Reality Maps
One of the core tools used to shape the progression of ceremonial magick is the reality map. Reality map is the term I use for any magickal model designed to help us understand both the nature of the universe and the nature of the individual. Such maps depict the relationship between the macrocosm and the microcosm, often in pictorial form. Magicians are served by their strong intellectual tradition, and seek to put the unknowable into form, to explain it to others. In their quest for enlightenment, magicians have encoded their spiritual experiences in the symbols, images, and ideas that have shaped their tradition. These symbolic tools became maps for others to follow and then to use to chart their own new territories, adding to the rich detail of the maps. To the aspiring magician, reality maps can be more valuable than the tools of our magickal craft, our blades and chalices, wands and pentacles, because the principles of our magickal tools are encoded right in the maps.
Medieval traditions and texts, particularly those relating to alchemy, are filled with reality maps, though they are never overtly called “maps.” Particularly in the fancy picture books of witchcraft and magick of the modern age, we find reprints of woodcuts, engravings, and paintings that convey powerful spiritual information about the nature of the universe and humanity’s role in it, as well as humanity’s ability to transform and transcend the confines of the physical dimension (Figure 3). They were created in artistic form as a way of sharing the information with those who “have eyes to see” yet concealing it from those who would persecute magicians and witches. A lot of information could be conveyed in a few works of art rather than being written out in a textbook or lesson. Decoding these medieval maps required a magickal way of looking at the world, as well as a basic understanding of the symbols of that tradition.
Figure 3: Alchemical Art—Engraving by Matthieu Merian for Johann Daniel Mylius’s
Opus Medico-Chymicum, 1618
In addition to medieval European art, many things could be considered reality maps. We might view any mandala—from Eastern mandalas, which take a circular shape and divide it into parts and embellish it with divine figures, to Native American sand paintings—as a reality map. The Tree of Life glyph from the Qabalistic traditions is a reality map.
Other reality maps are encoded in teachings and mythology, and are not confined to a specific piece of art or design. The shaman’s World Tree, depicting the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds, is a form of reality map. We see an even more detailed version of it in the shamanic mythology of the Norse, with their World Tree, Yggdrasil, detailing nine worlds. Other reality maps include the witch’s circle, divided into four directions, as well as the Native American medicine wheel. Once you understand what reality maps are, you will find them everywhere in your magickal studies.
Pictures and Words
A few years back, I went to a wonderful magickal lecture that got me thinking about reality maps in a larger context. The lecturer was a mix of Celtic Reconstructionist and ceremonial magician. He talked about how, during the Stone Age, mythically seen as the Goddess Age, written communication was in the form of petroglyphs. Written on cave walls and stone works, these images evoked feelings and conjured magickal experiences. We only have to look at photos of cave art to get a glimpse into that level of consciousness. While some images are enigmatic, there are some common themes of the hunts, of animal gods, and of the stars. They are still powerful images to the witchcraft practitioner. The tribal shaman and healer was often the creator and keeper of these symbols, inspired by otherworldly journeys.
In the next major age, mythically seen as the God Age, petroglyphs evolved into more complex shapes, including alphabets, which led to our current modern systems of writing. Letters stand for sounds, which, when put together, create words. Words stand for concepts. Words strung together like beads on a necklace create complex ideas and can convey vast amounts of information. From Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics to Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, language and writing evolved, as did our means of conveying them. From stone carvings to crude papers, parchment books to the printing press, and finally to the computer, our methods of making text developed, becoming more accessible to all. Originally, the written word was a mystery held by the scribes, priests, and magicians who held sway over the community. Most of our language systems started out as sacred writings, much like our shaman’s petroglyphs.
In the coming age, what many see as the Age of the Child, the Child of the Goddess and God, there will be a powerful amalgam of words and pictures. Our Internet is the first step in this process. A method of conveying information that uses both graphics and texts, pictures and words, will become the dominant, and balanced, form of communication. When I think of many of our reality maps from the past, fusing number, letter, word, and picture, I see how magicians have always been ahead of their time, intuitively seeking this balance. It is because of this clever method of communication that much of our esoteric lore was preserved, and is now worth, to many, scholarly attention. Because of the insight of age-old magicians, modern witches have a fount to draw upon that was not of a lost oral tradition, when reconstructing our own traditions and synthesizing new methods.
Modern witches study different systems of magick, mysticism, and these reality maps because previous mystics, our spiritual ancestors, put a great deal of thought, inspiration, and experience into them. These traditions can shed light on our own past and aid in the development of our future. Reality maps, like terrestrial maps, guide us on our way, though we might find the terrain is different now, when looked at through modern eyes. Still, the old teachings help us get there to survey the spiritual landscape for ourselves. Ultimately, they can inspire us to create our own version of the map, creating new systems and traditions. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, both blood ancestors and those of our spiritual lineage. Studying these traditions and mandalas is a way of honoring the past and making sure that, in our modern zeal, critical concepts, known to our magickal ancestors, are not escaping our attention. As in any art and science, we must know the foundation that is laid before us. Professional musicians study music from the ancient Greek times, through the classical periods, and to the modern era. Artists study art, knowing the trends that have come before them and learning the techniques of past masters. There is no need to reinvent the “wheel,” particularly if we want to take magick to its next step in the coming age. A study of the wheel gives us a firm foundation to design our own vehicle.
As part of my level-four training in witchcraft and magick, I have my students study past reality maps, to understand how our ancestors have viewed the world, magick, and their place in the cosmos, and to revive the tradition of creating such maps in a modern context, by urging them to create their own. The creation of a reality map is the “initiation test” for level four, because it requires students to synthesize all the magickal knowledge they have learned before, into a new form. This synthesis challenges the students to really understand and integrate the past lessons. By creating a reality map, they are, in essence, teaching their worldview to others.
The best way to really know a subject is to teach it, to be able to present it to others, and to take questions and criticisms. This process can point out where you are strong in your knowledge and practice, as well as areas that you need to rethink, or reexperience, to fully integrate them into your worldview. Such mapmaking is a distillation process as well, as you winnow out the ideas, teachings, and tools that are not helpful for you, that are not a part of your magickal reality. And most importantly, by studying reality maps and conceptualizing your magickal point of view, you come to the realization that no one point of view, no one reality map, tradition, or philosophy, is the “right” one for everybody. We are taking on the impossible task of trying to put into form the formless, to explain the mysteries that really cannot be explained. Maps, terminology, and traditions give us a common language, and a way to come together in groups and as teachers and students, but once you see a wide selection of maps, and see that each, including yours, has its assets and drawbacks, then you realize there is room for many points of view that can be “right.”
What’s on the Map?
Every reality map is different, for each creator, or each tradition using the map, has a different emphasis. Some things that are considered important by one tradition, and a pivotal theme of the map, are not considered important by others.
Each map is a paradigm, a way of looking at the world. A paradigm is simply a framework, a place where philosophers and scientists hang their ideas and see what views, theories, and laws are supported by the framework. Sometimes the frame is tossed out, sometimes it’s reshaped, and sometimes it’s given the stamp of approval and eventually accepted as reality by a large group of people. The paradigm is like a philosophical laboratory, in which the researchers can make generalizations and experiment, to see if reality conforms to the paradigm. Hermetically minded witches are much like scientists. One of the first definitions of witchcraft that I learned was “the art, science, and religion of the Craft.” If we truly are scientists, then our paradigms, our reality maps, are like the living laboratories in which we run our experiments and refine our understanding of the universe and our place in it.
The concept of a reality map may be hard to swallow, particularly if you have little background in older occult texts and images. The idea of creating your own is probably even more daunting. I know that, when I teach it to new students, I often get a blank stare. My friend Olivette compared it to a popular learning technique called “mind mapping.” When taking notes on a subject, we typically begin writing at the top left of the page and continue downward until the page is complete. With a mind map, we take concepts and arrange them in a geometric pattern, often connected with lines and text “balloons,” to demonstrate the relationships between topics and subtopics (Figure 4). The geometry is not precise, but it roughly demonstrates the relationships between the various concepts. The mind map might not make sense to anyone but the creator, but it is a symbolic way of using text to understand and remember key concepts. The result is similar to a more creative expression of a corporation’s hierarchical flow chart.
A form of internal mind mapping using the mnemonic device known as the memory tower or memory palace is drawn from the teachings of the occultist Giordano Bruno. In his book Ars Memoriae (The Art of Memory), published in 1582, Bruno expanded upon the teachings known as the Art of Memory. Though he didn’t invent the art, and was not the last contributor to it, Bruno’s work played a major role in its development and gave the system an occult flavor.
A memory tower is a mental construct, an image you create through your visualization skills, into which you “put” various bits of information—ideas, past memories, fact sheets—that you don’t want to forget. You imagine yourself putting a specific memory into a specific place, such as a drawer, box, or file folder, that you find in this constructed image. When you need to retrieve the information you’ve stored, you simply go back to that place and “open” the container of the memory, releasing it into your conscious mind. I use this technique a lot to remember book ideas when I’m not near a pen and paper. It also can be used to remember information for tests, assuming you can relax enough during the test to get into a meditative state to retrieve the information. Your instant magick trigger (ITOW, Exercise 12) can help you retrieve these memories during stressful situations.
I have incorporated the memory tower technique into the Visiting the Inner Temple meditation first given in ITOW and reviewed in OTOW and TOSW, as follows.
Inner Temple and Memory Tower
1. Get into a comfortable position. If you are going into an inner meditative experience, make sure you are sitting comfortably, either feet flat on the floor or cross-legged on the floor. If you are getting into ritual consciousness, then simply stand with feet apart to give you balance and support.
2. Take a few deep breaths and relax your body. Bring your awareness to the top of your body, starting at your head, and give yourself permission to relax. As you breathe, release any tension. Move from your head and neck into your shoulders and arms. Relax and feel all the tension melt away. Relax your chest and back. Feel waves of relaxation move down your spine. Relax your abdomen, lower back, and hips. Relax your legs, down to your ankles and feet. Feel the waves of relaxation sweep all that doesn’t serve your highest good out through your fingers and toes, grounding and neutralizing this unwanted energy into the Earth, transforming it like the earth turns fallen leaves into new soil.
3. Relax your mind. Release any unwanted thoughts and worries as you exhale. Relax your heart and open it to the love of the Goddess and God. Relax your soul, and follow your inner light, guidance, and protection.
4. Visualize a giant screen before you, like a blackboard or movie screen. This is the screen of your mind, or what is called your mind’s eye. Whenever you visualize or recall anything, or remember a person’s face or anything else, you project it onto this screen. Anything you desire will appear on the screen.
5. On the screen of your mind, visualize a series of numbers, counting down from twelve to one. With each number, you get into a deeper meditative state. The numbers can be any color you desire, drawn as if writing them or appearing whole.
6. You are at your ritual consciousness. Everything done at this level is for your highest good, harming none.
7. You are now counting down to a deeper, more focused meditative state. Count backward from thirteen to one, but do not visualize the numbers this time. Let the numbers gently take you down: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. You are now at your deepest meditative state, your magickal mindset, in complete control of your magickal abilities. Say to yourself:
I ask the Goddess and God to protect and guide me in this meditation.
8. In your mind’s eye, visualize the great World Tree, a gigantic tree reaching up to the heavens and deep below the earth, larger than any tree you have ever seen. It is a sacred tree, and you may recognize it as oak, ash, pine, willow, or any other tree that has meaning for you. If you don’t visualize anything, then simply become aware of the tree using your other psychic senses. Hear the wind through its branches. Smell the earth where its roots dig in. Feel the texture of the bark. Simply know the tree is there and it will be. The tree is ever present and everywhere.
9. Imagine that the screen of your mind’s eye is like a window or doorway, a portal you can easily pass through. Step through the screen and stand before the World Tree. Look up and feel its power. Touch the tree and place in it the intention of visiting your inner temple.
10. Look around the base of the giant tree, in the roots, and search for a passageway. It may be a hole or tunnel, or even a pool of water, that gives you entry into the tree. As you enter, you find yourself in a tunnel, winding and spiraling to your inner temple.
11. At the end of the tunnel you see a light, and you move toward that light and step out into your inner temple. Look around. Take stock of all you see. Notice all the fine details of your sacred space. Let the images come to you. The inner temple can be a place you have visited in the physical world, or an amalgam of sacred sites and shrines from your deepest inner knowing.
12. Look for a special place in your inner temple to be your memory tower. It already exists; it simply might not look like a tower. You might find a special building or tower if your image of the inner temple is like a temple or castle. It might be a library with blank books and boxes. You might have an old-fashioned apothecary chest, with many different drawers, each able to contain a memory. It could be a laboratory with various colored liquids that record your mental patterns. It could be a garden of crystals, each with the ability to record your memories. You have many gateways in your inner temple, including a gateway of memories. When you go through the gateway of memories, you might find yourself in the perfect memory tower construct, something that will aid you in purposely storing your memories and in recollecting memories and ideas you thought were long lost.
13. Think of a memory, idea, or concept you want to store. Find the perfect container for it. Hold the memory in your mind and imagine “placing” it in the container and closing it, saving the memory until you go back to it. You, or your highest and best spirit guides, are the only ones able to retrieve these memories. They are completely safe and secure.
14. Once done, return through the World Tree tunnel that brought you to this place, and stand before the World Tree. Step back through the screen of your mind’s eye, and let the World Tree gently fade from view.
15. Return back to normal consciousness, counting from one to thirteen and then one to twelve. You do not have to visualize the numbers. Gently wiggle your fingers and toes, and slowly move to bring your awareness back to the physical world.
16. Take both hands and raise them up over your head, palms facing your crown. Slowly bring them down over your forehead, face, throat, chest, abdomen, and groin, and then “push out” with your palms facing away from you. This gives you clearance and balance, releasing any harmful or unwanted energies you might have picked up during your magickal experiences. Tell yourself:
I give myself clearance and balance. I am in balance with myself. I am in balance with the universe. I release all that does not serve my highest good.
17. Ground yourself as needed. You can do this by pressing your hands down onto the floor and releasing excess energy into the earth. You also can visualize your feet and toes as roots digging deep into the earth. When all else fails, activating your digestive system by drinking a full glass of water or eating something can bring your energy back to your body.
At some point in the future, go back to the inner temple, to your memory construct, and retrieve the memory you placed there. Your experience of the memory should be as vivid and clear as when you “put” it there. Continue to practice this technique until you can easily and quickly store and retrieve information. You do not need to be in a deep state of meditation to store and retrieve such information. By using your instant magick trigger, you can enter a lighter meditative state in which you simply see the memory container, open it, and retrieve the memory.
Reality maps are much like mind maps and memory towers, except the mind they are mapping is the Divine Mind. Reality maps are symbolic representations of the user’s understanding of the Divine Mind, of the universe and all things in it. They are a way to organize both otherworldly spiritual experiences and more practical ritual correspondences. Each position on the map, each zone, is like a container for a specific universal force or concept. When you understand the relationship between profound experiences and earthly correspondences, you can more easily induce those states of magickal consciousness through the use of ritual tools and correspondences. Though the process of pondering the divine and making designs in an attempt to understand it may seem like a form of intellectual masturbation, it ultimately is practical.
A reality map serves as a key code for organizing information. People ask me and, I’m sure, other experienced magickal practitioners, “How did you remember what that herb does? How did you remember the powers of that stone? How do you keep track of all these bits of information, from planets to pagan gods, to oils, herbs, stones, colors, and sounds?” The answer is easy. They all are on my reality map. Once you have a sense of your reality map, and a clear understanding of it, then the process of making it helps encode this information into your consciousness. These questions are as easy as asking, what is the first color of the rainbow or what direction is the sky? I have a hard time with raw memorization. I don’t have a good memory for data such as names, dates, facts, and figures, and at first glance, magickal correspondences seem to be just that. But there are relationships between these various topics. Those that correspond to each other denote a single specific energy manifesting on many different levels—on the auditory level, the visual level, and the plant, animal, mineral, and divine levels. When I understand these relationships, I can more easily remember the facts.
Reality maps usually have some key concepts encoded within them. Such concepts include the following:
• Powers of the Universe—The primal powers of the universe, either embodied as divinities or without form, are demonstrated on the reality map. Sometimes these primary powers are further subdivided into more familiar categories, such as zodiac signs, planets, or the four elements.
• Multiple Levels of Reality—The reality map of any mystic shows that there is more than one dimension of consciousness. Some reflect simple binary views, with the physical and nonphysical worlds as the division, while others detail many subtle levels of reality.
• Organization of Life—Usually a reality map will outline various types of spiritual life, from physical humans to the ancestors, angels, elementals, faeries, and gods. They also will indicate humanity’s place on the map.
• Magickal Correspondences—Along with the more esoteric concepts attached to each zone on the map, there should be a list of terrestrial tools that can be used to contact the energy of each zone. Modern correspondences include symbols such as runes, tarot, ogham, animals, herbs, oils, stones, and colors.
No one reality map is perfect or can perfectly relate all the systems known to the modern magician. Each map has its strengths and drawbacks, showing us that no one point of view can be completely correct. Some would argue that the Tree of Life is the closest to perfect of any reality map that humanity has ever used, as it has become the basis of many of the Western mystery traditions.
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life has to be one of the most complex and complete spiritual and practical reality maps in the Western magick tradition. A glyph of ten circles and twenty-two lines connecting them, the Tree is the primary magickal symbol drawn out of the texts of the Jewish Kabbalah (Figure 5). Kabbalah is a system of Hebrew mysticism traditionally reserved for married family men over the age of forty. The powers of this study are considered to be so intense that it is believed they could unground those who are not fully immersed in the responsibilities of family, home, and community.
Kabbalah is translated to mean “tradition,” “oral tradition,” or “received,” based on the Hebrew word QBLH, and originally referred to an unwritten tradition. The Hebrew has been transliterated in many ways, and various “branches” of study are more strongly associated with certain spellings. Generally, references to strict Hebrew traditions usually spell it with a K, as Kaballah, Kabalah, or Kabbalah. Christian traditions use the Latin transliteration, Cabala. Hermetic traditions based on the Tree of Life usually use Qabalah, Qaballah, or even QBL. This is the branch that concerns witches and Western magicians the most. Distinguishing the traditions through these spellings is a relatively modern concept that is not adhered to by all people, so when reading a text, don’t assume the author has followed these guidelines.
As Kabbalah is a Jewish tradition, its lore is rooted in the era of the Old Testament. Some claim the tradition was given to the first man, Adam, from either God or the angel Raziel, to aid humanity’s redemption after the fall from grace and exile from the garden. In this, Raziel would have similar characteristics to the Greek Titan Prometheus, who brought fire to humankind. Adam then passed on the tradition to his son Seth, beginning the lineage of the wisdom that is “received” both from God and from a teacher. Here in the Garden of Eden, we have the image of the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Though the Qabalistic Tree is said to be not a Tree in a physical garden but rather a model of creation, it’s interesting that the term appears in the story of the Garden of Eden. The tradition possibly was lost and then received again. Noah was said to have received instruction in the mysteries of the Kabbalah after the flood. He passed it on to his sons, but it, too, was lost over time. Abraham was the next successor in the lineage, once again receiving the wisdom and passing it along, until it was forgotten in the enslavement of Egypt. Moses became the next successor to the reconstituted lineage, as God gave to Moses the teachings of the Kabbalah upon Mount Sinai, along with the written law of the Ten Commandments. The secret teachings then were passed on from master to student.
While this is a wonderful and rich mythical history, it doesn’t tell us where Qabalah really came from historically. No one really knows for sure. Many occultists once thought that these teachings originated in the mysterious land of Egypt. When the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt, Moses was said to study in the court of the Egyptian pharaoh. He received the core of this information from the Egyptian mysteries. In the context of Hermetic magick and alchemy, many secrets of magick passed through Egypt, but the alchemical images associated with Qabalah were later additions to the lore, as far as we know. Though we can find similarities to Egyptian lore, we also can find elements of the traditions in other pagan and magickal cultures, including those of the Chaldeans, the pre-Aryan Indians, the Greeks, and other Semetic people in the Middle East.
For the Jewish root of these texts, we have only to look to the Jewish merkabah mystics as the source of these teachings. Not much is known about the merkabah mystics, or the Ma’aseh Merkabah, the Work of the Chariot. The chariot is the chariot of God found in the Book of Ezekiel and is surmised to be a spiritual vehicle, for the mystic to not simply theorize about or meditate on the structure of heaven, but to travel there. One passes through various levels, or palaces, each with guards and passwords. The concept is very similar to those found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The ultimate purpose of the merkabah mystics is to see God upon his throne in heaven. We speculate that the ancient merkabah mystics were Hebrew shamans, so to speak, practicing journeying or astral travel. Their traditions were considered to be both very spiritual and very dangerous. The visions of these mystics could form the basis of understanding the various worlds of the Tree of Life.
It is said that a rabbi named Shimon bar Yochai and his son evaded the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Hiding out in a cave, these two wrote the basis of the texts that would be known as the Zohar, or Book of Splendor, and the Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Formation. As the Jews of the Middle East were exiled into the world as the Jewish Diaspora, they brought their mystical wisdom to other cultures and lands.
In the continuing current of Hebrew mysticism, a version of the Kabbalah appeared in the south of France during the eleventh century CE. Proponents of this system drew upon the merkabah mystics and the traditions of the Neoplatonists. The Neoplatonists interpreted the Greek teachings of Plato, a core idea of which is that emanations of energy are emitted from the divine creator. This branch of Kabbalah in France also obtained a text that eventually became known as the Bahir, one of the first major texts of Kabbalistic theory. The teachings spread throughout France and Spain. The city of Toledo, Spain, in particular, was a center of esoteric study, so much so that mention of it in Europe until almost the modern age was a code to indicate you were interested in the magickal arts and to see if the person you were conversing with was as well. Texts on the Kabbalah, such as the Sepher Yetzirah and Zohar, were made more readily available. Modern scholars now attribute the Zohar to Moses de Leon rather than Shimon bar Yochai, and believe he wrote it between 1270 and 1300 while living in Guadalajara, Spain. Authorship of the Sepher Yetzirah, also claimed by either Shimon mythically or even attributed to Abraham, also is disputed, but some think it dates to between 100 BCE to 900 CE. Eventually, as the lore became more popular and accepted in parts of the Jewish communities in Spain and France, the image of the Tree of Life, consisting of ten spheres and twenty-two paths, was formed in the fourteenth century. Even though the basic form was settled, variations on the pattern, and the correspondences, were still debated for many centuries afterward.
Before the expulsion of all Jews from Spain, the start of the Christian Cabala began, as Christians, seeking to convert Jews to Christianity, studied the Kabbalah not only to understand Jewish faith better but to “prove” that Jesus was the Messiah.
Many speculate that the exiled Jews from Spain found kinship with the pagans who also were being persecuted by the Church. Sometimes the rural folks would protect the Jews who did not want to convert or leave an area, and others times the Jews protected the pagans. They no doubt traded information, which explains how there can be such harmony between Jewish mysticism and pagan thought. Both pagans and Jews were feared for not being Christian and were seen as less than human in the eyes of many Christians, and both the wise ones and the Kabbalistic Jews were said to hold the secrets to magick. Though all this is interesting speculation on the part of those sympathetic to paganism, there’s not a lot of historical evidence to back up these claims. Since Kabbalah is an oral tradition, there wouldn’t be much written evidence, but let’s not forget the far more likely influence of the ancient pagan scholars on the Kabbalah. We often forget that the classic works of the Greeks and Romans came from a pagan era.
Jewish and Christian branches of the traditions continued to develop, but it wasn’t until the publication of the first of Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy in 1931 that we saw the true Hermetic magickal Qabalah. Although the book was Christian on the surface, and most versions of non-Jewish Qabalistic lore had a Christian flavor, it was definitely a text for the magician.
The more orthodox branches of Christianity sought to disassociate themselves from all Cabalistic lore by the mid-1600s, as the Hermetic movement was closely allied with these teachings. Those who desired to explore the mysteries of the universe under the dominant Christian hierarchies soon found the esoteric lore going even further underground than before. Cabala became relegated to the arts of the court advisors and astrologers. They, in turn, compared their familiar arts with the Tree of Life. Alchemy, tarot, and Western magickal ideas were aligned with the teachings of the Tree during the Renaissance. This fusion of sources, seeing a commonality between cultures and traditions, is at the heart of modern Western magick to this day. Eliphas Lévi, credited as the founder of the modern occult movement, was the first to associate the path and Hebrew letters together with the major arcana of the tarot. Occultists in France and England built upon his work and trends, developing new themes on the Tree of Life. Few of them were versed in Hebrew, but many texts were available in Latin. The Sepher Yetzirah played an important role in this Hermetic version of the Tree, but the whole body of Jewish lore was not fully incorporated. Because there was a disassociation from some of the traditional Jewish sources, as well as an influx of magickal ideas not traditionally associated with the Kabbalah, images such as pagan gods and goddesses, which would be in disharmony with traditional Jewish Kabbalistic thought, were added to the lore.
By the end of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth, with the rise of the Golden Dawn, the concepts of many magickal books were added to the Tree of Life. Works from Lévi and Agrippa were revitalized. The various grimoires attributed to Solomon and the concepts of the text known as The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage all were put into the stew, along with ideas of Eastern mysticism, Egyptian mythology, and a quasi-Masonic structure of grades based on the Tree of Life. Through the popularization of this tradition and the publication of many works based upon it, the Tree of Life became a default basis of knowledge and understanding in the Western occult world. Eventually, traditions that had nothing to do with Christianity or Judaism sprung up, from the work of Aleister Crowley to the neopagan interpretations of Qabalistic lore. Now we see the Tree of Life undergoing a major revival in Western consciousness, as it is popularized on bookshelves and in the work of musicians and movie stars.
The modern magician’s Tree of Life is really a system of philosophy, a tool for understanding. One need not be Jewish, Christian, or pagan to apply its wisdom. Because the prime cultural keepers of this wisdom, regardless of where it originated, have been the Jewish people, most of the teachings have a Jewish slant. Some controversial scholars look at the earliest roots of Judaism and see a polytheistic pagan culture that eventually grew into something monotheistic. So at its heart, the material is not contradictory for a modern pagan. We just have to keep the source and history of the Tree in mind when we learn about it.
The teachings of the Tree of Life can be divided into four categories, or four different Kabbalahs. Each one is important, though you might find yourself focusing on one particular aspect.
• Dogmatic Kabbalah—The study of Jewish scripture, such as the Torah, the Sepher Yetzirah, the Zohar, and the Bahir, along with many others.
• Practical Kabbalah—The making of charms, amulets, and talismans with methods based on the symbolism of the Tree of Life.
• Literal Kabbalah—The study of numbers and their relationship to Hebrew letters and words. Two words with the same numeric value have a relationship. The secret meanings of words reveal information about the scriptures, and everything else. Literal Kabbalah also includes the study of notarikon, a system of acronyms, and Temurah, a system of transposing letters similar to cryptography.
• Unwritten Kabbalah—The study of the Tree of Life and the correspondences of the Tree.
Many think of the Tree of Life teachings as divided into traditional Jewish Kabbalah and Gentile Cabala. Though the Tree is based on Jewish sources, in this book we will be studying the Gentile version because these teachings are aligned more closely with Western Hermetic magick.
What makes the Tree of Life system so useful is that almost any magickal or philosophical system can be mapped upon this glyph. Members of the Golden Dawn realized this, drawing upon the wisdom of previous magicians, and made it a foundation of their order, adapting the older material and adding to it immensely to make it a very complete and complex system. Modern practitioners now follow their lead and map all sorts of information on it that is not traditionally associated with Qabalistic magick, from Norse runes to Voodou lwa spirits and Aztec gods. All fit quite nicely upon the Tree in their own way.
The Tree of Life and the Hermetic Qabalistic traditions will be the foundation of this course for understanding the concept and application of reality maps. We also will look at the rituals of the Golden Dawn tradition, and its various offshoots, as the basis for our understanding of Western ceremonial magick. The two are interlinked. The words, sounds, and colors associated with the Tree of Life influence the rituals of modern ceremonial magick. As one of the most complete systems, and one that has influenced so many branches of Western magick, the Tree represents concepts that are important to know, even if you choose never to use them in your personal life beyond this year-and-a-day course.
Many witches dislike the structure of the Golden Dawn, or the Tree of Life in general, and choose not to work with it. I understand this. For a while, I felt the same way, but now I find that so much of the wisdom of the Qabalah has crept into my everyday life. Many witches are not exposed to Qabalah, but it underpins our traditions. Ceremonial magick was bound to find its way into modern witchcraft since both Gardner and Sanders had a strong understanding of it. It has been there since medieval times, and we cannot look at the collective history of Western occultism without seeing the cross-pollination between magicians and witches. Many modern witches get their understanding of and background on ceremonial magick from lineages tracing back to Alex Sanders, as the ceremonial component was more prevalent in some of his teachings. Others have drawn their witchy Qabalah from other sources.
We have seen the Qabalistic tradition go through many adaptations from its original sources. This trend continues today. The way the Tree of Life is used in The Temple of High Witchcraft will not always suit the traditionalist. I’m sure some Qabalistic magicians will cringe at the teachings in this book and encourage the use of the original Golden Dawn material as the best source for these teachings, in their proper context and not in witchcraft. I’m sure the Golden Dawn drew similar criticisms and far worse from the traditional Hebrew scholars and rabbis who saw magicians taking the teachings in a direction they did not feel was proper. Even well-respected magicians have adapted the teachings to fit their own systems of magick. Aleister Crowley adapted the tarot associations on the Tree. The Golden Dawn adapted the tarot associations from older sources. According to Francis King’s Modern Ritual Magic, Florence Farr, a member of the Golden Dawn but also a member of a subsect of the Golden Dawn known as the Sphere, believed the Golden Dawn’s traditional color scale correspondences to be wrong, so the members of the Sphere used their own color scales.
Magicians of many ages have seen fit to take license in working with traditional material, to create new traditions to suit their situation, culture, and temperament. As we align further and further with our higher self, our own genius, we more clearly understand what symbols and systems stimulate our connection to the universe and which parts don’t work for us, while still recognizing that those different views work for other people. Some people are charged spiritually with preserving older traditions in their original forms. Others are charged in their life’s work to synthesize, adapt, and make new ones. The Temple of Witchcraft tradition is one that encourages seekers to explore, experience, and adapt. Both those who hold on to the preserved traditions and those who create new ones can peacefully exist side by side, as each has something to contribute to the evolution of the world.
Is It Real?
One of the questions that always comes up when I teach about reality maps, and in particular the Qabalah, is, “Is this real?” My answer is yes and no. No map is the truth. I don’t think “the” truth can be put on a piece of paper or written down in a book. All maps are like good ideas. They are a good guess, a good metaphor for the words beyond shape and form. They are translations of these higher experiences into a language we can try to comprehend. A good reality map can continue to teach its mysteries over a lifetime.
Don’t mistake the map for the terrain. The piece of paper you hold in your hands when on a hike is not the mountain. It is a symbol of the mountain, a tool to get you to the top. You wouldn’t mistake the view from the top of the mountain for the map. They look nothing alike. Even a photo from the top of the mountain doesn’t convey the entire experience of being on the top. You don’t feel the wind, smell the air, hear the birds, or feel the energy when looking at a photo, no matter how good the photo is.
Paradox is part of the magickal mysteries. What is real on one level is unreal on the next. Trying to know for certain what is true and what isn’t doesn’t always lead to happiness, health, or a spiritual existence. If you act like a reality map is real, from the shaman’s simple World Tree to the complex Qabalistic Tree of Life, or even if your own experiences match the reality map, then you have a tool for transformation. A reality map based on experience, tradition, and sound magickal theory will serve as that tool.
Our reality and experience are influenced by what I think of as our first “software.” If we are each interfacing with the same divine force, yet each mystic interprets this force differently, then the various religions and traditions are like operating software for a computer. Each tradition, like operating software, fulfills the same basic functions, but each has its own specific view, quality, character, and complexity. The first way we learn something is the one that sticks with us the most and becomes part of our reality. It can be hard to break out of that box when shown ideas that do not conform to our own. We dismiss them outright as “wrong” because we didn’t learn things that way, before becoming aware of their potential merits. The “new” ways that we are presented with obviously worked for somebody or they wouldn’t have survived. We become attached to our own way, and can become dogmatic about it. The process of working with reality maps helps us break out of our self-created boxes and see that there are other ways of looking at reality.
For example, I learned from an early teacher the four points of the witches’ pyramid and their elemental correspondences in a form that is different from what is considered to be the mainstream teaching. I kept the version I used and presented it in chapter 4 of The Inner Temple of Witchcraft. No sooner was the book out than I got mail from an individual telling me how I was blatantly wrong. Traditionally, “To Will” is for fire, “To Know” is for air, “To Dare” is for water, and “To Keep Silent” is for earth. I learned that “To Will” is for fire, “To Dare” is for Air, “To Keep Silent” is for water, and “To Know” is for earth. I learned that our knowledge was from the earth, that our intellect was also our cunning, our ability to push ourselves beyond our mental limits, and that silence was a virtue of the mysteries and of the dead, and the west and water represented the powers of the mysteries. The teachings hinged particularly on the earth associations, as the name of the elementals of earth, the gnomes, is said by some to come from the same root meaning of the word knowledge—gnosis. One of the archetypes associated with the earth element is the builder, the one who knows structure and creation. I later learned that the archangel of earth, Uriel, is also the archangel of the hidden sphere of Da’ath on the Tree of Life, the sphere of knowledge.
Most of the time the witches’ pyramid is recited as “To Know, To Will, To Dare, and To Keep Silent” and corresponds with traditions that begin rituals by calling air in the east, fire in the south, water in the west, and ending with earth in the north. I learned to put fire in the east and begin ritual in the north, aligning the precepts around my circle and elements. Both methods work. My spellcraft and spiritual practice involved all four points of the pyramid and worked very effectively.
I corresponded with this individual, telling him the reasoning my teacher gave me. I acknowledged that he had a point, too, and conceded that, since I knew the traditional alignments, I should have included them as well as a side note, but really wanted to focus on my own traditions and teachings. The only response I got from this individual was that I was completely wrong. I found it interesting that, a few months later, I got another letter on the same topic from another person, but instead of offering the more traditional correspondences, the writer shared with me a totally different set of correspondences for the witch’s pyramid that he had learned in his tradition. He associated “To Will” with earth, “To Dare” with fire, “To Know” with air, and “To Keep Silent” with water—correspondences that I later found in other traditions. It proved to me that there are many effective ways of corresponding ideas, and as long as they are rooted in a system that is coherent and makes sense, then they can work. Each “reason” we have for why something is “right” is a justification for why it works for us. Each magickal law is really a part of some magician’s personal experience and ideas, passed on to others. As long as they are guidelines, they are very helpful. When they become absolute dogma, they hinder us. When we find other people with a magickal worldview that agrees with ours, we find validation, but the final authority of what is right for us rests with us. It was a few years later that I found validation through the teachings of Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, on page 119 of their book Progressive Witchcraft: “One thing you will notice is that within the paths, the other Elements seem to exist within one another . . . . Knowledge is governed by air, but can be found in the Path of Earth.”
Looking back now, my own understanding of the elements and the pyramid points have highly influenced my own Craft. If I didn’t think of air as “To Dare,” then I probably wouldn’t be writing a book like this. Witches and magicians still fret about ritual points, such as wands being associated with fire or air, blades being associated with fire and air, which element goes in which direction, and in which direction to start a ritual. Deeper theological debates exist on the nature of faeries and angels, the necessity of tools and symbols, and the reality of the gods. Experts often disagree with one another. In these matters, we usually are highly influenced by our first teachers, our first impressions and understandings. These collected beliefs and experiences become our first operating software. Each is aesthetically different and might operate on different principles, codes, and symbols, but if you are an effective magician, your operating system is doing the same work as mine. In the end, there is little difference in word processing programs, though we each have our favorite ones, with our favorite custom configurations. Sometimes one will be more dominant in the market, and another will be a niche, but they all let us operate on the computer. That is why there is a saying that all religions are different roads to the same destination. I think that is true for all the mystic traditions, though I’m not entirely sure the institutional religions are going to the same place.
The founders of a tradition, whether a magickal tradition or an entire religion, simply pass on their software to more people, creating a trend in thought, action, and experience. Sometimes the copy of the software is almost exact, while other times the user will add to it, customize it, misinterpret it, or adapt it in new and exciting ways. All reality maps basically are describing the same reality. Some are simple and some are complex, but they are the same reality, simply told from a different point of view.
Ultimately, studying and making a reality map expands your worldview. If your worldview is large, then it can encompass a more limited worldview and give you the vocabulary to talk to those who use that less expansive view. You can have several smaller worldviews incorporated into yours, and be able to switch between them like switching between computer programs, using the paradigm that suits you at the current time and in the current situation.
Worldviews are like looking at circles (Figure 6). Your larger circle can encompass a smaller circle. Your own larger worldview might not fit into the smaller worldview without being distorted and misunderstood. I believe that is why there has been so much persecution of pagan traditions in the West, because the traditional institutional monotheistic worldview distorts that which it doesn’t understand. We don’t see the same degree of persecution in the East, because the Eastern religions have a more inclusive worldview and expanded consciousness, allowing for many potential truths. The purpose of any spiritual magickal system is to expand your consciousness to be one with the divine. Even as you find worldviews that do not suit you personally, to be able to understand them is a true asset of any initiate. If everybody tried to enlarge his or her own worldview, then we would all be in greater harmony and understanding with each other.