The Sojourner Grade: The Cup of Water

[ecosophia]

The making and consecration of the Water Cup is one of the requirements for advancement to the next grade in the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, the 3° grade of Server. Since it may take you some time to make or buy a suitable Cup, this paper is issued now so that it can be studied early on in your Sojourner work.

The Water Cup

The Cup of Water may be made from any substance suitable for holding liquids, such as glass or ceramic. (It should not, however, be made of metal)  It may be a cup, bowl, chalice, caldron or any container for liquids. It may be painted or otherwise decorated.  It is normally anywhere from four to eight inches in height.  Those are the suggestions of the Order.  What you choose for your own personal Cup is strictly a matter of personal taste.  After all, it is your Cup.

Most practitioners purchase a glass, chalice, or other drinking vessel and consecrate it as their Cup of Water. You may do the same or, if you have the necessary craft skills, you may make and decorate your Cup however you wish.

You will need to consecrate your Cup of Water before you complete the work of the Grade of Seeker and proceed to the next grade, the Grade of Server.

Consecrating the Cup

Once you’ve made your Cup of Water the next step is to consecrate it.  Your Cup is a magical container, and it may be used to contain, store, and work with any energy or influence from outside yourself, once it has been consecrated.  To prepare for this ceremony you will need  the chair, altar, pillars, candles, and the basic emblems of the elements (incense burner and incense, folding fan, cup of water, and bowl of salt) you have already provided for yourself. You will also need a room or other space large enough that you can set up the altar in the middle and walk around it in a circle, and half an hour to an hour of uninterrupted time. You may wear a robe or other ceremonial clothing or not, as you prefer.

You will also need a name for the divine appropriate for this ritual. If you are a monotheist, the name of the deity you worship is always appropriate. If you are a polytheist, choose the name of a god or goddess associated with Water.  If you have no particular religious belief, a term such as “Source of all that is” may be used. You will be calling on this name during the ritual. Choose the divine name you want to invoke before the ritual.

You may perform this ritual on any day that is convenient for you. Before you begin, set up the altar in the center of the space with the chair on the western edge of the space, facing east across the altar. Put the emblems of the four elements on the four sides of the altar—the fan to the east, the incense burner to the south, the cup to the west, and the bowl of salt to the north. Put the four candles around the center, the yellow candle to the east of center, the red candle to the south, the blue candle  to the west, and the green candle to the north. Place your Cup in the center. Do not put the pillars on the altar yet; instead, put them in a convenient place until the opening ceremony begins.

Put water in the cup, light the incense, and then perform the complete Opening Ceremony, placing the pillars on the altar and lighting the candles where the ritual instructs you to do so. In the appropriate places, instead of “...on the Candidate Grade, say “...on the Grade of Sojourner.”

Sit in the chair and meditate briefly on the element of Water and the work you are about to do.  Then go to the west of the altar, facing east. Say aloud:  “I proclaim a ceremony of consecration for my Cup of Water.  Let the Cup therefore be purified by the four elements.”  Pick up the Cup and take it with you.

Circle around clockwise to the east of the altar, pick up the fan, and wave it to send a stream of air against the Cup.  Say:  “I purify this Cup with the element of Air, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Air to bless this Cup and further its work.”

Put down the fan, go to the south of the altar, pick up the incense burner, and hold the Cup over it, turning the Cup so that it receives incense smoke on both sides.  Say:  “I purify this Cup with the element of Fire, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Fire to bless this Cup and further its work.”

Put down the incense burner, go to the west of the altar, dip your fingers into the water, and flick droplets of water onto the Cup.  Say:  “I purify this Cup with the element of Water, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Water to bless this Cup and further its work.”

Go to the north of the altar, take a pinch of the salt between thumb and forefinger, and sprinkle it on the Cup.  Say:  “I purify this Cup with the element of Earth, and I invoke the spirits and powers of Earth to bless this Cup and further its work.”

Circle back around the altar clockwise to the west of the altar, still holding the Cup, and stand there, facing east. Raise the Cup high in both hands.  In your own words, call on the Divine to bless the Cup, so that it will  serve you as a container for energies and influences from all the planes of existence. You may make this prayer as long or as short as you choose.

Then circle around the altar clockwise, still holding the Cup, until you are on the east side of the altar facing west. Using the Cup, trace the symbol of Water in the air above the center of the altar. (The symbol is shown on the right.) Start at the bottom of the triangle and proceed clockwise from there. Imagine the Cup drawing a line of blue light in the air, forming the symbol of Water.

Point with the Cup at the symbol and Water and say:  “Spirits and powers of Water, behold this Cup of Water, purified by the elements and blessed by the Divine. I ask you to fill this Cup with the strength and stability of Water, so that it will serve as a container for energies and influences from all the planes of existence.” Imagine currents of energy flowing from the west into the Cup, giving it the capacity to receive and sustain energies and influences. Maintain this imagination as clearly as you can for several minutes.

Then lower the Cup and circle around to the west, facing east. Set the Cup on the center of the altar, surrounded by the four candles. Now call on the Divine again in your own words, offering your thanks and gratitude for the help you have received in consecrating your Cup. You may make this prayer as long or as short as you choose.

Finally, sit on the chair in the west and meditate for at least a few minutes on the ritual you have performed and the Cup as a symbol. When you are finished, rise and perform the complete closing ceremony in the grade of Sojourner. This completes your ritual of consecration.

Using Your Cup of Water

Your Cup of Water will receive and contain any energies you need to call down from any of the planes of existence. Any time you need to invoke an energy or influence into yourself, another person, or an object such as an amulet, use the cup to receive the energy or influence, and then pour it from the cup into yourself, the other person, or the object. You can also use the Cup as a means of making contact with the energies of the element of Water, and also with the elementals, nature spirits, and angels of Water, in ways that will be explained in later papers.

If you have a permanent altar or another place you keep spiritual or magical gear, your Cup of Water can be kept there. It need not be wrapped in silk or otherwise protected against other magical energies, since its consecration is primarily on the spiritual and mental planes, which are not affected by banishing rituals or other sources of magical interference.

*  *  *  *  *

Here follows the continuation of last week’s paper on developing the intuition.

 

3

 If you've been experimenting with this system for developing your intuition, here's a synopsis of your experiences:

BODY MIND - Your body didn't want to settle down in the beginning. It told you to scratch this itchhere or there, move this muscle or that, drink water or drain it, snack on something or do something else. Your body is used to being in command and it likes being the boss.

As you practiced, your body tended to quiet down and relax more quickly and willingly gave up thef ight to be in control. The more you practiced the more your body relaxed and let go. This is normal so don't worry about it.

SUBCONSCIOUS MIND - As you started to quiet your mind down from the cares and woes of yourlife, your subconscious mind became active. You remembered to do this or that. You started thinking about your past, things you did or didn't do.

As you practiced telling your subconscious mind you didn't want to remember anything from your past just now and asked it to help you tune into your intuitive mind, your subconscious mind complied. Memories from your past faded away. You didn't know it, but as this happens your subconscious does go to work opening channels to your intuition. This is normal, so don't worry about it.

IMAGINATIVE MIND - As your subconscious mind stopped bringing up past memories, your imagination started running wild. You started thinking about all the possibilities of this or that. You took flights of fantasy and had a wonderfully exciting time

.As you practiced telling your imagination you didn't want to think about the possibilities just now and asked it to tune into your intuitive mind, your imaginative mind complied. Future possibilities faded from your mind, not to be forgotten, but to be put on hold. Your imagination went to work helping you imagine yourself communicating with your own intuition. This is normal, so don't worry about it.

RATIONAL MIND - As your imagination stopped bringing up future possibilities, your thinking mind took over. This is probably when you started thinking you'd never become intuitive. Don't snicker. That's what we do to ourselves all the time. Nobody can criticize us as well as we can. When we temporarily stop remembering who and what we are, and when we temporarily stop fantasizing abou twhom and what we can become, we think we can't do it.

As you practiced ignoring your rational mind, you became calmer and more centered. I have an image of my rational mind becoming a small sulking boy hiding in the corner of my mind when I reached this stage in my intuitive development. Others have different experiences but the end resultis the same. We reach a point where our rational mind stops finding something wrong with us and it quiets down. This is normal, so don't worry about it.

WHAT'S NEXT: Practice is the next and most important step. It doesn't matter how long you practice in each session. What seems to matter most is regular practice. Two times a day is better than just once. Three times yields more results more quickly.

A few short sessions every day yields results more quickly than one long session a day. The process gets easier and easier with practice. Within a few weeks you will be able to completely relax your body and calm your mind. Now you know why we call your subconscious, imaginative and rational minds the Active Mind.

 

4

  If you've been practicing the techniques being discussed, you've probably already visited your Intuitive Mind. If not, why not review the previous lessons and give it a try?  Here are the steps involved:

·         Completely relax your body

·         Breathe deeply

·         Stop thinking about the past

·         Enlist the help of your subconscious mind

·         Stop thinking about future possibilitiesEnlist the help of your imagination

·         Stop thinking about here and now

·         Dismiss the thoughts that come to your mind

·         Enter the peace and quiet of your mind

If only it were that easy in the beginning!  If your mind works anything like mine, every practice session ended up with me writing a long To Do List. It's amazing how many things I'd forgotten to do and all the great ideas that popped into my mind. Some of them actually were quite good. Some of them were trash. Admittedly, most of them were not too good.

In other words, my memory and imagination got in the way. So did my personal critic, commonly known as my rational mind. But every once in a while my intuitive mind got through all this clatter and I really did have a good idea.  The problem was I didn't know which was which and what was intuitive and what wasn't.

That's normal, so if it happens to you, please don't worry about it. Just cut to the chase. Save the Best and Trash the Rest. Don't waste your time on a really bad idea.

It took me several weeks before I could recognize the difference between the "voices" of my different minds. Here's how it worked for me:

Subconscious Mind - My memories are stored with angry, happy or sad emotions. When my Subconscious Mind speaks to me, these same emotions are attached to the memories. Thus, whenever the emotions of anger, sadness or happiness accompany an idea, I know it's coming frommy Subconscious Mind.

Imaginative Mind - Whenever I start thinking about future possibilities, I get excited and/or anxious. It's this excitement or anxiety that tells me I'm operating in my Imaginative Mind at the moment. If it's really exciting or if I'm really anxious or fearful, it's really my Imagination.

Rational Mind - My Rational Mind is very good at pointing out all my real or potential faults. It tells me all the bad things about me and my ideas. So if any thought is critical of me in any way, or just a little bit cynical, I know that's my Rational Mind doing its thing. I usually feel the negative energy.

None of these minds or feelings is intuitive.

My Intuitive Mind is calm and peaceful. It never finds fault with me and it doesn't tell me what to do. It accepts me for who and what I am. It never volunteers any information about me unless I ask first. Then it encourages me to look at the things I like about me and enhance them. It asks me to look at the things I don't like about me and decide how to change them myself. It will give me suggestions when I ask but never unsolicited criticisms or analysis.

My Intuitive Mind is a master counselor who helps me identify what I want to do about me. It's a master teacher who leads me to opportunities for learning whenever I ask for help. It's a spiritual center for me where I can always find acceptance, peace and quiet anytime, anywhere.

My Intuitive Mind answers my questions calmly and unemotionally. It tells me I have the power to change my own life, to change who and what I am, to become a better and more loving individual. It never tells me I am unsatisfactory or "bad."

My Intuitive Mind tunes into the Subconscious Minds of others to share information with me they want to share. It never violates another person's right to share or not at their discretion. But it does warn me when negative energy is being directed toward me.

These things, I find, are also quite normal and to be expected as one opens his or her Third Eye which we also call our Intuitive Mind.

As you continue to experience this calm and peaceful place within, you'll begin to hear the small, silent voice that is your intuition. It happens just as naturally as all of your bodily functions. In the beginning, these fleeting intuitive moments may take a long time to manifest.

The more you practice, the sooner you reach your intuitive mind and the longer you're able to remain there. As you continue to practice, you'll be able to move into your intuition in seconds. You'll be able to function there while doing other things such as talking, sleeping, working or playing. You can stay tuned in and listen to your own small silent voice anytime, anywhere.

This too is quite normal.

(To be completed next week) 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not currently doing the FHR practices, I have my hands full with the DMH, but my gosh, that essay on developing your intuition is spiritual dynamite. I've never read anything like it, yet it maps very closely with my own struggles with calming myself for the daily discursive meditation.

[ecosophia]

It's a classic, isn't it? It was one of John's most popular sets of lessons, and for good reason.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have to be already at the FHR second grade to undertake the intuition exercises? Or can you start doing them without the preliminaries?

[ecosophia]

You can start right now. The six intuition lessons used to be on the Universal Gnostic Church website, available to anybody free of charge; I put them in here simply because it's a good place for them in terms of the FHR training program. If you do them in advance, you'll be a step ahead when you get to the Sojourner grade.

[ari_ormstunga]

Hi JMG, I'll be doing my Seeker initiation soon, so this question may be a bit off-topic. I am working on Paths of Wisdom and am using the Godnames from that book in my magical practices while I do my meditations on that book. I have a polytheist bent but I'm trying to stick to the work as written even though I struggle a bit with the religious symbolism. I intend to use the same Godnames in my initial FHR work, with the knowledge that I may change the "pantheon" I'm working with down the road. Would I need to re-consecrate my tools at that time, or are there any other potential snags I should look out for?

[ecosophia]

You probably won't have to reconsecrate your working tools, but it's actually a good idea to do this anyway -- I recommend consecrating your working tools at least four times, because each consecration re-empowers them and also teaches you more about ritual. As for snags, not that I know of -- the FHR material, like everything in the Universal Gnostic tradition, is pretty flexible when it comes to the particular forms of the Divine you choose to work with.

[ari_ormstunga]

Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

This is wonderful. I felt something say, "Yes, yes, follow these instructions!"

[ecosophia]

I see your intuition is already waking up! ;-)

[ganeshling]

This is amazing! I haven't done any of the intuition exercises yet and, still, just knowing about this distinction between the body, subconscious, imaginative, and intuitive mind has notably improved my ability to visualise during the rituals or to quiet down during meditations. I'm in awe of how John Gilbert managed to describe it in such simple and understandable language.

Do I understand it correctly that it is this intuitive mind that is mostly trained during the daily divination exercises? If so, it seems like a very good idea to practice the intuition exercises just before throwing the wands or shuffling the cards, right?

[ecosophia]

Yes, the intuitive mind is trained by divination practice, among other things, and yes, the intuition exercises are very well suited to do before casting a divination!

John had a real talent for teaching. I'm looking forward to putting more of his material out there -- and I've got around 150,000 words of his tarot instructions now to add to the heap. ;-)

Intuition Practice?

[jprussell]

I apologize for commenting rather late on this, and my question might be covered in the next section of these particular lectures, so I quite understand if the answer is "stay tuned!"

What strikes me about reading these lectures is that they give excellent instruction on how to get to your intuitive mind, but I am missing what to do once you get there. By way of comparison, if I'm trying to do discursive meditation, I relax my body, do a cleansing breath, do some color breathing, say a prayer, and then focus on the theme and spend the next ~13 - 15 minuutes thinking about the theme (or trying to), before saying a spontaneous prayer, doing another cleansing breath, and then wrapping up.

So, if I'm working on my intuitive mind, and I've calmed my physical body, instructed my subconscious to help out with intuition, done the same for my imagination, and gotten my rational mind/inner critic to shut up, what do I do next? Ask myself questions? Write down whatever comes to me?

Thanks very much for these posts and everything else,
Jeff

Re: Intuition Practice?

[ecosophia]

Good. You've noticed one of the things that makes this set of practices distinctive; it's entirely receptive. You don't do anything. You listen and see what happens.

Re: Intuition Practice?

[jprussell]

Ah, no wonder that one went right past me, I have a tough time with receptive exercises. Sounds like I need to add this into the rotation. Thanks much.