Fountain Head

Dear Pete,

Originally, there was a serious danger of my essays becoming “Gnostic Movie Review Club”, but I’ll leave everyone else to watch The Fountain and draw their own conclusions in light of my response. I’ve spent enough time deliberating over this, so let’s get straight to your question:

I’ve always wondered if seeking The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel seems like a good idea. The procedures for discovering it seem functionally indistinguishable from recipes for creating an obsession. It looks like a suspiciously monotheistic belief and thus a self-contradictory and limiting obsession with an ideal that has become effectively unattainable. You said that even with Crowley you follow the message not the man.  Does the OTO acknowledge anyone as having ever attained it?

This has taken some time to pin down properly, and the meat of the matter is (as I said to one friend and colleague who is in the A∴A∴ this morning): “I don’t want to piss on the chips of the earnest Aspirant, but some other peoples’ bonfires really need pissing on.”

The answer to your question in itself was given by several commentators on the various cyber-fora, and in particular by Brother Adrian whom you met at the Occult Conference, when he said:

“What has the HGA got to do with OTO? Seeking Knowledge and Conversation of the HGA is the work of the Aspirant of A∴A∴. The concept of the HGA is absent entirely from the OTO system.”

That would not however make for a very good discussion piece, and I believe we are in the fortunate position of educating, or at least challenging, in our respective traditions. Now I need to clarify that, again, I am speaking for myself as an initiate of O.T.O., not for the Order – nor for the A∴A∴ as I am not a member – but I am hoping that I can separate some issues which are rife within the Thelemic community consisting of members of one, both, other, and no organisation(s) associated with the above.

Much like the misunderstanding I discussed in my previous post, there is a problem which runs to the core of Thelemic discourse: the mislabelling of the Higher Self as the Holy Guardian Angel. O.T.O. in part concerns itself with the candidate’s approach and knowledge of the Self, and the HGA is approached in the early work of an Aspirant of A∴A∴, as Brother Adrian stated. I am not here to try and tell people what the HGA is, because that has as many possible answers as Aspirants who work with one. What I want to state categorically is that people only need to focus on the HGA if that is their system, not start applying it to systems which do not need or want it. The system of O.T.O. does not require the concept of the HGA, and shoe-horning it in leads to confusion at best, and complete misapprehension and misapplication of the material at worst. This goes for many, many other systems as well.

I have always had a strong notion of my Self, and coming into contact with the concept of the HGA has only served to blur this notion, when in fact I should have been working towards refining my idea of who I am and what I am here to do. The HGA has a specific function for those who work the systems which rely on it, but these are not applicable to every system and downright unhelpful in others. Mathers’ great strength was in synthesising multiple streams of information, many of which he had translated into English for the first time, but this also led to an eclectic approach which could easily be called “pick’n’mix” and the hanging of everything on the Tree of Life had little historical precedent. His Abramelin was unlikely to be older than 17th C but he considered it to be a pure source of knowledge, and in so doing made this practice a bedrock for much of the Western Mystery Tradition (WMT).

Instead of enjoying a period of self-determination and personal responsibility, free from having to go through an interlocutor to determine the Will of God, the WMT seems to have drawn itself back into the same paradigms that Jesus Christ himself came to overthrow when he broke the barrier into the Holy of Holies by dying on the cross. Rather than a progression into full responsibility for one’s magick and accordingly one’s results, it seems many magicians are trying to put these back into the domain of a nebulous HGA in a clear dereliction of their own personal agency. The danger isn’t obsession with a spirit by lone practitioners, but obsession with an idea which is only applicable to a particular set of schools, by many practitioners all at once. Thelema is the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child-King, and if we are to live as Kings and ruthlessly prosecute our Will, we must take whole and full responsibility for our lives and our destinies.

To sum up: The HGA is not the Self (Yechidah) or the Intuition (Neshamah), although some aspirants may see it as useful to view it as such along the way. In the O.T.O. system the HGA does not exist, and the nebulous misconception of the HGA outside of its proper framework is detrimental to modern systems of magick. It is a hangover from the Golden Dawn and Abramelin workings which Crowley incorporated into the A∴A∴ system for lower-grade work, and this is as far as it should go. Magicians drawn to finding and attaining Knowledge and Conversation with the HGA should work those systems and leave them there.

As a collective community, occultists need to drop the obsession with “the HGA” and concentrate on becoming the best that they can be and doing all in their power to do what they love, and make a difference in so doing. I agree that this is the only empirical value “Do what thou wilt” can have, and it is my hope that my impact and legacy on the occult and esoteric community will be viewed favourably by those who come after me.

Therefore, seeing as you were kind enough to discuss yourself, and as the EPOCH is now being read and digested across the world, my question to you is this: What do you hope for your work to enable, enact, or create? Would you enjoy seeing the Chaobala worked into an entire current, or would you fear for another Crowleyanity modelled on Pope Pete?

I hope you will also touch on this at the first Bristol Session when you and Matt Kaybryn present on the EPOCH, and thank you for coming on board with my aims for The Visible College to spread learning, discussion, and community in the occult world – much as your invitation to this discourse has done.

All the best,

–Sef

Morning prayers does not sound like a Chaos Magick^TM practice. However, I and others often indulge in this activity; taking inspiration from other traditions, we pray to the Great Spirit (a handy term which mean whatever we want it to) and give thanks for what we have.

It looks like this for me: I start with a prayer to each of the four compass directions, gazing at the appropriate locus and speaking aloud (though usually quietly). Starting with North and working clockwise around the spatial plane, and thinking of the times of day each represents as well as the elemental signifiers used in the island I live on. North is midnight, and Earth; while the exact words differ upon each iteration, general themes here are of solidity, comfortable dark security, material objects, the ‘real’, as well as the dreams we make which can eventually accrete enough additional support to manifest. East brings morning, air, feelings of beginnings, the energy that prompts us to connect with our worlds. Yesterday it brought forth the words, “East, the direction that brings us morning cups of tea, and the sound of birds”. South denotes midday, fire, the midst of our activity cycle, doing things, the clarity of thought that comes with illumination. West for us here means water, the ocean that lies towards the sunset, homecomings with the fruits of our labours and the feelings of satisfaction at the close of the day, reconnecting with those we live with, hugs and sharing emotional experiences of the previous day. After these four directions, I pray to the sky, the grandfather which watches over all we do, for a wider perspective on my little life. To the ground beneath us, grandmother earth, who supports us through our steps, providing so much of what we require. And lastly to the centre of all these, the node of perception and expression that is at the core of Me.

A nice hot cup of tea

Having reminded myself of where I am, I pray and give thanks. These sentences can follow a grouped structure, with the two types of expression in turn, or sometimes they mix. I pray to the Great Spirit that my friends find the courage, wisdom and strength they need to get through various tribulations and challenges, I pray that I find the right words when speaking with those that may seek my advice, I pray for smooth travels, I pray for the best health of this person I know who has been feeling low. I give thanks for specific events that have happened, for good encounters with people, for finding the nice jacket I bought the other day, for the sunshine, for the food in our cupboards, for clean water. I give thanks for intelligent companions. I give thanks for my body, for the fluffy socks on my feet right now, and the feel of the cool morning air around me. And then I close by simply ending the words, as they fade and I feel I have said enough, drifting back to ordinary stuff; part of this process for me is its very simplicity and seamless flow as part of the day. (These examples are fairly personal, on other days it can be that the mood takes me to a more global perspective with thanks and prayers for larger phenomena.)

During the whole process it seems important to let the words come as they wish, spontaneously, not trying to list everything under the sun, but acknowledging that which is relevant and at the front of my awareness at that moment. One can of course do prayers at any time of day or night. Some of the most lovely times to do this are in the night times, at gatherings, to slip off outside and take a few minutes to take stock and speak aloud of inner imagery. Easily learnt, and requiring no equipment, the praxis recommends itself to the chaos magician and others alike. It can be done daily, or just as we wish.

It differs from the version of prayers my peer group was instructed in as children of the state approved church, where we begged a remote deity for His favours on our knees. These prayers are offered to the world we see, looking deliberately to the world around us, and within us. Cultivating this sense of gratitude provides a state of appreciation often lacking in a consumerist cultural media which priorities our deficits. Praying brings our attention to that which may benefit from action. So what we pray to, in many ways takes second place to the prayers themselves. The effectiveness rests on the act of mindful attention. Any supernal influences are welcome additions to the reification of desires into sound seeds of our own creation.

NW