3 Also known as the Middle Pillar, the Pillar of Mildness or the Pillar of Balance, alluding to its aspect of moderation between two extremes.
4 “The One.”
5 It is our opinion that the Freudian id, in its more restricted definition, corresponds to the Qabalistic Nephesh rather than the Yechidah. See Part Two, Chapter Six.
6 A Chinese term for “way.” It refers to the one absolute reality which is said to have brought forth “Ten Thousand Things.” It is the union of yin (female energy) and yang (male energy).
7 The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, #13, Alchemical Studies.
8 The word it is the English translation of the Latin word id, which Freud used in his theories. (The German translation is es.) To avoid confusion we have italicized the word it throughout the text to indicate where Regardie was referring to the Freudian id.
9 On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, yang energy can also be attributed to the masculine right-hand pillar called Yachin, while yin energy corresponds to the feminine left-hand pillar of Boaz.
10 This is similar to the Golden Dawn teachings concerning the sub-elements-that each element contains a mixture of the other elements as well.
11 Again, a mixture of the elements.
12 Logos is Greek for “word.” It represents the creative principle.
13 The Supernals are the three highest Sephiroth of Kether, Chokmah, and Binah. These three are considered to be on a higher level than the rest of the Sephiroth.
14 From The Voice of the Silence by H. P. Blavatsky.
15 To clarify, the Ninth Sephirah is Yesod, to which the Nephesh is attributed.
16 To clarify, the Supernal Sephiroth are Kether, Chokmah, and Binah, to which the Yechidah, Chiah, and Neshamah are attributed.
17 There is another part of the soul/psyche that is sometimes overlooked. This is the G‘uph. Centered in Malkuth, the G’uph is closely tied to the physical body and the total range of all psychophysical functions. It is a low level of the subconscious that communicates with the brain about the current condition of the human body.
18 The study of the shape and protuberances of the skull in the belief that they reveal character and mental capacity.
19 Regardie freely interchanges Eastern and Western terms here. It is important that the reader not confuse the terminology between the two traditions. The four worlds of consciousness according to the Hindu tradition (from highest to lowest) are Turya, Sushupti, Swapna, and Jagrata. The last three of these worlds relate to three planes of existence (causal, astral, and physical) and are said to be the source of the mantra AUM: “A” refers to Jagrata, “U” refers to Swapna, and “M” relates to Sushupti. The silence that succeeds each intonation of AUM refers to Turya, the highest state of consciousness. Turya is described as conscious dreamless sleep or meditative sleep.In the Western tradition, the Four Worlds of the Qabalah as placed upon the Tree of Life are Atziluth (containing Kether), Briah (composed of the Sephiroth of Chokmah and Binah), Yetzirah (including all Sephiroth from Chesed to Yesod), and Assiah (consisting only of Malkuth). Atziluth is the divine world of archetypes, Briah is the creative world of archangels, Yetzirah is the formative world of angels and the astral realm, and Assiah is the active, material world.
20 The state of mind in dreamless sleep.
21 These are known as the Chakras. See Part Two, Chapter Eight.
22 Complete awareness of the state of mind.
23 This is excellent advice. We should point out, however, that not all psychotherapists are sympathetic to magic. It is important to find a therapist who is open-minded enough to realize that one’s magical or spiritual path is not “part of the problem.”
24 Such as evocation, astral projection, or skrying in the spirit vision.
25 The “Sphere of Sensation” is the aura.
26 The term “circumambulation” is not accurate here. Circumambulation refers to “walking around” as in walking around the temple. It would be more accurate to describe this process as “circulation” or “circumagitation” of the light. However, Regardie has derived the misuse of the word “circumambulation” from original order manuscripts—see The Golden Dawn, page 347, line 7.
27 One of the tragedies of Western culture is the depreciation of the human faculty of imagination. Rather than celebrate it as the creative power of genius that is responsible for all human invention, Westerners tend to belittle this gift as a childish diversion.
28 Some advanced Middle Pillar exercises are given in Part Two, Chapter Ten.
29 Spiritual mastery.
CHAPTER THREE
THE QABALISTIC CROSS AND THE PENTAGRAM RITUAL
Some years ago, the principles of this exercise of the Qabalistic Cross were published in my book The Tree of Life, and I repeat the rubric as follows:1. Touch the forehead, say “ATOH” (“Thou art”).
2. Bring the hand down and touch the breast, say “MALKUTH” (“the Kingdom”).
3. Touch the left shoulder, and say “VE-GEDULAH” (“and the Glory”).
4. Touch the right shoulder and say “VE-GEVURAH” (“and the Power”).1
5. Clasping the fingers on the breast, say “LE OLAHM AMEN” (“forever, Amen”).
The words employed are in the Hebrew tongue. Hebrew is so employed because the magical system first attained prominence in Europe since it was adopted by some Jewish philosophers whom we call Qabalists. Apart from this usage of Hebrew words, there is not the slightest implication of Hebrew theology or philosophy. The gestures themselves are a variance of the ordinary Christian Cross, making use of the last few phrases of the Lord’s Prayer. That it is utilized in magical work is due to the fact that it constitutes an ideal method of equilibriating the personality and raising the mind to the contemplation of higher things.2
The first name in the invocation is Atoh. This is a Hebrew word meaning “Thou,” the second personal pronoun. To explain this in the simplest possible way, may I say that there is some justification in metaphysics for this usage. The reader who has studied some philosophy will have noted reference to a triad of concepts—such as the thinker, the thing known, and the act or result of cognition. The ancient authorities of the Qabalistic philosophy conceived that the deepest or most spiritual principle in man, which they argued was man’s highest notion of divinity, was just such a triad of a thinker, knowledge, and the act of knowing. To each one of these principles or functions of the higher self, they therefore attributed a personal pronoun as a symbol. The thinker, the Yechidah itself, manifestly was “I.” “Thou” was referred to the thing known. And the third person “he” was referred to the activity of the thinker—though all three were considered an indissoluble unity. But bearing in mind at all times the concept of the middle way by which the extremes of the opposites may be avoided, they chose as the word to express the higher self in this slight ritual the second pronoun “Thou.”
The other words employed are names of Sephiroth on the Tree of Life. Gevurah or “Power” is that center numbered five on the diagram. Gedulah or “Mercy” is the fourth.3 These two are the centers represented by the two lodge room pillars, the two opposites encountered in everyday life. It is of these two centers that speaks the ritual in junction already quoted about unbalanced severity being cruelty and oppression.
Malkuth is the tenth Sephirah. It is translated by the word “Kingdom” inasmuch as the ancients considered that man’s nature was a kingdom of inconceivable extent, a kingdom of vast and wide complexity, one having over it a divinely ordained ruler, the Yechidah. The last phrase of the ritual is of little significance, save as it completes the gesture. The word Olahm means “forever.” But it can also mean “world” or “universe.” We would assume that it is so placed as a peroration because within the miniature universe which is man, there are innumerable elements and principles in constant activity, the entire ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life.
If the reader will bear these brief explanations in mind, the description of the rubric which follows
will be seen to have more significance than otherwise might be the case.
Atoh is a reference to the higher genius, the it. Malkuth refers to the body, this with the Yechidah being the dual expression of the living human organism, the two expressions of the yang and the yin, using these latter terms in their widest connotation. Gevurah and Gedulah, the two extremes of power as the highest aspects of the ego, signify the two modes of that ego’s capacity for action and reaction. The final gesture, closing on a point which is between these two extremes indicates the voluntary decision of the evolving psyche to seek a balanced position, the Middle Way, a place which partakes of both the opposites and yet which is not subject to their equal but opposing pulls.
It has been emphasized that the fundamental task of both analytical psychology and magic is to attempt to bring into operation the higher genius—or to bring into full working consciousness the content of the hidden and buried unconsciousness. We should remember the parables of the archaic philosophical religions whose fundamental tenet was that within man was a spirit, a dynamic center of consciousness which, because of its contact and association with matter, had been plunged into a profound sleep, a state of somnambulism. The problem is: how may this slumbering level of the primeval consciousness be awakened within us? By endeavoring to extend the horizon of consciousness, to enlarge the field of awareness so as to embrace what previously was unconscious is obviously a logical method. To become aware of all our actions, our thoughts and emotions and unsuspected motives, to regard them in their true light as actually they are and not as we would like them to be or as we would wish the onlooker to perceive them. It requires, to take this step, an extraordinary degree of honesty and courage, both indispensable virtues to the student of psychology and magic. The more of this suppressed and forgotten material stored in this at one time unknown or dormant side of our nature that can be raised into the clear light of the day, by exactly so much do we awake from that inert stupor into which we have in the past been plunged. And also, by just that much do we liberate ourselves from the compulsion to nature’s instinctual commands, and become freed from what Levy Bruhl has called the participation mystique. It is a phrase coined to express that peculiar unity with nature which primitive man felt and enjoyed, that participation in the unconsciousness of nature which only became disrupted as the evolution of mind made itself apparent, a slinking serpent within the peaceful Garden of Eden.4 But mankind, despite thousands of years of evolution, has not yet freed itself as a whole from this subjection to the unconsciousness of nature whereby it moves and feels without deliberation and without conscious volition. Here and there we do find an individual who has realized the snare and burden in which he has lived, and attempted accordingly to release himself from the bonds in which he had been bound.
Any system, therefore, which recognizes these deep unconscious levels of awareness and vitality, insisting moreover upon that recognition, assists in the evolution of mankind. The Qabalistic Cross, so called, considered as a preamble to more serious and difficult work, indicates just this awareness of other levels of consciousness, and the necessity of bringing them into operation within the human psyche. Not only so, but it recognizes that these newly awakened levels of power and consciousness may be deeply disturbing to the novice who attempts this voyage of discovery. Therefore, what is essential is that not only should they be awakened, but that they should be recognized and equilibriated in a balanced disposition. This also it is the object of the Qabalistic Cross to accomplish.
One more word before proceeding to a description of the technique of its performance. The tradition holds that these words should be vibrated and not merely enunciated. That is to say, the student must discover for himself that method of humming or of pronouncing these words which will assist in the production of a vibration. Some find that these words uttered in a shrill voice is best adapted to the requirements. Others, including the present writer, have found through experiment and frequent test that a moderately deep pitch, slightly higher than the ordinary speaking voice, is most suited to produce the desired vibration. Each syllable should be evenly vibrated, no one being accented at the expense of another. The test of the vibration, strange though it may seem, is that it should detonate in the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.5 When vibrating a word forcibly, but not necessarily loudly, a tingling sense should be felt in every cell and nerve of the body, and it should seem particularly that in the hands and feet every atom and cell has become alive and is in a state of rapid vibration. Little more than this can be said in explanation without actual demonstration. But it is such a simple matter in which to attain proficiency that no difficulty should be experienced. The metaphysical theory involved here is that by means of vibration, the actual formation of the body-mind system may be changed and renewed.6 That is to say, the proponents of the system urge for a consideration of the fact that within a period of seven years the body has undergone a complete biological change and, during that time, has renewed its entire cell structure. It has ejected old and deceased organisms, and by means of the metabolic process, has built itself a new cell organization. The vibratory technique, therefore, hastens the expulsion of dead tissue and unwanted molecules and particles so that new ones being absorbed into the system, whilst attention is devoted to expanding the field of consciousness, a purified body is produced through which that higher consciousness may more readily function. It is principally a question of tactics. One could on the one hand content oneself solely with the task of widening the field of consciousness, altogether to the exclusion of bringing the body system within the scope of this purifying process. Or, on the other hand, the entire time and attention could be given solely to the production of certain obscure bodily changes—as do some oriental hatha yogis, to the exclusion and at the expense of desirable factors of consciousness. Magic, very sanely, combines the advantages of both points of view, eliminating the dangerous and harmful features common to the others. Always in a salutary way is the path between the two extremes indicated.
When actually performing the Qabalistic Cross it is well to face the east, the place of the rising of the sun. This takes advantage of a prevailing symbolism which identifies the Yechidah with enlightenment and wisdom, a spiritual concept always determined by and defined in terms of light. It is from the east that the light arises. Standing motionless, with the eyes closed should that render the act of reflection easier, endeavor to contemplate the nature of the Yechidah, that it is by definition, the quintessence of light, life, love, and liberty, and that these are the qualities of the essence of mind which is intrinsically pure.
One very essential point constantly requiring recollection is that in the magical symbolism, as well as in that of psychology, as has been demonstrated, the various psychic principles have a spatial co-relative in the human body. That is, certain principles correspond to or have a special affinity with certain organs or limbs of the body. This certainly is a fact within everybody’s experience. Emotion is almost always associated with the heart, reason with the head, passion with the genitals. The magical tradition simply classifies and considerably extends this list of affinities.7
Whilst considering the Yechidah, recognizing that it represents freedom and that its nature is light itself, the student should endeavor to visualize just above the crown of his head a spherical form of light. The diagram on page 73 (see Figure 4) will indicate its likely position. The symbolism places this above the head because, in the first place, since the Yechidah is the root of man’s consciousness, it is a principle of whose presence the majority of us have never become really aware. This is not to deny its existence, but only to affirm our previous ignorance. Moreover, magical symbolism, which incidentally is of the same type as that employed by the unconscious, also affirms that this divine genius, being the highest principle within of which we still have no awareness, has not yet fully incarnated within us. That is to say, it is a potency which overshadows us—a principle which the race will be able t
o realize fully only some thousands of generations hence. The consensus of experienced opinion has it, therefore, that this overshadowing, no matter whether actual or only metaphorical—does assuredly exist, and that the psychic correlative of an overshadowing is a center just above the crown of the head. Fantastic this certainly may sound at first. But I cannot make any attempt to justify it or to defend it. And were I called before a tribunal of intellectual criticism, I would only recommend that the practice be followed as a definite scientific experiment, and the results experienced.
Let therefore the student consider his higher and divine genius, the core of his unconscious, as of the nature of wisdom and love and light, visualizing its sphere of activity as having an affinity with the region immediately above the head. After some seconds of this quiet recollection, let him raise his hand above his head, then lower it to the forehead and vibrate the first word “Atoh” as though formally to affirm the presence of that genius. The hand employed should then be brought in a straight line down to the region about the diaphragm. Vibrate the word “Malkuth. ”As this is done, let the mind dwell on the fact that as the hand descends, so does a stream of light descend from above, a steady brilliant ray of light permeating him through and through. A shaft of light is thereby formed which extends from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. Strictly speaking, Malkuth, the last Sephirah, is referred to the feet. For convenience’s sake, however, we touch the breast or solar plexus with the mental recognition that it is the region of the feet that actually we have reference to and to which the shaft of light is directed. This forms the first half of the exercise. Some seconds pause should take place here, in order to visualize and feel as strongly as is possible the presence of a brilliant ray of light.
The Middle Pillar Page 9