisites. Beyond these, how important is it to establish one’s authority and relationship with Divine Providence before calling a spirit forth?
Are there any “common misconceptions” you’ve observed in students – for example, focusing too much on elaborate ritual tools or sigils and not enough on the internal connection – that you would warn against?
Lastly, could you speak to the attitude one should hold during evocation in order to foster a respectful, safe, and constructive communication with the being (for instance, balancing confidence with humility, and never evoking out of curiosity or greed)?
It is important to remember that before undertaking a magical evocation, the student must have successfully attained and completed all the degrees up to and including the VIIIth degree of the IIH.
The following answers all your questions, as it is the foundation of any spiritual path in general and the practice of magic in particular. It is about ethics, the desire to work for the good of all, and to nurture compassion for all beings.
This helps to intensify the connection with Divine Providence, thus promoting the action of our Akashic Principle on our human personality. Without this contact, continually creating the Divine Presence in our lives, nothing good can be accomplished, especially in magic. This is what will give us authority over intelligences and all kinds of entities we may encounter.
This is the passport to secure communication with all positive entities and instant protection against negative entities. It is both strength and shield. Whether for a mental or physical Evocation, it is necessary—as you yourself point out—to have developed one’s psychic abilities (physical/etheric, astral, and mental clairvoyance and clairaudience). This guarantees the Magician’s safety because:
• for a mental Evocation, they will have greater control over communication with the contacted Intelligence;
• for a physical Evocation, they will truly see and hear what is happening in the room, what the Entity is like in front of their circle; what frequency it emits, etc. It should be noted that the further we advance on the Path of Perfection, the more our Magic becomes “structural” and the more the Universe responds to our requests. Thus, positive Entities will naturally tend to help us and negative ones to move away. Our attitude will therefore be friendly and respectful toward the Intelligences or Entities contacted; we will therefore be careful not to disturb them to satisfy our curiosity but to really ask them for teaching or help for ourselves or for others, without forgetting to thank them.
PAA: V “Initiations into Hermetics” : Elemental Kingdoms and Moving On: How long do you think should be spend on the Elemental Kingdoms at the end of IIH. As it could be argued that a lifetime may not be enough for each of the kingdoms and the knowledge to be gained from the inhabitants of these kingdoms as Bardon as said could fill volumes of books. How long is enough before a student moves on to PME/KTQ. Is it possible for you to share any experiences with the Elemental Rulers?
Countless anecdotes could be cited, but this would be pointless because, on the one hand, the experiences are personal, and on the other, talking about them weakens the Mage’s psychic energy: often, the experiences may cease for a while. This is why it is recommended to keep quiet about them.
Moreover, the time required for a comprehensive knowledge of the Elemental Realms depends, let us clarify once again, on the Mage’s structure: the more he purifies it, the more he is in symbiosis with his Akashic Principle, and the more his occult abilities are developed, the more he will have experiences with the Spirits of the Elements; his contacts with them will be so easy and unsuspectedly spontaneous that these Spirits will often come of their own accord to help him in some activity or give him useful information.
PAA: VI Mastering the Electric and Magnetic Fluids: In the latter steps of IIH and throughout Bardon’s teachings, the student encounters the two primal forces – the Electric Fluid (expansive, fiery, active) and the Magnetic Fluid (contractive, watery, passive). How did you approach developing an awareness of these polar forces in your own practice? For someone at an advanced stage, what exercises or indications would you suggest to gauge their mastery over the electric and magnetic fluids (e.g. generating tangible heat/cold, or influencing objects/organisms via these energies)?
Bardon hints at tremendous applications once these forces are mastered – from healing with an electromagnetic fluid condenser to charging talismans. In your view, what are some ethical and effective ways to apply the electric and magnetic fluids in advanced magic? Moreover, how can one maintain balance when working with them so as not to become “charged” or imbalanced toward one polarity in daily life?
Explaining personal approaches is pointless, let us be clear, since everyone undertakes this Path with a different nature from others. One could respond by saying that it was simply by following Franz Bardon’s instructions.
Regarding the exercises suggested for assessing mastery of electric and magnetic fluids, you yourself provide an excellent answer: by generating tangible heat/cold, by influencing objects and organisms through these energies.
Finally, the use of a fluidic condenser is very useful in magical actions, particularly in the creation of talismans. Balance in the use of fluids is achieved by observing the number of times each fluid is used.
PAA: VII Qabbalah and the Power of the Word – Ethical Use of the Divine Names: KTQ teaches the use of the creative cosmic language – intoning letters and formulas that can influence reality across the mental, astral, and physicalplanes. With such immense power at one’s disposal, what do you consider the ethical responsibilities of a quabbalist?
Bardon writes that when a quabbalist creates causes in the Akasha through a word of power, “cause and effect are no longer subject to destiny but exclusively to the Highest Divine Providence,” and an adept “will never [use it] for merely… personal advantages” but will serve a higher will. How can a practitioner ensure they remain aligned with Divine Providence when working with the creative word? For example, do you recommend any specific self-checks, meditations or prayers before and after Kabbalistic operations to keep one’s ego in check?
And from a practical standpoint, how should an advanced student prepare themselves (mentally, morally, and spiritually) before even attempting to speak a formula from KTQ, so that the results are harmonious and in accordance with cosmic law?
At the level that the Mage must have reached to begin practicing “The Key to True Kabbalah,” all these questions have their answers: the level of the Mage is warded off all dangers.
The Mage will therefore not be able to harm anyone in any way, and it would not even occur to him to use the Keys selfishly.
As for creating in the Akasha, he knows what he can and cannot create so that this action is in accordance with Cosmic Law and therefore does not disrupt the karmas of the beings involved. This knowledge is acquired through the long process of development that has allowed him to approach the “timelines” relating to the destiny of beings and, consequently, not to alter them or, a fortiori, to propagate a kind of chaos.
Given what he has become through his journey since the first level of the IIH, the question of whether he is “in phase” with Divine Providence is not a matter for him: he is always in contact with It, and his actions are always in accordance with the Divine Will.
No specific prayers, etc., after the Kabbalistic operations to “master the ego” are required because at this stage of the Magus’s development—a stage that allows him to approach the Holy Kabbalah—the ego has largely been reduced.
PAA: VIII ERJ footnote: seven subplanes and Perfect Adepts
In response to the footnotes for the ERJ formula in KTQ, it’s mentioned in the footnotes that the 7 planes referred to are actually the 7 sub-planes of the physical-Etherical reality that we are bound to until one becomes a Perfect Adept. the 7 subplanes / 70 qualities arranged like a “Jacob’s Ladder” (intersecting, analogous subplanes) or entirely linear?
The Planes and their septenary subdivisions interlock and interpenetrate. They are distinguished by their respective frequencies. Imagining them as arranged on a Jacob’s ladder, or following a line, is false. For educational purposes, they are presented as being placed one on top of the other, from bottom to top. The footnote therefore explains that we are currently evolving in the most material spatio temporal zone of the Manifested Universe.
PAA: IX What sets apart an Adept from a “Perfect Adept”?
In the lexicon of esotericism, the word “Adept,” with a capital “A,” designates a Master of Wisdom, a “Buddha,” a being who has transcended his or her human nature and achieved the State of Ultimate Consciousness. Consequently, there are no half measures in Adepthood, “distinguishing an Adept from a perfect Adept.”
This word, written with a lowercase “a,” designates one who adheres to a given philosophy or religion.
PAA: X For days when you can’t practice the Bardon exercises, is there a single meditation or practice that can replace them all?
The exercise of Mental Emptiness which leads the student to “taste” the Sublime Presence of the Divine within himself and, always, “consciousness in the present”.
PAA: XI How has your relationship to—and understanding of—God developed over the years of your training?
The answer would be useless since the path depends, as has already been stated, on the initial structure of each person. Understanding and relating to the Divine are personal experiences and often inexpressible – or formulatable with human words – even to oneself.
PAA: XII How did you first start your magical practice? What led you to Franz Bardon’s work and has the result of this work matched your expectations.
The first question is personal; therefore, we cannot answer it.
As for the second question: anyone who approaches the Path of Theurgy (White Magic) finds themselves face to face with this Great Mage, Franz Bardon.
Finally, as for the third question: if there had been no satisfactory results, would Bardon’s works have been translated into French and disseminated in that language?
PAA: XIII Often we look at the description of the Elemental beings and the beings of PME – have Franz Bardons description matched your personal experiences with these beings?
Franz Bardon explains that spirits are an “energy/signature”: the way we perceive them, or their form, is linked to their abilities and qualities.
An Indian in Bangalore will likely see a spirit with an Indian appearance, while a Danish magician might see a spirit with blond hair, but they will all be the same spirit: the symbols that describe the qualities, the spirit’s origin, and its positive or negative qualities will all be presented to both magicians through the prism of their respective cultural symbolism.
PAA: XIV Do you think physical evocation is a good use of Magicians time or should the magician spend most of his/her time using mental wandering to go the beings sphere rather than bringing/inviting them here?
In our experience, it is better to mentally solicit the Intelligences of the Spheres described by Franz Bardon than to evoke them on the Physical Plane. They will instruct us in various magical techniques and will willingly perform requested work (help for ourselves and others).
As for the use of our lives, it is better, in our opinion, to pursue the daily purification of our subtle structure because without it, no progress will be possible. Moreover, in addition to the daily examination of our consciousness, our flaws and qualities, and the good thoughts and feelings to maintain towards all beings, we must always return to Mental Emptiness and “present awareness,” because these two practices— combined with those mentioned—are those that lead to Ultimate Consciousness. Once this is acquired, everything becomes possible, without rite, without outfit, without candle… To act then for oneself and the good of all beings, it will be enough to think and feel linked to the latter, and this, in all space and time. This is true Magic, Structural Magic.
PAA: XV Much has been made of Stejnar discovery re the names of spirits and the u se of a Cipher . http://abardoncompanion.de/Stejnar.html What are your thoughts on this?
Solar Intelligences are extremely difficult to pin down, and it makes sense to keep their names slightly obscure: we believe Franz Bardon used the combination you mention to protect readers and followers.
An experienced magician can see the Entities and ask them questions, just as one might ask for directions on the street: thus, this magician can simply ask the Entity to confirm its name if he or she doubts the names given by Franz Bardon.
We will then discover that the problem is resolved more quickly than we thought. Here again, the ability to invoke or contact the Intelligences is linked to the purity of our structure. Thus, when we are finally ready to evoke them, the answer to this question will be obvious.
PAA: On behalf of the the community I would like to thank you for your thoughtful and detailed answers to the communities questions. Your time and generous sharing is greatly appreciated.
The exit into the astral body is accompanied by the exit of a part of the etheric double; the other part of the latter remains in the physical body, firmly attached to it by the “silver cord” which is anchored in the etheric heart. If this cord detaches from the heart, it is the beginning of death. ↩︎
When we present the Daath Tree as a Sephira, we obtain 3 Quaternaries, that is to say 12 Centers of Force which are summarized in the initial Ternary of the expression of Life (12 = 1 + 2 =3 ). ↩︎
Although the “true” Divine Manifestation begins with the “trembling” of Manifestation in the Great Breath that Kabbalah calls the “Three Veils”: Ain, Ain Soph and Ain Soph Aour. From the latter springs the Light that will create and flow over the entire Universe which becomes “God Manifested”. ↩︎
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We’re particularly interested in teachers who can offer what books alone cannot. Transmissions. Energetic attunements. The nuanced adjustments that only come from direct instruction. The ability to recognize where a student is actually stuck versus where they think they’re stuck.
What We Value
Practical Application Over Theory We’re drawn to teachers who emphasize what works in practice. Theory has its place, but only when it serves the development of genuine skill.
Integrity and Authenticity Trust matters enormously to us. We work with people we respect, who have sincere intentions to help students grow. We don’t expect everyone to agree on everything—that’s not how real development happens—but we do insist on genuine dedication to the craft.
Diverse Perspectives Perseus isn’t about creating a monolithic approach. We believe the community benefits when different traditions and viewpoints can coexist. Whether you work within the Franz Bardon framework, follow Tantric practices, train in internal martial arts, or have synthesized your own approach from multiple sources—if you have something valuable to share, we want to hear from you.
Accessibility Without Dilution We aim for the highest level of clarity and accessibility, but not at the expense of depth. The goal is to make profound teachings available to serious students, not to water them down for mass consumption.
The Perseus Approach
We don’t gatekeep. We don’t control. We’re a platform, not a hierarchy.
When you write for us or teach through us, you express your path in your own way. We give you the space to be yourself—whether that’s through detailed technical instruction, personal narrative, humor, or whatever communication style actually reflects who you are. The teaching personalities we present are authentic expressions, not corporate personas.
We’ve found that when practitioners can speak naturally about their work—sharing both the profound breakthroughs and the mundane challenges, the sacred and the everyday—students connect with the material far more deeply. They see that the people doing this work are human, with strengths and weaknesses, and that makes the path feel more attainable.
What Happens Next
If this resonates with you, reach out. Tell us about your background, what you’ve trained in, and what you might want to share.
For guest posts, give us a sense of the topic you’d like to write about and your angle on it. We’re not looking for formal proposals—just a clear indication that you have something genuine to contribute.
For potential course instructors, let us know what system or skills you’d want to teach, your background in it, and what kind of course format you envision. We can discuss the details from there.
The magical arts benefit when knowledge moves freely between those who have it and those who need it. If you’re someone with real experience and the ability to transmit it, we’d be honored to provide the platform.
Contact: contact@perseusarcaneacademy.com
We look forward to hearing from you.
Learn About Sixty Skills
SixtySkills is transforming the traditional transmission of meditative, and yogic, instruction from one of master to disciple to a modern online learning format. SixtySkills has covered the globe and over a thrity year period derived the key techniques from all the major schools of Buddhism, Hermetics, Hindu-Yogic, and Taoist practice.
