Overlord of Delphi

I also wonder about the Tetrarch, who occupies my mind so fully that he is by my side in all but body throughout each day. We are bound, he and I, by ties both seen and unseen. There are ties for all to see because the Tetrarch is an overlord of Delphi and it was he that insisted I should be appointed Pythia when the former priestess was murdered during the war. Then there are the unseen ties, because I alone have understanding of how much he means to me. Even my sisters do not realise the depth of this ocean. To my mind he is the Earthly representation of Apollo himself and loving one enables me to increase my understanding of the other. How fragile we are beneath the ruthless gaze of our Lord, but how sweet is the perfume of crushed flowers, so healing the oil of their divine essence.
My love for Apollo knows no bounds, for his light reaches even into places of darkness, he is my lord and my protector in times of danger, my guide through moments of chaos. He is the husband I cannot have, the mind which inhabits my own and requires me to master this world.
Of all the places that I know to be in existence I have the greatest desire to see Hyperborea, cradle of my Master. It is in Hyperborea that the wax and feathers temple may now be seen, for it was carried there in the chariot of Apollo many moons ago and preserved as a portal to the underworld.
The Tetrarch seldom comes here during the cold and stormy months of Dionysus (The Tyrant Cleisthenes, by contrast, invariably does) but he frequents this place when the God has returned from his travels in Hyperborea. Once – when I was a child and prone to some irrational thinking – I asked Timocrates whether we might follow the God when he journeys through winter to that shining, golden land of sun and ice. His answer was decisive and prevented further query:
“Neither by ship nor on foot could you find the marvellous road to the meeting-place of the Hyperboreans , but in any case it is not for you to pursue Gods or men – wherever they may wander – and if you were ever to leave here in order to do such a thing you could never return and hope to keep your life.”
I never mentioned it again, as I do of course understand perfectly that this life is not my own to have desires with. I have learned to hold my peace, for the war has instilled in me too much knowledge already of the evils men might inflict upon one another and careless tongues or minds can spell catastrophe. As I am under scrutiny from most people for much of the time and some people at all times, I guard my words and deeds minutely, the importance of behaving discreetly having been seriously impressed upon me from an early age.
As a rule, therefore, my thoughts are carefully measured and then voiced with reason, my mind is generally clear and grasps at nothing, for everyone and everything is waiting for the God to speak through me and that is the singular reason for my existence. This is the way it is and always has been and always will be, lest the gods of Olympus are rearranged with another at their pinnacle.
In any case, all of us here are at peace now the war has ended and our fortunes are so very great. Far be it from me to break such peace. Riches beyond most men’s wildest dreams are scattered along our roads as carelessly as leaves, and arts beyond the realms of mortal man’s imagination are conceived of and created quite effortlessly, from beneath the steady gaze of the Master of the Muses. Here it is that the true source of inspiration might be found, the fountain of joy, source of the birdsong.

The community of inspiration

Inspiration, truth to tell, is what constitutes the Hermetic community. It is inspiration which is the link between its members and within which all its members meet one another. The community of inspiration – this is what in reality the community of Hermeticism is.

“In the beginning was the Word” is the law not only of the world but also of the realisation of inspiration in each individual biography. And the entire community of Hermeticists lives under this law, under the law of inspiration.

Everyone lives under this law. The community of Hermeticists is distinguished from the rest of mankind only in that it is borne – in an irresistible way – to be conscious of it and to know what happens both to them and to the rest of humanity.

The lot of Hermeticists differs from that of every human being only in that the former hunger and thirst for comprehensive knowledge of that which the latter simply undergo. Their lot does not bring any privilege with it, on the contrary, rather, it is an added duty with which Hermeticists are charged, notably the inner duty to understand the totality of miracles and disasters which is life and the world. This duty makes them appear presumptuous or childish in the eyes of the world, but it is the Arcanum of inspiration – the Arcanum of the winged entity pouring living water from one vase into another – which renders them such as they are.

Meditations on the Tarot, Letter XIV, Temperance

Love transforming the soul

Vision augments experience; inspiration augments knowledge just as it does understanding; and intuition is the metamorphosis and growth no longer of what one experiences and understands, but rather of what one is. Through intuition one becomes another, through inspiration one apprehends new ways of thinking, feeling and acting, and through vision one’s domain of experience is enlarged – one has a revelation of new facts in accessible to the senses and to intellectual invention.

In practice it is not so that vision, inspiration and intuition are successive stages following the order – vision, inspiration, intuition. For there are those on the spiritual path who have only the experience of intuition, and still others who are only inspired, without ever having visions. But whatever the kind of mode of spiritual experience may be, at the final count it is always a matter of becoming, ie, intuition.

Thus one can say that in principle vision and inspiration are only means for arriving at intuition. Now, intuition takes place in the blood, inspiration in tears and vision in sweat. For an authentic vision always entails an increase of effort in order to bear it, in order to remain upright in the face of it. Vision has a weight, sometimes overwhelming, which demands a great effort on the part of the soul in order not to give way under the weight of that vision.

Authentic inspiration always entails an inner upheaval. It pierces the soul like an arrow in wounding it and in making it experience that profound emotion which is a synthesis of sorrow and joy. The symbol of the Rose Cross – a cross from the center of which a rose blossoms out – renders the essence of the experience of inspiration in the best way I know. The Rose Cross expresses the mystery of tears, ie, that of inspiration, with force and clarity. It portrays the joy of sorrow and the sorrow of joy, which together comprise inspiration.

With respect to intuition, it is no longer a matter either of the weight of riches or of the romance of the engagement of the Rose and the Cross, but rather of consummating the marriage of life and death. What lives, thereby dies; and what dies, thereby is reborn. Thereby blood is mingled with the Blood and is transformed alchemically from the ‘fluid of separation’ into the ‘fluid of union’.

There are three ways of ‘seeing’ the Cross: the Crucifix, the Rose Cross, and the Gilded Cross bearing a rose of silver. The Crucifix is the greatest treasure of vision. It is the vision of divine and human love. The black Cross with a rose blossoming from it is the treasure of inspiration. This is divine and human love speaking in the soul. The Gilded Cross bearing a rose of silver is the treasure of intuition. This is love transforming the soul.

Meditations on the Tarot, Letter XIV, Temperance

True Inner Sight

When I think like this, I am experiencing light.

You are touched by a feeling – it is true inner sight.

I know those I love as the greater part of me,

But then the reason is unspeakable.

It must remain a mystery.

Still I would pray to feel the action of creation.

It is thought to me – your ecstasy –

My heart, your inspiration.

Is there a simple way to plan the course of each new day?

By free will, you are determining.

You are the teacher.

I am the way.

Hopes, dreams or visions?

The journey is yours –

Cast off all burdens and walk through the doors,

To me.

The encounter with souls?

Be as one:

Perfectly whole like a star. Overcome

Other reflections – those lunar rays

Dazzle the senses to madness in ways

Which mortal connections interpret as bliss.

But wholly uncertain is light-feigned.

RESIST.

A keen mind uncovers the mystery of age

With prophetic books. The curtain is raised

On secrets – the manuscripts – found and unfurled,

Longed-for and meant to bring sight to the world.

The essence of beauty is shown and unbound. Say:

“Darkness be banished to deep underground.”

There are Two Wings

There are two: one wing holds him in contact with the divine understanding, and the other with divine memory/inspiration. The two wings are therefore related to the contemplative and creative aspects of God which, in their turn, correspond to the divine image and likeness in man of which Genesis speaks.

The two Angelic wings are the Angel’s links with the eternal sabbath and the eternal creativity of God – or, in other words, with divine gnosis and divine magic. It is by means of the “gnostic” (or “left”) wing that the Angel is in contemplation of divine wisdom, and it is by means of the “magical” (or “right”) wing that he is active in his capacity as messenger or “Angel”.

This is the principle of polarity underlying the duality of the wings. The principle remains valid also for Angels – and for entities from other spiritual hierarchies – who have more than two wings (sixteen, for example). It will be the task of a future science of “Angelology” to grasp the reason or reasons for the plurality of wings of certain Angelic entities.

With respect to us, we have to restrict ourselves to a general explanation of the two wings of Angels, in reminding ourselves that it is a matter here of meditation on the fourteenth Arcanum of the Tarot, whose card represents an entity with two wings.

From tradition we know that there are also human beings endowed with wings….The astral and etheric wings of a human being signify a more-or-less advanced degree of recovery of the divine likeness in him. For certainly it was the lot of men before the original sin to have wings. He lost them subsequently. How are they recovered?

Unknown Author, Meditations on the Tarot, Letter XIV Temperance

Retinue of Wisdom

Feminine forms are dancing

Beneath the red-robed figure in the sky,

Who walks with a retinue of wisdom.

From the wedding of water with fire

Breath takes the air of inspiration,

Watery fire fills with life,

Vivifying the dark Earth station;

Bringing from the deep space light.

Pros Theon: Ana-Log Fragment

There are keys to understanding and much to be misunderstood; nothing occurs in a vacuum. Whenever a source of inspiration is recovered it is with intuition that one translates something that may be definable using an Omega, as in:

Omnipresent Omniscient Omnipotent: OHM

It may thereby be seen that early messages are simply quite complext in tone and affect the mind ecstatically, while defying to a certain extent the reasoning of the self as they are generated by the universal passionate mystery. The first source appears abbreviated when iterated in written modern language so as to emphatically describe the invisible truth of the nature as yet to be revealed.

Time does not exist and virtually everything is possible but as memory is restricted and mind limited there is an ever-present danger of misinterpretation. Such as this remembrance of a lost fragment which even in our hearts is felt to be an essential non-element of the deepest secret:

To form a prism with eternal guidelines by highlighting that the refraction of pure white light is seen as a transformation of that which is invisible into a true manifestation from………  …….limit, in that it can transcend the boundaries which distinguish fantasy from reality.

What is lacking in written language may be gained in a cumulative sense through the consequential achievement of sound internal understanding of absolute forms and formulas.
These may be known by the heart even as the mind closes.

Though the mind is actually in possession of controlling functions the heart contains crystalline physical potential for realisation while the body exists. Healthy confidence in life’s blood is thus imperative.

Confidence in and obedience towards God are the key factors in determining individual capacity for alpha-numeric belief and finite determination. What does this mean?

Care must be taken in the pursuit of pure truth which is often blinding and observed safely only when obliquely; and yet leap is required in more than one place in order for progression to be made.

Regardless of any action or reaction regarding coded messages there should always – by definition – be a fundamental refrain from denial of truth.

The powerful quickening statements have usually been concentrated between lines to avoid as far as possible misinterpretation through refraction. Of similar note was the potential temerity of untrammelled kinetic energy.

It shall be found that despite the hazards involved, initial characters came through successfully despite the immense distances that must be travelled.

The trapping of time has been so critically restrictive for much of the present age such that the slowing-up of functions has been necessary even though the results have not always been positively visible except absolutely.

Contradiction when comprehended is the determinant of movement and with good reason are science and religion often referred to through bafflement of the other.