The Unfolding Man

The Transcendental Man of Knowledge

What is Knowledge, a Gnosis?  The adept of the Golden Dawn comes to understand that true knowledge is life and life alive.  Knowledge is not static but rather ever changing.  It is the search and seeking of knowledge that creates the current, the movement.  It is that movement that gives life to the thought forms and ideas providing them their unfolding evolution. The spirals spreading out in rays of light to the universe are the healing waves of love created by the vivification of the forms by our search of the wildness.

As we seek to learn that we might serve, the journey stretches us up and around what we have known through what we believe we know to what we will someday know.

Of all the many things that you might ever learn the most important is that who ever you have been, it is not and can not be who you are today, and further more, it is certainly not who you will become.

There is great hope and great responsibility in this truth.

The Darkness of your last life is not the brilliance of this life.

Moina Mathers' pursuit of knowledge was securely true and an evidence of the unfolding of her mind and spirit.

The river gihon from the celestial source running forward.

So ask yourself:

What do I want my Legacy to be?

What do I want others to believe and know about me that they would say in my absence?

What do I like about my first years and what do I dislike about my early years?

These are the first things you should know and on their foundation you can build the temples of what you will know next.

The Transcendent Lion

To will, Which  Lion in the Wardrobe?

An earlier Egyptian consideration for the same constellation known to us as Leo, was the image of the serpent.  For the serpent represents in to many practiced an learned initiates the will.  I offer that their are different flavors of will.  So why Lion versus Serpent. 

The will of the Lion in Ezekiel's vision is the un-conflicted will.

To be of a singular mind certain that stones will rise up to meet your feet when it is time to cross the great ravine.  What lower will inspires is reactionary and dependent upon what is known.  Higher will is given the wings of imagination and in its boundless possibilities it has no need to plunder.

The winged Lion gives us the will to transcend away from violence and toward the divine.

The sun creates and emits.

What is it that you will to be, do, have?

What is it that your will, will bestow you with, wings or belly?

Fear: F.alse E.vidence A.ppearing R.eal

Are you of a body of evidence? Are you of the world?

If you are most truly aware, than you know somewhere somehow, that you are not of this world, and the longer the dream the more challenging the development of clarity and lucidity.

To be aware as one author put it,

That Death has already happened, it is not to be feared because you have already experienced it and you are already on the other side of its circus mirror.

You have only to swing the scythe through your own illusion, and the stardust will scatter and you will inherit your birth rite, certainty, some will call it Faith.  

"Do not fear the reaper, for it has already had its way with you..."

Israel Regardie

Israel Regardie approached life with a will.  He saw not fear and trembling but the possibility of continuation of the great river of light.

Working to save his beloved from internment Israel Regardie planted the seeds of light in the fields of history.

And partly because of his efforts one school of light and knowledge has become many.

In some ways, he is the reason the Golden Dawn still blossoms today.

I've always felt a special warmth and connection for and with Israel.

The desire to enslave or conquer, this is the lower will.  

Wish not to enslave and conquer it but free it to be transformed by the limitless possibility

of Ain Soph Aur

(Light With No Boundaries)

Be of a singular mind, allow your heart and mind to resonate in harmony, allow each paddle, each wheel, each flower, each feel to spin together in the same purpose...and then dare that the miracle is already come...dare like the glorified eagle...to more than know, to more than will, to more than dare....

The Will to Enlighten and to Brighten. 

This is the Winged Lion.

When the higher calls the lower into its service it transforms it into something new

something greater than it was.

Much Love, Special Pajamas  

770   

For more information on

 The Order of the Golden Dawn - Collegium Spirtu Sancti

Click Here

The Purposeful Eagle

The Glorious Cherubim of the Eagle flowing with fantastic passion.

"To Dare" to spread one's wings.

"To Dare" to fly.

"To Dare" to try.

"Divide your stone into four elements....and rejoin them as one and you will have the whole magesterium" 

Hermes Trismegistus (Greek: Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "thrice-great Hermes"; Latin: Mercurius ter Maximus)

The Eagle  or  Altair, the Light of the Eagle:

Robert Felkin of the Stella Matutina and the Golden Dawn traditions knew what it was to dare to continue his ascent.  Ever ascending onward the heights of heaven.  Even though separation from the rest of the body became necessary he pushed forward and onward to bring light, love, and most certainly knowledge.  The divine does not ask you either to seek the permission of another to be at greater union with all.  Continue shining and beaming in the darkness.  Fervently perfect your skills and abilities as a student of the divine and a soul or spirit created by the One Source.  Ritual Magic and Divine studies are Hard work and for those not fitted to them they may naturally become disinterested, and for those suited and fitted to them they may have never understood a greater purpose than that of bringing light into the world and providing miracle and magic as servant of the Greatest Good....

Click on the picture above transfix your attention and meditate on your daringness.

When the spirit becomes active within us and connects with us, we acquire direction and impetus.

ie: excuse me, but your life is NOW.

What do you really want to do with your life?

As you perfect the body and the mind, the spirit's voice will become ever more deafening!

It is best to take account of all four parts of your stone.,

Body-Thoughts-Emotions-Passions

Sum it up Special PaJamas! OK

Purifying all of these one at a time with each of them in a focused way.

That's probably my favorite part of the daring journey of the Golden Dawn Initiate.

In the outer they are preparing themselves bit by bit

Spreading their wings and flying.

Not trying but rather doing!

And so go my humble mumblings on the matter!

To read another great Blog on Magic and Energy Training Click here

By another author

The Zealous Bull

Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
William Butler Yeats

Adept of The Golden Dawn

The beauty of the mighty cherubim the perfected and purified (winged) bull is its most precious gift. Silence.  Determined pondering and reflection.  Can you see the deep and watery intensity of the bull's gentle eyes?  Fantastic in its ability to peer into the depths of your soul.  And capable of profound silence, allowing in its stillness and strength there of, to provide time and room for the fermentation of the idea revealing the truth.  

What is the benefit to the aspirant, You may ask?
Well is it not, the maturing of our dream and idea before its appearance at court.  Where the sharks and dragons called courtesans make quick meal of fledglings and infants.  And, where the newly presented  distinguished and cultured progeny level the waters and skies providing great fires which lingering insults from days gone by are not permitted by God to survive.

I see that many, to many men and women are quick to break the seal of their spiritual experience and share with others what can only serve to confound them.  Keep your secrets my friend.  Some Keys and combinations are for all of us to share.  Some Keys are Your keys and yours alone.  Sometimes so personally shaped to your experiences and the memories of your sphere of sensation are your revelations that they serve only to confuse and muddy the clarity of another's soul.  Do not be to eager to place your personal revelations out on the banquet table, for know this: What you may cherish others may discard as rubbish.

You may however by gaining your elevation through study and discernment better know upon the maturing of your faculty and the idea itself whether it is idiosyncratic, a matter societal importance to your brethren and sisters of the light, or even of global relevance.

Of course too much rain could cause the sprout to be ripped from the soil before it can anchor itself and become a vine that supplies much fruit.  So in your zealousness to share the blossom, you could in fact rob the future of important nourishment.

Think on it awhile, and whatever your conclusion, give its blossom time to be pollinated and produce succulent fleshy fruits.  Then take the fruits and mull them, seal their juices tightly away into the dark and nurturing warmth.  Allow that the lion and the dragon tutor them and finally share the wine that is the higher spirit of your original idea.  And for this you will be rewarded.  No one need know what it is you've just discovered.

Respectfully and Sincerely,

Special Pajamas

For more imformation on Hermeticism and Alchemy click here.

Spiritual Hand Washing? Huh?

Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there are a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between different cultures,

Well what is spiritual hygiene?


And why is it I should Believe it's important:

Its pretty simple really.  If you are at a party or simply being social.  If someone has poor hygiene we tend to gravitate toward or away from them.  Well its kind of relative, if you have impeccable hygiene you may view someone with good or modicum hygiene as having poor hygiene.  If you have no hygiene you may view someone with otherwise poor hygiene as have good hygiene.

"OK and that matters how, Pajamas?"

Well while those of us with diplomacy and polite social grace, two forms of observable grace, will often willfully endure the the unpleasantness of poor hygiene it does and will, in the honest heart, limit our capacity for intimacy.  Spirits have types of intimacy as well.  And, Unless we or they can dig into a deeper connection in some area the full development of the relationship can be stifled.  I am not proposing that we are ever superficial or judgmental about such things simply that we are drawn most naturally to that which is clean.  Undoubtedly we can agree that being drawn to waste and decay is abberative if it is not for the purpose of transforming it.  Oh yeah, my point...sorry about that I try not to be an otter... or is that a ferret?


There you are you bright shining thing!

Spiritual Hygiene is important for these reasons especially...

1. So that we might attract spirit and forces of similar current as ourselves or our desired future self.
2. So that we might recognize entities and powers that are not in accordance with our paths.
3. In order that we might be a suitable vessel for higher vibrational energy while in the process of perfecting ourselves.

Florence Farr

Florence Farr understood the need for Spiritual Hygiene:

In her time as a Golden Dawn adept Florence Farr kept tight and close to her heart the principles of spiritual hygiene.  Florence performed her daily disciplines and developed a keen spiritual discernment.  

Great Spiritual Hygiene is:

1. Recognizing the difference between intensity and truth
2. Testing all spirits and visions (crucial)
3. Being disciplined about your silence allowing your ideas and revelations to mature, so as to not unwittingly promote or spread mirage or illusion as if it were the Voice of Divinity.
4. Habitually and Regularly cleaning your sphere of sensation
5. Keeping your vessel charged and prepared to illuminate the darkness (You never know when the bride groom may show)

I'm not suggesting that you think that you should join the Golden Dawn.  And I don't know if you'll believe in the importance of spiritual hygiene, or not.  What I am suggesting is that in my life and in the lives of all aspirants, religious, and spiritual leaders it is necessary for enduring success and elevation/ illumination.

Some of the most powerful angelic forces I have ever encountered leave you with an imprint that is most pure and unadulterated, and they are most difficult to access when you haven't washed your hands.

In the animal kingdom we wash our hands to protect the innocent:

I the spiritual realms we wash our hands because the most noble of spirits are concerned with our well being and know that their beauty and innocence, their perfect light, will burn away the soil, and that pain from such encounters might adversely affect our growth and evolution.

On the other hand the most vile of spirits and entities could care less how they affect our spheres and usually will come bearing grand praises and accolades in the form of intoxicating visions most closely aligned with our greatest spiritual hygiene challenge.  So be industrious and regimented in your practices.  And know that there will be spirits who can not smell their own stench, and they will also be drawn to your rosy fragrance.  

So let your daily rituals and your studies and your efforts be toward developing a worthiness for a continually increasing discernment. Ask and it shall be given to you (just remember it may be gradual in increase, patience my excited one).  Why a greater discernment? For the true aspirant of the light seeks truth above intensity, love above force, and submission to the Highest Genius above control.

So wash your hands after holding anything unclean, so that you are always prepared to adore the innocent.  (sometimes that's your own innocence)

Banish (or cleanse, incense, or smudge) after any unclean event or interaction.

So if you want to, you can try this too:

If you have had an encounter of any kind,
social, physical, emotional, spiritual, worldly, or other-worldly:

as you move away from it or as it moves away from you...

Imagine this:

above you an etheric or astral loving mother made of star light  is pouring a warm and brilliant (nearly blinding) golden and silver water down upon your head.
As it gently rinses around your crown and skull
It drips down your face and rushes through the inside of your head
it fills your mind and begins to run out of your ears and eyes

It smells of roses with hints of vanilla and cedar
its rolling down you face and around you lips tickling and illuminating your skin
inside and outside, outside and inside

it begins to pour out of your mouth and down your neck
down your throat

continue to feel it move through and down your entire body.

when it fills your trunk and runs down into and around you hands it flows out of your fingers.

And as the Heavenly Mother continues to rinse you clean
You may notice that the healing water it is getting brighter
As it moves through and around your groin and issues forth from you beaming as if it is sunlight
It flows down and around your legs and out of the bottoms of your feet and your toes.

And as if you were floating in space is runs out ward and onward until all that is left is the pure and cleansed source of your center and self.

And see if you recognize that you are relaxed and empowered.

Any way that one works for me in a pinch.
There are many other techniques, Florence Farr for instance made great use of what is referred to in the Golden Dawn as the LBRP.

Best advice I can imagine that Florence Farr would give to any initiate: wash your hands, brush your teeth, and do your LBRP!  Do it for Flo!

In Love, Truth, and Knowledge,
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow:
Special Pajamas

What Does the Platypus have to do with Hermetical Studies??

So what does Ornithorhynchus Anatinus

want to do with magical studies and hermeticism? 

The original name was Platypus anatinus, from Greek and Latin words meaning "flat-footed, duck-like". After realising that the name "platypus" had already be given to a group of beetles (scarabs..I'm just saying...), the scientist involved assigned the platypus the scientific name of Ornithorhynchus Anatinus, the first word of which means "bird-like snout".



While Doing some study and meditation of the tenth KEY of the Tarot....I started to think in outlandish ways about....

I chose this image of the tenth key because I think this artist's interpretation is quite novel.

And it fits the sacred scribblings below.

If your interested in her art please follow the link below.

http://annalobello.deviantart.com/gallery/

I came across an interesting dialogue on the tenth key.

In the wonderful book Meditations on the Tarot A Journey in Christian Hermeticism by Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar the author writes brilliantly on the secret meanings of the tenth Key.

In his main points the author covers three topics.

1. The Relevance of the Wheel, before and after the Great Separation of the soul from the divine....
2. The Importance of the Monkey and Dog
3. The Meaningfulness of the Sphinx

______________________________________________________

The Wheel-

• Represents a cycle. 
• The wheel at one time was the open wheel or spiral, which held an opening by which the divine could visit and exist with the mankind
• As one myth tells the serpent said man could never really be free while God was partaking in his existence, that only by living separate from God could man truly "know" freedom.  So the serpent wrapped itself around the open wheel (spiral) and began whirling itself around. Thus trapping man in and God out.

The Monkey:

• Is the cycle of involution
• It is moving away from perfection

The Dog:

• Is the cycle of evolution
• It is always drawn toward the higher being drawn to man being drawn to God

The sphinx:

• The perfected beast is outside the spinning wheel.
• It represents the soul when it is redeemed from the eternal return (the horror of reincarnation).

Understood in terms of the fall evolution or redemption gives rise to the question of it opposite involution. The greatest involution being that of the fall, so that understood side by side with the once proliferate existence of the great and inviable dinosaurs a new awareness blossoms, the progeny of the serpent gave rise to many species.  

So in a way we are the descendants of the serpent, at least in as far as in our flesh. "Human Beings, as cerebral beings, are indeed 'Children of the serpent' or 'Children of Darkness'."  The author explains that the serpent is recognized and revered for its power and magic.  

Also the author suggests that many hermetics and spiritualists of the past have missed the other great magical power of the evolved and divinely given power of the Dove.  The gift that woman while guarding the memory of the open world presented herself as a rending of the veil so that life and light from outside the closed circle of the serpent could have a "portal" into the world of darkness.  That in the breaking open of the wheel and the injection by the father of the son into the world by way of the Holy Spirit, a new evolution of spirit was made possible.  So while the enfoldment of serpent based power is tempting in the "in the world approach" it is however a less effective and less magical source of power than the unfolding of the Dove's radiating power.  And in choosing and asking for grace and divinity the mind will often times not comprehend in the darkness of the Ororubus the light which is given to it and blossomed in the soul and spirit.  Just as the glands are blind and unawares of the evolved light of the Lotus Blossoms or chakras which correspond to them.

"These two tendencies have their traditional designations.  They are "light" and "darkness", i.e. radiation and enfoldment, respectively.  This is why the Gospel according to John, in describing the cosmic drama, says: "Light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness apprehendeth it not" (John 1:5) --- (kai to phos en te skotia phainei, kai he skotia auto katelaben; et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt).

______________________________
So what many find that's so interesting about the Platypus is that it is a trinity of reptile, bird, and mammal.  In this way this very unique animal is like our spirits, they contains the contending serpent force, the reptilian energy of darkness and the dove force, the bird energy of light and then the human will that balances them, which could be considered the unifying mammalian energy, when compared to the plucky platypus.

Be wise as serpents and innocents as doves....(Matthew X:16)

The platypus is in some ways the miraculous presence of the sphinx or the earthly symbol of the sphinx.  I see it as a masterfully mixed metaphor for the initiate, spiritual seeker, or religious devotee.  

And as initiates, religious devotees, or prophets extend themselves to grope into the mysteries they seem grow beyond the 5 ordinary senses and  like the curious platypus begin to develop a sixth sense.  Did you know that the platypus is the only  mammal to have a recognized and well defined electro magnetic field sensing organ? Yes indeed, that special duck bill is a specialized organ that senses the subtle and vibrational energies of surrounding electromagnetic fields.  As the platypus senses in mysterious ways so do true seekers rend the veil and begin to sense in ways never understood before.

All of this should be remembered with a responsibility about perdition and salvation.  We are either evolving or involving.  And we can tell by whether or not we accept the responsibility of that process and recognizing our true natures we wish to perfect ourselves and open our vessels to holy spirit and reach for the Divine.  For when we are open wheels miraculous evolution of spirit, mind, and body are possible.  So that, many will remember, we inherit our places in the lineage of the serpent but we choose to take our places in the lineage of the Dove, through the greatest love ever known.  

Yours in Light, Love, and Knowledge

Special PaJamas