The Trinity. The Catholic Mass is to all effects a potent and solemn magical ritual that aims to condense and concentrate a cosmic love energy inside a certain physical quantity of bread and wine. The intention is that, if the priest and the assembly are in a certain due inner state, the ingestion of this magically impregnated food will open the possibility of an access or communion with this energy. This amorous energy is the Christ, who is the second person in the Trinity and whose importance by far surpasses that of the historical Jesus of Nazareth (if this person did in fact exist, which is not really so important). In this sense, God the Father represents the creative aspect of Divinity, and the Holy Ghost the agent or divine aspect that enables Gnosis in the Initiate.

God the Son is the energy of solidarity that unites created beings, it is the coesion and attraction factor present in the universe, the centripetal force that maintains the coherence and the unity of the world created by the Father. The Devil is the enemy of the Son and not of the Father who after all created him too; he is the centrifugal force, the repulsion factor between created beings, a dissembling force of un-love and isolation. The three persons of the Trinity and the Enemy are general cosmic principles and may be applied (but never reduced) to the moral domain. On the contrary, these principles apply to all kingdoms of nature and through all the branches of science.

As one can see, we can only feel sorry for the reforms promoted by the II Concilium Vaticanum, who in the name of a well-meaning humanism took away from the Mass its force, its effectiveness and its operative character.

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Heraclitus: "God is a child at play". God is not a moralist, in spite of the socially repressive character of the various religions instituted by men... It is divinely indifferent for the Creator if we, poor atoms that we are, behave in a "good" or "bad" manner... He is completely immersed in Self-Contemplation (which is precisely the Manifested Universe, seen as His Body and Mirror), and this contemplation is the source of Absolute Delight, Pleasure in its essential and archetypical form (for it is the source of all the possible pleasures that we might feel). In this sense (but not exclusively) God is Love. This, however, does not extinguish the Law of Causation that applies to all created beings: our moral constitution and our loving or unloving actions will inexorably affect our individual destinies with perfect Justice... Even so, as Ibn Arabi so clearly sensed, His Mercy is far greater than His Severity, and therefore even after timeless Hells the souls of sinners will be inevitably redeemed and reintegrated in the bosom of the Creator when the hypothetical and romanticized "end of times" arrives, when the Divine Child inhales inside Itself the Universe It had originally exhaled into existence. For these "Hells" are not some Divine punishment, they are the Prisons of Unlove that we foolishly build for ourselves here and in the after-life. Creation is the delicate and pleasurable dream of the Divine Child, minutely detailed, "full of sound and fury" as the Bard wrote, and essentially adverse to the spirit of seriousness.

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It is saddening and incredible how you are educated to think that a heap of superfluous things is indispensable in order to live your life... Realize how it is perfectly possible for you to have a happy life with much much less, and with much much less expectations regarding the future, and much much less certitudes (or even with no certitudes at all). Perhaps this voluntary simplicity is the essential pre-requisite for you to be genuinely and purely happy. Just breathe and take loving care of your body. Life is beautiful, to be alive is an incredible and fascinating experience, let yourself be happy and spontaneously grateful. In order to do so you must get rid of all your mental waste, accumulated for decades since your birth, and also gradually dissolve your body's energetic blockings. I'll give you a valuable hint: Reiki and Rebirthing, powerful physical techniques that can subtly help you on the Path.

SUGGESTIONS:

Reiki:
•Usui Reiki (the official site of Usui Shiki Ryoho and of The Reiki Alliance)
•Kajsa Krishni Boräng, Thorsons Principles of Reiki. Thorsons Pub, 1998. Interesting personal story, besides being an excellent introduction to the subject.

Rebirthing:
•Clarity Productions (interesting Rebirthing site)
•Sondra Ray and Leonard Orr, Rebirthing in the New Age. Berkeley, Celestial Arts, 1977. Classic. Although the technique is clearly effective in itself, one should be nevertheless very weary of the spurious metaphysical claims made by this movement.

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Zero or One? Is the substratum of the Manifested Universe the Divine Monad or the Divine Void? This question, which takes us to the very roots of the metaphysical difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, is in fact poorly formulated.

From Nothing, nothing can be extracted. On the contrary, it is from the Absolutely Full that the world is created and manifested, through differentiation and adaptation. The world as phenomenon is the cognitive specification/differentiation of the Full, of the One (or Monad). Something is only perceived (and therefore enumerated) if we have form and background, and also a perceiving Subject and a perceived Object. Hélas, in the One the Diad has not yet occurred, the Diad being understood as the primal, archetypal separation or fissure. The One is therefore unknowable in itself.

The unknowability of the One is subjectively felt by the Gnostic as Void, as absence of form and differentiation. Hence the great psychological and experimental value of Buddhism. However, it is Hinduism which is metaphysically sound. And Taoism will be in a sense the best conciliatory position between the former two, as it views the Dao (Tao) as a fertile, creative, matricial Void - a Void uncontaminated by the Indian concept of Zero.

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Sacred Geometry. As much as we wisely handle Phi and Pi and the sacred roots of 2, 3 and 5 (all of which are originally geometrical proportions and only secondarily "irrational" numbers), the Squaring of the Circle will always give us approximate results both in area and perimeter. We will therefore obtain results that give us the false impression that this operation is feasible when in fact it is not.

As we traditionally view Sacred Geometry as a profound meditation on Creation/Emanation as it springs from the One, we can conclude that the Divine (Circle) can never be adequately materialized (Square). No Grail will contain It, no religious institution will be Its representative, no ritualization or sacralization of everyday life will rid us of our earthly imperfection.

To realize this fact is a great blessing, for it shows us that Spirituality will always be subtle and free and radically independent of silly religious tyrannies. At the same time, it will always be immaculately accessible to the free souls that elevate themselves towards it, that dare fly to its encounter.

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Intellectual Orgasm. Cherchez la femme, in this case Ancient Metrology. Through it and its feet, paces, miles, stades, yards and other measures, as if following Ariadne's Thread, we arrive at a great Hall where some illustrious guests intimately mingle: Sacred Architecture and Geometry, both Megalithic and Classical, Musical Harmonies and Tonal systems, Pythagoreanism or Arithmology, Plato's mythical cities, Greek Gematria and its essential application in the understanding of the New Testament, Gnosticism and even Greek Mythology itself...

As we steadily study these subjects our souls gradually experience not only Socratic Wonder, source of all Philosophy, but also the fleeting and so precious Communion with the Logos that structures all Creation, a Logos that is apprehended through Number, the purest language of the soul.

In the final agony of the Precessional Month of Pisces and in the Dawn of the Month of Aquarius, the Fountain of Perennial Philosophy is opened again to men of good will.

READING SUGGESTIONS:

•John Michell, The New View over Atlantis. London, Thames & Hudson, 1983.
•John Michell, City of Revelation. New York, David McKay, 1972.
•John Michell, The Dimensions of Paradise. Kempton, AUP, 2001.
•David Fideler, Jesus Christ, Sun of God. Wheaton, Quest Books, 1993.
•Ernest McClain, The Myth of Invariance. York Beach, Nicolas-Hays, 1976.
•Ernest McClain, The Pythagorean Plato. York Beach, Nicolas-Hays, 1978.

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Amazed. It is with humility that I finally discovered Madame Blavatsky... The living miracle that she represented was never dimmed by the constant slander of her enemies, and survives today ever strong and evident. An extraordinary woman of impossible temper, a libertarian mystic, the faithful disciple of her Mahatmas, Madame Blavatsky left us works of great value and erudition: Isis Unveiled, The Secret Doctrine, besides The Key to Theosophy and The Voice of Silence. Reality and the Mystic Path are much more generous than our heads think, for to the sincere seeker is lavished Divine Grace in the form of Masters, books and remarkable meetings. The seeker's gratitude towards his destiny is very great, and it is only fair that it is so. In sum, the spiritual world conspires in favour of the sincere seeker endowed with an ardent heart and pure longing. It is through the inversion of common sense, through the fiery faith in the unbelievable, in the impossible and in the miraculous, through the terrible ordeal of being considered a madman in the eyes of the world - it is through all that that we become worthy of receiving the necessary keys to our spiritual evolution.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky 1831-1891

Two Articles:
•Aryel Sanat, The Secret Doctrine, Krishnamurti, and Transformation. Excellent.
•David Reigle, The Book of Dzyan Research Reports. Very interesting.

Two Books:
•Daniel H. Caldwell, The Occult World of Madame Blavatsky. Tucson, Impossible Dream Publications, 1991. Excellent. Online shorter version.
•Sylvia Cranston, HPB: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement. J. P. Tarcher, 1994. An excellent biography.

Two Links:
•Blavatsky Archives Plenty of information and images, and many useful links
•Theosophical University Press Online Online Theosophical texts

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

•Blavatsky, H. P., The Secret Doctrine (2 vols). London, Theos. Publ. Co., 1888. Many editions. An extensive commentary of the Stanzas of Dzyan. HPB's most important work, in her own opinion.
•Blavatsky, H. P. (trans.), The Voice of the Silence. London, 1889. Many editions. Initiatic poem coming from the same corpus of the Stanzas of Dzyan.
•Barker, A. T. (comp.), The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett. Adyar, Theos. Publ. House, 1923. Many editions. Very interesting material, from both the esoteric and psychological points of view.
•Jinarajadasa, C. (comp.), Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom. Adyar, Theos. Publ. House, 1919 (1st Series) and 1925 (2nd Series). Many editions. More letters from the Mahatmas.
•Geoffrey Barborka, The Divine Plan. Adyar, Theos. Publ. House, 1964. An excellent study and summary of The Secret Doctrine.
•David Reigle, The Books of Kiu-Te, or the Tibetan Buddhist Tantras. Wizards Bookshelf, 1994. Research on the Tibetan sources of the Stanzas and of The Voice of the Silence.
•David Reigle, Blavatsky's Secret Books: twenty years' research. Wizards Bookshelf, 1999. More data on the Tibetan sources, known as the Kalachakra Tantra or Teachings of Shambhalla.
•Aryel Sanat, The Inner Life of Krishnamurti: Private Passion and Perennial Wisdom. Quest books, 1999. An interesting study on the Initiatic sources of Krishnamurti's teachings.

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Paradise is here. We do not ordinarily perceive it, and we consequently suffer with our misery, our poverty and blindness. And yet it is here, blatantly wide-open and irradiating a Light that illuminates and sustains everything and of which the Solar light of a Summer noon is but a pale reflection.

The septenary (Theosophical) and quaternary (Vedantine) divisions of Man and Cosmos are only a didactic expedient, for everything happens here and now, concretely and in a coherent and conjoined way. The Real is One, an unified Whole, and analytical thought decomposes it. Thought is dual, Reality is not. To divide the spiritual world (Parabrahm) from the material world (Mulaprakriti) is another analytical and didactic expedient. It is therefore not desirable to mistake the map for the territory.

We live therefore in a paradoxical exile, for we are in the middle of the Land of Bliss, in the middle of the Pure Land. To concretely feel this reality, even if for only some brief unpredictable moments, is a little Enlightenment (kensho).

How simple is the result of strenuous spiritual efforts. The proverbial good humour of the Sages and Adepts is not so strange now, for the great Arcane secret is nothing more than an open secret once it is discovered and organically realized by the Seeker.

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Krishnamurti. If there ever was a radical über-Zen master in the XXth century, it was Krishnamurti. Few realize it, but he was indeed through his whole long life the World Teacher, Vehicle of Maitreya or Christ Consciousness. He never denied the intense Initiatical preparation that he received from Morya and Koot Hoomi towards that end. His lectures possess a non-human didactic approach, as they engender like a microcosm or a lotus bud the mutated and radically transformed state in the attentive listener or reader. They are Initiatical seeds, miniatures of a future whole and continuous state, of a regenerated and rectified Humanity. There is no possible method, only full attention.

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)

READING SUGGESTIONS

•Jiddu Krishnamurti, Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti. San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. Excellent selection of texts that extends from 1929 to 1985.
•Jiddu Krishnamurti, The First and Last Freedom. Introduction by Aldous Huxley. San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1999 [1954].
•Jiddu Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known. New York, Harper & Row, 1969.
•Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Only Revolution. London, Victor Gollancz, 1970.
•Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Awakening of Intelligence. New York, Harper & Row, 1973.
•Jiddu Krishnamurti and David Bohm, The Ending of Time. San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1985.
•Aryel Sanat, The Inner Life of Krishnamurti: Private Passion and Perennial Wisdom. Wheaton, Quest Books, 1999. Excellent.

SITES

•katinkahesselink.net Katinka Hesselink's site on K. Very good.
•K-and-C Discussion group.

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The Qabala is radically, essentially subversive, aloof and contrary to the religious agenda of any group or authority whatsoever, it is up to you to revive it to yourself, beyond any herd spirit... Freedom was always available to Man, but in truth very few desire it.

READING SUGGESTIONS

•Carlo Suarès, The Second Coming of Reb Yhshwh. Samuel Weiser, 1994.
•Carlo Suarès, The Cipher of Genesis. Samuel Weiser, 1992.
•Carlo Suarès, The Sepher Yetsira. Shambhala, 1976.
•Carlo Suarès, The Song of Songs. Shambhala, 1972.
•Carlo Suarès, The Resurrection of the Word. Shambhala, 1975.
•J. Ralston Skinner, Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery in the Source of Measures (1875-6). Minneapolis, Wizards Bookshelf, 1975.
•Isaac Myer, Qabbalah: the philosophical writings of Avicebron (1888). New York, Weiser, 1974.
•Nurho de Manhar (trans.), The Zohar: Bereshith - Genesis (1900-1914). San Diego, Wizards Bookshelf, 1978.

SITE

•Psyche.com An excellent site on QBL and Carlo Suarès, plus original research.

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Manly P. Hall (1901-1990)

I've sometimes wondered if there existed a really good introduction to the study of our Western Tradition that we could suggest to beginners. It would have to be very learned but not academic, spiritual but not sectarian. It would also have to be pleasing to the eye, displaying in profusion the symbolical diagrams of our métier, for our Western Mandalas (as McLean would say) are at the same time incredible mnemotechnical résumés and objects that generate numberless insights and intellective unfoldments.

In my opinion, the only reasonably recent work that would satisfy these conditions is without doubt the one commonly known as The Secret Teachings of All Ages, written by Manly P. Hall. Its complete and correct title is actually An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, being an Interpretation of the Secret Teachings concealed within the Rituals, Allegories and Mysteries of All Ages. The title reflects well the beauty and richness of the book, written in 1928 by Hall, a brilliant young Canadian in his twenties that had mysteriously gained access to many hard-to-find works and manuscripts in various public and private libraries in Europe and America. A suggestive clue: on the frontispiece opposite the title-page lies a reproduction of the 18th-century portrait of Prince Ragoczy of Transylvania, also known as the Count of Saint-Germain.

•Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Los Angeles, PRS, 1988.

•Hall's biographical Sketch
•Philosophical Research Society The Foundation created by Hall in 1934

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Running the risk implicit in making grand generalizations, I have sometimes the clear feeling that all esoteric work, notwithstanding all its variety and colour, has a very precise and reasonably simple aim (when one knows how to do it): the knowledge, experience and full development of our Occult Physiology. In other words, to contact and develop the potentialities of our various body glands through the medium of techniques that are quite concrete. This was undoubtedly the Science of the Black Earth Country, of Al-Kemit, and since the closing of the Pharaonic Temple we try to gather the pieces of this Science, as Isis gathered the scattered pieces of her husband Osiris.

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It seems that new books are not as good as those written in days of old... It is astonishing how the quality of works on Esoterism and Occultism has decreased in the last decades, as authors limit themselves to plagiarize or to downright invent the most incredible nonsense.

Due to the weakening of the Church's power, the 19th century witnessed the appearance of remarkable Occultists. In the middle of that century we can mention Éliphas Lévi (Alphonse-Louis Constant), who was an incredible personality and of whom it was never possible to trace the exact esoteric filiation. In a sense, Lévi was the founder of modern Occultism, both in its Anglo-Saxon and French (and European) ramifications. The British Order of the Golden Dawn was largely inspired by his writings, and in fin-de-siècle France Lévi was the inspiring guide of Papus (Dr Gérard Encausse) and his friends, who had however never met him in life.

The in-depth study of Éliphas Lévi's writings is still fundamental today for those wishing to initiate themselves in Occultism. Likewise, some serious and discrete Orders are still teaching adaptations of the Golden Dawn material, the latter being the most important and serious material created in the last two centuries regarding Western Tradition.

Éliphas Lévi 1810-1875

READING SUGGESTIONS

•Éliphas Lévi, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. Paris, Ed. Bussières, 1998.
•Éliphas Lévi, Histoire de la Magie. Paris, Guy Trédaniel, 1990.
•Éliphas Lévi, La Clef des Grands Mystères. Paris, Diffusion Scientifique, 2001.
•Éliphas Lévi, Cours de Philosophie Occulte (correspondance avec le Baron Spédalieri). Paris, Guy Trédaniel, 1990.
•Éliphas Lévi, Le Grand Arcane ou l'occultisme dévoilé. Paris, Guy Trédaniel, 1990.
•Paul Chacornac, Eliphas Lévi, rénovateur de l'occultisme en France. Paris, Ed. Traditionnelles, 2003.
•Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, The Essential Golden Dawn. St Paul, Llewellyn, 2003.

SITES

•Twilit Grotto Archives of Western Esoterica
•La Rose Bleue Excellent French site, with much material
•BOTA Builders of the Adytum - Los Angeles
•Colégio dos Magos an interesting and serious Brazilian site (in Portuguese)

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Magic stands in the middle of the Spiritual Path, between the profane state and the state of complete Reintegration. It is the empirical and subjective proof that we are all one sole thing, that we live inside an illusion of separateness. This sole thing is in fact God, an Immanent Deity that uses the numberless created beings for Its own ends and aims, exerting Its Will (which seems to be the only one there is) through the individual pseudowills of each personality.

When we realize that we are all One, One Sole Immanent God that continually creates and recreates Itself in Its own bosom, that dialogues and interacts with Itself through Its numberless facets, then any selfish benefit that Magic could give us becomes ridiculous and utterly irrelevant, for there is nothing to want or to desire anymore, there is only this Awareness and this Peace.

SUGGESTED MAGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

•Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah (1935). Samuel Weiser, 1984. A Classic of the Hermetic Qabalah.
•Gareth Knight, A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism (1965). Samuel Weiser, 1978. The same.
•Donald Michael Kraig, Modern Magick. St Paul, Llewellyn, 1988. A good introduction.
•Chic and Sandra T. Cicero, Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition. St. Paul, Llewellyn, 1995. Important for those drawn to this particular Magical lineage.
•David Allen Hulse, The Eastern Mysteries. St Paul, Llewellyn, 2000. An important reference work.
•David Allen Hulse, The Western Mysteries. St Paul, Llewellyn, 2000. The same.
•David Allen Hulse, New Dimensions for the Cube of Space. Red Wheel/Weiser, 2000. An important spiritual and Qabalistic reflection on the Path.

SITES

•Society of the Inner Light Group founded by Dion Fortune
•Gareth Knight's personal site
•HOGD Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, connected with Chic and Sandra T. Cicero
•David Allen Hulse's personal site
•David Goddard's site. Brilliant new work being done. Goddard's books are definitely worth reading

D. Fortune (1890-1946)

G. Knight (1930- )

D. A. Hulse (1948- )

D. M. Kraig (1951- )

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