“Why,” they say, “have we not had the experiences that you have had, we have not had visions, we have not had premonitions, the custodians of the future have not told us what is to be?”
In the same manner they say to the botanist, “We walked the field you walked in, yet we did not see the rare plant you gathered, or to the gold-seeker who found gold, “We did not find gold though we traveled over the same land.”
Michael Juste, The White Brother
Ten minutes later the Master re-emerged, devoid of magazine and whiskey glass but clutching to heart an exceedingly large, old and important-looking volume.
The much-lamented loss of Pros Theon had abruptly ended a few short minutes after its owner entered the bathroom, where it was discovered at the bottom of a towering stack of bathroom-reading material and joyfully rescued by its ecstatic owner.
Tremendously relieved, twelve years of life added back on, the Master placed Pros Theon on the desk in the study with a great sense of ceremony, lit an ancient lamp and turned to the penultimate section:
Transformatio Dies (The Days of Transformation)
Translating and interpreting the elaborate text was a mission that took every effort of will and imagination; the fruits of this fabled tome being rare and exotic indeed.
After 23 meticulously strung-together minutes, the Master – who had a surprisingly short attention span for one inclined to meditation – looked up from the text and out of the window for inspiration, directly onto the swaying treetops. Perchance, there was sitting a bird of extraordinary magnitude and power and in that same instant a piercing set of eyes imparted the truth – a reminder – with almost unfathomable simplicity:
‘Forwards backwards; time is taking
Certain steps through every section.
Herein find the secret waiting:
Future from the past; reflection.
Soaring Eagle spread his massive wings and flew towards the window, sight locked like magnetic iron onto the fixated Master, who felt a heavenly upsurge of pure, unadulterated joy and ran in the eagle’s direction, having reverted back to childhood in a twinkling of the eye. In complete innocence the Master was able to grasp one of the bird’s great tail feathers and later attach it to the sun-tinted dream catcher. More memories of Halcyon Days would be captured by this than by all of the other feathers combined.
Twilight fell like whispers of an echo bade by Eros. Venus – like the bloom –transpired, with stars like smelted teardrops.
‘‘Forwards backwards, time is taking
Cosmic steps through every section.
Herein find the secret waiting:
Future from the past; reflection.’
‘Then Osiris, fully risen,
Calls to life, renews gestation,
Metes out Time with fate’s precision,
Orders: ‘Scribe, divine creation.’’
So is seen the mythic cycle,
Turning ever on its axis.
Each was placed upon its system,
Fixed was each by one, another.
One drew out another’s mystery,
So they grew to greater wisdom.
Set were they on points of psyche’s
Evolution, flowering moments.
When to heart and soul one listened,
Heard and wrought it for one’s vision,
Out of that which never dies;
Springs, eternal, the story of the sky.
Charlotte Cowell, The Myth
abyss air apollo artemis
beauty blood dawn divine
earth fire future god
gold golden heart heaven
human light love magic
magical
meditations
tarot mind moon mystery
nature power prayer reason
sea secret silver sky
soul spirit spiritual star
sun time truth vision
water wind wisdom world
The guardian Angel accompanies as a faithful ally the divine image in man….the Angel acquits his charge in five ways: he guards, cherishes, protects, visits and defends. He is, therefore, a “flaming star”, a luminous pentagram, above man.
He guards memory, ie, the continuity of the great past in the present, which is the preparation for the great future. It is the guardian Angel who takes care that there is a connection between the great “yesterday, today and tomorrow” of the human soul. He is a perpetual “memento” with regard to the primordial likeness, and with regard to the special room for the soul “in my Father’s house, where there are many rooms.” (John xiv, 2).
If it is necessary, the guardian Angel awakens recollections of the soul’s previous earthly lives, in order to establish continuity of endeavour – of the quest and aspiration of the soul from life to life – so that particular lives are not merely isolated episodes but constitute the stages of a single path towards one sole end.
The guardian Angel cherishes the endeavour, quest and aspiration of the soul engaged on this way [but] support never signifies substitution of the Angel’s will for that of man. The will remains free, always and everywhere.
Just as the guardian Angel is sometimes constrained not to participate in the soul’s activity – this activity not being in accord with the divine image of the soul – so also can he sometimes take a greater part in human activity than usual – this activity being of a nature not simply permitted but also called for. Then the guardian Angel descends from the point of his ordinary post into the domain of human activity. He then visits the human being.
Unknown Author, Meditations on the Tarot, Letter XIV, Temperance
When the Aeon spoke it said:
“And you that we have loved shall live our dream. Lest the dream should die with the passing of our age it shall be written that destiny has flooded through the gates again of earthly paradise.
In words, thou art free, and satisfied are we that our will to be done is now in place for you to make with us the final journey.
The fortune was our dream and your most dearly beloved did taste the wine of your success, while you helped shape the future with each beating of your heart.
Always shall we remain in your mind as fulfillment for the giving of the dream.
Your gardens has been watered with the tears of earthly love. The muse of ancient melodies, forgotten when the Earth revealed her age, shall resound throughout your place, forever scented with the rose of youth.
With beauty you prayed and we could feel the love which sent homage to our fathomless place.
Whence came your yearning but from memories of the fated realms? Seven styles created in the clouds of starry skies shall be the wonder of elections made through each presiding scion of our race.
Our message is released and comes in time, the light relays the promise and yes, we are certain, the coming shall be quick.
What is seen now on Earth shall be seen again in eternity, the realm of pure being.
From the eyes of every being shines a brilliant and penetrating, silvery white light”.
Magic is the study and practice of the control of Nature’s secret forces. It is a science – pure, or dangerous – like all sciences….Papus
We have to add here only that this is true, and also that “Nature’s secret forces” are secret only for a limited time, notably until their discovery by natural science – which simply discovers and renders controllable the “secret forces” of Nature one after the other. It is therefore only a question of time until the pursuit of magic and that of natural science coincide and become identical.
But, on the other hand, it is also true that the closed circle of science, which is a prison and captivity for the spirit, applies also to personal magic. Magic, in so far as it is a science – and it is one – has the same fate as science, ie, captivity in a closed circle. And when Papus says further that, “Magic, we could say, is the materialism of t he future knights of Christ…“, he admits with this statement the fact of the captivity of magic as such – in a closed circle of a single aspect of the world, which he names “materialism”.
And he gives expression to his hope that in the future there will be an intervention from beyond this closed circle by future magicians (“knights of Christ”)….in other words, that future Teilhard de Chardins will do for magic what he has done for science: that they will open the closed circle and transform it into a spiral.
Unknown Author, Meditations on the Tarot, Letter XVII, The Star
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, Burnt Norton
It was heard in the beginning that time should stand still so as One would be formed that might ultimately become our Universe
Then it was known that the One is many and even all appearing in myriad guises:
Natural angelic mystical moving creative mathematical one.
Time and again was it seen that one is essentially three combined meaning two with the third one in-between.
There is a catalyst or enzyme, an originator and a creation.
The things which are written of were usually seen and often heard or in some other way experienced directly yet very often received by means of another as perpetual dialogue between the elements combined in the creation.
What has come to pass is now a matter of course and the sparkling river would flow freely to the boundless ocean where every drop is as one with endlessness.
There has been a trial of extremes with repeated virtual deaths as every atom quaked before the terrible face of omnipotence
One day lovelier than the instrument of peace and breather of light and one day darker than the shades as One inhaling our decay.
The end was known from the very beginning and history has arisen from the future midst of time.
She stands in the centre of a great hall with her head held high and her long, bright hair braided into an elaborate arrangement that is held in place by a gleaming circlet. Her white linen robe is bound with pure gold and she is still as a statue, both eyes fixed upon the world.
There is no wind beneath the temple roof and the air is warm, within and without. The only sound that can be heard is an occasional bleating of goats and the distant murmuring of servants as they make ready for the Spring Council, which is to be held at this place in three days time.
She has swept clean the marble floor and it shines like the full moon in April. Mid-morning sunrays flood the hallowed space, infusing every atom. Narrow gaps between the thick, rounded pillars reveal sections of a motionless scene, silent as if time had ceased.
Happy are the men who enter this house and ask of her, “What do you see?” The wisest make the best of the answer they are given, but more enlist the counsel of priests to assist with their understanding.
Others seek more, but seldom to any avail, for there is a certain way we do things at this place, here at the navel of the world, where the future is inscribed on lead.