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ecosophia
Here are two more papers for the 1° grade of Seeker: the first part of a discussion on working with the element of Earth, and a paper on the elemental spirits. Both are by John Gilbert and are presented here with minimal editing. As with the rest of the material in this course of study, you are not expected to accept blindly any of the statements that follow -- the point of the papers is to encourage you to reflect on certain themes from magical philosophy, and to see how your own experiences relate to those themes.
(By the way, I know that these papers are appearing at a faster pace than most if not all of my interested readers can match. I don't expect anyone to keep that pace! I simply want to get this material into circulation as promptly as I can. Please feel free to copy all the FHR material for your own future reference, and proceed through the work of the grades at whatever pace works for you.)
*****
WORKING WITH THE ELEMENT OF EARTH
The Element of Earth represents physical reality as we know it. Everything we can sense with taste, smell, touch, hearing or sight is a part of this physical reality. Our senses are designed to function in this physical reality.
We call it a physical reality but mystics of all ages and common sense tells us it’s really not “real” at all. It’s all an illusion but we’re living in this illusion and our senses tell us this illusion is real. For us, at this stage of our spiritual evolution, it is real. Knowing that the physical reality is an illusion, but continuing to live in that illusion as though it’s real, is called the human condition of the spiritually awakening person.
The spiritually awakening individual does several very predictable things:
1. They seek the truth behind the illusion - they become a student
2. They begin to do inner work
3. They begin to become interested in divination
4. They join a mystery school of some kind
5. They begin to meditate
6. They begin to believe they can become healers
7. They start to receive messages from the spiritual world
8. They become aware of their own Guardian Angel
9. They start to receive inspiration from their own Higher Self
10. They start to do things they never dreamed of doing
11. They seek out a group of like-minded individuals
12. They start to develop an intimate relationship with the Divine
These are the “Twelve Apostles,” the twelve signs of a spiritually awakening individual, the zodiac of individual consciousness, the sign of a Seeker. As you read through this list you begin to realize how very different you are from the mass of humanity. This knowledge can take you down many paths to sorrow, or it can take you down the single path of service. You get to make the decision to use this knowledge to help yourself and others or to use it to help yourself only.
The path of only helping yourself leads to sorrow. The path of helping yourself and others leads to ultimate victory for everybody. You choose your path.
The Element of Earth represents our existence in this world, our ability to survive in this world. In ancient times this ability was called the act of barter because you did something to benefit the person who provided you with the tools for survival, tools like weapons, health, food, shelter and clothing. You contributed to the welfare of the community and the community provided the tools for your survival.
Things have not changed except that today we use money as a symbol of our part of the barter. therefore all things having to do with money are a part of our survival and our ability to survive in this world.
All things having to do with money includes our financial affairs, our possessions, our health, food, clothing and shelter. These things are representatives of the Element of Earth.
Seekers are to take care of their financial affairs, possessions, health, food, clothing and shelter to the best of their ability. Make that your priority while living in this illusion we call the physical reality. Make that your priority because it is only while you are living in this illusion we call the physical reality that you can bring the Spiritual Element down into the Earth Element. That’s your job as a Seeker. It’s your duty as a Child of the Divine to bring the spiritual down into this reality, not just for your own benefit but for the benefit of the creation.
The Spiritual Element you bring down is called unconditional love. You bring down the unconditional love of the Divine by invoking spiritual energies from above yourself in your daily ritual work. You radiate it out into the world by the other aspects of the same ritual.
You didn’t know that, did you? Now you do and that knowledge brings with it a duty to consciously bring the spiritual into the creation. That duty rests upon you because you’re one of the spiritually awakening humans on this planet, you’re now a Seeker. You can either accept that duty or not because you have free will to do what you want to do. No guilt attaches if you decide to follow another path, if you decide not to accept this duty, if you decide to delay your own spiritual progress, if you decide not to remain a Seeker.
But that’s only part of working with the Element of Earth. Another part is to learn to accept ourselves and the creation as we and it are. We are what we are. The creation is what the creation is. We have the free will to change who and what we are. The Divine has the power to change the creation. We can choose to accept these things or not. If we reject them we delay our spiritual progress and follow another path. If we accept them, we also accept the responsibility to change ourselves into the person we want to become.
Acceptance is the key. When we accept ourselves as we really are we become less angry, less fearful and less sad people. When we accept all of creation as it really is we become happy and joyful people filled with peace. It’s a matter of applying our free will to the Earth that is us. Until we accept ourselves as we are we cannot love ourselves. Until we accept the creation as it is we cannot love the creation. Ultimately our spiritual success depends upon our ability to love ourselves and the whole of the creation.
One of the best approaches to this concept of acceptance is taught by the Order of Spiritual Alchemy. Their work is well worth the time and effort it takes to complete.
Another approach, which was developed by Dr. Juliet Ashley is fondly called the Ashley Technique by those who knew her. It’s a simple and effective technique to use anytime we become aware of something about ourselves. It consists of two steps.
1. Identify the problem you’re facing.
2. Either do something about it or learn to live with it.
This is a little subtler than it looks at first glance. First we acknowledge that’s how we are and accept that’s the way it is. After all, it’s that way for a reason - whatever that reason may be.
Secondly, we make a conscious decision either to change that something or learn to accept it as it is. That something may be a behavior, belief, intention, or a physical or emotional manifestation of our personality. Whatever it is we first accept it as it is and then we decide to either keep on accepting it or change it.
If we decide to change it, we set it as an intention in our meditations and we consciously set about accomplishing the desirable change. If we decide to keep on accepting it, we set that as our intention in our meditations and we consciously set about accepting ourselves more and more. It’s a simple method, the Ashley technique, and it works – it works miracles in our lives.
*****
THE ELEMENTALS
by Brother A. A.
The Nature of Elementals and the Etheric Creation
In my opinion there's a great deal of confusion about what an elemental really is. Someone way back in history described and named the elementals as sylphs, undines, salamanders and gnomes. My personal experience is these are all nature spirits. Elementals are more basic and less differentiated beings than nature spirits.
According to most world religions, the creation is divided into two realms: 1) Material and 2) Etheric. The Material Realm is called earth and the Etheric Realm is called heaven. The Material Realm, or manifested world, is composed of minerals, plants, animals and humans. Minerals are the basic building blocks of everything else that exists. The ancients believed minerals were composed of intelligence and had the ability to think thoughts and ideas. So even though minerals look like earth they are from the first world, the Element of Air.
Plants not only think, they also feel emotions and are thus associated with the second world, the Element of Water. Animals, think and have emotions but they also have intuitive insights, passions and desires. Animals are associated with the third world, the Element of Fire. Humans have thoughts, emotions, desires and they're ignorant about who and what they really are. Animals, plants and minerals know who they are. We don't. We humans are the "salt of the earth." We are associated with the fourth world, the Element of Earth.
The Etheric Realm consists of elementals, nature spirits, angels and archangels. Elementals are energy beings who look like little balls of colored light. When they're working you can see their hands and arms. When they're not working, you can't see arms or hands. It appears they draw their hands and arms back into themselves when they don't need them. They are intelligent and will carry on a conversation. I've never seen any of them exhibit any emotions - not even happiness or disgust. I suspect they don't have emotions, but I may be wrong. If this is the case, Elementals belong to the first world, the World of Air, just like minerals in the Manifested Kingdom.
All nature spirits think thoughts and ideas and feel emotions. They don't display any evidence of having desires, passions and drives to accomplish anything. They know their place and purpose in creation and they merely perform their duty to accomplish their purpose. They do have a sense of humor and exhibit emotions by such things as laughter, crying and expressions of pain.
According to mythology, sylphs are air elves and undines are water elves. The "common" elf is an earth elf and there are also fire elves. Salamanders are the leprechauns and sprites of the Fire world. Both sprites and leprechauns are fun-loving nature spirits who love to play games and trick humankind. So are salamanders. Salamanders and leprechauns are the fire and earth sprites respectively. The other sprites are air and water sprites. Nature spirits are associated with the second world, the Element of Water, just like plants in the Manifested Kingdom.
Angels seem to have a purpose about them. In addition to expressing thoughts and emotions, angels also express desires, passion and purpose. Some angels serve as guardian angels to help humankind on their chosen spiritual path. Others serve as teachers, healers, and spiritual care-givers. This indicates angels are associated with the third world, the Element of Fire, just like animals in the Manifested Kingdom.
Archangels appear to be the ruling body for the angelic realm and are thus associated with humans in the Manifested Kingdom. Just as humankind has dominion over the "earth" and all that is in it, so archangels appear to have dominion over "heaven" and all that is in it. Thus it is said in many scriptures of many religions: "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth."
Air Elementals
The Air Element is the element of thoughts, ideas, and attitudes. These things take form in the first world, the World of Air, as thought forms. They have the appearance of the image associated with the thought itself. Thoughts about money look like transparent money though the form ebbs and flows. It is not solid and fixed in form. Thoughts about anything look like the mental object formulated, be that Gods, monsters, flowers or love.
Our thoughts become thought forms in our energy field. The thoughts we hang onto remain within this field. Those thoughts that we let go of float out into the vast World of Air. We can grab onto other people's thoughts which drift out into the World of Air. Sometimes we can read the thoughts they're hanging onto. Sometimes, other people – both discarnate and incarnate -- send us thoughts and we can hang onto them or let them go. Sometimes these thoughts are sent out to a large number of people all over the world.
Air Elementals manage these thought forms. They move thought forms from one place to another, attach and detach them from energy fields. They keep thoughts forms out of certain areas and keep them in other areas. These activities cause some mystics to say Air Elementals are "thought form herders" or "thought form guards." But there's no negative connotation with herding and guarding.
These Air Elementals look like little balls of colored light when they're traveling or waiting. The rest of the time they take the form of a ball with hands to hold onto a thought form. Sometimes thought forms are very large and several Air Elementals will manage it. Sometimes you'll see one Air Elemental moving a very large thought form. Not all thought forms are being managed by Air Elementals at any given point in time. In fact, most of them are attached to the energy field surrounding a sentient being or just floating around in space.
Air Elementals are neither good nor bad, happy nor sad. They're neutral in all things. They're also very helpful. If you have any thoughts you don't want to keep, Air Elementals will help you remove them from your energy field. They'll help bring thoughts to you or take them away from you. They don't care, they just do what needs to be done. Like most things in the creation, they just do what they're created to do.
Some people think all Air Elementals are some shade of yellow. In my experience this isn't the case. Thought forms and Air Elementals come in every shade of every conceivable color. Others feel Air Elementals are drawn to the color yellow. In my experience this isn't the case either. They don't seem to show any preference for any particular color over any other colors.
The Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose assigns the color yellow and the East direction to the Element of Air for all ritual work suggested by the Fellowship. This is the same color and direction assignment made by the original Order of the Golden Dawn. Assigning Air to East does not mean the Element of Air is in the East and only the East. Indeed, the Element of Air permeates all of creation. It also does not mean all thought and ideas are colored yellow for they come in every conceivable shade of every color.
The assignment of color and direction to the Elements is for the benefit of the magician and not the Elements or the elementals. Elementals see these things and know they are magical operations. It's also true nature spirits, angels and archangels also see the work of the magician. They also know and understand the magical operations. The most common assignment of color and direction is the one used by the Fellowship.
However, there is no universal law that East must be Air, and the color of Air must be yellow.
The truth of the matter is the intention of the magician is the most important ingredient in any ritual no matter what the purpose. While the Fellowship suggests using East and yellow for Air, there is no requirement for the individual magician to follow this suggestion. The same can be said for the other directions and colors. If you already have made a different assignment of color, direction or both, you're encouraged to continue using that system. If you haven't adopted any particular associations, we suggest you adopt some and use them regardless of the associations the Fellowship makes.
Water Elementals
Water Elementals are dedicated to handling emotions in the second world, the World of Water. They move, remove, bring in and move out emotions just like Air Elementals handle thought forms. Air Elementals manage thought forms but Water Elementals manage "emotional forms." These look like thought forms except their colors are deeper and they "glow." Thought forms do not "shine" or "glow." Emotional forms do shine or glow or both.
Water Elementals look a lot like Air Elementals though they move through space with an undulating movement similar to "swimming." Air Elementals move through space more quickly as though they were "flying." Air Elementals don't have wings and Water Elementals don't have fins. Water Elementals manage emotions in a manner similar to the way in which Air Elementals manage thought forms.
The Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose assigns the West direction and the color blue to the Element of Water. This is the same color and direction assignment made by the original Order of the Golden Dawn and we maintain it to this day. Assigning Water to the West does not mean
the Element of Water is in the West and only the West. Indeed the Element of Water permeates all of creation. This does not mean all emotions are colored blue for they come in every conceivable shade of every color.
As with the Element of Air, each Magician is encouraged to either follow our suggestions or use the color and direction assignment of his or her choice for Water.
Fire Elementals
Fire Elementals are dedicated to handling energy forms, which are emotionalized thought forms, just like Air Elementals handle thought forms and Water Elementals manage emotional forms. Energy forms look a lot like emotional forms except they pulse and vibrate with energy. Thought forms managed by Air Elementals are the basic building blocks of both emotional and energy forms just like minerals are the basic building blocks of plants and animals. The emotional forms managed by Water Elementals are thought forms which have evolved into emotional forms. Emotional forms glow or shine with color. Energy forms, managed by Fire Elementals, not only glow or shine, they also pulse and vibrate with energy.
Fire Elementals look like Water or Air Elementals except they jump through space rather than fly or swim. To watch them move through space is like watching an unconfined flame of fire jumping here and there. The energy forms they manage are desires, passions, intuitive insights and intentions. It's interesting to watch this progression from thought forms evolving into emotions and becoming energy forms as we move through the first Three Worlds of Creation: Air, Water and Fire.
The Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose assigns the South direction and the color red to the Element of Fire. This is the same color and direction assignment made by the original Order of the Golden Dawn. Assigning Fire to South does not mean the Element of Fire is in the South and only the South. Indeed the Element of Fire permeates all of creation. This does not mean all desires are colored red for they come in every conceivable shade of every color.
As with the Elements of Air and Water, each magician is encouraged to either follow our suggestions or use the color and direction assignment of his or her choice for Fire.
Earth Elementals
Earth Elementals look like little colored balls who extend arms and hands to handle astral forms upon which the physical universe is being built. They don't change these astral forms, they build manifested matter on them. These astral forms are energy forms or "emotionalized" thought forms which have been selected to be the foundation for building a part of the physical universe. These astral forms are in the fourth world and are the Element of Earth.
Everything starts as a thought form being handled by Air Elementals. A few thought forms are transformed into emotional forms. The new emotional forms are managed by Water Elementals. A few of these emotional forms become energy forms. These energy forms are managed by Fire Elementals. A few energy forms evolve into astral forms and these become the building blocks of the Manifested World. These astral forms are managed by Earth Elementals.
Astral forms look exactly like manifested forms except they're composed entirely of energy and have no material form. Manifested forms are the minerals, plants, animals and humans who reside on this planet in this time and space. The Earth Elementals manage the astral forms. It's theoretically the responsibility of humankind to manage manifested forms.
Unlike Air Elementals that "fly" through space, or Water Elementals that "swim" through space, or Fire Elementals who "jump" through space, Earth Elementals "walk" through space. What's interesting is they don't appear to be walking on anything, they just appear to be walking through
space. But when an astral form becomes large enough, Earth Elementals can be seen "walking" on it.
The Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose assigns the North direction and the color green to the Element of Earth. This is the same color and direction assignment made by the original Order of the Golden Dawn and we maintain it to this day. This does not mean the Element of Earth is in the North and only the North. Indeed the Element of Earth permeates all of creation. This does not mean all astral forms are colored green for they come in every conceivable shade of every color.
As with the Elements of Air, Water and Fire, each magician is encouraged to either follow our suggestions or use the color and direction assignment of his or her choice for the Element of Earth.
Spirit Elementals
The World of Spirit lies beyond the Tree of Life and our knowledge of it is extremely limited compared to what we know about the Four Worlds of Creation (which, it can be argued, is minimal at best). We can only guess as to what Spiritual Elementals look like and what they do. We suspect they provide the fundamental building blocks for thought forms and the energy to evolve these thought forms into emotional forms, emotional forms into energy forms, energy forms into astral forms, and astral forms into the manifested forms of this physical world.
The Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose assigns three directions to the Element of Spirit: 1) Above, 2) Below and 3) Within. The Fellowship assigns the Above direction and the color violet to the Element of Spirit Above; the Below direction and the color orange to the Element of Spirit Below; and the Within direction and the color white to the Element of Spirit Within. These assignments are arbitrary and do not mean the Element of Spirit is only Above, Below and Within. Indeed the Element of Spirit encompasses all the other Elements and permeates all of creation. This does not mean all spiritual forms are colored orange, violet and white. Indeed all colors may be assigned to all Elements.
As with all the Elements of Air, Water, Fire and Earth, each magician is encouraged to either follow our suggestions or use the color and direction assignment of his or her choice for the Element of Spirit.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-04-28 06:42 pm (UTC)Thanks again!
Delighted
Date: 2022-04-28 10:34 pm (UTC)Re: Delighted
Date: 2022-04-29 12:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-04-29 09:49 am (UTC)Juliet Ashley Bio
Date: 2022-04-30 02:25 am (UTC)https://aoda.org/history-heritage-of-the-aoda/dr-juliet-ashley/
Re: Juliet Ashley Bio
Date: 2022-04-30 03:11 am (UTC)Re: Juliet Ashley Bio
Date: 2022-04-30 03:37 pm (UTC)"In fact, the AODA’s current rendition of the Sphere of Protection is a direct reflection of the quartinos that are part of Jung’s process of individuation (note: see more in John Michael Greer’s essay on Jungian psychology and the Sphere of Protection in Volume IV of Trilithon: The Journal of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (2017))"
JMG, is this article from the Trilithon available online to the public? If not, is there something you have written on Jungian influences in the SOP that you could link to or post here?
******
There is a larger topic in the history of ideas which contains this one. It is the question of which psychological theories and schools from the 19th-21st centuries have influenced Druidry, the witchcraft revival, neopaganism, and ceremonial magic, and what their influences have been.
Victor Anderson, the founder of a non-Wiccan variety of witchcraft called the Feri Tradition, frequently cited Max Freedom Long as a source for his teachings on the human psyche. Reclaiming is a popular offshoot of Feri which uses the same schemata.
IIRC, Dion Fortune was a lay Freudian therapist. A few of the books about Wicca that came out in the mid-twentieth century contained references to Freudian psychology, which may have been more an expression of the Zeitgeist than anything profound.
Jungian psychology had an influence on some writings which were part of the revival of interest in the worship of pagan Goddesses in the third quarter of the twentieth century.
Re: Juliet Ashley Bio
Date: 2022-04-30 05:04 pm (UTC)As for Ashley, she was very strongly influenced by Jung -- she revised the rituals in the orders she ran to fit a Jungian mandala pattern, which is why (among many other things) in the FHR we purify the lodge with all four elements, instead of just using water and fire as the original GD did!
Re: Juliet Ashley Bio
Date: 2022-05-01 01:47 am (UTC)https://aoda.org/publications/trilithon-the-journal-of-the-aoda/trilithon-ordering-information/
I echo the other comments-- thanks a ton for posting these.
I also am saving them off as electronic copies.
FHR seems like a good candidate for a book someday...
- Cicada Grove
Storm elemental?
Date: 2022-04-30 07:07 pm (UTC)Re: Storm elemental?
Date: 2022-04-30 11:55 pm (UTC)Re: Storm elemental?
Date: 2022-05-01 03:07 am (UTC)Re: Storm elemental?
Date: 2022-05-01 11:52 pm (UTC)Re: Storm elemental?
Date: 2022-05-02 12:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-01 03:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-01 05:54 am (UTC)(and the Gilbert Tarot papers sounds exciting. I'd love to see any of that included here in the FHR material fwiw. I'd most certainly get the published form too though)
I searched the internet a while back with a query that turned some of his papers on "an [astrological | numerological] system for reading the tarot" and a correspondence course with three volumes. Is it part of the same series?
(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-01 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-02 12:04 am (UTC)I've just done a tentative survey of the material, and even aside from the three volumes of the correspondence course, there are probably two good-sized books of material, one on the practice of tarot divination and one on the spiritual philosophy of the tarot. This is going to be fun...
(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-02 02:54 am (UTC)These lessons have been insightful so I really look forward to those couple books to read the rest!
You've got a heck of a fun job...