The Real Death of Dr. Joseph Lisiewski

By Mark Stavish

Edited by Alfred DeStefano III

Copyright 2016

It has been eight weeks since the death of Dr. Joseph Charles Lisiewski on July 2, 2016, one week past the traditional allotted mourning period and series of prayers offered to assist in his transition to a better existence – an existence he neither truly believed in nor cared about, as  Lisiewski had no interest in notions of “life after death” or “reincarnation.” This is demonstrated in his novel Night Shadow, which concerns necromancy, although not in the context of a magician raising the dead, but rather of a magician being raised from the dead. Indeed, his entire life’s work was dedicated to the perfection of time travel so that he could go back in time and start his life over again at the age of twelve, thereby avoiding the magical path in its entirety. Like so many who had gone before him – his teacher and friend Israel Regardie included – Lisiewski found that magic often takes far in excess of what it gives in return. For him, that was a lifetime and more.

            The question many of you have at this moment is: does it have to be that way? Does magic always have to be loss and suffering? The answer is a difficult one, and in fact is answerable only on an individual basis. For this, we need to look at Lisiewski’s life, what drove him to occultism, what he expected to get from it, and the lessons we might learn from his experiences.

            The post-World War Two coal regions of Eastern and Central Pennsylvania in the 1950s and 1960s are where Lisiewski was born and grew to manhood. This was a difficult existence ruled in many ways by the Roman Catholic Church and collapsing coal and rail industries, with  high rates of alcoholism and various other forms of abuse. It was – for those with some money, smarts, and talent – a place that could be either a pleasantly quiet middle-class life or a place to escape from for broader horizons beyond the Blue Mountains. However, without brains, talent, or money, it could just as easily be a prison for the mind and soul, where each day was the same as the last until you died.

            Lisiewski had no money, but he had brains, talent, and ambition, and with it sought his way out. Magic would be the tool that would catapult him to greater opportunity and a success that demonstrated to those he left behind his greatness – his natural superiority. You see, Lisiewski was fond of stating that when he was still a child the school counselor told his parents that he was of marginal intelligence and would “make a good plumber's assistant if he worked hard.” To rise above such low expectations and achieve a graduate degree in Chemical Engineering, later furthering his work with a doctoral program in physics, was Lisiewski’s great achievement in many ways – but it was not enough. The rage he had over his early upbringing was clearly expressed in his novel The Altar Path, wherein the town of Defiance, Pennsylvania, is wiped from the map by an act of black magic – in many ways making Lisiewski’s story a cross between the Tibetan Milarepa and Faust.

            The last time I saw Lisiewski we sat down in his living room, he on a couch and I on a rolling desk chair opposite him with a table between us. The table was covered with material he was working on. He asked me to get a book for him. It was The Great Book of Magical Art, Hindu Magic and East Indian Occultism, and the Book of Secret Hindu, Ceremonial and Talismanic Magic by L. W. de Laurence. Inside was a slip of paper; written on it in faded ink by a much younger hand was an outline of ceremonial evocation. This was the book he and his friend had used to perform their now-famous evocation, the first of many that would propel Lisiewski down the occult path and his friend into the military and priesthood.

            After discussing that very first operation we talked about The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy and a few related topics, specifically which systems of magic he believed worked (and why), which ones did not, and the reconciliation of inconsistencies in various manuscripts. He then presented me with a copy of The Magus by Francis Barrett and several books on the Shem-Hamaphoresch. All this was in addition to a complete set of Lynn Thorndyke's History of Magic and Experimental Science which he had given me the previous day. This particular set was an ex-library copy from the Lamar Community College, Lamar, Colorado. He told me I could take any books I wanted, but I did not take anything.

            The straightforward, guns blazing, no-holds-barred approach Lisiewski brought to his writing he also brought to his relationships. He was a true Aries, his birth sign: everything was an offensive to be launched, a battle to be won. He often asked how it was that we remained friends for so long, to which I replied, “Because I accept you as you are.”

Accepting people and things “as they are” is not something Lisiewski was able to do, even when that acceptance was to be applied to himself. Of course the desire for change is what propelled him to some significant degree of academic and occult achievement – otherwise you would not be reading this article. However, this desire for achievement, accomplishment, and success – all important goals – were tainted by anger. This anger infected everything he did and poisoned not only his personal and professional relationships, but also himself. He would frequently burst into obscenity-laden tirades that bordered on Tourette’s Syndrome. Several times I simply put the phone down and walked away, or would interrupt him and tell him to stop, as such behavior did neither him nor me any good. You see, what really killed Joseph Lisiewski was not cancer from a lifetime of smoking (something he did even when I was visiting him) nor damage to his liver from a period of alcoholism, but anger, a rage so palpable that in the end it exhausted him and left him with only the contents of his own mind.

Now before anyone rushes to judgment or claps their hands in glee, take a warning from Lisiewski’s life and accomplishments (which were many).  In the end he died in pain, both physical and mental – a pain that might have been foreshadowed in his nearly unreadable novel Geometries of the Mind, a tale of descent into madness, in which the back jacket copy reads, “[Lisiewski] takes the reader on a terrifying journey into the depths of one man’s mind who dared to play God.”  In his Water Work and experimentation with the Homunculus, this is not far from the truth.

It would be nice to point to Lisiewski and say he was the exception: misunderstood genius, occultist who was “human, all too human.”  But in the end, he is too often the norm. If we look at his peers and many in the occult circles he ran in during the 1960s through 1980s --  even into the 1990s -- we see too many common denominators among the authors of that period,  particularly those authors of a small group who were associated with the Golden Dawn, the OTO, AA, and associated streams of eclectic magic often focusing on demonic evocation.  Despite their intellectual brilliance and flare for language (particularly sarcasm), far too many of them smoked, drank, were obese, ate poorly, and died of cancer or accidental overdose, financially broke and leaving their families with little or nothing other than bills to pay. All of this happened a decade or more short of the expected lifespan of the average American male. Thus, if you want to be miserable, broke, and dead by sixty or sixty-five years of age, follow their real-life examples, not just their published ones.

Anger is destructive to the mind, brain, and body. Nothing can be built on it that will last. While Lisiewski managed to have the achievement of experiencing Knowledge and Conversation with his Holy Guardian Angel, he could not achieve his True Will, because his will was divided by anger. To achieve his True Will, he needed to reconcile what modern magicians call the Pillars of Mercy and Severity, particularly of Geburah and Chesed. This can only be done with great personal courage and strength. More importantly, it requires love. Love is essential for bridging this illusory divide. Like nearly every one of his peers, and many now in the occult community – particularly its most vocal leaders – Lisiewski chained himself to the Pillar of Severity. We see the same in those of lesser caliber, with their incessant bickering, name calling, and nit-picking at ritual minutiae. Ultimately we see the results of this in their failed relationships, be it with fellow lodge members, professionally, or even personally.

The Path of the Tower is the lesser reflection of the Path of Strength that Lisiewski sought to cross but failed.  It is critical for our health and wellbeing that we learn to have meaningful relationships of a social, professional, and personal nature. To achieve this goal, the powers of Netzach need to be integrated into our life. For too many people, failure to achieve a genuinely loving relationship with others is masked in isolation, the false Path of the Hermit, rather than in its actual reconciliation. In some ways this is still preferable to the nearly constant arguing, bickering, and moralizing (of all sorts) that contaminate modern magical movements. Sarcasm – the verbal weapon of choice among the brilliant but emotionally immature – is veiled anger, no matter how funny it may appear at the moment. It is a way of slapping someone when the speaker has neither the ability nor the courage to do so physically in person. Sarcasm increases problems in life, it cannot solve them; it is intellectual pride. This is important: verbal sparring and even combat are vices of Hod, of Mercury, of the Mind, that must be overcome if lasting awareness of these other areas of life symbolized by the “Middle Triad” of Spheres on the Tree of Life are to be integrated into our life and not be the forces that explode it or end up cutting it short.

I am simply reminded of the sad and short obituary that appeared for Lisiewski after his death, made poetic in comparison to the even shorter one posted by one of his (and my) current publishers. One would think that after a lifetime of occultism a bit more would have been said about his life rather than the apparent desire to simply forget it and move on. But rage does that:   it turns relationships of a lifetime into a passing comment between webpage updates.

Lisiewski, however, is not alone in this situation. I am reminded of several well-known authors of books on demonic evocation, and of one in particular who was said to have been able to evoke every kind of angel and demon. When he died – I am told “in his own waste with no one to claim the body” -- no obituary of any kind appeared, and those who knew him are to this day unable or unwilling to say any more about him than “he came to a bad end.” 

Yet, the Splendor Solis (a book of alchemy often compared to the tarot because of its twenty-two plates) finishes with a blessing: that the alchemist should come to a “good end.”  That is: our lives are to be happy, healthy, prosperous, long, and a blessing to ourselves and others. This blessing is, in simple terms, helping ourselves and those we encounter to actualize their potential, their fullness of Being. While anger can point to things that need to be cleared for that to happen, in itself it is not the tool that makes it happen. It is the sword that cuts the undergrowth; it is not the spade that digs the earth nor the plough that makes for planting the seeds. Anger, self-righteousness, and pride are a powerfully destructive trinity that must be transformed before they destroy us – and destroy us they will if we do not bring the Three Daughters of Sophia (Faith, Hope, and Charity/Love) into our life.

            This moral principle is even more important today, as we see the notion of magical curses and hexing taking center stage in certain circles – the idea being that it is not for personal gain or revenge, but for “justice.” Several forums have been held wherein the discussion centered on the question of hexing being appropriate or not. For an adept of any worth this is a simple question with a simple answer: if you have to ask, then it is beyond you. By this we mean that for every action there is a reaction, a result (karma if you will), and if you do not understand the effects of your actions then they are beyond your capacity to perform without great risk of injury and harm to yourself and others. Everything we invoke or evoke must first work in and through us. We cannot escape the fruits of our actions. If you seek to invoke Justice, then be prepared for Justice to act in, on, and through you as well.

            This leads us to the discussion of Pride, the worst of sins, as it is the hardest to overcome. Pride is considered “Luciferian” or “Satanic” because it is not the Divine Pride of the Vajrayana practitioner who seeks to express his or her fullest potential, nor pride in a job well done as we teach our children. Instead, the Vice of Pride separates us from our fellow beings – not just humans, but all classes of beings – and in our mind and action places them in a defined position of servitude in relation to us, regardless of their actual hierarchical rank.

When we separate occult practices too distantly from basic moral and ethical principles, we lose sight of the interconnectedness of all the cosmos. It is this cosmos wherein our magic takes place. Contemporary magicians, regardless of what system they are practicing, need to pay close heed to these words if they wish to accomplish their goals through metaphysical means.

In closing, perhaps it is best to remind ourselves of 1 Corinthians, 1-13:

If I shall speak with every human and Angelic language and have no love in me, I shall be clanging brass or a noise-making cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and I know all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so that I may remove mountains, and I have no love in me, I would be nothing. And if I should feed everything that I have to the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned up and I have no love in me, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and sweet; love does not envy; love is not upset neither puffed up. Love does not commit what is shameful, neither does it seek its own; it is not provoked, neither does it entertain evil thoughts, rejoices not in evil, but rejoices in the truth, endures all things, believes all things, hopes all, bears all.

Love never fails; for prophecies shall cease, tongues shall be silenced and knowledge will be nothing; for we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when perfection shall come, then that which is partial shall be nothing. When I was a child, I was speaking as a child, I was led as a child, I was thinking as a child, but when I became a man, I ceased these childish things. Now we see as in a mirror, in an allegory, but then face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I shall know as I am known. For there are these three things that endure: Faith, Hope, and Love, but the greatest of these is Love.

At some point I will say more about the last evocation Lisiewski performed: its results, what he experienced, and my destruction of his magical tools. Suffice it to say that during their destruction by fire, a terrific downpour was building immediately above me which I barely escaped; for six months afterwards I suffered from severe tendonitis in my right elbow. You cannot touch evil and get away unscathed – but it can be purified.  

Remember always that Love – be it Eros, Philo, or Agape – is the key to magical realization; by doing so, may each and every one of you come to  a “Good End.”

The Problem of Evil

By Mark Stavish

[Originally posted in VOXHERMES in 2004.]

The problem of evil is a perennial one for students of esotericism. Various philosophies address the problem in different manners, but in synthesis, there seems to be several distinct areas of overlap and agreement.

         While alchemy does not address the idea of evil directly, it speaks of purification, sublimation, and other acts that suggest that our emotions, physical matter, and thoughts can exist in an imperfect state and somehow brought to perfection, or at the very least, a more desirable condition. All matter is imperfect compared to its spiritual archetype that it incarnates, but it is not evil, that is, in active and conscious rebellion against the ‘Good.’

Gnosticism addresses evil in two ways: relative and absolute. Matter and material life are seen as undesirable, as they are prison houses of the spirit. Like various schools of yoga and Buddhism, material life is to be escaped from and is de facto ‘evil.’ Matter keeps us from being free, unhindered, and spiritual beings without temptations and passions. This is interesting in light of the idea that the early angels united ‘with the daughters of men’ and thereby created offspring of legend referred to as ‘giants’ in the Old Testament. Clearly being ‘spiritual’ or without a physical body isn’t enough when it comes to being ‘passionless,’ but this seems to escape most of the discussion in this area.

Qabala is among the most balanced of the approaches in that it sees evil as relative, and necessary. It is to be overcome without condemning the material world.

In fact, in Qabala and Alchemy material life is our life. It is where we are in the here and now. We can think of earth as a school, a prison, a blank slate, or as whatever we like. Even if we believe in life having an evolutionary purpose and the influence of astrological Signs and Ages to push humanity along, life has no meaning until we give it meaning. All the guiding and directing in the cosmos is worthless unless we commit ourselves to a cause, something greater than ourselves, and work to express it, even if we may not live to see it.

The great cathedrals of Europe, temples of the ancients, and other places of majesty and wonder were built by people who would never live to see them completed. While for many of them it was just a job same as any other, or forced labor as a slave or serf, many of the artisans and professional builders employed took great pride in their work and saw it for what it was – a monument to something greater than the limits of earthly human life. Even in anonymity, their lives had, and still do, great meaning as we worship, tour, or simply admire from a distance, their labor, centuries after it was completed.

If you see material existence as good or evil, this is a reflection of your inner life. We hear often of the power of positive thinking, and the more cynical among us, who are often the more intelligent as well, sneer and either disregard it or simply pay lip service to the idea.

In truth, “Positive Thinking” is in many ways a lie. However, the reason is not in the idea, or theory, but the language used to transmit it. When we conceptualize the idea of thinking, it is often relegated to the idea of problem solving, and as such, rational and logical processes. However, thinking is more than logic, or problem solving, it is our worldview. Our thinking is the filter we use to process the world, how it works, our place in it, and relationship to others.

The greatest power in our ‘thinking process’ is not our ability to reason and use logic, but our ability to feel. Our emotions are our greatest asset in this area. If we ‘feel’ positively about life, then life takes on a flavor, color, or experience that logic and reason cannot transmit. Emotions are the driving force, the energy of the psyche, of human consciousness. When talk of the “Power of Positive Thinking” what is really being said is the “Power of Positive Feeling.”

Studies have shown that ‘optimists’ are more successful than ‘realists.’ This fundamental fact explains why so many smart people are often so under-achieving, under-paid, and under-fulfilled with their lives.

Modern educational systems develop the rational and logical at the expense of the emotional. Cynicism is encouraged and rewarded by the media, and academia. Yet if we look closely at ‘realists’ we see that they are essentially looking for an excuse not to act. They are afraid of failure, of making a mistake, of essentially living, and also of dying.

If you come to accept your mortality, then fear drips away, and problems of success, failure, even good and evil take on a more manageable perspective. Accept this – you will die, so act, and act as if it is today, for someday it will be.

This doesn’t mean that we throw away our resources, or ignore reason and logic, but instead, that after considering them, we still pick something and dedicate ourselves to its realization.

If you would like to be successful, and find meaning in your life, you must first decide what is the single thing you want to accomplish. What do you want to dedicate your limited, and numbered human days to promoting, building, and embodying even if you do not live to see its fruition?

Second, turn off your television. Get rig of cable, satellite TV, or whatever it is that you plug into that drains your life force.

Third, meet and collaborate with others who are seeking to build and promote their lives, even if their projects are not esoteric or spiritual in nature, so long as they are developing, encouraging, and demonstrating the effectiveness of an ‘optimistic’ attitude.

Fourth, do not discuss your plans with anyone who cannot directly assist you in their fruition. Avoid nay sayers and similar ‘realists’ who will tell you from their position of superiority, built upon a mountain of failure and self-imposed fears and limitations, that what ever ‘It’ is, ‘it can’t be done.’

Fifth, read biographies about the great men and women who have overcome all obstacles to achieve their dreams. Even if the books are older, and the stories slightly romanticized, read them anyhow. It is inspiration and example that you are seeking to internalize and emulate, not a ‘tell-all’ expose. A wonderful example of this kind of inspirational biographical writing is Twelve Against the Gods by William Bolitho.

Sixth, and finally, give back, here and now. Generosity is a form of confidence in the future, as well as gratitude for what you have. Give of your time, knowledge, and material wealth. All three must be given for this to work, because in doing so, you create a chain of events and habits, that will cascade back onto you and reward you with opportunities otherwise outside your reach. In your acts of generosity of time, talent, and treasure, your true inner attitude, deepest held feelings, are revealed. However, the time is now, and without concern for your ‘personal reward’ that might come as a result of your actions. Give, give generously, give wisely, give regularly, and give impersonally.

In doing this, you create a better life for yourself, and a better world for others in which evil has no place to hide or to grow.

This document may be cross-posted as long as the authorship and copyright attribution remains intact.

The Inner Way – The Power of Prayer and Belief in Spiritual Practice

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Some Easter Ruminations

by Mark Stavish

First Published 2013

Easter is an interesting holiday deeply rooted, we are routinely reminded, in pagan cults and their attendant practices. While such recognition is important for our understanding, it often does little in terms of our actual practice, and it is from practice that we derive the experiences that provide us with the experiences of illumination. Holy week in particular was once a special time for those interested in the Rosicrucian mysteries. Meditation, using the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz, provided a means of tying in this strange and wonderful tale into the Christian liturgical calendar. During my early days in alchemy I was often told of how the crucifixion provided an alchemical allegory. The cross, being the symbol of Saturn, as well as death, formed the focal point of the Work for unlocking the inner Christ, or Light, through its 'death'. The offering of the sponge soaked in vinegar hinted as the medium to be used in the extraction – an acid – and through it, the 'blood' or red oil of lead could be obtained. Hanz Nintzel told this story on several occasions, and I understand that it had its origins in Frater Albertus's alchemical classes, held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

During a recent class held in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, of which recordings are available, I recounted a story I was told as a child. Herein, the death of Christ was in part the process of death itself, in its ideal form. That is, the thieves represent the side channels or Pillars of the psychic anatomy. It is through these channels that our consciousness experiences different phenomena. While this phenomena is natural, it is often overwhelming to us, and is the source of our suffering as we get trapped in the sensations of life and fail to understand their meaning. Chasing these physical and psychic sensations robs us of our lives, and we die, without experience or faith in anything other than our limited notions of self. In life, just as in the Gospel story, the side channels or thieves die or collapse first, sending their energy into the central channel or Middle Pillar. 

The thief who confesses at the end, tells us that despite however we live our lives, there is always the opportunity to redeem ourselves at any moment. This is not the same as a 'death bed confession' wherein one seeks to cheat justice, but a true realization and insight into the nature of life. It is a true conversion experience, for conversion comes from the root, 'to turn around'. In turning our back on ignorance, sin, and death, we enter into wisdom, joy, and life – the fruits of salvation, itself which means to be protected from harm and suffering – “The Lord is my refuge, the Most High my habitation.” 

Just as Christ dies, he says, “Into your hands, I commend my spirit!” It is this way, we are told we should die. Without fear, and with confidence in what is to come – the same way we are told to live. Christ is crucified on Golgotha or the Place of the Skull. Here again, it is said, that when we die, we should imagine the heavenly realm before us, or have as the Catholics do, a Cross, image of Christ, or Mary before us where it can easily be seen. The ideal here is that when we die, our consciousness will exit through the top of our skulls, through the central column, the location of the Christ's Cross, and we will enter into the heavenly realms easily. This is nearly identical to the practice of phowa practiced within Tibetan Buddhism. 

The descent into hell, ascent into heaven, and resurrection are the after life experiences we will have. The encounter of our inner demons and their redemption, the bliss of the heavenly realms, and the inevitable rebirth to finish our Work. This rebirth will be either in physical form, through normal biological means, or in the Body of Light, the Resurrection Body of perfected Illumination. 

Mary Magdalene, herself cleansed of seven demons by Jesus, is said to have presented a red egg to Tiberius Caesar. The red egg is given as the reason we dye eggs at Easter, and its symbolism for rebirth, as well as the in alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone is well known. Magdalene has a special place, as she is the source of awakening in this world, hence making her the Bride of Christ. 

While there is more to the story, that is all for now. I hope that you will find this of use for your weekend meditation. Happy Easter.


[The audio program mentioned can be found at YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIDKj7SCI0FzcyCifWsdqMA ]

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Fourth Sunday After Epiphany - Church of St. Cyprian the Mage of Antioch

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

Church of St. Cyprian the Mage of Antioch

The theme for this week's sermon is “deliver us from evil.” Here we most easily think of evil as something to be feared, as if evil were some great cosmic force that can act upon us without our conscious or unconscious participation. To better grasp this, we need to look at what evil actually is, and what it is not.

For far too long evil in the Christian traditions was viewed as an absolute and powerful force from which we needed to be protected. By the mid-twentieth century this way of thinking began to wane and even the belief in evil as an absolute shifted to that of a relative evil. By this we mean that evil was increasingly seen, like sin, its fruit, to be relative to the individual and their circumstances, their state of mind, and not something that was easily defined by previous ethical and moral standards. In many ways this was a significant improvement over the old notion of Satan lurking around waiting to catch sinners and pull them to hell for all eternity, but at the same time it was deceptive in that it began to weaken the notion of evil existing at all. In short, it was an effort by the Churches to modernize and also, whether they knew it or not, to present a more initiatic view of evil to laity. The only problem was the laity was generally unprepared. 

Yet, it is terribly difficult to speak of the absence of evil or its relative nature when we see so much suffering in the world. So for many, this small step forward in the teachings of the Christian churches was denounced as potentially leading to chaos. You see, the role of the Church is to provide moral and ethical teachings that reduce the role of sin and suffering, the fruit of evil, in the lives of individuals and communities. Without a standard where would we be?

However, reduction is not elimination, as elimination is not possible. In the Nicene Creed we hear that Jesus Christ “descended into hell” to preach to the Fallen Spirits and redeem those who would listen. He could not redeem them all. Even in the most dramatic of magical operations, those involving the evocation of demonic beings, evil is never eliminated, it is simply used to a better end. Herein we get a clue about the nature of evil, or at least of what we have come to believe is and is not evil, and how we address it in our daily lives. It is sufficient to say that the ideas around what is sinful, or what drives us away from God and into the waiting hands of Satan, is a difficult and confusing topic, one made worse by some excessive moralizing. However, at the end of the day, evil does exist, as does hell. Too many modern esotericists prefer to ignore these points.

So, for the sake of our meditations, let us consider the following:

In the exoteric teachings, evil exists as a semi-independent force, entity, or intelligence that preys upon individual weakness. We have little ability on our own to overcome evil and so must call upon the powers of God the Father to protect us throughout the days of our life. To avoid evil we avoid those ideas and actions that would put us in a state of temptation. Strict moral and ethical codes are adhered to so that this will not happen or can be successfully dealt with when it does.

From the view of religious mysticism, the first of the esoteric levels, evil is more personal than general, even if prophetic or semi-prophetic visions are experienced. We say more personal because it is within the mind of the devotee that these ideas are experienced – such as during prayer or meditation – or simply realized. It is deeply personal. The various scriptures and hagiographies of devotees, saints, and students of the Mysteries are filled with examples of this kind of experience: St. Anthony, the desert hermit; Padre Pio, whom many adore; along with nearly every Roman Catholic saint. However, we also have many shamanic encounters with the invisible that are less than pleasant, and if we look at many of the religious practices around the world we see that the role of exorcist, that of one who delivers others from evil, is a critical role in the health and well being of the community. Here we begin to see that absolute evil may exist, but its power is not absolute. The negative ideas that lead to destructive actions can be overcome – with the help of the invisible in the form of angels, with the help of the saints, and with the help of the devoted and faithful appealing for assistance. For the practicing qabalist, the line “deliver us from evil” in the Lord's Prayer is an effective exorcism or purification of our personal sphere of Yesod on the Tree of Life. It is Yesod, our own unconscious, wherein we must wrestle to overcome those things which tempt us.

Intitiatically, evil is very relative, as even the demons are fallen angels, just as a vice is a virtue used to an extreme. That is, appreciation of the good and the beautiful and a general openness to a variety of life's experiences can easily lead to gluttony, sloth, and debauchery. We are able to convert our vices into virtues because they are two sides of the same coin. However do we not hear of demons having powers similar to those of angels? One cannot exist without the other. Here we also realize that the 'powers of the earth' are indeed the same as the 'powers of heaven' and that it is our perceptions that define good and evil rather than their being something absolute. The criminal acts in a manner that is destructive but believes it to be in his or her own best interest to do so; the victim or injured party feels quite the opposite! But who makes the laws? What standard do we use? To this, the only laws that can apply are the two commandments given by Jesus, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself and the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”. Yet, as simple as this sounds, even a few minutes of contemplation on it will demonstrate how difficult and even individualistic it will be in practice. It is the principal of karma, cause and result, that Jesus is reminding us of here. Karma is the absolute law of the cosmos, and that is clearly realized in initiatic practices. It was to this end that we offered you “Khamael's Spear” so that you might have some meditations available to you to begin this path of general transformation for yourself and others.

Possibly the most famous of these transformative practices in Western occultism is the magical retreat as set down by Abramelin the Mage, wherein, after realization of his Holy Guardian Angel he proceeds to command the Kings of Hell and their legions and extract obedience from them. Here we see the meaning of “Order out of chaos”. Previously powerful and destructive forces no longer affect us negatively, but it is we who have control over them and even benefit from their previously ill-used or understood strengths. For more information on understanding this level of work, see the works of William G. Gray: Ritual Magic Methods (final chapter), Tree of Evil, and Between Good and Evil – Polarities of Power. Gray's writings are those of direct and personal experience, often neglected by modern occultists in favor of other writers whose prose is more appetizing, but content less filling.

From the view of the Supreme level, or Direct Experience, evil is a willful and conscious decision to do that which is injurious to others and ourselves, to know that it is such, and to do it regardless. There is no ambiguity here. Nor is there a sense that evil can be eliminated on some cosmic scale because it can only be overcome by each of us individually. “Just say no,” is the answer or, as Jesus said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Satan, the Opposition, is essential, and in fact is not evil, any more than the Angel Michael is good. It is how we respond to situations that decide our destiny, our salvation or damnation, not absolutes. How often have we not heard from the great mystics such as Swedenborg, Boehme, and Blake that it is we who “make a heaven out of hell, or a hell out of heaven”? The cycles of life necessitate duality for us to learn, and it is here, that we stand outside the cycles of time, even if only for a moment, and know the role and power of all of the divine forces within us. This is the cosmos, the whole; this is cosmic consciousness.

Second Sunday After Epiphany - The Church of St. Cyprian the Mage of Antioch

Second Sunday After Epiphany – The Church of St. Cyprian the Mage of Antioch

The theme for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany is “Grant us Thy Peace” where in Mystical Meditations on the Collects Dion Fortune inquires, “To whom are we directing this request?” The answer of course is to the Lord. This can be 1) an anthropomorphic idea of God as a vast and all-powerful personality; 2) an idea of a God incarnate as savior or avatar; 3) our own Holy Guardian Angel; or 4) simply asked to our Self of Self, our realization of “I am”. Herein we must ask, what is this peace that is so often invoked in churches where attendees are told to great each other with the 'kiss of peace' or in various Rosicrucian and Martinist movements in which Brothers and Sisters part with the “wish for Peace Profound” or write it on their correspondence?

The idea of peace is not well understood, as it is often perceived not as an active state but as a passive one. Peace is thought of as the opposite of conflict, of war. Peace is static while war is active. To attain peace we are told to sit still, relax, breathe deep, clear our mind of thoughts and activities, and meditate. While all this is true, and is part of the Path of Return that leads us to realizing Peace Profound, it is by no means the entire truth. In fact, it is only the beginning.

The general teachings about peace that we hear in churches, yoga studios, ashrams, and schools belong to an exoteric domain – to that of the Church and State – and mean just as we have said, the absence of conflict between people. In the esoteric domain, specifically that of Religious Mysticism, this peace is not simply the absence of violence – either of the direct or indirect type such as passive aggressiveness – but an active state of generating goodwill and harmony between people and conditions. In the esoteric level of Initiation where the techniques of transformation such as alchemy, ritual magic, astrology and talismans or methods of visualization are used, peace means actually embracing the energies of conflict, pain, and suffering and using them to aid us on our path as well as to transform or liberate them into something useful for ourselves and others.

In his works The Invisible Temple and The Nature and Use of Ritual for Spiritual Attainment, author Peter Roch de Coppens attributes the various lines of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, and other key Christian documents that embody the fundamental blueprints of the Western Spiritual Tradition, to the Tree of Life. In the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus Christ delivers the Beatitudes we hear, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God”. This is assigned the Sphere of Netzach which is no surprise given that Netzach is the sphere of love and affection. While Netzach is generally more focused on eros, rather than philos or agape, it is eros that is the basis for our ability to experience fraternal love (philos) and mystical union (agape). It is also the excessive sensuality of eros and transforming it into a love of things, comforts, luxuries, and continual sensory stimulation that eros goes from being an emotional gift to a toxic state. It is critical to keep in mind that here the senses are not limited to the five physical senses but also include the mind, as the sixth sense of Oriental philosophies. Mind is a function of consciousness, not its summation, and mind can be over or under stimulated.

This is why it is critical that we learn to understand the nature of our own mind and undertake the two most basic forms of meditation practice to do so. Without this understanding of our own mind, we run the risk of extreme delusion, even – and I do not say this lightly – mental health issues ranging from minor neurosis to major psychosis, in the undertaking of various occult practices, simply because we do not understand what is going on and the role we play in the experiences we are having as a result of visualization practices and rituals.

This is why peace, true peace, real peace is so hard to find, not only in the world in general but also in religious and esoteric groups in particular. This desire for inner peace is too often projected onto the external world where, as a result, social activism and political causes become the focus of many movements whose original purpose was self-discipline for the purpose of Self-realization or Illumination. When this fails, moralizing and forced compliance (which is a perversion of discipline) become the norm, under whatever the politically correct ideology of the day happens to be, and through it dominating the group culture. External peace, which is a mockery and shadow of true peace, is achieved through intimidation and force – all in the name of harmony and goodness of course. 

Dion Fortune states that the laws of God are the laws of Nature; they are one and the same. This fundamental truth is expressed in the Hermetic axiom, “As above, so below; as below, so above” or as more directly translated from the Emerald Tablet, “What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is similar to that which is below to accomplish the wonders of the one thing.” If we want peace, we must first clearly recognize what peace actually means and our role in manifesting it FIRST and FOREMOST in OURSELVES and then in the world around us. Anything else will be but a shadow of peace or, worse, a perversion and act of war in the name of peace. 

Thus, it is imperative that if we are truly to have peace, we must first establish it within ourselves before trying to establish it socially or on a community level. Only when we have it in ourselves are we truly able to transform negative and destructive forces into forces of peace, love, and harmony. Among the easiest and most effective techniques to aid us in this transformation are those found in Kabbalah for Health and Wellness in “Chapter Seven, The Crucible of the Heart – Inner Alchemy and Kabbalah”. There are also several methods given in the paper, Wisdom's Bliss – Developing Compassion in Western Esotericism. The key part of these is in recognizing our inter-relationship to others, doing our best to understand their perspective in the relationship, and actively desiring the best for all concerned without explicitly stating what the best may be leaving that up to God, Nature, or karma if you will. Finally, realizing that negative energies can be transformed, actively transforming them, and using difficult situations as an opportunity for Illumination rather than as something to fear or run from.

This leads us to the most important part about Peace Profound – it is PROFOUND; it is great, deep, wise, and powerful. It is by no means static, nor is it afraid as nothing can stand against it, only be absorbed and transformed back into its original state of peace itself. Peace is unity, calm, tranquility even in the midst of chaos for it is untouched. It is the center point, the axis around which everything else exists. Therefore, peace profound is not limited to our periods of prayer and meditation but is available to us in the midst of action and activity wherein we can understand, direct, and participate in the activities of daily life without being overwhelmed by them, but instead to use and express our Peace through them. Our body may be in motion, our mind in motion solving problems, but we, from the center of consciousness, are still and relaxed. We are neither dwelling on the past nor anticipating the future, but focused exclusively on the moment and what is unfolding around and within us and from the Illuminated center, the Light of Nature, of our own consciousness. We respond accordingly, creatively, spontaneously, and with confidence and courage. This is peace profound, our very nature. 

Herein lies the great key, we have heard it many times, “Know thyself and you will know the gods”. You must understand your own mind. This Peace Profound is nothing other than your very Self, your own inherent nature, the fruit of the Path of Return that you carry with you always. It is inside of your own mind that you must look for it so that you may find and experience it. Then you will know the true meaning of the great words of His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, first unanimous head of the the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, when he said, “Enlightenment is the ultimate relaxation” or as the Scripture read, “Be still, and know that I am God.” This is the Non-Dual state of Ramada, of the Shivite Yogis, of Bon and Nyingma Dzogchen practitioners, of the Tao, and many others.  

In closing, let us ever remember to practice peace, knowing that it is that state from what the old Rosicrucians called, “Light, Life, and Love” emerged. It is in and from the state of Peace Profound that all things have their origin and their Return. It is Nature, and as such, is not something far off, but right here with us at all times. It is closer to us 'than the space between our breaths'.

First Sunday After Epiphany – The Church of St. Cyprian the Mage of Antioch

The Heart Unafraid is an oil painting by Leopold de Postels (1910-?) that was for many decades included in the Ninth Degree monographs of the Rosicrucian Order (AMORC). It is an interesting picture of a solitary figure at the end of a path that leads to the edge of a cliff being battered by the elements. Standing upright, our figure in white faces lightning as it flashes against the night sky. Rain and winds storm around him – or her. In many ways this picture is a wonderful representation of the Path between Hod and Tiphareth on the Tree of Life. A path sometimes requires a leap of faith to complete, total surrender and belief in the ideal, total confidence in the outcome.

This painting is also a wonderfully good example of the adept, of the Bodhisattva of Buddhism. When we hear the word bodhicitta, the keynote of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist practices, we often hear that it means compassion, but it is much more than that. It more accurately means “the courageous heart mind of enlightenment.” In many ancient and Eastern philosophies the heart is the center or home of human consciousness as well as the focus of inner strength and fortitude making it no surprise that the words for courage and heart are related through the same Latin root cor.

In this vein we see the difference between many ancient and modern practices as well as some very general cultural differences between Oriental and Occidental views on spirituality. This traditional difference between East and West can be summed up in the following: Eastern philosophies support the idea that you should learn to accept what you have and seek to understand it; whereas, Western philosophies tend towards promoting the idea of changing your life to have what you want. This is simplistic but true, particularly in contemporary spirituality and esotericism.

It is very important that we take control of our lives and, with that, take responsibility. In a society that has a great deal of wealth, mobility and opportunity, change is much easier to come by. In a society where wealth is more concentrated and social status is more static, opportunities are fewer and therefore change is less common. So, then, what can we do? As our solitary wonder at the end of the Path and at the edge of the cliff demonstrates, we must learn to live unafraid.

As Dion Fortune points out in her book, Mystical Meditations on the Collects, we are not led into the Wilderness to perish, but instead so that we may truly discover our Way – or as Louis Claude de St. Martin called it, The Path of Return. To do this we must first cease to ask God or anyone to fix our lives for us, to remove our burdens, or even simply to make our lives easier.

Before we can seek to change our lives we must first seek to understand them; this is the basis of cause and effect, of karma. We must first pray to have the wisdom, strength, and courage to accept what is before us and to make the best of it. We must seek to not be concerned only with our limited role, but to find a means of service in the circumstances we are experiencing. Once we understand and accept our situation, then we will have the ability to change it. Otherwise, we risk further confusing our life and the lives of those around us. Wisdom and acceptance come first, then courage and strength to endure and create positive change. In our daily and spiritual lives this means one of two things and they are not that dissimilar.

We must, as Fortune points out, completely and confidently commit ourselves to God and trust in the Divine. This can be done in the abstract or, more personally, in the form of our Holy Guardian Angel. Israel Regardie states the same in the final chapter to his book, The One Year Manual, wherein he states that each of us must consider those methods whereby our needs are to be met so that divine purpose may be fulfilled. To this end he continues:

“There are many ways, of course, to do this. One of these is the method described in... The Art of True Healing. It is a method of mobilizing the spiritual power of the cosmos through the agency of Will, color, imagination and sound in order to achieve that which is required. It is an extension of the Middle Pillar where divine energy is concentrated and directed for specific use. ....There is another approach which is possible only to that student who has persevered with his own disciplines so that he has become an avenue through which the Divine Will may operate. Its outstanding merit is that it is simple and direct. It is not dissimilar to the classical religious one of accepting Jesus as one's personal Lord and Savior, and turning one's life over to Him. This approach has it that we are eager to find Him when we come to realize that there is no source of power in ourselves, that we are wholly dependent on Him. We become eager to connect up with this Source of Life and Power when we know that it makes wisdom, power and love available for us. It is "the strait gate," "the narrow way," and "few there be that find it. " … In this work...we use the term "The Holy Guardian Angel" as the term for our own Higher Self. He is an angel, mighty and powerful and is our own personal link with the universal God, and so it is to Him that we submit ourselves for the fulfillment of His Will, which at the same time and paradoxically, is our will.

We cannot make a vital contact with our Angel by goodness or obedience...Nor may we find him because of our good deeds. At best, our good deeds are only the evidence that we have found him...Nor do we find Him by a belief in any religious, metaphysical or occult doctrine. At best these are intellectual constructs for the expansion of our minds but later come to have profound meaning as useful constructs only after we have found Him. If we are willing to persevere, to be patient, and to work at self-discipline, to aspire and to invoke often, the Angel will enable us to do all of this. ... We do not have to do violence to ourselves to force ourselves to believe in Him; there is no need for force. We do not have to will ourselves to believe. We need only to be willing, to make the necessary set of gestures, sincerely and honestly — and then work and invoke often! It entails trusting the Holy Guardian Angel with all areas of our lives. In this we must face our egotism to realize that of ourselves we can do nothing, and what we are able to do can only result in futility and frustration. It means trusting the Angel to renew our character; we cannot do it ourselves. We turn over to Him the entire psyche, with all its conscious and unconscious problems and complexes which we have become acquainted with through the agency of the former exercises— and perhaps through some psychotherapeutic work. But we leave it to Him to clean out the filth from the stables —when it ceases to be filth. Only He can do it; of ourselves we are impotent. It means allowing Him to dictate all our activities and keeping our hands and minds from meddling with His work, reserving them only as tools which He can use as He sees fit for our betterment and progress. We must not interfere with what He has to do. It means trusting Him as to our health and financial security. This does not mean that we become careless of our nutritional intake, our clothes or personal hygiene or that we drive the automobile with eyes closed. But it does mean that we stop worrying about what is going to become of us. We do the very best we can in any situation, knowing that He is guiding and guarding us — ...It means laying aside all our petty ambitions and objectives and permitting Him to plan our life for us. It may not result in the fulfillment of every ambition and objective, but we learn to rely solely upon Him, knowing that we will be guided constantly and continuously whether we are aware of it or not. It means putting away all our nice little occult philosophies and systems where everything is put into a neat cubbyhole and neatly compartmentalized and letting Him lead us to the Truth. It is the joy of putting aside our human frailties, of allowing Him to sanctify us...

...This is the magical way, of letting the Angel do His work among the living, of having placed oneself under the aegis of the Angel after having worked and prayed and invoked. From now on, the responsibility for all one's life in all its phases is taken from our petty egos with its limited vision and scope, and its wretched lust for results, and surrendered gladly to this higher agency which is Oneself Made Perfect....

These two paths can be defined as the Herculean or Heroic Path and the Path of Surrender. It would be too easy to classify them as the Path of Ritual or Transformation and the Path of Mysticism as they are more than that. In the Heroic Path we take full and complete control of our life through complete self-honesty, reflection, and awareness leading us to the full expression of our powers. In the Path of Surrender we take full and complete control of our life through taking responsibility for our daily life and being completely confident in the guiding and protecting influence of God or our Holy Guardian Angel in our life. Both require complete and utter confidence in our choice and, in turn, will make us open to the virtues of the other path. Both require vigilant attention to our own thoughts, words, and deeds and constant invocations and prayers to keep us on our chosen way. They also require that we relax, for relaxation is confidence, it is peace, it is certainty of our Way. Both are the expressions of the Path of Devotion, the path of love and confidence in our ideal, and it in us.

On the Exoteric Level, courage is physical as well as ethical in how we treat others. We treat others well because it is the correct thing to do and we do not fear real or imagined losses nor grasp after real or imagined gains.

On the level of Religious Mysticism, it is moral in that is focused on how we treat ourselves, for we can be kind to others, but horrible to ourselves. It also means surrender, or rather acceptance and confidence of the rulership of God in our life.

On the Initiatic Level, these ethical and moral practices are realized through the transformative powers of ritual, theurgy, prayer, alchemy, and meditation. The acceptance of God is not an abstraction but increasingly directly personal. We realize the omniscient power of cause and effect – we have courage because to have otherwise is to lack faith and confidence in ourselves. Herein the Gospel teaching “Know that ye are gods” becomes an increasing realization in our heart-mind.

On the Supreme or Ultimate Level, we realize that we are our Holy Guardian Angel, we are the self-expressing force of deity which is understood in the sacred words, “I am, that I am."

Those wishing more on these paths will find it in our audio program, The Mind of Hermes available at the Institute for Hermetic Studies Channel on YouTube.

The Feast of the Epiphany

The Feast of the Epiphany

Today is Three Kings’ Day, or the Feast of the Epiphany, which celebrates spiritual discernment or discrimination. Discrimination is the virtue of Malkuth on the Tree of Life and of the Neophyte and Zelator grades of several esoteric orders. As Dion Fortune points out in her book, Mystical Meditations on the Collects, the Wise Men saw a newborn and its mother, just like any other baby, but they also saw the Christ Child. That is, what would have appeared common to others was uncommon to them. They saw, and they KNEW, through the gift of clear vision or illumination. Fortune states, “Epiphany means the viewing. Let us pray that we may come to the sacraments with the seeing eyes of the Wise Men, discerning the spirit that animates them; and not, with the unheeding eyes of the hurrying servants, seeing nothing but the outer form.” Seeing the Light, Life, and Love that resides within the sacramental rituals of Church, Order, or Fraternity is the first step to developing the clear and awakened mind and, with it, the 'magical worldview' that allows us to see first the uncommon among the common, and then the animating spirit everywhere – the Prima Materia of the alchemists. Herein lies the nature of the Kingdom of God on Earth or, as some call it, Building the Mandala, or Enlightened World.

On the Outer or Exoteric Level, the Feast of the Epiphany marks the historical birth of Jesus and the events surrounding it including the visitation of the Three Wise Men, the proclamation to the shepherds, and even the eventual flight into Egypt and the “Massacre of the Innocents” by King Herod, an event illustrated in the alchemical writings of Nicholas Flamel. Here we see a child whom three men saw as the future savior of humanity and whom one saw as a threat to his power who was willing to murder all the male children of the land from two years old and younger to keep his temporal throne just a little longer. Since the Massacre of the Innocents appears only in the Gospel of Matthew, and its historical veracity is in doubt, it may refer to Herod's murdering three of his sons and numerous other misdeeds. Holy Innocents’ Day, or Childermas, falls after Christmas, usually on December 28^th, but varies according to tradition. Its celebration is connected to the Feast of the Epiphany. The origin of the Kings is uncertain, as they “come from the East” which is often attributed to Persia. However, Armenian legend has Balthazar coming from Arabia, Melchior from Persia, and Caspar (or Casper or Gaspar) from India.

On the Religious Mystical Level, or the first of the esoteric levels, the visitation of the Wise Men is the awakening of wisdom and sacrifice in each of us. Just as they traveled great distances and gave gifts of great value to the mother and child, so too must we cover the deserts of our own inner being, of our own life, to find that realization of what the scriptures call the Christ Within, that is, our own personal relationship to both the historical Jesus and the everliving spiritual force of Christ, the Inner Light, Life, and Love such a life expresses.

On the Initiatic Level, or the second of the esoteric levels, the Three Kings (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar) coming from three directions, East (Asia), North (Europe), and South (Africa), are the three aspects of our being that when in harmony, or indistinguishable from one another as they are a unity, recognize the inner light. This light is still but young and fragile and must be protected, hence the 'flight to Egypt' or a kind of 'hermetic isolation or retreat' if you will. These are the Three Essentials of the Philosopher's Stone. They are the three inner psychic channels, the three primary psychic centers of head, heart, and solar plexus (as shown in the Three Mother Letters of the Hebrew alphabet), the Holy Trinity of the microcosm. The Kings are often depicted as being of Persian origin hinting at a deeper connection to Oriental mysticism, particularly astrology, which was inseparable from the other arts of magic. The Armenian tradition has deep significance in linking the Three Kings to the later traditions of Prester John and his “Christian Kingdom” sometimes associated with the Tibetan Buddhist doctrine of Shambhala and, at very least, the deep interconnection of esoteric and spiritual traditions along the Silk Road linking Greece (and the rest of Europe) with China.

On the Secret or Supreme Level, the Three Kings are our Thought, Word, and Deed and ultimately the Rosicrucian Trinity of Light, Life, and Love.