The Middle Pillar

by Israel Regardie

  Consecration of Talismans

  One of the most unique methods of using the Middle Pillar exercise that was developed by Regardie was as a tool for consecrating talismans. This method requires that the magician first activate the spheres within his or her body. Then, employing mental focus and rhythmic breathing, the magician can charge the talisman by transferring the invoked energy into the talisman. Talismans dedicated to a specific purpose can be “fine-tuned” by projecting energy from the corresponding Sephirah (and its appropriate color) within the body.

  Healing Rituals

  It can be said that the Middle Pillar exercise is by its very nature a ritual for self-healing. Regular performance of this ritual, like the practice of the Relaxation Rites previously mentioned, can help alleviate the neuro-muscular tensions that lead to more serious illnesses. This exercise can also be used to heal others as well. Regardie discovered that he could project healing energy to his patients by performing the Middle Pillar exercise beforehand. Keep in mind, however, that this should only be attempted by experienced practitioners. Don’t rush into becoming “a healer” without first becoming proficient in the various preliminary techniques of relaxation, the LBRP, and the Middle Pillar.

  Magical methods of healing, like other forms of theurgy, involve a type of auto-hypnosis, wherein the magician is totally focused on the goal of the operation. It also employs the manipulation and movement of energies. Usually, the healer extends energy to the recipient, where it works to remove psychic blockages, energy imbalances, or physical injuries/illnesses. The healer must be able to manipulate the subtle bodies of two people—his or her own and that of the recipient. Therefore it is crucial that the practitioner be psychically sound and balanced. If not, there is a danger that 1) the healer will absorb the psychic “ailment” of the recipient, or 2) the healer’s own imbalanced energies will be absorbed by the recipient, making matters worse.

  In the Golden Dawn, magicians were warned:It is better at first to keep your aura to yourself, rather than to try to flow out towards others. Unless you are particularly vital and well-balanced, you will only waste energy. So-called modes of healing and of ‘doing good to others’ should be eschewed for a time. Such methods have a technique of their own and require trained and balanced minds and bodies to carry them out. Get yourself right before you attempt to interfere with others....30

  This advice is as sound today as it was a century ago.

  A MIDDLE PILLAR HEALING RITUAL

  Place two chairs in the middle of the room, one for you and one for the recipient. (This can be done with or without the recipient being in the room with you.) Perform the LBRP. Instruct the recipient to sit facing you, holding both of your hands in a relaxed and receptive manner, with eyes closed.

  You (the healer) then perform the basic Middle Pillar exercise. The names may be intoned verbally or silently. The recipient may also vibrate the names if he or she wants, but you are in control of guiding all visualizations and vibrations. The main point is that you are awakening the spheres within yourself, in order that you may then use this energy to heal the recipient.

  When the energies of the Middle Pillar have been fully activated within you, visualize within yourself the red sphere of Geburah in the area of your right shoulder. Silently vibrate the divine name of Geburah, “Elohim Gibor.” (At this point the recipient should merely be receptive and should not vibrate or attempt to activate his or her Geburah center.) Once you have established the sphere of Geburah within your sphere of sensation, project a red ray of light from Geburah to your Tiphareth center. Then project the red ray from Tiphareth to the source of the ailment or infection. Visualize this ray purging the illness, purifying it with the fiery ray of Geburah.31 Visualize the source of the problem gradually being eliminated. When this is accomplished, project a ray of healing yellow light from your Tiphareth center to mend the affected area and begin the process of healing. As you do so, mentally vibrate the divine name of Tiphareth “YHVH Eloah ve-Daath.” Visualize health and vigor returning to the recipient.

  Close by vibrating (both you and the recipient) the divine names of the Middle Pillar Exercise for equilibrium.

  Variations of the Healing Ritual

  Version 1

  Sit facing the recipient, but do not hold the recipient’s hands. After establishing the Middle Pillar within yourself, hold your hand (whichever hand you favor)32 just in front of the affected area on the recipient. (Your other hand may be placed on your Tiphareth center.) If needed, you may touch the affected area as you direct the red ray at it. Visualize the red ray being issued directly from Tiphareth toward the affliction or see it travel from Tiphareth down your arm to the source of the problem.

  Version 2

  Have the recipient sit with his or her back to you. After establishing the Middle Pillar within yourself, establish it in the recipient by placing your hand(s) just in front of their corresponding spheres.

  Version 3

  Rather than using a red ray from Geburah, try using a blue ray from the watery sphere of Chesed to wash away the source of infection and cleanse the area.

  Version 4

  Visualize your own inner Sephiroth in their King Scale colors.33 Your Geburah will be orange, and your Tiphareth will be rose pink. Their corresponding rays of light will also be projected in these colors. The recipient’s Sephiroth can be visualized in the Queen Scale colors (their usual colors) or simply white.

  Version 5

  Incorporate massage therapy into the exercise. Have the recipient lie down (face up or face down) on a massage table or on a blanket on the floor. Walk the recipient through one of the relaxation techniques given earlier but combine it with healing massage techniques. Then, after establishing the Middle Pillar within yourself, establish it in the recipient by placing your hands on the sphere centers of the person and applying a slight pressure.34 Charge the recipient’s Sephiroth by silent vibration of the divine names. Project a white ray of light from your Tiphareth center (directly or through your hands) into each sphere to charge them. See these spheres in their usual Queen Scale colors or simply white. Then bring a ray of light from Geburah, in one of the appropriate colors mentioned above, into your Tiphareth center and project it into the afflicted area with the usual visualizations. Visualize the source of the problem being eliminated. When this is accomplished, project a ray of healing light from your Tiphareth center to mend the affected area and begin the process of healing. Close by gently massaging the entire body and silently vibrating the divine names of the Middle Pillar for equilibrium.

  Endnotes

  1 See Regardie, The Golden Dawn, 90.

  2 Published in The Golden Dawn Journal, Book II: Qalabah: Theory and Magic.

  3 The “ch” in Chai is to be pronounced like the “ch” in the Scottish word loch.

  4 The direction of this circulation (down the left and up the right) has a tendency to energize power in the Middle Pillar, resulting in a feeling of energy increase and a swelling in the Body of Light. The other direction (down the right and up the left) tends to relax the energy body, possibly resulting in a trance-state.

  5 This direction of circulated energy tends to cleanse the Subtle Body.

  6 We personally like to end the exercise by vibrating the divine names Yeheshuah and Yehovashah while concentrating on the Tiphareth center.

  7 Circulation of the Light would be a better description.

  8 “The Tree of Life as Projected in a Solid Sphere” (Regardie, The Golden Dawn, 594), describes a three-dimensional Tree which is similar but not identical to the one that we describe here. (The Tree in the Five Pillar Exercise uses the pillars in the cross-quarters rather than the cardinal quarters.)

  9 It is this reflected image that the magician “backs into” (see Chapter Nine, pages 192-196).

  10 This is the classical Greek pronunciation. It is acceptable to treat the “g” as silent. The letter omega is pronounced as “aw” like in the word “saw.” Thus, the first vowe
l in the word gnosis sounds like the first vowel in the word gnostic.

  11 An alternative vibration would be Θεµελioς—“Themelios” or “foundation,” pronounced “theh-mel-lee-ohs.”

  12 The “Great Spirit” of the Lakota tribes.

  13 A god of the Crow tribe of the plains.

  14 A healing spirit of the Dakota (Sioux) tribes.

  15 An Atlas-like god of the Tsimishian tribe of the Pacific Northwest.

  16 Algonquin earth goddess.

  17 The “Great Spirit” of the Lakota tribes. (Alternative deities for Kether would be Manitou, the Great Spirit known to many tribes, the Iroquois’ Orenda, the Oglala’s Wakan Tanka, and the Eskimo’s Innua.)

  18 Creator God of the Dakota (Sioux) tribes.

  19 Iroquois/Huron great mother goddess. (An alternative deity for Binah would be Eagentic, the Seneca’s “ancient woman” or first mother.)

  20 A god of the Crow tribe of the plains. (An alternative deity for Daath would be Estsanatlehi, the Navajo “woman who changes.” A shape-shifter who signified transformation and immortality.)

  21 Eskimo sea god who rules the waves and the tides. He also brings joy.

  22 Creator god of the Iroquois and Huron tribes who was known for defeating demons and giving magic. Giver of the herb tobacco.

  23 A healing spirit of the Dakota (Sioux) tribes. (An alternative deity for Tiphareth would be Shakuru, the Pawnee Sun god.)

  24 Eskimo goddess of game and hunting.

  25 Pawnee sky god who taught the skills of speech, fire-making, hunting, clothing, agriculture, and religious ceremonies. (Alternative deity for Hod would be Coyote, known to many tribes, Yanauluha, the great medicine man of the Zuni tribe, and Waukheon, the “thunderbird” known to many tribes as a rain and messenger god.)

  26 An alternative deity for Yesod would be Igaluk, the Eskimo Moon god.

  27 Alternative deities for Malkuth include: Onatha, Iroquois goddess of harvest and Iyatiku; Pueblo goddess of corn, agriculture, and the underworld; Tekkeitsertok, Eskimo god of the earth and the hunt; and Yolkai Estasan, the Navajo “white shell woman”—an earth goddess who rules the land and the seasons.

  28 Daath’s King Scale color is lavender; its Queen Scale color is gray-white.

  29 See our book, Experiencing the Kabbalah, for more on color magic.

  30 Regardie, The Golden Dawn, 91.

  31 This method of healing, using the red ray of Geburah, was taught to us by Israel Regardie. It has proven to be highly effective.

  32 We are not of the opinion that the right hand must always be used to project, no matter what traditional correspondences have to say about the matter. If you are left-handed, that is obviously the hand that projects energy for you. Both hands may also be used.

  33 See Regardie’s The Golden Dawn, 99. Also refer to the final chapter of Experiencing the Kabbalah, 228.

  34 For Yesod, the pressure may be applied to the area just above the groin and below the navel.

  APPENDIX

  THE MUSICAL QABALAH

  Musical Notes For Hebrew Letters

  Copyright © 1996 by Thom Parrott

  The musical correspondences for the Hebrew letters in “The Musical Qabalah” come from the Golden Dawn notebooks of Allan Bennett. Among Bennett’s students were Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley. Paul Foster Case applied these correspondences to form a system of invocation and healing which is still being taught by the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA).

  In the Golden Dawn system, four scales of color are used, each one assigned to the twelve astrological signs, the seven ancient planets, and the three most ancient elements. In Western music, the scale is divided into twelve semi-tones. Bennett assigned the twelve semi-tones of the chromatic scale (chroma is Greek for “color”) to the twelve signs, beginning with the note C and the sign Aries. As each of the signs had a color associated to it, Bennett had, by this process, derived colors for each of the musical notes as well. Since all the colors allotted to the planets and elements were included in the twelve colors of the rainbow associated with the signs, they were assigned notes based on color (in the King Scale of the Golden Dawn), thus:

  In the Golden Dawn system, the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are each associated with a sign, planet, or element. By extending the correspondences in the preceding chart to the associated Hebrew letters, we get the following:

  In assigning the notes, no octave is specified. (See Figures 17-20 on the following pages.) I have chosen to set the music between middle C and the B above it, dropping below middle C occasionally, for melodic convenience. While I chose this particular range arbitrarily and purely for the sake of convenience, I also enjoy the melodies it produces, and I have experienced their power both alone and in a formal ceremonial hall with a dozen experienced ceremonial Qabalists.

  It would be equally valid to use the twelve tones from G to the F# above it, for instance, or any other octave. If singing (chanting) the names as written here is too high or too low for your voice, don’t transpose—reset the same notes beginning your octave at the comfortable bottom of your range. You will get a somewhat different but equally valid melody.

  In chanting the various words and names, sing one note for each Hebrew letter, regardless of the normal pronunciation of the word. The syllable you produce for each note is derived from the pure sound of the letter and the sound it has in context. For example:is usually spelled and pronounced “Elohim”—five letters are reduced to three syllables—in chanting this name, five letters get five syllables: “Eh-lo-hay-ee-em.”

  Hebrew is written right to left. Because music and English are both written left to right and need to be written parallel with the Hebrew letters, the Hebrew words are spelled backward—left to right—for example, Elohim:becomes.

  A single bar denotes the end of a word within a name containing two or more words, while a double bar denotes the end of a name, for example: Elohim / Gibor / / . Take a short inhalation at a single bar and a deep inhalation at a double bar.

  All notes are written as whole notes. In practice, the notes should have equal or similar length and emphasis. Sing slowly and reverently. Smiling while you sing gives a sweeter tone to your voice and greater clarity and power to the words. “Make a joyful noise untoall ye hosts!”

  Musical Setting for the QABALISTIC CROSS

  Figure 17: The Musical Qabalah: The Qabalistic Cross.

  LESSER RITUAL OF THE PENTAGRAM

  Divine and Archangelic Names

  Figure 18: The Musical Qabalah: The LBRP.

  THE MIDDLE PILLAR

  Divine Names in Atziluth

  Figure 19: The Musical Qabalah: The Middle Pillar.

  DIVINE NAMES

  Attributed to The Sephiroth

  Figure 20: The Musical Qabalah: Divine Names.

  GLOSSARY

  Abyss: A chasm or gulf which separates the three Supernal Sephiroth from the rest of the spheres on the Tree of Life. Considered a division between the noumenal and the phenomenal.

  Adonai: Hebrew word for “lord,” associated with the south in the LBRP.

  Adonai ha-Aretz: Hebrew phrase for “lord of earth.” Divine name associated with Malkuth in the exercise of the Middle Pillar.

  Adonai Melekh: Hebrew phrase for “lord and king.” Associated with earth and Malkuth.

  Agla: Hebrew notariqon for the phrase Atah Gebur Le-Olahm Adonai or “Thou art Great forever, my Lord.” Associated with the north in the LBRP.

  Augoeides: Greek word meaning “higher genius.” Usually refers to the HGA or Higher Self.

  AHIH: See Eheieh

  Ajna: Sanskrit word meaning “order” or “command.” Refers to the brow or third eye chakra.

  Akasha: Derived from a Sanskrit word meaning “to shine.” The Tattva associated with the element of spirit. Its symbol is the black egg.

  Amen: A notariqon or acronym for the Hebrew phrase Adonai Melekh Na’amon, meaning “Lord, faithful King.” Its implied meaning is “so be it,�
� or “so mote it be.”

  Anahata: Sanskrit word meaning “unstruck sound.” Refers to the heart chakra.

  Analysand: A person who is undergoing psychotherapy.

  Analytical Psychology: A term used by C. G. Jung to describe his particular method of psychotherapy.

  Anima: An archetypal “soul image” which is the embodiment of the reflective feminine nature of man’s subconscious.