The Golden Dawn

by Israel Regardie

  The Kerux, in finishing, inverts the cup, as the watcher of the god, to show that the symbols of self-sacrifice and of regeneration are accomplished. The proclamation is confirmed by the Hierophant and the chief officers giving the three strokes, emblematic of the mystic triad, and they repeat the mystic words.

  The Hierophant, in his final speech, seals the link first formulated between the members and the supernal triad for each one present that it may prove, to him or her, a guide for the ultimate attainment of the supreme initiation—if he will.

  The Symbolism and Meaning of the Step, Signs,

  Grip or Token, and the Words

  They have this threefold interpretation:

  1. Apparent meaning.

  2. Spiritual or mystical reference.

  3. Practical application.

  Each is therefore considered under three heads.

  The Step

  1. The foot is advanced about six inches representing the foot on the side of Chesed put forward and taking a hesitating step in darkness—the left foot, to represent the power of Isis or the beginning of action rather than Nephthys as the end thereof. The term six inches is employed here only to render it more intelligible to English initiates. It means a convenient measure of six, and preferably six times the measure of the phalanx of the thumb—spirit and will.

  2. It symbolizes the beginning of the stamping down of the evil persona. The foot is advanced six metrical distances answering to the number six of Tiphareth—Osiris—alluding therefore to the self-sacrifice necessary to accomplish this.

  3. It represents the practical application of the beginning of a magical force. Let the adept, in using the Sign of the Enterer, give the step as he commences the sign and let him imagine himself colossal, clothed with the form of the god or goddess appropriate to the work—his head reaching to the clouds—his feet resting upon earth. And let him take the step as if he stamped upon the earth and the earth quaked and rocked beneath him. As it is said “Clouds and darkness are round about Him—lightnings and thunders the habitation of His feet.” Its secret name is “the step of the avenger.”

  The Saluting Sign

  1. That of groping forward in search of truth.

  2. It represents the involution and bringing forward of the light into the material to aid the will of the candidate in his search for and aspiration towards the higher.

  3. Standing as before described, in the form of the god, and elevating the mind to the contemplation of Kether, take the step like a stroke with the foot, bring the arms up above the head as if touching the Kether, and as the step is completed bring the hands over the head forwards. Thrust them out direct from the level of the eyes horizontally—arms extended, fingers straight, palms downwards, the hands directed towards the object it is wished to charge or to affect. At the same time, sink the head till the eyes look exactly between the thumbs. In this way, the rays from the eyes, from each finger, and from the thumbs, must all converge upon the object attacked. If any of them disperse, it is a weakness.

  Thus performed, this sign is a symbol of tremendous attacking force and of projection of willpower, and it should be employed in all cases where force of attack is required—especially in charging of talismans and the like. Generally, it is best to have the thumbs and all the fingers extended—but if a particular effect is desired, you may extend only the fingers appropriate thereto, keeping the rest folded back in the hand. Herewith also, may be combined the attribution of the planets to the head: (Mars to the right nostril, Mercury to the mouth, etc., as explained in the Microcosm Lecture), sending at the same time an imaginary ray of colour of the planet desired from the part of the head attributed to it. But, when finished, be careful to withdraw the rays again or they will remain like so many outlets of astral force and thus exhaust you. The best way to protect yourself against this is to give the Sign of Silence immediately. For the first sign should always be answered by the second. The secret names of the saluting signs are “the Attacking Sign” or “the Sign of the Enterer of the Threshold.”

  The Sign of Silence

  1. This is simply that of secrecy regarding the mysteries.

  2. It is the affirmation of the station of Harpocrates, wherein the higher soul of the candidate is formulated in part of the admission ceremony. It is the symbol of the centre and of the “voice of the silence” which answers in secret the thought of the heart.

  3. The Sign of Silence withdraws the force put out by the Sign of the Enterer. Take upon thyself as before taught the colossal form of the god Harpocrates. Bring the left foot sharply back, both heels together—beat the ground once with the left foot as it is placed beside the right. Bring the left hand to the mouth and touch the centre of the lower lip with the left forefinger. Close the other fingers and thumb, and drop the right hand to the side. Imagine that a watery vapor encircles and encloses you. This is the reflux of the current.

  This sign is also used as a protection against attack. The sign represents a concentration of astral light about the person. Having given the sign as above, it is a protection against all attack and danger of obsession. To make it yet stronger, the form of the god should be taken. If spiritual force is required, formulate as if standing on a lotus or rising from it. For force in contemplation and meditation, formulate as if seated upon a lotus, but for more material force, as if standing upon a dragon or a serpent like some statues of Harpocrates. As a defence and protection, the sign is as strong as the banishing pentagram, though of a different nature. And as the Sign of the Enterer represents attack, so does this sign represent defence thereto, as a shield is a defence against the sword. From this sign is a formula of invisibility derived.27

  The secret names of this sign are “the Sign of the God of Silence” or the “Sign of Defence or Protection.” It may be performed with any finger of either hand, but it is most protective when the left forefinger is used, the water of Chesed, for the fingers of the right hand represent more violent action, and those of the left more watery action. (If you have not a convenient implement, a sigil or a pentagram may be traced with any finger of any hand according to the correspondence required.)

  It may here be remarked that the so-called Christian sign of benediction, consisting of the thumb and first two fingers only, projected, is the affirmation of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys—or spirit, fire, and water.

  With regard to taking on mentally the forms of the gods, it may here be noted that the process is of great assistance and use in all magical working, whether of invocation or of evocation, contemplation, meditation, slaying in the spirit vision, alchemy, etc. For the forms of the gods do here represent a certain symbolic material action of the divine forces.

  The Grip and the Password

  1. The steps are taken and the grip exchanged simultaneously. They mean seeking guidance in the darkness and silence of the mysteries.

  2. It shows that a steady and resolute will, acting in union with good, will accomplish what it desires, no matter how often it fails at first. It inculcates the necessity for harmony and brotherly love—of doing away with pettiness and of too much self-concentration—for allowances for the weaknesses of others within limits—of shunning resolutely anything in the nature of slander. So that in the grip of the Neophyte the initiates meet hand to hand and foot to foot in the true greeting of a brother or sister, and not in the veiled hostility of an enemy. For, in the working of the Inner, where all invoke the same forces in the same manner, he or she becomes unsympathetic with the rest, separates himself or herself from them, and though he weaken the combination of working, yet he still more certainly attracts upon himself a reflex current from the avengers of evil.

  The name of the god of silence which is the grand word of this grade also represents the silence of the sacred mysteries to be observed towards the Outer Order. It shows also the necessity for respect towards the secrets of any frater or soror committed to your care, not endeavouring to search them out for purposes of curiosity nor repeating them when
discovered, nor in any way referring to them so as to wound the other, nor in any way employing them as a means of causing humiliation, but to keep them as a sacred trust and not to be deflected by them from acting justly and harmoniously together.

  3. In any magical ceremony, or other working, if more than one member be taking part, all present, putting themselves into the form of the god as taught, should exchange sign, grip, and words, so as to establish a current of harmony and the affirmation of a mutual direction of will towards the same object.

  The Password

  1. Merely to guard the secrets of the Order against any members resigned or not working; hence changed each equinox.

  2. It is an affirmation of the different spiritual as well as the different physical constitutions of the candidates—that all natures cannot be the same without evil and injury resulting thereby—but that each nature should be brought to its own Kether—the best of its kind. This too, may be done in all things. It is the basis of alchemy.

  3. It should be pronounced as if attracting the solar force, the light of nature, during the six months following the equinox at which it is issued, as a link with the solar force, between that and the order. This password, therefore, may also be used in a magical ceremony as attracting the support of the light of nature acting upon natural forces.

  The Ceremony of the Equinox

  The whole formulae of the Ceremony of the Equinox are intended to create a magical link between the sun, as the light of nature, and the Order; and it should be celebrated within forty-eight hours at least of the sun’s actual entry into Aries or Libra. The single knock given by the Hierophant heralds the initiation of a fresh current. The password, as already explained, is the symbol of the connecting link of the purpose of the ceremony and therefore, before beginning fresh operation to attract a fresh current, the Kerux proclaims that the former password is abrogated. In the whole ceremony, save at the exchange of insignia, the Hierophant, Hiereus, Hegemon, Stolistes, and Dadouchos remain in their places—the Kerux, or watcher of the gods, being the only one who moves.

  First comes the establishment of a vertical current in the direction of the middle column by the exchange of words between the Hierophant and the Hiereus, while the Hegemon, who is in the whole Ceremony of the Equinox the important officer, by reason of his insignia, seals and arrests the current in the centre by a single knock and the words “I am the reconciler between them.” Then follows the cross current established between the Stolistes and Dadouchos—again fixed and sealed by the Hegemon, thus symbolizing the equilateral cross of the elements (of which the centre would naturally be about the invisible station of Harpocrates) but is arrested by the Hegemon between the columns. The cross currents are thus thrown into the image of the Calvary Cross of the rivers to ally it with the symbolism of Tiphareth and of the Sephiroth.

  Then the Hierophant, Dadouchos, Hiereus, and Stolistes formulate a circle enclosing the symbol, which is again sealed by the Hegemon. Then the officers, being careful to follow the course of the sun, deposit in turn their insignia upon the altar, taking therefrom instead the mystical symbols of the body of Osiris corresponding to their cardinal points. The Hegemon takes the lamp of Kerux. The Kerux then circumambulates, halting at the cardinal points and facing them, representing the course of the sun through the zodiac in order to attract the solar ray, but under the control of its superior, the light of Osiris, and the adorations are performed at the stations of the Kerubim to mark the limits of the circle.

  This time, it is with the lamp of the watcher of the gods and with the sign of the Calvary Cross of Tiphareth that the Hegemon seals in the centre the solar light. The formal assertion of the entry of a new current of light is proclaimed, and the mystic words are recited to close the ceremony.

  From this ceremony there are many practical formulae derivable which will be easily comprehended by the Zelator Adeptus Minor who has mastered the whole of this lecture. Only let him remember that the formulae of the ceremony of the equinox represents the sudden attraction and sealing of a force in nature then in operation—rather than a continuous and graduated ceremony to build up the same. Consequently also, it is well to use the password then in being as an adjunct to the other names employed in magical ceremonies as bringing into operation the link with the solar light.

  Notes on the Opening Exordium of “Z”

  The great Tho-oth is the highest aspect of the Hermes of the most ancient Egyptian mysteries, and corresponds almost to the great angel Metatron. It is the archangel of Kether in the Briatic world. The Mercury of the Romans must not be confused with this great Hermes.

  The doctrines of Gnosticism and of Valentinus approached those of the pure Qabalah. In them we find Speech and Silence. Across the abyss of Silence comes the primal Speech. The divine ones here referred to are the aeons in the Atziluthic world. These formulae of knowledge are designed in terms cognizable to us in the lower world.

  Eheieh—implicit and explicit sound. “Every being pronounces all its existence, the name of the Lord of life, by inspiration and expiration.”

  Macroprosopus is Aima and Abba, Mother—Father. The two nostrils pass up and down the two breaths, as through the two great pillars. These throw all things into vibration; compare the Rashith ha-Gilgalim. Piercing of the dragon’s coils suggests the freeing of Malkuth, which is also referred to as the washing of the garments of the queen, the inferior mother. Then comes the breaking forth of the light. Over Malkuth as guardians are Metatron and Sandalphon as the two pillars, and Nephesch ha-Messiah, the animal soul of Messiah, the Shekinah or presence between the Kerubim.

  The Particular Exordium

  The bornless ones of time referred to are those coruscations of the divine light which are above Kether of Atziluth. In such supernal realms, the Ain Soph, though negative to us, is there intensely positive. Thence came forth the gods, the voice, the aeons, and the name.

  The Egyptian gods are generally most differentiated by their crowns: Amen-Ra by the high feathers, Mo-ooth (Maut) has the same headdress as Horus. She corresponds to Aima Elohim. The high Hermes-Tho-oth has the same headdress as Amoun Kneph, the sacred spirit. Remember that Tho-oth, Truth, has two aspects—the higher and the lower. The higher is absolute; the lower is suitable to human comprehension. To tell the higher form of a truth to one who cannot understand it is to lie to him because, though correctly formulated, it will not be correctly received.

  The Forms of Thmaah

  There are four forms of spelling for the goddess Thma-Est whereby she is attributable to the four letters of the name, and therewith to the elements and the Tree.

  Water. Binah. Heh.

  Fire. Chokmah. Yod.

  Thma-oe-Tt

  Thma-oe-Sh

  Air. Tiphareth. Vau.

  Earth. Malkuth. Heh (final)

  Thm-a-oe-St

  Thm-a-Oe

  (The Middle Pillar)

  In the Equinox Ceremony, the Hegemon is air, spirit, and the principal officer. She reconciles from east to west, and from north to south, and in a circular formula.

  [contents]

  22. Note by JMG: Matthew 24:27.

  23. Note by JMG: John 3:5.

  24. Note by Regardie: This idea is elaborated more clearly and at greater length in the “Astronomical View of the Tarot,” in Book Eight.

  25. Note by Regardie: That is, the ceremony induces a species of schizophrenia so that the initiation may be effected. But see Jung’s Commentary to The Secret of the Golden Flower, and also my book on alchemy, The Philosopher’s Stone.

  26. Note by JMG: “The voice of my undying and secret soul” in the ritual as included in Book 2 on page 151.

  27. Note by Regardie: See ritual in Book Six.

  Z.2: THE FORMULAE OF THE MAGIC OF LIGHT

  An Introduction to the Practical Working of the Z.2 Formulae

  By G.H. Frater S.R.M.D.28

  In the Ritual of the Enterer are shadowed forth symbolically the beginning of certain of the formulae
of the magic of light. For this ritual betokeneth a certain person, substance, or thing, which is taken from the dark world of matter, to be brought under the operation of the divine formulae of the magic of light.

  Also herein are contained the commencements of all formulas of evocation, the development of which is further shown in the inner knowledge of the succeeding grades of the Outer Order. In the true knowledge of the application of the symbolism of the “Enterer” lies the entrance to the knowledge of practical magic: and therefore are all the formulae drawn from the ritual classed under five several heads, according unto the letters of the name Yeheshuah.

  For to the letter Yod and the element of fire belong the works of ceremonial magic, as the evocations of the spirits of the elements, etc.

  Unto the first Heh the consecration and charging of telesmata, and the production of natural phenomena, as storms, earthquakes, etc.

  Unto the great holy letter Shin are allotted three classes of works: spiritual development, transformations, and invisibility.

  Unto the letter Vau divination in all its branches; and the art of making the link between the subject of the work and the process of divination.

  And to the final Heh the works and operations of the art of alchemy, the order of its processes and transmutation.

  Foreword by Israel Regardie (Frater A.M.A.G.)

  This document, which was presented to advanced members of the Zelator Adeptus Minor grade, lists under the name of the Pentagrammaton several modes of magical working. It comprises, altogether, seven formulae. For the first five of these, I have provided herewith examples of the appropriate kind of ritual in order to enable the reader or student to form some notion of their nature. They are not produced here that they may be slavishly followed, since they are purely personal productions. My motive in including them is only to assist the student as showing him a completed type of ceremony. The formula for spiritual development, so-called, is represented by two distinct rituals each quite different in structure, yet equally efficacious in its own especial way. The Bornless Ritual, the second of the two, was reproduced in rudimentary form in my Tree of Life. Because of the excellent dovetailing of certain Order formulae and speeches with the barbarous words of the older ritual, rendering it in practice a magnificent and inspiring ceremony, I have decided to republish it here so that interested students may observe how older fragments may be treated.