The Temple of High Magic: Hermetic Initiations in the Western Mystery Tradition - Couverture souple

Cüsters-van Bergen, Ina

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1594773084 ISBN 13 : 9781594773082

Editeur : Destiny Books, 2010

Synopsis

A practical guide to pathworking and other esoteric techniques from the ancient mystery schools predating Christianity

• Explains the dynamics of both group ritual and solo practice

• Shows that temples of high magic are not mere physical structures but inner edifices created by sustained meditative practice

• Explains why this practice is sometimes called the Yoga of the West

Before the advent of Christianity, early civilizations had, at the heart of their spiritual traditions, mystery schools that offered a corpus of training methods in what is now called magic. The persecution of heresies that followed the establishment of Christianity as Rome’s state religion, a persecution that reached its high point during the Middle Ages, forced the degradation and disappearance of this training system. While the knowledge of these mystery traditions--jealously guarded by secret societies--has begun to emerge, the actual techniques and practices of spiritual magic have remained hidden.

The Temple of High Magic provides the practical knowledge of these techniques for modern spiritual seekers who wish to incorporate the proven esoteric techniques of the magi into their lives. This book explains the dynamics of group ritual and solo practice as well as the critical role played by the kabbalistic tree of life--the key to inner knowledge. Ina Cüsters-van Bergen shows that temples of high magic are not mere physical structures but are the inner edifices willed into being by a sustained meditative practice and pathworking, using key symbols from ancient Hebraic and Egyptian traditions. Sometimes called the Yoga of the West, this spiritual magic is a system of esoteric development that seeks to create full union between the magician and the divine.

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Ina Cüsters-van Bergen is the head of the Hermetic Order Temple of Starlight and was initiated by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. She lives in the Netherlands and gives lectures and workshops throughout Europe.

Gareth Knight has spent a lifetime unearthing and teaching the principles of magic as a spiritual discipline and method of self-realization. He was trained in the esoteric school founded by Dion Fortune and has been actively involved in the Western magical tradition since the early 1960s. He is the author of thirty books, including Tarot and Magic, A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, and Magic and the Power of the Goddess. He lives in England.

Extrait. © Reproduit sur autorisation. Tous droits réservés.

Chapter 2

Back to the Roots

Pathworking

The pathworkings in this book are not chosen at random. They are stories whose images are very carefully chosen, and whose images have been used in our culture for centuries: accidentally and deliberately, in fairy tales and folk stories, in mythological stories and in normal speech. These images have specific effects on the Inner World.
At the moment that you project yourself inside the story, your emotions and feelings will interact with the story. These movements in the Inner World have the goal of stimulating certain processes in the consciousness.
This form of meditation is specific to Spiritual Magic and affects the daily life of people. This meditation method is practiced with the symbols that are classically connected to the Sephiroth and the paths of the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

The Robe of the Magician

To give you an idea of the importance of the ritual clothing and the experience this gives, I will take you with me on a pathworking journey. First, prepare yourself for a meditation. Take care that you will not be disturbed during the exercise. Make sure that you are comfortable. First relax and stabilize your breathing into the rhythm of four counts in, hold two, four out, hold two. When you look toward the black of your closed eyes, imagine looking into the blackness of a starry night. In your mind, look downward, and you will see that your feet are standing on a floor with black and white tiles.
Now the floor appears to be moving. It seems to stretch out in all directions. You are highly impressed by the wideness of the landscape, and it only stretches itself out farther in all directions. It becomes bigger as you are aware of your own heartbeat. You see that, slowly, stars start to appear in the space above you and below you. Now you clearly hear the voice of a female guide:
“I will take you with me to a place on the Inner Planes where you will be clothed in Divine robes. It is important that you lay down your common clothes. Take off your clothes and cleanse yourself with the Waters that come down from Heaven.”
To your amazement it starts to rain softly. The black and white floor starts to change shape, and stairs develop in black and white. The water starts to reflect the starry heavens. You decide to undress yourself and bathe in the basin that forms at your feet. You decide to drench yourself in the basin.
When you come out of the Waters, it has started snowing. In spite of the white flakes that descend on your skin, you do not feel cold. Together with the white flakes of snow, a golden spider descends on a thin thread. The spider hangs before you, and she weaves the snowflakes into a pattern. To your amazement, the snow crystallizes on your skin into a silk robe that is decorated with the most beautiful ice flowers.
“I dress you in the purity of a winter night. This absolute purity is the state of your soul when you cleanse yourself in the primordial source of the universe. To take care that your core remains pure as long as possible, I will now weave a mantle of concealment for you. This I weave from velvet threads, black in color, which I will spin out of the starry night.”
You watch how the spider works: she tears threads out of the night and, where she pulls them out of the surface, little holes form in the velvet black depth. The spider tells you:
“Because I weave the mantle of concealment, an activity is generated. Everywhere that I take threads from the night, a void is created. This nothingness will fill itself. The cosmos always returns to its state of balance, and the emptiness that is caused because I weave for you your mantle of concealment will fill itself with fate. And now watch how the emptiness fills itself with star fire. In this way a horoscope is created. Do not fear, because fate will strengthen your soul and give it more splendor than ever.”
The spider finishes the beautiful black mantle that is woven from the starry night.
“Now we need the materials with which to fasten this mantle onto your white robe.”
The spider starts to work again, and she plucks fire from the stars of the Zodiac from the heavens, and attaches sparks of stellar fire on a brooch. The jewel radiates, and as you watch it you have realizations without understanding where they come from.
“See here, the jewel of wisdom,” the spider says. “This appears to me an excellent brooch to pin the mantle of concealment onto your left shoulder. Now we need another pin to fix the right side.”
The spider looks into the night sky and says thoughtfully: “The mantle of concealment will embrace you and protect you with the Understanding
of the Great Mother.” And promptly a supernova explodes in the dark night, a blood red explosion against the deep black background.
“Ah . . .” the spider says. “Of course! The mantle is pinned on the right side with a black rose with a blood red heart: the symbol of the Great Mother.” The spider takes the explosion out of space and weaves it into a brooch of black obsidian with a kernel of blood red star ruby. This she uses to pin the mantle at your left shoulder.
“You are now dressed in the regalia of the novice. All other pieces of clothing of the Heavenly Man are woven by me when you have earned them yourself. You need to create the warp of the threads by your aspiration, hope, and prayer. The woof you create by endurance, sound thinking, and sweat. The regalia of the Initiate are hidden in the secret spaces that you find at the sides of the road of the Ladder of Light.”

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Destiny Books
• Date d'édition: 2010
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1594773084
• ISBN 13: 9781594773082
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 400
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
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