Homemade Monastery
My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk.
John Keats
Let me begin this chapter by telling you that throughout our forty-seven-year (so far) marriage, Constance and I have both routinely performed yogic and magical exercises and meditations. In our hippie days in Southern Oregon, we observed regular days of fasting and silence. We each have our own household altars and meditation areas. We each have our own personal mantras, prayers, and rituals that we use before meals, at bedtime, and upon arising.
Daily spiritual practices and disciplines are nothing new to us, so when Constance suggested we play monastery, I enthusiastically agreed to do it. We kept up the program for nearly three years.
Did it help our magick or our marriage? We can’t say for certain. But we are still magicians … and we are still married.
The homemade altar of Saint Constance. We have a tiny loft in our home that serves as our library and guest bedroom. It is also where Constance meditates each morning after doing tai chi in the garden. The altar honors a broad assortment of our household gods, patron saints, and sacred objects.
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Rule of the Monastery of Saint Constance
Sunrise Resh
We adore the sun at dawn by standing together, facing east, and reciting the morning section of Liber Resh,50 a solar adoration recommended for daily use by Thelemic magicians.
Hail unto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising, even unto Thee who art Ra in Thy strength, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Uprising of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Night!
Morning Bell
Constance rings the bell. (Our bell is a small brass bell we’ve used in personal rituals since we were first married. We’re very sentimental about these things.)
Morning Period of Silence
The ringing of the bell signals a period of complete silence. Any communication between us is strictly nonverbal. The silent period usually lasts from two to three hours until breakfast is prepared and we are ready to eat. Until then, we proceed with our morning devotions in strict silence. (If you’ve never tried this, it is not only relaxing but oddly liberating. If nothing else, it quickly proves just how much of our daily chatter is completely useless, unproductive, and hurtful.)
Morning Devotions
After taking turns in the bathroom, we begin our morning devotions. Constance begins by lighting a stick of incense and, moving through the entire house in a clockwise direction, censing and blessing each room. The censing is accompanied by a profoundly simple ceremony—a breathing technique she developed whereby she projects her love with each exhalation of her breath, and accepts the love of the universe with each inhalation.
The house duly blessed (and smelling great), she then retires upstairs to the loft (which also serves as my library), where she has a small floor altar set up. There she lights a candle and sits down to perform pranayama.51 She ends her devotional period each morning by reading from what she calls her “desert island” books.52
Constance then stands up and opens the loft window and blesses the entire neighborhood and the world. Then she blows out the candle and goes downstairs to do laundry, feed the cat, and make our breakfast. I told you she was a saint.
While Constance does her thing in the house, I take my morning devotionals to the backyard patio. There I perform (for all the neighbors to witness) a not-so-quiet banishing pentagram ritual. I then do a few stretches and sit down for a period of pranayama, followed by mentally chanting a mantra that I have adopted. (During the three years we played monastery, my daily routine expanded and evolved considerably. My banishing developed into a combined ceremony of invocation and banishing that I use to this day.)
My meditations continue until I hear the bell ring, which signals the end of the period of silence and breakfast.
Breakfast
Constance insists (and who am I to argue with Saint Constance?) that we eat breakfast outside in the patio area of our backyard. (We do this every day. The only exception to this is when it is raining hard. If it is just very cold or just sprinkling, we eat outside.)
Will
Before eating, we break our period of silence by saying “Will”53 over our food.
One of us knocks 11 times (3-5-3) with our knife (or spoon or chop stick) and says, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The other asks, What is thy will?
The first replies, It is my will to eat and drink.
The other asks, To what end?
The first replies, That my body may be fortified thereby.
The other asks, To what end?
The first replies, That I may accomplish the Great Work.
Then both say together, Love is the law, love under will.
The first ends by saying, Fall to! and knocks once to end the ritual.
After breakfast we go about our day as we normally would if we were not playing monastery, pausing only to say Resh at noon, sunset, and midnight, and saying “Will” before our meals.
Noon Resh
At noon or as close as possible, we stand together, facing south, and say:
Hail unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy triumphing, even unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy beauty, who travellest over the heavens in thy bark at the Mid-course of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Morning!
Sunset Resh
At sunset or as close as possible we stand together, facing west, and say:
Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting, even unto Thee who art Tum in Thy joy, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Down-going of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Day!
Midnight Resh
At midnight or as close as possible, we stand together, facing north, and say:
Hail unto thee who art Khephra in Thy hiding, even unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy silence, who travellest over the heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight Hour of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Evening.
We played monastery like this for nearly three years, during which time our individual disciplines and devotional practices evolved considerably. Most dramatically, Constance incorporated tai chi chih to her morning practices and I began walking—seriously walking. In doing so, I lost 150 pounds and most likely extended my life.
50. Liber Resh vel Helios sub Figura CC is also found in its entirety in Aleister Crowley’s The Equinox, vol. 1, no. 6 (Reprint, York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1990).
51. Breath-control exercises, followed by a period of meditation.
52. For most of our monastery years, these texts included The Holy Books of Thelema by Aleister Crowley, The Treasure House of Images by J. F. C. Fuller, Metaphysical Meditations by Paramahansa Yogananda, and The Art of Peace by Morihei Ueshiba.
53. Will is the classic Thelemic meal-blessing ceremony.