The Code’s Appliance

‘‘That’s the good news – more may follow –
But for now, this pill you’ll swallow:
Floods are overdue, I’m thinking;
All of Egypt’s hardly drinking.

‘‘Let there be a great disaster,
Something of a future mystery,
Just to show I’m Lord and Master,
Godly King of timeless history.

‘‘Thinks me now, it’s time to end the
Wider ocean realm. Atlantic
Trading ceases now and Cretans –
I have deemed – are sacrificial.

‘All the learned priests, however,
Those who keep the sacred science,
They’ll escape, I think, to Egypt,
Therein teach the code’s appliance.

‘‘See, vain Greeks, the Mother Isis,
She who yields the greatest brightness,
Guarded now by this, the dog-star;
Point on which to ponder, Priestess.

‘‘Look into the West, fair brothers,
See the setting sun of Horus,
Eye of Falcon prince – the symbol
Once of Ra – who’s ever-watchful.

‘‘Lo, behold, the East, fair sisters,
See the golden calf of Horus,
Which, by noon, shall wax enormous,
Such a bull to beat all others.

‘‘That, you’ll find – beloved Hermes,
He who dared through time to journey –
Should be just enough to conquer
Taurus and those other monsters.’

The Philosopher’s Stone

The process of induction (which ‘ascends from earth to heaven’) and that of deduction (which ‘descends to earth’), the process of prayer (which ‘ascends from earth to heaven’) and that of revelation (which ‘descends to earth’) – ie, human endeavour and the action of grace from above – unite and become a complete circle which contracts and concentrates to become a point where the ascent and descent are simultaneous and coincide.

And this point is the ‘philosopher’s stone’ – the principle of the identity of the human and divine, of humanism and prophetism, of intelligence and revelation, of intellectuality and spirituality. It is the solution of the problem posed by St Paul, or rather the accomplishment of the task given by him, when he wrote of the Cross being folly to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews, but which ‘to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, is the power of God and the wisdom of God’. (I Corinthians 1, 22 – 24).

The historical and evolutionary mission of Hermeticism is to advance the progress of the alchemical work engaged in developing the ‘philosopher’s stone’ or the union of spirituality and intellectuality. It is called to be the crest of the wave of contemporary human effort aspiring to the fusion of spirituality and intellectuality. This effort and aspiration is larger than the group of Hermeticists, properly said, who are dispersed in the world. There are probably more people who are not avowed Hermeticists and who are engaged in this endeavour aiming at the fusion of spirituality and intellectuality than there are Hermeticists, properly said.

The Spirit blows where it will, but the task of the Hermetic tradition is to maintain – without pretension to a monopoly, God forbid! – the ancient ideal of ‘the thelema of the whole world…..which ascends from earth to heaven…..descends to earth, and uniteth in itself the force from things superior and inferior.’ Its task is that of guardian of the great spiritual work.

Meditations on the Tarot, Unknown Author, Letter XXI, The Fool

Mythic Beings, Greeks and Karma

I randomly opened a book about magic and found therein a definition of ‘Karma’ in a sort of glossary; together on a page with Jehovah Eloah ve Daath, Jehovah Elohim, Jehovah Tzaboath, Kadmiel, Kaivalya, Kama, Kama Loka, Kama Rupa, Kamael, Kamea, Kedmeel, Kelley (for measure, I guess) and Kerubim.

The definition beneath ‘Karma’ says: Sanskrit for ‘action’. A destiny consciously chosen in life by each person, created by the total life experience of all previous incarnations.

This struck me quite forcibly. First, because of the translation of ‘action’, which seems very telling when followed by ‘chosen’. Freely, one presumes. Then, of course, that seemingly controversial phrase ‘all previous incarnations’.

To my mind it instantly tied in a point about time/space that for long I had been contemplating, but which another of our number made much clearer; he spoke of the essential unity of beings and how the meaninglessness of ‘time’ and ‘space’ in the spiritual dimension brings us so very close to those souls – those incarnations – with whom we vibrate.

In other words, a certain number of interconnected souls are already aligned and singing from the same hymn sheet across both the esoteric and exoteric dimensions of time and space, of history and geography, so that when boundaries between those dimensions are removed, the souls ‘concertina’ together. (At this point it’s as well to remember that there are at least 11 known dimensions according to current scientific theory).

Our energies merge by this coming together beyond space and time, emphasising shared traits and throwing personal characteristics into relief: Strengths become powers, flaws can be fatal; tears are a tragedy. Thus, we are Greeks!

Then we consider that every manifestation of a human quality, when brought together, constitutes its body, its form. Lo, we are mythic beings!