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ecosophia
Yes, I know eastern Europe is in the middle of a war right now, politicians are flailing, the price of oil is spiking, and stock markets are doing power dives. That's all the more reason to get serious about spiritual development, since it's our inner resources that matter most in tough times. With that in mind, here's the next installment of the FHR material.
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As mentioned in the prospectus posted last week, the basic practices of the FHR are a protective ritual, discursive meditation, and some form of divination. These are to be done every day. The half an hour or so it will take you to perform these practices are the single most important investment you can make in your own spiritual development and occult training. They form the threefold foundation for attainment on the occult path.
The protective ritual may be the Sphere of Protection, the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and Middle Pillar exercise, or the Judson exercise. (Links to all these are included in last week’s paper.) If you haven’t yet made one of these part of your daily routine, it’s fine to experiment with all three in order to decide which one suits you best, before you proceed to the initiation of the grade of Seeker. Whichever one you decide to use should be committed to memory, so you can begin to concentrate on making it effective.
Discursive meditation follows the method set out in the series of posts linked in last week’s paper. You may draw themes for meditation from any book on occultism that interests you—for example, if you are following along with the book club posts on Eliphas Lévi’s The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, you can certainly use that as a source of themes for your meditations in the FHR. (If you can’t get a month’s worth of themes for meditation from each one of Lévi’s chapters, you aren’t even trying.) Other sources of themes for meditation that are very well suited to the work of the FHR are Dion Fortune’s books of essays, such as Applied Magic and Sane Occultism, and the writings of Manly P. Hall—his monthly letters, which you can find here, are especially rich in themes. You needn’t limit yourself to these, however. You get to choose the themes of your meditations, now and in the future.
Divination may use any method you choose. In order to complete the training program of the FHR you will have to master at least three methods of divination, of which no more than two can be divination decks (and those have to be different types of deck—for example, you can’t just do two different tarot decks). There are hundreds of divination decks currently in use, ranging from classic decks such as tarot and the ordinary playing card deck through less common decks such as the Lenormand deck and the Kipper deck to newly minted and rather exotic decks such as my Sacred Geometry Oracle. You may use any of them you like.
Outside the realm of divination decks, however, the range of divination methods available is nearly as great, and you may use any of them—in fact, you may do three methods that don’t used decks. (You just can’t use more than two decks, if you use decks at all.) Numerology, which was covered in a set of earlier papers here, is certainly an option. So are astrology, geomancy, palmistry, metoscopy (face reading), runes, Ogham, the Coelbren, domino divination, dice divination, tea leaf reading, dowsing, radionics, dream interpretation, and the list goes on. If you already know one or more forms of divination, you can include those, but consider learning at least one form of divination that is completely new to you as part of your FHR work.
These three practices are the first steps to take as you prepare for your initiation. While you work on them, you will also need to learn how to open and close a temple of the FHR. The ceremony for doing that is given below.
Temple Opening and Closing
This basic ceremony is used to begin and end the self-initiation, equinox, and solstice rituals of the FHR, and can be used for other purposes as needed. Like all ceremonial workings, it should be practiced regularly until it can be done from memory. (Many people find that once a week is a good rhythm for practicing this ceremony.) You will need to be able to perform this ceremony smoothly and effectively before you can perform the Seeker initiation, the first of the FHR initiation ceremonies, so getting started on it now will be helpful.
The physical requirements of the temple are simple. You will need a room or other space where you can be assured of reasonable privacy while you work. (It can be used for other purposes when you aren’t practicing ritual there.) You will need an altar with an altar cloth; as mentioned in an earlier paper, this can be any small table or folding tray. You will need your symbols of the four elements—a folding fan, incense, a cup, and a bowl of salt—and you will need the black and white pillars to set on the altar. You will also need a chair. (When you perform the Seeker initiation, you will also need the four candles, but until then, leave them out.)
Set the altar in the center of the space with the chair in the west, facing it. The four elemental symbols are on the altar, the fan to the east, the incense to the south, the cup to the west, and the stone to the north. The pillars are in some convenient place close to the altar. When they go on the altar, the white pillar will go on the southeast corner and the black pillar on the northeast corner, but they are not placed on the altar until the lodge is opened and they are taken off again when the lodge is closed.
Opening Ceremony
Before you begin, sit in the chair facing the altar, and take a few moments to clear and center your mind. Then rise and go to the altar, standing on the west side, facing east. Say:
“I prepare to open this temple of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose on the Candidate Grade.” (You will replace the word “Candidate” with the title of another grade when you have achieved it.) “I invoke the presence and protection of my guardian angel/genius.”
The phrase “guardian angel” is used by believers in monotheist faiths, while “guardian genius” is a term for the same concept in classical Paganism. You may use either phrase as you wish. Imagine the guardian angel/genius as a tall, winged, luminous figure in the east, facing you. Be aware of its protective influence.
Once you have done this, place the black and white pillars on the altar, the black pillar on the northeast corner and the white pillar on the southeast corner. (This is when you will light the candles, once you are ready to enter the grade of Seeker.) Then say one of the following, depending on which of the three protective workings you are using.
If you use the Sphere of Protection, say: “Let this temple be set apart by a Sphere of Protection.”
If you use the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, say: “Let this temple be set apart by the sign of the Pentagram.”
If you use the Judson exercise, say: “Let this temple be set apart by the Magnetic Forces.”
Perform the Sphere of Protection, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, or the Judson etheric cleansing to banish all unwanted energies from the space. Then say:
“I now clear and cleanse this temple according to the ancient ways.”
Take the folding fan to the east, raise it up in front of you, and open it. Imagine the wind blowing toward you from the east, and imagine it swirling around the fan. Now walk clockwise around the temple with the fan, and say the following words as you do so:
“I purify this temple and all within it with the element of Air, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Air. May they bless this temple and further its work.”
When you have returned to the east, put the fan back on the altar, and go around to the south. Pick up the incense and face south. Imagine heat streaming toward you from the south, and imagine it gathering around the incense. Now walk clockwise around the temple with the incense, and say the following words as you do so:
“I purify this temple and all within it with the element of Fire, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Fire. May they bless this temple and further its work.”
When you have returned to the south, put the incense back on the altar, and go around to the west. Pick up the cup and face west. Imagine cold spray drifting toward you from the west, as though you stood near a waterfall, and imagine the spray gathering around the cup. Now walk clockwise around the temple with the cup, and say the following words as you do so:
“I purify this temple and all within it with the element of Water, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Water. May they bless this temple and further its work.”
When you have returned to the west, put the cup back on the altar, and go around to the north. Pick up the stone and face north. Imagine the rich dark scent of freshly turned soil coming toward you from the north, and imagine it gathering around the stone. Now walk clockwise around the temple with the stone, and say the following words as you do so:
“I purify this temple and all within it with the element of Earth, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Earth. May they bless this temple and further its work.”
When you have returned to the north, put the stone back on the altar, and circle around past the east and south to the west of the altar. Face east and say:
“I invoke the Divine Presence. May (use the name of a deity, or simply say “God” or “the gods and goddesses”) be with me and grant his/her/their presence and protection while this temple is open.”
You may say a prayer at this point, either aloud or silently, or simply attend to the divine presence. When you are ready to go on, say:
“I now declare this temple of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose open on the Candidate Grade. The Sun has arisen, and the shadows flee away.”
At this point, proceed with the working you have planned, or simply sit in the chair and meditate. When you are finished, proceed to the closing ceremony.
Closing Ceremony
Before you start the closing, sit in the chair facing the altar, and take a few moments to clear and center your mind. Then rise and go to the altar, standing on the west side, facing east. Say:
“I prepare to close this temple and return to my duties in the outer world. I now clear and cleanse the temple according to the ancient ways.”
Now clear and cleanse the temple with the symbols of the four elements, using exactly the same actions and words you used in the opening. When you have finished, return to the west of the altar, facing east, and say:
“I thank (name of deity, or simply “God” or “the gods and goddesses”) for his/her/their presence and protection while this temple was open.”
You may say a prayer at this point, either aloud or silently, or simply attend to the divine presence. When you are ready to go on, say one of the following, depending on which working you did to prepare the space.
If you used the Sphere of Protection, say: “I now release the Sphere of Protection I placed about this temple, and send its influence to benefit those who need protection at this time.”
If you used the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, say: “I now release the banishing I placed about this temple, and send its influence to benefit those who need protection at this time.”
If you used the Judson exercise, say: “I now release the Magnetic Forces I placed about this temple, and send their influence to benefit those who need protection at this time.”
Imagine the protective energies dissolving and going elsewhere to protect others. Then remove the white and black pillars from the altar and set them somewhere else. (When you are using altar candles, this is when you will extinguish them.) When this is done, say:
“I now declare this temple of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose closed on the Candidate Grade.” This concludes the ceremony.
A couple of details
Date: 2022-02-25 06:03 am (UTC)About the cardinal points: I have found that the orientation of my workroom is about 15 degrees deosil from the true cardinal points, when facing any given wall. Is it acceptable to face a little bit off due East like this, so as to be orientated squarely to my work space?
About the centrally placed altar: I’ve always had bit of a problem with this feature of GD magic. My available space is too small to permit a comfortable non-stumbling circumambulation around the altar. Is it acceptable to place the altar on the east side of the room, so as to be facing that way when facing the altar, and include it mentally within the circuit of the SOP or the circle of Pentagrams when performing either of those rituals?
Re: A couple of details
Date: 2022-02-25 06:41 pm (UTC)1) In occult writings, as in other old sources, "east" means any point between where the sun rises on the summer solstice and where the sun rises on the winter solstice -- that's a 46° wedge of the horizon on the equator, and more than that as you move north. (The other three directions are similarly defined.) 15° is not even close to enough variation to worry about.
2) In that case, yes, put it against the eastern wall and set your chair in the west, and use the space between as your working space.
Different types of protective exercises
Date: 2022-02-25 06:49 am (UTC)Something I‘ve been wondering since your last post, about the different protection exercises:
If I remember correctly, you wrote somewhere that the Judson exercise works on the etheric plane, while other protection rituals work on the astral plane (and I think the SOP was part of the latter group, wasn‘t it?).
How does the type of protection exercise influence e.g. rituals or lodge work?
Or does that not matter in this case, as the main point is to get people moving with any protection exercise at all, no matter which one? :-)
And a second question if I may, about the difference between the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose and the Way of the Golden Section.
Both are roughly structured in the same way (protection ritual, divination, lodge work, …), and both build upon work done by other people. (Yes, I know, this is probably true of most occult/magic systems… ;-) )
I can certainly see/feel some differences between them, but I would be very interested in your take on it:
How do you expect one or the other, respectively, to affect the people following it in the long term? What do you think the main differences are between them?
Milkyway
PS: If these are Magic Monday questions, I‘ll happily repost them there.
Re: Different types of protective exercises
Date: 2022-02-25 06:49 pm (UTC)2) The two systems are very closely related; both derive much of their ancestry from the teachings I got from John Gilbert. The Golden Section Fellowship is focused rather more tightly on sacred geometry and its related sciences, as will become clear as more books come out, while the FHR is intended to make room for a much broader range of occult practices, with divination a particular focus. One point that may not be entirely clear yet, however, is that the two are designed to be wholly compatible with each other. You can make either one your starting point and use all of the resources for the other, and you can also do both exactly as given, and get good at both systems, using their extensive overlaps as common ground. This extends even to some fine details -- for example, the four elemental working tools are used in both (my forthcoming book The Way of the Four Elements covers this) and you can use the same book, wand, cup, and pentacle in both contexts, consecrating them in both ways, and they'll work fine.
Re: Different types of protective exercises
Date: 2022-02-25 07:34 pm (UTC)Milkyway
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Date: 2022-02-25 10:54 am (UTC)Do you have any dream interpretation books you could suggest? That sounds like something I could get into now.
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Date: 2022-02-25 05:00 pm (UTC)Inner Work by Robert A. Johnson is okay.
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Date: 2022-02-25 06:54 pm (UTC)Moss Covered Dreamwork
Date: 2022-02-25 06:15 pm (UTC)If you want to get into Dreamwork, I suggest the books of Robert Moss as a good starting point. Kind of the best out there on the subject IMO, though there are definitely others. What I like about Moss is he shows how dream interpretation is rather idiosyncratic. Dreams do work with archetypal vocabularies, but also personal vocabularies, unique to each dreamer, so the kind of dream interpretation books that say, "If you dream of a bicycle" it means "you'll have a good day, and be on the watch out for kids" (I just made something up there, insert other generic meaning) doesn't really work all that well.
To paraphrase Moss the best book of dream interpretation will be your own dream journal. In any case, I encourage the dreamwork for sure...
Check out "Conscious Dreaming" and "Dreamgates" by him for starters. If you like history, his "Secret History of Dreaming" will be good.
JPM
Re: Moss Covered Dreamwork
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Date: 2022-02-26 08:14 pm (UTC)Temple work
Date: 2022-02-25 11:13 am (UTC)If I understood correctly, the temple work is to be done once a week at least?
Thanks
Re: Temple work
Date: 2022-02-25 06:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-25 07:01 pm (UTC)Is there any inconvenience for doing the Judson exercise, followed by the Sphere of Protection?
Whispers
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Date: 2022-02-26 11:15 am (UTC)Whispers
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Date: 2022-02-25 09:55 pm (UTC)https://manlyphall.info/a-monthly-letter/index.htm
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Date: 2022-02-25 10:24 pm (UTC)That is a fantastic resource! Thank you.
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Date: 2022-02-25 09:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2022-02-25 11:20 pm (UTC)May I ask for a brief history of this lineage? Golden dawn offshoots seem to be as prolific as those of the Baptists, and it's hard to keep track! ;)
I'm very excited to get working on this!
thanks,
Lothar von Hakelheber
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Date: 2022-02-26 12:20 am (UTC)We start with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1887 by William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Mathers. In 1903, after Westcott stepped down and Mathers ran the organization into the ground, it split into three fragments -- the Alpha et Omega headed by Mathers, the Stella Matutina headed by Robert Felkin, and the Holy Order of the GD (later renamed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross) headed by A.E. Waite. Waite modified the GD rituals and teachings substantially to suit his own religious beliefs,. (His rituals, which are out of copyright at this point, can be downloaded here.)
Waite's order continued in existence until his death in 1942, but in his latter years it doesn't seem to have done much. (I understand it has since been revived, under the guidance of a surviving member.) In 1939, an American occultist and psychologist named Dr. Juliet Ashley, on her way home from Zurich where she had been studying Jungian psychology, stopped in England and received a charter from Waite to found an American branch of his order. The Holy Order of the Golden Dawn was accordingly founded in Philadelphia in 1942. Under Ashley's guidance, it modified its rituals considerably to suit her own occult beliefs.
John Gilbert joined the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn sometime in the 1970s. After Ashley died in 1985, he parted company with some of the other HOGD members and founded his own version of the Order, which he called the Magickal Order of the Golden Dawn. That remained in existence until he closed it down in 2010. I was initiated into the MOGD in 2004 and worked my way through all the degrees in the years that followed. When John closed it down I packed things away, since he was the custodian of the system and I felt he had the right to govern it while he lived. After his death early last year, the MOGD was the first of his teachings that I unpacked, and I worked my way through the whole sequence as a refresher course before launching this project. So there you have it: Hermetic GD --> Holy GD (Waite) --> Holy GD (Ashley) --> Magickal GD (Gilbert) --> FHR (Greer et al.).
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Date: 2022-02-26 01:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-26 09:10 pm (UTC)(1) I think you mentioned to another poster that a candle could substitute for the incense if, for example, you are allergic to the latter. Are there any special requirements for the candle, or would a small white candle do? What about an electric candle, even, to avoid dealing with open flame?
(2) Can the folding fan be just a folded up piece of copy paper bound at one end by a rubber band? (We used to call these "church fans," because you'd make them with the weekly church program to stay cool in the summer during service. All the good cardstock fans were being used by the old ladies.)
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Date: 2022-03-01 05:06 am (UTC)2) John Gilbert specifically encouraged people to use one of those if that's what they could get!
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Date: 2022-03-01 05:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-01 05:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-01 07:35 am (UTC)I have a question on languages used in ceremonies.
There’s little written in the subject in my own tongue so, during my time here, I’ve been learning bits of Magic in other languages, primarily languages being English and French andMy LBPR is adapted to Latin tough (I guess to separate it from the Catholic mass… yes I’m aware of the irony of the situation xd) and doing things in this mixed way kind of became a habit.
So should I keep this strange melange or should I start switching to my own language. If there any downside to using another language that you’re aware of?
Thank you in advance
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Date: 2022-03-01 08:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-01 08:19 pm (UTC)Symbolic representation of the Element of Earth
Date: 2023-02-10 08:24 pm (UTC)1. This installment of the FHR teachings describes the representation of the element of Earth both as a small bowl of salt and as a stone. (The stone tends to predominate in this specific installment, though as far as I can tell, the bowl of salt seems to prevail throughout the FHR teachings generally.) Is this variation intentional? Is one of the two representations preferable to the other? Or are they symbolically equivalent?
2. What is the best venue for questions pertaining to the FHR? The present section of the forum dealing with the FHR specifically? Or Magic Mondays? I'm currently working my way through the FHR materials and I'd like to know where I should post FHR-related queries in future ...
Thank you.
R.
Re: Symbolic representation of the Element of Earth
Date: 2023-02-10 10:57 pm (UTC)2) Magic Monday's the best place to post questions about anything occult, including FHR questions.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-10 11:03 pm (UTC)No, unfortunately the stone is also mentioned in the PDF papers, which I why I decided to ask the question here.
This said, in future I'll make sure I post my questions on Magic Mondays.
Thank you.
R.