The Middle Pillar

by Israel Regardie

  There are several little physical helps which greatly enhance the degree and amount of power which can be made available. Correct breathing, especially, is one of them. There could hardly be a better adjunct than breathing in a rhythmical manner. The latter in itself, quite apart from the Middle Pillar, is supremely efficacious in producing quiet and calm. The entire system is stilled and strengthened as the lungs slowly take up a rhythm, and keep to it indefinitely.

  First of all the student should train himself in the method of breathing correctly—that is to say, in the method of filling his lungs with air from the very bottom. He should combine abdominal with both diaphragmatic and costal breathing. The act of inspiration, if carefully observed, consists of these three phases. First the abdominal part of the lungs are filled, then that underlying the diaphragm, and finally as the shoulders are slightly lifted the thorax itself becomes filled. They are so continuous as to appear an undivided act. In this way, every cell of the entire lung surface comes into contact with the oxygen inhaled, which is thus passed into the bloodstream. Most of us usually breathe very insufficiently, only a fraction of the cellular surface of the lung coming into contact with the inhaled air. Thus there is always a large quantity of residual air in the lower reaches of the lungs. There is always a large surface of the lung area which is not employed; and a quantity of carbon dioxide and cells in an impoverished state of health are ever present.

  This method of breathing introduces a far greater content of oxygen into the lung, destroying therefore, by combustion, toxins and undesirable elements, and also producing a better state of health. There are many individuals who, because of conflict and neurosis, have attempted to flee from life. They have attempted to evade a full contact with the stream of vital experience, and this psychological attitude of evasion has reacted upon the bodily functions. One of these particularly affected is that of breathing, the lungs falling into the habit of functioning at about half their proper capacity. The circle is a vicious one. For inadequate breathing by itself induces an enfeebled state of health, perpetual exhaustion, catarrh, and many another ill. Likewise, this constant state of ill-health reacts upon the mental outlook, confirming and strengthening the escapist attitude towards life because the individual is now only half alive, incapable of reacting to the pleasures and joys of life. For mind and body, as so often reiterated in these pages, are not two distinct units. The functions of the one interlap with and interpenetrate the functions of the other. More accurately they should be regarded as the two functions of one entity, two methods whereby it may acquire experience. Too much therefore cannot be said of the necessity for cultivating the lungs to operate at full capacity. This cultivation cannot be too often stressed, for life is power, and power is life and consciousness, indispensable in the path of magic which leads to the knowledge of the higher self.

  The proper method of deep breathing having been acquired, the cultivation of a rhythmic breath should be the next step. The most suitable and simple method is the four-beat rhythm. If the student will inhale very slowly, mentally counting one, two, three, four and then exhale to the same beat, he will discover that this undoubtedly is the best rhythm for inducing that state of calmness and peace which is so necessary for meditation and reflection. And, in passing, let me add that the state of quiescence sought after is one not of passivity and negativity. It is one of alertness and eagerness. What one should cultivate is a quiescence in which every mental faculty is alert, waiting to be used. A tranquility characterized by a sense of enormous power and capacity is the state to be aimed at, one in which there is the maximum of awareness and inner poise.

  Success in the technique of the rhythmic breath is an unmistakable symptom which cannot fail to be recognized when it arises. There is first the sense of peace, satisfaction and quiet joy, without the least cessation of one’s mental capacity. Next follows a sense of vibration felt all over the body, as though every cell and molecule were acting in unison and moving, as it were, in a single direction. The result of this vibration is to transform the lungs and the entire body into a single storage battery, generating and storing electricity and power, transmuting them into will and faculty. Hard upon this, if the rhythm be persisted in, comes a quiet ripple over the diaphragm or solar plexus—a difficult symptom to describe, because it produces no perceptible physical or recognizable change, though the sense of the rhythm is none the less distinctly felt. When this occurs, and when one becomes aware of a single vibration through the body, and a gentle vibration or sense of luminosity and lightness in the brain, the student may be assured that he has achieved success in this particular practice.

  This state gained, the Middle Pillar should be proceeded with, and the names could be silently vibrated in tune with the rhythmic inhalation and exhalation of the breath. The sense of the brilliance above which I prefer to think of as the “lamp above the head,” or as others have called it “the candle of vision,” becomes much more perceptible and marked. Very often it develops into an awareness of a whirling sphere of fiery light radiating peace and illumination into the mind and body. Little more need be said, for I have no desire to provide material which may act upon suggestible minds. There are people so constituted as to be able to produce symptoms of any described kind with the least application, and with practically no spiritual effect upon themselves or their mental or moral nature, and certainly no progress in that path which leads to the knowledge of the higher self. Silence with reference to symptoms and results is therefore most desirable.

  Endnotes

  1 This is Daath, which is not a Sephirah, but rather a conjunction of Chokmah and Binah.

  2 From the Neophyte Ritual. See Regardie, The Golden Dawn, 129.

  3 The symbol of the Rosicrucians. Rosicrucianism is a form of mystic or esoteric Christianity whose teachings embrace the Hermetic sciences.

  4 The Philosopher’s Stone is an alchemical symbol of true spiritual attainment. The search for the Philosopher’s Stone is the search for truth and illumination.

  5 Along the same lines, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a musical note attributed to it. Thus each divine name in Hebrew can be sung or played on a musical instrument. See the Appendix: The Musical Qabalah.

  6 In this list, Regardie has given the name of the Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar next to their corresponding part of the soul. Beneath that he has provided the divine Hebrew name that is to be intoned or vibrated in the exercise. Thus Kether, which is equated with the Yechidah, is activated in the aura by vibrating the divine name “AHIH” (which is the transliteration for Eheieh ), and so on.

  7 Daath has no divine name of its own, so in the exercise of the Middle Pillar, it “borrows” the divine name for Binah which is the highest Sephirah that is close to Daath. (Since Daath is usually considered a passageway to the Supernals, Binah would be the Sephirah at its point of termination.) Although Regardie states here that YHVH is to be pronounced as “Yeh-hoh-voh,” we see no reason it should be pronounced differently from the way it is pronounced in the LBRP—as “Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh.” The term Jehovoh or Jehovah is simply a transcription of the Four-lettered Name YHVH—the letters of which were merely considered as stand-ins for the actual name of God, which was unknown and unpronounceable. We believe that the divine name YHVH Elohim should be pronounced “Yod Heh Vav Heh El-oh-heem” in all Golden Dawn rituals. Some modern magicians believe that the divine name given for Daath (and for Binah) should not be pronounced as YHVH Elohim. They argue that YHVH was never vocalized by devout Jews who thought it was too holy to pronounce. Whenever it occurred in writing, the words Elohim (god or gods) or Adonai (lord) were always spoken as a substitute word for YHVH. Thus some magicians contend that the compound word YHVH Elohim is a mistake, and that what was intended was that the spoken word “Elohim” be substituted for the written word “YHVH” in Binah and in Daath. (The second word in the compound name YHVH ELOHIM was considered by Jews as a reminder that the holy name YHVH is never spoken but rather vocalized as
“Elohim.”) While this argument may be true for devout Jews, it is not valid for practicing magicians in the tradition of the Golden Dawn. There are several examples of Hebrew mystics vocalizing the various permutations of the Tetragrammaton for specific ritual work with the Sephiroth. This points to the differences between orthodox Jewish practice and the esoteric practice of western Hermetic magicians.

  8 For the same reason indicated in the above endnote, the divine name here should be pronounced “Yod Heh Vav Heh El-oh-ah ve-Dah-ath.”

  9 The “ch” in Chai should be pronounced like the Scottish word “loch.”

  10 Another common suggestion is to vibrate the name several times until it fills the mind completely, and no other thoughts remain. One other method is to pronounce the name as many times as there are Hebrew letters in the name.

  11 This type of Middle Pillar initiation can also be used to charge talismans.Regardie used this technique to charge one of our medallions. (For more on this, see Part Two, Chapter Ten.)

  12 One very potent combination of such rituals is the LBRP, succeeded by the Rose Cross Ritual, and followed by the Middle Pillar Exercise. The RCR can be found on page 306 of Regardie’s The Golden Dawn.

  13 See Regardie’s Revised Middle Pillar Ritual for=in Part Two, Chapter Ten.

  14 Regardie strongly advocated the idea of self-initiation, particularly in those cases where it was not possible to find a local temple of duly qualified initiators.

  15 The eastern chakra system is fully described in Part Two, Chapter Eight.

  16 According to Golden Dawn tradition, the highest must always be invoked first—the highest divine name, followed by archangels, angels, and finally elemental rulers and spirits. (In principle this can be compared to a military chain of command. If you want something to get done, you must contact the highest ranking officer, who then delegates the work down to officers of lower rank.)

  17 Some Middle Pillar healing techniques are given in Part Two, Chapter Ten.

  18 Regardie was both a chiropractor and a Reichian therapist. Deep massage is an important part of Reichian therapy, designed to break down rigid muscular tension (armoring) that affects both body and psyche. Chiropractic medicine uses the manipulation of the spine to relieve physical pain. It is easy to see how one system can be used to complement the other.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CIRCULATING THE LIGHT AND THE FORMULA OF VIBRATION

  The formula of the Middle Pillar has many and varied uses. It serves as an excellent prelude to any type of spiritual work. For those whose penchant or principal interest is the art of meditation as the supreme means of placing themselves in alignment with the higher self, no better opening to that meditation could be found. It also serves, as suggested above, as the only worth-while preparation for serious magical work. It is that technique which generates the magical power which by its presence spells success in the routine of ceremonial or ritual magic. Those who have not applied themselves to this practice—or have not stumbled upon its essential core by accident, as very often happens—are certainly not those who have in any way proved the efficacy of the art of ceremonial. They believe that the ultimate factor which confers success is any one of a thousand things save this particular preliminary one. We read in some authoritative tomes that the factor in question is the whirling dance, or music played by violin or harp, the mystical circumambulation or the mental spasm sometimes caused by invocation or adoration. In practice, however, should any of these routines succeed in producing the requisite and longed for result, it is, as it were, in spite of themselves. That is to say, they are purely secondary and subordinate techniques. Their method is hit or miss, and does not rest upon a sound basis of attainment nor upon a sure understanding of magical principles. The practice of the Middle Pillar is the introductory or preparatory means of aligning the personality with the inner self, of identifying and unifying all the levels of the true consciousness which we, in our complacency and blindness, choose to call the unconscious.

  Reverting back to the technical side of things, there is yet another development of the Middle Pillar which requires description. Having been awakened from latency into some degree of activity, it is necessary that the power that the centers generate should be circulated through the invisible or psychic system. Failure to do this is, in my estimation, one of the most potent sources of nervous trouble and disturbance experienced by dabblers in occultism, who have experimented with various amateur or incompletely delineated methods of awakening the psychic centers. The energy thus awakened streams back and forth from the center. But unless some method is devised for distributing it and thus relieving the pressure, the center itself will in the course of time suffer derangement through over-stimulus, and there is bound to ensue some serious disturbance to the nervous and psychic system. Nervous breakdowns have been common-place amongst those who have unwisely attempted these things on insufficient knowledge, and neuroses have reaped a timely and bounteous harvest among students of the occult.

  With every one of the five centers active and throwing power into the mind and body, and there is a clear awareness of an actual column extending interiorly from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, an entirely different technique must now be pursued. The student should return to the contemplation of his Kether, the lamp of invisible light above the head. Imagining this center still to be in a state of radiation, let him will that its energy circulates through the system in this wise. It descends from the head towards the left shoulder. Passing through the entire length of the left side of the body, the magnetic current strikes the sole of the left foot. Thence it passes over to the right sole,1 upwards through the leg and thigh and body to the right shoulder, eventually returning to Kether.

  Possibly this may sound fantastic to some readers. Impossible and incredible to others. But the fact remains that it can be done and simply too. It requires, above all, to be attempted in the spirit of honest investigation and tried again and again until the current of energy responds to the firm command of the will, thus following the course directed. Once clearly commanded, the current flows in that direction quite automatically and on its own momentum. The mind, naturally, must be calm and concentrated, not prone to wander off into pleasant excursions on the day’s events.

  In this way, a great deal of the power generated is circulated through every particle of the body, so that each of these cells feels alive as never it has felt before. This, be it remembered, quite apart from the enhancement of the general field of consciousness. What I have described may be called for clarity’s sake the formula of Circulation Number One.

  It is now necessary to circulate the stream of power in yet another direction. The object is to ensure that no single area of the sphere of sensation be omitted from its vitalizing and cleansing passage. Once again returning to the vision of the light above the head, this time imagine and will that the current of spiritual power descends from Kether in a forward direction. That is to say, it passes downward in front of the face, descending through that region along the neck and chest, down the thighs to the feet. When it strikes the thighs, the stream turns backward along the soles of the feet, along the calves at the back, ascending the spinal column and neck until, once more, it reaches Kether. Both this formula and the preceding one should be repeated several times, until they become quite simple. The process should be accompanied by the rhythmic breath, so that the descending current coincides with the exhalation of breath, while the ascending current accompanies the inhalation. It is really very easy, and it is only the description of it which sounds involved and complex. This formula we will call Circulation Number Two.

  The third formula of circulation is rather different. The two preceding methods will be discovered to have produced wheels of power spinning around the periphery of the aura or sphere of sensation at right angles, as it were. The third formula is more akin to the motion of a spiral. Having returned on each of the former occasions of circulation to the contemplation of Kether, im
agine the upright column of brilliance, corresponding to the Middle Pillar, formulated through the center of the body. Pass now to the visualization of Malkuth emanating its inherent power of stability and equilibrium and fertility. Perhaps the easiest way to conceive of the motion of the third formula is to imagine the act of swathing or bandaging a leg. You wrap the gauze tightly around the lower part of the limb, gradually ascending the leg in closely wound spirals. This, simply, is the technique of the formula under consideration. You should imagine a ray of power coming out from the right side of Malkuth, moving over to the left foot. Here it descends under the legs, and comes up on the right a little higher up the spiral. Repeat the same movement again and again, until eventually you feel the distinct sensation of a whirling of spiritual power which gradually rises from the feet to the thighs, its spiral-current still fairly close and connected, over-lapping those immediately below. From the thighs, the whirling or spiral proceeds up the trunk tightly enwrapping or enswathing it with a bandage of pure white light. This continues, until once more the current returns to rest in Kether. This completes the formulae of circumambulation, as the method is sometimes called.2 These circulatory movements will be referred to again later, and the student is asked to pay special attention to them.