Circles: Excerpt from The Savior at the End of Time on YouTube

He started drawing circles again until he had constructed an ouroboros—a serpent swallowing its own tail.

“If you really want to find peace and make peace, you have to kill this thing,” he said. Everyone nodded.

He made a rose bloom in the circular empty space framed by the ouroboros. A multitude of petals flared out. Watching them became a mesmerizing repast in which the sense of time was lost. A tiny light formed in the center of the rose. Looking at it gave a person an ecstatic and expansive feeling that made everything seem trivial and silly in comparison. Truly, looking into the speck of light in the center of the rose was like taking hold of a giddy and ineffable truth. So the lot of them sat gazing at it.

How much time passed in this pursuit was unknown—short or long—and it could not be measured in retrospect because no one could remember at what time the endeavor began. In any case, the Zosians sat mesmerized in gnostic bliss until, as occasionally occurred with the Entheos Mondo Amanita maneuver in which they were arrested, they began to startle and crash into queasiness, nausea, cramps, and diarrheal output.

Zosi was seething with quiet mirth. “Now that’s an opiate,” he exclaimed, and he bid them to make sure they each left the bathroom clean for the next person. 

Available in Kindle format from amazon.com. 

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Excerpt/Mashup from Savior at the End of Time with Symphonic Gong

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The Ladder of the Spheres East and West

A number of mystical ideologies operate under the premise that existence as we know it was not created by a primordial, self-caused entity, popularly called God. Rather, they operate under the premise that existence is an emanation in which the primordial First Cause (that is, “God”), although remaining unchanged also divides and transforms Itself through a series of progressively denser stages until the physical world as we know it comes into being. This idea is found in Neoplatonic, Gnostic, Hermetic, Kabalist, Samkhyan, and Tantric systems to name only those I’m somewhat familiar with.

Verse 35 from an esoteric Tantric meditation manual called the Saundarya-Lahari, which is the text-accompaniment of a famous Tantric image called Śri Chakra (also, Śri Yantra; the discipline itself is called Śri Vidya), explains it nicely:

You are the mind, you are space, and you also are fire. You are water and earth, too. When you have transformed yourself into the universe in this way, there is nothing that exists in relation to you. To transform yourself into the universe, you assume the aspects of consciousness and bliss in the form of the power of Śiva.

It is important to understand the idea of emanation because this is the rationale for chakra lore and for its Western equivalents, specifically, the Kabalist Tree of Life and the alchemical/hermetic ladder of the planets and similar antique concepts about the archons (planetary rulers discussed in some forms of Gnosticism and astral magic).

           

n Hindu lore (Samkhyan and Tantric/Agamic systems), God becomes the world (macrocosm) and the human being (microcosm) through 24 (or 36) stages in which a series of “elements” (tattvas) evolve from one another in a hierarchal manner. The last 7 elements in descending order are consciousness, intelligence, space, air, fire, water, and earth. These elements are the basis of name and form as are, thus, the basis of the senses and sense objects. Indeed, the idea is that the senses and sense objects (that is, the human or animal nervous system and the world it apprehends) come into being simultaneously and are interdependent. One is a reflection and extension of the other. The seven elements are depicted as psychodynamic centers within the body through which a person operates. These are the chakras (literally, “discs” or “wheels”).

The Internet and bookstores are inundated with information—most of which is parroting and blather—about chakra lore, and so I will spare the reader from too much redundancy on the matter.

Attriibuted to Johann Georg Gitchell (1638-1710)

 

The cause and essence of the chakras is personified in Hinduism as the Great Goddess. She represents the manifesting power (Śakti) of “Divine Consciousness” (Śiva; The Benefiscent One;   ie, “God”). This power residing in the human or other embodied being is called Kundalini, which means “She Who Is Coiled.” It is depicted as a snake curled in on itself to suggest that the creative power in humans is inactive and waiting to be aroused. That is, after evolving the elements such that spirit has completely become matter, the manifesting power of God goes to sleep, hidden in a state of potentiality. The result is that the person apprehends reality as duality, body-consciousness, and the physical world. The person is in a state of imprisonment in the nervous system so-to-speak and understands reality only through it. This process of emanation from spirit to matter is the path of descent. To meditate on it is to contemplate how God becomes the world.

           

In philosophical alchemy and in some forms of Western occultism, the seven classical planets are the equivalents of the chakras. The seven classical planets are those recognized by medieval scholars and are based on the antique medieval geocentric idea of the universe. They are in order from Earth to the outer rungs of the cosmos: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Beyond these orbs are the fixed stars (the zodiac/constellations); beyond that, the “primum mobilis” and the angelic realms, and beyond that, God as the Divine Mind, or Nous.

An image of the Cosmos from the text Utrisque Cosmi, Volume 1, by 16^th-17^th century alchemist and mystic Robert Fludd (1574-1637) depicts circles or shells within shells—22 in all, representing the 22 levels of emanation, beginning with Nous, going through nine choirs of angels (Seraphim, Cherubim, Dominions, Thrones, Powers, Principalities, Virtues, Archangels, and Angels), followed by the classical planets, and then the elements. The elements in descending order are Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Fludd gives 22 emanations to correspond with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet that, according to the Kabalist text Sefira Yetzirah, are the numinous seeds of phenomenological existence in much the same way that, in Hindu lore, the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet are thought to have profound mystical meaning as the seed vibrations out of which creation is formed.

           

The latent power is called the Secret Fire in Hermeticism and the Divine Spark in Gnostic and magical Christianity (and the descent of the Holy Spirit in Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity). The process is referred to in western esotericism as working with the Middle Pillar, a reference to the Kabbalist Tree of Life. (Ancient Greek esotericists may have called it the spereima—which means serpent or serpent power—but there is scarce surviving information about it.)

The spiritual quest is to awaken the latent power within and lead it back up through a path of ascent from form and limitation (and unbridled unconscious force) to spirit, true volition and creativity, knowledge, awareness, and transcendental liberation. In so doing, the elements, represented by the spheres and the psychodynamic limitations that they embody, must each be “resolved” into the element that hierarchically precedes them through an esoteric process of involution.

           

Various meditation methods—some quite elaborate and occult—have been developed to “purify” the spheres and resolve them into the next higher on the rung of their hierarchical ladder. For example, in alchemy, the chemical metamorphosis occurring in the laboratory retort is a physical metaphor and contemplation of spiritual transformations taking place in the alchemist. The practitioner essentially goes through a psychologic and neurologic transformation through meditation and either yogic or ritual exercises and observances whereby subconscious complexes that result in artificial habits and conditioning are purged.

A primary difference between Eastern and Western treatment of the path of ascent and descent is that generally (but not exclusively), meditation on the spheres is performed starting at the base of the spine and proceeding to the “crown” in Eastern systems and from the crown to the base of the spine or lower limbs in Western systems. In Eastern systems, the practitioner brings the essential spiritual energy within up into “higher” centers of consciousness, purging and breaking apart the psychodynamic blocks that suppress its consolidation and its integration into full consciousness. In Western systems, power is brought down from its source in the spiritual realm into the human form to cause a transmutation of that form wherein identification between the human spirit and the divine spirit can be actualized.

Both Eastern and Western systems refer to the symbol of the lightning bolt to describe this power. It is depicted and visualized in mediation as a jagged line following a simple map of the sefira of the Tree of Life and Western forms of occultism that draw on Kabala. In visualization, the line shoots in a zig-zag from the top pole to the root and then proceeds up in a straight line. In eastern Tantra, the core of the śushumna (the equivalent of the middle pillar and the esoteric spine) is likened to a lightening rod (vajra). Within it is said to be a scintillating hair-thin rod (chitra) within which is a hollow that is the pathway (Brahma-nadi) of consolidated energy from the base to the brow and the periphery to the center. Both Tantric Hindu and alchemical systems also use the imagery of serpents to metaphorically refer to that power. The serpent often represents primal or latent power that must be harnessed and transformed.

In the classic Kundalini-rising episode, which seems to have been experienced by such mystics as Jacob Bohme, Plotinus, and many others in the Western mystical and occult traditions, the mystical pathways of ascent and descent become clear. A subjective sensation of heat and energy, originating at the base of the spine or solar plexus and ascending through the body, across the cervical spine, and “flowering” (or “exploding”) in the head, often occurs. (The loop actually occurs physiologically as a neuroelectrical jolt that shoots across the somatosensory cortex of the brain.) It culminates in a profound spiritual reverie. This experience is markedly different from those suggestive of so-called “spiritual emergency crises,” which constitute a controversial topic for another essay.

           

The Kundalini-rising (or Secret Fire) experience is typically self-limited. The activated energy seems to filter back down and the person goes back to ordinary life. After an episode (or after each episode, as the experience is repeatable), the person may have the impression that a change has taken place or that an insight or initiation has spontaneously occurred. More interestingly, the quality of life and encounters in the days, weeks, and even months following more intensive episodes may be marked with peculiar graciousness. This suggests that the experience itself, though coveted, is not the end-goal but is the epiphenomenon of an ongoing transformational process. Ultimately, the states of profound, unobstructed clarity that occur during or in the aftermath of these episodes become constants of the personality and the episodes themselves may become attenuated as the psychodynamic complexes that they are modifying themselves become attenuated.

Selected bibliography:

Bentov Itzhak. Micromotion of the Body as a Factor in the Development of the Nervous System. In: Sannella Lee. The Kundalini Experience. Lower Lake, California: Integral Publishing, 1992.

Chatterjee  Satischandra, Datta Dhirendramohan. An Introduction to Indian Philosophy. Calcutta: The University of Calcutta. 1984.

Churton Tobias. Gnostic Philosophy From Ancient Persia to Modern Times. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions. 2005.

Hauck Dennis William. Sorcerer’s Stone A Beginners Guide to Alchemy. New York: Citadel Press. 2004.

MacKenna Stephen (trans.) Plotinus The Enneads.  London: Penguin Books. 1991.

Roob Alexander. Alchemy and Mysticism. Koln, Germany: Taschen. 2006

Silburn Lilian. Kundalini Energy of the Depths. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 1988.

Singh Jaideva (trans.) Siva Sutras The Yoga of Supreme Identity. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. 1988

Stenring Knut (trans.) The Book of Formation or Sepher Yetzirah Attributed to Rabbi Akiba Ben Joseph. Berwick, Maine: Nicolas-Hays, Inc. 2004.

Tapasyananda (translation and commentary). Saundarya Lahari of Sri Sankacharya. Mylapore, Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math. No publication date given. 

What's coming up:  Nonfiction about my Arbatel Working project. Probably ready by August 2013 at least on Kindle. The appendix will contains supplemental information such as this essay and the ever popular essay from this blog about the Azoth.  Contact sororzsd23@gmail.com for more info.

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The Azoth Mandala

Azoth is a term in philosophical alchemy that refers to latent, transformational energy. It has been equated with the life force and the “quintessence.” In effect, it is the key to philosopher’s stone —the perfected product and end goal of alchemy.

The word Azoth is derived from Middle English azoc, from Old French, from Arabic az-zā’uq, which translates as “the mercury” from the Persian (ie, Syriac) word for mercury: zīwag. The term also has come to represent A to Z (an adaptation on the idea of Alpha-Omega).

It is associated with the caduceus which in turn is the symbol of the Roman deity Mercury (which is loosely associated with the Greek deity Hermes and Egyptian Thoth.)  From the association with the caduceus, parallels with Kundalini lore are drawn.

The caduceus, like the shushuma of yogic lore, represents the line of ascent and descent between the macrocosm and microcosm, the divine and the mundane, the sacred and profane, and the celestial and the terrestrial. The 2 snakes intertwined around the caduceus represent afferent and efferent energies (“solar” and “lunar” lines of force). The wings at the top of the caduceus represent the polarized unity—the eclipse—of the solar and lunar forces, which results in numinous integration. Its parallel in the yogic traditions is the ajna chakra, which is depicted as an orb flanked by 2 lotus petals.

An interesting mandala, highly searchable on the Web if you type “Azoth” into the search engine, is the twelfth in the series of 14 plates within a 17^th century alchemical picture book called Azoth of the Philosophers. Although traditionally attributed to one Basilius Valentinus, said to be a German monk and alchemist, it is more likely the product of some other mysterious character, considering that Valentinus might have been the invention of a late 16^th century chemist named Johann Thölde (1565-1614). The whole Azoth series can be found at the Web site of the noted modern-day alchemist and archivist of alchemical texts Adam McLean at www.levity.com/alchemy/amcl_val_azoth.html.

The image is a mandala. The original presumably was a meditation on alchemical laboratory processes as well as a meditation on the transmutation from death and decay to numinous perfection. Like eastern mandalas and yantras, every part of the Azoth mandala is symbolic. A person needs to know what the symbols mean in context to understand and meditate on the image. The image (like all mandalas and yantras) can be thought of as a kind of labyrinth—a twisting path leading to the spiritual center of both the cosmos and the self (that is, the macrocosm and the microcosm).

The image consists of a 7-pointed star, representing the 7 planets known to the medieval world: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Sol, Mercury, and Luna. In Hermeticism, which is aligned with alchemy, the planets have symbolic themes that have correspondences with levels of human consciousness. Words that  hint at themes of the journey through the spheres are Visita, Interiora, Terra, Rectificado, Invenies, Occultum, and Lapidum (the Visit, the Interiorization, Earth, Rectification, Discovery, the Secret, and the Stone), which have meaning in relation to alchemical laboratory processes as well as the journey toward self-transformation and perfection.

Like chakras, the rays of the Azoth image and the planets they correspond with can be thought of as planes to be ascended through. Ancient and medieval Hermeticists , (pagan) Gnostics, and mystics in general seemed to think that this is what people did in the course of their spiritual journey, and regarded the planets as celestial deities or  rulerships  (archons) that having a hold on man’s character and fate, had to be psychodynamically worked through and atoned with in a path of return from matter to spirit, perfection, and freedom.

The triangle in the image depicts the alchemical trinity of sulfur, mercury, and salt. Sulfur corresponds with the solar principle (the vivifying, inspirational consciousness), mercury with the lunar principle (the spiritual essence that aspires to integration with and is the link between matter and the divine light of consciousness), and salt with matter and the body. Sulfur, mercury, and salt—or consciousness/soul (anima), spirit /life essence (spiritus), and form/the body (corpus)—are what a human is and they are what he or she, as a spiritual adept, is trying integrate to become a fully realized, conscious, and free person, in the context of hermetic alchemy.

In the image, the solar principle is symbolized by a king astride a lion in the lower left and also by the salamander in the upper left corner. The lower left quadrant of the mandala also represents the element earth (dryness, fixity; stability; crystallization, effect, and efficacy) and the upper quadrant represents the element fire (heat, activity, and transformation).

The lunar principle is symbolized by a queen holding shafts of wheat and riding a sea monster The lower right quadrant represents the element water (coldness, feeling, and generation) and the upper right quadrant, in which an eagle appears, represents air (humidity, thought, and inspiration).  The hand at left of the wheel holds a torch, the one on the right holds a fish’s bladder.

The bird at the top of the mandala represents the “quintessence”—the fifth element and divine essence of things to which the alchemical adept aspires. It is, thus, the Azoth and the philosopher’s stone itself: perfect, enlightened, volitional, and empowered being.

Who is the bearded man in the center of the image?  It is your spiritual ideal and aspiration. Modern-day alchemist Dennis William Hauck claims that medieval alchemists meditated on images like this mandala and that they sometimes placed a mirror in the center of the. See www.alchemylab.com/azoth.htm for to read Hauck’s in depth discussion of the  Azoth mandala.

This post is my most visited. I don't know why. Please leave a comment and let me know whether this information was informative, what you were looking for or not, what caught your eye, what your interest in Azoth is. . . .  

If you find this interesting, see check out The Seal of Secrets of the World click here to go to the amazon.com page. Or read more on this blog here: pictorial guide/scrying the Olympic Spirits or here The Arbatel Working

The Dragon Dieth Not Unless It Be Killed by Brother and Sister at Once

Excerpt from Chapter 6 [The Lovers] The Sun and the Moon in  by The Fallen Fairy 

The “Law of Karma” posited three lines of force: sanchita karma, prarabdha karma, and agami karma. Sanchita karma was the momentum that had originated in some mysterious and distant past. It had built up over eons like a snowflake becomes an avalanche as it accumulates compacted snow, ice, rocks, twigs, shrubs, small animals, then big ones, all kinds of crap in the path of its ferocious trajectory. Wherever the exponentially building mass was as it fell was the present. That was prarabdha karma—fate, destiny—where the past caught up with a person, dictated the present, and set the direction for the future.

Then there was agami karma, which was where the avalanche might be headed and how its structure might change because of it. It was the potential future, predicated on both where it had been (sanchita karma) and where it was (prarabdha karma). Even though the residual effects of the past were relentlessly barreling from the present to the future, the present still could modify the future’s course.

Bellaluna Drago was a fallen fairy because having had the ill-fortune of becoming some sinister Renaissance necromancer’s pet (and Michael knew who that fiendish bastard now was), she had haplessly done something despicable that led to the necromancer’s and her own ruin. She was now clawing through lives and worlds in atonement. Her redemption had come. Michael felt privileged to play a role in it.

“There is a saying in the alchemical texts that goes like this,” Michael murmured. “The dragon only dies when he is killed by his brother and sister at once; not by one alone, but by both at once. That is, by the sun and moon.’ You and me,” he said.

“We’re compelled to create stories for the whys and wherefores of things in an attempt to trump a wild card, which is existence itself. And existence happens despite us and also is a product of our own making. It’s a bit of a paradox,” Michael continued. “You dream of being attacked by a man who would pull you down to Hell with him. This is all the fluff of the mind—a subterfuge for some other vexation that is limiting you. But even that is a mere projection of mental noise. We torture ourselves with it for no good reason.”

Michael told Bella this to console her, even though it was and wasn’t what was going on. Nevertheless, he continued.

“In creation mythology, we talk about the world forming from chaos and void by the will of a conscious entity—God. But the chaos—the so-called prima materia—is not matter, nature, or the world; it is the human psyche full of convoluted impressions, habituations, and the conditioning of nature and nurture. This is the seven-headed dragon that must be slain by the hero who is none other than the divine spirit within asserting itself. It rescues the damsel, which is the soul.”

The path of inner alchemy and of mysticism in all the great traditions founded in gnosis, Michael contended, was to transform the human creature, who was nothing more than a helpless gear of the world machine, into a real person with real will, intention, and creative abilities.

“Some persons call this enlightenment; some call it ‘being like unto God’; some call it the Great Work, which is magic,” he said.

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