10 The pitfalls of Albedo

"The only initiation which I preach and seek with all the ardour of my soul is that by which we may enter into the heart of God and make God’s heart enter into us, there to form an indissoluble marriage, which will make us the friend, brother, and spouse of our Divine Redeemer. There is no other mystery to arrive at this holy initiation than to go down into the depths of our being, and not let go till we can bring forth the living vivifying root, because then all the fruit will be produced within us and without us naturally." -Louis Claude de St.-Martin, 18^th century French mystic and philosopher.

"But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life - The Master Joshua quoted in the Gospel of St John

10. The pitfalls of Albedo, prelude

There is one specific thing that can go wrong in the Albedo phase, this is falling into the pit of the Archons.

As the comedian Bill Hicks said:

" And these other musicians today who don't do drugs and in fact speak out against them? Boy, do they suck! What a coincidence! Ball-less, souless, spiritless corporate little bitches, suckers of Satan's cock, each and every one of them. Gnorr. "We're rock stars against drugs cos that's what the President wants." Aw, suck Satan's cock."

We usually have to follow some system to get to the goal. Gnosis is built on Pistis. But Gnosis is not pistis, in fact it destroys Pistis. I am using a non alchemical language structure in this article, even though I am talking about alchemy. Trust me. This is easier to follow than if I was to talk about the 7 metals, their oxidisation and corrosiveness and splendour...

With Gnosis I do not mean the watered down ideas presented to the english speaking world of armchair magicians by the only people actually doing something in the UK that could be described as magic, aside from Psycick Television. No sir. I am talking about the true Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom that comes. The certainty, not faith, that you have when you open your eyes and see exactly what you expect to see there; The world. The knowledge that is as  steadfast as the truth that 2 pebbles placed in an empty bowl are 1 pebble and another pebble, becoming two pebbles. 

Why is this difficult? Because Pistis is linked to the Moon and Gnosis is linked to the Sun, thus the Body of Silver needs faith to come into being, yet, there is nothing for the one who has been reborn in the pleroma to believe in, since there is no-thing to believe in since something either is, or is not.
Without Faith, without conviction no act is possible, no system workable. Indifference is often just as bad as active disbelief or belief.

Belief doesn't have to be complicated.  You are constantly being told what to believe. There are constantly symbols and images, signs and signifieds being fed into your mind. these symbols then create belief.

From one point of view, the point of view that is almost impossible to understand unless you have it, nothing is real. Reality is a lie that we constantly weave together. Why am I then not willing to throw myself over the balcony and fly to safety?
Because I believe in gravity. I believe on all levels that I want to stay on this mudball flying through the vacuum of space. I expect my blood to pump the correct way. Not only this but for every second of my life I have been conditioned and have been in constant feedback with the world, proving to me that this is true. 
Not just me. This is done to all sentient incarnated beings upon this Earth. The odds are kind of stacked against me here.

I am not certain I have touched upon this before or not, and I do not intend to go off on a rant. Just to mention that no matter what popular belief is. This is the reason folk magic works so well. Its language is based on symbols that you are already familiar with.

When you are visiting  a friend and asked to open the main door for the next guest, what is your instinct? Is it to say "enter" ala science fiction films, to pick up your iPhone and press the door opener or is it to look for a doorknob/to twist the key?
I somehow doubt that you were looking for a mercury symbol or an eight pointed star...

I digress.

Point being that it is very hard to give up our beliefs in light of the truth, especially when the truth is presented to us using the symbols we are familiar with and that we have worked so hard to internalise.
You will never be able to know the mystery in an unmediated way because of the way our cognition works. However it is possible to experience and understand it on a meta-level.

The moment we assume the map is the territory we have immediately fallen into the trap of the Archonts.

However, if we use the structure as leverage and not as a prison, then we see the other face of the archons, wherein is the mystery hidden why some call the planetary forces the Archons of the Demiurge and why some believe that they are the Elohim.

The Solar mystery revealed is a vindictive, elusive, mercurial thing. The Sun, who is the son is also the father, the Logos is the Mind.
In your understanding of the Sun therefore strive to leave the sun behind for the mystery of the one thing to reveal itself to you.

This is very, very hard to accomplish on your own. The highest initiations/empowerments and work can only ever go as far as the Lesser countenance. But in this meeting you need to delve deeply into what the meeting means on all levels. This can only be done if you have already loosened the Archontic structures, prior to the ultimate initiation. This in turn can only happen if you have internalised all that you used to externalise and externalise the internal. Through this, projections are removed. In Mystery cults, such as the cults for Flame and the Solar mysteries this is often easy to do if we keep remembering that the light of the moon ultimately comes from the sun. Therefore we seek correspondences. Hence why mercury is the metal mercury, or quicksilver, why it is the spirit, why it is the breath, why it is the planet always next to the sun why it is the Ancient Ice and why it is the water and the Tree.

Always remember the Smaragdine tablet for therein is the key, the start and the end of the work.
If we forget this one truth we fall into the pits of division, if one thing is true i our experiments then it is true.

I'd wager that enough has been said for those with eyes to see to avoid falling into the traps of their own making.

Remember o Israel, the Lord is your God and the Lord is One.

9. Albedo, Part 2

9. Albedo, the white work, part 2, Practical considerations

What we need to understand is that Albedo and Rubedo flow in and out of eachother, one cannot happen without the other. Thus, there are those who will read operations and material pertaining to the rubedo phase from an albedo perspective. Often those of us who believe we are experiencing rubedo are genuinely in the throngs of albedo.

As one of the most successful and knowledgeable Alchemists of our time, Orphë, points out, the Nigredo does not necessarily mean that it is subjectively experienced as the blackest phases of death and Albedo does not always mean we are constantly joyful. After all, Black is the colour of the fertile earth and White is the colour of the bones that come out after death...

The four (often 3 or 5) alchemical phases each contain within themselves the four(3/5) other phases.
Thus Nigredo has its own nigredo-albedo-citrinitas-rubedo and then through projection the final phase of the one becomes the next starting phase of the other.
Without wanting to mix in too much Qabalah into this, I might just add that the concept of the four levels of the Tree of Life being linked on one single tree is exactly the same idea.
We can say. with not too much of a stretch of the imagination that, the Crown of one level is the Foundation of the higher realm and through projection of this into Daath, the Well of the Alchemist, we are able to create the new Materia, The Kingdom. From this the higher tree manifests.
So for those who like the modern/hermetic Qabalah, it would look something like this:

I am aware that it might prove exceedingly difficult to follow this article as it becomes more and more abstract. It is my aim to try and bring this down into material terms and examples as often as possible, however keep in mind that unless the Prima Materia has been found and the Royal Secret unearthed, we are still blind men describing a Hippogriff yet we were all told to be expecting an Elephant!

Yes, it smells like a horse. Yes, it lays eggs. Yes it has wings. 

Thus, the below explanations are not completely true, they do reflect a simplistic explanation. They are the best we can do via this media.

There are three alchemical bodies.
Lead/Copper -The Material Body
Silver -  The Lunar Body
Gold - The Solar Body

There are also levels of consciousness
(The Mineral)
(The Vegetable consciousness)
(The Animal)
and Man

it might be easier to see this as
The Terrestrial
The Lunar
The Solar
The Universal (yes it does sound exceedingly cheesy, doesn't it?)

The alchemical body and the level of consciousness is linked.
A Saturnian/Copper/Lead body starts off with a Terrestrial consciousness, but should in a natural state uphold a Lunar mind.

What happens next is dependent on which version of alchemy we do, what our primary function is, where in the world we are incarnated, what our psychological and spiritual imprints are.

The consciousness transforms/manifests a specific alchemical body and an alchemical body usually gives rise to a specific consciousness. This is therefore a two way street of manifestation. It is like a cybernetic feedback loop. The Saturnian body asks for sex, power, shelter, food, the consciousness is occupied with providing the body with sex power shelter food. Because the Consciousness is focusing upon the world of the body, the vibration of the body will not change.
Many armchair magicians will scoff at this and immediately assume this is a bad state of affairs. Let me highlight that this is not the case. The Age of Saturn is referred to as the Golden Age for a reason. A small note is that traditionally it is believed that different ages in a persons life automatically correspond correspond to a specific phase. I do not believe this to be the case anymore.

What are the bodies and the levels of consciousness?

The Terrestrial body is your body. It is your lifeforce and everything that is measurable.
The Saturnian mind is completely focused on the material aspect. This is both a paradigm and a way of thinking and a way of prioritising. It is best described by a consciousness that claims  "I am".* Most humans alive today leave the Terrestrial consciousness behind at a very early age, thanks to society.

The bodies are the chalice and the level of consciousness is whatever is in the chalice. Thus the chalice needs to be able to uphold and contain the content.

As the vibration of one changes, so also does the other. The chalice and its host interact, there is a periodic washing/dipping of the host in the chalice. If the chalice is not prepared properly it might react aversely to the host. If you dip the Sun into a chalice of lead, the chalice will melt. If you have ever heard of someone whose life was changed completely for the better after a single acid trip or went completely down the toilet than you have heard this being described. In one case the heavily concentrated Plant Stone (the acid) was a literal Vitriolic acid. Simillarly, if the Chalice is purified, than that which is washed and dipped into it will itself transmute. Its hard to be a horrible person if you lead a chaste and virtuous life. Thoughts give rise to action and right action gives way to right thought.

I consider the "normal" state of affairs would always be to have the chalice uphold a host one level higher. Most human beings do not behave like primates or vegetables, unless there is something seriously wrong physically.**

An interesting aside is of course that the Grail should always uphold a consciousness higher than itself.

The natural sequence being

Lead Body - Lunar Consciousness

Silver Body - Solar Consciousness

Solar Body - Universal Consciousness (Yes, it is a cringeworthy expression.)

It is not difficult to develop the Lunar consciousness. In practice this means that the Saturnian consciousness becomes illuminated by the light of an invisible sun, and the blackness, often symbolised by the new moon, becomes the lunar crescent.

The body remains the same but now the chalice upholds a Lunar consciousness. This consciousness contains within it the previous one as well, but uplifted. The reason luna is often shown as a crescent moon, facing left or right at this point  is because the lunar consciousness is one of duality. Its focus is the emotional and mental realms. The Lunar consciousness has three phases just as the moon.

The first is still clinging to the Saturnian way of thinking and all emotional and intellectual effort is directed towards the manifestation and upholding of the Saturnian body. It is still a phase of ME but with an awareness of "others" as well.

The second phase is where the greatest interaction is between the Self and the Others. The effects of our actions and how they affect others becomes integral and the self is realised as not being the result of the Saturnian processes of the terrestrial body, but the interaction of the mental and emotional flames of ourselves and others.***
This is the stage of the mental and emotional, the Lunar world interacting with our physical world.

The third phase is often described as some form of peak experience. The world is understood and experienced as being both material and spiritual. The material affects the spiritual and the spiritual is directly manifesting the material. Intense religious experiences fall into this category. The highest level of the lunar consciousness is often symbolised by the lunar crescent shown as a pair of Horns, symbolic that it is able to uphold the sun. This is often why some authors incorrectly claim that the Moon is the hidden power behind the Sun. This is a misunderstanding of the dynamic between the Lunar body and the Solar-consciousness. Since without a properly developed Lunar Body, the Solar Consciousness is not able to interact with and exert influence upon the greater world. The lunar body is thus the medium. However the power itself always resides in the Sun, since even the Lunar consciousness.
It is when the Lunar consciousness becomes tinted with the drop from the Sun that it transforms slowly, or violently into the Solar consciousness.

Now most people will rotate through these phases in their day to day lives. A jewish person may experience it as: Spending most of the day working in an office in the first phase, but then experiencing the second phase in the park on the way home, and the third phase being the Shabbath, the ritual, the prayers, the meal in the presence of one's family and the Presence.

The lunar consciousness is characterised by the ability to affect ourselves and others emotionally, the knowledge, not belief, that there is more than material determinism. The ability to experience what most call spirituality. If you have Pistis, if you have experienced and manifested things from meditative, religious or physical exercises, and know that the inner affects the outer, Then you either have or are capable of entering the lunar consciousness.

Remember the beginning of the article claiming that the consciousness and the body go hand in hand?
Well, what is described above is when the realisation comes from within to without. It is a way of thinking, a way of seeing the world. it is however possible to do it the other way around.
Physical exercises, the imbibing of diverse plant matter and vegetable and mineral elixirs can produce the manifestation of the lunar body.

This is why it is possible to create a lunar body just by following outer rituals and doing exercises. Qi Gong, Falun Gong. Living according to a belief and an intellectual understanding may give rise to a very powerful lunar body. This is often the case with systems that are process rather than gnosis oriented. The work will transform/give rise to the lunar body.

This post is full of sidenotes. There is a reason why initiation exists. Whether the system works from a Gnosis perspective where the focus is on the lifting up of the consciousness of the initiate, or if it is a system that is process oriented and focuses on the transformation of the Terrestrial (Saturn) Body into the Lunar one, there could be an argument made for the initiation being what actually accomplishes the change and the work before and after is either a preparation for this moment to make sure it works or a way of dealing with the effects. I am here exclusively talking about traditions that actually have an alchemical element, not only an egregoric, skillteaching or social aspect. In those cases the word initiation is not really applicable in the sense that is meant in this context.

Through hard work the Saturnian Grail may be polished and transmuted into a Chalice of Silver.
Through hard work the Lunar consciousness may be uplifted to a Solar consciousness.
The Lunar body is the Resurrection body. Adepts would consider the view that everyone automatically experiences everlasting life as extremely naïve. It is only a Lunar body that is able to fully uphold a Solar consciousness and it is only a Solar consciousness that is able to withstand that which happens to the Being after the death of the physical body. The Lunar consciousness cannot remain one and undivided after death, instead it is washed in various levels of existence, the many heavens and hells as it were, until there is no trace of individuality left and the whole thing is recycled. The Solar consciousness is from this perspective, indestructible and then Lunar body is the armour surrounding it. Initiates agree however that this is not the end result, the final stone. The Lunar body has been called many names. The soul, the double. It is a body that is not a body. The Stone that is not a Stone. Anyone who truly is in possession of the Stone should be able to prove it. It is through the mediation of the stone that true initiation can occur, that the beginning of true "occult" powers are manifested.

There would be no point in discussing the extent of the abilities that the lunar body gives access too. It is enough to say that most of the common magical phenomena in any and all traditions happen when the Lunar consciousness of the individual manages to transform/manifest the lunar body for a short time. Therefore the permanent possession of the Lunar body is a permanent state of being that most seldom reach.

It is often said that this stage of the great work is child's play and women's work. If you are able to be as a child at this stage then the stone will manifest.  Traditionally, there are various exercises that assist in the creation of the Lunar body ranging from the worship of and assumption of Godforms in a western or eastern perspective, various energetic exercises  of an inner meditative and outer physical nature, and also the imbibing of various elixirs of a mystical or alchemical nature. Arguably, the True Mass would fall under this category, Yogic and tantric methods of the Hindu and Buddhist variety, severeal Daoist systems of alchemy, Theurgia and Magia, certain nigromantic work etc.

At this stage, breath and mind are key, as is doing that which is in conformity with your true destiny in absolute freedom.

The creation of the solar body starts when the Lunar body is perfected, however it cannot be perfected until all dualities have  been completely reconciled, something which is not possible as long as the two ultimate dualities of the great God Thanateros have not been met, and the Tomb of this world hasn't become the Womb of the great Goddess Nyx.

In this, our work, the lesser work of Darkness is within the first stone, the black stone of the foolish, whose number is five and whose extent is as far as we can will it.

The Greater Work of Light is within the second stone and without the first, the white stone of the philosophers, whose number is 6 and  and that materialises the spiritual and is to the gross body what the lunar consciousness is to the animal.

The Great work is one.

*In meetings with others sometimes it is possible to experience the Lunar body that is created in the meeting between two or more individuals. The spirit of a tribe of people. The "us" when you refer to yourself and your loved one. The "Family"... all these things are instances of a Lunar body manifesting. This is however not -YOUR- Lunar body. 

In a similar way, there are things which allow our consciousness to react. Music, substances, things of beauty, ideas.

**This is not a dig at people with learning difficulties, or chromosome damages. It is simply the case that someone in a coma is highly unlikely to be manifesting any level of consciousness let alone a lunar one. use common sense people. This is not elitism. Alchemy is a way of trying to describe the world, not the other way around.

***At this stage one often experiences that what one ought to do or wants to do conflicts with the life one has built up and should do. 

As a nod towards the earlier point about the stages being linked to physical ages, one could say that this is where the duality comes when you decide to stay in the abusive relationship "for the sake of the children" or to leave your loving spouse and kids and buy yourself a new car and get a new lover, because you never could.

9 Albedo The white work, part 1, theory

The choice between pursuing the way of return or to fall into our own little self created imaginary world is part of the real choice faced when the first slivers of light shine through and the white tincture is made.

Albedo is a very complex stage of the work, and arguably, is the most important. Albedo has 2 phases, several layers, and not everything that sparkles is gold.

We know that this stage refers to silver. We also know that many choose to stop working at this level. The light of the Sun is reflected by the moon, and anyone who has experienced a real full moon in the countryside out in the open can attest to a strange fact. When the full moon reflects the light of the sun fully, it is almost as light as day, but "after a different manner". The light is not warm, it doesn't heat. It has an aetherial feeling to it, like seeing things through a slightly shimmering veil.

I have been putting off writing this article because I believe it is good to consider what we put into writing. I have no intention of misleading anyone and therefore sometimes I need to consider, and reconsider what I plan on posting, especially on a subject as difficult as this. It was not until this past weekend when speaking to some of my peers and people I consider more knowledgeable than me that the penny dropped and I found the correct way of tackling this topic. It was not until one of the authors of Krystiania publishing house made a poignant comment about who to write for and how that I found the exact angle I was going to attack this post on.

Albedo never occurs in isolation. Albedo and Rubedo move in and out of eachother and are part of eachother. Not only that, we need to make a difference between Gnosis, the ultimate understanding of the mystery as a realisation and as distinct from having undergone the process.  The realisation, the acquiring of gnosis is a life-changing moment, after which one is never the same again. In theosophy one refers to this as being reborn in Christ, and most traditions claim that it is only at this stage that the seeker acquires a soul.

Gnosis is the Philosopher's Stone, it is reintegration into Adam, the awareness of and becoming part of the fullness. For those out there who are kabbalistically challenged, this is not an initiation into any specific sphere upon the tree. This is most definitively not an initiation into Tiphereth or even Kether. Instead this is closer to what certain traditions refer to as being freed, returning fully into the Ain Soph Aur.

Why is it important to make a difference between Gnosis/Realisation and process? Because depending on the path of return chosen you may work with a system where your level of realisation is linked to where you are in the process or you may work with a system where it is seen as more important to get a realisation that you later use for your process instead. We can also talk about this from the perspective of the difference between the different phases in the alchemical bodies and the levels of consciousness reached in alchemy. One can have a solar consciousness without having developed a solar body ;)
The opposite is also true. You may have experienced things from a process related perspective yet not truly receive Gnosis. This is typical with mystical approaches where levels of non-dual awareness are mistaken for gnosis.

I am taking the liberty to name this "Alchemy with nature" and "Alchemy against nature".
(For an example of Alchemy against nature I recommend Sendivogius' system.
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/newchem1.html for those interested.)

In the work against nature,
The powder of projection, created by the philosophers stone can be given to someone when they are in a nigredo phase. This will then lead to a transformation whereby they receive and create a philosophers stone themselves. The point of consciousness will move into the stone and never ever be able to leave again. some find this difficult, since truth can hurt from the point of view of where we previously were.
The stone immediately transforms all materia in the vessel to the prima materia, thus a forced Nigredo that is darker than the black of nature will occur. Then the stone will cause a change depending on what process related state the vessel was in prior to being exposed to the stone.
 However the vessel will still hold the caput mortem, materia that has been whitened and some materia that will start to be tinged with the colour of the stone.

The vessel will become more and more tinged as the stone dissolves the metals and turnst them into tinted gold. This type of Albedo does however have a curious tendence to lead to the caput mortem becoming an indissoluble stone. This creates a duality in the flask, where the wholeness is reflected. The stone radiating gold, gold radiating silver and silver being held by the fangs of the caput mortem which is the dragon.

In the process this will lead the aspiring adept to have within all aspects of creation. The abyss has been crossed and is seen as not an abyss anymore, and the transformation is now something that has to happen and needs to be done, not as some unsurmountable task. The initiators job here is to make sure the stone is not merely inserted into the vessel at a random place but has to be put in the absolute center to replace the old center.

Thus albedo is reached and this is albedo tinted with the stone, but containing within the dragon. The dangers are here to only focus on the stone and ignore the process that still needs to happen. Also, as the stone is in the vessel and can eternally be replicated, one can loose oneself in the consequences of the stone and in using the stone as a powder of projection in rituals, where one's Lunar consciousness is raised towards the sun and can shine down upon the darkness. Those in darkness can thus be blinded by the light as there is from the outside perspective no difference between the moon in its fullness and the true spiritual sun.

Many a sect has been started by this.

Thus Albedo reached from a process point of view is different from albedo reached as a result of gnosis.

If albedo is reached through a process then the power of the mirror remains, but the wholeness is not reached. There is not a single claw of the dragon left instead the whole vessel undergoes a graying after the blackening.
This time of twilight scares many as the utter darkness has been passed yet the whiteness of the l´silver that reflects the sun is not reached yet.
Often a few spots of superheated white powder turn into gold too quickly, yet combust and are no more. This disheartens the seeker as they are able to hold the mirror to heaven and allow the moon to enter fullness, yet they are not fully gold themselves.

As with the prevous version this has its blessings and dangers.

8 The Dark Night

The Dark Night of the Soul

"When all is dark and no hope is seen,

where we find ourselves alone.

When there is nowhere to run to, but where you already have been

You will be forced to look inwards and realise you're already at home."

You are alone. You have worked and worked and you have gained results. No, nothing is changing. There is no answer to your prayers and all the hard work is as blown away. 


The dark night of the soul has been written about by more authors and artists then you'd at first think. I don't think I can make this issue justice without going into personal experiences from myself or those who have gone through the same, which is really not appropriate on this blog. I will jot down some thoughts and issues, but not even try and go into detail


There are however many, many, commercially available books, stories and biographies that illustrate the whole process. "The Dark Night of The Soul" By St. John of the Cross being the most famous one, however I honestly feel that for a modern seeker its a bit shit. There are many more relevant versions of the process available today that we are able to relate to better.


Michaelangelo's painting of the sixteenth chapel is a prime example of a "Dark Night of the Soul" that is overlooked. He took on the bronze work and the painting of the chapel because if he did, the pope would let him carve his tomb, which is what Michaelangelo really wanted to do. His diary is filled with information about his misery and how much suffering he went through.
He wasn't a painter and he was not good at fresco work. He had to pay people to teach him, and honestly, if you look at the beginning bit of the work in the entrance, its not great work.
Mosts of Uncle Al's life is a Dark Night of the soul.

The mythical Christ is another good example From when he is  in the Garden of Gethsemane until he cries out "Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Upon the Cross is often seen as the Christian allegory of the Dark Night. Not only does he feel abandoned, knowing that this cup cannot be taken from him, he is also severely beaten hurt whipped, crucified and no angels come to save him. He dies. Goes to Hell for 3 days (I wonder what they do to the Word of God down there). Only -after- this is he resurrected, then he spends 40 days kicking around doing -something- before he ascends.


So what then -is- the dark night?
The Dark night doesn't necessarily come at the end of the Nigredo phase before it shifts into the albedo, it is actually possible to have the Dark Night later. The Dark Night is not some mere depression, you can be fairly happy during days in the Dark Night. The issue with the Dark night is that you suddenly see aspects of the path you chose not to see. You see parts of yourself you have chosen not to see. You are presented with realities that you did not know existed. Some people therefore say that the Dark Night is not strictly linked to the alchemical phases, rather it is linked to the Heroes journey to become the Warrior King. Thus, the Dark night happens just before understanding of the Light can occur. However, the light seen on the other side can sometimes be a jack-o-lantern, that takes you away.


If you have not experienced a dark night, then you have not truly entered into a higher understanding, as the crisis is the needed fuel for a change to be able to occur. 






In the Dark Night, the inner life of the initiate and the "objective reality" start to merge. Objective events start to happen that mirror the inner turmoil of the person undergoing this. There is a loss of faith if the system works in the mystical path. Experiences will be had that do not follow the set faith of the seeker, and most often, the spiritual world disappears. 


There is no consolation. In prayer, or in ritual. That which was a safety blanket is torn away. Jung often talks about "the crisis" and his own period in a mental institution is a very epic, telling tale of this.




From a Christian perspective we can look at a monk.


He takes his vows. He believes in God, the church and that the Order will get him there.
He joins. Prays. Cooks, Teaches, prays, cooks, studies, cleans. Talks to some of the other monks unless there is a vow of silence. The abbot might start to piss him off. The priest performing the mass might not be good enough. The songs and worship that he grew up on loose their value after having said them 6 times a day for 1 year. The novelty wears off. Not seeing his friends and family is starting to hurt. not as many people who said they would come visit come and visit him. Also, there are no dreams. The world outside is falling into pieces with war and famine, the monk wants to go out and help but is informed that prayer is equivalent to physical aid. The monk despairs. Feels nothing. His faith crumbles to dust. He goes to heaven and there is nothing there.


This is when the night has descended. Because only if the Dark is fully walked through will there be true light. Many distractions will appear. Maybe a different set of prayers? Maybe if he wasn't a monk but just a lay brother? Maybe if he became a full priest? What if Christianity version X isn't the right one?
Shit, maybe changing the Creed was wrong? Could the Orthodox be correct? etc etc etc.






The Dark night is sometimes a denial. A refusal to see the Truth and that forces a darkness to descend upon the seeker. Not being willing to accept the truth. Trying to hide in drugs, alcohol, displacement activities, anything but accepting the truth becomes the norm.




As a final note: there are several Dark Nights.


The first is of the Body. Puberty deals with part one. realising your body is winding down and will at some  point die is number two.


The Second is the Dark Night of the Mind. This is often a projection upon ones teacher. system, faith, culture etc. Read up on the LSD Experiments. Many people underwent horrid psychological trauma as a result because they were not ready. They reevaluated their lives their whole paradigms. That was a dark night of the mind. If you think you are having the dark night, but you can rationalise it, put things well into words then you are merely waiting for the reflection of the reflection of the light to come.


The Third is the Dark Night of the Soul
All I can say to further this is: Enjoy. Work. Work. Work. It will pass. But unless you feel like its not going to pass, then you're not there.

7. Nigredo, the black work

7. Nigredo. The torture never ends.

The single most important period of your life is the actualisation of the nigredo.

The most important process for your path towards unveiling of the gold is this stage. You need steady heat from within and underneath and at crucial stages you need to receive the fire from above. Not  a single speck of dust shall remain that has not been transformed, the sulphur and mercury extracted from it.

The issue with alchemy is that you are already experiencing most of what alchemy is trying to show you just by living. Thus your entire life is in a way one single, long nigredo, but it takes so long that all that ends up happening is you get maybe halfway through the process, then you die.

Alchemy is about speeding up this process, actualise it, making yourself aware of it and speeding it up enough for the blackening to be complete not in your usual 80 years but your decade or less.

Some think that nigredo means you have to be depressed all the time, dark and moody. Some subcultures linked with the study of the western traditions seem to think that nigredo means wearing black.

That cherry doesn't look horribly tasty does it. That is you. (except those of you who have already undergone your complete nigredo of course). Nigredo is needed because we all have festering wounds. We all have disfigured parts. We all have imperfections. Through nigredo we can transform it. Nigredo is the beginning and in a way the crown of the work. It is a purifying process. You can take whatever matter you want and burn it, it will still become nothing but ash in the end. Clean. Harmless and uniform, with the impurities removed.

If you have ever burned something that is not resin, you will have noticed that there is a smell following the burning. Whether you burn human hair, skin, food, wood, burned things smell bad. What happens if you keep burning? If you put a rose into a pan what happens? Does it catch fire after awhile or does it mostly wilt and dry and start to burn? Is there a pleasant smell first? Does it start to smell burned after this? What next? Is there a point when there is no longer a smell emanating at all? yes there is. When all has been reduced to ash, all is black. When you want to change something, first you have to reduce its body into its primal element. This is the process of travelling inwards and outwards at the same time. The fire will drive out the worms, bring them to the light. How much do you identify with the worms? If you suddenly scream "poor worm" and try and save it you will turn off the heat and remove the cherry from the pan. More people then you think do this. Why else are there douchebags out there? why do people not change? If someone want to become a different person then they are today why are they not doing it? Because, the process would be too horrible. For them. The maggot or a specific pretty bit of the cherry the maggots inhabit are not allowed to burn.

If you still become upset when you don't want to. You you still haven't worked out why you are on such a moral high horse. If you are still struggling with addiction. If you still believe that you are a person, then you are still working with this process. There is nothing wrong with that. 

Alchemy shows with the "without" what happens "within" and vice versa. 

Just to make this lovely process visible for you, I have included the Materia (before) and Materia in Nigredo (after) pictures of this lovely process, courtesy of one of my dear brothers.

The Apple, just placed into the athanor 

The Apple, after several months of natural decay. 

The apple is placed on a bed of pure sand (it has been blasted in about 800 degrees so there are no impurities in it) and covered with a purified completely clean glass bowl. The outside is then filled up with sand and the bed of sand is on a heatproof ceramic dish. This allows a natural decaying process to take place, free from all larger vermin. This is the way the alchemists of old would investigate certain things.


Why is this useful? Firstly the alchemist identifies with the object in the testube. The materia is a magic mirror for the alchemist, so s/he can see what is happening, at what stage of this particular process the soul/mind/body trinity is.

In the inner life, this alchemical process will manifest in a few ways, independent of outer work, whether this is shamanistic psychotherapy under St C.G. Jungs aegis (had to say it) or if its ceremonial magic or pure meditative work.

1 There will be a travelling inwards and a clearer understanding of ourselves.
2 there is an increase in heat, physical body heat but also "our heat" will envelop the worker
3 for a long time there is a sense of increased energy.
4 there is a collapse when the materia suddenly gives way to the darkening.
5 Bouts of feeling low will start to mix as the transformation occurs.
6 Periods of intense luminosity. The materia exhales the poisonous fumes and this release gives insight about oneself and the nature of the poisons.
7 as the materia returns slowly into the embrace of our isis, the dignities remain yet the individuality of the materia is given over to the great mother.


Jung and others have hinted that there are several meetings with the "shadow" that lead to a form of union with this entity/archetype just at the end. This is indeed the case.

If we think of the opus as a faerytale and the heroes journey, then your job is to go to the mountain and within it find the seven metals that you excavate and bring up to the top of the mountain. That there is a dragon guarding the gems is self explanatory. Why would there not be a dragon?

The nigredo will continue and do its job, if you let it. If you allow it to happen. If you don't drag out its process forever.


Why the nigredo is not all that bad:
The nigredo, though showing a blackening, is a purification and believe me, that is a nice experience. The fire cleans and heals.
Popcultural references to the Nigredo phase

In Snowwhite and the seven dwarves, the nigredo of the princess is living in the forest with the seven Dwarves and meeting her stepmother a few times, until finally she ends up in a casket.

In The Matrix, Neo's journey from awakening into the hell that is the real world and dying when being beaten to pulp by agent Smith is his nigredo.

Frodo's journey is a journey describing the Nigredo.

The story of Jesus has many readings, one of which will be the last bit of these series, and from one perspective, his life between baptism and the garden of gethsemane can be argued as a Nigredo.

The nigredo, will culminate in the absolute darkness when it cannot become anymore darker.

It is possible to spend your entire life doing rituals and engaging with religious practices without ever getting to the actual complete blackening.
Think about it. You are meant to take yourself, put yourself in a vessel and then undergo the process shown above in pictures. Are you -really- willing to do this? Your lips say yes but experience has taught me that it means "No".  Its seriously just so much easier to stay who you are and keep trying to find the right system, or the "correct way John Dee's system was intended to be used" or what have you.

(Methods will be discussed in later blogposts.)

6 Why Adepts are hated

Having looked at hints about the Royal Path and in some detail about Sorcerous and Sacerdotal paths, it seems relevant to highlight some issues that arise.

One of the problems with the Royal Path is that it starts at one or both of the midpoint intersections of the sorcerous and sacerdotal paths. Sometimes, though this is one in thousands, the student might enter upon the Royal Path when the teacher did not intend this to happen, or wasn't even aware that it could happen. This is the case where the student has an innate psychological, karmic, or other bullshit reason for this to happen. The student is lost, believes hirself to be the first person to realise the truth behind the path and can not find any guidance in what to do with herself. The student the rises above the teacher and with hir newfound Royal Blood claims the inheritance that is hir due.

Most of us would want to say at this point that we are the 1 in thousands and isn't that great? ;) (cough hybris)

There are three cases we can look at where this happens. Now, I am not using these examples because I think any higher of them than other examples, but instead because I think they may be more useful to my readers. We have a version where the new wanderer on the path uses his understanding, one where the wanderer instructs with philosophy in absolute antinomianism and one where the wanderer believes himself the be unique.


If we assume that the story of Jesus is based on something real, and he wasn't the incarnation of some cosmic consciousness, just someone who managed to reclaim his divine status, then his life brings us  to a decent example. A learned and very devout jewish man, follower of the ideas of the baptist has a realisation. Based on his first steps upon the Royal Path,  as a true anointed one, he builds upon and around his culture and in some cases takes on an antinomian position to Judaism. Just think how odd his views very in comparison to the status quo. The will amongst the people to have him executed is very understandable from their point of view.


Think of Gautama Buddha. In thailand there are several images of him in his form of a skeletal ascetic. This is because they believe that G started his journey towards enlightenment using yoga and other established practices. Once he became enlightened he set out on a path of least resistance that could help others understand that which he had.


Look at poor Uncle Al. Born and raised with Victorian ideals and christian mindfucks, completely giving himself over to the teachings of the Golden Dawn, and as a 5-6 being catapulted into the Royal Path when receiving his understanding of it. Believing himself to have understood something noone before him understood, he wished for a system that was about as subtle as a penis sticking out from a forehead. 

More often the slight ego inflation that the above people experienced when they went off to start their own thing doesn't happen as, there is a "person" who has been overlooking the process and can cushion the effects of the enlivening blood as it awakens in the new King/Queen.


However, from the point of view of any of the paths, be it the sorcerers or the sacerdotal's, the Royal Path, the Warrior's path looks wrong. The sorcerer will not understand the flaunting of the rules and the  work towards liberation, as it will seem much to much as the sacerdotal path disguised as sorcery. Similarly, the sacerdotal path view it as sorcery disguised as religion.

The theurge breaks taboo and the gods love him for it. The theurge follows religions that are completely contradictory. The theurge prescribes the chaste man to become a prostitue and the Harlot to become God's chosen dame knight.

The theurgic supercelestial work functions both above and below the normal operational levels of the sacerdotal and sorcerous paths, flaunting the blinds in the systems and seeing all for what it is.

The universe simplifies into a single undivisible truth wherein the mystery of all is revealed. Sorcerous feats become possible that most sorcerers would not dream of as true, whereas certain skills that are simple yet that require highly specialised training might never manifest. The theurge is always and constantly in the knowledge Dharmakaya, in the presence and of it. becoming Christeos truly with what that actually entails.

How can this wo/man not be hated of s/he is open about it? Where a priest sees secrets and esotericism because the religion requires initiations, the Royal Warrior sees a dead end, where sorcerers become enamoured by the 9999 secret names the recitations of which will cause something to happen the Theurge understands to be a way to instil belief  in the belief system so the sorcerers own will can accomplish the change, whereas in a simple flower that is trampled by the sorcerer and priest alike, the United King and Queen of the world sees all of creation reflected.

This is all very interesting and well, however we are talking about this on a blog and in text, so any understanding gleaned from this only established a projected understanding of "so" and only the kings and queens amongst us are quietly thinking "not so".

When your entire magickal or religious belief system is looked at by someone as a joke or misstake in understanding its lifegiving essence and you are told that there is a real way of understanding it and it is such and such or that your current path won't lead you anywhere... surely you'd get pissed off too?

YES, OF COURSE IT HURTS

Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking.
Why else would the springtime falter?
Why would all our ardent longing
bind itself in frozen, bitter pallor?
After all, the bud was covered all the winter.
What new thing is it that bursts and wears?
Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking,
hurts for that which grows
                         and that which bars.

Yes, it is hard when drops are falling.
Trembling with fear, and heavy hanging,
cleaving to the twig, and swelling, sliding -
weight draws them down, though they go on clinging.
Hard to be uncertain, afraid and divided,
hard to feel the depths attract and call,
yet sit fast and merely tremble -
hard to want to stay
                    and want to fall.

Then, when things are worst and nothing helps
the tree's buds break as in rejoicing,
then, when no fear holds back any longer,
down in glitter go the twig's drops plunging,
forget that they were frightened by the new,
forget their fear before the flight unfurled -
feel for a second their greatest safety,
rest in that trust
                   that creates the world.

Karin Boye, translation by David McDuff

5 The Goals of the sacerdotal path

Joy, the time to talk about the sacerdotal path.
Not my favourite topic in text, but deffinitively in speech.
This is the fast way towards High Magick/Magia/Alchemical Theurgy and it is also the one riddled with the most dangers, pitfalls and bigoted people.

What is the sacerdotal path exactly? It is the "active engagement with a worldview". Just like most people do some form of magic, as could be intuited from my bit about the sorcerous path, most people do fall somewhere in the continuum that is the sacerdotal path.

Your first steps upon this path is handled by your parents, and then you continue to build on this or very early rebel against it. It is a paradigm, and contrary to common belief, your paradigm is really bloody difficult to change. You can tweak it, you can invert it, but changing it requires a hell of a lot of work. This work is exactly what the sacerdotal paths essence lies in.

Let's have a look at the really simple chart from a few posts ago with a nice sacerdotal purple added to it together with some lettering.

We are looking at the right side of the chart marked in purle. All worldviews fit in here from the various forms of the Abrahamic religions, whether Judaism Christianity or Islam, to Daoism from high to low, shinto, non-theistic systems, animistic and materialistic atheists. The purpose of the whole purpleish circle is to give you a way to understand the world you are in and to allow the mythic structure that the worldview represents to help you in slowly but steadily come closer to the center where a Realisation of the Higher mysteries can happen. Please be aware that the realisation is not automatic because you have entered the center, please refer to previous posts about this.

The discussion and examples below are to be understood to refer to the sacerdotal path, not the realisation of the theurgic truth.

A) is the center where an inversion into the "higher" as discussed in this series can happen. Depending on what specific mythical structure is used to experience this center is used, there are different words for this is often a form of divine, automatic understanding of the world, where everything makes sense. 

Prayer without words, Deep meditative states and communion. de closer to the Center we get, the more Spirituality and the less Religion is involved in the path.

B) is the region of mythical structures where the worldview allows a two-fold path, where the divine is actively participating and is willing and able to cause change in the world. Intersession of saints and sacerdotal practices that require ritualistic actions. Religions where a spiritual understanding informs the ritualistic practices.

C) is The region that is close to the rim, but far away from the center, thus is symbolic of approaches where the outer form is more important for moral reasons rather then any spiritual reason. Most worldviews relying on materialism and can be classed here. For example, most Low-Church Lutheran denominations end up here, Children are baptised and moral lessons are taken from the religion but there is no understanding of the spiritual aspect, whereas Luther's own vision about protestantism would fit into the A section.

D) Practices that have a very non-spiritual aspect, where the spiritual search is merely an explanation for the magical practice. Highly animistic religions exist on this level. The focus is laid upon the here and now just as much as with the other  extreme, the materialistic atheism or its equivalent in the Sorcerous path.

From the Point of view of the Theurge:

The purpose of walking this path properly is to find a place where the supreme ultimate and the here and now can interact in a way that allows the follower to be content with navigating the above and the below. When this is accomplished in a balanced manner, guided by a teacher who can make sure that the outer explanation is not confused with reality, the student can realise the underlying archetypical truths that are common to all religions and true systems of spiritual development. From this point of view, a true christian is not one who can quote the bible and  attends church every sunday, but one who understands the underlying message of his chosen way of interacting with the world and gains a deeper connection with its archetypal mode of being. Imitatio  Christe is more important than religiously following commandments.

The Mystic seeks ever to understand his or her life from the point of view of the religion and the mythic cycle, be it hermetic philosophy or orthodox christianity.

Not only is there belief needed for this, the belief needs to be lived. 

The Goal is To experience Unity. The supreme ultimate, the Dao. This is its strength and its greatestweakness. 

1 The worldview is self-asserting.

2 Mystical states are comparatively easy to experience and misstake for being finished.

3 You are not alone.

Crowley warns about the dangers of mysticism

"Now the formula of the mystic is much simpler. Mathematically, it is 1 – 1 = 0. He is like a grain of salt cast into the sea; the process of dissolution is obviously easier than the shock of worlds which the magician contemplates. “Sit down, and feel yourself as dust in the presence of God; nay, as less than dust, as nothing,” is the all-sufficient simplicity of his method. Unfortunately, many people cannot do this. And when you urge your inability, the mystic is only too likely to shrug his shoulders and be done with you." Elsewhere he writes "The Path of the Mystic hath this Pitfall; for though he unite himself with his God, his Mode is to withdraw from that which him seemeth is not God. Whereby he affirmeth and confirmeth the Demon, that is Duality"

Yet he himself falls into mysticism as he ends up later creating a system that is in essence a sacerdotal approach hidden behind a veneer of hermetic ritual.

The difficulty of the Sacerdotal path lies in realising what our actual paradigm is. You can try and try to be a pagan if you immediately revert to calling upon god i times of need.

For the sacerdotal path to be effective, the Myth must become second nature, ingrained in the spine. For the sacerdotal path to work without becoming a trap, it needs to be understood that this second nature us a chosen one. It is easy to replace the god of christianity with a goddess and called it sophianic gnosticism, whereas it really is God in Drag.

One of the great double edged swords of the sacerdotal path is that all of its realisations will come through using its own truth and that you are not alone in the work as you are essentially working with things that are quite interested in working with you too. 

There are the guardians of your tradition and the egregore of the tradition itself. There are beings that exist whether you want them to or not, how they came into being is anyones guess. There are certain cosmic forces that can use any one of the above as masks to interact with you with and then there is the ever descending force that any sacerdotal path that has a line from the outer edge to its inner centre and had a way to lead from there onwards to the Royal Path.

The issue with the sacerdotal path is that it is itself made up of 2 intersecting circles. One of these is moving from the center outward and the other one is moving from the rim inwards.

Center out: This is when through spontaneous realisation the point of A has been reached and transformed into the center of the royal path and the individual who is there needs to find a new way of showing others how to get there. Thus Myths are created and cosmologies developed, certain practices that should assist in leading to the center are adapted.

Let me quote myself from an old post:

"1 In the purest form. This is referred to as someone who has beheld the mystery and becomes a living link to the mystery.

A being who beholds and becomes a living link to the mystery is free from all cultural notions and can bring others to the realization of the mystery by whatever means that person needs it.

Christian Rozenkreutz and Martinez Pasqually for example both suggested that one should take up the dominant religion of the country wherein one resides. This is so that one may understand enough for the cultural symbols present in the mind of the locals so one may use those symbols and crutches in the guidance of these souls. It is measured work.

2 Strongly coloured by the social cultural, religious and psychological makeup of the individual. These people behold the mystery but are unable to see it in its entirety and interpret it from a point of view they are familiar with. This is naturally a degradation of the mystery as the nature of the mystery is that it is beyond cultural social and religious forms.

These beings sometimes become living links to the mystery and manage to fully understand it in time. Often they spend their life having created a new religion or a new form of an old one since that was the context through which they understood it and trying to help people to behold the mystery but only from the point of view from which they themselves saw it.

Ever wonder why Jesuits who have performed the spiritual exercises of Loyolla are so devoutly certain Catholicism is the way to go?

3 Beings that behold the mystery but have no bloody clue what they experienced. Sometimes they don't even have a cultural context to place it into.

People performing rituals or mystical practices without guidance, who do drugs and experience spiritual peak experiences all fall into this category.

They have seen the outer mystery, or one of the manifestations of the mystery.

These people often become enamoured by the technique or thing that got them there first.

A true spiritual master is a being from the 1th category who is guiding people there.

the 2nd category is most of your prophets and spiritual leaders

the 3rd category is your random practitioners, groupies, druggies and culties."

The other way is when pure fancy has created a cosmology that agrees with the world which slowly creates a worming way to eventually leading in the development of the system closer to the center.

To have a practical example:

Thelema

Alistair experiences the Royal Path but sees it from number 2 above. creates Thelema. this is center outward.

Gnosticism:

You can take any version of christianity and give to a random clone, if they pray and are guided the right way will end up in the center.

This specific blogpost could go on forever and it would never be exhaustive enough. 

Therefore it will now be summarised and posted.

The goal of the scaerdotal path is to allow its practitioner to experience union with the highest in a non-dual awareness where the above/god/emptiness coexists with the below/man/illusion. The Practitioner should live a harmonius life, invisible, in essence, from the the archontic forces.

What the sorcerer seeks to dominate, the mystic hides from.

What the sorcerer seeks to control, the mystic finds a way to live in harmony with.

What the sorcerer sees as a personal plaything, the mystic sees as a toy that has artisitic value but is not important.

--------

Further reading:

Louis Claude de St-Martin - any

Sartre, Being and nothingness

jacob Boehme - any

The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion

Deikman, Arthur, understanding mysticism

Dean, Inge Christian Mysticism

Smart Ninian, Reasons and faiths

Forman, Robert, The Problem of Pure Consciousness

The spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola

The Dark Night of the Soul

The Bible

The Q¨ran

Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine by Blavatsky

Carl Gustav Jung - Any