#regardie

This can also be read here in an easier format.

Attempting to write what Thelemites ‘believe’ is a difficult task. There is not really a set doctrine laid out, no true creed to follow outside of magical orders, and individuals are left to, and encouraged, to explore spiritual phenomena on their own terms. Furthermore, we have different modern proponents of Thelema espousing differences in beliefs for their own personal and group agendas and according to their own biases.

A recent trend within Thelema is to reduce all spiritual phenomena to pseudoscientific psychological jargon and portray Thelema as inherently atheist and materialistic. While it’s important to respect people’s beliefs, Thelema was originally a spirit-model-based system. Psychology emerged later, often as a means of relating to Jung and Freud, both of whom espoused spiritual ideas within what they considered to be a scientific framework to make it more palatable to the masses.

Thelemites, desperate to appease a modern audience and fearful of ridicule for performing magick, often claim that Crowley himself didn’t believe in spirits. They cite his introduction to the Goetia, where he asserts that spirits are merely ‘portions of the human brain’. Crowley was a complex man and dabbled with many different philosophical models throughout his life. Any decent magician will tell you that they change their minds according to new experiences they encounter. What I thought and believed ten years ago is very different to what I think and believe now. This statement from Crowley was written prior to the reception of ‘The Book of the Law’ when he was arguably still very new to magick.

The pivotal moment in Crowley’s life was the reception of ‘The Book of the Law’. People can believe what they like about that experience, but it is evident from Crowley’s behaviour, letters, and personal diaries that he thought it to be of great importance. Crowley absolutely believed he had received a document from something greater than himself. He later ascribed the messenger known as Aiwass to be his Holy Guardian Angel (HGA). The HGA is a strange concept and one that is difficult to define within Thelema. A younger, more atheist Crowley would state that the HGA is the Higher Self. An older Crowley would boldly proclaim that the HGA is an objective exterior being and to call it the higher self is a ‘damnable heresy’.

Conflict in the nature of sprits and spiritual experiences in Thelema may have been inspired by Crowley’s own conflicting statements within his work. In public, Crowley would often make bold statements in favour of atheism and materialism; he wanted to attract wealthy doctors, solicitors, and men of science to his movements. He ultimately failed, but his intention was to present Thelema as a respectable system of occultism and not another back-room seance gathering relying on someone knocking on the table for dramatic effect. Crowley would publicly state different beliefs at different times, but for some reason would always emphasise the importance of ‘The Book of the Law’. He believed in subtle energies such as kundalini, he believed in objective spiritual beings, he believed in the Gods, secret chiefs, in spiritual contacts, and he tested these spirits and spiritual experiences to ensure they could provide him information he and his assistants would not otherwise possess.

It is clear that the so-called prophet of Thelema really believed it had spiritual origins. It is clear that he believed in spirits, in subtle energy, in astral travel, in rituals, even surprisingly in some types of folk magic. At one time or another, and certainly later in life, he began to state these beliefs more openly. So what happened? When did Thelema start to become a front for neo-jungian psychology? When did rituals become a form of dramatic psychotherapy? I believe it stems from Israel Regardie, one of the main editors of Crowley’s works, a key figure in the magical revival of the 70s, and the main source of modern Golden Dawn magical orders.

Regardie not only inspired followers of the Golden Dawn, but due to his connection to Crowley, his involvement with the OTO, and his involvement with the Seckler lineage of AA, he has influenced most of the roots of what has become modern Thelema. I believe Regardie did a great service to Thelema as well as to the Golden Dawn, and I still respect his opinions and his work greatly. But when his readers begin to reduce magic to a form of psychotherapy, paying no attention to key concepts such as energy work, which is quite key in Golden Dawn magic, you have a movement of people drawing geometric shapes in the four quarters but no magic present in the circle.

It is clear that the bulk of Crowley’s magick was not used for psychological growth; if it was, he would have been a much more balanced individual! Crowley utilised magick to obtain wealth, to influence the physical world, and most importantly to contact spiritual beings and communicate with them under a variety of different guises, including Aiwass, Angels, and the so-called ‘Secret Chiefs’. It was also aimed at mystical experiences, but to ignore the spirit contacts, the operative magick, and the references to subtle energy in his writing and his diaries is to ignore a massive chunk of his legacy. It is clear that despite what he may have written earlier in life in public works, the man was not an atheist and believed in the spiritual world as a part of his own reality.

We are all familiar with Crowley’s famous definition of magick, “Magick is the Science and Art of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will”. We can see why this again can be reduced to psychological practices. People proclaim it is my Will to live and so breathing is magick and other nonsensical statements ad nauseam. I prefer the definition of magick Crowley gave in a footnote in one of the introductory letters collected within ‘Magick without tears’. “Magick is the study and use of those forms of energy which are (a) subtler than the ordinary physical-mechanical types, (b) accessible only to those who are (in one sense or another) ‘Initiates’.” You see here that Crowley believes in a form of energy that exists beyond the physical that only initiates can utilise. Initiates does not necessarily mean someone who is initiated into a group; an individual can initiate themselves depending upon their own spiritual experiences. It could otherwise be read ‘accessible only to those who have the aptitude’.

Also in this text when talking about the objective nature of the HGA, Crowley states: “But do remember this, above all else; they are objective, not subjective, or I should not waste good magick on them.” I think this is important not only in terms of the HGA but also in terms of spirits in general. It is important to verify the objective nature of these beings, to ensure that you are not wasting time with your own phantasms. Nobody wants to be wasting good magick on their own psychological projections. If people are getting into magick for psychological benefits, simply seek therapy— it will be cheaper, faster, and more effective.

It is time for Thelema to stop solely embracing the psychological model out of fear of ridicule and pandering to what is deemed acceptable in modern society. It is time to reawaken the spiritual spark within our magick. It is time to imbue those geometric shapes with energy and feel the shifts within our own bodies. It is time to reach out and receive our own transmissions from the beyond. There are many Thelemites doing this, there are many like myself who find the reductionism of modern occultism laughable. It is sadly still an issue that if you mention a spiritual experience to a group of Thelemites online, you are likely to be ridiculed, called crazy, or be told you are experiencing psychosis. It is as though people got into Thelema to look edgy as opposed to actually exploring the spiritual mysteries at its core.

Middle Pillar Exercise

My gods that sounds hokey and yet kinda rad in a way. I can see that blasted across the page in a Jack Kirby comic, easy.

All it really is is a rehash of the Middle Pillar. BUT, with a big difference! Typically the Middle Pillar focuses on placing the spheres of the Tree of Life superimposed on the body. That was part of the ritual work of the Golden Dawn to build the Body of Light. What if you are not doing Golden Dawn magick? You would never get to placing the rest of the spheres of the tree into your Body of Light and not complete the intended “circuit” that was being set up. But, if you placed the elements instead of the spheres not only would it work beautifully it would also be fulling a practice in IIH of placing the elements in the respective body locations to bring greater balance and magical development!  

However, Cobb gets 2 low marks for simply taking the usual god names related to the spheres and using them for God Names of the “Power Gate” AND mixing up the locations of the elements on the body. He also mangles the Hebrew Names as usual. Look, I love this book, but wrong is wrong!

Anyway. 

Prepare your altar placing the completed mandala facing you. Perform the NAP ritual so that you are relaxed, Arzel is called and your Avatar power if flowing. You will now add the Middle Pillar exercise to your routine. 

If you are not familiar with the Middle Pillar exercise just Google in a learn it, I mean if you want to really get all the info “get” Regardie’s book...somehow. It’s called, suprisingly, The Middle Pillar. It goes into great depth on how to use this technique in all sorts of ways. Even if you are not into Golden Dawn a clever magician can gain many useful ideas from it. Below are my “edits” for the FIVE NEW AVATAR POWER GATES!!! Do everything else the same with the circulation of light and so on as found in NAP or any decent discourse on the Middle Pillar. I did not want to teach the whole practice over again here to save room and the information is quite common anyway.

Above the head will be spirit and the divine name is EHIEH the sensation is a blinding light that penetrates all things.

The head is fire and the divine name is ELOHEEM the sensation is warmth and expansion.

The chest/lungs are air and the divine name is YEHOVAH the sensation is a feeling of warmth, moisture and of feeling light, or floating.

The belly is water and the divine name is EL the sensation is cool and moist, a shiver of cold water.

The coccyx to the feet is earth and the divine name is ADONAI the sensation is cool, dry and a feeling of weight or heaviness. Usually in the Middle Pillar one just circulates energy at the feet, here you will start at the coccyx down the left leg, into the left foot, across, into the right foot, up the right leg and back to the coccyx. You should get quick and good enough that one circulation of your awareness lasts as long as the intonation at least. 

If you can visualize that is great and you should visualize the appropriate tattva for each element in the location or you can just visualize the appropriate color of the element. The MOST important aspect of the entire ritual is the actual sensations though. And here is where I think most get this ritual wrong and discount its power.

If you do the whole ritual “in your head” all you are doing is moving a visualization around, or worse yet TRYING and forcing a visualization to appear to move that around in your head. Being so focused in the head that you miss the actual energetic sensations within and around your body that *should* be the focus. You get those going and you will be surprised that you don’t even have to try to visualize because your inner eye will actually begin to light up! Focus on the sensation you want or if that sensation is already present, work with that, circulate that, expand it, etc. This can be a powerful exercise to teach you how to work with the elements and with the vital force.

If you can’t get it going your first time around no worries, keep doing it. If need be take Bardon and Robert Bruce’s advice and use a soft bristle brush or paint brush around the area, brushing it back and forth in order to get the sensation down for the location. Regular practice will develop a habit and you will be surprised how quick  and powerful this ritual becomes to you. You will also notice all the benefits Bardon mentions in IIH about placing the elements in their proper location. Remember, seeing it in your head is less valuable then feeling the energetic sensations in your body.

At the end of each exercise instead of imagining the energies fading, focus on the elemental ring of your mandala. Concentrate on the tattva you painted for the element and with each breath imagine you are sending the elemental energy you gathered-charged with the divine name you intoned-into the tattva on the mandala. Take a few moments to concentrate on the tattva after and contemplate the beneficial qualities of the element. Especially positive soul mirror qualities you would like. Thus building up a battery of elemental power into the mandala and tattvas. Start with the light of spirit and send that into the central circle, then next is fire, then air, then water and finally earth. Do not keep a charge of energy for too long in your body or it could imbalance you! There is a method in Chi Kung for storing energy but without experience and training it could be dangerous to your health.