More Than Human? The True Nature of Theurgic Transformation

[00:00:01]Okay, we are back. Finally, this video is going to be about this idea of the theists versus the humanists.

[00:00:15]In the time of the Renaissance, something developed called humanism.

[00:00:22]And uh it's it's best exemplified by the phrase man is the measure of all things.

[00:00:29]And it was a resurgence of the importance of the human being in the cosmos. And that primarily resulted supposedly from the um introduction of hermetic principles back into Europe. Uh they came back pretty much from the Muslim lands from the um from the Middle East and they were rediscovered out there. Um anyway, um so when people practice high magic or ceremonial magic, they tend to regard the transformation uh as becoming more truly human. Very often if they have a humanistic mindset where well our goal is really to become more truly who we are, which is human, right? And yet what we find in the high magic tradition of the from like the 3rd century uh and also from the mystery traditions is that the transformation that um happens is that we become more than human. In other words, we transform from a human being into a god.

[00:01:36]And you've probably seen some really crazy book titles out there about how to become a living god or something like that, right? So um when we talk about the it is the practice of transforming oneself into a a deity let's say but really what that means is the ability to embody divine principles in one's life.

[00:02:01]Doesn't sound as exciting does it? But um the ability to do that is for real.

[00:02:08]And I think a lot of people know that um they just kind of don't want to own up to it or they spend their lives sort of hiding from it because it's a big obligation to realize that you have this tremendous potential inside you to become something um capable of conveying divine qualities. Okay. It would be maybe too much hubris to say you actually literally become a god. There's no need to do that really um because you kind of already are one anyway.

[00:02:38]But um theorists would say, "Well, not really. You're not really a god yet. You do need to transform." And there's some difficulty there.

[00:02:44]So, so primarily what I'm going to assert is that when you do theergy in the Golden Dawn system of magic, because the Golden Dawn system of magic properly utilized is the or high magic, which is the art of transforming oneself into a living God or being able to channel divine qualities. Let's say, did I just use the word channel? Um the the ability to divine to to embody divine qualities. How's that?

[00:03:22]All right. So the true nature of the transformation I'm promising a lot there. Right.

[00:03:30]So um the idea that the student of magic then is becoming more than human can be a little bit of an affront to some people. Okay. But the experience of the practice of the does bear this out that we become something not quite human anymore.

[00:03:53]But that's mainly because the typical biological motivations of a human being are now surrendered and taken over by a different kind of motivation let's say or a different kind of of functioning.

[00:04:12]So the transformation is radical and yet it's not something that many people would notice directly.

[00:04:21]Okay. But everything that the um adept does is now completely turned upside down, you could say. And it's inside out and backwards.

[00:04:32]Okay. And yet nothing really seems to be that different. They're they're still doing the same things. They wear they wear ordinary clothes in public. They don't run around in public with their you know rosecross llmons and things like that right so um so uh they are quite content to appear as ordinary people okay because on one level they are still quite ordinary but the transformation actually has an energetic component. So even the biology and the the energetic way of of experiencing people is different not necessarily noticeable unless you are another adept or if you're studying magic you begin to pick up on it. It magnetizes you and you can also become a good I don't know teacher or um teacher is not the right right word exactly. It's more like when you show up in a particular place, things change because you're there, if that makes any sense. And that can make you a good teacher, let's say. Um, or even a good leader or manager possibly if it's your thing or a good artist or even a good scientist. Much better scientist than a typical career scientist. My god. Yes. All right. So theology um is as a study is I have to I have to apologize. I know that some of the people who are following me on the Patreon site actually speak Greek and some of you guys are even philosophers philosophy majors and you know a lot of you actually know ancient Greek and stuff like that. So be merciful on me in the comments. Okay. So I I don't know how to pronounce ancient Greek. So but I'm taking these words right out of the study of the is a pretty good scholarly work. I'm not much of a scholar myself.

[00:06:27]I'm more of a practitioner. Okay. But um uh the soul is a study of amlus and it's by Gregory Shaw. Excellent book. Not an easy read though. I've been struggling with this and talking to a lot of you guys. Um, and of course the the source itself which is um the primary source we have from I amus is considered the father of the the one who pretty much um rescued magic from becoming mere sorcery. He kind of brought ma magic back into the practice of magic. uh rescuing it from superstition, things like that.

[00:07:12]Supposedly, if you believe in this stuff, it's not a matter of belief.

[00:07:16]Okay? Um magic, the kind of magic people practice as sorcery doesn't really work the way that the sorcerers claim it does. If it works, it's normally hit or miss and it works according to the PR to the principles of theology, which is high magic. Okay. Um I hate to hold up a book and say this is the answer. No, no, it's just um just that uh I amus total rockar when it comes to the practice of high magic. He's kind of the the source material. And if you read him and study him, he's really hard to argue with. He he always seems to have a very clear point and message to bring to bear to the practice of magic and to the practice of or study of philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom.

[00:08:17]So when you study theology, that would essentially be the study of a kind of sotarioria.

[00:08:25]Sorry, my pronunciation is not so good.

[00:08:27]Right? So um that's a study of how to be saved.

[00:08:33]So it's a study of the soul's restoration to divine unity. The assumption being that the soul whatever that is has fallen down into matter and now become corrupted and needs to be saved and sort of what scooped up and raised back up into heaven.

[00:08:52]Okay. So um and this is the idea in the Christian traditions. you'll find that the Christian traditions borrow tons of stuff from the pagan traditions and from magic. Um, and as we talk about the these things, you might begin to notice parallels uh between theist ideas and some of the practices that exist in Christianity, even though the true, you know, function and magic behind those practices has now been essentially lost, uh, they just kind of exist as, you know, um, remnants pretty much.

[00:09:26]So the idea that you can be saved of course um uh and of course the idea that you can just say I accept Jesus blah blah blah now you're saved that's quite absurd from the perspective of the okay theogy is work as many of you know if you're practicing high magic it is work it's not terribly hard work it does require discipline though and and a lifestyle right this is the granddaddy concept of the mall in regard to golden dawn magic.

[00:09:59]Cintamata, another Greek word. Uh these are the magical symbols, the signs, the tokens, the divine signatures. So the idea is that when the divine or the gods created the universe, they implanted um signs of their own activity within the world that they were creating.

[00:10:28]And when they interact with the world, they are capable of resonating or recognizing their own signatures in their own creation. Okay. Now, this is the way that they're able to see into the, let's say, material world, let's say. First of all, they really are part of the material world. They're the world is full of gods, let's say, right? Um, they're not up there in some detached realm. Not really. Anyway, we maybe we should talk about that in a bit. Okay.

[00:10:53]Um, but they don't have eyes and ears like we do. So, how do they, I don't know, see in the world? They see through the resonance of syntheata.

[00:11:07]And it's a very strange concept I'm trying to understand. And that it's a concept of onlogical resonance.

[00:11:14]Okay. Basically that there are um sort of patterns and harmonies and shapes and qualities scattered throughout the universe that are in harmonious um sympathy with the gods who put them there.

[00:11:36]Okay. So the whole universe is sort of this harmonious field in which that you could say like as above so below intermetic principles that the um the principles the things you see happening on earth are um harmonious uh emanations or reflections of the things that are happening in the realm of the gods. But they are much more they're different. They're more external. They're more dense. they're more broken up. They're sort of um mixed up and confused. Okay? And this is the world we supposedly live in where we're wondering what's going on. We can't see the gods. Where are they? You know, according to the ancient Greeks, we can't see them because we are the soul has become sort of extended or even descended into this material realm for whatever reason. Okay? Um and is now experiencing a sort of broken up state of existence in which it's wondering what to do with all this. Okay? Part of that broken up state of existence seems to involve some kind of divine amnesia where your original identity as a sort of angelic or spiritual being has been sort of um left left behind or or temporarily forgotten so that you can operate in this world in a in a state of sort of amnesia. In which case you are now looking around and trying to recover or remember who you truly are.

[00:13:04]And part of this is accomplished through divine signatures or symbols. And the magical symbols of a cult work such as pentagrams and hexogs are these syntheata.

[00:13:17]Okay. But also everything in the world is a syntheata of something divine. Everything. There's nothing in the world that is inherently evil or demonic or anything like that.

[00:13:31]The only thing about the material world that would be evil or demonic is is the manner in which we perceive it. If our ignorance compels us to see it as a prison or an oppressive place or something like that, then that mistaken appearance is demonic, evil, whatever.

[00:13:51]Okay? But in essence, that's not really what's happening. Okay? The ignorance and the evil kind of go hand in hand.

[00:13:57]Anyway, so and and in order to recover from that confusion or loss of our memory of who we actually are, we can use signs, tokens, and divine signatures.

[00:14:11]Because when we employ these in ritual and in study, let's say the the gods or the divine forces recognize themselves in those symbols.

[00:14:24]And the weird thing is they don't recognize themselves necessarily through your eyes and ears, though they can do that apparently. But they actually operate through the intentions that you have while you're creating those symbols. And if you like you draw a pentagram on a on a on a talisman or something like that and then you walk away from it, you're not looking at it.

[00:14:48]that the talisman retains the presence of the deity in some way or the power of the deity within this the the synthema the symbol that you put on it that because the intention was to embody the power of the god within the synthema or the symbol then the god will be there even if you're not looking at it okay and this is so this is the idea that uh that's why your temple space or your ritual space can take on a sort of magical charge or certain atmosphere. Um this is the idea that you can actually charge up you know talismans and things like that. Okay. Um and now synth synthata are also objects from the physical world like gemstones which sort of have a resonance to different qualities.

[00:15:44]Okay. I like to use gemstones a lot for for that. And you you could just say that the the the um onlogical resonance or the harmony that these various objects have with their divine counterparts is a kind of um aesthetic resonance. We don't have to be clever about and say it's an electromagnetic resonance or scientific blah blah blah. You could say it's just basically an an aesthetic field. It's an artsy correspondence because within the experience of art is an energy field itself.

[00:16:20]We don't need to make it scientific and electromagnetic and energy waves beaming out of your head or anything like that.

[00:16:27]All you really need to do is go to a live play with live actors and experience the aneria, the the presence of of formless virtues within the performance provided the actors are talented and they can convey that. But it's also it exists within the audience as well because the audience and the actors and the actual stage props and the whole production carries the presence of formless divine or aesthetic principles which you can actually feel.

[00:17:09]That's why we go to rock concerts and you know and uh and live performances.

[00:17:15]Okay. And we can actually experience it through by watching you know YouTube or the uh movies and things like that too to a lesser degree it's also there.

[00:17:27]All right.

[00:17:30]The principle of misus myis messis. Okay. So um the principle of imit the principle of imitation. Now this is a tricky concept because people would say oh yeah yeah that's sympathetic magic. So if I make a little doll in the likeness of my neighbor and then I stab it with pins, then my neighbor will get some kind of ailment and suffer, right? No, no, no, no, no.

[00:17:54]So um misus is where you are capable of imitating formless qualities in the world of form. You're not imitating the form of your neighbor so you can put a curse on him or something like that. That is a horizontal imitation of one form imitating another form. Mimisis, mimis misus is a an imitation of something formless within the realm of form.

[00:18:30]Sounds like a strange concept because how can some how can a form imitate something formless?

[00:18:37]Funny thing is, if you've ever been to a really good rock concert, you can see very often the lead singer is doing exactly that somehow embodying some kind of formless principle if he's if he's very talented or if if she's very talented is able to do that through the voice, through the gesture, through the whatever it is they're doing, right? Um and very often the the lead singer if they have no instrument carries the burden of conveying most of that power. But all the the whole thing the whole production altogether feeds into that including the various syntheata that they put on the projection screen and the various symbols and things like that they they use you know. So so expressing higher realities through imitation of them in the world of form.

[00:19:27]Let me give you a really sort of vulgar example of that. Um, I was once watching a lizard crawl across the patio in a place where I once lived in Orlando.

[00:19:37]Lots of lizards in Florida. And I saw it was a male lizard and it had that little pouch in the neck that stuck out and because it was basically horny, it was obviously signaling for a mate. and the little pouch was coming out, but it also had this sort of um back and forth motion which I was looking at that going, "Oh, that's like that. That's like that piston engine mo motion.

[00:20:00]That's a very masculine or male energy, like you know, sort of the energy um of a piston engine, let's say, right? Um which is kind of the jerky energy. I guess that's why only men can be jerks, right? Women can't be jerks.

[00:20:15]Uh the back and forth energy of the masculine archetype. So there's that actually a sort of um a profound divine penetrating thrusting energy that is now evident in the motion of a lizard of the male lizard. So the motion of the lizard is a synthema and it's a mimisis of the deeper quality of some kind of pure version of masculinity almost almost like it's a geometric form of some kind that's being imitated. So that's a very basic example. So in some way we are able to through drama and movement and voice and vibration um and um eye contact and who knows what else, right? Um uh being able to draw pictures to be able to uh do sculpture.

[00:21:12]We're able to um encode divine presences into physical form somehow.

[00:21:22]And the idea of theology is that the objects themselves do literally become consecrated with the presence of the divine entities in some fashion or another. Okay. Um possibly through an intermediate entity which we would call a don. Okay. Which is sort of a um a form aspect of the deity. But anyway, we're getting too technical there.

[00:21:48]That doesn't mean if you call down the presence of a god into a statue, it's going to start moving and walking around. No. Um but some interesting phenomena will happen possibly around the statue sometimes when people are near it or something like that. There's something um unusual some unusual things might happen or not.

[00:22:15]This gonna try to pronounce this. Homois theo. Oh my gosh. Uh, so assimilation into the likeness of a god.

[00:22:27]Assimilation is a scary word now because of the board from Star Trek, right? So there's this idea of assimilation being a um a broken down mechanical process which is truly frightening because you're kind of being ground up in hamburger and then being installed in shredded pieces into a machine or something like that. Right. Right. Um, so assimilation into the presence of the gods is different where your soul as it was descended into matter experiences that sort of meat grinder aspect of where it gets kind of like stuck and imshed in matter and here and there and and jutting out in all kinds of weird deformed ways, right? Um supposedly the soul was round in in um in Greek philosophy and in Greek old ancient Greek religion. The soul was originally round and then of course when it descends into matter it takes on a more human form. Okay. Or gets stuck in in various um behavior patterns which are materially conditioned corrupted. Okay. It's no longer round.

[00:23:41]And assimilating the soul back into the divine is kind of extracting it from matter so that can assume it's more rounded shape again. Okay.

[00:23:54]And not surprisingly in the golden dawn the shape of the aura is pretty much the approximation or the um imitation of that um perfected divine form.

[00:24:10]And in so doing, you're assimilating yourself into the likeness of a god.

[00:24:17]Yeah. As you guys are doing the Golden Dawn curriculum, what you'll notice is that the work with the body of light, the body of light is visualized in different ways. First, it starts out material or even crystallin in nature.

[00:24:32]Then it turns into sort of a subtle body which is in the shape of the human body.

[00:24:35]And as you as you get into a higher grade, it turns into the ovoid or the the o the oval shape of the aura. Okay, which is like that that sort of the version of the soul that is supposedly now uncorrupted. And then uh at the highest level it it assumes the form of the tree of life mainly because at the highest level we can't visualize that that anymore. So we just sort of um substitute the tree of life to represent that highest form of the spirit body.

[00:25:10]What we're pointing out here is that all the aspects of Golden Dawn magic are theoric. It's kind of like the original uh who whoever it is that created the Golden Dawn system, Wescott, Mathers, and who knows who else um maybe even before them. uh they it's almost like they were going through I amus's book on the mysteries and were checking all the boxes of what the is because what you'll notice is that everything I amus talks about in regards to what the is is what the golden dawn does.

[00:25:49]Surprise surprise.

[00:25:54]Okay. This idea of anogi an anagy anagogoi. So this idea of the upward ascent of the soul. This is a problematic idea. Okay. But amlus and theists will talk about achieving a higher state of being. Okay. When they say higher, they don't literally mean higher.

[00:26:21]This is it can be a big problem because when people aspire to a higher grade of initiation or when they aspire to enter a higher state of being then they think they're going up they're transcending this world and leaving the things in the world behind. No, I amus is firm about that. He says that is not what happens in theology. Okay.

[00:26:50]When you trans when you transcend the world, you also include the world. So transcending the world means that you expand beyond it. You're no longer contained by it or or um constricted or trapped by it. Not that you were ever trapped to begin with, but your identification with it has now been relinquished so that you are no longer bound by the principles of a material or conditioned entity.

[00:27:18]Okay.

[00:27:22]So the upward ascent of the soul really means uh to you're also widening and deepening in your uh perception of the world. Let's say it means your horizons are widening are much wider, bigger.

[00:27:37]Okay? And you could view that as you know if you if you climb upward higher and higher and higher into a building then you can see more and more of the land around you. That's kind of what that means. So the ascent of the soul is really the liberation of it from a confined space in matter or like into big and round and beautiful. Right?

[00:27:56]Okay. This does not mean ego inflation though. Okay. Just simply because the soul becomes wider, deeper, higher, broader does not mean the ego is being inflated. Of course that could happen to you.

[00:28:13]Apistrophe.

[00:28:14]Hopefully I'm saying that correctly. I'm probably using anglicized pronunciations here. The return of the soul to its source. Okay, this is also a problematic idea.

[00:28:28]So the theists and the neoplatanists, the philosophers of the time around the 3rd century and even earlier regarded the soul as an um as not really truly descended into matter. Some of them and then others said, "Well, yes, it is truly descended into matter and it needs to get out of matter again or something like that." Right? Amlus said, well, they're both true, but I amus says that it's very important to regard the descent of the soul into matter as though it is real because our our experience of being stuck in matter is profoundly consequential to us. Okay? So if it feels like you've fallen from a higher state of being and now you're in this world going, "What the what the hell's going on?" Right?

[00:29:26]Then um then that experience in in itself is real even though fundamentally it is not what's happening. It's sort of an illusion. Okay.

[00:29:39]But Amla says that that experience has profound implications for us because it affects us very dramatically and very energetically.

[00:29:51]The way that our energy functions and the way that our vitality functions in our body is now corrupted and and and struggling.

[00:29:59]Okay.

[00:30:01]So this idea of doing magic in which you return to the source in other words um like yoga where you return to unity with the the divine let's say right um then um that needs to be taken seriously as though it's actually happening as though you're returning back to where you came from. Okay? Even though ultimately what's really happening ultimately is that you are recognizing that you're already connected to the divine. Okay?

[00:30:29]But what that will feel like is like you're traveling, you know, upwards through the higher levels of the tree of life and things like that. And which is fine um as long as you realize that that upward descent is not really an upward descent. It's simply a matter of um um an analogous imitation of the order of divinity.

[00:30:51]Okay? It's not precisely the way that things are happening in the universe, but we can't truly visualize the way things are happening in the universe with our limited perception. So, we use these sort of analoges of the tree of life and various uh or concentric spheres or the system of astrology and things like that in an attempt to map out what has happened and what is happening with the soul.

[00:31:20]And to be clear, this idea that each human being has a soul is also a bit of an illusion.

[00:31:30]The main truth supposedly at the at the most deepest fundamental level of being is that the entire universe has a soul and yet each of us is sort of like a macrocos a microcosm reflection of that macrocosm. Right? So the the idea so in other words when we experience our soul as separate from the the rest of the universe it feels that way and I amus says that it's important to regard that as if it's real as if you have a soul which is part of that larger soul in some strange way separate from it but linked to it in some deep way.

[00:32:10]Okay.

[00:32:16]Photo Goia. Photo Goia.

[00:32:20]I don't know. Very often the third syllable is emphasized, I think, in Greek. I'm not sure why, but you can see a lot of these words really inform how English came about.

[00:32:31]Photo mean meaning light, I believe it, right? and and um I don't know gojo means probably something to do with knowledge or something like that. So um this is very important to the Golden Dawn system of magic. Okay. And also to the theology of the ancient uh Greeks and the ancient theorists.

[00:32:53]That is um you would think it means the visualization of light.

[00:33:00]Okay.

[00:33:02]Not exactly.

[00:33:06]Okay. So listen to this very carefully.

[00:33:08]All right. So of course in the Golden Dawn rituals we see ourselves as surrounded by divine light as penetrated by you know white light as circulating the light the white light of the you know middle pillar and the circulation of the body of light and various um subtle body tricks like that.

[00:33:32]So the idea of photogia is that um the light of the gods according to I amus and theists is that is is present all around us already though not recognized.

[00:33:48]So what what um the ancient theists would say is that it's not up to you to visualize it into existence.

[00:34:00]It's already there.

[00:34:02]But for most of us, it we're walking around not recognizing it.

[00:34:08]Okay. So, we go into ritual and then the ritual says visualize a bright a white light. Right? So, you might notice that in the Cabala magic book, I say, well, I I don't like to use the word visualize.

[00:34:20]Sometimes I'll say you just see it. See the white light. Okay? So, it's some something like that. So what's required actually in the visual in the visualization process is that you proceed as if the light is simply there. You don't project it out of your mind or out of your forehead or something like that.

[00:34:41]No, no, no, no. And this is why when people visualize, they literally get a headache.

[00:34:46]Okay? Now, the way you do that is you regard the images that you are supposedly visualizing as already there, not as generated by you.

[00:34:55]you're simply recognizing, oh, there they are. Hello. You know, it's not like you're beaming them out of your head.

[00:35:00]Okay? So, that's really important.

[00:35:04]Um, now the types of things that we visualize in ritual, it's almost as though they are sort of, I don't know, arbitrary, right?

[00:35:14]The interesting thing about that is that the the presences of the divine let's say the the whole world is supposedly full of gods according to the theorists.

[00:35:26]So these gods can take many different forms.

[00:35:31]Okay. And each of those forms that they can take are the cintamata, right? The various symbols uh signatures of those god powers within manifestation.

[00:35:40]So there are many many different forms that any particular spiritual power or intelligence can inhabit.

[00:35:49]Now supposedly the the ones that are tried and true with the golden dawn are capable of capturing capturing inviting some of these forces to basically um participate more fully in your life. Let's say okay in your temple space whatever that is.

[00:36:15]Okay. So, what that means is when you're visualizing images and the light itself, you're guarding the light or the images as already there. And this comes to the rescue for a lot of you guys who have trouble visualizing because you the idea is that you you think you're trying to create it oh cloth right out of your imagination when in fact you just simply regard the images as there.

[00:36:37]It's quite easy to do that actually if you think about it. It sounds um irrational. But if I say, you know, a green elephant, you're going to see a green elephant pretty clearly almost right before your eyes there for a second. So, it's not really it doesn't really take that much energy. the the idea of trying really hard to produce these images is somehow a um a misunderstanding of how the world of imagination actually is.

[00:37:10]Okay, I just want to point that out to you. Okay, so the the when you're visualizing light and circulating light, these are representations of what is already happening. You're not making it happen. You can't do that. All you're really doing is putting is you're regarding the forces in your life as being in sync with what is already there.

[00:37:37]And I hope that makes it easier for you.

[00:37:38]By the way, catharsis, this is a word from the English language which is borrowed from the Greeks, right? I think we spell it with a C in English. Ktharsis is extremely important. Uh, and normally when people talk about catharsis, like you go to a play and you experience catharsis. Oh, that was amazing. Uh, now people have lost the idea. They don't really know what catharsis is anymore. They just say, well, it kind of it kind of purifies you of painful emotions or something like that.

[00:38:15]No, doesn't really do that. Um, so catharsis sets you free from various roles that you've been compelled to play.

[00:38:31]For example, if you see a play that is about the tension between justice and vengeance.

[00:38:41]Okay. At first, the people in the play are trying to achieve revenge. Vengeance is their principle, right? But of course, the revenge is driving them into separate camps. And one one person is trying to get revenge on the other. And when he does that, he's going to feel really good about himself, stuck in the form of the winner. This is not catharsis. Okay? Justice would pretty much dissolve the entire scenario or transcend it.

[00:39:12]So that each each of the parties involved is no longer stuck in that role anymore compulsively. Doesn't mean that role goes away. It simply means that they are not bound up in those forms anymore. So justice is something that would is the virtuous aspect of that divine force which would which would enact itself through drama and then set us free from these conflicting for uh forms, right? Um that doesn't mean the forms go away. They might still fight.

[00:39:40]Okay? but that we are no longer bound or compelled to occupy those forms.

[00:39:47]Okay? And it's the compulsion that we get purified of. In other words, the identification or the imprisonment within a particular form that is what gets purified, not negative emotion, whatever that is. Right? So um and you'll find that the really the negative aspects of emotion primarily have to do with being stuck in an identification with some thing that you think you are that must be so in this particular drama. Okay?

[00:40:18]Such as believing you really are a physical object that can be kicked around by life.

[00:40:24]Okay? And catharsis would cure you of that.

[00:40:29]Sure, you still have a body, but then you regard yourself as much more than the body. You're not just a thing that can be kicked around by life anymore.

[00:40:36]You're much more interesting than that, actually. Okay? And that's a very profound state to be in, by the way. And that would be the initiation of the adept is realizing your own formless nature as no longer just a body or a form.

[00:40:56]Apotheiois. This is also an English word taken from the Greek, the divineization of the soul. I find it interesting that um this idea exists within Christianity. I'm not sure how, maybe in the orthodox faiths, I'm not sure because according to many Christians, the idea of apotheiois would be um heresy. The idea that you could become God.

[00:41:25]You can become divine. You could become like Jesus through imitation.

[00:41:31]Okay? And many people will say that's sacrilege or I don't know how dare you assume that you could become Jesus or something like that. Right? The interesting thing is that if you really read stuff that Jesus is saying in the Bible and in other gospels, um he pretty much is saying yes, you can become just like what I am. This is not special.

[00:41:54]divineization of the soul. In other words, that's the once again, this idea that you can reach apotheiois or sort of a godlike status.

[00:42:04]But once again, we want to be humble about this and say you simply develop the ability to embody divine principles.

[00:42:15]What this means is that there's something that you accumulate as you practice magic. Okay, it's like your your bank account is going up. You're accumulating merit. Okay, you're not really accumulating anything. But what what seems to be accumulating is a familiarity with divine principles.

[00:42:41]And this is a very interesting relationship. Many of you are already experiencing this in the outer order grades of the Golden Dawn curriculum.

[00:42:48]That's that's in the Cabala magic book, right? So um because if you um falter in your discipline and you miss ritual for a couple of days and then get back to it, you very often can experience that it's not like oh I really missed doing ritual. It's not like that. It's like the ritual really missed you. It's like where have you been? We missed you. Or like like you know there's something there that is now familiar with you. So this strange familiarity between the the divine forces and you it's not like you're learning to trust them to just let them come into your life whatever that is right or um or they are also sort of developing a relationship with you. It's like is this a fit vehicle or receptacle for embodying my principle in the world? you know, they're kind of looking at you from, you know, a scance.

[00:43:42]You know, those are wondering whether that you are really um conditioning your body and your mind to actually become a receptacle for divine manifestation.

[00:43:51]Okay.

[00:43:53]What this means is that um you will if you continue with mastering golden dawn magic, you will probably be doing theoric or magical rituals every day for the rest of your life to continue that relationship relationship with with these divine forces. Okay, that relationship is not literal as in one person talking to another. It's more like a relationship between something formless and form.

[00:44:20]Okay, completely different from two people talking to each other, but it but it can very often feel like two people talking to each other because that's the way our nervous system works. Kind of translates it that way for you. And so we have this experience of the knowledge and conversation of the holy guardian angel as if the the guardian angel is going to appear next to you and and talk to you. Hello. Like um no, not really.

[00:44:46]That could happen though, but that's we we don't need to go into that. But it's mainly just um the formless pres your your the presence aspect of your being which is not limited by form uh is now experienced all the time as though it is following you around like a like a companion but it doesn't occupy a form. So it doesn't really it's not limited by space. It's everywhere. Okay.

[00:45:16]But now it feels like it's following you around which is that's an amazing feeling of a personal relationship you know with the divine.

[00:45:26]It could be various entities like all of the seven planetary gods or something like that and of course the elemental spirits as well. All manifestations of the one. Of course, according to theology, henosis, union with the divine, a station is a state in which the soul's will and activity are perfectly joined with the divine realm. H, another Greek term.

[00:45:53]It's all about union with the divine, right?

[00:45:58]I'm not going to try to pronounce that one.

[00:46:02]This is an interesting idea. It's the exchange of the mortal life from for divine life. And I wonder this is where the sort of vulgar idea comes about in the Christian tradition that you can sell your soul to I don't know evil pagan gods or something like that or the devil. Right? So um what's really happening here is what what we're talking about here is uh what the initiation that happens at at the veil of paraketh. So in other words when people finish the outer order grades of the golden dawn system of magic they begin to experience um the veil of paraketh. Okay, they were probably already experiencing it anyway and that's what led them to magic. I'm working with about four or five of you now who are in the portal grade who really feel it now.

[00:46:58]It's such a pleasure to work with you at this stage because very intense uh and and I really feel for you guys how how painful or how how the desire to embody divine or formless principles in your life is now taking over everything and how extraordinarily I don't want to call it painful how it's it's a passion experience the passion of the Christ right something like that, right? So, it's such a privilege to see you going through that process now coming up against this the veil of peraketh. Um, and what happens then is that the the desire the old desires for ordinary things of the world forms in the world will now drop away. They're not going to disappear, but they're going to completely take a backseat to the new desire of simply to embody formless principles in the realm of form. That's it. There's nothing really else in the universe worth having other than to embody formless principles in the realm of form. And of course, when you're able to do that, all kinds of crazy stuff can happen.

[00:48:19]unpredictable, amazing adventures, who knows what.

[00:48:24]You might have a Clark Kent existence and yet extraordinary things are happening in the background. Or you might have a rather crazy existence and be rather ordinary when you're sitting at home. I don't know. Just all kinds of amazing stuff can happen. Um, not much to say about that really.

[00:48:44]Um, but it's very nice to see that people are making progress with all this this new setup with the um, Forbidden Realms um, Patreon site and participating in that and doing the work and you're able to um, have regular conversations with me through the keyboard um, back and forth and also do consultations with me. Um, and hopefully I'm of some assistance in helping you cross the veil of parakeet.

[00:49:20]You don't need to go through a, you know, adeptist minor initiation for that. You've already developed the momentum yourselves to know what the is about. You can initiate yourself.

[00:49:34]Okay? Especially if you have the presence of people who have been through that initiation to sort of I don't know act as a catalyst to yell at you at the appropriate times you know things like thatis thea mana.

[00:49:59]So but you can see thea thea mana is like god to craziness right and ecstasy ecstasy and crazy divinity right so this is an important idea because um there's a difference between psychosis and divine ecstasy I spelled ecstasy wrong there so um so um psychosis is this I this is this a displacement of yourself. So you actually feel like you might be outside of yourself. So when people are being tortured or raped or things like that then there's often or sometimes an experience of well I don't know it was like I was outside my body. I could hear myself screaming but it it was like it wasn't even me. I don't it was like I recognized my voice and everything but it was like I was not even in my body anymore while it was happening you know strange stuff like that right so psychosis is kind of like that and some people experience psychosis just from smoking marijuana if you're prone to that obviously you would stay from marijuana away from marijuana but but psychosis is not necessarily if it's something that if it's something that comes over you compulsively or through a substance it's usually not a good thing. Okay. But psychosis is really a form of astral projection.

[00:51:24]Okay. Not particularly helpful. The now the difference between divine ecstasy and psychosis is quite simple in that one principle is that you are beside yourself as though you're sort of outside your body in another zone.

[00:51:38]Right? And then the divine ecstasy is where you have transcended yourself.

[00:51:42]You're no longer contained inside the body anymore. you're simply not um regarding yourself as this body thing.

[00:51:52]Okay? And that's that can be quite an ordinary state of being. It's nothing particularly special about that. Okay?

[00:51:59]But it can be um um profoundly moving whatever. There's all kinds of you know crazy stuff that can happen. You can completely blank out and enter samadei or things like that. So, but um the idea of uh divine ecstasy is that the consciousness is now li sort of temporarily liber temporarily liberated from the body and no longer confined to poor little me inside here. Okay. And psychosis is simply trapped in another entity which is also limited and that's not particularly helpful. Okay. Um it is a form of projection actually astral projection let's say but um not to say that astral projection is bad astral projection is a means of exploring how divine ecstasy might be possible in the realm of sleep even let's say okay or even in the realm between waking and sleep ultimately what we learn when we learn dream yoga is not how to fly around astrally and then go on astral adventures. Um, not really. It's more about seeing through the appearances of the dream world to recognize the presence of divine ecstasy or the presence of the possibility of union with divine. Okay.

[00:53:29]anybody wants to if anybody wants to set up a dream yoga um practice, it's pretty cool because it's not there's not a lot of ritual involved. Most of the work is done at night and there are there are induction techniques and there's some nutrition involved. Okay, I can set you up with that. There are books you can get and I can of course give you some pointers about what seems to work and what seems not to work.

[00:54:01]Mantique no mantiki I don't know uh the interesting thing is that like geommancy or um ctomancy or you know things like that these forms of divination uh pyromancy divination by fire right um the the antsy is the part of that means sort of divination Okay. It's interesting that fortunetelling would be referred to as divination. Why do we call it divination?

[00:54:34]Divination seems to be a shortened version of divineization.

[00:54:39]Okay. And in the Golden Dawn, it the in Golden Dawn, you know, papers and teachings, it's quite clear that divination um is not really for fortunetelling.

[00:54:53]Okay.

[00:54:55]And the funny thing is when I was working with tarot, it simply never became that. Exactly. It's not like you can't anticipate what's coming in the future, but what you're more look tuning into are the potentialities that are primarily concerned with your personal transformation in into your apotheiois and your personal transformation into a divine being. let's say how are you doing?

[00:55:24]What's next? Or what what seems to be looming on the horizon for you? What have you already achieved in that regard? Let's say, right? Okay. Um that's primarily what divination is zooming in on. Okay. And very often when you're even if you're doing it for a client, let's say, which I don't do, but when you're when you're doing that for a client, it it will come across to you that way, too. They'll want to see what's in the future, but you're looking at what's potential for them or what's what's next in their development.

[00:55:55]And if you work with a really good, you know, psychic or whatever, you can tell it's always going to come across that way. They're always interested in your personal evolution or your personal unfoldment of of your destiny, which was really your potentiality as it comes out. your potentiality become to become divineized.

[00:56:14]Not to become, you know, happily married and and have a certain type of car and a certain type of house. No, that's all part of it, but of course has really very little to do with um your potential to become an embodiment of divine forces.

[00:56:39]This is a good one. I plucked these off of the pages of the I amus book.

[00:56:46]Kubernetes.

[00:56:48]I'm hoping I'm saying that right. I'm sure I'm going to get earful about my pronunciation here. So um I think this comes out of Plato's Tus not if I'm not mistaken but um the description of the helmsman the divine helmsman of the soul.

[00:57:06]Okay what we often regard as the higher self or the holy guardian angel is not necessarily the holy guardian angel.

[00:57:14]Okay. So, there's this entity supposedly that accompanies us into this life uh which is then assigned to us to hold us to our destiny.

[00:57:28]Okay? To sort of hold the soul down into matter and make sure that it is um at least given the opportunity to experience the unfolding of its own potential.

[00:57:39]Okay. And this force, this diamond, this this um this natal diamond um can seem quite harsh if you if you resist what is happening in the world and if you resist your own destiny.

[00:57:55]Let's say if you resist your own potential as a divine being then the experience of this supposed natal diamond which is holding your soul down into matter is going to be be experienced harshly forcing you to look at your destiny. If you willingly look at your destiny and try to facilitate its unfoldment then the diamond will ease off and not be very difficult on you.

[00:58:25]Okay, it's an interesting idea, but that's just the the spirit that spo supposedly follows you through this life. Okay, the cubernetes is the higher self which supposedly supervises you from life to life to life to life. Okay, this helmsman is really quite simple. It's the presence aspect of your being.

[00:58:52]Each of us has a material aspect, a form aspect, a presence aspect, and a pure potentiality aspect. And these correspond to the four worlds of the Cabala. Okay? You have a material body, you have a subtle body, which is the form body, and then you have the formless presence body, and then you have the formless pure potentiality body, which isn't really much of a body.

[00:59:20]Okay. So um so um the the formless realms those that's where the cubernity supposedly exists. Okay. So your formless aspect of yourself let's say is it's quite simple. If you experience let's say a divine flash of enlightenment from meditation or from ritual or from contemplation or from prayer uh then very often that recognition of your own formless nature is a big aha for you because it's like oh my god it's always been there I've always felt this there it is and there it is again it's still there like so the then the experience erience of this formless aspect of your being which does not require space or time doesn't move it doesn't have to it's always there it appears to follow you around okay so this is the experience of the higher self the cubernetes and it can be experienced as a sort of helmsman because it helps you I don't know pivot in some kind of divine realm of destiny right very interesting idea because as you do they you become more and more familiar with the formless aspect of your being which supposedly you really zoom in on when you get to the practicus grade when you start to work with the level of berea. Berea represents the first level of your formless nature, your the presence aspect of your being.

[01:00:53]Okay? Which is like the pure substance of the mind with no forms in it. Once you're at that level, then that is where your formless aspect, your formless intelligence exists there. Okay? And that's the higher self supposedly.

[01:01:10]At least that's how it feels.

[01:01:18]Aos an status of a mortal who is capable of acting with divine power. H notice how this description of somebody this is the realized adept perhaps the adeptist ma major okay um who is now able to act with divine power okay it doesn't mean he wields divine power like a hammer it means he simply is now completely flowing with it okay remember when we do ritual we are simply operating along with what's already there. There's no need to create magic around you. It's already there. You are learning to see it in some kind of um imitative form to encourage it to now reveal itself right through the im imagined forms. But there's no need for you to create magic for yourself. That's absurd. You can't do that.

[01:02:27]only the divine entities or whatever it is the Elohim only the Elohim can do that only God himself can do that right so um but the ability to operate in a acting with divine power along with those forces is very profound then okay it would seem like you're wielding them like tools to people who don't know what's going on but that's not what that's not what's happening Kati Kto I don't know uh Koke no um possession the indwelling of a divine force uh oh all right so there are two types of possession the the kind that we are most familiar with are the kind where we have unresolved dualities from our traumatic evolutionary past let's say right these are the demons um that uh are now haunting us so there are stories that we have lived through either in this form or in previous evolutionary states or maybe in past lives I don't know um that since the stories were not allowed to finish they sink into the subconscious and wait there and haunt you from there they are waiting to be triggered to come out again so that they can finish their stories finish themselves off, resolve themselves. Okay.

[01:03:56]Um, as these entities lurk there waiting to be triggered, and of course you know, you can experience this all the time, right? People say, "Oh, trigger warning." In other words, there's a common trigger that will trigger somebody's unresolved um story, let's say, to now spring into action, possess them, take them over, and compulsively act out its story so that it can finish itself.

[01:04:25]Okay, this is this is why we suffer because we have a lot of these lurking stories, let's say. Okay, we call them demons because they have scary um forms within them, characters within them. Um the most important of those demons, let's say, is not the trigger entity, let's say.

[01:04:46]For instance, if I see that I got a call from the IRS on my phone, the body starts to go into panic. Why?

[01:04:55]And if I tune in the tune into the imagery there, it feels like I'm being stalked by some kind of large bearlike creature or something like that. Right?

[01:05:02]So in other words, what's happening is that this abstract threat of the IRS is being um uh has become confused with some kind of embedded unresolved story from my deep evolutionary past. Fear of predators, fear of being stalked and eaten by something big. Right? So, and then of course, um, naturally when we can see that, when we can see that the IRS is not a bear, then the reaction changes. Okay? It's not like the IRS isn't going to stress you out anymore, but the the irrational stress is no longer going to be like that of basically being attacked by a giant predator or hunted by a giant predator like that. Okay, that's just one example of that. So we are possessed by these um lesser entities which are simply unresolved shadow entities or semiautonomous complexes that exist in the subconscious, right? Um kind they're kind of like ghosts actually because they keep trying to live out their story until they can resolve it and then disappear or whatever to go go back to heaven something like that. Then um we can also be possessed um by the larger divine forces. Okay. Um which can be dangerous because if we are not purified of the demonic forces which is are those little unresolved stories, the divine forces are um are in charge of the lesser forces as well. In other words, the the various demonic forces that are troubling us are extensions of the divine forces. So if you call upon divine powers to manifest through you, what's going to happen most likely is that the impure elements of those divine forces are going to become inflated.

[01:06:55]And so all of the unresolved stories in your subconscious that are related to a particular god, let's say, are going to become inflated.

[01:07:04]Like if you conjure, if you try to bring in the power of Mars into your life, then all of these images of spilled blood and severed limbs and battlefields and violence and harsh discipline are going explosions, whatever are going are going to now um if any of those are haunting you are going to be triggered to start coming out into the open, obscuring the true and divine nature of Mars.

[01:07:34]Okay, this is why shadow work is important. Before you are capable of embodying divine principles, you must deal with the shadow entities that are going to be excited and inflated by the presence of these divine entities.

[01:07:49]I hope I made that clear. Um, but of course, magic is not all about shadow work. Um eventually you learn how these shadow entities operate and then it becomes safer and safer for you to invoke divine forces and embody them energetically literally energetically. Okay. Uh but mostly the the the benefits let's say benefits are simply they simply surface in you living your ordinary life.

[01:08:19]There's no need to do a magical ritual to become more Marsike necessarily except in your daily activities where you're simply becoming more familiar with various divine aspects. Okay.

[01:08:34]I don't know if I made that clear or not.

[01:08:39]Uh so to be we can kick out the idea of possession because it's not even something you need to worry about. The main the main issue is that many of us are already possessed almost moment to moment by little entities that are trying to work out their unresolved um conflicts. If you're easily triggered by stress, that means you are haunted by a lot lots of these little unresolved stories.

[01:09:04]Enthusiasm.

[01:09:08]You can see there are different types of enthusiasm. Apparently, the original type of enthusiasm supposedly was enthusiasmos acting as a vessel of divine force. I would just call this inspiration maybe.

[01:09:22]I don't know.

[01:09:23]So, um let's not go into that one.

[01:09:27]That's just one of those Greek terms that is brought up in the impassivity and tranquility. symptoms of the divine eyes theist.

[01:09:46]this idea of impassivity and tranquility. It's sort of like equinimity and maybe in the eastern traditions they might call it one taste where no matter what happens uh it's all the same whether it's good or bad it's fine and also it also implies that you are immune to praise or blame.

[01:10:12]This is very real. Okay. Um, so if somebody insults you, it simply doesn't hurt anymore. It can't.

[01:10:23]It's not that you're not concerned about why they're doing that, okay? But the the principle behind that is very simple. Okay? If you no longer if you no longer identify with your form aspect, um then when somebody tries to pin a label on you, it doesn't stick because you're not really identified with the form that can have a a label pinned on it. If that makes any sense.

[01:10:51]Okay. I cannot emphasize how important that transformation is. When you've relinquished your identification with a particular appearance or form, when somebody criticizes that form, it no longer bothers you.

[01:11:09]It's a very nice kind of freedom to have.

[01:11:13]Okay? It is the ultimate in confidence.

[01:11:18]It's not a kind of confidence that you have to fake or to try to um to make yourself tough or anything like that.

[01:11:27]It's completely beyond that. There's nothing to be hurt anymore. Okay?

[01:11:35]All right. So, and that of course leads to a state of tranquility where nothing seems to bother you anymore. Right? This doesn't mean you don't feel things. You feel things more intensely than ever before because very intense feelings don't cause you to suffer really anymore. It's not that you don't feel pain, but pain is not the same anymore. Okay? I don't have time to go into that, but if anybody wants to do a consultation with me, we can do a little exercise where we can focus in on what it's like to be immune to pain.

[01:12:08]That's a big promise, isn't it?

[01:12:12]and liberation and salvation.

[01:12:16]This is just vi uh visiting these concepts again. The idea of liberating yourself from matter does not mean that you are now free of the body and you're never going to come back again. No.

[01:12:30]Okay. To be free of the body is to be free of identification with the body.

[01:12:36]It does apparently mean and I don't know this for sure like but it does mean it does mean that after death you continue to survive in some kind of coherent uh formless presence aspect which can participate in I don't know the governance of the universe or something like that and it can voluntarily incarnate again um possibly in many different forms at once or something like that. Okay, this is something that the theologists believed and I would propose that they even didn't necessarily believe it but became aware that it's a very likely possibility that this was is what happens.

[01:13:23]One of the things about theology is that it proposed as the ancient Egyptians did that if you had not become properly divineized, let's say, or transformed into the likeness of a deity, then the soul would be broken up and recycled and go through a sort of hell state and be sort of ground up and then recycled and then eventually make it back into another life form or various life forms again.

[01:13:51]And if you're lucky, you might even end end up in a human form where you can now try to experience divineization and apotheiois again, something like that.

[01:14:01]Uh so not that hell is eternal, but there's this sort of um really meat grinder aspect of the afterlife is kind of scary. Um, if you if you look at the the legends of the um the hall of truth for the the the judgment hall of Osiris, the soul of the deceased was weighed against the heart of the deceased was weighed against the feather of truth, the feather of m. And if the heart weighed more than the feather, then it was thrown to the crocodile god, which was pretty much in the under the floor waiting to eat the the heart, grind it up and then turn it into mulch and then it eventually has a chance to turn back into a soul again after a lot of grinding up and horrifying situations. Who knows? Um I don't know.

[01:14:55]Um but um some of this seems to be somewhat real because I it's um some pe some people who do owasa which essentially seems to produce a near-death experience um experience a hell state and from what I've gathered people who have a lot of accumulated um karma let's say a lot of accumulated unresolved stories in their psyches they tend to go through these hell states when they're in that near-death experience. And this could really be what's waiting for them after they die.

[01:15:31]A sort of um random meaningless suffering grinding up and being re assimilated and reassimilated and maybe eventually sort of a purgatory type thing. Very interesting. Um is it real?

[01:15:46]I don't know. It's very interesting though.

[01:15:52]Uh so the idea is that when you transcend the body that does not mean you're leaving it behind. Okay? You the rising on the plains is not leaving the lower planes behind. The the planes that are above the lower plains include the lower planes within them. So to rise on the plains is to get larger and larger and bigger and bigger and and of course the material world is really small inside of all that. And then you have the like the material world, the astral world, the mental world, and then the spiritual world. Something like that.

[01:16:23]You have these rings of concentric, you know, order. All right.

[01:16:30]Okay.

[01:16:31]This is just to show that um any of you doing Golden Dawn magic or going through the course in Cabala magic in the Cabala magic book, you can see for yourself that these principles are there. All of these things are going on in the rituals. Okay.

[01:16:50]All right. Uh so this is a this is a restored system of the obviously there are forms of golden dawn magic that are are in the hands of people who don't know what it is and they're of course they're not teaching it very well. Let's say they're practicing it as a sort of you know sorcery in order to get what you want.

[01:17:14]that kind of stuff, right? Uh because they don't quite understand what the um the principle of the very simple principle of simply becoming an embodiment of divine powers or principles. That's it.

[01:17:34]All right.

[01:17:36]This probably a long video, wasn't it?

[01:17:38]So anyway, those that's what's happening in the Golden Dawn magic. Um, I would be interested to see what you guys think of this in the comments. And um, and if any of you guys speak Greek, you can now go after me in the comments and say, "Oh my god, Liam, give it up already." So that's fine. All right, until next time.