This month’s essay on esoteric teachings is lengthy. As we have stated over the last few months, the progression through the spiritual path is one into an adulthood on the cosmic stage. We speak to you directly, clearly, without fluff, about what is needed – even expected – of each of us on this journey. For several communications now we have spoken to you about the philosophical view and practices of the adept, of one who has had a glimpse of their Self, or in terms of Qabala, those Paths above Tiphareth. It is important to remember we do not experience these paths in a strict linear or numeric fashion, as each is happening to some degree simultaneously within us. We sincerely wish that this letter will be of use to you, and provide you with guidance, inspiration, and confidence on this journey we call, The Path of Return. The meditation we sent on Sunday regarding the Thirteenth Path is very suitable for this work, and in our personal preparation for our final stages.
In these pages ideas are presented to assist you in enhancing your initiatory journey, a journey that will be accelerated over the next few years as we continue our solar rotation in what Dubuis named “The Initiation of the Nadir” and Fulcanelli called, “The Season of the Apocalypse.”
The Final Steps, The Final Teachings
The Path of Hermetic Renewal – Isolation and the Hermit
The Path of Return is also known as the Path of Reintegration among some French schools. It means that we re-harmonize ourselves with the the Primordial Adam. However, this Adam is not a separate person or even giant celestial entity. We are not concerning ourselves with a being, but with our own BEING. In this path we reclaim our inner powers. We move from potentiality to reality, from inspiration to expression – to successful action. The power of the YOD or Inner fire is carried inside each of us and brought forth into expression.
The Hebrew letter Yod has a strong connection to the letter Aleph, but for us we also see that it is the hand reaching up to the divine, and the three parts of the Yod are symbolic of the three worlds united, and the crowning glory – as well as humility. The fire crowns us through its movement or awakening within. This is why the Yod is seen as the ‘head’ of the Adam Kadmon or Primordial Being.
While there are eleven remaining paths on the Tree of Life above Tiphareth, and five of them that emanate directly from Tiphareth, we are only concerned with three of these Paths: the Path from Tiphareth to Chesed, the Path from Geburah to Chesed, and the Path from Tiphareth to Kether. The organization of these energies help us tremendously to remove ourselves from the pull of materiality, or in reality, our personal human vices, and self imposed limitations that come from them.
Path of the Hermit means that our entire journey is in our own hands – Yod. In the card of the Hermit we see Yod as Crown (also an aspect in Hebrew), it is the Fire on the head. Here, Yod is the inner teacher as well as the seed of consciousness. This fire is first encountered at or near the base of spine, again at the navel, then the heart and finally the head/crown. This is the Secret Fire in the four worlds within us as a microcosm. In our isolation, we open up to what is within and as a result, to what is without.
Good actions purifies our consciousness. Good actions are beneficial, helpful, done with the desire to help others, and without concern for recognition – and which are slightly inconvenient for us – are considered the best way to make spiritual offerings. Be 100 percent in whatever you are doing, and feel the inner energies, immerse yourself whole heartedly – without restraint – into what you are doing.
The Path of Strength
The path of Geburah and Chesed is secret fire, symbolized in part by Tet, or the “Serpent Power” of our inner being. On the card we see the lion as “King of the Jungle.” or the animal realm, being controlled or directed, made silent, by the forces of nature itself, the Sophia, path of ascent. It is troubling if we think in simple and concrete terms, particularly at this point in our journey. Eve the Divine Mother and Sophia the Bride or Royal Consort of Awakening are one and the same. As we grow (for it is organic) in our understanding of our experiences we move from seeing divinity as something outside of us, to a friend, to something we experience within ourselves, and finally, as our constant perception. These four aspects or stages are discussed in our course: Unfolding the Rose – Illumination in Western Esotericism – and are also the four basic styles of spiritual practice that we integrate along the way. At this point, we are completing the integration of the third style, that of stages of initiation, and emphasizing the method of direct experience. That is, the final stage or method of practice of Via Union. This union however is not an abandonment of the physical world, but one which includes it – for all is in all.
Here we must also remember that the roar if the lion is the sound of creation. “In the beginning was the Word.” This word is the origination and organizing of energies as presented in various divine names and their permutations. Sound IS kundalini or the Secret Fire. Here we see the Lion’s Roar: a sound of the great accomplishment in Meditation. Fearlessness born of one’s self-awareness. Sound IS the presence of the divine entities whose names we chant. Thus, chant your Divine Names, be enchanted by them. Sing them, and let thier sound flow through and from you. This is the incarnation of The Word – and brings worlds into Being.
The 18th Century French esotericist St.-Yves d’Alverydre referred to YHVH and stated that Y or the Yod, is the Essence of Being, and that HVH is the Substance of God. This theme is also taken up in some practical detail in the work by Jean Dubuis – The Experience of Eternity, and his earlier Qabala lessons. The basic idea being that in its ideal, archetypal, or original form the energies are arranged or interact in a manner wherein Yod, or Fire, the force of Light, Life, and Love, will always be the guiding force or intelligence. A simple way to think of this is that the “Holy Living Creatures” of the Sphere of Kether are these primordial energies and their “singing before the throne of God” is their original state. They are “singing” because they are harmonious, or in a proper relationship to each other. This creates the “music of the Spheres.” When we hear about the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” we are witnessing these same energies in their “fallen state” in the domain of duality. The energies (Elemental prana) of life are also the energies death. In alchemy we learn how to extract the seed of death out of a plant, mineral, or even human blood, and to transform it into the energies of life – return it to its natural or more accurately, original state in nature.
Tet is the serpent and distinctly connected with duality as well as acceptance of divine reality. From an esoteric perspective we can see this as awakening to our inner self and experiencing the interconnectedness of all that exists, as well as duality-eternity divide as being a perception and not a place – Malkuth and Keter and Keter in Malkuth, Samsara and Nirvana of One Taste. Hence we see it climbing the Paths of the Tree of Life and resting at Kether. Fallen Nature and Redeemed Nature are reconciled through direct experience of the Secret Fire – the undifferentiated forces of Life. We learn the importance of cooperating with nature, and through this cooperation – the Alchemist is “Nature’s handmaiden” and we perform miracles. Woman clothed with the Sun from Nicholas Flamel’s Hieroglyphics is a good image as well for meditation on this theme.
Eternally pregnant nature giving birth to universes – the “Baby Universe” model of physics in which smaller universes are constantly being created, but few last long. It is no different for our very thoughts, and how we go through life: ideas constantly changing. It is the force, or power of concentration that allows anything to come into being, stay in existence, and grow.
This force of “non-fallen” nature is the Secret Fire, the energies of Illumination, of Eternity to which all bends a knee in obedience and humility. That is why we are told to meditate upon the uncreated, the Kether, or Ain Soph Aur (depending on your instructions) and its limitless light, life, and love as the beginning of all our Work. This energy is pure, or Virgin, that is it is undifferentiated or spit into unique qualities like light going through a prism. We shed our skin, in the literal sense when we are regenerated, and symbolic sense when we are absorbed in meditative bliss and equipoise. Tet is good and evil, duality.
Heart as center, heart as point of awakening (the solar power, the middle triad, as a tripartite expression of the “solar” force, or of consciousness. This domain or World is the ‘Solar World’ and the energies of Tiphareth, Geburah, and Chesed need to studied individually but integrated into a single whole. That is the purpose of the ‘paths’. They provide an intellectual framework for understanding and experiencing these diverse powers within us. Powers that are eternally operating simultaneously unconsciously, and to increasing degrees, consciously as we proceed with our Work.
On this path we are exposed to another way to understand the Red and White essence drops (Mercuries) of our essential nature, the symbols of the Rebis, or in more basic terms, the Solar and Lunar powers as presented in the forms of Chesed and Geburah (as male and female energies). This is the the kinship of Alchemy and Qabala, but also the Tarot Card of Strength, as a woman and the lion. The strong woman, is Sophia, but also the force of initiation. The lion is a a solar being, and here we see Sophia, between the extremes of the pillars (psychic channels) directing the solar energies (psychic energies or pranas, Secret Fire). Her hat is said to represent Eternity (Nirvana,Timelessness, that which is not duality) the experience we are heading towards as conscious beings on the journey. On this Path on the Tree of Life are concentrated all of the spiritual beings, entities and forces: just as within the central psychic channel or Middle Pillar within our physical and psychic bodies are all of the psychic potentialities in our microcosm. All is within us, and all must be awakened within us.
When we can get our energies to relax, and settle into the Middle Pillar, particularly in the region of the heart, we can experience a multitude of expressions of awakening. This is in silence, and stillness, and within – and yet will move to connect us more deeply with ‘the without’. Stillness, observation or attentiveness, and ease are the keys.
Despite this being a Path of Leo (ruled by the Sun) the Philosophers of Nature suggests that rituals of Venus should be done to reconcile the energies of Mars and Jupiter. It may be worthwhile to try both. This suggested by Jean Dubuis is an interesting choice, and we agree with it in that Venus represent the totality of the forces of nature, magic, erotic power, or in short: the powers of Life itself. EVE is the entity of this Path. This is LIFE. Eve is given the He-Vau-He, or energies of the duality – that is the beginning of the ‘permutations of the Tetragrammaton’. The secret fire, the original seed is ‘hidden’ or suppressed by the ‘downward push’ of these variations that arise. In qabalistic terms it is our task to place the Yod back into its ‘original’ permutation, or YHVH as the crown of the Elements.
Nature, or expression of intelligence-energy-matter, is an equal aspect of Beingness or Origin. Eve is redeemed and becomes Sophia in symbolic terms. In real terms, we encounter the forces of life and understand that our physical body is essential for our enlightenment to happen. The energies of the physical body are the basis of our physical life but also our spiritual potential – in this, inner alchemy is the basis for, and prerequisite for laboratory alchemy.
Control of the principle of life, that is the prima materia or prana, can only be done in and through the physical body by using breathing practices and the meditations related to them. The easiest and most direct being Kriya Yoga, the Yoga of Niguma (also known as Tummo in Tibetan), and several of the practices in the our classes on inner alchemy, the Body of Light, and commentary on Israel Regardie’s Twelve Steps to Spiritual Enlightenment. Meditation on Ptah and his staff, as the embodiment of stabilization or mastery of the life force: ie, the Body of Light or Rainbow Body from Vajrayana. We have discussed and provided all these teachings in our courses. But, it is up to each of you to access, study, and practices them, and to ask for assistance when needed for clarification. Again, it is all in our own hands.
We could say that this Path is to create the Alchemical Hermaphrodite, the union of opposites in the different dimensions. We overcome the notions of good and evil/ mercy and strength are harmonized, as in the Bhagavah Gita, the battle is first between the mind and emotions of Arjuna, and then between Arjuna and his inner Self symbolized by Krishna. Arjuna must overcome his self-absorption and perform his duty.
The Path from the Heart to the Cosmic Womb
The Emerald Tablet tells us that “The wind carries it in its belly/body, and it penetrates all things.” This is the energy of LIFE itself, is to know good and evil is to accept death, but really that means, impermanence, temporal, or temporary experiences. Here we need to understand the “predatory aspects” of nature. The eat or be eaten, kill or be killed dimension that permeates all levels of duality, even if only on very subtle social and competitive levels.
Eve/Sophia as Co-Creator, Co-Redeemer, Co-Sanctifior, Virgin, Mother, Queen, these are the the eternally present, immanent, qualities (powers and intelligences) of divine expression. They are the Word (Creative Power, YHVH) made flesh (form) This is also the unique individuality as experienced in the power of the Initiatrix, or Dhakinis of Vajrayana. Just as Mary is the Mother of Jesus, so is Green Tara the Mother of all the Buddhas. This force, this energy, is what provides for Illumination or awakening.
As such, it is no surprise that the 13th Path, that connecting the individual to the impersonal, “crosses over” or overlaps this Path and is ruled by the Priestess or Papes.
We learn to concentrate our energies of life in our nervous system and psychic anatomy, as well as to suspend some physical functions, learn how to prepare for physical death, or if desired, an approximation of physical immortality (long life), as control of the energies works in all directions. Again, the relationship to ISIS and OSIRIS here is clear.
To turn our backs to it is to literally turn our backs on LIFE itself, to not understand the power of the VIRGIN is to not understand life, and therefore to invite death. Black Virgin or Madonna of the Gothic period is the Black Madonna or Mother (dark or secret force) of Alchemy – the Prima Materia. The Cosmic womb.
The 13th Path is when we harmonize the extremes within ourself. This is Daat or Knowledge, it is an experience that is spontaneous, organic, and profound. We experience it often when solving a problem, such as in math, or a puzzle, but also in any learning where we go from the theoretical to the organic or experiential. And voila! It it is done. She hold the open book of knowledge, all knowledge, as it is all organic at that point – that of direct knowing – of Intuition or “Inner Teaching.” Natural focus of the scientific mind, is a benefit in spiritual practice as a whole. It is a mind of simple and direct meditation through complete absorption into the subject being contemplated. It is easy, direct, and is not forced. Because it is natural, it is the preferred way.
This is “the key to all mysteries” or equilibrium : the moon or passive, receptive, and imaginative powers are dynamic in this experiences as we enter into the contemplative domain. The dual aspects of balance, or dawn and duck are important in many practices and are a good time to engage in meditation, even if only for a few minutes. Time compresses as we inch towards Eternity, or experience complete meditative absorption.
This is the House of Wisdom: the body, the psychic body, the soul or pure awareness. This is everything we have been searching for, and it is right here and everywhere. The book or scroll on her lap, sometimes titled “Tora” or “Law” is our experience, reflection or analysis, realization or synthesis. The idea that can be written down and communicated to others. Again, we must learn to control of breathing, to control our mind, to enter into contemplative and meditative states, wherein we will experience realization or Illumination: be of a mundane problem solving experience, a psychic encounter, or a deep spiritual embrace. It is all the same, just varying degrees of intensity or lasting importance, but each is a step on the inner journey. This is REINTEGRATION. Experiencing – even if temporarily – our natural and primitive state of consciousness before the “Fall” or movement into duality. This Law is also the rules we set down for ourselves, our own inner law (we could say disciplines or aspirations) and the fruits they bear for us to share with others.
The “gift of tears” of Divine Grace, as spoken of in Bhakti Yoga, Vajrayana, Qabala (Zohar), and even Alchemy. Jean Dubuis stated at the end of his Mineral Alchemy lessons, “When you are an alchemist, certainly two things that you have to experience. While meditating in front of your retort, you will feel your heart become filled both with the burden of the world and with universal love; so that you will have difficulty keeping your eyes dry. If this state is reached then you will have reached the state of the authentic alchemist. Then you will not need any formula, ritual, or prayer, direct contact resolves everything. … you can be sure that the chemist of Malkuth will work directly receive from Tiphareth, by night or by day, all the elements he lacked, whether they are from the domain of knowledge or of Knowledge.”
Hermeticism is essentially a ‘dry path’ that is, one of training the intellect and imagination so that through them we can experience inner awakening or Illumination. This Illumination must ultimately bring us to an emotional or devotional state for equilibrium to be realized. The same is also often said about the path of Jnana Yoga, and that while it provides with very quick realization on some levels, it is limited if one does not find a manner of translating that into devotion (Bhakti) and action (Karma). This ‘dryness’ is easily fallen into and can be seen in the attitudes of many contemporary occultists. Two false solutions are often then the result: an over-assessment of their own capacity and with it their need to follow a ‘solitary path’ or an emotionally reactive sense of compassion and duty to their fellow humans that is expressed solely through political slogans and platforms and absent of any personal responsibility or sacrifice. The first is a peculiar form of spiritual “solitary confinement” and the second a peculiar form of materialistic collectivism under the guise of spiritual practice.
For this reason, for over twenty years, we have been encouraging students to read and practice “Wisdom’s Bliss: Developing Compassion in Western Esotericism” to balance the intellect, imagination, emotions, and actions into an effective practice that opens us to inner revelation in a useful and healthy manner.
The Path from Binah to Chokmah, the Path of the Empress, is Isis, Nature, Mater (Mother), and with it, we see the continuous life giving aspects of our existence. This life giving is also life taking, or transforming, and can be very difficult on a limited level. Our love for all beings – and understanding what that really means in practice – is experienced and expressed here, but we must also realize that it is not necessarily returned. The Lion eats the baby deer regardless of all our pontificating about “Universal Love.” It is Nature that loves all its children equally, not that all of the children return that love to each other or their ‘mother.’
This domain of Venus, Nature, Isis, is the domain of magic and we can experience it in two obvious ways: limitation and cycles or preferred periods for magic via astrological timing; or as the realization of intellect and wisdom, or intuition, and a certain experience of Bliss that it provides. The designation as Mistress of Illusion, or Maya as found in most Indian sects is most appropriate here.
