Lesson Thirteen Initiation of High Witchcraft
Unlike the first two levels of this tradition, The Inner Temple of Witchcraft and The Outer Temple of Witchcraft, this level of training does not include a self-test. There is no pass/fail minimum body of knowledge that must be ascertained before completing this level, though there very easily could be. Between Hebrew names and letters, sephiroth definitions and angelic orders, there certainly is enough information to know. While this information is important, it isn’t that important. Information always can be looked up. If you don’t have certain esoteric lore at your fingertips, but know how to find it when you need it, and more importantly know when and why you would need it, how to use it, and what it means, then you have all the skills you need for high magick.
You are learning new ways to think, view the universe, and process information. You are learning new ways to relate to the divine and the universe. That is the challenge of The Temple of High Witchcraft. Like The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft, with its challenge in the shadow realm, a personal initiation of the dark and lower self, this course challenges you with the intellectualism and creativity of the higher self, forcing you to find and embody it, through both action and ritual.
The initiation of The Temple of High Witchcraft is twofold. One part of the initiation is intellectual and academic, and the other is ceremonial. Both are extremely magickal and can be life changing. The final challenge of the fourth level is making a deeper connection to the divine, a true and direct knowledge of the divine, Gnosticism in the truest sense of the word. This comes in part through the challenge of creating your own reality map, your own magickal model and mandala, personalized to your own view of reality, your own experiences and the symbols you find moving. The second initiation experience is a ritual invocation of the higher self.
Creating Your Own Reality Map
Through the twelve previous lessons, you have gained a comprehensive overview of the traditions of modern high magick and the most popular reality map, the Tree of Life. You understand how the Tree works both in a practical and a spiritually profound way. You understand how it organizes and forms information systems, to help you relate to the many aspects of the divine and the many aspects of yourself.
But, if you are anything like me, as a witch, the Tree of Life might not be your favorite symbol system. I know it has taken me many years to value the profound wisdom of the Qabalah. I forced myself to learn about it because, like many witches, I got tired of reading the same books over and over again, with the same quarter calls, circle castings, and Wheel of the Year, without anybody going further. I knew intellectually the impact that Qabalah and the ceremonial magicians played in the witchcraft revival, but I wasn’t particularly moved by it. Witches I admired seemed to spend at least a little time becoming familiar with high magick, and as I was running out of new challenges, I decided to take on the Qabalah challenge. Now I know that the “basic” wisdom of Wicca is not mastered easily and the most simple of rituals can have profound benefits for the rest of our lives, and open us deeper and deeper to the mysteries, but we often need to change our perspective to see the wisdom we already have. The time I spent exploring the Tree of Life, and looking for pagan associations with the Tree, changed my magickal perspective. It started with Ellen Cannon Reed’s The Goddess and the Tree, which later became The Witches Qabalah. This book is an excellent place for pagans to start their exploration of the Tree of Life.
If you feel the same way about the Tree of Life, and even if you don’t, it is an extremely worthwhile experience to create your own reality map. Use the examples in appendix I as inspiration. If you have been studying them along with your monthly lessons, as suggested in the homework, then you have a grasp of how varied magickal models can be. Use your ideas, experiences, thoughts, and inspirations to form your own reality map.
Create Your Reality Map
There really is no specific set of instructions to create your own reality map. You can use any mediums you desire, though most maps are two-dimensional and able to be reproduced on paper. Most are able to be inscribed in some way on the back of a ritual disk or wax disk to act as a peyton, but I’ve had students create multilayered reality maps using colors and tracing paper. Some have produced multimedia presentations on the computer or three-dimensional sculptures and dioramas. Others have converted their reality map into music. Some have created logarithms and mathematical formulas that were, quite frankly, a bit over my head yet seemed to work for them.
All of this can seem quite overwhelming, because you are solely responsible for your creation. By asking yourself the following questions, you will begin to narrow your focus for your reality map.
1. What aspects of the reality map are most important to you? A good reality map will have aspects of all of the following, but some will be more dominant than others.
• Powers of the universe
• Multiple levels of reality
• Organization of life
• Humanity’s place in the cosmos
• Path of transformation
• Magickal correspondences
2. What symbol systems are important to you?
• Elemental
• Planetary
• Zodiac
• Shamanic worlds
• Holidays/seasons
• Numerology
• Magickal alphabets
3. What images are important to you? Finding a good image can be the anchor for your map.
• Geometric designs—circles, stars, shapes
• Animal imagery
• Plant imagery
• Abstract imagery
4. What magickal correspondences, if any, should be incorporated into the design?
• Colors
• Deities/angels/spirits
• Sounds
• Herbs
• Stones
• Metals
• Animals
• Astrology (planets and signs)
• Divination—tarot, runes, I Ching, ogham
Keeping the following tips in mind can be helpful as well:
• No one reality map can have it all, so choose to incorporate the things that are important to you. Notice that even the Tree of Life doesn’t really have the cycle of the seasons or a solar or lunar calendar.
• Not all the systems you choose will be compatible with one another. No reality map will be perfect, because you are attempting to capture perfection in a static image. It can’t be done. Just as you think you have it figured out, one aspect of the map won’t fit the rest. You have to use your judgment to discern which elements to keep and which to remove. This is not the only reality map you are allowed to make. You can make another later on to express a different view you have of reality. Look at the example of the Golden Dawn. In an effort to keep the fire-air-water-earth order of the elements from the Tetragrammaton, the Golden Dawn instituted a strange association of Hod with water and Yesod with air. Preserving that pattern was more important than working with the more obvious symbolism of Mercury and Yesod.
• Though you will be very attached to your first reality map, part of the experience is to learn that your map is just a map, just like everybody else’s. There is no one way to see the truth; all reality maps are just representations. It can be quite helpful to repeat this exercise after a number of years, to see how you look at reality differently after different experiences.
• Look through your old journal entries of rituals, spells, and journeys. What are the repeated themes, images, and symbols? These are the parts of your experience that are most important to you, whether you realized it or not at the time.
• Reality maps are intellectual, creative, and divine. If you are having trouble finding your vision for this project, do a meditation, either to the inner temple or to a specific sephira on the Tree of Life, and ask for inspiration and advice. Do some dream magick (TOSW, Chapter 10). Do a shamanic journey. Use the techniques that you want to incorporate into the Tree and ask for divine guidance.
• You might want to wait until you complete the Bornless Ritual (Exercise 32), as it might provide you with a valuable experience or inspiration, a direct revelation of your divine paradigm.
When I teach this book as a course, I make each student present his or her reality map to the rest of the group. Sometimes this is just as much of a challenge as making the map. The ability to communicate your vision to others is a critical part of the air element training. If you have a magickal study group, mentor, or magickally oriented friends, prepare a short lecture describing your reality map and take any questions. Learn to communicate your thoughts and ideas. Even if you don’t feel it goes well, the very act of communication is a huge accomplishment. If possible, put the image of your reality map in your Book of Shadows.
The Bornless Ritual
The second initiatory experience to complete this stage of learning is a ceremonial magick ritual known as the Bornless Ritual. The Bornless One is a name for the eternal self, what we might call the higher self or monad combined. It is the essence of the divine self, who is never born, who never dies. It is our eternal identity, guiding our incarnation. The Bornless Self really is another name for the Holy Guardian Angel.
The Bornless One is invoked in ritual, most commonly in rituals that involve summoning and controlling spirits, particularly Solomonic-style Goetic rituals, for only by divine authority can we perform such rituals and bindings. Though it can be used as a preliminary operation for other workings of ceremonial magick, it is also a ritual unto itself, a simplified and truncated version of the Abramelin Operation, to commune with your Holy Guardian Angel. The Abramelin Operation, from The Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage, is a magickal program popularized by the Golden Dawn. It involves a six-month period, equinox to equinox, of spiritual preparation, calling the initiate to “enflame thyself in prayer” to finally make communion with the Holy Guardian Angel. Aleister Crowley adapted much of the material, shortening the length of time and making it a preliminary invocation to be used before Goetic workings, so that by the divine power of your godself, your HGA, you could command the spirits of the Goetic text. Many versions of the operation exist, incorporating barbarous words of power or formal Enochian calls. Most are drawn from material in Aleister Crowley’s Liber Samekh. One of the most accessible modern versions of the Abramelin Operation can be found in Jason Augustus Newcomb’s 21st Century Mage, in which he adapts the archaic language and instructions to effectively suit a modern practitioner, and explains the reasons behind the archaic instructions.
Some would criticize the Bornless Ritual as being a misunderstanding of a phrase referring to a “headless” deity, as the ritual originally came from the Graeco-Egyptian Magical Papyri and was a ceremony for exorcisms. The magician takes on the role and identity of this headless deity, through invocation, and banishes a malevolent spirit. This is nothing like the Abramelin Operation.
The ritual entered British esoteric circles in 1853 through Charles Wycliffe Goodwin and later was reworked and added to the training material of the Golden Dawn. Crowley then used it as the preliminary ritual of his printed version of The Goetia and revised it again for Liber Samekh, which has become one of its most popular and powerful forms. Though it originally may have referred to a headless god or Beginningless Deity, it has been used successfully to commune with the personal daimon, or Holy Guardian Angel.
I partook of a Bornless Ritual with Enochian calls rather than the classic barbarous names, and I must admit that, while the setting was very magickal and moving, I did not feel much during the invocation. The leaders of the group gave us time to meditate after the invocation, and there I felt its power. I received a long list of specific instructions on how to commune further with my Bornless Self and continue my initiatory process. I am still in the midst of completing these instructions, for they span several years, but I did immediately notice amazing changes in my life.
The traditional Bornless Ritual uses a set of barbarous words of power, from the Hellenistic Hermetic formulae from ancient Alexandria. These barbarous words are said to be at least 2,000 years old, and such a history seems to confer a sense of power. Yet, I think anything alien to our conscious mind helps us break through the personal self and reach the expanded consciousness of our higher self.
The Holy Guardian Angel comes in many forms. Known not only as the Bornless Self, it also takes shape throughout traditions as the Augoeides, Silent Watcher, Great Master, Genius, and Logos. The concept of the higher self has developed in our mystic traditions as humanity has developed. Knowledge of this self is the knowledge of both the deep self and the universe, for they are one and the same. Working with the HGA is a lifelong process.
In The Equinox, Crowley wrote that the HGA is “the first and the last of all Spiritual Experiences. For though He is attributed to Malkuth, and the Door of the Path of His overshadowing, He is also in Kether” and “all things are in Ourself, and all Spiritual Experience is a more or less complete Revelation of Him.” Thelemite Rodney Orpheus, in his book Abrahadabra, describes the HGA with a mathematical formula: “HGA = Infinity – me.” Everything that you are personally, subtracted from the cosmos, gives you your Holy Guardian Angel. Together, you are everything.
Many think such concepts are strictly ceremonial and have no place in any form of witchcraft, yet Alex Sanders, founder of the Alexandrian line of British Witchcraft, claimed this in the “Book of Hermes” from his Alex Sanders Lectures: “Behold me, mortal, for I am thy God, the true image of thyself, and the very essence of life, yet within me lieth a magnitude greater than you can ever behold without. For I am both macrocosm and microcosm; only your petty vanity could decree otherwise. Worship me, and I shall give you the stars. Reject me, and I shall give thee the depths of the Abyss, for I lie within your own being.”
When I think of both the HGA and the immanent divinity that is a part of pagan theology, I am reminded of the beautiful line in the Gnostic Mass of the O.T.O.: “There is no part of me that is not of the gods.” For we all are divine, and divine on all levels. That is the essential teaching of paganism, witchcraft, magick, and even the Qabalah, despite all its complexities. Every part of you is God.
You will notice that working directly with the HGA, or Bornless Self, is an important facet of Qabalistic magick. The first vision, that of Malkuth, is Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. In The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft, you learned how to commune with the higher self (TOSW, Exercise 17). Knowledge and Conversation is not the same as having a strong relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel. In Tiphereth, one is said to truly achieve the vision of Tiphereth by developing a strong relationship with the HGA, either as a guide or by merging with it on some level. Technically, the Bornless Ritual would be even more appropriate as Tiphereth magick, as a regular ritual to more fully embody the HGA. Yet for the purpose of this training, I prefer to give you an understanding of the entire Tree of Life before performing the Bornless Ritual. Though Kether is beyond personalized forms of divinity, our best understanding of divinity while in human form is through the HGA. The final enlightenment on the Tree, with Kether, comes through the true union with the highest self and the forces beyond. As Crowley said, it is the first and last of our spiritual experiences.
Magickal Names, Models,
and Personal Sigils
As a part of this very personal and initiatory ritual, to make sure you are able to commune with and, in effect, become your highest self when needed, releasing you from the need to look for your authority solely from another, you can take another initiatory name. Like the witch names of the previous lessons, the name can embody who you feel you are—not only the qualities you aspire to have, but the qualities you feel at this point you truly are embodying as a part of your divine will. High magick traditions are filled with the practice of using magickal mottos to sum up your work. Crowley had many magickal names and mottos, such as Mega Therion, or the “Great Beast.” One of the most inspiring was Frater Perdurabo, which means “I will endure.” Crowley certainly did endure through his works. His personal sigil is shown in figure 76. Violet Firth, better known to us today as Dion Fortune, took her name from her family motto, Deo, non fortuna, or “God, not fate.” You can take a similar name and/or motto, keep the magickal name you are using, or ask your HGA what magickal name you should go by after performing the Bornless Ritual. Another tradition is making a magickal sigil that reflects you as a magician and your Great Work and will.
As in the three previous initiation ceremonies for the levels of fire, earth, and water, a cord can be used as your tool to signify the working of this level. Take a piece of yellow cord (the traditional ceremonial color of the air element) the same length as your braided cords of red, green, and blue. Untie the braid and creatively weave all four lengths of cord together into one belt for your ritual attire. Bless and consecrate the cord as a ritual tool during the Bornless Ritual.
Bornless Ritual
This really should only be done once you have worked through the lower four elements and obtained the elemental gifts from the guardians.
1. Perform the LBRP (Exercise 5) and the LBRH (Exercise 20).
2. You can create sacred space through the GIRP (Exercise 22) or a traditional magick circle of your own style. Many feel this is not necessary, for the Bornless Ritual requires you to face all four directions and commune with the elemental powers, thus automatically creating sacred space.
3. Light any candles and incense you desire and feel are appropriate. Frankincense is a good choice. I also like a variation of what I call “Tree of Life Incense,” mixing one part of each of the ten spheres, plus Da’ath, using some substitutions from the traditional correspondences.
Tree of Life Incense
1 part patchouli leaves (Malkuth)
1 part storax (Hod)
1 part frankincense (Tiphereth)
1 part dragon’s blood (Geburah)
1 part cedar wood (Chesed)
1 part myrrh (Binah)
1 part fennel (Chokmah)
1 part bay leaves (Kether)
1 pinch wormwood (Da’ath)
9 drops jasmine oil (Yesod)
7 drops rose or rosewood oil (Netzach)
4. If you desire to anoint yourself with Abramelin Oil (chapter 7) or any other high-vibrational substance you feel will help you commune with the higher self, the Bornless One, then do so.
5. Bathe yourself in the divine light from above, as if you are starting the Middle Pillar (Exercise 9), but do not go through chanting the divine names of power. Simply fill and surround yourself with the light as you focus on the concept of your Bornless One.
6. Oath of Invocation. Speak this in the center of your circle:
I invoke you, Bornless One,
Beingness that has no beginning and no end.
You who create the Earth and the heavens.
You who create the night and the day.
You who create the darkness and the light.
You are myself made perfect that no one has ever seen.
You are matter, destroying to create, you are force, destroying to create.
You have distinguished the just from the unjust, the female from the male.
You produce the seed and the fruit, making all to love and to hate one another.
You create the moist and the dry and that which nourishes all life.
I am your prophet to whom you have given your mysteries.
Hear me, for I am yours.
You are myself made perfect.
7. Face east, and feel yourself connected to the powers of the east. You can hold your blade, if you desire. Feel the yellow elemental energy of air. Feel the guardian of the element of air, either in animal, human, angelic, or deity form. Feel yourself becoming one with the guardian. Feel its powers within you. Feel yourself and your consciousness expand to the reaches of the universe as you recite the sacred words:
AR . . . THI-A-O . . . RHE-I-BET . . . A-THE-LE-BER-SET . . . A . . . BE-LA-THA . . . AB-E-U . . . EB-E-U . . . PHI . . . THE-TA-SO-E . . . IB . . . THI-A-O
Say to yourself and the spirits of the east:
Hear my word, and make all spirits subject to my command, so that every spirit, whether of the heavens or of the air, of the Earth or beneath the Earth, on land or in the waters, and every force, feeling, and form in the cosmos is mine to command.
8. Face south, and feel yourself connected to the powers of the south. You can hold your wand, if you desire. Feel the red elemental energy of fire. Feel the guardian of the element of fire, either in animal, human, angelic, or deity form. Feel yourself becoming one with the guardian. Feel its powers within you. Feel yourself and your consciousness expand to the reaches of the universe as you recite the sacred words:
AR-O-GO-GO-RU-BRA-O . . . SO-TO-U . . . MU-DO-RI-O . . . PHA-LAR-TA-O…O-O-O . . . A-PE
Say to yourself and the spirits of the south:
Hear my word, and make all spirits subject to my command, so that every spirit, whether of the heavens or of the air, of the Earth or beneath the Earth, on land or in the waters, and every force, feeling, and form in the cosmos is mine to command.
9. Face west, and feel yourself connected to the powers of the west. You can hold your cup, if you desire. Feel the blue elemental energy of water. Feel the guardian of the element of water, either in animal, human, angelic, or deity form. Feel yourself becoming one with the guardian. Feel its powers within you. Feel yourself and your consciousness expand to the reaches of the universe as you recite the sacred words:
RU-A-BRA-I-A-O . . . MRI-O-DOM . . . BA-BA-LON-BAL-BIN-A-BAFT . . . A-SAL-ON-A-I . . . A-PHE-NI-A-O . . . I . . . PHO-TETH . . . A-BRA-SAX . . . A-E-O-O-U . . . I-SCHU-RE
Say to yourself and the spirits of the west:
Hear my word, and make all spirits subject to my command, so that every spirit, whether of the heavens or of the air, of the Earth or beneath the Earth, on land or in the waters, and every force, feeling, and form in the cosmos is mine to command.
10. Face north, and feel yourself connected to the powers of the north. You can hold your peyton/stone, if you desire. Feel the green, brown, or black elemental energy of earth. Feel the guardian of the element of earth, either in animal, human, angelic, or deity form. Feel yourself becoming one with the guardian. Feel its powers within you. Feel yourself and your consciousness expand to the reaches of the universe as you recite the sacred words:
MA . . . BAR-RI-O . . . I-O-EL . . . KO-THA . . . A-THO-RE-BA-LO . . . A-BRA-OT
Say to yourself and the spirits of the north:
Hear my word, and make all spirits subject to my command, so that every spirit, whether of the heavens or of the air, of the Earth or beneath the Earth, on land or in the waters, and every force, feeling, and form in the cosmos is mine to command.
11. Stand back in the center. Feel the power of the center, of spirit, of your Holy Guardian Angel. Feel the light descend from the heavens, rise from the Earth, and surround you. Feel yourself dissolving in the light. Feel yourself expanding in all directions, the four around you, above, and below. Feel your consciousness dissolve in the light, as you become your Bornless Self. Feel yourself expand as you say the words:
A-OT . . . A-BA-OT . . . BA-SA-U-M . . . I-SAK . . . SA-VA-O . . . I-A-O
Say in the center:
This is the ruler of the universe, whom the winds fear . . . This is who made voice and all things were created. Ruler, master, helper . . .
I-E-O-U . . . PUR . . . I-O-U . . . PUR . . . I-AOTH . . . I-A-E-O . . . I-O-O-U . . . A-BRA-SAX . . . SA-BRI-AM . . . O-O . . . U-U . . . E-U . . . O-O . . . U-U . . . A-DO-NA-I . . . E-DE . . . E-DE . . . AN-GE-LO-STON-THE-ON . . . AN-LA-LA . . . LA-I . . . GA-I-A . . . A-E-PE . . . DI-A-THAR-NA . . . THO-RON
I am the Bornless One.
Having sight in the feet: strong and the immortal fire. I am the truth.
I am the one in lightning and in thunder.
My sweat is the rain that showers the Earth with life.
My mouth is ever flaming.
I am the maker and the begetter of the light!
I am the grace of the world.
The heart girt with a serpent is my name.
I-A-O . . . SA-BA-O
12. Feel yourself totally and completely become the Bornless One. Do your working of magick or commune with the Bornless Self. You might simply know things and perceive things differently through this union, or have a very different internal dialogue between your middle self and your higher self. If this is your first invocation of the higher self, you can ask your higher self its name, or dedicate your relationship with it through the consecrating of your magickal name and/or sigil. The HGA might give you a different name or sigil than you had planned on using. Follow the higher guidance you are receiving in this space and at this time. Bless your newly crafted cord at this time.
13. Thank and “release” the Bornless Self. Technically, we know that we are the Bornless Self and this is unnecessary, but doing something to ground yourself back to your “ordinary” persona is helpful at this time. If you created a sacred space, close the space as you opened it. If you performed a magick circle, release it. If you performed the GIRP, then use the GBRP.
14. Close with the LBRP and the LBRH if you have not done so already.
The version presented here is very similar to the modernized version of Jason Augustus Newcomb, in his New Hermetics book. If you would like Crowley’s line-by-line commentary on the Bornless Ritual, as well as his interpretations of the barbarous names, I again suggest The Magick of Aleister Crowley by Lon Milo DuQuette, who goes to the trouble of arranging two of Crowley’s essays by the appropriate sections of the ritual, while also offering his own version of an Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel. A more pagan-themed ritual can be found in Appendix VII.
Ultimately, regardless of the tradition or technique, we all are seeking to make contact with our own higher self and, through it, the divine forces manifested as Secret Chiefs, inner-plane masters, angels, and deities. Once we have that divine connection, and realize that we are part of the great chain of divinity, not separate from it, we no longer need the authority of others. We gather in community as equals, but we need not accept anyone else’s truth as the absolute truth.
Ceremonial magick is an amazing system for those who apply themselves to its practice and find the spirituality in its construction. It is a great asset for the modern witch to know the traditions of ceremonial magick, to work with them and grow from them. It’s much like letting the seeds of your neighbor’s garden blow into your garden, or letting the bees cross-pollinate the two, creating a new hybrid, different from both parents but still in your garden. It is still where your spirit grows.
History, unfortunately, has shown us just as many practitioners whose own derailment from the path can serve as a lesson. Looking at the history of the Golden Dawn and its associated groups, we see the machinations of egomaniacs and escapists and, in some shining moments, true adepts of the Great Work. Magick historians, with their favored personalities, simply disagree as to who was the egotist and who was the adept, leaving us all room for interpretation, just as reality is open to interpretation. The finding of your own higher self is what must guide you. With that, it matters not how history judges you, if it judges you at all. You will have worked your True Will in the world, and no magician, no witch, can ask for more.
Many say there are “mistakes” in a variety of modern texts that detail the rituals of high magick, from the old grimoires to modern printings of the Golden Dawn and related material. They argue that the public tarot cards and revealed documents contain purposeful flaws to throw off the uninitiated and uneducated, and that anyone trained in such magick can see and correct such obvious flaws in the formula. This is a means of protecting the secrecy of such rituals, for some believe that if they are revealed, they will lose their power. I disagree. Although such measures may or may not have been taken by the authors, purposely or not, all that it has succeeded in doing is creating variations of the traditions, which, when fueled with the proper will, still work. There is no one path up the mountain, even for the magician.
The Evolving Spiral
With a rededication to the elemental training and exploring the elements through the paradigm of the Tree of Life, witches begin to see the elemental spiral we are walking in the Temple of Witchcraft. This is our path up the mountain, one that crosses many others. It might take longer, but it is full and rich and the witch who walks it will be well traveled. When you look at the alchemical orientation of the magick circle—north/earth, east/fire, south/air, and west/water—we are walking the widdershins path to the center, to the heart of the Underworld and the Goddess. But we also are aligning with the stars and solar consciousness, as the heavens appear to go counterclockwise in the night sky. We began with fire in the east in The Inner Temple, then moved to earth in the north for The Outer Temple. Water in the west was the third level of training in Shamanic Witchcraft, and now air in the south for High Witchcraft. The next step is to the center, in the forthcoming The Living Temple of Witchcraft. Our movement in some ways parallels the rise through the lower five spheres, though the elemental scheme doesn’t always fit. For the first level and Malkuth we learned discernment, the science of magick, the theory, and how things work. For Yesod as the second level, we learned Moon circles and the virtues of stone, herbs, and oils. The third level relating to Netzach was almost overwhelming in the intense emotions, while the fourth level relating to Hod matched perfectly with our training in Hermetic Qabalah. The fifth step, as always, is spirit, in Tiphereth, where we put the Bornless Self to work manifesting our True Will in the world. Here we learn service, sacrifice, and living in union with the higher self.
Thus we conclude our teachings in high witchcraft and high magick. You have all the skills to move on to the next level. You understand that which has influenced modern witchcraft, even if you choose not to embrace it. You will never again feel disconnected or uninformed about these traditions. You have faced the final point of our witches’ pyramid: “To Dare.” You must be daring to put this knowledge to use. You must be daring to find your own divine authority and break from the pack, reworking and rewriting things to suit your own divine self. You truly must be daring to create your own map of reality, and use it as a guide.
Many people feel their way is the only way. They feel their tradition is the “true path,” or the special transmission from the Secret Chiefs for the new aeon, or the lineage of an ancient family heritage. Some groups have kept alive the “wells” of ancient symbolism and memory, both through folk practices and lodges such as those of the Masons, which have played such a pivotal role in the initiation systems of both ceremonial magick and Wicca. The modern revival traditions and their splinter groups have given us the gifts of reconstruction. If they can do it, then so can we. They have taught us how to take the old and synthesize the new, even though giving us that freedom might not have been their intention. Don’t stop where they have stopped. Take it to the next level, what will be the new magickal concepts of the next generation. If you don’t dare to go beyond what you were taught and try to do things differently, you certainly won’t be on the next wave. Yet at the same time, you have to make sure your feet are firmly on the ground, or you will have no support or foundation. Do you know where your traditions come from and how they work? If so, then build upon them.
On a personal level, you can look at all these splinter groups, both lodge and coven traditions, and all the political infighting and wonder how we ever will get along and move together into the next age. I admit that it can look quite depressing. But from an elevated perspective, the fractured groups are like pieces of glass or stone. Each holds a place within a powerful mosaic, a beautiful pattern with individual pieces. Each piece has its own size, shape, and color, yet together they become a greater whole. This mosaic pattern is the next age we are entering, the Aquarian Age, which holds many paradigms and traditions side by side, where they each can be “right” if they contain the timeless and eternal wisdom of the mysteries.
In the Aquarian Age, there is room for all traditions, cultures, and individual perspectives. The work in The Temple of High Witchcraft is designed to aid witches in the transition. Though not always easy, or fun, or what we expected, the mental training is necessary, as Aquarius is an air sign—not just any air sign, but the sign of individuality and innovative genius. Here we must learn to tap our own genius, which we now know is not just a word for intelligence, but is our higher self, our Holy Guardian Angel and Bornless Self. That is where inspiration comes to us. With this training, we learn how to transition from our point of view so we can see the beauty in the many. We learn to be creative and modern and yet not lose our mysteries and magick to innovation. Ultimately, we learn how to bring our collective piece to the mosaic of world wisdom traditions and take our place as leaders in the coming age of balance and harmony, devoted equally to the Mother, the Father, and the Child.