Monday, January 2, 2012

Cipher Mix

As I noted in yesterday's disclosure update, one of the things that we have learned this past year is that European Third Order cut contact with the Golden Dawn/Alpha and Omega/RR et AC because they learned (though the publishing of the Golden Dawn and Inner Order material by Crowley) that Mathers had gone too far in the blending and mixing of egregores that were never met to be mixed to the extent that the Z documents instructs. (Why they did not know this information sooner is a mystery of occult history.)

Looking over the Cipher Manuscript, the outline of the Outer Order rituals, I can see why Mathers and Westcott thought it was ok to mix egregores and lores. Here is a brief list of all the various systems and egregores that the Cipher Manuscript has in it.

Enochian system of Dee and Kelley [British occultism]
Latin Grade mystic titles [German Rosicrucian]
Signs, passwords and Grade sashes [Freemasonry]
Admission badges [SRIA]
Samothracian Kabric lore
Hebrew, Latin and Greek (besides the Enochian and English) languages
Pillars with Egyptian figures on them [Tablet of Isis or the Book of the Dead]
Eleusinian Mysteries lore [Greek]
Prayer from the Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus [Hermetica]
Grimoric Tradition lore [Medieval and Renaissance occult lore]
The Chaldean Oracles [Zoroaster]
Kamea of the planets/sephiroth
Elemental Prayers [Mathers and Westcott used the same ones that Levi did]
Biblical quotes
Kabbalah [Jewish mysticism]
Christian mysticism
English occult writings
Elemental Pentagram key
System of correspondences
Aesh Mezareph [Christian-Jewish alchemical synthesis]
Laboratory alchemy
Religious alchemy
Philosophical alchemy
Natural alchemy [these last three are mentioned as different things]
Osiris and the three animal forms of Western cardinal signs

I am probably missing a couple---if so, just note the missing ones in the comment section.

Specific examples of blending (both in the Cipher Manuscript and lecture/ritual workups):

Westcott wrote his notes using a mixture of languages and ciphers.

Temple name tradition drew from Freemasonry, Roman and Eygpt lore.

Westcott's official history lecture mentions Eliphaz Levi [French occultism], Kenneth Mackenzie [English Freemasonry and RC] and Frederick Hockley [a crystal gazer].

The Tarot is associated with both Egyptian lore and the Kabbalah. Furthermore, the Tarot is associated with the Hebrew alphabet [Kabbalah] and astrology.

Geomancy is associated with astrology and Tree of Life.

Alchemy is associated with the Tree of Life.

(It is a small step, or mistake if you believe the Third Order, to associate alchemy with geomancy, astrology and the Tarot.)

Perhaps the biggest blending of egregores is the Khabs Am Pekht, Konx Om Pax, Light In Extension, which blends Egyptian, Greek and English mysteries.

And this leads me to the conclusion that either the European Third Order failed to see the potential logical extension trap of their Cipher Manuscript; or that the Cipher Manuscript has nothing to do with the Third Order that Mathers had contact with. Their blaming Mathers for making a logical extension of what was contained in the Cipher Manuscript is much like handing someone a loaded gun and then blaming them for shooting someone. One can only imagine what the Third Order thinks of my own work which includes work with the Norse runes and Reiki, as well as Wiccan mysteries. Needless to say, no one has to worry about the Third Order inviting me into their ranks---I embrace the blending of egregores with far too much gusto.

3 comments:

Deanna Bonds said...

Mixing systems is not a straightforward thing. Things that may seem similar on the surface can have vastly different meanings. Small example: In wicca you use elemental openings in the quarters, what happens when one of those is substituted with a watchtower?(I have seen this done). To be able to mix systems you need to be a master of each system that goes into the mix. One also needs to make sure the magical streams are compatible. All streams are not of the same energy and don't work well with each other. Also, don't forget your ancestry, which plays a part in energy compatibility. All of these things need to line up to enable one to see clearly enough to mix systems.
Systems that are somewhat the same but with a different cultural tinge will be the easiest to mix - but unless one offers things the other doesn't then why mix them? If the goal is to create a new system removed from those cultural elements then use the knowledge of the system to create a new system based on modern culture. And using my own self as an example, mixing in every culture has a down side. When I was young I was taught to believe everything in the bible and christian was true and historical. I was very interested and researched constantly. When I started discovering almost nothing in the bible is historical, then realized that what we know as christianity is just a bastardized version of the gnostic beliefs created to control a disintegrating Rome, then I came to resent christianity and the bible. So for me to mix in that culture in my magical learning means I have to first get through resentment and knowledge that was used to lie, then try to create a new meaning for it. But once something has been mentally marked as a lie, it doesn't take new meaning very easily.

lux_infinitas said...

Wait a second, there are Wiccan Mysteries?

J/K

I had a conversation a year ago with a frater in the same vein (although I maybe completely missing the mark) about the fact that we continually call ourselves A Western Mysteries tradition. Egypt, Israel, Greece - well maybe not Greece - but those first two could hardly be categorized as Western. And now, maybe I'm just showing my idiocy, but that coupled with things like Geomancy, and the Tattwas... the work of a G.D. initiate is quite syncretic. Did I use that word correctly, quite?

Peregrin said...

Great post, Morgan (again)

What you describe here shows the GD's innovation of bringing the spirit of modernity into western magic. It had already been brought into western religious ought via Universalism and spiritual thought via the TS, which saw all religions as stemming from a single unified source.

Mathers clearly states all this in the fourth knowledge lecture, "In true religion there is no sect. Therefore take heed that thou blaspheme not the name by which another knoweth his God. For if thou doest this thing in Jupiter thou will blaspheme YHVH (Jehovah): and in Osiris, YEHESUAH (Jesus)."

This shows the core understanding that there is a unity behind the various forms, and the "mixing" is a way of accessing that deeper reality, not simply because of personal background or preference. This is very clearly shown in the RR et AC, especially the Keyword Analysis.

The problem I have seen in some blogs over the last few years is that some people now want to overlay the GD with traditional values and thoughts. This is what you describe with the putative Third Order displaying traditional allegiance to one set of symbol systems. What made the GD unique and attractive to the likes of Yeats, Colman Smith et al was its modern spirit during the Fin de siècle. And yes, as you prove this spirit was IN the Cipher scripts to begin with.

Still, it is much more embarrassing when some magical folk describe alleged ancient and pre-modern traditions and groups acting and thinking as moderns. For anyone who knows a bit of history it stands out like dogs balls. :) thanks for the post... :)